Beachballing & lag on iMac since purchased in 2019 (EntreCheck included)

[khamilton]

I bought this iMac in 2019, and it has always been slower than my base model Macbook Air from 2013. I have 1 TB of storage and Apple Support basically just told me to run it in safe mode, which barely increased the speed at all. HELP!

EntreCheck Report:
Performance: Below Average

Problem: Computer is too slow

Major Issues:

Hard drive too slow - The hard drive in this computer is too slow.


Hardware Information:

iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2019)
iMac Model: iMac19,2
3.6 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i3 (i3-8100) CPU: 4-core
8 GB RAM - Upgradeable by an Apple Authorized Service Provider
BANK 0/ChannelA-DIMM0 - 4 GB DDR4 2400
BANK 2/ChannelB-DIMM0 - 4 GB DDR4 2400

Video Information:

Radeon Pro 555X - VRAM: 2 GB
iMac (built-in) 4096 x 2304

Drives:

disk0 - APPLE HDD HTS541010A9E632 1.00 TB (Mechanical - 5400 RPM)
Internal SATA 3 Gigabit Serial ATA
disk0s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB
disk0s2 [APFS Container] 1000.00 GB
disk1 [APFS Virtual drive] 1000.00 GB (Shared by 6 volumes)
disk1s1 - Macintosh HD - Data (APFS) [APFS Virtual drive] (Shared - 96.52 GB used)
disk1s2 - Preboot (APFS) [APFS Preboot] (Shared - 356 MB used)
disk1s3 - Recovery (APFS) [Recovery] (Shared - 623 MB used)
disk1s4 - VM (APFS) [APFS VM] (Shared - 5.37 GB used)
disk1s5 (APFS) [APFS Container] (Shared - 15.31 GB used)
disk1s5s1 - Macintosh HD (APFS) [APFS Snapshot] (Shared - 15.31 GB used)
disk1s6 - Update (APFS) (Shared - 991 KB used)

Mounted Volumes:

disk1s1 - Macintosh HD - Data [APFS Virtual drive]
1000.00 GB (Shared - 96.52 GB used, 882.08 GB available, 881.61 GB free)
APFS
Mount point: /System/Volumes/Data

disk1s2 - Preboot [APFS Preboot]
1000.00 GB (Shared - 356 MB used, 881.61 GB free)
APFS
Mount point: /System/Volumes/Preboot

disk1s4 - VM [APFS VM]
1000.00 GB (Shared - 5.37 GB used, 881.61 GB free)
APFS
Mount point: /System/Volumes/VM

disk1s5s1 - Macintosh HD [APFS Snapshot]
1000.00 GB (Shared - 15.31 GB used, 882.08 GB available, 881.61 GB free)
APFS
Mount point: /
Read-only: Yes

disk1s6 - Update
1000.00 GB (Shared - 991 KB used, 881.61 GB free)
APFS
Mount point: /System/Volumes/Update

Network:

Interface en0: Ethernet
Interface en1: Wi-Fi
802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Interface en4: Bluetooth PAN
Interface bridge0: Thunderbolt Bridge
iCloud Quota: 51 MB available

System Software:

macOS Big Sur 11.4 (20F71)
Time since boot: About a day


Security:

Gatekeeper: App Store and identified developers


System Integrity Protection: Enabled


Antivirus software: Apple



System Launch Agents:

[Not Loaded] 16 Apple tasks


[Loaded] 169 Apple tasks


[Running] 149 Apple tasks


System Launch Daemons:

[Not Loaded] 38 Apple tasks


[Loaded] 168 Apple tasks


[Running] 154 Apple tasks


[Other] 2 Apple tasks


Launch Agents:

[Loaded] com.microsoft.OneDriveStandaloneUpdater.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2021-03-20)


[Running] com.microsoft.update.agent.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2021-06-21)


Launch Daemons:

[Running] com.microsoft.OneDriveStandaloneUpdaterDaemon.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2021-03-20)


[Loaded] com.microsoft.OneDriveUpdaterDaemon.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2021-03-20)


[Loaded] com.microsoft.autoupdate.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2021-06-21)


[Loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2019-10-14)


[Running] com.panopto.panoptod.plist (Panopto, Inc. - installed 2021-04-29)


[Running] com.panopto.uploaddaemon.plist (? 764bc478 - installed 2021-04-29)


[Loaded] com.rogueamoeba.aceagent.plist (Rogue Amoeba Software, LLC - installed 2020-03-27)


User Launch Agents:

[Loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2021-03-04)


[Loaded] com.google.keystone.xpcservice.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2021-03-04)


User Login Items:

[Not Loaded] Jolt of Caffeine Helper (App Store - installed 2020-01-30)
Modern Login Item
/Applications/Jolt of Caffeine.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/Jolt of Caffeine Helper.app

[Not Loaded] Launcher Disabler (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2021-03-20)
Modern Login Item
/Applications/OneDrive.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/Launcher Disabler.app

[Not Loaded] OneDrive Launcher (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2021-03-20)
Modern Login Item
/Applications/OneDrive.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/OneDrive Launcher.app

[Loaded] StartUpHelper (Spotify - installed 2021-05-01)
Modern Login Item
/Applications/Spotify.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/StartUpHelper.app

Internet Plug-ins:

Silverlight: 5.1.50901.0 (? - installed 2020-01-03)

User Internet Plug-ins:

RingCentralMeetings: ZoomBundleVersionNumber (? - installed 2020-04-01)

Audio Plug-ins:

ACE: 11.1.4 (Rogue Amoeba Software, LLC - installed 2020-11-06)
InstantOn: 11.1.4 (? - installed 2020-11-06)

Backup:

Time Machine Not Configured!

Performance:

System Load: 0.91 (1 min ago) 1.43 (5 min ago) 1.47 (15 min ago)
Nominal I/O speed: 2.02 MB/s
File system: 53.93 seconds
Write speed: 42 MB/s
Read speed: 44 MB/s

CPU Usage Snapshot:

Type Overall


System: 4 %


User: 9 %


Idle: 87 %


Top Processes Snapshot by CPU:

Process (count) CPU (Source - Location)


AddressBookManager (2) 21.10 % (Apple)


EtreCheckPro 14.12 % (Etresoft, Inc.)


mdworker_shared (8) 11.02 % (Apple)


WindowServer 9.42 % (Apple)


iconservicesagent (2) 6.30 % (Apple)


Top Processes Snapshot by Memory:

Process (count) RAM usage (Source - Location)


Google Chrome Helper (Renderer) (6) 579 MB (Google, Inc.)


Spotify Helper (Renderer) 311 MB (Spotify)


EtreCheckPro 231 MB (Etresoft, Inc.)


Google Chrome 227 MB (Google, Inc.)


Microsoft Outlook 138 MB (Microsoft Corporation)


Top Processes Snapshot by Network Use:

Process Input / Output (Source - Location)


mDNSResponder 969 KB / 432 KB (Apple)


Spotify 288 KB / 11 KB (Spotify)


netbiosd 33 KB / 51 KB (Apple)


apsd 28 KB / 26 KB (Apple)


AddressBookSourceSync 26 KB / 11 KB (Apple)


Top Processes Snapshot by Energy Use:

Process (count) Energy (0-100) (Source - Location)


mdbulkimport (2) 6 (Apple)


WindowServer 5 (Apple)


Finder 2 (Apple)


SubmitDiagInfo 1 (Apple)


Spotify 1 (Spotify)


Virtual Memory Information:

Physical RAM: 8 GB


Free RAM: 32 MB


Used RAM: 5.19 GB


Cached files: 2.78 GB


Available RAM: 2.81 GB


Swap Used: 28 MB


Software Installs (past 60 days):

Install Date Name (Version)


2021-04-29 Panopto Recorder (10.1.0.38351)


2021-06-02 Pages (11.1)


2021-06-02 Keynote (11.1)


2021-06-02 Numbers (11.1)


2021-06-21 XProtectPlistConfigData (2148)


2021-06-21 Microsoft AutoUpdate (4.36.21061301)


2021-06-21 Microsoft Excel (16.50.21061301)


2021-06-21 Microsoft OneNote (16.50.21061301)


2021-06-21 Microsoft PowerPoint (16.50.21061301)


2021-06-21 Screen Mirror to TV & Device (2.2.6)


2021-06-21 iMovie (10.2.4)


2021-06-22 macOS 11.4 (11.4)


2021-06-22 MRTConfigData (1.79)


Diagnostics Information (past 7-30 days):

2021-06-22 03:44:21 signpost_reporter - High CPU Use
Executable: /usr/libexec/signpost_reporter


End of report

 

[MacInWin]

The report says it all:

Hard drive too slow - The hard drive in this computer is too slow.

You have a slow rotating drive, 5400 rpm, that is formatted with a file structure for SSD (APFS) and which is significantly slower on rotating drives. Basically, you have a real bottleneck in that internal drive.

 

[pigoo3]

I bought this iMac in 2019, and it has always been slower than my base model Macbook Air from 2013.

Hello khamilton...welcome to Mac-Forums.

From what I'm reading...sounds like the "slowness" you're dissatisfied with is the transfer rate of information of the internal storage of your 2019 iMac.

As I'm sure you know...your 2019 iMac has a 5400 rpm internal "spinner" hard drive...and your 2013 MacBook Air has a "blade SSD". Even though your MacBook Air is 6 years older than your iMac...the blade SSD in the MacBook Air is way way way faster than the 5400rpm "spinner" hard drive in your 2019 iMac.

Faster internal storage (such as a blade SSD)...makes operations like:

* opening apps
* opening documents
* saving documents
* copying large amounts of information & files

...much much faster than a "spinner HD".

Thus I'm thinking it's the slowness (slow data transfer) of the internal 5400rpm spinner HD that's the issue.

But to be 100% certain there's not a hardware issue going on...please download & run the benchmark app called "Geekbench". Run the tests so we can compare your iMac's test numbers vs. what they should be for a 2019 21" i3 3.6Ghz iMac:

Geekbench 6 - Cross-Platform Benchmark

www.geekbench.com

HTH,

Nick

p.s. Jake beat me by a minute! Lol

 

[MacInWin]

Nick, you typed more. I kept it short and blunt.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

The others are right, your HD is the bottleneck.

My 2018 Mac Mini has the SSD and its performance is:

Performance:
System Load: 4.74 (1 min ago) 4.39 (5 min ago) 4.08 (15 min ago)
Nominal I/O speed: 19.69 MB/s
File system: 30.98 seconds
Write speed: 1439 MB/s
Read speed: 2840 MB/s

So compared to your ~40 MB/s read/write, this is huge.

 

[khamilton]

The report says it all:


You have a slow rotating drive, 5400 rpm, that is formatted with a file structure for SSD (APFS) and which is significantly slower on rotating drives. Basically, you have a real bottleneck in that internal drive.

Any suggestions on how to fix it short of buying and installing an SSD? I’m more miffed that the computer has barely been used and it’s a giant paperweight compared to my Air that could crap out anytime. Or is it worth taking to Apple to have them look at it?

 

[pigoo3]

Any suggestions on how to fix it short of buying and installing an SSD? I’m more miffed that the computer has barely been used and it’s a giant paperweight compared to my Air that could crap out anytime. Or is it worth taking to Apple to have them look at it?

Please re-read what Raz0rEdge posted.

His 2018 Mac-Mini with an SSD gets read/write numbers of (Write speed: 1439 MB/s, Read speed: 2840 MB/s). Your 2019 iMac gets: (Write speed: 42 MB/s, Read speed: 44 MB/s).

Internal SSD is MUCH faster!

Keep in mind. You purchased the absolute bottom end 2019 iMac. Many times Apple offers a low-end configuration with each new iMac model launch...so that a fairly low price iMac offering is available for folks to purchase with a smaller budget. Sometimes this means less CPU power, less Graphics power, less RAM, less internal storage, and slower internal storage.

At this point your options could be:

* Stay with what you have.
* Upgrade your iMac to an internal SSD (this can be expensive...relatively speaking).
* Purchase an external SSD...and run your iMac via the external SSD. We've had a Mac-Forums member do this recently...and they said this worked great for them.

HTH,

Nick

p.s. There is one other thing we should verify. How full (or how much free space)...does your iMac's hard drive have? If it's really full...this could also have an impact on performance.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Looks like you have the bulk of your drive space available.

1000.00 GB (Shared - 991 KB used, 881.61 GB free)

The i3 is an OK machine and 8GB of memory is fine. But the beachballing will depend entirely on what you are doing. If you are just browsing the web, you likely will not see much issue. However, if you are working with an app that constantly wants to read/write data, then the slower HD and 8GB of memory will affect the performance.

Just to note, if you swap to an internal SSD over the SATA2 interface replacing the current HDD, you're looking at best around 500 MB/s read/write speeds, which is definitely faster than your current HDD, but it will not compare with the built-in SSDs that over off the PCIe bus.

Even the first generation built-in SSDs were around 800 MB/s and the latest generation are beyond 2.5 GB/s.

The Etrecheck report is fine, but tell us precisely what actions you take which yield the beachball and we can take it from there.

As to what Nick pointed out, this causes a lot of confusion for people due to the premium price of Macs, the assumption is that you are paying more than a Windows computer and as such suddenly you an throw everything and the kitchen sink at it and it will just shrug and take it. That isn't the case, you still have to match the computer to your use.

We are a family of Macs here with me using a 2019 MBP and 2018 Mac Mini, my wife has a 2019 MBP and my daughter as a 2019 MBA.

My Mac Mini is a 6-core, 32GB and 500 GB storage machine with an external 1TB SSD. I use this machine as my primary development machine so my Etrecheck report says I'm using a ton of CPU and memory, which is what I expect with my work, but the machine is performant through it all.

My wife's MBP is largely used for documents and video calls, so no big issues there.

My daughter's MBA has similar use and it serves her well.

My workflow on my daughter's MBA would be sheer torture.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I bought this iMac in 2019, and it has always been slower than my base model Macbook Air from 2013. I have 1 TB of storage and Apple Support basically just told me to run it in safe mode, which barely increased the speed at all. HELP!

The question in my mind is if your iMac is just slower than your MBA, or if it is noticeably slow in general. The former is easily understandable just because your MBA has an SSD and your iMac has a 5400rpm RDHD. However, if your iMac is slow in general, exhibiting a lot of rotating beach balls, lag in typing showing up, etc., there may be something else going on. Even the bottom-of-the-line iMac from 2019 shouldn't perform like a dog.

Check out these Web sites and see if any of the suggestions help, or if any of the diagnostic tests shed some light:

Macintosh Slowdown Solutions

Macintosh OS X Beachballs!

 

[techiesteve]

Any suggestions on how to fix it short of buying and installing an SSD? I’m more miffed that the computer has barely been used and it’s a giant paperweight compared to my Air that could crap out anytime. Or is it worth taking to Apple to have them look at it?

My approach to 21.5" iMac's running slow, a very common problem, is to swop out the HD for an SSD. You will then wonder why you didn't do this earlier, makes a huge difference to performance.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

My approach to 21.5" iMac's running slow, a very common problem, is to swop out the HD for an SSD. You will then wonder why you didn't do this earlier, makes a huge difference to performance.

Replacing a computer's RDHD with an SSD will always result in significantly better performance.

However, it's like buying a new Ferrari and finding that it's a slow pig. You can spend money and put a turbo charger on it, and that will always make it faster. But you rightly should be wondering why your new Ferrari wasn't fast to begin with, and why you should be throwing money at it to make it fast. You might even be rightly concerned that your Ferrari being slow means that it is going to break down at some point (soon).

So...before you take the advice of folks who are more than happy to have you spend money that isn't theirs, you may want to have a look at the Web sites that I recommended, and see if you can diagnose what might be wrong with your fairly new iMac. For instance, it's not unheard of for a new personal computer to come with a bad (and possibly failing) hard drive that might still be under warranty. Or you might have software installed that you might think is essential (such as anti-virus software), which is dragging your Mac down.

It only takes some time, and no money, to check things out.

(As a side note, I have one iMac in my office that is 14 years old that I keep to run legacy software that I can't replace. It's not slow at all. If it's not slow, then your 12 year newer iMac shouldn't be a dog.)

 

[ferrarr]

However, it's like buying a new Ferrari and finding that it's a slow pig. You can spend money and put a turbo charger on it, and that will always make it faster. But you rightly should be wondering why your new Ferrari wasn't fast to begin with, and why you should be throwing money at it to make it fast. You might even be rightly concerned that your Ferrari being slow means that it is going to break down at some point (soon).

I don't see it this way. The iMac is not properly configured. This model is the economy version, not the top of the line. Sacrifice speed for price.

@khamilton, can you post a screenshot from Disk Utility (DU)? You seem to have more disks than normal. The EtreCheck report shows 6 partitions/drives, not 4 like usual in the one container. When you are in DU please use the File menu option to Show all devices. This will list all partitions, drives on your iMac.

 

[pigoo3]

Even the bottom-of-the-line iMac from 2019 shouldn't perform like a dog.

I tend to agree with this...a 2019 iMac shouldn't be a dog (even the low end model). This is why in an earlier post I was trying to separate out CPU based performance vs. storage-based performance.

OP might be dissatisfied with storage based performance (opening of apps, opening of files, saving of files, etc)...versus the actual CPU performance of the iMac. This is why I asked the OP to download & install Geekbench...and run Geekbench so we can see if the CPU results are close to what they should be.

* If the CPU results are as they should be...then OP must be dissatisfied with the internal storage performance (5400rpm spinner HD).
* If the CPU results are not as they should be...then maybe the iMac has a hardware/logic board issue.

- Nick

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I tend to agree with this...a 2019 iMac shouldn't be a dog (even the low end model). This is why in an earlier post I was trying to separate out CPU based performance vs. storage-based performance.

It's also why I asked the original poster if he is simply complaining that his 2019 iMac is just slow compared to his 2013 MBA (who's specs we don't know, but we know that it has an SSD), or if his 2019 iMac is objectively slow, exhibiting a lot of rotating beachballs and/or a delay in typing being rendered on the screen, etc..

We still haven't received an answer to this question.

But, once again, it's easy to follow the advice on the Web sites that I cited and to run some tests to see what the health is of his hard drive, RAM, etc., for free. No need to go throwing money at the problem until the free, easy things are tried.