Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Mac/iMac Experts - Help Please

I'm hoping we have someone who is at least a pseudo-expert on iMacs and iOS. I have an iMac that is about seven or eight years old. In the past year I have increasingly been getting the colored circle of death. I've done research off and on with respect to the issue and made some changes as suggested with only temporary relief. As you know, this means my computer is aggravatingly slow and lagging. Does someone have some suggestions to try to remedy this? Thank you in advance.

Mine will do that somewhat when I need to update the operating system. That seems to pick it up quite a bit after I do.

Have you done a disc clean and a disc defrag ?? It's what I do with my IBM/Android systems.

kwg

What does the BIOS clock read? Usually if problems occur over time and get progressively worse I start looking at the BIOS. If it’s not keeping accurate time and date compared to what the OS sees it creates all kinds of havoc as in drivers not loading, programs running slow and the blue screen of death. Malware may also be there but not as likely with a Mac. Basically I think you have a hardware issue rather than software.

Connect the dotz!



Sorry, couldn't resist.

Not possible ."Buy a Mac" they say and your problems are over.

Sorry about that, I couldn't resist. Nor can I hep, unfortunately. Have never used one.

At that age with the system and app modernizations it's likely that you're getting low on RAM and the OS is simply spending time waiting for memory to free up and run the app or process you want. Some potential solutions;

1) Buy more memory - click on the apple in the upper left, click "about this Mac" click "more info" and click "system report" under hardware on the menu on the left under memory and it will tell you how much you have (mine has 8 Gb in two slots) - I'm sure you have an empty slot (or more) - If it's less than 6Gb time to order it and install (which is a very easy process)

2) Look at the system activity monitor - click the on the %CPU column to put the highest use app at the top. Is there some service that is consuming that memory?

3) Look at the number of apps you have open - my old iMac in the shop, that is maybe 15 years old, won't run more than a couple at a time anymore. Click the apple icon and select "force quite" for any apps that are hung or non-responsive.

Oh for cripes sake Rocky. Linux is just the bastard stepchild wannabe Mac.

A couple of things to try.

Reboot… that is turn the computer off so that it reboots. Wait 15 to 30 seconds before restarting.

Check to see what is operating or running on your computer and force quit programs that you are not using. That helps free up usable memory.

Look at your computer to see what you have stored on it to use up the storage memory and you should have an external hard drive and move items to it.

Make sure to remove programs and apps that you never use. It you ever need them you can re load then from the App Store.

As mentioned, check on Wednesday for any up dates. Apple seems to put out new updates on Tuesday's.

One tip is to always turn your computer off weekly to clear up random files and your trash folder. You will get the message and you have to click on the shut down computer button. Otherwise it is not shutting down.

Very well played my friend. Thanks for all of the input so far. Many I have tried, some I have not.

I will try those I have not so far. Additional means and methods are appreciated.

I had similar issues with a 2012 MacBook Pro.
After backing the computer up to an external hard drive, I erased the entire operating system and downloaded the newest one my laptop could handle. It was like a new computer. Plenty of online help.

To anybody who may be following this thread with interest, I did reset the PRAM and that appears to have resolved most of my problem. I will continue to improve it based on whatever suggestions I continue to receive.

LOL, his Mac is running 5-6 years longer than any Windows machine I've ever had.

To the OP. This happens to me when the computer's memory gets too full. Like someone else said, transfer a lot of your data to another drive and update your operating system.

It's funny. I don't do anything Apple other than my desktop and a laptop. I've got more Windows machines than I do Macs; however, like Mountain10mm says, my iMac and my Macbook have far outlasted my Windows machines. However, I have always owned both and will continue to do so.

Moutain10mm, can you expand on your recommendation a little bit? I'm no expert; but, I don't see how data storage can affect memory. Thanks in advance. And yes I always update my operating system when available.

TAG

TBS,

Are any of your programs/apps auto-updating? I have the Adobe Suite and Microsoft suite and between the two (and Acrobat) swear those things are updating non-stop.
If I have too many apps open and get the spinning pizza of death, it's nearly always the culprit (along with having 18 apps open).

Also, if you're doing a lot of photo editing and cutting/pasting, there can be a lot of content on the clipboard. Clearing it will free up memory as its content is housed in your Mac’s RAM.
There's a couple of ways of clearing it but simply restarting is the easiest.

It’s an area of the hard drive that is used as RAM, if the drive gets too full then the OS has to cut down the size which slows the puter down. Right now on Win10 I have ~30 gig of virtual RAM available. Also a 50 buck 1T or 2T USB drive is a must, offload a lot of stuff and keep a 100% backup.

Agreed.

You can download CC Cleaner for Mac. It will clean up junk on the hard drive and point out stuff you don’t use.

https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner-mac

As I've said before, if you like Win/Mac then please stick with it.

But when you finally get fed up with all the frustrations, permutations, and altercations they give you there is an alternative.