I think I've been hit with malware.

[macgig]

I tell people to disable or remove flash, Java, and Silverlight on their Macs and PCs. All three are used to hack computers and web browsers. The bad guys cant hack them if their not installed.

 

[toMACsh]

I deleted all mackeeper files that I could find and restarted the computer. It didn't make any difference. Thanks for your suggestion, but we're off to the Apple shop tomorrow to get this and the slow iMac sorted out. It's only money.

Pete, I'm interested in what they tell you. My son's Mini is slow also. He deleted some music and videos, and now has 20% free space, which I thought would help. It didn't.

 

[krs]

I use a late 2012 Mini with an i5 processor.
At one point I was down to 10% free space (50GB on a 500GB drive) but the Mini was as fast as ever.
Moved 60GB to an external so now I'm at 110GB free - I don't notice any difference in speed - still very fast.
Often so fast that the sceen changed to where I wanted to go without me even immediately noticing it.
But a few years back when RAM was cheap I upgraded to 16GB.

What exactly is slow?
I find Microsoft applications often take long to open and I get the spinning beach ball, even after the file is up and all I do is save it.
Webspeed access depends a lot on the browser you use.

 

[hoody]

I tell people to disable or remove flash, Java, and Silverlight on their Macs and PCs. All three are used to hack computers and web browsers. The bad guys cant hack them if their not installed.

Yep, never had silverlight and no longer have flash or java. If I do put flash back on it'll only be from the Adobe website and custom install.

 

[hoody]

Pete, I'm interested in what they tell you. My son's Mini is slow also. He deleted some music and videos, and now has 20% free space, which I thought would help. It didn't.

With the macbook air, it wasn't slow but had malware that Malwarebytes took care of. I'd run it before going to the Apple shop but didn't realise I'd got rid of it, the techy said they use the same programme to get rid of rubbish, so that was good. He just put my google search engine back on, which is something I could have done if I'd realised the malware was gone.

The iMac was the slow runner and it turned out that the 8Gb of memory was all being used. He knocked several things off the start up menu. Which helped. He also said that because the screen etc is all glued together that even if parts could be got, it probably wouldn't be worth doing from a financial point of view. In the USA, I think that it's probably possible, but here in Oz, Apple's not so big and there aren't a lot of places that know much about them. I've got miles of free space on the hard drive, so not an issue.

 

[hoody]

I use a late 2012 Mini with an i5 processor.
At one point I was down to 10% free space (50GB on a 500GB drive) but the Mini was as fast as ever.
Moved 60GB to an external so now I'm at 110GB free - I don't notice any difference in speed - still very fast.
Often so fast that the sceen changed to where I wanted to go without me even immediately noticing it.
But a few years back when RAM was cheap I upgraded to 16GB.

What exactly is slow?
I find Microsoft applications often take long to open and I get the spinning beach ball, even after the file is up and all I do is save it.
Webspeed access depends a lot on the browser you use.

Had that myself more than once.

 

[pm-r]

The iMac was the slow runner and it turned out that the 8Gb of memory was all being used.

As you probably know by now, keep on eye on memory use with Activity Monitor.app running, and maybe get in the habit of quitting any apps that you are not using.

8GB Of RAM (Memory) is usually enough for most normal people's computer usage, and Sierra seems to handle memory a lot better than some earlier OS versions.

In the USA, I think that it's probably possible, but here in Oz, Apple's not so big and there aren't a lot of places that know much about them. I've got miles of free space on the hard drive, so not an issue.

Nope, not even in the 'goog ol' USofA!!! As everymac.com says for your 21" model:
Apple does not intend for one to upgrade the RAM after purchase, and doing so is difficult, it is possible.
iMac "Core i5" 2.7 21.5-Inch (Late 2012) Specs (Late 2012, MD093LL/A, iMac13,1, A1418, 2544): EveryMac.com



- Patrick
======

 

[hoody]

I'll keep an eye on the memory in Activity Monitor on the iMac. Thanks for the extra info' on the memory. If I'd realised this before buying it, I'd have probably gone for the 27-1/2 inch.

 

[krs]

The iMac was the slow runner and it turned out that the 8Gb of memory was all being used.

That's very interesting.
I installed 16GB of RAM on my 2012 Mini simply because it was not that much more than 8GB at the time and when I checked the amount used with Snow Leopard, it was always well below 8GB.
I remember that clearly because I kept thinking I could have saved a bit of money if I had only installed 8GB (I think the Mini came with 4GB originally)
But checking just now with El Capitan, I actually use 12.07GB of RAM, so in retrospect, getting 16GB was not the wrong move and probably explains why the Mini is more than fast enough for my purposes.

But what I find interesting and it bothers me somewhat, is that Apple still shipped some new 2017 Macs with only 8GB of RAM maximum with no way of upgrading it later.
The 2018 MacBook air can at least be upgraded to 16GB of RAM, but that's another $200.- on top of an already hefty price tag for that machine.
The only saving grace I think of is the SSD which allows swapping memory much faster than with a conventional rotary hard drive so the machine does not slow down as much because of memory swaps.

 

[hoody]

Now that the iMac's running better than it was, it has to be a case of, 'it is what it is.' If I ever find myself in a position to buy another iMac, I'll do more homework.

 

[MacInWin]

The real keys to memory are two: the pressure and swap. Pressure is shown on the graphic in Activity Monitor, and as long as it is green, the system is not having to work hard to manage memory. Swap should be, as best you can, nearly zero. Swap is the stuff that the OS had to move OUT of memory onto the drive to make room. More swap is higher overhead and slower performance. So, even with 8GB, as long as pressure is green and swap is low, you are in good condition.

 

[hoody]

Thanks, I have to go out now but I'll have a check later.

 

[hoody]

I'm really sorry it's been so long since I posted... my memory's worse than the imac. Anyway I did have a look in activity monitor and the memory pressure bar/graph is green, so as I said before, it is what it is and I'll have to live with it.
One more thing is that I got an email this morning that linked me to this thread. It said that 'johnmcgregoron' had just posted "yes, I think that you should delete all what Malwarebytes did find." I've been back through it and can't see it anywhere. Weird behaviour again?

 

[chscag]

Hi Pete:

That reply was from a person who had joined the forums in order to post advertising and spam. He replied to your post and others before we tossed him.

 

[hoody]

Hi Pete:

That reply was from a person who had joined the forums in order to post advertising and spam. He replied to your post and others before we tossed him.

Hopefully over a high wall.

 

[macgig]

I'm on my macbook air with Sierra 10.12.6 and downloaded an update for flash player.

this is why I removed Flash. don't have to worry about clicking a fake popup or link and installing something I didn't want. And I don't have to worry about keeping it updated.

 

[pm-r]

this is why I removed Flash. don't have to worry about clicking a fake popup or link and installing something I didn't want. And I don't have to worry about keeping it updated.

Unfortunately, those miserable fake popups or links and phony Flash installers can popup and work regardless of whether you have any genuine Flash stuff installed or not. :-(



- Patrick
======

 

[macgig]

true I forgot, the fake links do work still.

 

[MacInWin]

That's true, Patrick, but if you don't have Flash installed, there would be zero reason to click on the update button. I got rid of Flash a while ago, see those prompts occasionally and never, ever, click on them.

 

[pm-r]

That's true, Patrick, but if you don't have Flash installed, there would be zero reason to click on the update button.

LOL... I would have suggested that any suggestion of clicking on such updates should be added to all the files waiting to pick up the million dollar deposit waiting for us In a secret account on the African Gold Coast... Or whatever other name and place that will make us millionaires...


- Patrick
======