My iMac shows the pinwheel every time I try to type on a website or email. Is there a virus? Looks like someone is remotely messing with my computer.
iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.7)
No, it is not a virus.
The chances of someone remotely messing with your Mac is extremely remote.
How much free space do you have on your drive?
In what applications are you typing?
Allan
85 KB of free space. Just increased me RAM to 4.
Trying to type a reply on a website and also type a response to an email. I restarted the computer twice and it seems to have solved the pinwheel the second time. But I am still wondering whether I was being hacked.
You definitely should not be thinking about malware or hacking in this case. Neither of those are at all likely.
As to what the problem is, that's very hard to say without some troubleshooting. Try the suggestions in my Mac Performance Guide:
You can forget about being hacked.
Your problem is insufficent free space. You need to increase the amount of free space by at least 100 times as much as you have currently, 150 times would be even better. It is of paramount importance that you either move or delete some of your files to gain your free space before your system freezes up completely.
Allan
Are you positive it's only 85 KB?????????
You know ~Bee, I went straight into panic mode when I saw the number and never even thought about asking for verification if it was correct. Now that you have asked and I thought about it a little be with 85KB I don't even think OS X would be running at all never mind spinning beachballs.
Allan
Allan --
Right, I don't think it even boot!
Well that too.
Allan
Yeah, my thought was that tallsweet must have been talking about free RAM.
You are right, I have 85 MB free on my hard drive. Eevrything is backed up on an external also. If Time Machine is running a backup, could this also be a problem with slowing?
tallsweet --
Seriously, you can't run a Mac with only 85 MB of free hard drive space. It's not quite as bad as KBs, but it's still dismall.
Can you go click on your Hard Drive icon (right hand upper corder of your screen? At the same time as you click, press down the letter " i " key at the same time. You will get a screen with your HD Capacity, Used space, & Available space. Please let us know what your numbers are:
Why does my iMac suddenly shows the rainbow pinwheel every time I try to type something?
