Sudden Performance Issues e.g. Slow to Sleep

[ptys]

The couple of weeks I've noticed my iMac7,1 OsX 10.6.7 not performing as it usually does? Examples are browser windows in Firefox and Chrome popping up almost 10secs from the dock on launch and system very slow to sleep, taking almost 10secs even after I quit all applications? I've done permissions repairs and cache/task cleans with "Maintenance" app, turned off all apps and airport but can't figure out what might be causing it?

Do you think it's a hardware thing or software?

Thanks in advance.

 

[djc6]

Use a tool like SMARTreporter to check the status of the Hard Drive. My iMac was behaving in the same manner in the weeks leading up to a HD failure.

Make sure you have a recent backup of your system!

 

[ptys]

Thanks, I've loaded it up and it's green which I take is a good sign for now. Hope it doesn't fail on me!

 

[djc6]

Thanks, I've loaded it up and it's green which I take is a good sign for now. Hope it doesn't fail on me!

I've never found a satisfactory way to actually test an HD on a mac. In the PC world, I could download a bootable floppy/CD-ROM from Hitachi/Western Digital/Seagate/Samsung/etc and boot up the system and let the test run. I've tried some of these boot CDs on my iMac, and sometimes they boot but usually they don't see the HD.

 

[Peteman100]

Does OSX not have a built-in HDD utility?

 

[ptys]

Does OSX not have a built-in HDD utility?

Yes, it's called (funnily enough) Disk Utility. I have done some repairs and shutdown my computer for a period of time and it seems to be working normally again! I hope that's the end of the problem for now.

 

[djc6]

Disk Utility doesn't do a surface scan of every sector of the HD.

TechTool on the AppleCare disc is the closest I've seen.