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Started By
Message
iMac/Apple Purchase Advice
Posted on 12/20/16 at 11:45 am
Posted on 12/20/16 at 11:45 am
I have a 2012 iMac at work that has become very sluggish at times, is sometimes unusable with multiple office applications open, frequently is extremely slow to reboot with Sierra.
Recently, upon restarting the gray progress bar gets stuck either at 0 or 100% and just hangs there for 30 minutes, an hour, 2 hours, etc. This morning it took about 4 power cycles and a couple hours to get it to come to life.
First, any idea what is causing this? I've checked the drive health, tried to remove any startup items that could cause lag, disabled Siri, etc.
Second, employer is probably just going to buy me a new computer instead of opting for an SSD or additional RAM (presently at 8gb) first. If I go the iMac route, how would you prioritize purchasing?
For example, you can get discounts on prior year models ("introduced 2013" through 2015 range). Will I automatically be disadvantaging myself in getting one of those?
In addition to that, what about SSD vs. Fusion and the need to max out RAM on a new machine? I don't do anything particularly intensive, but I'd like to be able to run a bunch of inefficient items that rob some resources at the same time without it frequently seizing up on me (significant dropbox syncing, Word/Excel/OneNote/Outlook, Chrome)
Thanks for the help.
Recently, upon restarting the gray progress bar gets stuck either at 0 or 100% and just hangs there for 30 minutes, an hour, 2 hours, etc. This morning it took about 4 power cycles and a couple hours to get it to come to life.
First, any idea what is causing this? I've checked the drive health, tried to remove any startup items that could cause lag, disabled Siri, etc.
Second, employer is probably just going to buy me a new computer instead of opting for an SSD or additional RAM (presently at 8gb) first. If I go the iMac route, how would you prioritize purchasing?
For example, you can get discounts on prior year models ("introduced 2013" through 2015 range). Will I automatically be disadvantaging myself in getting one of those?
In addition to that, what about SSD vs. Fusion and the need to max out RAM on a new machine? I don't do anything particularly intensive, but I'd like to be able to run a bunch of inefficient items that rob some resources at the same time without it frequently seizing up on me (significant dropbox syncing, Word/Excel/OneNote/Outlook, Chrome)
Thanks for the help.
4
Posted on 12/20/16 at 1:31 pm to Pettifogger
Is most of your work done in MS Office applications? and you choose a Mac over a PC?
Posted on 12/20/16 at 1:40 pm to Hermit Crab
quote:
Is most of your work done in MS Office applications? and you choose a Mac over a PC?
Yeah it is. My office is mostly Apple so I'd prefer not to switch. I considered trying a PC when I recently upgraded my personal laptop but ultimately went back to Mac. Tried a Surface Pro for a while and didn't like it.
I would consider a PC for the office, but I just think any advantage in running Office would be undercut by my frustrations with Windows generally. I can run a windows computer fine, I just don't like it.
Posted on 12/20/16 at 2:37 pm to Pettifogger
First thing's first: something is wrong with your computer. A 2012 iMac should still be running well. Are you running the newest Sierra, 10.12.2? Have you run Malwarebytes? Do you have any disk health software? I run "Dr. Cleaner" to clear RAM. It doesn't do much more than that, though.
Re: a new machine - if they're buying it I'd get the good one. I keep my computers (always Apple laptops) for about 5 years on average. So it makes sense for me to get the newest one. Not sure what your situation is in that regard.
Re: a new machine - if they're buying it I'd get the good one. I keep my computers (always Apple laptops) for about 5 years on average. So it makes sense for me to get the newest one. Not sure what your situation is in that regard.
Posted on 12/20/16 at 2:55 pm to Pettifogger
Are you running the updates for Microsoft Office for mac? Those can make a big difference if you haven't installed them in a while.
Since you upgraded the macOS to Sierra try this: Go to the System Preferences and turn off the iCloud Drive. If it appears you have lost files by doing this, follow the instructions here LINK
This might help your computer run like you've come to expect
Since you upgraded the macOS to Sierra try this: Go to the System Preferences and turn off the iCloud Drive. If it appears you have lost files by doing this, follow the instructions here LINK
This might help your computer run like you've come to expect
Posted on 12/20/16 at 3:21 pm to Pettifogger
Is Java installed? I'd try getting rid of that first.
Posted on 12/20/16 at 3:29 pm to Hermit Crab
quote:
Is most of your work done in MS Office applications? and you choose a Mac over a PC?
Posted on 12/20/16 at 3:53 pm to Vlad
Agreed. A 2012 iMac should still be a beast for almost all non a/v related work.
Beyond fixing whatever the problem is, swapping to an ssd drive would make it even faster.
Beyond fixing whatever the problem is, swapping to an ssd drive would make it even faster.
Posted on 12/20/16 at 3:59 pm to Vlad
Thanks for all the suggestions. Most of which I've tried, some of which I won't have a chance to try (new computer en route).
Posted on 12/20/16 at 4:01 pm to 632627
quote:
Agreed. A 2012 iMac should still be a beast for almost all non a/v related work.
That would be my expectation too. Unfortunately, it struggles under a load my 12 inch MacBook handles with ease.
We're going to put an SSD in it and use it as an extra computer.
Posted on 12/20/16 at 4:24 pm to Pettifogger
Sounds like you need a dongle.
Posted on 12/20/16 at 7:31 pm to LSU316
quote:
Sounds like you need a dongle.
i have dongles on dongles
Posted on 12/21/16 at 9:31 am to Pettifogger
SSD and RAM will make a huge difference in this machine.
This post was edited on 12/21/16 at 9:32 am
Posted on 12/21/16 at 11:20 am to tlsu15
quote:
Since you upgraded the macOS to Sierra try this: Go to the System Preferences and turn off the iCloud Drive.
My iMac was running like garbage...and this fixed it. Didn't know the update turned on this feature.
Posted on 12/22/16 at 6:20 am to Gaston
quote:
My iMac was running like garbage...and this fixed it. Didn't know the update turned on this feature.
FWIW, I have a 2012 iMac with the latest version of Sierra and iCloud Drive works great.
Posted on 12/22/16 at 9:36 pm to Pettifogger
We use Mac in our office because I simply am not going to hire an IT staff. We use time capsule and have several and we use remote back ups.
If a user has a problem I simple refer them to AppleCare.
Just this week we had a 6 year old machine develop hard drive issues. Simply told the employee to buy a new machine and use the migration assistant with the time machine and be done with.
Experience tells me that repair would be a few hundred dollars and the machine would still be 6 years old.
I got PO about Mac upgrades and investigated using PCs again until I got a price on the IT support--$15000 a year for our 12 users. Screw that.
We do have a PC server and all our users connect through terminal services and I am really considering moving it to the cloud so I don't have to worry about backups and viruses. We did have a ransom virus last year on Christmas Eve. That was a pain. Paid some Russian $400 in bitcoin ransom and he was very nice in helping us restore. Who wants to do that crap?
We use some excel and a lot of numbers. I wish I had Access but that is all I miss.
We have a couple more PCs for UPS and EDI transactions.
In your case I would buy a new machine.
MacOffice runs better than Office in many ways according to the users in our office that use it. I haven't found anything I can't do in numbers and pages.
(What is the deal with Office 365 and excel? that really sucks. You can't even build a graph in 365 excel and paste it in powerpoint 365. you could do that in 95)
If a user has a problem I simple refer them to AppleCare.
Just this week we had a 6 year old machine develop hard drive issues. Simply told the employee to buy a new machine and use the migration assistant with the time machine and be done with.
Experience tells me that repair would be a few hundred dollars and the machine would still be 6 years old.
I got PO about Mac upgrades and investigated using PCs again until I got a price on the IT support--$15000 a year for our 12 users. Screw that.
We do have a PC server and all our users connect through terminal services and I am really considering moving it to the cloud so I don't have to worry about backups and viruses. We did have a ransom virus last year on Christmas Eve. That was a pain. Paid some Russian $400 in bitcoin ransom and he was very nice in helping us restore. Who wants to do that crap?
We use some excel and a lot of numbers. I wish I had Access but that is all I miss.
We have a couple more PCs for UPS and EDI transactions.
In your case I would buy a new machine.
MacOffice runs better than Office in many ways according to the users in our office that use it. I haven't found anything I can't do in numbers and pages.
(What is the deal with Office 365 and excel? that really sucks. You can't even build a graph in 365 excel and paste it in powerpoint 365. you could do that in 95)
This post was edited on 12/22/16 at 9:40 pm
Posted on 12/25/16 at 1:01 am to I B Freeman
15k a year seems high for only 12 machines.
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