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Slow boot up on iMac 5K 2015

Hi all,

my iMac has taken to booting up really slowly. From startup (power on push the button), I wait about 2-3 mins before the apple logo appears and then another 30 secs before the progress bar appears. Then it loads ok from there.

I've done smc and pram reset

I've noticed an overall sluggish performance as well.... any tips?

Granger

Posted on Aug 18, 2019 5:30 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 20, 2019 8:08 PM

granger morton wrote:

Maybe it's time to bite the bullet and do High Sierra or Mohave.

Yes, but mostly for security reasons.

Do you think I'd have better performance?

The only time I ever noticed any temporary slowness from a macOS update, was for a very short time way back when iPhoto converted over to Photos.

I tend to think the newer OS's would make older machines slower (more bloated features etc), but also therefore 'encourage' us consumers to shell out on new machines ( I tend to be a little cynical).

I have Mojave running on a couple of 2012 Mac's and they run without any slowness or problems whatsoever. Again, most of the bloat (new features) can easily be disabled, turned off and/or otherwise left unused.

Thanks so much for your input.

No problem, you're welcome!

9 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 20, 2019 8:08 PM in response to granger morton

granger morton wrote:

Maybe it's time to bite the bullet and do High Sierra or Mohave.

Yes, but mostly for security reasons.

Do you think I'd have better performance?

The only time I ever noticed any temporary slowness from a macOS update, was for a very short time way back when iPhoto converted over to Photos.

I tend to think the newer OS's would make older machines slower (more bloated features etc), but also therefore 'encourage' us consumers to shell out on new machines ( I tend to be a little cynical).

I have Mojave running on a couple of 2012 Mac's and they run without any slowness or problems whatsoever. Again, most of the bloat (new features) can easily be disabled, turned off and/or otherwise left unused.

Thanks so much for your input.

No problem, you're welcome!

Aug 18, 2019 6:52 AM in response to granger morton

30 seconds from the Apple logo to up and running is a good time. Sometimes connected external drives and servers can stall or slow getting to the Apple logo. I would try disconnecting external drive(s) and see if it gets to the Apple logo quicker.


Optionally only let the iMac sleep instead of, shutting it down and starting it back up.


Run an EtreCheck report and post back with the results.

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

https://www.etrecheck.com/

Aug 18, 2019 7:15 PM in response to granger morton

While I don't see any real red flags, I do see a few things that you might want to do and look into.


  1. Your iMac is still on Sierra and Security updates is disabled.
  2. Your machine is using large amounts of RAM.
  3. Your Time Machine drive is to small.
  4. Your HDD Performance is a little on the low side 82 MBs/107 MBs for a 7200rpm HDD.
  5. Your using Adobe Illustrator C6, which I do not and can not help you with.


  1. You should be running at a min. High Sierra, preferable Mojave.
  2. RAM usage look OK at the time of your report, but at some point it looks like either the Mac or Adobe is starving.
  3. Not a biggie, but Time Machine will or already has been slowly deleting old backup.
  4. Might just slow from heavy activity during the report. I would try and curb disk activity and run another report.
  5. I'm hoping for some Adobe help from others here at ASC with Adobe C6, because I could be missing something very obvious there.


Did you test it with those external drive disconnected, to see if the waiting and logo to use times improved?

Have you considered Sleeping instead of shutting down and starting up?

FWIW all my Mac's old and new have had no issues with sleeping 24-7.

Aug 19, 2019 12:39 PM in response to den.thed

Thanks for the info, I'll try that startup without attached drives tomorrow (heavy work load at the mo). I've been on Sierra for ages with no problems, only in the last couple of months has the performance nose-dived. I'll see if I can turn on the security updates, I had no idea that was off. Is High Sierra better than Sierra?? If it wasn't for stuff that stopped working with new updates, I'd still happily run Snow Leopard!


Aug 20, 2019 3:05 AM in response to den.thed

Maybe it's time to bite the bullet and do High Sierra or Mohave. Do you think I'd have better performance? I tend to think the newer OS's would make older machines slower (more bloated features etc), but also therefore 'encourage' us consumers to shell out on new machines ( I tend to be a little cynical). Thanks so much for your input.


Slow boot up on iMac 5K 2015

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