Spinning circle when logging out

Well Logitech Control Center was one of the problems. Logitech just issued an update to version 3.9

Edit: Due to an annoying forum bug I did not see recent responses until posting this one. You can disregard it.

Message was edited by: John Galt

I had the same issues and uninstalling the Westerdern Digital Smartware software seems to have done the trick, and dramatically sped up the Mac also. It wasn't set up for RAID (as far as I know) and I was using one partition as a Time Machine drive and another for backing up a NAS drive.

Also found that the WD Smartware unistaller already installed did not work, but downloaded another from the WD site which did work: http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=119&sid=214&lang=en

I had a similar problem, where logging out would give me a gray screen with just my arrow cursor, but I didn't have the Western Digital drivers installed. This thread was still helpful, though. I used EtreChecker and found out I had to delete /System/Library/Extensions/ElmediaPlayer.kext which I didn't even know I had. More details here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5835614?answerId=24661754022#24661754022

Er.. Oops I go back on my previous comment.

After more testing, I discovered that ElmediaPlayer was NOT the culprit. Rather, it was this sequence of steps:

1. Install Soundflower

2. Move /Applications/Soundflower into a different folder (e.g. subfolder)

THAT is the true cause of my problem. I didn't notice it before because right after re-installing Soundflower, I hadn't moved the folder yet. So appologies to ElmediaPlayer for my false accusation.

I don't know what difference moving the app will make but Soundflower has a kernel extension. Re run EtreCheck to see it. If you don't need it remove it via the uninstaller that is inside the download dmg.

It's possible Soundflower is conflicting with something else if you need to move the app to make the Mac stable.

It's a 'sound extension', so I'd check all apps that may use it are up to date.

I'd also suggest a boot into safe mode to rebuild kernel extensions between tests (hold shift @ boot, then reboot at the login window to enter a normal boot).

Drew, Yes I know. That's why I was looking into it in the first place. But if I leave the Soundflower directory in /Applications/ it works fine, so I'm happy. I suspect the Soundflower kernel extension code simply has /Applications/Soundflower hard-coded so it breaks when you move the folder. (This doesn't surprise me, because its uninstaller is just a list of commands that includes removing a hard-coded /Applications/Soundflower folder, so there's probably other hard-coding in there...)

I did in fact run EtreCheck and found my list of kernel extensions. That's how I decided what to try uninstalling. I uninstalled ElmediaPlayer, Soundflower, and ControllerMate and found that the problem went away. I re-installed Soundflower and ControllerMate, and the problem was still gone, so I deduced that it was ElmediaPlayer. But then I moved the Soundflower folder, and the problem returned, so I realized the problem was actually with moving the Soundflower folder and not with ElmediaPlayer.

Ah, that makes more sense.

I am having the exact same isseus but i have almost nothing installed. I have noticed it seems to strike newer EFI makes than older. My Imac 2011 for instance lighting fast log out shutdown etc. This is what seems to be the common demoninator. I am open to ideas

EtreCheck version: 1.9.11 (43) - report generated May 28, 2014 at 3:53:00 PM CDT

Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012)

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro10,1

1 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4 cores

8 GB RAM

Video Information:

Intel HD Graphics 4000 - VRAM: (null)

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M - VRAM: 1024 MB

System Software:

OS X 10.9.3 (13D65) - Uptime: 0 days 0:6:20

Disk Information:

APPLE SSD SM256E disk0 : (251 GB)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 250.14 GB (204.56 GB free)

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

USB Information:

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Thunderbolt Information:

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Gatekeeper:

Anywhere

Launch Daemons:

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist Support

User Login Items:

None

Internet Plug-ins:

SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.1.0 Support

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 13.0.0.214 - SDK 10.6 Support

Flash Player: Version: 13.0.0.214 - SDK 10.6 Support

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9

Audio Plug-ins:

BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9

AirPlay: Version: 2.0 - SDK 10.9

AppleAVBAudio: Version: 203.2 - SDK 10.9

iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9

iTunes Plug-ins:

Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.9

3rd Party Preference Panes:

Flash Player Support

Time Machine:

Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU:

12% WindowServer

3% Dock

2% hidd

1% fontd

1% SystemUIServer

Top Processes by Memory:

197 MB Safari

106 MB Dock

92 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

90 MB mds_stores

66 MB WindowServer

Virtual Memory Information:

4.99 GB Free RAM

1.91 GB Active RAM

235 MB Inactive RAM

884 MB Wired RAM

345 MB Page-ins

0 B Page-outs

Can you try the reinstall like FlameLegend? The installer has the default option to 'Reinstall Mavericks' that will cause it to overwrite the system files. It should leave your user accounts & applications in place (you may need to re-apply software updates).

Obviously the Mac should be fully backed up before you begin something so drastic, but it may help?