Re: Help please: slow iMac

[Fabian Fang]

On Nov 24, 2013, at 11:05 AM, Jim Scott wrote:

> Next, I run Drive Genius 3, the utility used by Geniuses in Apple stores. I 
> boot from the DG3 disk and run the hard drive scan test, making sure to ask 
> it to reallocate any bad sectors found. Then I run the Disk Integrity tests 
> for both read and write. The longer the tests run, the more likely you are to 
> find any problem areas. So don't skimp on time spent as you're not likely to 
> find any problem areas on the hard drive's media in 5 minutes, or possibly 
> even 30 minutes. I usually do a Sustained version of the read and write tests 
> on a smaller hard drive like yours, which takes 1-2 hours unless there are 
> read/write slowdowns.
> 
> Finally, if a hard drive has passed all of the above tests, I run two more 
> utilities. First, with the iMac still booted into the Drive Genius 3 disk, I 
> select the Defrag button. Even though OS X does a pretty good job of 
> defragmenting files on the fly, after 7 years your hard drive is probably 
> pretty fragmented. DG3's Defrag feature will tell you how much and suggest 
> whether or not you should defrag.
> 
> Drive Genius 3 and Disk Warrior are pricey third party utilities in the $100 
> range, but are worth every penny for someone like me.


PowerMax, a Macintosh dealer not usually known for good prices, is selling 
brand-new packages of Drive Genius 3.0 for $14.95 on eBay:


For those who do not already have it, grab one quickly!

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Re: Help please: slow iMac

[GMail Valter Psicof]

Il giorno 24/11/13 13.38, "N. Shani" ha scritto:

> Need your collective wisdom to identify what is causing the above to slow
> down.
> 
> The particulars are:
> - late 2006 17" model 5,1
> - OS is 10.6.8, with current updates

Apart from Jim's excellent troubleshoot guide, the only things that comes
off the top of my mind, is possibly some peripheral error (especially USB):
sometimes peripherals act weirdly, this create troubles to the system, but
you don't get any hint.
Thus, try booting your iMac after having disconnected any peripherals - save
for mouse and keyboard, and connect them directly to the USB ports (no USB
hub) - then check if anything has changed.
(BTW, are your mouse and kb the original Apple ones?)

Although unlikely, another cause might be overheating due to dust
accumulation inside the iMac. You could download and test internal temps
with Temperature Monitor (free):
http://www.bresink.com/osx/TemperatureMonitor.html

If you see excessive temps, you could use something like smcFanControl:
http://www.eidac.de/
to run the fans at their maximum speed, hence moving out (some) dust.

HTH,
Valter


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Re: Help please: slow iMac

[Jim Scott]

On Nov 24, 2013, at 4:38 AM, N. Shani  wrote:

> Need your collective wisdom to identify what is causing the above to slow 
> down.
> 
> The particulars are:
> - late 2006 17" model 5,1
> - OS is 10.6.8, with current updates
> - stock HD 160 GB, ~1/2 full
> - 2.5 GB RAM (stock was 2x 512 MB, so one 512 MB stick was exchanged with 2 
> GB stick)
> - monitoring active CPU processes doesn't show any process hogging the CPU 
> beyond a few % (not even M$-related, such as Excel or Word)
> 
> I originally suspected it was Sophos, so removed and downloaded ClamX.
> It helped a bit for a while, then it started crawling again.
> 
> Thanks to anyone who can assist with ideas on how to speed this iMac, which 
> is otherwise running fine.

FIRST: Do a full, bootable backup of your hard drive. Use Carbon Copy Cloner 
(the last, free version can be downloaded from the Bombich software site) or 
SuperDuper! Do this NOW while your iMac's hard drive contents are still 
accessible.

Since you say your iMac is otherwise running fine, the most likely culprit is 
the hard drive, even though yours is only half full. If you still have the 
original install DVDs, find the one with "AHT" or "Apple Hardware Test" written 
on it, and follow instructions to boot from that DVD. Once booted, run both the 
Quick and Extended tests. Make sure you check the "Do not stop for errors" box 
so that the tests will run to completion. 

The first time through, do NOT let the tests do a full scan of the hard drive. 
I suspect the drive will pass the basic tests just fine and you'll get a green 
"PASSED" screen each time. But you may get a red "FAILED" notice, with red type 
for the failure message. That message likely will be for the hard drive.

Whether the hard drive passes or not, run the AHT again in the Extended mode. 
Deselect all tests EXCEPT for the hard drive full scan. Again, set the test to 
NOT stop for errors. Let it run, which may take a couple of hours; if it takes 
longer, that's a clue which I'll talk about in a moment. This will do a full 
scan of the hard drive for bad sectors. It may or may not pass. Hard drives 
that are just beginning to have problems with reading and/or writing usually 
pass. If the hard drive passes with a green "PASSED" message, that means there 
are no bad sectors, but it doesn't mean there are no problems, especially if it 
takes a lng time to do the scan as the test tries to resolve slow 
read/write issues. A 160 GB HD shouldn't take more than a couple of hours on 
your iMac.

If you get red "FAILED" messages, AHT will tell you why, generally. It also 
will give you a code or codes, which you may or may not be able to translate 
into English after doing a Google search. 

At this point, you will have done all you can do with the AHT, but you will 
have some insight into the health of your iMac's hardware. 

Pass or Fail, here's what I do in cases such as yours. First, I install 
SMARTReporter on any Mac that passes through my hands. This simple utility 
monitors the Self Monitoring and Reporting Test firmware on each hard drive 
installed inside a Mac and shows a green (OK), yellow (failing) or red (failed) 
icon in the menubar to alert you to your hard drive's health.

Second, I run Apple Service Diagnostics (in your iMac's case, that is ASD 
3S108) in both OS and EFI modes. ASD tests are very extensive versions of those 
run by AHT, and often will find problems that the quick AHT tests don't/can't.

Next, I run Drive Genius 3, the utility used by Geniuses in Apple stores. I 
boot from the DG3 disk and run the hard drive scan test, making sure to ask it 
to reallocate any bad sectors found. Then I run the Disk Integrity tests for 
both read and write. The longer the tests run, the more likely you are to find 
any problem areas. So don't skimp on time spent as you're not likely to find 
any problem areas on the hard drive's media in 5 minutes, or possibly even 30 
minutes. I usually do a Sustained version of the read and write tests on a 
smaller hard drive like yours, which takes 1-2 hours unless there are 
read/write slowdowns.

Finally, if a hard drive has passed all of the above tests, I run two more 
utilities. First, with the iMac still booted into the Drive Genius 3 disk, I 
select the Defrag button. Even though OS X does a pretty good job of 
defragmenting files on the fly, after 7 years your hard drive is probably 
pretty fragmented. DG3's Defrag feature will tell you how much and suggest 
whether or not you should defrag.

If your hard drive has passed all the tests and has been defragmented, the last 
thing to do is to run Disk Warrior, which will find and fix directory issues. 
(DW version 4.2 is the right one for OS X 10.6.) It also will find and fix 
"volume information" errors, which often are behind hard to pinpoint operating 
problems.

If the iMac and the hard drive have been through all of the above, and passed 
all the tests and procedures, I then do a PRAM reset (let it chime 

Help please: slow iMac

[N. Shani]

Need your collective wisdom to identify what is causing the above to slow
down.

The particulars are:
- late 2006 17" model 5,1
- OS is 10.6.8, with current updates
- stock HD 160 GB, ~1/2 full
- 2.5 GB RAM (stock was 2x 512 MB, so one 512 MB stick was exchanged with 2
GB stick)
- monitoring active CPU processes doesn't show any process hogging the CPU
beyond a few % (not even M$-related, such as Excel or Word)

I originally suspected it was Sophos, so removed and downloaded ClamX.
It helped a bit for a while, then it started crawling again.

Thanks to anyone who can assist with ideas on how to speed this iMac, which
is otherwise running fine.

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