Checking your machine's vitals—RAM, CPU, disk space, and so forth—will keep things running smoothly:. Go to your Activity Monitor (you can find it by typing it into the Spotlight). The System Memory tab will tell you information about your computer's RAM (random-access memory) usage.
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Two of the stats you'll see are 'Page Ins' and 'Page Outs,' which describe the information moved between the RAM to the Mac's drive. Page Outs occur when the RAM is full, necessitating information to be moved from the RAM to the hard drive. If your computer is writing a lot of Page Outs, you may need more memory. Run an Apple Diagnostics or Apple Hardware Test (depending on what model you have) to see if anything is wrong with your computer's hardware. Shut down your computer.
Question: Q: While typing a doc in Word, the spinning wheel appeared and froze the Word document. I had another Word doc open at the time. I tried to force quit, but it didn't work. I would like to save it before losing my work, but the spinning wheel blocks me.
Turn it on, and before it can boot your desktop, press and hold down the letter D on the keyboard. Your system will run a diagnostic test and inform you of any problems. Depending on what it finds, you can then determine how to fix the problem using Apple's online support or going to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store.
Check your Disk Utility using the OS X Recovery. Restart your computer and hold the Command and R keys while it boots. It should start up with a Menu Bar and a Utilities Window. Choose Disk Utility from the utilities window. Click on the First Aid tab and select and repair your internal hard disk from the column on the left. Using the Activity Monitor, check the Central Processing Unit (CPU) under the CPU tab. In the menu toolbar, select All Processes.
This window shows how much of you CPU different applications are using. Sort the applications by clicking the% CPU column and see what applications and processes are hogging your machine's CPU cycles. Frozen processes will say 'not responding.' Typically, when frozen, the computer will not allow you to do anything for a few seconds and then it will resume. The spinning cursor means that some task is blocking your OS X system from running the program properly usually indicates an issue with your hard drive.
Even one impacted application can affect the processor and make it unable to click off onto another application.The spinning rainbow wheel indicates that an application that is not responding. It could be a temporary failure from which the application will recover. In rare cases, the whole system freezes and then the only option is to press the power button until the computer is forced to shut down.
However, this situation is not a normal occurrence for OS X, and should be dealt with quickly because it may point to underlying problems. In dire circumstances, the only solution is to reboot because the entire machine locks up when one application enters an infinite loop from which it cannot recover. If the rainbow wheel gets stuck spinning, you won't be able to run anything else until it stops.To force quit, first control-click on the offending application's icon on the desktop dock. Select 'Force Quit,' which should cut out the application and let you keep working.If that doesn't work, try shutting down or restarting the computer using the Apple pull-down menu. As a last resort, manually hold down the power button until the computer shuts down. Before running any involved diagnostics on your Mac, first be sure easy-to-fix problems aren't the culprit. If your computer keeps freezing, consider the following:.
In general, try not running too many applications concurrently. Check that your system and applications are all completely up to date. If your machine keeps freezing, try doing a safe boot: restart and hold down the shift key until you see the Apple logo. If all else fails, try reinstalling your OS.If none of these work, read on. A stuttering OS X can be solved by getting rid of unnecessary files and optimizing your hard drive. Mac Desk UtilityTo do this, download a Disk Utility for the Mac.Running a Disk Utility will ensure that the file structure on the Mac drive is organized and functioning correctly. It ensures that when the computer tries to locate or reference files, it had no problems in doing so and hence this results in your Mac working at optimum speed.If you Mac is running slower and if you're seeing the beach ball more and more and if your hard drive is filling up and you don't know why - try and optimize your hard drive.
Upgrade Your Mac MemoryHowever, you could be having a lack of RAM problem and you need to upgrade your Mac memory. You may also want to uninstall a few programs off your Mac to save space.
Apple Hardware Test (AHT)Finally, you might be experiencing a hardware issue. In this case, you should reform an Apple Hardware Test (AHT) which contains a suite of diagnostics that will test the hardware of your computer. In any case, it is a great way to rule out a hardware issue when troubleshooting your computer.Nobody wants to see the spinning rainbow on Mac. Frequent and persistent rainbow cursors are not a normal occurrence in Mac OS X, and should be dealt with quickly because they may point to other underlying problems.This is a situation that all computer users, regardless of what platform they are operating under find frustrating. Sadly, it is also a situation that occurs all too often. Being forced to constantly use a slow computer will seriously affect user experience as well as to shut the computer down and reboot while in the middle of an important task. I bought a brand new iMac.
I immediately upgraded the RAM to the max. I figured that would speed up this 'state of the art' computer. After years of hearing how great and frustration free Macs are supposed to be, to say I'm disappointed would be an astronomic understatement. The spinning beach ball is a input device driven event. My old laptop, with minimal RAM out performs my iMac.
Right now, it's only saving grace is it communicates well with my iPhone and iPad. It is generally being used as a glorified picture database and email station. Which, by the way, a cheap chrome book could do, too. Another note, I think I found the main problem - too many background services running, even after the program is closed. Here are the main culprits:1.
Adobe Creative Cloud - runs in the background constantly checking for updates. Had about 20 different services running after everything was closed. Shut down the update service and have had less issues.2. Dropbox & Google Docs - another one that is constantly updating in the background, even if you don't have anything open.
Pausing the sync helps to lessen the beachball.3. Any Webpages running Flash/Shockwave - If you leave these open in Firefox, Chrome or Safari, they will continue to be cached in the background, taking up resources. Bookmark the page and close it.
I have this piece of sh.t new MacBook Pro, and I log into a financial site, check a trade, and get this: I CANT ENTER TEXT IN THE EDITBOX FIELDS! The website in question works with every single device or computer I have ever used to connect to it, EXCEPT this crap APPLE product. This is stock Safari and stock OSX Yosemite 10.5.5. I got this stupid 'spinning beachball of death', and had to shutdown Safari. By the time I got Firefox up and running, the fu.ing market had closed, and I missed my fu.ing trade. This fail cost me real money. HOw in the heII can Apple not actually make a machine with a working web browser???
I should have taken an Android tablet, or and old Windows P/C, or one of my hacked Linux laptops running an OLD version of Firefox. ALL OF THESE MACHINES WORK PERFECTLY! How can a modern, $1400 Apple product with stock software and hardware NOT HAVE A WORKING WEB BROWSER????? F. but I am pissed about this. Stupid crap feature-bloated bullsh.t crap software, this should not be this difficult. I had no idea that this Apple crap was so unreliable!
I bought this POS Macbook because I thought this stuff was supposed to be reliable. Stupid machine with idiot features - and Safari is a toxic piece of crap which doesn't even work reliably. Just completely freaking unacceptable, in the extreme. I am using Firefox to enter this text, so it is.not.
a hardware problem. I am going to purge Safari completely from this piece of crap MacBook. It is just absurd that I get 'beachballed' trying to just use a standard website from a bank!. Referring to the spinning wheel of death:Although basically and for me originally an Apple issue, I believe this happens in Windows too, but I'd have to check as it seems to originate while using - Google Chrome. I first had this problem when updating GC over a year ago (which is when I think I had problem on Windows appear too, if it did at all).
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The problem was temporarily solved by dumping extra 'crap' out of Chrome, but returned quickly. It soon appeared on all my computers they all have GC too - again, seemingly appearing on MS products too), soon it began to happen on more and more of my programs until it was ubiquitous. The next upgrade to GC solved the problem all over. Now, it's begun again with last upgrade on GC or soon thereafter. Right now, it's only happening on one computer (this MBA) and only on Chrome.We'll see and I'll try the stuff above - see if it works.
(Seems once before I got a temp fix by uninstalling upgrade to Chrome and going back to next back). I just spent $20 to talk to a very nice and helpful Apple guy on the phone. Thought I'd share what I found. I regularly zap P-RAM which he mentioned as well and I'll include below; but my problem seemed to be too many cache files.- Boot in safe mode -Restart, holding down the SHIFT key- To clear cache:At top - hold down option key, go to GO/LibraryOpen CachesDelete all contents (keep Caches folder)Then shut down, reboot normally. I have a 2008 Macbook Pro decked out for the time I purchased it. I used to use it to edit, compress, and render graphics for HD movies.
Thought it would beneficial to update to mountain lion.now I can't even look at a file or open an App without staring at a spinning pinwheel for 5-10 minutes. I can forget even trying to edit a video in Final Cut with it. What a loss, ended up building my own PC but, literally threw thousands of dollars in hardware and software in the trash when I updated to Mountain lion. I still try periodically (like today) to fix it but to no avail. I used to like Macs, now I would never recommend getting one. It's been over a year, and still no fix?
I see lots of people having the same problem, so WTF Apple? Literally, one day it worked fine, one update later it's trash!. The newest Mac Book Pro locks continually locks up with the pinwheel.
It was sold as a video rendering machine, which is more awkward to use than my PC with Avid top end video programs. The music in iTunes is a jungle to separate unnamed selections.
APPLE comes with a crappy little booklet, 'Everything Mac', but has NO INSTRUCTIONS. Simple instructions such as 'copy' & 'paste' are not described.
APPLE is CRAPPLE. So Thank you very much S. Jobs for an over hyped, over priced aluminum box with a substandard screen. My old Acer laptop is clearer, sharper and brighter. I never miss an opportunity to speak with Mac users who 'Love their Macs' - because it starts fast. My PC stomps the Apple into APPLESAUCE.
ONE POSSIBLE SOLUTION:I've recently had the beach ball appearing every 30 seconds or so and then the Mac totally freezes.After trying all the suggestions online, the solution that fixed my problem was to reset the SMU. It basically forces the fan to maximum power and cools your mac down. The problems I had were being caused by an overheating Mac, even though it looked like a system software issue!The reset the SMU:Shut your Mac down.Unplug the power cable from the back of the mac and any other devices (keyboard, etc).Leave the mac for at least 10 seconds.Hold down the power button on the back of the mac.Keep holding down the power button and re-attach the power cable.Once the power cable is in place, release the power button.Now press the power button again to start-up your mac. (You can plug your devices back in now).You should now hear the fan at maximum levels (it's very noisy!).If you have the same problem that I had, your mac should start to cool and your mac should start operating properly again (it may take a few minutes).If this works, you'll then need to download FAN CONTROL FOR MAC.It's a control panel that better regulates the temperature of your mac than the standard settings. I have been cussing out this Apple for many months now, maybe years, and when AppleCare was in effect and i would mention the stupid pinwheel to anyone they would just ignore my comment. It has taken a lot of control to keep from throwing the GD thing out the window.
In the morning when i click on Safari or e-mail it takes like 5 minutes for this p.o.s. To respond and after that anything i try to do results in the freaking colored ball or 'Safari can't find the server', preferably both.
It takes like a full minute for a simple e-mail message to 'load' or a reply to get sent.the Drive Genius 3 download mentioned in this article is anything but free and we are considering a local Mac repair guy as a last resort before putting this rotten Apple out on the sidewalk where anyone in his right mind wouldn't waste the energy to pick it up. For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: Show Details NecessaryHubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam.
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