HT203161: Isolating issues in Mac OS X

Learn about Isolating issues in Mac OS X
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Q: Hardware Diagnostics does not work

I have a macbook pro purchased in December 2009.  In the last month, the spinning ball of death starts if I am in Pages, on the Internet, in Adobe Acrobat, anywhere.  This could start immediately after startup, or take a half hour before it begins.  Once this starts, the ball spins on every action I take.  I have run system utilities almost daily, started in save mode, reinstalled the OS, done a FSCK -FY after starting in system mode, nothing helps. I blew the dust out of the hardware.  I tried to do a hardware diagnostic on startup (holding down the D key before the grey screen appears) but the computer ignored this and went through its startup process.  How can I find out what is going on with my computer?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Jul 17, 2015 8:13 AM