Computer slow, why?

[spwath]

Ok, my moms computer is really slow, for web browsing even. I cant figure out why. Ideas?

Its an iMac, just over a year old.

i5 something, 8gb ram.

 

I look in ram usage, its never even close to maxing out, same with CPU usage, but the computer is really really slow, for anything and everything.

Ideas?

[thekeemo]

Do a smart test

[Zackfoo]

because it probably running on harddisk. so opening any files and application will take years. And virus maybe? Maybe check background apps too there might be shit ton of them running. and it is a mac so yeah.

[levibaker88]

There was a program called 'Cocktail' many years ago and performed similar functions as disk cleanup and defrag in Windows, that might help.

[Guest]

Is there some kind of hard drive testing program for Apple things? If it wasn't that slow before it could be hard drive failure. Of course, lots of programs running in the background and/or malware can always cause that too so a fresh reinstall of... Apple thing OS could always help.

[spwath]

4 minutes ago, adamjp said:

Is there some kind of hard drive testing program for Apple things? If it wasn't that slow before it could be hard drive failure. Of course, lots of programs running in the background and/or malware can always cause that too so a fresh reinstall of... Apple thing OS could always help.

It was slow from the start

[deWaardt]

20 minutes ago, Zackfoo said:

because it probably running on harddisk. so opening any files and application will take years. And virus maybe? Maybe check background apps too there might be shit ton of them running. and it is a mac so yeah.

You're not helpful.

You're basically trying to say that mechanical hard drives are shit and unusably slow. and unnecessarily hating on Apple.

Go somewhere else please.

 

 

 

Back on the troubleshooting, I would indeed suggest checking the hard drive.

Your unit might have come with a faulty hard drive. I've seen failing hard drives function for years, but function slowly and poor making me question if there ever actually gonna stop working.

 

Have you heard any unusual clicking or screeching/beeping noises from inside your iMac?

[Zackfoo]

9 minutes ago, deWaardt said:

You're not helpful.

You're basically trying to say that mechanical hard drives are shit and unusably slow. and unnecessarily hating on Apple.

Go somewhere else please.

 

 

 

Back on the troubleshooting, I would indeed suggest checking the hard drive.

Your unit might have come with a faulty hard drive. I've seen failing hard drives function for years, but function slowly and poor making me question if there ever actually gonna stop working.

 

Have you heard any unusual clicking or screeching/beeping noises from inside your iMac?

well harddisk IS slow. and Mac IS slow. and that 2 is not the only suggestion i gave too do you even finish reading the whole comment? and i am saying that because my laptop with only harddisk is slow af and the mac my friend own is slow af too. 
but at the same time harddisk failure should not result in web page loading time if you know that. Anyway.

[BCConnection]

9 minutes ago, Zackfoo said:

well harddisk IS slow. and Mac IS slow. and that 2 is not the only suggestion i gave too do you even finish reading the whole comment? and i am saying that because my laptop with only harddisk is slow af and the mac my friend own is slow af too. 
but at the same time harddisk failure should not result in web page loading time if you know that. Anyway.

Technically speaking it doesn't effect the actual web speed but it can cause the system to run slow and if the OS is lagging then everything else will also.

Like everyone else run a hard disk check. This can be done through Disk Utility. It will run minor checks and corruption checks.
Macs have issues with both the drives or the drive cable.