2012 IMac starting very slowly

[echomango]

I have loved my late 2012 IMac and I am now worried that it may be in a bit of trouble. I generally shut it down nightly and then open it the next morning. The last two mornings it has been very slow in starting up. It usually gets to the sign in screen in less than a minute. I think that is about right. I never timed it. But now it is taking 2-4 minutes to get to the same sign in screen. I went to disk utility and ran the tests and it says disk okay. It also has been giving an error message that one of the disks that is attached by USB is not functioning. I guess I might want to disconnect all disks and try a restart and see if it might be related? It has also been very slow in Finder. Beachballs just to select a file. ugh.

Thanks for any ideas of what to do.

Tom

 

[toddzrx]

I have loved my late 2012 IMac and I am now worried that it may be in a bit of trouble. I generally shut it down nightly and then open it the next morning. The last two mornings it has been very slow in starting up. It usually gets to the sign in screen in less than a minute. I think that is about right. I never timed it. But now it is taking 2-4 minutes to get to the same sign in screen. I went to disk utility and ran the tests and it says disk okay. It also has been giving an error message that one of the disks that is attached by USB is not functioning. I guess I might want to disconnect all disks and try a restart and see if it might be related? It has also been very slow in Finder. Beachballs just to select a file. ugh.

Thanks for any ideas of what to do.

Tom

Yup, most likely disk related. I'd do exactly what you suggest: eject any external discs and try a reboot. If it persists, I'd guess it's the internal drive going bad. Great excuse to do an SSD upgrade!

 

[echomango]

Thanks Toddzrx - I disconnected all of the disks and turned the imac off, then back on and voila! Took all of 25 seconds. Whew! Looks like the lagging startup problem was related to the other disks somehow. I have now reconnected the disks and will see later if the problem is solved.

My apologies to all for jumping the gun. I really should have tested it first though I didn't want to turn it off not knowing exactly what might happen.

I have wondered about an SSD. Can the switch be done without opening the imac? I have heard it is a bit tricky to pop these things open and my technical skills are likely not up for the task but if it can be done via a port I would really like to know more about it.

 

[tubeexperience]

Thanks Toddzrx - I disconnected all of the disks and turned the imac off, then back on and voila! Took all of 25 seconds. Whew! Looks like the lagging startup problem was related to the other disks somehow. I have now reconnected the disks and will see later if the problem is solved.

My apologies to all for jumping the gun. I really should have tested it first though I didn't want to turn it off not knowing exactly what might happen.

I have wondered about an SSD. Can the switch be done without opening the imac? I have heard it is a bit tricky to pop these things open and my technical skills are likely not up for the task but if it can be done via a port I would really like to know more about it.

The computer was trying to boot from the external drive. That's why it took so long.