How to fix the spinning rainbow?

Mpgacct wrote:

First of all, I forgot my Keychain password, then I get this this twirling rainbow thing

Instead of tagging onto a four year old thread think about starting your own new thread. Many helpers here won't even read a four year old thread. In your new thread please describe in detail your system and your problem.

Definitely start a new thread, and download Etrecheck and post the report:

https://etrecheck.com/#about

That will provide the information about your computer that is needed to give you the best help. It won't contain any personal information.

Good luck!

REPAIRING DISK PERMISSIONS -

NOTE: refer to article "About Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions feature" found herehttp://support.apple.com/kb/ht1452 - for the actual apple article on these step. ----

- click finder in the bottom dock, and in the window that opens, select applications in the left column - scroll through until you see the 'Utilities' folder and double click to open it. Then double click on 'Disk Utility'

- When prompted to select a disk volume or image, select the 'Macintosh HD' in the left column

- ensure the the "first aid" tab is highlighted blue in the middle of the screen

- click the button at the bottom that says 'Repair Disk Permissions'

- this process will take a few minutes to run. It will indicate it's done, by scrolling to the bottom of the "details area" displaying 'Permissions repair complete'

REPAIRING DISK -

NOTE: refer to article "Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck" found here - http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417 - for the actual apple article on this step.

Also see - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1452.

For Computers that come with "Install Disks" (10.6 or lower), see the instruction directly below. If you have cant find the install disks you can follow the section 'Use fsck' of the same above article to boot into single user mode, and run the /sbin/fsck -fy command.

- with computer on, insert the computers "install disk 1" or "Mac OS X Install Disk" into the optical drive.

- shut down computer

- restart computer holding down the letter 'C' on the keyboard. Keep holding down the 'C' key, while the computer powers on, and continue to hold the key down, until you see a screen appear, asking for you to select a language. This may take a minute or so to appear. When this screen appears, release the 'C' key

- select english, then the continue arrow in the lower right corner

- the next screen will display "Welcome to the Installer". On this screen, we want to look into the top menu bar (beside the apple in the top left corner) and select 'Utilities' , then 'Disk Utility' ---

- When prompted to select a disk volume or image, select the 'Macintosh HD' in the left column

- ensure the the "first aid" tab is highlighted blue in the middle of the screen

- click the button at the bottom that says 'REPAIR DISK' .......NOT "Repair disk permissions"

- this process will take a few minutes to run. It will indicate it's done, by scrolling to the bottom of the "details area" displaying "The Macintosh HD appears OK"

If you get any other message OTHER than "The Macintosh HD appears OK", like "the Macintosh HD was repaired successfully" run the "Disk Repair" again, until it displays "The Macintosh HD appears OK".

Once done, beside the apple, click on the words "Mac OS X Installer", and select quit / restart. On the keyboard, hold down the eject key (top right corner, grey triangle pointing up, with a line underneath) until the disk ejects from the drive. Just let the computer start up normally.

ctmama wrote:

... I get a spinning wheel that locks up....

See Here > http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/sbbod.html

ctmama wrote:

My system has started to slow down ...

Basically... Make sure you have enough Free Hard Drive space for your Mac to Perform as expected...

Rule of thumb is about 25 GB +

This is what Apple has to say.

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10798

More Info Here...

ds store > Why is my computer slow?

Thomas A Reed > Mac Performance Guide

Could you provide a few more details? - What year is it? (Click the Apple logo, About this Mac, More info shows you the year on the top) - Since you're running 10.6.8, can you upgrade? - What software are you running when it freezes up? Or is it with any software all the time? - By locks up, do you mean that you need to restart? Or do you just wait it out? I suspect that you're running an old machine, and this is part of the planned obsolescence of products by most companies. In simple English, it means that that the company wants you to go and get yourself a new product because your old one is obsolete. But do this ONLY if everything else doesnt work.

First of all, I forgot my Keychain password, then I get this this twirling rainbow thing