Memory Upgrade and Performance of 2013 iMac

As den.thed says, Apple will service but not increase the RAM in any 21.5-inch iMac. Per their stated policy,

Install memory in an iMac - Apple Support

please find the "fine print" near the top:

Not every Apple Authorized Service Provider will do this tedious work. A local shop that does said to figure ~US$150 labor on top of the cost of RAM and the kit that reseals the case.

As others have suggested, the stalls and slow booting are more symptomatic of a slow hard drive (common) or a failing hard drive (less common) than insuffient RAM. To keep us from further guessing, please post a snapshot of your system config. That will give hard numbers on RAM and drive performance in addition to identifying any software interferences. The method most of the senior ASC contributors recommend is safe and will not give away any personal information stored on your computer. Please downlaod EtreCheck, available free from the Mac App Store here:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/etrecheck/id1423715984?mt=12

When its report displays, use the program's "Share" icon to copy the report, then use the "Additional Text" tool in the forum's toolbar:

to place the report in a format we can review. That way we have real data about what your computer is or isn't doing.

iMac 21.5” upgrades are a hassle. Apple or an Apple authorized service provider can disassemble and upgrade this (to a maximum of 16 GB, using two 204-pin PC3-12800 (1600 MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMMs. You’ll also want to replace any HDD or Fusion drive with a bigger SSD while you’re in there.

As for your symptoms, a failing hard disk would fit those symptoms, though there can be other causes including overheating and other hardware failures, as well as add-on apps including add-on anti-malware, add-on anti-virus, add-on cleaners, add-on VPN clients, and related.

Your wife's computer will not be covered by any type of program at this point. If you want to upgrade it, IMHO it's not worth spending any money on it. I'd consider replacing it with a new 21.5", something with a minimum of 16GB of RAM (more is recommended) and if you decide to go that route, get one with the largest SSD you can afford.

Not sure where you are geographically located, but most Apple Stores will not do hardware upgrades and so you will need to find an Apple Authorized Service Provider, that can and is willing to do those upgrades.

I have seen videos on U-tube showing how to upgrade the memory, but it looks very involved and you have to dig pretty deep into the computer. The most daunting task appears to be removing the screen from the chassis.

Question: Do you hear a click or tick sound randomly during the operation of your mac? I am having this issue and cannot find any answers for it.

Sageman19 wrote:

I have seen videos on U-tube showing how to upgrade the memory, but it looks very involved and you have to dig pretty deep into the computer. The most daunting task appears to be removing the screen from the chassis.

That would be “a hassle”, yes.

Question: Do you hear a click or tick sound randomly during the operation of your mac? I am having this issue and cannot find any answers for it.

This seems a different question.

Please start your own question and your own thread for this.

Mixed threads tend to get very confusing, and you won’t be able to close out this thread.

Also see if the ricking noise is particular to the applications that are running.

Please include EtreCheck data in that new posting, too.

I recently also had a late 2013, 21.5 inch iMac (2.7 GHz Intel Core i5) like you have. (I traded it in.) I checked the Apple site's information on doing the upgrades and it clearly indicated this was not worth attempting. I do not recommend it. The way I was able to keep my iMac running well was to not install any junk software and to regularly clean my browser history, which can eventually fill up the available RAM. Maybe this will help.