Spinning beach ball won't force quit

Question

Level 1

6 points

Spinning beach ball won't force quit

Having problems today and yesterday regarding spinning beach ball and inability to force quit. Resort to power button restart.

Both times I was online using Safari browser. Now temporarily using Firefox just to see if this happens again or not. Meanwhile wondering if it is safari or possibly because I've had iwork 09 opened while browsing.

Just as a test while the ball was spinning, unplugged my server connections, then plugged back in. But this wasn't the issue.

In addition, checked preferences when this happened tonight.

Below are the plist files that may reference some help:

com.apple.pushserviced.plist

com.apple.BezelServices.plist

com.apple.Bluetooth.plist

Perhaps no concern with the plist files, but would like any feedback.

Thank you.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on May 12, 2012 8:51 PM

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Answer 1

R C-R

Level 6

17,782 points

May 13, 2012 3:05 AM in response to Junieart

Your system info says you are running "OS X (10.7.2)." This is the OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard forum. Which OS are you using?

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Answer 2

Junieart Author

Level 1

6 points

May 13, 2012 6:28 AM in response to R C-R

Hi,

I don't know what is happening but for some very bizarre reason, I just checked my system and it is reading Lion 10.7.4. How on earth has this happened when I have been running on Snow Leopard 10.6.3 for nearly a year now.

What the heck has happened? File corruption maybe . . .

Help please.

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Answer 3

R C-R

Level 6

17,782 points

May 13, 2012 6:47 AM in response to Junieart

Since you have been using the power button to force shutdown, I suggest that the first thing you should do is run Disk Utility's "Verify Disk" check to make sure your file system is OK. If you get any errors, you will need to to start up from a different volume to repair them.

If you are running Lion, you can probably use Lion Recovery as the startup volume for the repair. But if you don't know how Lion was installed, this may not work.

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Answer 4

Junieart Author

Level 1

6 points

May 13, 2012 6:52 AM in response to R C-R

Have run disk utility... shows no errors.

Have never even installed Lion operating system. Last year had a hard drive problem and took it in to apple and they installed a new hard drive plus reinstalled snow leopard.

Since then have never had any issues with my computer. But now to show it is running on Lion is absolutely weird!

So, if I have never installed Lion and don't even have the disk, what next?

Thanks.

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Answer 5

R C-R

Level 6

17,782 points

May 13, 2012 7:22 AM in response to Junieart

Where exactly does it show that 10.7.4 is installed? Does anyone besides yourself have access to this Mac?

There is no way I can imagine that an error would result in the OS being shown as anything other than the actual version it is running.

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Answer 6

Junieart Author

Level 1

6 points

May 13, 2012 7:55 AM in response to R C-R

Appearing in About This Mac.

No one has access to my computer except myself. Personal home computer.

Always has shown Snow Leopard until the problem occurred the other day. Could it be when doing an apple software update, that it suddenly did something?

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Answer 7

WZZZ

Level 6

13,220 points

May 13, 2012 8:30 AM in response to Junieart

There was a recent update to 10.7.4, which you might have gotten from Software Update, and your profile is showing 10.7.2 (and 10.4.11.) No one but you could have entered that. There is no way you could have jumped OS versions without doing something. Maybe a little amnesia?

What do you see in System Preferences>Software Update>Installed software?

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Answer 8

Klaus1

Level 9

52,749 points

May 13, 2012 8:31 AM in response to WZZZ

There was no update to 10.4.11 (Tiger) nor 10.5.8 (leopard), nor will there ever be.

The updates were for Snow Leopard 10.6 and Lion 10.7.

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Answer 9

WZZZ

Level 6

13,220 points

May 13, 2012 8:38 AM in response to Klaus1

Klaus1 wrote:

There was no update to 10.4.11 (Tiger) nor 10.5.8 (leopard), nor will there ever be.

The updates were for Snow Leopard 10.6 and Lion 10.7.

How sharp and vigilant of you Klaus! How would I have known that without you? I won't go to sleep with you around, but that was a typo. Already edited before your appearance here.

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Answer 10

Junieart Author

Level 1

6 points

May 13, 2012 8:41 AM in response to WZZZ

Interesting how I figured someone would come in here and accuse me of amnesia. I HAVE NOT done a **** thing to my computer!

It began only two days ago and I think software update for SNOW LEOPARD changed something. Could someone here please help me and not think I did something to my computer.

I DID NOT TOUCH MY COMPUTER!!!

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Answer 11

WZZZ

Level 6

13,220 points

May 13, 2012 8:47 AM in response to Junieart

Can you explain why we are seeing 10.7.2 in your profile? What are you seeing in Installed Software?

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Answer 12

Junieart Author

Level 1

6 points

May 13, 2012 9:04 AM in response to WZZZ

I probably accidentally hit 10.7.2 in my profile here because when I came to forums it was showing this system. Confused at seeing this, I thought it was some sort of klitch.

So when I went to see what the heck was actually going on in my comptuer, to my surprise saw that it was actually Lion 10.7.4 operating system. Please you've got to believe me, it was not reading this previously... snow leopard 10.6.7 or whatever the latest software update had done previously before this strange thing happened.

I have never installed Lion on this computer. I don't even have a disk for Lion. Perhaps the apple tech person a year ago installed it then installed the snow leopard. I have my snow leopard DVD.

Just baffled. Again this machine has been running on Snow Leopard for nearly a year now. Perhaps when I was forced to do a button power shut down, something happened. BTW, had to do this scenario twice in the last two days. Checked my disk utility shows things are ok.

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Answer 13

WZZZ

Level 6

13,220 points

May 13, 2012 9:22 AM in response to Junieart

You should still have a look at the entries in System Preferences>Software Update> Installed Software. Must be some explanation; this is passing strange, to say the least.

FYI, Lion isn't available as a DVD, only as a download from the App Store or on a Flash drive purchased retail from Apple.

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Answer 14

babowa

Level 9

78,097 points

May 13, 2012 9:25 AM in response to Junieart

Just baffled. Again this machine has been running on Snow Leopard for nearly a year now.

My guess would be that when you had your hard drive replaced, the tech loaded Lion for you - apparently as a "favor" and without telling you. I've heard of that before. Do you have the receipt for the work order/bill? Did they charge you $29 for the Lion install? Or, perhaps you know them well enough (and they have a good memory) so you could ask them if they did?

Since Lion will NOT install itself (only updates to it would), you might have been running with Lion ever since you got the new hard drive and just didn't realize it because they didn't tell you.

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Answer 15

WZZZ

Level 6

13,220 points

May 13, 2012 10:13 AM in response to Junieart

As a rough test, are the scroll bars invisible until you bring the mouse over or near where they should be? This is a Lion only feature.

I think B is onto the most likely explanation. If some tech had done this for me without asking, I'm not sure I would have regarded it as a "favor." I noticed she put it in quotation marks.

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