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Just upgraded to new Mini, and it is slooooow

M

Maui19

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 16, 2007
255
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I just upgraded to the current Mini (2.5 ghz i5) from my late 2009 Mini, and the new was is achingly slow. It is quite slower than my old one. Clicking on finder windows causes a delay (3-8 seconds), and I spend a whole bunch of time looking at a spinning beach ball.

I'm running the current version of Mavericks, have 4 GB RAM, and transferred my files using migration assistant. I have repaired permissions, but haven't done much troubleshooting.

My old Mini had 8 GB RAM, so I'm thinking about upgrading this one to 8 as well, but I don't think it is RAM that's causing things to be so laggy.

Any ideas?
 
I just did the same a few months back, maybe a PRAM reset.

Shut down the computer.

Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.

Turn on the computer.
Immediately press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.

Continue holding the keys down until the computer restarts, and you hear the startup sound for the second time.

Release the keys.
Resetting PRAM may change some system settings and preferences. Use System Preferences to restore your settings.
 
Maui19 said:
I just upgraded to the current Mini (2.5 ghz i5) from my late 2009 Mini, and the new was is achingly slow. It is quite slower than my old one. Clicking on finder windows causes a delay (3-8 seconds), and I spend a whole bunch of time looking at a spinning beach ball.
Click to expand...
If you've just migrated your files over, it can take a while for the computer to finish indexing the disk so that Spotlight works.
 
I have a late-2012 Mini that came with 10.8 on it.

I still use 10.8.5 as my regular OS. It runs fast and smoothly.

I have an external drive onto which I installed 10.9 Mavericks.

Like you, I noticed all kinds of slowdowns -- and I -always- turn off Spotlight on my Macs.

If things don't improve for you, seems to me you could do a fresh install of OS 10.8 onto the Mini, as it should still run that as well as Mavericks. I'd reckon you'll find it much snappier that way.

Other things you might try with Mavericks:
TURN OFF compressed memory with the following terminal entry:
sudo nvram boot-args="vm_compressor=1"

(quotes required, password entry required, restart recommended)

I -think- appnap can be disabled with this:
defaults write -g NSAppSleepDisabled -bool true
 
I did the PR and SMC rests--no luck. I reinstalled OS 10.9.2, and that helped a ton. So I guess we're fixed now, and the reinstall didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would.

Thanks for the help guys.
 
Probably brought over some files the new mini didn't like when you migrated. I learned the hard way years ago when I did use migrate assistant. Never use it. Just copy over what you need.
 
bearcatrp said:
Probably brought over some files the new mini didn't like when you migrated. I learned the hard way years ago when I did use migrate assistant. Never use it. Just copy over what you need.
Click to expand...

I agree. I've used migration assistant twice now, and will never use it again. It took more than a day (day. Yes day. Like over 24 hours.) in order to migrate over from a 2009 iMac to a 2012 MBP. I kept thinking the estimated time was wrong, and would snap down to a reasonable amount, but it never happened. I think it took about 30 hours total, and we're talking about 230GB of total data. I was wired at the time.

Last time, I grabbed everything I wanted, threw it onto a 1TB external, then copied onto my destination computer once the OS was setup properly. 5 hours.

5 <<< 30. Migration Assistant Fail.
 
I've never really understood using Migration Assistant, I'd much rather do fresh installs of everything and clear off some accumulated junk that I don't need.

It takes a bit longer but leaves you with a brand new feeling machine.
 
Open up a terminal and run 'top -P'

This will give you an idea of what processes may be slowing you down.
 
Maui19 said:
I did the PR and SMC rests--no luck. I reinstalled OS 10.9.2, and that helped a ton. So I guess we're fixed now, and the reinstall didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would.

Thanks for the help guys.
Click to expand...

Seems your issue is resolved. I run the current Mini at home as well for one of my computers. For a performance bump, I put an SSD in it. Unlike ram where you may or may not need additional. For loading and such with an SSD you will more often see a difference.
 
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