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iMac running slowly

My iMac (bought in 2017) is running very slowly. Start up takes forever, beachballing, etc. Attached is my etrecheck report, is it time for a new computer? Thanks for any advice.


iMac 21.5″, macOS 11.7

Posted on Aug 24, 2023 10:31 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 24, 2023 11:02 AM

Welcome!


Well, this is a problem:


Performance:
System Load: 1.73 (1 min ago) 1.53 (5 min ago) 1.26 (15 min ago)
Nominal I/O usage: 31.89 MB/s
File system: 29.15 seconds
Write speed: 321 MB/s
Read speed: 845 MB/s


You Apple Fusion drive should be running at minmum twice the speeds it is posting. In that model iMac, a healthy Fusion Drive should be posting Writes of 500-800 MB/sec and Reads at up to 1400MB/sec.


That is not a death notice. There are suspects present that can cause slow drive response.:


1) Use its uninstall tool to completely remove Symantec/Norton. Evidence of its excesses are right there in the diagnostic information:


Diagnostics Information (past 7-30 days):

2023-08-24 08:48:18 SymDaemon High CPU Use (2 times)
Executable: /Library/Application Support/Symantec/*/SymDaemon

2023-08-20 11:08:33 signpost_reporter High CPU Use
Executable: /usr/libexec/signpost_reporter

2023-08-17 14:12:46 com.symantec.mes.systemextension High CPU Use
Executable: /Library/SystemExtensions/*/com.symantec.mes.systemextension


2) Remove the WD and Seagate drive software.


Then we can see if the drive scores improve.


is it time for a new computer?


Too early to say with the Norton bull in a china shop in the way of proper performance evaluation, but this would be a good time to let your Mac be a Mac. Apple builds lots of very effective self-maintenance and defense routines into the OS; third-party stuff sold through fear marketing gets in the way of what you paid Apple to create for macOS.


You have plenty of RAM and, if you can get the disk scores up by dumping what is not needed, I'd say you still have very useful Mac. My 2017 is still going strong.


Dump the dead weight, restart the computer, and run another report. Then we can have a clear view of whether your Fusion drive is up to a few more years of unencumbered service.

4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 24, 2023 11:02 AM in response to jkst27

Welcome!


Well, this is a problem:


Performance:
System Load: 1.73 (1 min ago) 1.53 (5 min ago) 1.26 (15 min ago)
Nominal I/O usage: 31.89 MB/s
File system: 29.15 seconds
Write speed: 321 MB/s
Read speed: 845 MB/s


You Apple Fusion drive should be running at minmum twice the speeds it is posting. In that model iMac, a healthy Fusion Drive should be posting Writes of 500-800 MB/sec and Reads at up to 1400MB/sec.


That is not a death notice. There are suspects present that can cause slow drive response.:


1) Use its uninstall tool to completely remove Symantec/Norton. Evidence of its excesses are right there in the diagnostic information:


Diagnostics Information (past 7-30 days):

2023-08-24 08:48:18 SymDaemon High CPU Use (2 times)
Executable: /Library/Application Support/Symantec/*/SymDaemon

2023-08-20 11:08:33 signpost_reporter High CPU Use
Executable: /usr/libexec/signpost_reporter

2023-08-17 14:12:46 com.symantec.mes.systemextension High CPU Use
Executable: /Library/SystemExtensions/*/com.symantec.mes.systemextension


2) Remove the WD and Seagate drive software.


Then we can see if the drive scores improve.


is it time for a new computer?


Too early to say with the Norton bull in a china shop in the way of proper performance evaluation, but this would be a good time to let your Mac be a Mac. Apple builds lots of very effective self-maintenance and defense routines into the OS; third-party stuff sold through fear marketing gets in the way of what you paid Apple to create for macOS.


You have plenty of RAM and, if you can get the disk scores up by dumping what is not needed, I'd say you still have very useful Mac. My 2017 is still going strong.


Dump the dead weight, restart the computer, and run another report. Then we can have a clear view of whether your Fusion drive is up to a few more years of unencumbered service.

Aug 27, 2023 3:28 PM in response to Allan Jones

Thank you for your helpful replies.


Here's what I did:

--got tangled up in uninstalling Norton, so some files are still in there.

--tried to get rid of the drives, but again, some are still in there.

--reloaded Chrome.


It runs quite a bit faster already, but the fusion drive isn't any faster, according to the report. It starts up in about 8 minutes, a significant improvement.


Any additional thoughts at this point? I'm a longtime Apple user, but as you can tell, not much of a techie. Thanks again for any help.


iMac running slowly

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