Very Slow Mac mini

[pmihawal]

Old subject I know. I have tried various suggestions made on this site to speed up my late 2012 Mac mini purchased in April 2014 as a basic unit with no upgrades as I basically just use it for email, internet sports and news sites and some basic photo editing in iPhoto. I was disappointed from initial date of purchase, took unit to Apple Store where they ran diagnostics on it but found nothing. Still have about 8 months warranty left as I bought 2 year warranty. Since I don't run hardly any apps, have added only 2-3 don't thing increasing RAM or changing to SSD is going to help. Installed Onyx and it did not find anything significant. Subscribe to TWC that claims to deliver internet speeds up to 100 Mbps, I normally get anywhere from 10-30 when I run speed tests but still unit should be a lot faster. Get a lot of beachballs, new pages normally take 10- 45 seconds to load and often completely freeze. I'm 74 yrs old and consider myself at best an intermediate level home computer user. Any suggestions with some detailed instructions would be greatly appreciated. Not sure if this should be posted under OS X or Apple Desktop category.

 

[pigoo3]

Still have about 8 months warranty left as I bought 2 year warranty. Since I don't run hardly any apps, have added only 2-3 don't thing increasing RAM or changing to SSD is going to help.

Can you give use some system specs? Specifically:

- What OS version it is running?
- How much ram does it have?
- How full is the hard drive (gigs used & gigs free)?

Subscribe to TWC that claims to deliver internet speeds up to 100 Mbps, I normally get anywhere from 10-30 when I run speed tests but still unit should be a lot faster. Get a lot of beachballs, new pages normally take 10- 45 seconds to load and often completely freeze.

Depending on the internet speeds you are getting…sometimes slowness on the internet can be due to the speeds you are getting from TWC…and sometimes slowness can be related to the servers "on the other end" (the servers the website is running from). Just wanted to mention that for clarity.

Once we get some answers to the questions above…we can explore things further.

- Nick

 

[pmihawal]

Running Yosemite Version 10.10.5
4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
HD Capacity 499.25 GB Available 271.96 GB 2 TB External HD

 

[pmihawal]

Thought some of the following info re my Mac mini might be helpful:

Model Name: Mac mini
Model Identifier: Macmini6,1
Processor Name: Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 2.5 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Boot ROM Version: MM61.0106.B09
SMC Version (system): 2.7f1
Serial Number (system): C07LPFBDDWYL
Hardware UUID: DBF95758-2B4F-5EA0-A714-F47136BC4D76

Activity Monitor Readings with nothing running (that I'm aware of):
Not sure how to interpret much of this but including it as it may help you in trying to find my
problem.

CPU:

System: 1.9% User: .29% Idle: 97.65%

Memory: Physical Memory: 4.00 GB Memory Used: 1.94 GB Cache: 1.59 GB
Swap Used: 20.0 MB App Memory: 1.02 MB Wired Memory: 629.8 MB
Compressed: 283.1 MB

Disk: Reads in: 451,833 Writes out: 412,013
Data Read: 7.84 GB Data Written: 10.28 GB
Data read/Sec. 0 Bytes Data written/sec. 0 Bytes


Network: Packets in: 1,147,925 Packets out: 1,174,388
Data Received: 1.75 GB Data Sent: 129.7 MB
Data rec'd/sec. 0 Bytes Data sent/sec. 0 Bytes

 

[chas_m]

Since I don't run hardly any apps, have added only 2-3 don't thing increasing RAM or changing to SSD is going to help.

What exactly makes you think that? Just as an example, I've never met **anyone** who switched to SSD and didn't bend my ear raving about how much faster their machine is now. And that includes me!

Subscribe to TWC that claims to deliver internet speeds up to 100 Mbps, I normally get anywhere from 10-30 when I run speed tests

TWC's 100Mbps claim is their top speed, I'm willing to bet a paycheque you're not paying for that tier. If you're getting 10-30Mbps download speed, that should be plenty for any regular user -- and every test you've done indicates that the machine is working normally. This would suggest that, in fact, maxing out the RAM and/or changing the hard drive to an SSD would make a very significant difference in the performance of the machine.

 

[RadDave]

Running Yosemite Version 10.10.5
4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
HD Capacity 499.25 GB Available 271.96 GB 2 TB External HD

Hello - you've already received responses from two longstanding 'experts' here, but I'll just make a few comments: 1) You are running the latest OS X released officially, i.e. Yosemite - despite Apple claiming that 2 GB RAM is sufficient, 4 GB is the minimum often recommended here and 8 GB is strongly suggested - quoted below are the specs on whether your RAM can be upgraded (Source) - check w/ OWC, as suggested for pricing; 2) Also from the same link, a 2nd HD or a SSD can be added - if the latter, your speed would indubitably improve but the cost may not be to your liking; and 3) as to your TW internet speeds, I have the same ISP and routinely get 20 Mbps DL speeds (using OOkala's Speediest.net) - have occasional buffering issues on my Roku device but seems adequate). Dave
.

 

[pmihawal]

chas_m,

Would maxing the RAM to 16 GB and changing to a SSD eliminate the all too common 10-20 seconds it sometimes takes to just load a new page even though nothing else is running at the time? I guess starting with the RAM first makes the most sense from a $ point of view and even a newbie like me should be able to install. If so, is it worth spending the extra $s to get genuine Apple RAM or are the better "after market" acceptable?

 

[pigoo3]

Activity Monitor Readings with nothing running (that I'm aware of):
Not sure how to interpret much of this but including it as it may help you in trying to find my
problem.

Next time you observe slowdowns…let us know what the "memory pressure" is in Activity Monitor (the color).

- Nick

 

[RadDave]

Next time you observe slowdowns…let us know what the "memory pressure" is in Activity Monitor (the color).

@ the OP - you did mention in one of your posts the 'Activity Monitor', so assume that you have looked at the activity in the app, but may not completely understand the information nor the 'color' mentioned by Nick - so, maybe a few images might help - the first one below is from my MBPro - notice that the 'Memory' tab is selected; second, I have 8 GB RAM and the 'Memory Pressure' is green w/ little 'swap used' - however, the second image is from the web of a machine w/ 4 GB RAM, the 'Memory Pressure' is yellow (and other colors can be shown) w/ a much larger 'swap used' - SO, the question is what are the colors showing & values in this area on your Activity Monitor - if you can do a screen capture and post, then quite helpful - this would help you to determine if upgrading your RAM to at least 8 GB RAM would help - let us know. Dave

.

 

[pmihawal]

pigoo3 and RadDave,

For some reason my screenshot function doesn't work properly. When the full screenshot is moved to desktop, everything looks fine; when I click on it, the full screen shot appears but when I try to drop it onto MacForum Quick Reply page it contains a string of email addresses that I use for some totally unrelated purpose.

The Memory page on the Activity Monitor closely resemble RadDave's first screenshot with light green memory pressure bar, often extending only 25% of the width. Oddly since you suggested I check this whenever my Mac ran slow, it has been behaving and running at an acceptable speed. I'll see what the memory pressure reading looks like when my Mac decides to run slow or freeze up completely. I'll also report the Swap Used at that time. Thank you both for now

 

[pinto79]

I have exactly the same machine. When I got mine, it was still "current" since it's a Late 2012 and I got it in May 2013. It was running Mountain Lion (10.8) and it worked really well. Most of the time. When I upgraded to Mavericks in October 2013, I started getting more beach balls and general sluggishness, once I'd had enough of that, I added an SSD and moved the OS to it. Wow! What a Night and Day difference. A short time later I upgraded from the stock 4gb of RAM to 16gb and it got even faster and smoother. My upgrade to Yosemite showed a speed improvement, but I imagine the stock machine would suffer under the newest OS.

I'm no expert, just presenting my experience running the same little beast Hope you find a solution!

 

[pmihawal]

Thanks Pinto79, your input is especially valuable since we purchased our Mac minis just about a month apart. Did you get your upgrades thru Apple or one of the after market sources?

pmihawal

 

[pinto79]

Thanks Pinto79, your input is especially valuable since we purchased our Mac minis just about a month apart. Did you get your upgrades thru Apple or one of the after market sources?

pmihawal

Glad I could help.

My SSD came from OWC as I needed the cable and stuff for it since I was adding it rather than replacing the existing drive, and they had an install kit that seemed like a good deal and proved worthwhile.

My memory upgrade I did with Mushkin modules sourced locally. No issues with either install. Since my mini is one of the ones that had the factory drive in the "upper" location, I didn't have to pull the logic board to put it in.

I'll add the disclaimer that I am an aircraft instrument technician by trade, so stuff like this is within my skill set, if you are not comfortable with your abilities to perform the upgrades yourself, please enlist the aid of a repair shop of sorts.

 

[pmihawal]

Thanks again pinto79 and also for your disclaimer as I have a very weak tech background.