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Level 1

24 points

Spinning beach ball

The ball keeps appearing, upto a few times daily with rarely time to close applications and allow more resources to whichever may need them before the system apparently locks up.

This started several weeks ago and I'm not using more memory intensive or processor intensive applications than I usually do and I appear to have sufficient memory and disk space.

The problem occurs systemwide and even hours of inactivity is an insufficient cure. Eventually "pulling the plug" is the only solution.

I always use the Disk Utiltity after such shutdowns and frequently use the "MacJanitor" application.

There are many threads posted re this problem, but circumstances certainly dictate different solutions.

Thanks in advance for suggestions.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.4.9), 4GB RAM

Posted on Jun 24, 2011 12:34 PM

35 replies

BDAqua

Level 10

239,351 points

Jul 25, 2011 10:54 AM in response to ontravel

AppDelete...

http://download.cnet.com/AppDelete/3000-2096_4-10614485.html

Try that, if it doesn't help, you may need to reinstall QuickBack for it to find things, then yes you can delete that plist

Spotlight is terrible. I'd get EasyFind...

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11076

Find Any File...

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/30079/find-any-file

ontravel Author

Level 1

24 points

Jul 26, 2011 7:15 AM in response to BDAqua

Thanks, I'll check out those tools.

Meanwhile, the AppZapper website was badly labelled and I was trying to install the wrong version. Now it works but it doesn't show anything QuickBack or Nokia.

However, manually:

/Library/startupitems - I found QuickBackStartupItem directory with a file named StartupParameters.plist

It is dangerous to delete that?

BDAqua

Level 10

239,351 points

Jul 26, 2011 9:25 AM in response to ontravel

Should be fine to delete it, it may help but may not get rid of all of it, likely it won't run anyway though.

ontravel Author

Level 1

24 points

Aug 12, 2011 6:04 AM in response to BDAqua

Thanks again. I have been delaying before 'closing the case.'

Tentatively, this is my conclusion, but I don't wish to speak too soon.

I had moved a Safari Extender plug-in to an external drive, because of error indications. I then found that I only got the never-ending spinning beach ball lock-up when the external drive was switched on.

ontravel Author

Level 1

24 points

Aug 31, 2011 4:18 AM in response to BDAqua

I think it's now safe to say that following 2 weeks without problems, that my system appears stable once more.

Thanks again for your painstaking diligence in staying with me through this troubleshooting process.

P.S. it's difficult to say what was the actual cause of the problem. It might have been a combination.

Spinning beach ball