24" iMac 2008 3.06ghz - Freezes/Beach balls/Sometimes can't find hard drive

Hi All,
Recently i've been having alot of issues with my 24" iMac. After reading countless discussions, none seem to have had the same answer as everything i have tried just doesn't seem to have worked?! Hoping you can give me a few more ideas and help narrow it down a little. (Fingers crossed solve it!)
General Issue:
The computer has mood swings - good days and bad days. On a good day it boots in a couple of minutes and on a bad day. I get the flashing folder unable to find a hard drive. Since my last clean install ... i haven't had that folder touch wood! But i do still however get the big bug.
After 10-15 minutes of using the iMac at normal speed whizzing around just doing general things on safari...thats it! its had enough.
Out comes the beach ball and the whole thing freezes apart from the cursor.
Launching a program will make it freeze, currently i launched the app store and its been frozen for a good 20 minutes with nothing.
Cant bring up force quit, either i wait sometimes 10 minutes sometimes an hour...or it has to be powered down by force.
Current state:
Clean install, no additional software, 500gb harddrive, clean as a whistle!
Things i've tried:
Smart status, verify disk, repair disk, check disk etc..all the usual disk utility bits.
fsck check.
memtest.
clean install of mountain lion.
-probably a few other bits i cannot think of.
System specification:
-I cannot paste the actual details from about this mac as its..you guessed it! FROZEN!
From the serial number this is its spec: http://support.apple.com/kb/SP485?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
10.8.3 OS
500gb HDD
3.06ghz Processor
4gb RAM
Let me know any other details you might need. Hope i've posted correctly as this is my first time on the forum. Fingers crossed someone has an answer or had a similar issue and resolution. Thanks, have a great day!
Jack

does the S.M.A.R.T. status of your hard drive return an OK verification?
Does anything show up during hard drive tests that indicate that your iMac's hard drive maybe failing?.
How many applications do you run simultaneously in the background while working in another application?
Do you run any antivirus software on your Mac? Antivirus software can slow down the normal operation of OS X.
Do you run any "crapware" like Mackeeper or any other type of so called hard drive "cleaning" apps?
Also, have you considered installing more RAM?
Your iMac model can take a max. RAM amount of 6 GBs
OS X 10.6, 10.7 and 10.8 use more and more CPU, GPU, RAM and hard drive resources.
OS X 10.8, alone (no other third party applications running) can use between 2-4 GBs of RAM, easily.
Correct and reliable Mac RAM can be purchased from online Mac RAM sources Crucial memory or OWC (macsales.com).
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/6400DDR2S6GP/

Similar Messages

IMac 2007 freezes after sleep and then can't find hard drive after reboot.

I'm having a problem where my mid 2007 iMac (2.4 GHz core duo w/ 6 Gb of ram) freezes after sleep. It seems to happen only when an application was open at the time of sleep. The freeze manifests as the cursor turns into the spinning wheel, but the computer can't do anything. Command-option escape doesn't work. Most of the time after I reboot, the iMac can't find the hard drive. If I leave the computer off for 15 minutes then it will reboot ok. Is my hard drive going out or do I have another problem? I'm running Mountain Lion 10.8.5. I've repaired permissions, verified the hard drive and reset the NVram but I still have the problem.

Here is the console right before the time of the crash.
11/10/13 10:02:13.069 AM SyncServer[18050]: [0x7fe02140bde0] |DataManager|Warning| Client com.apple.Mail sync alert tool path /System/Library/Frameworks/Message.framework/Resources/MailSync does not exist.
11/10/13 10:02:13.912 AM com.apple.time[177]: Interval maximum value is 946100000 seconds (specified value: 9223372036854775807).
11/10/13 10:02:16.947 AM iCalExternalSync[18051]: [ICalExternalSync ]Encountered exception: *** -[__NSArrayM objectAtIndex:]: index 207 beyond bounds [0 .. 205] withStack: (
          0   iCalExternalSync                    0x000000010186ca60 iCalExternalSync + 125536
          1   iCalExternalSync                    0x000000010185bac9 iCalExternalSync + 56009
          2   iCalExternalSync                    0x000000010186b694 iCalExternalSync + 120468
          3   libdyld.dylib                       0x00007fff8abf17e1 start + 0
          4   ???                                 0x0000000000000005 0x0 + 5
11/10/13 10:02:16.948 AM iCalExternalSync[18051]: [ICalExternalSync ]NSException name:NSRangeException reason:*** -[__NSArrayM objectAtIndex:]: index 207 beyond bounds [0 .. 205]
11/10/13 10:02:16.959 AM SyncServer[18050]: [0x7fe02140bde0] |Server|Warning| lost connection 0x7fe021496b30 to com.apple.iCal
11/10/13 10:02:31.511 AM com.apple.time[177]: Interval maximum value is 946100000 seconds (specified value: 9223372036854775807).
11/10/13 10:02:32.786 AM iCalExternalSync[18053]: [ICalExternalSync ]Encountered exception: *** -[__NSArrayM objectAtIndex:]: index 207 beyond bounds [0 .. 205] withStack: (
          0   iCalExternalSync                    0x000000010618ba60 iCalExternalSync + 125536
          1   iCalExternalSync                    0x000000010617aac9 iCalExternalSync + 56009
          2   iCalExternalSync                    0x000000010618a694 iCalExternalSync + 120468
          3   libdyld.dylib                       0x00007fff8abf17e1 start + 0
          4   ???                                 0x0000000000000007 0x0 + 7
11/10/13 10:02:32.787 AM iCalExternalSync[18053]: [ICalExternalSync ]NSException name:NSRangeException reason:*** -[__NSArrayM objectAtIndex:]: index 207 beyond bounds [0 .. 205]
11/10/13 10:02:32.797 AM SyncServer[18050]: [0x7fe02140bde0] |Server|Warning| lost connection 0x7fe021434b60 to com.apple.iCal
11/10/13 10:04:21.138 AM com.apple.usbmuxd[29]: _SendAttachNotification Device f0:d1:a9:1b:e1:0b@fe80::f2d1:a9ff:fe1b:e10b._apple-mobdev2._tcp.local. has already appeared on interface 5. Suppressing duplicate attach notification.
11/10/13 10:04:46.805 AM iTunes[15640]: Entered:_AMMuxedDeviceDisconnected, mux-device:48
11/10/13 10:04:46.805 AM iTunes[15640]: Entered:__thr_AMMuxedDeviceDisconnected, mux-device:48
11/10/13 10:04:46.806 AM iTunes[15640]: tid:16dcb - Mux ID not found in mapping dictionary
11/10/13 10:04:46.806 AM iTunes[15640]: tid:16dcb - Can't handle disconnect with invalid ecid
11/10/13 10:11:17.664 AM com.apple.time[11]: Next maintenance wake [Backup Interval]: <date: 0x7f8ac9627660> Sun Nov 10 10:47:04 2013 PST (approx)
11/10/13 10:11:17.664 AM com.apple.time[11]: Requesting maintenance wake [Backup Interval]: <date: 0x7f8ac9627660> Sun Nov 10 10:47:04 2013 PST (approx)

Constant hang/freeze/beach ball

I am experiencing nearly constant freezing/beach balls. I can barely type this as it hangs up every 30 seconds or so. It happens in all applications and the finder. The issue started a few months back (with an update I suspect), and I have since installed SL with negative results.
I have repaired permissions and the disk from the SL install disk and checked the hardware with the original system disks: all with no problems reported. Activity Monitor shows 27 GB free space on the HD, more than half the memory available and minimal CPU activity.
Not sure where to head from here, aside from installing SL from a clean disk...

I think that means that someone out there may be attempting to get into your computer and the firewall built into Snow Leopard is preventing that from happening. But I am not sure. Do you have a router attached between your Mac and your cable modem? You could try disabling the Firewall temporarily in System Preferences > Security > Firewall (click Stop) to see if that resolves your problem. If you don't have a router this could be a problem since without the Firewall you would leave the computer open to someone from the outside getting in.

My external hard drive is 'seen' by my iMac and I can go into the Finder and open files and folders. I am using the hard drive for Time Machine back up. However Time Machine says it can't find the drive. Same thing has happened with Final Cut Express.

My new LaCie external hard drive is 'seen' by my iMac and I can go into the Finder and open files and folders. I am using the hard drive for Time Machine back up. However Time Machine says it can't find the drive.
The same thing happened recently between Final Cut Express and my other LaCie external hard drive used as the Scratch disk. It fixed itself.
I've run out of ideas. Help would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

have you done some searches on FCPx and time machine? Is there a known issue with using a TM drive with FCPx? dunno but ...wait...I'll take 60 sec for you cause I'm just that kind of guy.... google...." fcpx time machine problem" Frist page link
http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/fcpx-bug-best-practices-for-using-external-hard- drives-and-final-cut-pro-x/
You cannot have time machine backups on your hard drive if you intend to use it in FCPX.
booya!

I have a mid-2010 27" Quad Core i5 iMac running 10.8.3. Startup disk recognizes the primary hard drive as a startup volume but will not boot from it. Have tried zapping PRAM, ran disk utility. No errors reported Any thoughts?

I have a mid-2010 27" Quad Core i5 iMac running 10.8.3. Startup disk recognizes the primary hard drive as a startup volume but will not boot from it. Have tried zapping PRAM, ran disk utility. No errors reported Any thoughts?

My bad Eric. The startup preference recognizes the primary as a 10.8.3 startup volume but when u select it the system does not boot. I can only boot from my external backup drive

I recently updated my Mid 2007 iMac with the latest OS 10.8.5 now my external hard drives will not show up. They show up when I boot them up on a machine running and earlier OS. Is there a fix for this?

I recently updated my 20-inch, Mid 2007 iMac with the latest OS 10.8.5 now my external hard drives will not show up. They show up when I boot them up on a machine running and earlier OS. Is there a fix for this?

Can you see them in Disk Utility?
If so, can you select and Mount them?
If not, disconnect them, reset the iMac's SMC and then reconnect them.
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
1. Shut down the computer.
2. Unplug the computer's power cord.
3. Wait fifteen seconds.
4. Attach the computer's power cord.
5. Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.
If you still can not see them, connect them back up to the iMac running the older OS, open Disk Utility and look to see how they are partitioned and formatted.

Hello. i have a 2011 iMac G4 with OSX10.9.2 and I can't find AirPlay . is it on this version of iMac? i just got a new soundsystem expecting to connect via AirPlay

hello. i have a 2011 iMac G4 with OSX10.9.2 and I can't find AirPlay . is it on this version of iMac? i just got a new soundsystem expecting to connect via AirPlay but don't know where to find it....?

About AirPlay and Airplay Mirroring
AirPlay Mirroring requires a second-generation Apple TV or later, and is supported on the following Mac models: iMac (Mid 2011 or newer), Mac mini (Mid 2011 or newer), MacBook Air (Mid 2011 or newer), and MacBook Pro (Early 2011 or newer). For non-qualifying Macs you can try using Air Parrot.
Several Apple Articles Regarding AirPlay
Apple TV (2nd and 3rd gen)- How to use AirPlay Mirroring
How to set up and configure AirPort Express for AirPlay and iTunes
iTunes- Troubleshooting AirPlay and AirPlay Mirroring
iTunes- Using AirPlay
Apple TV (2nd and 3rd gen)- Understanding AirPlay settings
About AirPlay Mirroring in OS X Mountain Lion
iTunes 10- About playing music with AirPlay
Troubleshooting AirPlay and AirPlay Mirroring
Using AirPlay
Thanks to the $15 Beamer, AirPlay streaming is still possible on Macs that do not support Airplay and mirroring.
Other solutions are the Air Parrot, StreamToMe, and AirServer.

How much external memory is necessary for a IMac desktop that has 4GB? I have a 500gb external hard drive and the computer is saying it is full.

My Imac has been recalled by Apple to replace the Seagte 1TB hard drive. I was told to back up my computer and I have a 500gb external hard drive. The computers memory is 4gb. why is my 500 gb external hard drive not enough space?

Your backup drive has half the capacity of the internal drive. Depending on how much of the iMac's drive is full, the external drive may or may not be sufficient.
It is like trying to pour the contents of a gallon milk carton into a half gallon pitcher. You may be able to pour the entire contents into the pitcher - but not if the milk carton is more than half full.

Do i need to buy the same hard driver for my iMac or i can buy any hard driver 3.5?

Do i need to buy the same hard driver for my iMac or i can buy any hard driver 3.5?

You can buy any 3'5" SATA hard drive for the iMac. You can buy a hard drive at OWC.
Note that Late 2009 and newer iMacs have the temperature sensor inside the hard drive, so it's important to get one with that sensor. In this case, I recommend you to take your computer to an Apple Store or reseller and get your hard disk replaced

I have an early 2008 Mac Pro and want to install a 3TB internal hard drive. Is this compatible? The manual indicates 1 TB per bay, but I have already installed two 2 TB hard drives in two other bays, and have had no problems. Any suggestions?

I have an early 2008 Mac Pro and want to install a 3TB internal hard drive. Is this compatible? The manual indicates 1 TB per bay, but I have already installed two 2 TB hard drives in two other bays, and have had no problems. Any suggestions?

RE: SATA Bus speed:
Typical Rotating drives available today, whatever their SATA spec, can source data off the spinning platters no faster than about 125MBytes/sec.
SATA 3 is rated at 6G bits/sec, which theoretically is about 750 Mega Bytes/sec
SATA 2 is rated at 3G bits/sec, which is theoretically about 375 Mega Bytes/sec
SATA 1 is rated at 1.5G bits/sec, which is theoretically about 187.5 Meg Bytes/sec
None of the SATA Busses is a bottleneck for consumer Rotating drives you can buy today. Trying to speed up the SATA Bus will not provide any real-world performance increases for Rotating Drives.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/22690384

I have a 2008 Mac Book Pro partitioned running windows and are running out of drive space. Can I upgrade hard drive for more capacity?

I have a 2008 Mac Book Pro partitioned running windows and are running out of drive space. Can I upgrade hard drive for more capacity? I purchased a faster drive initially, but has 200 GB capacity. I am running out of room and would like to upgrade for more space if possible.
Can anyone suggest an alternative?

You don't need to partition your drive to run Fusion, only if you want to run Bootcamp.
If you have space on your Windows partition, I would suggest you backup your Windows partition, and then, delete the partition using Disk Utility.
You can now restore your virtual machine to a single volume or repartition if you prefer.
I would consider upgrading to a unibody MBP (used, refurbished will do) just to be able to access the HD. Opening the pre-unibody MBP is not something you would want to do.

IMac (early 2008) crashing/freezing/beach ball appearing too often

Hi - I'm new to the support community but am in need of advice/help for my iMac that is crashing with blue and/or white screens or freezing with unresponsive mouse/keyboard and a spinning beach ball.
It's been doing this for about 6 months, and 4 months ago I sent it to an Authorised Apple repair centre. They upgraded the HDD to 1Tb as disk space was just about used up and beefed the emory up from 4Gb to 6Gb. However, within the week, it was doing it again - and the repair centre dont want to help anymore (seperate issue) - hence the plea for help as, no suprise, its frustrasting me beyond belief - I'm now almost at the point of giving up the mac way of life
The iMac is a 24" Early 2008 machine (2.8 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo) running Mavericks at 10.9.1 (albeit the issues were there last summer before the upgrade). The machine wont run a hardware test with holding down the D or Alt D on boot up - it used to do this fine before the Mavericks upgrade
Appreciate anyone's steer/advice - my technical knowledge is quite low (hence going for the mac in the first place)
Ta in advance to any replies

This procedure is a diagnostic test. It changes nothing, for better or worse, and therefore will not, in itself, solve your problem.
If you don't already have a current backup, back up all data before doing anything else. The backup is necessary on general principle, not because of anything in the test procedure. There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional. Ask if you need guidance.
Below are instructions to run a UNIX shell script, a type of program. All it does is to gather information about the state of your computer. That information goes nowhere unless you choose to share it on this page. However, you should be cautious about running a program at the instance of a stranger on a public message board. If you have doubts, search this site for other discussions in which this procedure has been followed without any report of ill effects. If you can't satisfy yourself that the instructions are safe, don't follow them.
Here's a summary of what you need to do: Copy a line of text from this web page into the window of another application. Wait about a minute. Then paste some other text, which will have been copied automatically, back into a reply on this page. The sequence is: copy, paste, wait, paste again. Details follow.
You may have started the computer in "safe" mode. Preferably, these steps should be taken in “normal” mode. If the system is now in safe mode and works well enough in normal mode to run the test, restart as usual. If you can only test in safe mode, do that.
If you have more than one user, and the one affected by the problem is not an administrator, then please run the test twice: once while logged in as the affected user, and once as an administrator. The results may be different. The user that is created automatically on a new computer when you start it for the first time is an administrator. If you can't log in as an administrator, test as the affected user. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this paragraph doesn’t apply.
The script is a single long line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, though you may not see all of it in your browser, and you can then copy it. If you try to select the line by dragging across the part you can see, you won't get all of it.
Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it:
clear; shopt -s extglob; Fb='%s\n\t(%s)\n'; Fm='\n%s:\n\n%s\n'; Fs='\n%s: %s\n'; Fu='user %s%%, system %s%%'; PB="/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c Print"; A () { [[ a -eq 0 ]]; }; R () { o=; [[ r -eq 0 ]]; }; Pm () { [[ "$o" ]] && o=`sed 's/^ */ /' <<< "$o"` && printf "$Fm" "$1" "$o"; }; Pc () { o=`egrep -v '^[[:blank:]]*($|#)' "$2"`; Pm "$1"; }; Pp () { o=`$PB "$2" | awk -F'= ' \/$3'/{print $2}'`; Pm "$1"; }; Ps () { o="${o##+( )}"; [[ ! "$o" =~ ^0?$ ]] && printf "$Fs" "$1" "$o"; }; id | grep -qw '80(admin)'; a=$?; A && sudo true; r=$?; t=`date +%s`; clear; { A || echo $'No admin access\n'; A && ! R && echo $'No root access\n'; system_profiler SPSoftwareDataType | sed '8!d;s/^ *//'; o=`system_profiler SPDiagnosticsDataType | sed '5,6!d'`; [[ "$o" =~ Pass ]] || Pm "POST"; o=`pmset -g therm | sed 's/^.*CP/CP/'`; egrep -q 'No th|pms' <<< "$o" && o=; Pm "Thermal conditions"; o=`pmset -g sysload | grep -v :`; grep -q '= [^GO]' <<< "$o" || o=; Pm "System load advisory"; o=`nvram boot-args | awk '{$1=""; print}'`; Ps "boot-args"; d=(/ ""); D=(System User); for i in 0 1; do o=`cd ${d[$i]}L*/L*/Dia* && ls !(*.diag) | tail | awk -F_ '{$NF=a[split($NF,a,".")]; print}'`; Pm "${D[$i]} diagnostics"; done; o=`syslog -F bsd -k Sender kernel -k Message CReq 'GPU |hfs: Ru|I/O e|n Cause: -|NVDA\(|pagin|SATA W|ssert|timed? ?o' | tail -n25 | awk '/:/{$4=""; $5=""; print}'`; Pm "Kernel messages"; o=`df -m / | awk 'NR==2 {print $4}'`; o=$((o<5120?o:0)); Ps "Free space (MiB)"; o=$(($(vm_stat | awk '/eo/{sub("\\.",""); print $2}')/256)); o=$((o>=1024?o:0)); Ps "Pageouts (MiB)"; s=( `sar -u 1 10 | sed '$!d'` ); [[ s[4] -lt 85 ]] && o=`printf "$Fu" ${s[1]} ${s[3]}` || o=; Ps "Total CPU usage" && { s=(`ps acrx -o comm,ruid,%cpu | sed '2!d'`); o=${s[2]}%; Ps "CPU usage by process \"$s\" with UID ${s[1]}"; }; s=(`top -R -l1 -n1 -o prt -stats command,uid,prt | sed '$!d'`); s[2]=${s[2]%[+-]}; o=$((s[2]>=25000?s[2]:0)); Ps "Mach ports used by process \"$s\" with UID ${s[1]}"; o=`kextstat -kl | grep -v com\\.apple | cut -c53- | cut -d\< -f1`; Pm "Loaded extrinsic kernel extensions"; R && o=`sudo launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.(apple|openssh|vix\.cron)|org\.(amav|apac|calendarse|cups|dove|isc|ntp|post[fg]|x)/{print $3}'`; Pm "Extrinsic system jobs"; o=`launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.apple|org\.(x|openbsd)|\.[0-9]+$/{print $3}'`; Pm "Extrinsic agents"; for d in {/,}L*/{La,Priv,Sta}*; do o=`ls -A "$d" | egrep -v '^(\.DS_Store$|com\.apple\.)'`; Pm "$d"; done; o=`find -L /S*/L*/E* {/,}L*/{A*d,Compon,Ex,In,Keyb,Mail,P*P,Qu,Scripti,Servi,Spo}* -type d -name Contents -prune | while read d; do ID=$($PB\ :CFBundleIdentifier "$d/Info.plist") || ID="No bundle ID"; egrep -qv "^com\.apple\.[^x]|Accusys|ArcMSR|ATTO|HDPro|HighPoint|driver\.stex|hp-fax|\.hpio|JMicron|microsoft\.MDI|print|SoftRAID" <<< $ID && printf "$Fb" "${d%/Contents}" "$ID"; done`; Pm "Extrinsic loadable bundles"; o=`find /u*/{,*/}lib -type f -exec sh -c 'file -b "$1" | grep -qw shared && ! codesign -v "$1"' {} {} \; -print`; Pm "Unsigned shared libraries"; o=`launchctl getenv DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES`; Pm "Inserted libraries"; o=`find {,/u*/lo*}/e*/periodic -type f -mtime -10d`; Pm "Modified periodic scripts"; o=`scutil --proxy | grep Prox`; Pm "Proxies"; o=`scutil --dns | awk '/r\[0\] /{if ($NF !~ /^1(0|72\.(1[6-9]|2[0-9]|3[0-1])|92\.168)\./) print $NF; exit}'`; Ps "DNS"; R && o=`sudo profiles -P | grep :`; Pm "Profiles"; for f in fstab sysctl.conf crontab launchd.conf; do Pc $f /etc/$f; done; Pc "hosts" <(grep -v 'host *$' /etc/hosts); Pc "User launchd" ~/.launchd; R && Pc "Root crontab" <(sudo crontab -l); Pc "User crontab" <(crontab -l); R && o=`sudo defaults read com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook`; Pm "Login hook"; Pp "Global login items" /L*/P*/loginw* Path; Pp "User login items" L*/P*/*loginit* Name; Pp "Safari extensions" L*/Saf*/*/E*.plist Bundle | sed 's/\..*$//;s/-[1-9]$//'; o=`find ~ $TMPDIR.. $ -flags +sappnd,schg,uappnd,uchg -o ! -user $UID -o ! -perm -600 $ | wc -l`; Ps "Restricted user files"; cd; o=`system_profiler SPFontsDataType | egrep "Valid: N|Duplicate: Y" | wc -l`; Ps "Font problems"; o=`find L*/{Con,Pref}* -type f ! -size 0 -name *.plist ! -exec sh -c 'plutil -s "$1" >&-' {} {} \; -print`; Pm "Bad plists"; d=(Desktop L*/Keyc*); n=(20 7); for i in 0 1; do o=`find "${d[$i]}" -type f -maxdepth 1 | wc -l`; o=$((o<=n[$i]?0:o)); Ps "${d[$i]##*/} files"; done; o=$((`date +%s`-t)); Ps "Elapsed time (s)"; } 2>/dev/null | pbcopy; exit 2>&-
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
When you launch Terminal, a text window will open with a line already in it, ending either in a dollar sign ($) or a percent sign (%). If you get the percent sign, enter “sh” and press return. You should then get a new line ending in a dollar sign.
Click anywhere in the Terminal window and paste (command-V). The text you pasted should vanish immediately. If it doesn't, press the return key.
If you're logged in as an administrator, you'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. You will not see the usual dots in place of typed characters. Make sure caps lock is off. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you make three failed attempts to enter the password, the test will run anyway, but it will produce less information. In most cases, the difference is not important.
If you're not logged in as an administrator, you won't be prompted for your password. The test will still run. It just won't do anything that requires administrator rights.
The test may take up to a few minutes to run, depending on how many files you have and the speed of the computer. A computer that's abnormally slow may take longer to run the test. There is no indication of progress until it's done. Wait for the line "[Process completed]" to appear in the Terminal window. If you don't see that line within half an hour or so, the test probably won't complete in a reasonable time. In that case, close the Terminal window and report your results. No harm will be done.
When the test is complete, quit Terminal. The results will have been copied to the Clipboard automatically. They are not shown in the Terminal window. Please don't copy anything from there. All you have to do is start a reply to this comment and then paste by pressing command-V again.
If any private information, such as your name or email address, appears in the results, anonymize it before posting. Usually that won't be necessary.
When you post the results, you might see the message, "You have included content in your post that is not permitted." That's because the forum software falsely identifies something in the post as a violation of the terms of use. If that happens, please post the results on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.
Note: This is a public forum, and others may give you advice based on the results of the test. They speak only for themselves, and I don't necessarily agree with them.
Copyright © 2014 Linc Davis. As the sole author of this work, I reserve all rights to it except as provided in the Terms of Use of Apple Support Communities ("ASC"). Readers of ASC may copy it for their own personal use. Neither the whole nor any part may be redistributed.

IMac 24 C2D freezing, beach ball, pinwheel

Hello wonderful user community!
I am helping my wife with this issue, she's never posted on the ASC before.
In the last two weeks my iMac has started behaving strangely.   It doesn't seem to matter whether running Spotify, Chrome, Firefox, or other applications, I will get beach balls, seemingly at random intervals. If watching a video on Youtube or Netflix, the picture will freeze the but the audio will continue. You can't Force Quit or make any commands in other applications, so it seems to be system wide. If someone is playing a video from my hard drive from the LAN, their video playback will freeze. After 15 secs to a minute or more, the machine will resume normal operation.
What I've tried:
The OS was installed less than a year ago from 10.6 disk and updated to OS 10.6.8 using Combo Updater.
Disk Repair Permisions
Disk Repair (boot from external drive)
reset PRAM
Take to Genius Desk at Apple store (results inconclusive, no hardware issues)
Activity Monitor shows no app in particular hanging
I'm about to cut and run on this thing, put it on Craigslist, and move on.
Any light shed on this would be incredibly helpful. I work from this iMac while my daughter watches videos on a 2nd monitor throughout the day. At night it's our TV and we watch movies on it. Needless to say it's an integral part of our lifestyle.
Hardware Overview:
Model Name:          iMac
Model Identifier:          iMac9,1
Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:          2.66 GHz
Number Of Processors:          1
Total Number Of Cores:          2
L2 Cache:          6 MB
Memory:          8 GB
Bus Speed:          1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version:          IM91.008D.B08
SMC Version (system):          1.45f0
Serial Number (system):          YD9*****0TG   <Serial Number Edited by Host>
Hardware UUID:          93EC2F20-E293-50E4-9EC3-F0401B5D8D65
Console sample taken during time period of several hangs:
2/20/12 8:56:32 PM
[0x0-0x13013].com.SugarSync.Manager[262]
[Mon Feb 20 20:56:32 2012:405406] [info] [datastore.sync.syncset] [0xb0617000] [Start syncing /sc/5000]
2/20/12 8:56:47 PM
[0x0-0x13013].com.SugarSync.Manager[262]
[Mon Feb 20 20:56:47 2012:405079] [info] [datastore.volumerelayclient] [0xb0617000] [getBucketChangeId timed out. bucket id: 5000]
2/20/12 8:56:47 PM
[0x0-0x13013].com.SugarSync.Manager[262]
[Mon Feb 20 20:56:47 2012:405145] [error] [datastore.sync.syncset] [0xb0617000] [ScVolumeSyncer.cpp:1644 getBucketChid failed for path /sc/5000]
2/20/12 8:56:47 PM
[0x0-0x13013].com.SugarSync.Manager[262]
[Mon Feb 20 20:56:47 2012:405168] [info] [datastore.sync.manager] [0xb0617000] [restartWithDelay. syncPath = /sc/5000, delay = 600 sec]
2/20/12 9:01:54 PM
[0x0-0x25025].com.spotify.client[317]
05:01:54.340 I [social_presence.cpp:120] Presence: A track was played
2/20/12 9:01:55 PM
[0x0-0x25025].com.spotify.client[317]
05:01:55.352 I [snd:517] 64k-Latency: 2 ms. Play latency: 184 ms (ap)
2/20/12 9:06:47 PM
[0x0-0x13013].com.SugarSync.Manager[262]
[Mon Feb 20 21:06:47 2012:405283] [info] [datastore.sync.syncset] [0xb0617000] [Stop syncing /sc/5000]
2/20/12 9:06:47 PM
[0x0-0x13013].com.SugarSync.Manager[262]
[Mon Feb 20 21:06:47 2012:405353] [info] [datastore.sync.syncset] [0xb0617000] [Start syncing /sc/5000]
2/20/12 9:07:02 PM
[0x0-0x13013].com.SugarSync.Manager[262]
[Mon Feb 20 21:07:02 2012:404888] [info] [datastore.volumerelayclient] [0xb0617000] [getBucketChangeId timed out. bucket id: 5000]
2/20/12 9:07:02 PM
[0x0-0x13013].com.SugarSync.Manager[262]
[Mon Feb 20 21:07:02 2012:404974] [error] [datastore.sync.syncset] [0xb0617000] [ScVolumeSyncer.cpp:1644 getBucketChid failed for path /sc/5000]
2/20/12 9:07:02 PM
[0x0-0x13013].com.SugarSync.Manager[262]
[Mon Feb 20 21:07:02 2012:405016] [info] [datastore.sync.manager] [0xb0617000] [restartWithDelay. syncPath = /sc/5000, delay = 600 sec]
2/20/12 9:08:15 PM
[0x0-0x25025].com.spotify.client[317]
05:08:15.352 I [social_presence.cpp:120] Presence: A track was played
2/20/12 9:08:16 PM
[0x0-0x25025].com.spotify.client[317]
05:08:16.228 I [snd:517] 64k-Latency: 3 ms. Play latency: 195 ms (ap)
2/20/12 9:14:26 PM
[0x0-0x25025].com.spotify.client[317]
05:14:26.646 I [social_presence.cpp:120] Presence: A track was played
2/20/12 9:14:33 PM
[0x0-0x25025].com.spotify.client[317]
05:14:33.708 I [snd:517] 64k-Latency: 2 ms. Play latency: 6179 ms (ap)
2/20/12 9:15:36 PM
[0x0-0x25025].com.spotify.client[317]
05:15:36.315 I [offline-mgr:2144] Storage has been cleaned
2/20/12 9:17:02 PM
[0x0-0x13013].com.SugarSync.Manager[262]
[Mon Feb 20 21:17:02 2012:405144] [info] [datastore.sync.syncset] [0xb0617000] [Stop syncing /sc/5000]
2/20/12 9:17:02 PM
[0x0-0x13013].com.SugarSync.Manager[262]
[Mon Feb 20 21:17:02 2012:405274] [info] [datastore.sync.syncset] [0xb0617000] [Start syncing /sc/5000]
2/20/12 9:17:17 PM
[0x0-0x13013].com.SugarSync.Manager[262]
[Mon Feb 20 21:17:17 2012:405045] [info] [datastore.volumerelayclient] [0xb0617000] [getBucketChangeId timed out. bucket id: 5000]
2/20/12 9:17:17 PM
[0x0-0x13013].com.SugarSync.Manager[262]
[Mon Feb 20 21:17:17 2012:405155] [error] [datastore.sync.syncset] [0xb0617000] [ScVolumeSyncer.cpp:1644 getBucketChid failed for path /sc/5000]
2/20/12 9:17:17 PM
[0x0-0x13013].com.SugarSync.Manager[262]
[Mon Feb 20 21:17:17 2012:405181] [info] [datastore.sync.manager] [0xb0617000] [restartWithDelay. syncPath = /sc/5000, delay = 600 sec]

meow3cjc wrote:
I did study XLab's article before posting here, and I did check the Activity monitor for oddities and found none.
Another clue: When watching a DVD disc, there are no freezes. This is the ONLY time we don't experience the 15 minute freeze cycle. Starting to think the harddrive is failing...
If you suspect the HD is failing then run Apple Hardware Test in Extended Mode , it is wise to run the test 2-3 times to be sure. If it picks up any error codes then you should plan on visiting an Apple Store or AASP to get it fixed and the codes interpreted. Apple does not publish what codes are interpreted as however some will give you a good idea. For example if it has HDD in it then you know the error is related to the HD however you don't know if it's the drive itself or it possible it could be fan sensor for the HD, this is why it's smart to take it in.

ITunes - new iMac freezes & beach balls when trying to sync iPhone 3

I have a new iMac running Lion. When I try to sync my old iPhone 3g, iTunes freezes with the dreaded spinning beach ball for ever! When I do connect the iPhone, iTunes recognizes my phone in the list, but does not ever give me the option to even erase all my old content. Stranger still - when I get tired of the beach ball spinning and disconnect the iphone, the itunes list briefly displays all my iphone content (playlists, etc.) and then goes away. We have successfully synced a very old ipod shuffle (after wiping its contents) to new Imac, so cables, etc are not the issue. we did have to de-authorize all computers to get new Imac going, perhaps a clue? I have backed up the iphone to both an old mac mini (where it still syncs flawlessly) and have migrated data to new imac so I could recover. I am willing to lose iPhone data so I can sync. I am too cheap to buy newer iphone as it still works great.
my thoughts:
1. erase all content on iphone and then try to sync?
2. grumble and get new iphone?

do you guy's fix the problem?

IMac bootup issues and spinning beach ball of death.

Hello Hello.
So I was recently given a brand new iMac 27inch by Apple, due to the death of my 2008 24inch iMac. Everything has been going great with it until today. I restarted it at some point this afternoon, and ever since then it has been acting quite strange. First thing i've noticed is that when I boot it up, when it gets to the white screen with the gray apple logo and the spinning thing, there is now a transparent rounded rectangle bar at the bottom of the screen for a minute or so...which was never the case before. Then, if it decides to proceed to OSX (sometimes it wont), the beach ball of death never stops spinning, which of course means i can do pretty much nothing. On top of that, it will not connect to the internet...my Macbook Pro connects fine to the wifi, so I know it's not my service. Bottom line, I have no idea what is going on. I've had it only for a couple of months, and haven't really had any problems until now. I'm hoping I'll just wake up in the morning and everything will be back to normal...
Any ideas?
Thanks for yer time
IAN

I was able to get 'places' working on my Mac Pro by opening a library I created on my Macbook Pro (no crashing experienced in that install from the start) that contained a single geotagged image. The function works fine even after deleting the image, it just seemed to need the location data to get it kicking. I was creating a new library (since started as a trial) and was not upgrading an version 2 library.
There is obviously a bug here that needs addressing though.

24" iMac 2008 3.06ghz - Freezes/Beach balls/Sometimes can't find hard drive

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for