Why my iMac is running slow? There are number of reasons of slow iMac. The reason is the asthmatic ant crawling on iMac with the loads of heavy applications. Lets see the various causes and solutions:
1) Reset SMC and PRAM
SMC manages various functions like start-up hard drive spin down cycles, power button response, thermal monitoring etc. So if SMC will got corrupt, then definitely your iMac become slow. So fixing it is an important task. For this, first shut down your computer and unplug the power cord. Then press and hold your power iMac button for 15 seconds and release it. At last, reconnect your iMac power cord, wait for 5 seconds and turn on your iMac. Now PRAM is meant for memory module. Functions of this are volume monitoring, display solution control, speaker volume control etc. Resetting the PRAM is the way to increase the speed of the iMac. To fix it, first shut down your computer and power your iMac back on. Then press the CMD + Option + P + R keys together until you see the grey startup screen. These 2 resets SMC and PRAM can fix your slow iMac.
2) Disable antivirus or firewall programs
The programs constantly check your iMac activities, resulting in slowing down the process. So if your iMac becomes slow then just disable these programs temporarily and see the results. This can fix your issue.
3) Corrupt Preferences file
Preferences files can easily become corrupt. It totally depends on the certain applications. If due to some applications your iMac is running slow, just delete that preference file and relaunch the app.
4) Software update loading
Updating the software is the most crucial task to maintain the performance of the iMac. Keeping the software up to date is a good practise. After updating the software, reboot the iMac.
5) Caches, Log files and Temporary files
Cleaning the caches, log files and temporary files will immensely affect the performance of the system. You can clear these files from Library folder.
6) Startup items
At the time of start-up, certain applications cause to start at the time of login. These login items cause the system to take little memory and CPU usage. To optimize the start-up items you need to remove some of the start-up options which is causing the iMac slow at the time of start-up. To remove, select the Apple menu -> System Preferences -> Users and group -> Login items.
7) Permission conflict
Each and every file in iMac OS X have a set of permissions. It determines the users or applications that can access them. Sometimes permissions are incorrect and we need to repair it using Disk utility. To repair permissions select Disk utility app from the Applications -> utilities folder and then click on First Aid tab. Then at last click on Repair Disk Permission button.
8) Clean the hard drive
Always make sure that you should leave at least 10% free space on your hard drive because your iMac automatically utilizes free space on your hard drive as virtual memory. Delete all the unwanted files, apps, downloaded items and finally remove it from the Trash folder also. This will optimize the space and performance of the hard drive. If you are unable to delete all the junk files from your iMac and they are causing your iMac extremely slow, then use SpeedUp iMac software which will automatically cleans all the junk from your iMac.
9) Upgrade your hardware
Old hardware causes the speed of the iMac drastically to a low level. Actually this task is quite costly but you will surely notice an improvement in speed.
Therefore, these are some of the useful steps which can pull you out from the slow iMac problem.
1) Reset SMC and PRAM
SMC manages various functions like start-up hard drive spin down cycles, power button response, thermal monitoring etc. So if SMC will got corrupt, then definitely your iMac become slow. So fixing it is an important task. For this, first shut down your computer and unplug the power cord. Then press and hold your power iMac button for 15 seconds and release it. At last, reconnect your iMac power cord, wait for 5 seconds and turn on your iMac. Now PRAM is meant for memory module. Functions of this are volume monitoring, display solution control, speaker volume control etc. Resetting the PRAM is the way to increase the speed of the iMac. To fix it, first shut down your computer and power your iMac back on. Then press the CMD + Option + P + R keys together until you see the grey startup screen. These 2 resets SMC and PRAM can fix your slow iMac.
2) Disable antivirus or firewall programs
The programs constantly check your iMac activities, resulting in slowing down the process. So if your iMac becomes slow then just disable these programs temporarily and see the results. This can fix your issue.
3) Corrupt Preferences file
Preferences files can easily become corrupt. It totally depends on the certain applications. If due to some applications your iMac is running slow, just delete that preference file and relaunch the app.
4) Software update loading
Updating the software is the most crucial task to maintain the performance of the iMac. Keeping the software up to date is a good practise. After updating the software, reboot the iMac.
5) Caches, Log files and Temporary files
Cleaning the caches, log files and temporary files will immensely affect the performance of the system. You can clear these files from Library folder.
6) Startup items
At the time of start-up, certain applications cause to start at the time of login. These login items cause the system to take little memory and CPU usage. To optimize the start-up items you need to remove some of the start-up options which is causing the iMac slow at the time of start-up. To remove, select the Apple menu -> System Preferences -> Users and group -> Login items.
7) Permission conflict
Each and every file in iMac OS X have a set of permissions. It determines the users or applications that can access them. Sometimes permissions are incorrect and we need to repair it using Disk utility. To repair permissions select Disk utility app from the Applications -> utilities folder and then click on First Aid tab. Then at last click on Repair Disk Permission button.
8) Clean the hard drive
Always make sure that you should leave at least 10% free space on your hard drive because your iMac automatically utilizes free space on your hard drive as virtual memory. Delete all the unwanted files, apps, downloaded items and finally remove it from the Trash folder also. This will optimize the space and performance of the hard drive. If you are unable to delete all the junk files from your iMac and they are causing your iMac extremely slow, then use SpeedUp iMac software which will automatically cleans all the junk from your iMac.
9) Upgrade your hardware
Old hardware causes the speed of the iMac drastically to a low level. Actually this task is quite costly but you will surely notice an improvement in speed.
Therefore, these are some of the useful steps which can pull you out from the slow iMac problem.