SOLVED Mid 2010 27' imac, and then ...

[Tks]

Hi all,

So here comes my imac is starting to slow down a tiny bit despite only using external drive for storage during the last 13 years. Internet also starts being slower a bit, although that is just guessing on my part.
Obviously, I'm stuck on High Sierra 10.13.6, and wondering what to do next.
I first checked the new mac mini M1 in 2021 as I could use it with the imac as external display, but it seems no compatibility anymore with the new mac mini M2.

Doctor?

 

[TonyAguila]

Hi all,

So here comes my imac is starting to slow down a tiny bit despite only using external drive for storage during the last 13 years. Internet also starts being slower a bit, although that is just guessing on my part.
Obviously, I'm stuck on High Sierra 10.13.6, and wondering what to do next.
I first checked the new mac mini M1 in 2021 as I could use it with the imac as external display, but it seems no compatibility anymore with the new mac mini M2.

Doctor?

For your info, your iMac’s model ID is iMac11,3. Did it come with a hard drive or SSD? If using the external storage, does that mean that you are also running the system from the external drive?

The first thing I would do if I were in your situation is to reinstall the system (macOS 10.13.6). Run it while booted in Safe Mode. If you don’t have a copy of the installer file, try downloading it from the App Store. Do a search for “macOS High Sierra” and from the screen that opens, click on the header and it should switch to the window with a GET button. Click on it to start the download.

It will go into your Applications folder and automatically launch the installer. At this point, I suggest you quit the installer in order to copy the file to another place. Then when you are ready to do the installation (hopefully after a backup), launch the installer from the Applications folder once more and go through the process. I myself resort to doing this almost routinely whenever my Mac starts to exhibit weird things like slowdowns or crashes.

If the App Store method fails, you can try this site:

How to download and install macOS - Apple Support

Download and install current or previous versions of the Mac operating system on compatible Mac computers.

support.apple.com

Good luck!

 

[Tks]

I have both hard drive and SSD, the system running on the later.
The HD is slow, so I keep it empty. SSD has apps, but everything else (for ex music library) runs from a second external drive.

 

[Tks]

For your info, your iMac’s model ID is iMac11,3. Did it come with a hard drive or SSD? If using the external storage, does that mean that you are also running the system from the external drive?

The first thing I would do if I were in your situation is to reinstall the system (macOS 10.13.6). Run it while booted in Safe Mode. If you don’t have a copy of the installer file, try downloading it from the App Store. Do a search for “macOS High Sierra” and from the screen that opens, click on the header and it should switch to the window with a GET button. Click on it to start the download.

It will go into your Applications folder and automatically launch the installer. At this point, I suggest you quit the installer in order to copy the file to another place. Then when you are ready to do the installation (hopefully after a backup), launch the installer from the Applications folder once more and go through the process. I myself resort to doing this almost routinely whenever my Mac starts to exhibit weird things like slowdowns or crashes.

If the App Store method fails, you can try this site:

How to download and install macOS - Apple Support

Download and install current or previous versions of the Mac operating system on compatible Mac computers.

support.apple.com

Good luck!

Thank you for your help Tony.
I reinstalled the system and also formated the hard drive ( I had a small Linux partition with Ububtu in the past).
The HD is a bit faster, so I've put my itunes media folder back there instead of external drive. It lags a little bit, but much less than before.

 

[Tks]

I recently discovered I can use the imac as a display for a mac mini M series with Luna Display.
As the iMac is starting to heat up lately, I'm wondering whether I should change or get rid of the HDD (along with the DVD reader) as I only use it for itunes now, or use an external drive for storage.
I'm asking the question because I don't really understand what happens with the imac when used as a display for mac mini. I imagine that for the display to work, the whole imac is 'waking up' from sleep, so SSD and HDD are operating in some way in any case and might heat up?