Mac pauses all the time, spinning ball.

Hi T,

This disk activity makes me think RAM may be damaged. Can you test each RAM in each slot so we can be sure about it?

Good luck.

it's more likely to be the hard disk .And the disk activity spikes goes along with it .I think you are suffering from bad sectors or a failing hard disk .You can use this program to get detailed information on your disk :
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/systemdiskutilities/smartutility.html

please keep in mind if you are at the very beginning of it with a very few bad sectors your smart reading can still be all good .. one way to be sure it to make a surface scan ..

I advise you backup your valuable data now !

Hello,

I have been having the same issue. However, in my case it is with trying to install a new HD in my MBP. I had bought a new OEM WD Blue 750GB 2.5" drive to replace my factory 250GB drive. I bought the original drive from Newegg. When I first tried to install the drive, everything seemed ok, but after installing a clean install of OS X, and using Time Machine things seemed to take forever.

When trying to install OS X, it took almost 4 hours! This is when i put my ear up to the laptop [above the drive location] nd heard the drive spin up, click, then spin down. I called Newegg, and got an RMA. This pasted week, I got the Second drive. This drive, yesterday after installing it the night before, started doing the same thing.

Does anyone know if its just bad drives from WD, since these were recently released? Or does this have something to do with OS X? I called AppleCare yesterday, and the Tech i talked to seemed to agree with my thoughts, that it is the drives which are at fault. He had me run Disk Utility from the Software discs, and run the Verify Disc test to check for errors. It did bring back some errors, I then ran the Repair Disc; which said that it did repair the disc. However, these issues still persist.

I heard another user report the same thing about the same drive .. Altho it sounds unlikely I think it has something to do with the drive's power consumption.The symptoms are as if the drive is not getting enough current and shutting down..if this is the case you will need to get another drive

I bought a MacBook Pro at the beginning of the year and all of a sudden I have started having the same problem. However, it seems it is bad sometimes and then it gets a bit better ...but then again, back to spinning ball and pauses forever, which means that I have to use the force quit option for the entire computer every single time.

Can it be that the ram and the harddisk are damaged? I think it is terrible if this is the case. Had a Sony Vaio for 5 years and never had a single problem with it.

Btw, bought the laptop in NY and am now living in Europe. Will the warranty cover this?

Thanks!

warranty is global..

Try inserting your osx dvd and starting the computer holding down the D key on the keyboard
this will invoke diagnostic mode and your machine will run a thorough self check
this might yield some answers

I think you might be right as now that i think about it, the drive did pause a lot like it was trying to stay spinning but would spin down like it was trying to save power at the same time? The it would start the Pin-wheel effect, pausing every ten seconds or so.

I will call AppleCare and WD again and see if I can't find an answer.

Sounds quite like what I am experiencing... Grateful if you would post here the feedback you receive from AppleCare.

Ok, I tried calling Apple and WD.

AppleCare says that they don't support anything bigger than the biggest drive that Apple includes in their laptops from the factory. So, the tech i talked to said that I should try to partition the drive to 500GB and a 250GB [my drive is 750GB WD Scorpio Blue Advanced Format]. He thinks that maybe thats why it hesitates.

But, honestly that doesn't make sense to me. To me it is either a power issue, or a HD issue. The drive is the same size and height as the factory drive, and the only thing that has changed is the Capacity. Power doesn't seem like it should be an issue since this is supposed to be a low power HD.


Western Digital says that the drive is ok, or should be since all of the drives I have gotten, so far 2, have done the same thing. [i am now getting a third from WD, shipping today]


All in all, I think i will have to just down grade my drive to a smaller size/brand. Hopefully then, I will not have the same issue.

I can almost bet money on it that partion size won't help..still you can give it a go won't hurt

Have you tried running SMART Utility?

http://download.cnet.com/SMART-Utility/3000-2248_4-146625.html?tag=vtredir

You can download the demo and run it several times for free. It seems to be more critical than Disk Utility, and may detect a failing hard drive sooner.

If the drive checks out OK, you might want to try reinstalling the OS to see if software corruption might be a contributing factor.

Good luck!

Further developments from my side: The thing went to worse and when I tried to re-start the laptop, it would not move further than the white screen at the beginning with the apple and the spinning "star". Managed to reach the desktop and work for a couple of minutes. Then re-initiated the computer again and that was it: It won't go any further than the initial white screen I referred to above.

Run the "press start whilst holding the D key" show and the diagnosis told me there is nothing wrong with the hardware... any of you experienced this before? I bought my 13' MacBook Pro in March. I have accepted all updates I have been presented with. Man, it is too soon for this to happen!!

P.S: Should I post this in a different thread?

Altho rather unlikely for a laptop this young you might be looking at hard disk failure..You might want to take it to apple ..

First things first, open Disk Utility and repair permissions and your disk.

I had this issue when I migrated to my new MacBook Pro, and it seemed to help.

Well, been to the dealer: the harddisk is as dead as George Washington. They are replacing it.