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Wanting iMac to run more smoothly

D

downingp

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 26, 2006
640
3
I have a mid 2007 iMac with 3g of RAM and is otherwise stock from Apple. For the past few months, I have noticed my iMac is not running as smoothly as it used to. I have used Tech Tool Pro to see if that may help, but I haven't noticed a difference. I am wondering if installing more RAM would work and/or a bigger hard drive. Any other programs I could try to "clean" things up? Should I reinstall the entire OS and start from scratch?

Any help would be great. Thanks.
 
Just to be clear -- not running smoothly on the internet, like Safari? or just overall not running smoothly?

more ram or a bigger drive *could* help -- if you are doing things that are currently using all your ram and your drive is more than 80% full

but if neither of those are the case, then adding more prob wont help

you might try a couple of things

open Activitiy Monitor and see if anything is hogging up your ram.

try a new user -- create a new user with full admin rights and do some of the same things that causes you to slow down on your normal side -- if its still running slow then yeah, I would probably do a complete reinstall

sure, it might take a bit, but its probably less frustrating than trying to track down whatever is causing your slowdown.

just clone to an external, reformat, then clone back -- or -- reinstall OS X from scratch then use Migration Assistant to copy your data back over

Hopefully your issue is something simpler, and you wont need to do all that.
 
I guess the biggest thing I have noticed is programs taking longer to open, and having to "force quit" programs especially iTunes after not responding. I have 72gb of space free on a 320 gb hard drive. When I look at activity monitor it doesn't seem like any one program is taking up alot of CPU RAM.
 
downingp said:
I guess the biggest thing I have noticed is programs taking longer to open, and having to "force quit" programs especially iTunes after not responding. I have 72gb of space free on a 320 gb hard drive. When I look at activity monitor it doesn't seem like any one program is taking up alot of CPU RAM.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what was happening to my imac. Only difference, mine was two years older and only had 1/4 gig of ram (whatever the closest number to 1/4 gig is, I forget). Anyway, I came here to get advice on a new machine and someone told me to upgrade my ram. I did, to 2 gigs, was able to update to snow leopard and now have no problems whatsoever. It cost 60 bucks and my programs open quickly, no need to force quit anything anymore. Now I'm holding off on a new one until they sort out this yellow screen mess and maybe even until they put in some usb 3 ports.
 
I was thinking if I upgraded to the RAM to 4gb I would get better performance. I really don't feel like I need a new machine. How difficult is it to install a new hard drive? I saw on OWC I can get a 2 TB hard drive for about $40.
 
I also wanted a new harddrive but didn't want to open my imac since I'm not that handy. Instead, I went to Radio Shack and bought an external harddrive and just moved a bunch of old photos and videos to the new hd. Much easier plus I can put the little hd in the fire safe and feel better about keeping my memories safer.
 
downingp said:
I was thinking if I upgraded to the RAM to 4gb I would get better performance. I really don't feel like I need a new machine. How difficult is it to install a new hard drive? I saw on OWC I can get a 2 TB hard drive for about $40.
Click to expand...

2TB hard drives are $140 on sale, not $40. expect $180 from OWC.

3 gigs of ram isnt a small amount.

Cost effectively, adding another 2 gigs is the cheapest, which will only give you 4 gigs, not a huge bump.

Ive got the same iMac -- 20" 2.4 and 24" 2.4 and 4 gigs of ram, but I switched the 320s out for fast 640 gig drives a long time ago.

Regardless of that, they are both very fast, and I dont think that only has to do with the ram.

OWC doesnt have install videos for the drives, but there are videos on youtube. Its not hard.
 
you could try to install Onyx and clean the application cache.
After using the iMac for some time it always sounds like it´s trashing the hard drive even if I´m just starting Safari - takes quite some time to start it too.

I use Onyx from time to time and it always feels like I´ve done a clean install afterwards. Bliss.
 
I ran Onyx and it says I need to repair the startup volume. When I go to the "verify" tab in Onyx the S.M.A.R.T status says the disk seems to be working correctly but the file structure needs to be repaired. Tech Tool Pro never said my startup volume was needing repair. Can I repair the volume without wiping it clean and having to reinstall everything?

Thanks.
 
downingp said:
I ran Onyx and it says I need to repair the startup volume. When I go to the "verify" tab in Onyx the S.M.A.R.T status says the disk seems to be working correctly but the file structure needs to be repaired. Tech Tool Pro never said my startup volume was needing repair. Can I repair the volume without wiping it clean and having to reinstall everything?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
just repair with disc utility ..thats what it was made for

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417
 
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