Why does a computer "slow down" over time?

[admwright]

A question to everyone saying that 1Gb is not enough - why?

It sounds like the original poster was quite happy with the iMac bought in 2008 and it sounds as if they are not doing anything that is demanding lots of memory (word, email web browsing and HD is only half full). Is it the updates from Apple to OS X that cause this, something else? I am just curious like the original poster. I am pretty certain that my iMac is slow because the HD is almost full (it has 4Gb so not memory) but that may not be the only reason.

All the best
Andrew W.

 

[ZilogZ80]

A question to everyone saying that 1Gb is not enough - why?

It sounds like the original poster was quite happy with the iMac bought in 2008 and it sounds as if they are not doing anything that is demanding lots of memory (word, email web browsing and HD is only half full). Is it the updates from Apple to OS X that cause this, something else? I am just curious like the original poster. I am pretty certain that my iMac is slow because the HD is almost full (it has 4Gb so not memory) but that may not be the only reason.

All the best
Andrew W.

Exactly. It sounds more like a hard drive issue than a RAM issue.

 

[300D]

Why does a computer "slow down" after a few years?

It doesn't, the software it runs gets more complex.

 

[skunk]

It doesn't, the software it runs gets more complex.

No, mine is getting unbearably slow without any serious software upgrades. I reckon my 2.16 C2D 24" iMac is about a month away from meltdown. Lots of beachballs and very slow at opening iTunes, iPhoto '09, even Safari. Probably HD related, but I'm not going to risk accelerating its collapse by opening it up (again). I see a shiny new 3.6/1TB/256 27" in my not-too-distant future...

 

[lotones]

3 things brought my 800 mhz G4 back to life:

1. zapping the PRAM

2. repairing disc permissions (yeah, I said it again...)

3. running the Unix maintenance scripts

Honorable mention: scanning for and deleting spyware

Now my old mac is flying again. If i had done these things earlier I might not be typing this on a much newer iMac.

 

[Erasmus]

Doesn't mean anything. "VM Size" is how much memory all your running apps together could ask for, and all 64 bit apps _can_ ask for an awful lot of memory. If all your apps simultaneously decided to use all the memory they are allowed to be used, you would be in trouble. But they don't, so you are fine.

This is like checking with your bank "what is the biggest loan I could ask for"? And the bank manager says "well, you can ask for a loan for a billion dollars. You won't get it, but you can ask for it. "

And now it's 109 GB. And now it's 116 GB. It makes no sense
Unless the amount of spare RAM you have acts as pointers to Virtual RAM or something weird.

A question to everyone saying that 1Gb is not enough - why?

As I said before, many of Apple's apps use way more RAM than they should. I mean, right now, I only have Safari open (Facebook and MR) and it's using over 260 MB. In fact, at the moment, my entire system is using 622 MB of active memory. Open iTunes and watch or listen to something, then start trying to write a Word document, and all your RAM will be gone.

 

[mrsir2009]

Get a XT Hybrid HD and it'll be nice and zippy

 

[Smallville]

There are two things that make a Macintosh slow in my experience: Not having enough RAM, and a defective hard drive. To check the RAM situation, start "Activity Monitor" (in the Finder, press Command-Shift-U to open the Utilities folder, and Activity Monitor should be the first application inside), switch to "System Memory", and check how much "Free" and "Inactive" memory you have. If you don't have Free or Inactive memory while doing what you normally do, then you don't have enough RAM.

I checked this. Running only Safari, iTunes and Activity Monitor, here's what it read ...

Free: 285 to 300
Inactive: approx. 185

So, I'm guessing this is not a RAM issue.

 

[mrsir2009]

A question to everyone saying that 1Gb is not enough - why?

It sounds like the original poster was quite happy with the iMac bought in 2008 and it sounds as if they are not doing anything that is demanding lots of memory (word, email web browsing and HD is only half full). Is it the updates from Apple to OS X that cause this, something else? I am just curious like the original poster. I am pretty certain that my iMac is slow because the HD is almost full (it has 4Gb so not memory) but that may not be the only reason.

All the best
Andrew W.

Its enough if you just want to do one thing at a time. But if you want to multitask then you'll need more RAM

 

[gullySn0wCat]

I checked this. Running only Safari, iTunes and Activity Monitor, here's what it read ...

Free: 285 to 300
Inactive: approx. 185

So, I'm guessing this is not a RAM issue.

At the same place, are you getting page outs? If you are getting a lot (generally speaking more than page ins) you don't have enough RAM.

 

[Smallville]

What does "page outs" mean?

Edit to add: I found it. Here's what I have now, still running just those applications ...

Free: 185 MB
Inactive: 285 MB
Page ins: 2.34 GB
Page outs: 1.42 GB

I'm kind of thinking that the reset deal I found on the Apple site has helped tremendously. The machine hasn't acted as sluggish since I did that.

 

[gullySn0wCat]

What does "page outs" mean?

Edit to add: I found it. Here's what I have now, still running just those applications ...

Free: 185 MB
Inactive: 285 MB
Page ins: 2.34 GB
Page outs: 1.42 GB

I'm kind of thinking that the reset deal I found on the Apple site has helped tremendously. The machine hasn't acted as sluggish since I did that.

A page out is where your system has run out of (fast) RAM and has had to write data to your (slow) hard disk, which would result in getting the "beach ball" or freezes.

I think in your situation even another gig of RAM would result in a huge difference.

 

[JRoDDz]

It doesn't, the software it runs gets more complex.

Exactly. If the computer could talk it would ask "Why do you keep installing newer programs than the ones that came with me?"

 

[Smallville]

An update: I took the iMac to an Apple Store. First time I've been in one since Boise is now considered hip enough to have one. The genius looked it over and basically laughed at the 1GB of memory. Needless to say, since I bought another stick (2GB), the computer is running much better. Hard drive hasn't failed yet. I think I'll hang on to this one for a few more revolutions around the sun and see if I can stretch the lifespan to 5 years.

 

[tobster100]

slow computer and restoring

i just wanted to check something with you guys, i also have a slow i mac ,i already erassed and restored with time machine, the thing about it is what if something on the backup is causing the slowness, to my understanding when you restore with time machine you are copying the backup drive to the system drive, is there a way to only restore the data and not the entire system from time machine? i only want to get back my itunes,iphoto, plist and documents

 

[AuroraProject]

with Apple computers of that age, in my experience its usually because it s going to break..!

anyway for your uses you'd be better off with iPad, with or without keyboard.

iMac is poor value overkill.

Ridiculous!

Well don't let my 2006 Macbook Pro hear this, it runs just as fast today as it did when I took it out of the box.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

i just wanted to check something with you guys, i also have a slow i mac ,i already erassed and restored with time machine, the thing about it is what if something on the backup is causing the slowness, to my understanding when you restore with time machine you are copying the backup drive to the system drive, is there a way to only restore the data and not the entire system from time machine? i only want to get back my itunes,iphoto, plist and documents

Yep, Migration Assistant will ask you what to copy back: http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html

You can also just use Finder to copy the folders you want from the TM to your Mac.

 

[Shivetya]

Much of the appearance of a slow down is in the user's head. Of course you can truly induce it by loading lots of little widgets and such which you subsequently forget about.

On the systems I work on we occasionally get complaints that the system is slower than before, but we have good performance tools which can track about any performance issue with out systems and it rarely if ever supports a user's claim.

The key to proving whether or not your computer has slowed down is to own some good performance evaluation tools. I don't think it is worthwhile to purchase any but if it is that much of a concern to you it might be okay. Then you could get some baseline numbers from when your computer is new and compare them as time goes by.