Q: MacBook Pro Troubles

I have been getting this little rainbow wheel and sometimes it wont go away and twice I've had to shut off my computer before it even fully loaded

Norton will cause you nothing but problems. Uninstall Norton Download and run the Norton Removal Tool to uninstall your Norton product

Next, third party cleaning utilities can do more harm than good. Your Mac runs maintenance in the background for you. Read here >  Mac OS X: About background maintenance tasks

If you really want to have anti virus software installed on your Mac, use either Sophos or ClamXav They are both free and won't slow the drive down like Norton.

To avoid malware on your Mac, make sure Gatekeeper is enabled.

Open System Preferences > Security & Privacy then select the General tab.  Select:  Mac App Store and identified developers

If that area is greyed out, click the padlock icon to make changes. You may be prompted for your admin password before proceeding  OS X: About Gatekeeper

Speed up boot time by removing login items. Open System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Items.

And HD > Library > StartupItems

lmartin9192000 wrote:

 

I don't care if people tell me that Macs don't need protection, that's a bunch of poop, because a few friends of mine have already had their computers infected and I believe mine has a bug as well.

I seriously doubt it, but certainly possible. Avoiding malware infections is actually pretty easy with OS X doing most of the work for you, as long as you keep it fully up-to-date and follow any advise it gives you. If you are asked to use your admin password or approve a certificate and don't fully understand why, stop and come back here for advise. Keep GateKeeper enabled and if you don't need Java, don't install it. If you need it then make certain you only enable it in your browser for sites you must visit for your livelyhood. Obtain all your software, music, etc. from trusted sites, never pirate sites. That's about it. You will be fully protected against all currently known malware that could impact OS X or it's applications.

the past month or so, maybe even longer, I have been getting this little rainbow wheel and sometimes it wont go away

Randy Singer has some good ideas on this in his article Macintosh OS X Beachballs!.

I have a program called Mac window Cleaner that I do about every week, but I know that just a "band aid".

I don't think I know about that one, but my advise would be to avoid all "Cleaner" apps which can do more harm than good if you don't know exactly what they are doing. There is no reason to pay for these, either, as there is freeware available to do most everything they can do. The OS does an excellent job of cleaning up after itself, so routine maintenance should never be something a user needs to do. As you said, it's just a band aid and you need to find and eliminate the real problem.

Assuming you use Safari as your browser, select "Reset Safari..." from the Safari menu and check the box for "Remove all website data" to remove cookies, tracking information, and other data that websites stored on your computer. Also clears the Java website settings list.

One common problem we see here is not having enough RAM to keep all the applications and browser tabs open that we need. If you haven't maxed your MBP out with more yet, let us know and we can help with that.

Another common cause is not having enough free space on your hard drive. There is no fixed rule, but somewhere between 10-20% free is what the system needs to do it's job efficiently.

I was looking at some of the sites on Apple support and saw that many people said to read, "Mac Malware Guide" which I have, and again, it's a lot of computer talk

If you could tell me what you had trouble with, that would be helpful. I've worked hard to try to make that guide understandable to people who are not very tech savvy. Please e-mail me any suggestions you have that would help to make it clearer.

Regarding your problems, performance problems are not generally caused by malware on Macs. For some potential solutions, see my Mac Performance Guide.

To remove cookies; safari>preferences>privacy>remove all website data

You can reset safari; safari>reset safari>reset

Gatekeeper is located in system preferences>Security & Privacy>General.  System Preferences is the icon on your dock that looks like a couple of gears or you can click on the apple icon located at the top left of your screen and select system prefernces

Gatekeeper is the "alow applications downloaded from"

Message was edited by: victoryhat

The only web browser I use is Safari, so I don't know about Chrome. If you are running safari, on the top left of your mbp screen next to the apple logo it says Safari; click safari>preferences>security and uncheck 'allow Java'

Very few websites require the user to have java; it's mainly used by developers.

lmartin9192000 wrote:

2.  I do have Java installed, is this bad?  Is there a similar website that's "good" to use?  What is Java for?

Not as bad as it used to be now that you can enable each site individually. Java is not a website, but a few websites use Java. My advise is to only visit websites that use Java if you must do so to earn a living. If you have it installed then I presume you thought you needed it at some point since it doesn't come pre-installed with OS X any more. Now that it's there, you're stuck with it since it would be way too hard to uninstall. Just keep it disabled in all your browsers.

3.  As far as the RAM, I believe we purchased the 4GH and I put all of my pics on a disc to free up space but all of my songs, which aren't that many, are still on the laptop.

I think you are confusing RAM and hard drive space. RAM is where your applications are run, whereas your hard drive is used primarily for files.  You need sufficient free space with both.

Is there a way I can get rid of using the Google Chrome and just use the Safari?

See Uninstall Google Chrome and click on "Mac Instructions"

lmartin9192000 wrote:

 

I have all of my pics on a disc and I do believe I have a good bit of space on the computer ...I finally figured out what you were asking me, I have a  2012 MacBook Pro 8 RAM- 750 GB

And exactly how much of that 750GB is free? If you have the status bar showing at the bottom of your Finder windows it will tell you how much is available. If you have your hard drive displayed on your desktop on in a sidebar then highlight it and type Command-I or select "Get Info" from the Finder's File menu. If all that fails go back to "About This Mac", click on the More Info... button and click the "Storage" tab.