New iMac maddeningly slow

[Bill Gates Jr.]

What can I do to speed up my inew 24" Mp3 iMac. If I'm reading an article and I want to revert to my homepage I hit My.yahoo icon in my Favorites and nothing. In my old 27" it would immediately go to my homepage.
Also when looking at something on Temu, when I try to open another of the pictures describing and item it can take 10 seconds to do so...if it even does move to the next pic. One strange thing happened where my homepage was changed to a story I was reading about Gaza. Have no idea how that happened. fixed it
I do have my password manager setup. One password to remember. Neat. Will I lose that if I do some kind of reset? I also have 3 card games purchased from Apple so should be able to download them again, I believe, and can always download Libre Office again if lost.
Running Sonoma 14.2.1 and Safari 17.2.1

Some strange things happen when I hit the Magic Mouse somewhere. 1. My full screen will shrink to my bottom left corner and the only way to. get it back to full screen (that I know of) is to use the cursor to raise and widen it until it is back to size.. 2. Sometimes I hit the magic mouse and my scree disappears to the left. Hit it again it comes back. Never had this happen with my old iMac with a Magic Mouse.

Pete

 

[Raz0rEdge]

First, please click on the Apple icon on the top left of your Mac and choose About this Mac and share the details or screenshot of what you see.

Next, has the slow down begun gradually or was it just slow one day when it wasn't before?

Are you noticing slowness with other websites across the web? Or is it isolated to Yahoo only?

Open up Activity Monitor, click on the CPU tab and ensure to click on the % CPU column to get the upside down ^ symbol on it, this will give you the apps using the most CPU usage on top of the list. Keep an eye on the percentages as you go about your business using the machine and make note of what those percentages look like. You can also check the values at the bottom related to System, User, and Idle. The greater the idle percentage, the more bandwidth your system has to do things, as that percentage drops and the other two buckets fill up, you have less and less you can do with the machine. If one or two apps are taking up a lot of CPU percentage, then that's something to look into.

As far as your magic mouse and window hiding thing, that's a new feature in Sonoma to show you the desktop if you click on it. To change this setting go to Apple icon->System Settings->Desktop & Dock, scroll down to the Desktop & Stage Manager section for the option Click wallpaper to reveal desktop change the setting from Always to Only in Stage Manager.

 

[Bill Gates Jr.]

I'll attach 2 screenshots. One About this Mac. 2. A picture of the activity monitor. But note: The activity monitor jumps all over the place so hard to get a real look at things before it shifts to another listing. Does not seem normal to jump around so much.

But another problem that I had on my Mid 2011 iMac I also have on my new iMac: Usually if I'm reading an article the text will start moving upwards and then will shift slightly, then stop. Then it begins again. Not sure why it does that. Any ideas? Did click Only in stage manager and hopefully that is one mystery solved. Thanks for that info. Pete

 

[Raz0rEdge]

It's normal for the entries in the Activity Monitor to shift since you're sorting by CPU usage and that varies by what each application is doing. The list only helps when you're facing the problem, during "normal" operation, it doesn't provide much value.

So when things seems are they are going slow, you should check Activity Monitor and check the overall usage at the bottom of that page. Then take note of what apps are on top of the list. If it's an application you are using, then that's one data point. If it's something like kernel_task, that's a different data point.

So you need to determine the pattern and ideally the causes. We are not going to be able to do this for you, you have to learn to do it yourself and track down the culprit (if there is one).

As far as your scrolling goes, that's called drift and happens depending on the mouse you are using. If you are using a mouse with a scroll wheel on it and it's malfunctioning a little bit, then you'll see subtle scrolling until it settles down. I have a Logitech MX Master mouse that has a very smooth wheel that allows me to scroll through a page very quickly, but if I change focus to another application while the wheel is settling down post spin, it will scroll the new application like crazy as well. But this is my own doing an fault, so I keep better control on the wheel.

If you are using a Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad, then this should not be happening since there's no wheel and both of those devices require you have 2 fingers on it to scroll the page, a single finger just moves the cursor.

 

[MacInWin]

If the drift Ashwin pointed to isn't the cause, then I suspect you have some sort of ad blocker running. The jerkiness in your browser is caused when the website "makes room" for an ad by amending the size of the space for it, but then your ad blocker blocks the ad, so the space claimed is removed again. The page jumps up and down as these actions are underway. You can turn off the ad blocker and let it do what it does to stop the jerkiness, or you just put up with it. Given that a lot of sites, particularly news sites, have dynamic advertising and the ad space is constantly changing, this shifting is particularly annoying there.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

That's a good point Jake, it all depends on how the ad blocker is designed. That is, if the blocker is blocking the load of the ad at all as opposed to allowing the ad to load and THEN removing it. The former process shouldn't affect the page layout/view but the latter will definitely end up up with shifts.

 

[Bill Gates Jr.]

Where would I find an Ad Blocker? Nothing shows up in Applications or anywhere else I've looked.
I am not happy with the slowness of this computer. After the holidays and when my car is out of the shop,,,and if the wife lets me drive with my right knee/foot problem, guess l take it to an Apple Storei and see if they can figure it out. Should be under warranty.plus I purchased an Apple extended warranty for 3 years. Assume that would be in their computer once they query mine.

Pete

 

[MacInWin]

Have you run any speed test on your Internet connection? Speedtest.com is free and works well for that. An M3 iMac should be blindingly fast, but a slow internet will drag down any browsing, no matter the machiine speed.

 

[IWT]

Where would I find an Ad Blocker?

Hi Pete

Basics first: Open Finder > Applications and scroll through your apps and if any "suspicious" apps or apps you think you didn't download, consider uninstalling/binning them.

In Safari, Click on Command plus comma which is the keyboard way of opening Safari's Settings (or you could click on the Safari Icon in the top menu bar and choose "Settings").

With Safari's Settings now open, Click on Extensions. This may show Extensions or Ad blockers. There is a Tick box adjacent to any such things. You could Uncheck any or all to see if that helps.

In addition, here are a couple of Links that discuss aspects of Ad blockers and similar apps - there uses and the means of uninstalling them if needed.

https://helpcenter.getadblock.com/hc/en-us/articles/9738489958291-How-to-Install-and-Uninstall-the-AdBlock-for-Safari-Mac-App

Block pop-up ads and windows in Safari - Apple Support

Learn how to block pop-up windows and handle persistent ads on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

support.apple.com

I hope this might help

Ian

 

[Slydude]

After the holidays and when my car is out of the shop,,,and if the wife lets me drive with my right knee/foot problem, guess l take it to an Apple Storei and see if they can figure it out.

Pete

Just a couple of suggestions in case the other ideas discussed so far don't fix things.
1. Before you lug the beast to the nearest Apple Store give the Apple Support phone line a try. They may be able to resolve the issues you're having without a trip to the store, I've only had to call that line a few times in the last few decades but I've never spent an unreasonable amount of time on hold and usually, it was far less than what I've spent on hold with other companies.

If you prefer taking it in for testing get someone to help you move that beast No need to risk further injury or tripping and dropping the new gizmo.

Feel free to claim these ideas as your own. It never hurts to have your spouse think you're a genius.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

...I want to revert to my homepage I hit My.yahoo icon in my Favorites and nothing.
...
Also when looking at something on Temu, when I try to open another of the pictures describing and item it can take 10 seconds to do so...if it even does move to the next pic.

Just about all of your problems involve your Internet access. The first thing that I'd do is check my Internet performance. You can do this here:

http://www.speedtest.net/

If the results are less than expected, you should contact support for your ISP.

Ask them to verify the Internet settings on your new Mac, and make sure that they are correct.

Other things that you may want to try:

You may want to try turning off IPv6.

Quit all browsers.
System Preferences -> Network -> choose the Ethernet tab in the far
left column --> Advanced button -> TCP/IP tab --> Configure IPv6:
dropdown menu, choose Off --> Okay button.
If you don't realize a performance improvement, just change it back to "automatic."

The reason that your Mac is slowed down when you have IPv6 set to "automatically" is because with that setting your Mac queries your DNS server using IPv6. Your chosen server may not support IPv6, so your Mac has to wait for a timeout before it sends a query via a secondary DNS, or via IPv4. That takes time, and it slows down your Web surfing. Setting IPv6 to "off" avoids this.

Another thing that might help is to find the fastest domain name server (DNS) for your location.

Quit all browsers.
Go into:
System Preferences --> Network --> Built-in Ethernet
and write down the numbers for the domain name server(s) (DNS) to save them.

You can find the domain name server(s) that provide the best performance for your Mac using:

NameBench (free)
http://code.google.com/p/namebench/

NameBench will take about 5 minutes to run. Be patient. Use the fastest DNS it finds to replace the existing setting in Network in System Preferences.

 

[Rod]

It certainly sounds like your browser broblems are a major issue but taken separately I think there are solutions to each one. Connectivity may well be a big player especially with Yahoo sites.
Just out of curiosity did you have maOS Sonoma on your previous Mac?
I ask because the screen behavior you mention sounds a little like Stage Manager a feature of Sonoma which can be disabled.

 

[IWT]

the screen behavior you mention sounds a little like Stage Manager

Good point, Rod. It did cross my mind too, but I veered away from posting because of the other bits & pieces which are difficult to place.

Ian