Hourly beach ball (possibly time machine)

I'll bet your logs are full of those messages.

Searching (via Spotlight or Finder) for that file probably won't find it.

See the Application Installation or Removal problems section in the blue box of OSX Log Files.

awilliamsny wrote:

OK I did find a remnant file from 1P in my plists... and used the 1P uninstaller to remove them. But surely this can't be the cause, they've been there forever, and this beachballing started only 30 days ago....

It may be a coincidence. Once you've deleted the launch agent or daemon, and restarted, if it continues, see if there's something else in your logs.

Argh. Still having the problem, have deleted the GoogleSoftware updater which also appeared right before all the crashes. TM is off. I'm stuck!

Oh also, I can't boot into safe mode, the progress bar sticks at around 30% after 10minutes.

awilliamsny wrote:

. . .

Oh also, I can't boot into safe mode, the progress bar sticks at around 30% after 10minutes.

Try starting from the Recovery HD, and repairing your internal HD, per the yellow box in #6 ofUsing Disk Utility

If that doesn't help, try running this: OS X Lion: Use Apple Hardware Test Run the Extended tests (that may take an hour or more, depending on how much RAM you have). Write down any error code(s) it shows.

Also, do you have a reasonable amount of free space on your internal HD? At least 10% or 10 GB?

So I tried one more test - I set up a new user, as Admin, restarted, logged in as that user, and the machine still beachballed exactly 1 hour after start. Ugh.

I have repaired the startup disk, and the storage disks. Verified them all. I've tried to run the hardware test, following the instructions both ways, and it does not come up. I've got plenty of free space on my system disk, 80gb. I've reset pram. I've tried to boot in safe mode, can't. I've set up another user admin and tried using the system as that admin, it still beachballs.

Help 🙂

awilliamsny wrote:

. . .

I've tried to run the hardware test, following the instructions both ways, and it does not come up.

What happens?

I've tried to boot in safe mode, can't.

Also, what happens? If it boots normally, try using a wired keyboard -- sometimes wireless ones aren't recognized quickly enough.

Thanks for the reply, pondini.

Booting to safe mode, the progress bar sticks at 30% (I've waited as long as 30minutes).

Running hardware test, or trying to, it doesn't come up, the machine just boots normally.

awilliamsny wrote:

. .

Booting to safe mode, the progress bar sticks at 30% (I've waited as long as 30minutes).

Oh, sorry, yes, you posted that earlier. 😊

Running hardware test, or trying to, it doesn't come up, the machine just boots normally.

Do you still have the original HD that came with your Mac? If so, has it been reformatted (that would erase the test)?

Did your Mac come with an installation disk or USB drive?

Also, if you're using a wireless keyboard, try a wired one.

This is a bit out of my comfort zone -- I don't recall seeing a post where a safe boot hung like that, so it sounds a bit like a hardware problem. But of course it could be something amiss with your installation of OSX.

One option would be to have Apple take a look at it. If you're near an AppleStore, make an appointment: http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/ (there's no charge unless they have to replace parts that aren't covered by the warranty or AppleCare).

About the only other things I can suggest are installing the "combo" update, per Installing the ''combo'' update and/or Reinstalling OSX. If that doesn't help, installing a fresh version of OSX (that won't disturb anything else), per the same article, might help.

Sorry for not being thorough. I've reinstalled OSX (with apple tech on phone). I'm using a wired keyboard. I have a genius bar appt tomorrow, and the machine is on AppleCare so I'm not very concerned, just wanted to avoid the trip to the store if possible!

First real problem in 10 years of owning many many Macs. Oh well!

Ah, cool. 😎

Let us know what they find.

Ive had the same problem for months and tried everything in the book with no success until about 3 days ago.

I found an app that finally fixed it after countless days of trying everything.

Its called Lingon you gotta get version 1.2 because the newer 3.0 versions dont have any of the features you need.

All I did was launch the app and disable all of the "My Agents" "User Agents" and "User Daemons"

I kept 2 enabled because I knew what they were but they rest i disabled.

I restarted the computer and it fixed it.

I havent seen a spinning beach ball in days!

I used to get it about every 20-30 minutes all day and now its completely gone!

Hope this helps!

I am having this same problem - I get almost exactly an hour between restarting my computer into ML 10.8.2, then I get a beachball and my compuer never becomes responsive again.

No software updates to my programs or software usage patterns, but I can't use my computer for more than an hour.

Any ideas? I don't use Time Machine at all.

You might want to try some of the things suggested in this thread.

Are you sure Time Machine is completely off? Check via the Preferences panel. Be sure it's OFF and shows nothing for the selected disk (after Name on the panel).

If it's exactly an hour, note the time it occurs. When you restart, take a look at your logs for that time (many of the messages may not have made it to the logs, but some should). See the tan box in OSX Log Files to locate your system.log, then the blue box to decipher it. Look for the kinds of things mentioned in the Application Installation or Removal problems and Other Problems section. If you find something suspicious, post a small sample (not pages and pages of logs, or a screenprint) here.

If nothing helps, you might want to post a new thread in the Mountain Lion forum -- it's quite possible whatever problem you're having might be different from the Lion users in this thread.

Thanks a lot sir, I will try Mountain Lion forums (Google led me here), check out my logs from the minutes leading up to the most previous beachball attack: