Full Reset

[austeane]

Hey, since I bought my Mac Mini last september, it has been running incredibly slow. Like 20+ bounces to open iTunes slow.
Late 2012 i5, 4gb, most recent OS.

It actually got slow pretty much immediately after migrating everything from my 2006 Black Macbook.

It often slows down to a complete stop for minutes at a time when only chrome with <10 tabs, itunes, mail and maybe (pirated) excel are open. I heard Skype slowed things down, so I deleted it. I heard Onyx might help, so I downloaded that and ran it. It sorta helped a little.

My activity monitor is currently pretty much even thirds wired, active, inactive with a tiny sliver of green. I am using about 1/3rd of my disk space, and the majority of my backup drive.



I think I am just going to do a wipe of my mini and start again, as it is unreasonably slow. I have put all my photos onto dropbox, all my documents are on various cloud platforms, and all my important applications are either pirated or from the mac app store.

My questions are:
1: Is there an obvious fix, other than a wipe?
2: What type of wipe would be best, and how do I go about it?
3: Is there any downside to a wipe?
4: How long will it take?
5: Barring a hardware defect, a wipe should restore my computer to full speed right?

Thanks! Going back to UBC tomorrow, and I want to get this fixed before the start of classes.

 

[53kyle]

Hey, since I bought my Mac Mini last september, it has been running incredibly slow. Like 20+ bounces to open iTunes slow.
Late 2012 i5, 4gb, most recent OS.

It actually got slow pretty much immediately after migrating everything from my 2006 Black Macbook.

It often slows down to a complete stop for minutes at a time when only chrome with <10 tabs, itunes, mail and maybe (pirated) excel are open. I heard Skype slowed things down, so I deleted it. I heard Onyx might help, so I downloaded that and ran it. It sorta helped a little.

My activity monitor is currently pretty much even thirds wired, active, inactive with a tiny sliver of green. I am using about 1/3rd of my disk space, and the majority of my backup drive.



I think I am just going to do a wipe of my mini and start again, as it is unreasonably slow. I have put all my photos onto dropbox, all my documents are on various cloud platforms, and all my important applications are either pirated or from the mac app store.

My questions are:
1: Is there an obvious fix, other than a wipe?
2: What type of wipe would be best, and how do I go about it?
3: Is there any downside to a wipe?
4: How long will it take?
5: Barring a hardware defect, a wipe should restore my computer to full speed right?

Thanks! Going back to UBC tomorrow, and I want to get this fixed before the start of classes.

What is using the most CPU? That is what you should have checked in activity monitor

 

[austeane]

What is using the most CPU? That is what you should have checked in activity monitor

My CPU is currently 93 percent idle, if thats what you mean.

 

[eXan]

Check the "page outs" and "Swap used" numbers in Activity monitor -> system memory page.

Sounds like you just need more RAM. 4 GBs is the bare minimum these days

 

[austeane]

Check the "page outs" and "Swap used" numbers in Activity monitor -> system memory page.

Sounds like you just need more RAM. 4 GBs is the bare minimum these days

35 and 6.13 GBs respectively.

Fair enough. How much ram and how much will that cost me?

 

[eXan]

35 and 6.13 GBs respectively.

Fair enough. How much ram and how much will that cost me?

If you have 2 ram slots, you can get 2 sticks of 4 gb. I think they are really inexpensive.

2 sticks of 8 gbs each would be better, of course. Or you can get one 8gb stick and keep your 2 gb stick for a total of 10GBs.

My iMac has 4 slots with 2 of them used by 2gb sticks from the factory. I got 2 additional sticks of 4gb each aftermarket and now have 12 gb. My computer can now spread its wings, so to say

 

[austeane]

If you have 2 ram slots, you can get 2 sticks of 4 gb. I think they are really inexpensive.

2 sticks of 8 gbs each would be better, of course. Or you can get one 8gb stick and keep your 2 gb stick for a total of 10GBs.

My iMac has 4 slots with 2 of them used by 2gb sticks from the factory. I got 2 additional sticks of 4gb each aftermarket and now have 12 gb. My computer can now spread its wings, so to say

Thanks! That will solve my problem? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...tiveASIN=B008LTBJFW&linkCode=as2&tag=su0ab-20

 

[eXan]

For type of memory you need see About this Mac from Apple menu, or the documentation that came with the computer.

From your description I assume you have this mini, so here is all the info.

Please double check, thought as I could be wrong.

 

[austeane]

If you have 2 ram slots, you can get 2 sticks of 4 gb. I think they are really inexpensive.

2 sticks of 8 gbs each would be better, of course. Or you can get one 8gb stick and keep your 2 gb stick for a total of 10GBs.

My iMac has 4 slots with 2 of them used by 2gb sticks from the factory. I got 2 additional sticks of 4gb each aftermarket and now have 12 gb. My computer can now spread its wings, so to say

For type of memory you need see About this Mac from Apple menu, or the documentation that came with the computer.

From your description I assume you have this mini, so here is all the info.

Please double check, thought as I could be wrong.

Perfect! This matches up with the specifications I found on that site.


"The "Late 2012" Mac mini models also have two memory slots but use faster still 1600 MHz PC3-12800 DDR3 SO-DIMMs. As of the date last updated (see top), they both officially and unofficially support 16 GB of RAM, but should this number increase in the future (Intel reports that the underlying chipset can support up to 32 GB of RAM), this EveryMac.com Q&A will be updated."

 

[opinio]

- Open iTunes in Safe Mode
- Delete iTunes Preferences Files
- Re-Create iTunes Library Files
- Scan your System for Viruses

More details and steps are available here:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W9ihBgX004

Yes... all those Windows instructions should assist him with his Mac mini. You may need to give more details on how virus's are a big problem with iTunes in OS X and how to do the registry scan in OS X.

 

[Cave Man]

When is the last time you repaired disk permissions?

 

[austeane]

When is the last time you repaired disk permissions?

I just did after you posted that.
My free ram with absolutely everything closed is about half the pie. When I open chrome, pretty much the entire thing disappears.

 

[austeane]

Also, my Excel is now quitting immediately....

 

[vistadude]

Wipe is the solution as your computer was faster before. 4 GB RAM is plenty.

2. Download mountain lion from the mac store, and extract it to an external hard drive. Search youtube how to do this. Do not burn to a dvd or put it on a usb flash drive, it's way to slow.

3./4. To install mountain lion takes about 30-60 minutes, but then more time to reinstall all the apps. I did it on an old mac mini and the whole process took 2 hours to get from zero to up and running.

5. Yeah, you should be back up to full speed.

 

[austeane]

Wipe is the solution as your computer was faster before. 4 GB RAM is plenty.

2. Download mountain lion from the mac store, and extract it to an external hard drive. Search youtube how to do this. Do not burn to a dvd or put it on a usb flash drive, it's way to slow.

3./4. To install mountain lion takes about 30-60 minutes, but then more time to reinstall all the apps. I did it on an old mac mini and the whole process took 2 hours to get from zero to up and running.

5. Yeah, you should be back up to full speed.

I now have mountain lion on a partitioned USB drive.... What should I save from this computer, and is there a guide to resetting your mac around here somewhere?