Spinning beachball with 1st keystroke in every newly-launched app

Question

Spinning beachball with 1st keystroke in every newly-launched app

Sometime over the last few months I began experiencing the spinning beachball of death for 5-10 seconds upon the first keystroke only, in every newly-launched app.

It has to be one of my umpteen haxies or something, because logging into a "naked" Admin account doesn't have the problem. (Yes, I know - such are the hazards of running too many third-party hacks!)

Before I endure the excruciating process-of-elimination troubleshooting, I was hoping that inquiring here may encounter someone who had the exact same problem and knows first-hand the culprit.

I did do the usual drill of doing a deep deletion of the various caches, and did notice a reduction in duration of the beachball, but it's still there. I'm thinking it's something involving a font.

I would appreciate it if folks don't jump in with generic diagnostics & wild goose chases if they've never actually experienced my particular problem. I know all that stuff. I'm just seeking saving some time if someone already knows what my exact problem is and has been through it.

Thanks!

(I thought I asked this question here a while back, but my searches came up nil. I apologize if this is a redundant thread.)

PowerBook Pismo 500 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Jun 17, 2007 7:19 AM

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Answer 1

A A P L

Level 7

21,746 points

Jun 17, 2007 9:08 AM in response to George Machen

Hmm.
You admit to using third party hacks.
You have a pretty old Mac.
You "know all that stuff"
You don't want folks to "jump in with wild goose chases"

I'm not sure how many folks will chime in on this thread - you've pretty much managed to show little respect for those that volunteer their time here.

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Answer 2

Jun 17, 2007 9:49 AM in response to A A P L

You "know all that stuff"
You don't want folks to "jump in with wild goose chases"

I'm not sure how many folks will chime in on this
thread - you've pretty much managed to show little
respect for those that volunteer their time here.

If I came off sounding disrespectful, it by no means was my intention. If you were offended by my brevity, I apologize.

What I was trying to convey is:

What so often happens on these forums is that people who've never actually experienced the particular problem jump in with a long list generic troubleshooting steps: delete caches, make a new account, re-install the OS, etc., etc., etc.

These drills indeed are useful for the novice Mac user, and are much appreciated. Without more information, these procedures may be the only way to restore use of a sick Mac. The regulars here who thusly provide their time so generously & selflessly are a godsend.

But these procedures also can take hours or days. Have you ever called a tech support line and they tell you to reinstall the OS? That's what they say when they don't know what's wrong. That may be the only solution on Windoze, necessitated by the Registry, but this is a Mac, where one actually can fix things.

Why should anyone have to go through all that if somebody here already has endured it and simply can say, e.g., "Oh, that exact same thing happened to me once, and I finally converged upon WindowShade as the culprit; just disable it in the app that gives you trouble and you're set."

I already posses 23 years of Mac diagnostic troubleshooting skills, so I merely was trying not to waste the time unnecessarily of the helpful volunteers here on someone who doesn't need it.

Why reinvent the wheel? That's what these forums are for, a division of labor, so the many can benefit from the findings of the few, no?

So, yes, I really would prefer that a lot of people not chime in if they haven't had first-hand experience with these particular symptoms.

(Do you still think I have a bad attitude?)

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