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Why is my late 2014 5k iMac so slow all of the sudden?

S

SCMedic

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 8, 2008
193
41
I've thought of just about everything, and can't figure out for the life of me why this thing seems to have slowed to a crawl. Boot up takes forever, and that's with minimized startup items. Launching any Adobe product takes ages. Safari takes ages to launch. The whole thing should be light years faster than it is. Any suggestions?

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014)
3.5 GHz Intel Core i5
24 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
AMD Radeon R9 M290X 2048 MB

All media is external raid drive. Fusion drive is split into two with apps on the SSD.

I'm lost and annoyed.
 
I'm trying to do IT support for the very same model with a 3Tb Fusion drive.

I have erased and started afresh twice now and when restoring data the drive transfer speed drops like a stone when it goes past the SSD size from 300Mb/sec to 5Mb/sec - this is too slow, and I have just restored 150Gb and the iMac now takes ages to boot and start any kind of App or open files.

I'll make a warranty call shorty to resolve this - google tells me there are recalls on previous generation Fusion 3Tb drives models.
 
The usual diagnostic steps including the following are a good place to start:
  1. Checking the console log ( with Console.app ) for messages
  2. Checking the Fusion drive with a SMART utility to see if the HDD portion of the Fusion has an issue
  3. Checking the CoreStorage Volumes ( which is what Fusion is ) using diskutil in Terminal.app ( starting with 'diskutil list' )
  4. Running the appropriate version of Onyx ( free ) to do all the usual cache cleanup
  5. Running EtreCheck ( free ) to see if unwanted background daemons/launch agents are running. The output is suitable for posting to a list like MR.
One of those should provide clues to pursue. Good luck.
Brian
 
I have the same iMac and same issue! It's unbelievably slow, I can barely use it...
 
Didn't some of the iMacs with the 3tb fusion drives have a problem with the HDD?

OP:
Can you boot into safe mode?
Can you boot from an external bootable drive?
 
I would like to point out that iMac 5K 2014 late uses ddr3 1600 RAM instead of 1333. I hope this was just your type error.

Also, if you can, try to boot from a usb ssd. If that is fast. it means you inner disks are slow.
 
The same thing happened to my 5k 2014. I opened up the screen with a guitar pick, removed the hard drive and replaced it with a crucial SSD. Problem solved - the machine is now silent and fast!
 
uller6 said:
The same thing happened to my 5k 2014. I opened up the screen with a guitar pick, removed the hard drive and replaced it with a crucial SSD. Problem solved - the machine is now silent and fast!
Click to expand...

Very tempting... I'd hate to go through all that trouble only to have the new iMac come out in 3 months though. Don't you need a whole kit to open and close the 2014 imac properly?
 
uller6 said:
The same thing happened to my 5k 2014. I opened up the screen with a guitar pick, removed the hard drive and replaced it with a crucial SSD. Problem solved - the machine is now silent and fast!
Click to expand...

The original poster said that they had split the Fusion drive, so they are effectively running from an SSD already.
 
SCMedic said:
Fusion drive is split into two with apps on the SSD.
Click to expand...

So did you install the OS and apps to the SSD as "Macintosh HD" and then use the HDD standalone? I think that's what you are saying but want to make sure.

Or did you install the OS to the HDD and just put "Applications" on SSD.

Thanks in advance
 
Run BlackMagic or another disk speed test and see what your results are. This will show if your drive is actually the issue.
 
bplein said:
So did you install the OS and apps to the SSD as "Macintosh HD" and then use the HDD standalone? I think that's what you are saying but want to make sure.

Or did you install the OS to the HDD and just put "Applications" on SSD.

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

I did, but now I'm running into the "your running out of disk space issue" since the OS/apps are on the SSD. What stuff, and how, can I move to the HDD safely?
 
SCMedic said:
I did, but now I'm running into the "your running out of disk space issue" since the OS/apps are on the SSD. What stuff, and how, can I move to the HDD safely?
Click to expand...

How big is your SSD?

You should probably try to keep the base OS and Applications on the local boot SSD. In a clean install, all that is on the boot drive (visible in a default mode) is:
  • Applications (where most installed apps land)
  • Library (where binaries supporting the OS and Apps land, also can include some application data)
  • System (OS)
  • Users (your home directory and if you share the system with another user, theirs too)
Assuming you want your base OS and Apps on fast SSD, that leaves parts of your home directory to move, and that likely contains all of the media you've ever downloaded or created.

  • iTunes Media (music, TV, movies, etc.)
  • "Documents" folder (could contain about anything)
  • "Downloads" folder (many people let this pile up forever)
  • "Pictures" folder (if you take lots of pictures, this can get big)
  • Data in things like Dropbox
You can move your ITunes media... google it. Here's one example but there are several out there: http://www.imore.com/how-move-your-itunes-library-external-hard-drive . Media like this doesn't need to be on SSD.

You can also move your entire home directory to the HDD... this may may or may not be what you want. Parts of this Apple article cover moving it. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201548 If you aren't comfortable at a command line, you may not want to attempt to do that.

You can also move whole folders and use symlinks but those can lead to problems for people who don't understand UN*X, they can end up really screwing up a system (the symlinks don't, but incorrect use of them can!)
 
SCMedic said:
I've thought of just about everything, and can't figure out for the life of me why this thing seems to have slowed to a crawl. Boot up takes forever, and that's with minimized startup items. Launching any Adobe product takes ages. Safari takes ages to launch. The whole thing should be light years faster than it is. Any suggestions?

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014)
3.5 GHz Intel Core i5
24 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
AMD Radeon R9 M290X 2048 MB

All media is external raid drive. Fusion drive is split into two with apps on the SSD.

I'm lost and annoyed.
Click to expand...
I’ve had this problem a few times and how I solved it was disconnecting all peripherals except the keyboard. Now start up your computer and see if it returns back to normal. If so, connect one at a time, restarting your iMac each time. The instances where my computer became very slow was because of a peripheral hard drive that was somehow causing the slow down, so only connected it when it was needed. It’s usually one of the cheaper western digital or Seagate drives, the spinners.
Best, Seth
 
Big Sur and Monterey have issues with fission drives. There were some internal changes in the os that made them slow.

replace with an SSD

 
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Freeangel1 said:
Big Sur and Monterey have issues with fission drives. There were some internal changes in the os that made them slow.

replace with an SSD

Click to expand...
Good advice.

I can confirm that an SSD upgrade and breaking up the Fusion on a late 2014 5K iMac makes a significant difference. I did just that this past weekend and the system is much more responsive and black magic speeds are significantly faster. I swapped out the 3TB HD portion of the fusion for a 2TB Crucial MX500 and went from 16GB to 32GB RAM while at it. I figure this will keep me going for a while until I decide on what to do for my next Mac. Side note about the RAM upgrade. I am surprised at how Mac OS uses the increased RAM compared to what I thought I needed. I see 14-17GB RAM in use when previously I would see at the most 11GB. If it is there, the OS will take advantage of it. Also a worthy upgrade along with the SSD.
 
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