Spinning beach ball

Question

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

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

238,979 points

Jun 24, 2011 1:18 PM in response to ontravel

Very Important, how much Free Space is on your Hard Drive first of all? Click on the Macintosh HD on the Desktop, then do a Get Info on it.

One way to test is to Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, Test for action in Safe Mode...

PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive

Reboot, test again.

If it only does it in Regular Boot, then it could be some hardware problem like Video card, (Quartz is turned off in Safe Mode), or Airport in 10.4 & below, or 3rd party add-on, Check System Preferences>Accounts>Login Items window to see if it or something relevant is listed.

Check the System Preferences>Other Row, for 3rd party Pref Panes.

Also look in these if they exist, some are invisible...

/private/var/run/StartupItems

/Library/StartupItems

/System/Library/StartupItems

/System/Library/LaunchDaemons

/Library/LaunchDaemons

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Answer 2

ontravel Author

Level 1

24 points

Jun 24, 2011 1:47 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks, BDAqua.

Before I start with your list: 465 GB and 221GB free.

BTW, you suggest looking for something relevant... what should I be looking for?

Regards

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

238,979 points

Jun 24, 2011 2:09 PM in response to ontravel

Well first, let's see if it beachballs in Safe Mode or not.

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Answer 4

Klaus1

Level 9

52,749 points

Jun 24, 2011 3:19 PM in response to ontravel

Useful article here on the causes of the Spinning Beach Ball and how to troubleshoot it:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9177479/Troubleshoot_the_spinning_beach_b all?taxonomyId=89&pageNumber=1

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Answer 5

ontravel Author

Level 1

24 points

Jun 25, 2011 9:53 AM in response to BDAqua

So far no beachballs in safe mode.

I have removed these from 3rd party preference panes:

Mac-SwapperDemon - appears to be a phone application. I don't know what it's for, but maybe left over from when I tried a 3-G USB stick a few years ago when travelling (always crashed) the Mac - literally!

Deja Vu

A backup utility which I don't use.

I have not found anything else that is obvious to me.

Regards

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Answer 6

ontravel Author

Level 1

24 points

Jun 26, 2011 7:27 AM in response to ontravel

I don't want to speak too soon, but today has been a beach ball free day running in normal mode.

It might be a combination of removing the unnecessary tools & being aware of the root problem. WIth the Activity Monitor now running constantly, I'm amazed to see how taxed the system is just working on normal tasks.

I'm going to tackle my propensity / working style of having 50-60 browser tabs open at any one time.

Thanks all around

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Answer 7

BDAqua

Level 10

238,979 points

Jun 26, 2011 8:50 AM in response to ontravel

Great to hear, good work so far! 🙂

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Answer 8

ontravel Author

Level 1

24 points

Jun 27, 2011 12:56 PM in response to BDAqua

Ok, today, Monday was a normal day again and no problems in normal mode.

I left for maybe 3 hours. When I returned Mail has received many emails but when I tried to delete one everything locked. Strangely though the activity monitor seemed to be working at only 20-25% CPU usage.

Hmm

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Answer 9

BDAqua

Level 10

238,979 points

Jun 27, 2011 1:15 PM in response to ontravel

See if the Disk is issuing any S.M.A.R.T errors in Disk Utility...

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=DiskUtility/10.5/en/duh1896.html

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Answer 10

ontravel Author

Level 1

24 points

Jun 27, 2011 1:31 PM in response to BDAqua

No errors. Smart verification is OK.

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Answer 11

ontravel Author

Level 1

24 points

Jul 12, 2011 4:19 AM in response to ontravel

I was travelling, so little laptop had less use.

Now back to business and this problem raises its head once more. If the laptop is left switched on and unused for a longer period of time it locks up (beachball spinning).

SMART disc still working well.

Any futher ideas where I should be looking next please?

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Answer 12

ontravel Author

Level 1

24 points

Jul 16, 2011 10:34 AM in response to ontravel

Please help. Problem still not solved and system crashing several times daily.

I have discovered the following apps running when I check the Activity Monitor. All of them show "PowerPC" in the "kind" column, however I'm running an Intel:

In standard start mode:

stunnel

QuickBackBackgro

SMARTreporter

In secured start mode:

stunnel

Are these a cause for concern?

Thanks

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Answer 13

BDAqua

Level 10

238,979 points

Jul 16, 2011 10:50 AM in response to ontravel

You might try removing QuickBack, but have you opened Console in Applications>Utilities & looked for messages when it's lleft to beachball?

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Answer 14

ontravel Author

Level 1

24 points

Jul 18, 2011 5:12 AM in response to BDAqua

Thanks, BDAqua.

Strangely I cannot find QuickBackBackgro or "QuickBack" anywhere on my system. It is loaded though and is currently using 424k real memory and 105MB of virtual memory.

Can you point me in the right direction please?

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Answer 15

BDAqua

Level 10

238,979 points

Jul 18, 2011 8:52 AM in response to ontravel

Check System Preferences>Accounts>Login Items window to see if it or something relevant is listed.

Check the System Preferences>Other Row, for 3rd party Pref Panes.

Also look in these if they exist, some are invisible...

/private/var/run/StartupItems

/Library/StartupItems

/System/Library/StartupItems

/System/Library/LaunchDaemons

/Library/LaunchDaemons

Reply