Snow Leopard runs super slow on early 2006 (Intel) iMac

Hi. I need some advice please. I have an early 2006 iMac 20" that was running slow and I wanted to upgrade OS and main applications so I bought the SL box set. I backed up my data on a USB HDD and did a clean install, but now the system runs incredibly slowly. Genius at the Apple store ran diagnostics all day and found no problems with the HW and recommended I added another 1GB of RAM to existing 1GB. I did and system is still incredibly slow. I get the beach ball all the time and sometimes the system is completely unresponsive. Anyone else have performance issues with SL on this model iMac?
Message was edited by: Leibochips

See:
Mac Maintenance Quick Assist,
Mac OS X speed FAQ,
Speeding up Macs,
Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
Essential Mac Maintenance: Get set up,
Essential Mac Maintenance: Rev up your routines,
Maintaining OS X, and
Myths of required versus not required maintenance for Mac OS X for possible fixes.

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Snow Leopard Running Extremely Slow

Hello,
Recently installed Snow Leopard and everything has been running slow from web pages loading to editing and rendering in FCP.
I had no speed issues with Tiger.
I have verified disk permissions and repaired, and everything is still running slow.
Plenty of space left on hard drive.
Please help.
-Eric
Apple iMac 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (24-inch)

See:
Mac Maintenance Quick Assist,
Mac OS X speed FAQ,
Speeding up Macs,
Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
Essential Mac Maintenance: Get set up,
Essential Mac Maintenance: Rev up your routines,
Maintaining OS X, and
Myths of required versus not required maintenance for Mac OS X for information.

Snow Leopard running very slow

I am running Snow Leopard and my MacBook is running much slower now then when I first installed Snow Leopard. It was very fast, now very slow. Apps are slow to respond or the don't respond at all. I have repaired permissions which helped very little and only temporary.
I have 4GB DDR2 ram. PDF files are now extremely slow to open in Preview and Safari is very laggy. I am using Firefox now as it runs fast. I tried Adobe Reader but that was just as bad and hogged CPU and memory. I completely uninstalled and removed Adobe from my MacBook.
I know a few others with Mac's with the same problem of a very slow Mac. Some have MacBook Pro's or Imac's 1 friend is using a Mac Pro and has noticed the how slow and laggy Snow Leopard has become.
I have scanned for viruses and found none.

See:
Mac Maintenance Quick Assist,
Mac OS X speed FAQ,
Speeding up Macs,
Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
Essential Mac Maintenance: Get set up,
Essential Mac Maintenance: Rev up your routines,
Maintaining OS X, and
Myths of required versus not required maintenance for Mac OS X.

Snow Leopard running very slow after Apple security update 10-05

I installed the security update that came out Tuesday 8/24. After restarting I noticed that both my browsers (Safari 5.1 and Firefox 3.8) were running so slow they would time out before loading a webpage. Also my VLC media player was very slow to start streaming audio.
I think there's something wrong with my iMac 2.8 Ghz (Model 8,1) related to the security update. This is the first problem I've had with the in months. I had to post this note using a PC.
Help!

After restarting the iMac, everything is running as fast as usual. It must have needed an extra shut down and start up.

Early 2006 Intel iMac, does not boot, randomly crashes

Hi everyone,
So, I bought a used 2006 Core Duo Intel White iMac off of a friend earlier last year. The iMac has been running like a champ, I installed Snow Leopard on top of Leopard and it hasn't given me any problems until much recently.
I installed Bootcamp, secondary to the desire to play a little Team Fortress 2 and during the Bootcamp installation it actually randomly crashed. Weird, it's never actually done that, but since that time it would crash and would not power up for anywhere from half an hour to half a day. At first, it would only crash during Windows Vista, but now I found it crashing during OSX with the same problems powering up.
During the crashes, the computer will not respond to mashing on the power button, and sometimes, I will hear the high-pitched whine of the boot and the light in the bottom right of the iMac would go on and then crash at the gray screen. At other times, it will boot right into OSX and then crash with the same problems.
*Things I have tried:* Resetting the PRAM, resetting the PMC, deleting Windows Vista and removing the Bootcamp partition, Disk Utility on the few times the machine booted with a clean bill of health.
Results: Resetting the PMC seems to help rebooting, but does not prevent other crashes. Neither the PRAM reset or removing Windows Vista has helped with the problem.
*Things I will do:* Send the machine to Genius Bar and suck it up
Impressions: I strongly believe it to be a power supply/motherboard issue. I ran RAM tests and the RAM itself seems to not return any errors. If these are in fact the repairs I need, then it's beyond what I can actually repair on the machine, so to the Apple Store it will go.
I am however looking for any input into other people's problems like mine or any other thing I can do to test/bench the system (when it doesn't crash). I dig the machine and I thought I got a good deal, I am looking for any other insight you may provide. Also, if anyone has a good place to buy parts to test/fix Intel iMacs I am handy inside a computer, tinkered with PCs throughout my life. Thank you in advance!
Message was edited by: StrangePowers

Strange,
It’s beginning to look as though we have similar iMac characteristics. Here’s a couple of other things I did that you might try. Each of these seemed to improve the stability of my Mac.
1. One of the differences between a normal boot and a safe boot has to do with what fonts are loaded. Since my system seemed to run fine in “Safe Mode” it was suggested to me to run Font Book and verify all fonts. I did that and it found numerous (90+) minor font problems and 1 major problem. I deleted all fonts that showed any problem at all. I didn’t expect fonts to be a significant source of problems, but after doing this step and #2 and #3 below, my Mac began to behave better
2. Over time a lot of junk builds up on your Mac – caches, languages that are loaded with applications but not needed, logs, etc., etc. There are a lot of programs that will do clean up of these files. I really don’t know which ones are best, but I came across one called “CleanMyMac” and decided to buy and download it. When I ran it, it found a ton of stuff during its Scan which I then Removed.
3. Reset the SMC
4. Here’s an interesting one. I came across many comments about the importance of cleaning out the air in/out ports on your computer. I have a small compressor that I used to blow through the ports on my Mac. A not-insignificant cloud of dust came out of my Mac when I did that. Any dust sitting on components will act as insulation, retard heat dissipation, and cause those components to run hotter. After doing this, I swear, iStat began showing temps 10 deg F cooler than before.
5. I downloaded SMCFanControl. After a little trial and error, I set the minimum speeds as follows: Optical Drive fan at 1000rpm, Hard Drive fan at 1400rpm, and CPU fan at 1400rpm. This brought temps down another 10 deg. F at least.
I haven’t had a crash or hang of my system since.
Here’s the main temperature readings I’m seeing now:
CPU A: 91 deg. F (33 deg. C)
Graphics Processor: 93 deg. F (34 deg. C)
Hard Drive: 96 deg. F (36 deg. C)
Memory Controller: 93 deg. F (34 deg C)

HT3964 My MacBook Air running on Snow Leopard gets extremely slow (almost like a hang, except if you wait about half an hr, it actually moves) after login interface. sometimes it never gets past the background. Cannot log back in.

My MacBook Air running on Snow Leopard gets extremely slow (almost like a hang, except if you wait about half an hr, it actually moves) after login interface. Sometimes it never gets past the background of the homepage, desktop doesn't seem to load. After multiple forced shut downs and left to run for hours, sometimes the desktop loads but the dock does not respond when applications are opened. The computer is then unable to shut down normally. Forced shut downs are necessary most times. Time machine backup takes extremely long, and attempts to use the time machine to bring the laptop back to the time befiore the problem arose was met with extremely slow and hung time machine function.
Please help!

There isn't much besides a failing hard drive or other hardware fault that can cause those symptoms. Run the Apple Hardware Test, or just take it to an Apple Store for testing.

My MacBook Pro is running SUPER slow. Any troubleshooting I could do at home before having to take it into an Apple dealer for a tune up?

My MacBook Pro is running SUPER slow. When I start up my computer it takes forever to load up, when I play World of Warcraft it is painfully slow with logging in etc. Everything about starting a program takes forever to load up and then once you are in the program everything is super slow. My husband's macbook pro is a 17 inch 2009 and works WAY better and faster then mine. Also, i don't know if this is a related problem, but the power drains VERY quickly. For example, If I have a MS OFFICE program on I could be at 100% hooked up to my power and then if I go off of my battery, the battery life will only last about 30 to 45 minutes MAX.
Here are the deets on my MacBook:
17-inch, Late 2011
Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics Intel HD Graphics 3000 384 MB
Software OS X 10.9.3
Suggestions? Thanks!

Have a look here...
macworld.com/mac-troubleshooting-what-to-do-when-your -computer-is-too-slow.
Basically...
1) Make sure you have enough Free Hard Drive space for your Mac to Perform as expected...
Rule of thumb is about 15 to 20 GB
2) And adding more RAM is always a prudent move... (4GB of RAM is a minimum for Mavericks... 8GB at least would be better.)
You can use these Links to check which RAM is suitable for your Mac...
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/
Go to http://www.crucial.com
It is Important to get the Correct and Matching RAM
Those sites also have videos on how to Install RAM should you need it...
Also see > OS X Mavericks: If your Mac runs slowly
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13895

Iphone running super slow all of a sudden and also during a call phone is freezing with a black screen and i am unable to disconnect

My iphone 3 has just started running super slow all of the time. Also about the same time while on a call my screen is freezing black and I am unable to hang up with the caller. It is driving me crazy!!!!

try hard reset ( hold the sleep and home button together for a few second the iphone will restart and then the an apple logo will appear)
if this didn't work try to restore you iphone and check if there are any updates available

In Aperture 3, how can I easily move entire projects out of my main Ap Library into other libraries? My Ap library is running super slow because it's overloaded l so I have created two new libraries, but can't seem to move the projects into them

In Aperture 3, how can I easily move entire projects out of my main Ap Library into other libraries? My Ap library is running super slow because it's overloaded, so I have created two new libraries, but can't seem to move the projects into them?

Hello Annabel,
To move entire projects export them as Aperture Libraries, and then import those Libraries into the other Aperture Library:
Select the Project in the Inspector, then
File -> Export -> Project as Library
In the other Library do:
File -> Import -> Library/ Project
But I am not quite convinced, that the size of your current Aperture Library is responsible for the slowness of Aperture - Aperture is designed to cope with huge libraries.
You may want to post your hardware setup and details of your library, and some of the hardware experts here may help you to find the reason for the slowness.
A huge library should only be a problem, if the projects are too big, and if you have many, many smart albums at the root level of your library.
So keep the projects small, and try to move some of your smart albums to lower levels in your folder structure (then Aperture does not need to scan all of your images to build the smart album).
Other reasons for Aperture's slowness may be, e.g.
An overfull system drive and/or external drive (keep at least 20% of your drives empty)
lack of RAM
a corrupted Aperture Library, that needs repairing
Have you checked those options, before you split your library? It would be a pity to split it, for you would loose the ability to browse all parts at the same time, to use all your images in the Media Browser, etc.
Regards
Léonie

HT1379 My computer I-mac is running super slow. If I zap the PRAM it goes back to running well , briefly... a few hours, then back to super slow. What is the resolution for this problem? I have a Time machine that does back up well.

My computer is running super slow. I can correct the problem briefly by zapping the PRAM but is resumes as a problem after a few hours. I have good time machine (capusle) backup daily. I have done a disk verify and there doesn't appear to be anything wrong there.
Help, this is wasting a lot of time to do simple functions.

Hard to say what's going wrong without more information. Try the troubleshooting steps in my Mac Performance Guide. Post back if you need help with any of that or questions about the results.

SSD and HDD Installed but it runs super slow? Please Help!

Hi, I have a late 2011 Macbook Pro 2.2 GHZ Intel Core i7
8gb of ram. My hard drive died in my mac and I decided to replace it with an SSD and installed an HDD in the optical bay following Ifixit instructions. I booted into internet recovery and installed Mountain Lion (as it would not let me do a straight Yosemite install from a flash drive I had made on my gf's macbook, because it couldn't authenticate). After booting up and declining the usual iCloud prompts, I rebooted and installed Yosemite from the USB. It took a while, but eventually i booted up.
I moved my home folder to the HDD a 7200rpm Western Digital Black, which is in the optical bay, (the SSD is a Samsung 340 Pro and is installed in the Drive bay). Everything appears to be functioning, but it's slower that it had ever been using Yosemite on the HDD that had died. It take 35-40 seconds just to open System Preferences. I have used First aid on both drives via the Recovery and repaired permissions on both. I have reset the ram using option-command-r-p. I have booted into Safe Mode and Restarted the computer multiple times. Just opening a second safari window causes the spinning wheel to go for ten seconds or so. If anyone knows anything I can do, please help! I'm at a loss as to what I can do to fix this.
I'm really not sure what is going on. It seems to take a very long time to load a website, but after using safari for a bit, the app doesn't seem to have a problem responding to commands, just takes way too long to load anything. System preferences is all of a sudden crazy snappy, but is giving me the spinning rainbow wheel when I try and click on a pane saying "Could not load Users & Groups preference pane." After I click "okay" and try again it loads right up. Grrr.

Etrecheck report if it helps:
Problem description:
Running super slow randomly with a newly installed SSD and HDD. Home Folder is on the HDD.
EtreCheck version: 2.0.7 (93)
Report generated October 29, 2014 at 4:58:33 PM EDT
Hardware Information: ℹ️
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2011) (Verified)
MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro8,2
1 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4-core
8 GB RAM Upgradeable
BANK 0/DIMM0
4 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok
BANK 1/DIMM0
4 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok
Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported
Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Video Information: ℹ️
Intel HD Graphics 3000 - VRAM: 512 MB
Color LCD 1680 x 1050
AMD Radeon HD 6750M - VRAM: 512 MB
System Software: ℹ️
OS X 10.10 (14A389) - Uptime: 3:3:27
Disk Information: ℹ️
Samsung SSD 840 PRO Series disk0 : (512.11 GB)
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB
QuickSilver (disk2) / [Startup]: 510.88 GB (236.99 GB free)
Core Storage: disk0s2 511.25 GB Online
WDC WD7500BPKX-22HPJT0 disk1 : (750.16 GB)
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
EFI (disk1s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Hulk (disk1s2) /Volumes/Hulk : 749.81 GB (685.87 GB free)
USB Information: ℹ️
Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️
Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
Gatekeeper: ℹ️
Mac App Store and identified developers
User Login Items: ℹ️
Alfred 2 Application (/Applications/Alfred 2.app)
Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️
None
Time Machine: ℹ️
Mobile backups: OFF
Auto backup: NO - Auto backup turned off
Volumes being backed up:
QuickSilver: Disk size: 510.88 GB Disk used: 273.89 GB
Destinations:
Herbert [Local]
Total size: 0 B
Total number of backups: 0
Oldest backup: -
Last backup: -
Size of backup disk: Too small
Backup size 0 B < (Disk used 273.89 GB X 3)
Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️
      48% WindowServer
      11% Safari
      3% hidd
      0% fontd
      0% AppleSpell
Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️
249 MB Safari
241 MB installd
163 MB Finder
155 MB mds_stores
155 MB DesktopServicesHelper
Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️
1.52 GB Free RAM
3.89 GB Active RAM
1.82 GB Inactive RAM
1.34 GB Wired RAM
3.25 GB Page-ins
143 KB Page-outs

When I turn on iCloud in iPhoto everything starts to run super slow.

This has been happening for a while but since I have a MacBook Pro that I don't have this problem on, as well as my iMac which i do have this problem on, I haven't worried about it but now i'm getting annoyed. When I open iphoto, without photostream on, everything is fine. As soon as I click on photostream or icloud everything in iphoto starts running super slow. If I click on a photo it takes about 10 seconds for it to highlight, scrolling is about 10 seconds behind as well. If i close iphoto with icloud on, it will not open back up. I get a error report. If I turn off icloud/photostream then everything is fine. I can scroll through my pictures with no problem at all. I have about 400 pictures on my mac. Anybody else have this problem? Anybody have a fix?
This has been happening for over 6 months, before Mavericks and before my current version of iphoto.
Here are my specs:
iphoto v 9.5.1
iMac 21.5, mid 2011
2.5 GHz Intel Core i5
16GB 1333 MHz DDR3
AMD Radeon HD 6750M 512 MB
OS X 10.9.2 (13C64)
I have 270 GB of free space.
Thanks in advance.

What generation is your iPod? My sister's 2g/3g(I'm not sure which) was doing something similar, but it would put a different graphic on the screen every time. We took it in to the apple store and they didn't determine what it was. One thing they said to try was to restore it and gradually add content on to see if it's an app or something loaded on it. If that doesn't work then they said it's probably something in the software or firmware. They gave her the option of getting one exactly like the one she had or getting the new one like I have. She ended up getting the new one on sale at target.

My IMac 2009 with snow Leopard is very slow. What can I do ? I'm french

My IMac 2009 with snow Leopard is very slow. What can I do ? I'm french

Patjan73 wrote:
My IMac 2009 with snow Leopard is very slow. What can I do ? I'm french
The first two things I recommend is boot from your installer dvd or external bootable drive and repair/verify your drives with Disk Utility (not repair permissions) and do a smc and pram reset.
Also make sure you have at least 20GB to 25GB free space on your boot volume for OS operations.

Will Snow Leopard run older PPC software, pre-universal binary stuff?

Hi there
I know this is probably the most stupid question in the world, and I know that Snow Leopard dropped support for PPC and is intel only.
Does this mean that I could no longer run my CS2, MS Office 2004 and Quark 6.5 (as none of these were universal binary apps, and are all written for PPC architecture)? Or is it just SL will only install on Intel macs?
Thanks in advance

PPC is supported, but there are some PPC applications that are too old for Snow Leopard. You should check all that you use for the latest info BEFORE updating. I think there are problems with CS2. It is not officially supported in Leopard, but may work there. CS3 is not officially supported, but does work.
Is there a 'best' way to upgrade? clean install and retrieve data from time machine backup? Complete rebuild? Install over the top of Leopard?
Any method should work if your applications are up to date, and your existing system has no problems. If your current system is old, though, it may have some forgotten applications or modifications that could cause upgrade problems.
The safest way (but more work) is to erase the drive, install Snow Leopard, update to 10.6.2, copy just user accounts and data from your Time Machine backup, and install the latest versions of applications.
If possible, make a bootable backup of your system drive before you start. That will protect you against any possible problems with the Time Machine backup.

Running SUPER SLOW

I have a brand new curve 9380 and I will have no APPS open but it still runs SUPER slow when I shut it off the screen and ill try to turn it on it wont turn on no matter how many times or how hard I press it and then a solid 5 minutes later it will turn and and the screen will just go on off like crazy because its running so slow it takes me 10 minutes just to change my BBM picture. Please help.

There may be no Apps open but there are apps that can run in the background. Please check the apps installed in your phone.
Goodluck
Ron
Click "Accept as Solution" if your problem is solved. To give thanks, click thumbs up Blackberry Battery Saving Tips | Follow me on Twitter

Snow Leopard runs super slow on early 2006 (Intel) iMac

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