Mac Mini Service?

[trojan22]

I have a Mac mini mid-2010 that has been suffering from extremely slow performance for sometime (spinning beach balls with the simplest of applications, slow to open web pages or applications, etc.). I made an appointment with the Genius Bar fearing a failing hard drive. I also ordered memory to max it out to 8GB. I installed the memory today and there has been a notable difference in operating speed. Do I still keep my service appointment to make sure that it wasn't also a failing hard drive? Time isn't a real factor since the Apple Store is close by.

 

[GGJstudios]

I have a Mac mini mid-2010 that has been suffering from extremely slow performance for sometime (spinning beach balls with the simplest of applications, slow to open web pages or applications, etc.). I made an appointment with the Genius Bar fearing a failing hard drive. I also ordered memory to max it out to 8GB. I installed the memory today and there has been a notable difference in operating speed. Do I still keep my service appointment to make sure that it wasn't also a failing hard drive? Time isn't a real factor since the Apple Store is close by.

Slow performance may or may not be caused by a failing drive. There are other possibilities that don't involve hardware issues. If you're having performance issues, this may help:

Performance Tips For Mac OS X​

 

[LaWally]

I would keep the appointment. Make sure you have a good backup of your drive before you go in.

 

[trojan22]

Slow performance may or may not be caused by a failing drive. There are other possibilities that don't involve hardware issues. If you're having performance issues, this may help:

Performance Tips For Mac OS X​

I actually went through that list over the passed week and there was no appreciable difference in performance. The only changed I've seen is upgrading the RAM today.

 

[GGJstudios]

I actually went through that list over the passed week and there was no appreciable difference in performance. The only changed I've seen is upgrading the RAM today.

1. Launch Activity Monitor
2. Change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes"
3. Click on the CPU column heading once or twice, so the arrow points downward (highest values on top).
4. Click on the System Memory tab at the bottom.
5. Take a screen shot of the whole Activity Monitor window, then scroll down to see the rest of the list, take another screen shot
6. Post your screenshots.

 

[mwhities]

Testing this and doing it on my MacMini.

Thanks for posting the how to.

 

[trojan22]

here's the screen shot

 

[philipma1957]

based on your ram used if you had 2gb ram you were doing swaps to your hdd. think of ram as a race car and your 5400rpm stock hdd as walking. now that you have 8gb ram and use 2.07gb of it you are no longer swapping to the slow hdd. my guess is you do not need the apple appointment. are you under apple care? if you are you may as well go but if this is not a free appointment i would cancel it.

 

[GGJstudios]

here's the screen shot

I don't see anything that indicates excessive system resource use. Delete any non-essential items from the following locations:

• System Preferences > Accounts > yourusername > Login Items
  (Lion users: System Preferences > Users & Groups > yourusername > Login Items)
  
  
• /Library/LaunchAgents/ and ~/Library/LaunchAgents/
  (Lion users: In Finder, click Go > Go to Folder > then enter the path)
  
  
• /Library/StartupItems/
  (Lion users: In Finder, click Go > Go to Folder > then enter the path)

 

[trojan22]

based on your ram used if you had 2gb ram you were doing swaps to your hdd. think of ram as a race car and your 5400rpm stock hdd as walking. now that you have 8gb ram and use 2.07gb of it you are no longer swapping to the slow hdd. my guess is you do not need the apple appointment. are you under apple care? if you are you may as well go but if this is not a free appointment i would cancel it.

I did have the stock 2GB and I do have AppleCare