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Imac 24 inch SLOW even after complete reinstall

W

waaren

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 1, 2010
8
0
enschede
Ok my first post here.

I got a 24 inch Imac 2.8 GHZ Core 2 duo, with 4 GB of ram

I should be fine right? well wrong!

I got tired of my mac being stuffed so I did a complete clean reinstall (leopard) and formatted the HDD.

Well that did not do much, still slow and I am seeing to many rainbow circles, between switching programs, even browsing is slow.

Tried the 17 things (chriswrites.com) to speed up your mac (most we renot necessary since I formatted)

  • updated all software
  • repaired the disk permission

Still no luck......

I am lost.......what to do???
 
How old is the machine? My first thought when I read this is a foreshadow of hardware failure, most likely hard drive.
 
Reinstalls of the OS are usually not a good idea.

Put another way, do you replace your car's engine when you're low on gas?

I agree with the other poster, sounds like some sort of HW issue.
 
I agree..if its over 12 months old its probably hardware failure.

bad design+bad cooling = bad computer
 
smithrh said:
Reinstalls of the OS are usually not a good idea.

Put another way, do you replace your car's engine when you're low on gas?

I agree with the other poster, sounds like some sort of HW issue.
Click to expand...

Actually, its a very good idea, depending on the problem at hand. We need to figure out if the slowdown is coming from a software or a hardware issue. A clean format and install is the only sure way to rule out a software issue. Now that we know that the slowdown still occurs, we can rule out that it was a software issue, and focus on the hardware.

More than likely, it sounds like your hard drive may be at fault. Do you have a USB or Firewire drive that you can install OSX on and boot from? Nothing in the iMac is easily replaceable, so I would make this my first step.
 
Omg

Thanks guys for all your thoughts

You guys really think it is a hardware problem?

I do have a usb drive which I can put osx on.

I will be willing to replace the harddrive if that will surely be the solution, what type of harddrive is fitted in these macs

By the way my mac is 2-3 years old now I think
 
more problems

just had my screen frozen up with all lines.....

what is up with my MAC????????
 
waaren said:
just had my screen frozen up with all lines.....

what is up with my MAC????????
Click to expand...

THAT is not a good sign, and even a dying hard drive would not cause lines across the screen. It certainly sounds like either the logic board is dying, or the video card is overheating. I would say open it up and clean out the dust, but it being an iMac, thats not exactly the easiest thing to do. If the logic board is going bad, then there probably isn't much you can do. The cost of repair will outweigh the cost of a new mac.
 
lol 2 to 3 years...

average to slightly above average time.


OP its par for the course I'm afraid. They are badly designed and badly made.

time to pay more :apple: tax
 
waaren said:
just had my screen frozen up with all lines.....

what is up with my MAC????????
Click to expand...

A lot of beach balls usually indicates IO errors which would suggest the hard drive (providing you don't have any other devices connected to the iMac).

The lines on your screen are a very bad sign. Make sure your mac is well ventilated and check your temps (with something like iStat Pro) because it could just be your graphics card is over heating. Else it suggests major hardware failure (graphics card or something else).
 
Whenever faced by odd problems on a Mac, it''s a good idea to check the Console logs.

If you haven't moved it, Console is an app that's in your Utilities folder in your App folder.

Open that, and select "all messages" (it may be hidden under DATABASE SEARCHES).

Now, it won't tell you things like "your hard disk is dead" or "your GPU is dead" but if you see the same error repeated over and over again, generally that's bad. "Disk I/O Error" will be a bad one as well.

Copy and paste some of the messages here. Or, take some of the text and Google it.

...and I stand behind my assertion that it's generally a waste of time to do a full system reinstall.
 
I would like to say thank you.....

I would like to say thank you.....

but this sound like a new mac for me:(

ok now the other big question...which one..I am staying away from Imac's or is that a bad assumption???
 
I would have to check

I would have to check, I looked it up last night

only thing i remember its a 24 inch model from 2007 with 4gb ram
 
I have a 2 year old 24 inch iMac and the video card does indeed heat up now and again--when it does, I ramp up the fan speed with SMC Fan Control. Seems to keep things in check. Also use Temperature Monitor to keep track of temps.
 
well if its a hard drive and over heating problem that may or may not help... if its just a hard drive problem it wont help. If its an overheating problem ramping the fans up would definitely help your problem.
 
waaren said:
can I just not run my fan faster when I start to do heavy stuff on my Imac?
Click to expand...

Happens automatically, no need for you to do anything.

I'd hardly give up on your iMac yet. Are you able to get it to an Apple store?

Oh, and you can ignore the obvious troll. He's just on here to be bitter about... something.
 
smithrh said:
Happens automatically, no need for you to do anything.

I'd hardly give up on your iMac yet. Are you able to get it to an Apple store?

Oh, and you can ignore the obvious troll. He's just on here to be bitter about... something.
Click to expand...

Not always as far as the graphics card is concerned. Sometimes it overheats and the fans do not ramp up--hence the need to use SMC Fan Control.
 
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