SoniMan91
Level 1 (4 points)
Mac OS X

Q: RAINBOW WHEEL OF DEATH

Hello,  I am very worried about my Macbook Pro.

It has been working fine throughout the day, until just now.

I was recording a 11 minute song on Garageband. It was working fine throughout opening new tracks and doing backing instruments

All of a sudden half way through recording It must have been in the 8 minute mark I saw a error message saying "DISK TOO SLOW OR SYSTEM OVERLOAD" and it crashed half way through recording.

It has never crashed half way through recording before.

However, I found out that it crashed only AFTER I finished adding bass to the 11 minute song and then realized the Macbook crashed.

So I thought, no big deal, I'll just restart the whole thing and reopen it.

I have been restarting my Macbook for at least 20 times to no success of going back on my laptop.

I have been trying for the past hour, can't get on. It just gives me the rainbow wheel of death after logging on.
It starts up okay. All of my files are still there, on the hard drive, but I can't access anything. When I turn it on it starts up for at least 2 minutes and then it freezes to the Rainbow Wheel of Death and doesn't come out. Sometimes I can't even open my dock and when it freezes I can't even use any of the keyboard buttons.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED.

I always take good care of it, i never drop it or spill water or anything on it. 

 

Is there a way I can get rid of the Rainbow wheel of death so I can get back on my computer. Other wise everything is still there and ok. it seems to freeze within the first 3 minutes after log in

MacBook Pro

Posted on Jan 29, 2016 9:26 PM

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SoniMan91

Q: RAINBOW WHEEL OF DEATH

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  • Helpful answers

  • by OGELTHORPE,

    OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE Jan 30, 2016 4:30 AM in response to SoniMan91
    Level 9 (52,576 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 30, 2016 4:30 AM in response to SoniMan91

    It would be helpful if you indicated EXACTLY the model/year of your MBP and the current OSX.

     

    Ciao.

  • by SoniMan91,

    SoniMan91 SoniMan91 Jan 30, 2016 2:52 PM in response to OGELTHORPE
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 30, 2016 2:52 PM in response to OGELTHORPE

    Hello, sorry I almost forgot.

    OSX Yosemite 10.10.

     

    Macbook Pro 2010 model.

    I have had this Macbook for about 4 years.

     

    It starts up and logs in fine, but after at least 2 minutes of using software correctly I can open everything up then the Rainbow Wheel of Death appears, and then I can't open everything and everything on the computer freezes (the whole computer freezes entirely). if i leave it running it doesn't go out of freezing. however all of my files on the computer are still there and show no problems. i can access them for a short period of time before the whole computer freezes.

    i have ran activity monitor and can't see anything too big taking up memory. steam shows up as 'not responding' but if I quit it the laptop still freezes anyway. so i guess that's not it.

  • by OGELTHORPE,

    OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE Jan 31, 2016 3:29 AM in response to SoniMan91
    Level 9 (52,576 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 31, 2016 3:29 AM in response to SoniMan91

    Start with a SMC and NVRAM resets:

     

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

     

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063

     

    Then perform a a safe boot:

     

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

     

    Any change?

     

    Look to see if you have a kernel panic log.  If so post it per these instructions:

     

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201753

     

    Ciao.

  • by SoniMan91,

    SoniMan91 SoniMan91 Jan 31, 2016 6:35 AM in response to OGELTHORPE
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 31, 2016 6:35 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

    hi. thanks for your suggestions.

    i have tried all of these things. nothing worked.

    i tried both resets, that didn't stop my mac from freezing after log in.

    it doesn't give me enough time to open up a kernell panic log.

    however, i checked my info on activity monitor.

    looks like everything is ok and it doesnt indicate a problem with my computer at all.

    there is nothing wrong with the ram.

    no unusual files taking up loads of memory. i have plenty of hard disk space left

     

    This is my main problem from Apple's suggestion of System Management fix (that did not work)

     

    System performance

    • The computer is running unusually slowly although it is not experiencing abnormally high CPU utilization.
    • Application icons may "bounce" in the Dock for an extended amount of time when launched.
    • Applications may not function correctly or may stop responding after being opened.

  • by OGELTHORPE,

    OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE Jan 31, 2016 7:59 AM in response to SoniMan91
    Level 9 (52,576 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 31, 2016 7:59 AM in response to SoniMan91

    See if you can run an Apple Hardware Test.  It may offer a clue:

     

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201257

     

    Note that an error free AHT is not conclusive.

     

    Ciao.