2017 iMac running painfully slow (with 2 EtreCheck reports)

So a few thoughts...

The failing hard drive in the first report could be a false positive given a lack of responsiveness in the first test during drive R/W testing. The only way to really know is by using tools like Drive Dx which can access raw drive diagnostic and SMART data. Slight chance it is also some other HW issue.

Your RAM is well configured with the same size modules in the matching DIMMs.

Your security software is a huge overkill and I think some of the choices are questionable. Many people on this forum decry the use of any Anti-virus or VPN - I think there are valid use cases for them, but...Crowdstrike and Surfshark antivirus? Not exactly regarded as best of breed. I could see Malwarebytes, maybe. Surfshark is well-regarded (e.g., for actually respecting user privacy with no logging, etc) as a VPN, but why their anti-virus (because there is a bundle subscription?)? And then why Surfshark and Tunnelblick - which requires yet another source for VPN configs like Proton - and also installs kernel extensions?

And then Cisco Duo? Again, why - and more over, if Cisco Duo was required by your organization as a corporate 802.1X solution, why not also Cisco's commercial VPN and an enterprise AV solution?

I suspect much of this security software is trampling on each other in the background. You should remove them all according to manufacturers' instructions and then if you still feel you need security software - make deliberate choices to achieve maximal protection with minimal impact.

There are also remnants of older software installs lingering that ought be cleaned up, but those are less important, like legacy quicklook plugins.

Finally, are some of the software installs very new and still on first runs? Backblaze is high for CPU, memory and energy use - is it still enumerating and running a first backup of your drive? That would certainly impact performance, depending on its background task priority.

Well, I'm no expert on Surfshark (and there are multiple versions including the App Store version) - but I'm pretty sure that a kernel extension for the AV part wouldn't be in the running state if it had just been part of the files the installer copies. Possibly you did a Surfshark One trial?

Otherwise, you need the things work requires, thin out the rest, and see if Backblaze is enumerating and/or uploading files.

The computer is a bit old, but should still be capable.

sluggo wrote:

Report 1 was run earlier this afternoon when the iMac was running at an absolute crawl with several applications and a huge amount of system resources being eaten up by a ton of open tabs in Chrome as well as Photoshop and Illustrator running in the background.

Ain't that the truth. Chrome was using 13 GB of RAM and causing your computer memory to go into swap space. That swap activity brought your hard drive to a dead stop.

Report 2 was run after a restart with only EtreCheck running.

I did see the "failing hard drive" issue in the first report, but apart from that message, I haven't experienced any other issues that would seem to point in that direction.

Didn't you say before, "things start to run very, very slowly until I have to restart"

The problem here is that you were one of the few people to use EtreCheck correctly. Ideally, it should be run while you are experiencing a problem or shortly thereafter. Restarting will erase much of the data that EtreCheck looks at.

So that first report is really the more accurate one. The second report shows that even after a restart, your computer runs twice as slow as it should.

unfamiliar with Apple's "Fusion" drives

You and me both. But maybe you can help with that.

The most likely cause of this problem is a failing hard drive. On a Fusion Drive, you have two parts - an SSD and a mechanical part. Mostly you use the SSD, which runs really fast. But it can go much more slowly if you ever access data that is only on the HDD. When Chrome gobbles up 13 GB of swap space, it's taking 13 GB of your 28 GB SSD, causing you to use the HDD much more than you normally would. Hence, the horrible slowdown.

I'm putting final touches on a new version of EtreCheck that I hope will help with this specific problem. If you could run a Terminal command for me, I would greatly appreciate it. Launch Terminal and type the following command, and then press the "return" key.

diskutil info -plist disk0

It will spit out a lot of text. Select all of that text and paste it here in a reply.

I hoping your data will have a section called "SMARTDeviceSpecificKeysMayVaryNotGuaranteed" that may confirm that your HDD is failing.

But to be honest, that's really just for me. It isn't going to help you. You need to get a new computer. Until then, you'll have to limit your use of Chrome. Use Safari instead and keep the tabs at a reasonable level. When it gets too slow, restart.

You can certainly remove all the 3rd party antivirus apps. That always helps. Backblaze is very disk intensive too. I don't know what "bitgappp" does. I guess "DuoSecurity" is yet another security app that I didn't even known about to include it in the list. It seems like these days every week there's a new "industry leading suite of identity security solutions". But you're fighting physics here. There is absolute no amount of 3rd party system modifications that you can remove that would make up for the increase in performance of a new computer.

In the past, sometimes I've recommended people use external SSDs. But I really can't do that anymore. You can buy a refurbished Mac for only a few hundred dollars. Stop punishing yourself.

Thanks for the Terminal output! Alas, the data is empty. Oh well, a negative result is still a result.

sluggo wrote:

But... What's your opinion on spending a bit less than $200 for a replacement internal SSD drive (one of OWC's kits, for example)?

It's a can-o-worms. I did that on my old 2010 iMac. But it wasn't quite as fast as I had hoped it would be. I'm not familiar with the current upgrade kits.

I can tell you that because you have a Fusion Drive, it's more complicated. What you'd have to do is replace the HDD part with an SSD, and then re-configure the Fusion Drive to use the built-in SSD and your new SSD. But you would have to keep the same configuration. The tricky part here is that the HDD is a SATA drive. You can only replace that with a SATA SSD. That will be faster than the HDD, certainly, but the built-in SSD is much faster. So you will need to have it continue to be a Fusion Drive, with the Apple SSD as it is now, and your new SSD replacing the old HDD.

What all this means is that, unless you're very careful, it could wind up being slower than it was before. But if done properly, it might be only a bit faster, and without the huge performance hit under heavy load. But it's not an easy procedure.

I'd love to squeeze more life from this iMac mainly because I have a display setup that I really like right now, and I want to avoid spending a lot if I can. Plus, I like tearing things apart and putting them back together.

That sounds encouraging.

Just remember, the big risk here is that, if something goes wrong, you'll have to buy a new Mac right away, without having the benefit of a functional one to use during setup.

I'm not 100% on the OWC SSDs as I've heard they're way overpriced. If you have another recommendation, I am all ears. Other than that, I need to ask why you can't recommend using an external SSD. It seems like a lot of people in my shoes have gone in that direction with positive results.

I haven't used OWC in years, so I can't say if they are currently over-priced or not. They are still one of the few places to get genuine Thunderbolt drives. Perhaps that's why they seem overpriced. You always have to pay more for Thunderbolt over USB. But Thunderbolt is more like an extension of the internal bus. USB is only ever USB.

If you did want an external boot drive, I would recommend one of these two:

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB3ENVPFX04/

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/envoy-express/thunderbolt-3

These would be as fast, or faster, than your current (but tiny) SSD.

I would definitely recommend an external instead of trying to replace the internal. Then, when you do upgrade to Apple Silicon, you can still use that external for additional storage.

But generally speaking, I do think that people will get a much better experience with a new computer. And I never know what people's technical capabilities are. Many would struggle with stepping an external boot drive, let alone cracking open an iMac.

All that being said, the are some speed bumps with Apple Silicon. There might be software compatibility problems. And there are some hardware problems.

I'm not 100% on the OWC SSDs as I've heard they're way overpriced.

You've heard?

OWC's SSDs are the only ones I have ever used, the oldest of which is now fifteen years old. It and all the others still work as well as it did when they were new.

Of course the consumer market demands cheap. Cheap SSDs (and cheap computers for that matter) will be the most expensive ones you ever buy.

Just a thought. It's your money.

OWC tends to sell higher-tier drives. Their prices are high - but so are the ones the major manufacturers sell under their own labels. The comparable for OWC drives are ones like WD Black or Seagate FireCuda or Samsung 980 Pro drives. Not WB Blue or Seagate Barracuda.