Google Desktop and the spinning wheel of death

For anyone who is reading this who has installed Google products on Leopard: DON'T!
I don't know what exactly caused the spinning wheel, but what I can tell you is that I used Onyx on my system. After that, I had huge problems with my node structure. I fixed those problems with Disk Warrior 4 and was able to at least get my computer to boot reasonably fast, but not as fast as it should. I kept getting the dreaded, spinning wheel! Why? Why? Why?, I asked myself.
Well, after reading someone else's post about running activity monitor to see what could be running, I saw that Google's Dektop analyzer was running. I quit it, only for it to restart automatically by itself.
I ended up getting CleanApp to delete a bunch of stuff I didn't need to see if that would get rid of the problem. When that didn't, I went back to the Google products and delted anything and everything Google from both Library/Preferences folders as well as from my Applications folder.
I can tell you that I am now back running smoothly and typing this note faster than I could type anything for the past 5 hours!!! Woohoo!
You can't imagine how frustrated I was. In the middle of homework and I get crunched by the spinning wheel of death.
So, for all of you who are running Google Desktop...beware! Even if you quit from your activity monitor, it will launch again immediately after. You just have to delete the darn thing.
I'm not sure if Onyx affected it or not. That's for someone else to figure out. But I haven't had good luck with both Onyx and now Google Desktop, so I'm steering far, far clear of both of those applications for now.
Hope this helps someone.

Here is an update on my situation with Google Desktop. I found out that was not the problem at all. Actually, Software Update - 10.5.2 caused the problem. I even wiped the drive, reinstalled 10.5.1 and then upgraded again to 10.5.2 and the same issues arose. The spinning pinwheel (beachball of death) would appear for a few seconds before most operations and the system would not shut down after the Updating Boot Cache notice appeared.
I contacted Apple support by phone and they walked me through a number of steps to try and resolve. When those steps did not work, which included setting up an alternate user and trying to log of from that user, they assigned me a incident number and notified me that they'll have to scale it up to engineering to see if there will be a solution.

Similar Messages

I have been transfeing my DVD footage to I movie using handbreak and the spinning wheel of death has arrived and locked up I movie as I tried to import footage. The message says, "Optimizing movies, processing event DVD" but I can't get out of it.

I have been transfeing my DVD footage to I movie using handbreak and the spinning wheel of death has arrived and locked up I movie as I tried to import footage. The message says, "Optimizing movies, processing event DVD" but I can't get out of it.

Yes I held them down till the apple logo appears, then spinning wheel and repeated boot up process. I only knew it was going round in circles because the charging sound kept repeating every so many seconds.
I am downloading iOS.5.0.1 now to do a complete factory restore. I hope this works. I have been looking online for hours for fixes and I have very little batter on it as its been spinning for hours now.
Why do things like this happen? I am sat there watching tv and one minute the settings folder is there then its not! How does that happen? It just disappear? I hadn't moved it to another folder or deleted it, it just.... went!

Safari - Slow loading and the spinning wheel of death!

it seens that every page i surf to i get the spinning wheel of death . i have to wait and wait and wait, you get the picture. this happens on just about every page i go to, more on the pages that have forms to fill out.
I have read on another post that clearing the cache may help. NOT! and that trashing the favicons folder will help. Where is the favicons? also that restetting the application will solve all my problems. This is not internet exploader. this is suppossed to be apple. rock solid and all that crap.

Hi Darryl S,
* You will find the Favicons in:
HD/User/Your_Name/Home/Library/Safari/Icon Folder
* Quit Safari an trash the whole folder, when you relaunch Safari again, a NEW Icon Folder will be regenerated.
* Now go back to the Icon Folder in Safari an only select the Folder once, no get info by pressing the Command-i key. Set the Icon Folder to ONLY READ this prevents that the Favicons will be stored.
Also:
1. Empty your cache & History settings via the Safari menu
2. Shut down your computer . . . unplug the computer, modem, and router, if you have one. Also the power to support the modem. Let everything sit for 2-3 minutes. Plug everything back in, start up your modem & router, then restart your computer.
* Good luck ...
Dimaxum

Sharing, Permissions, and the Spinning Wheel of Death

Yesterday, I goofed when changing Sharing & Permissions on folders in another Profile's Home folder. My account is an admin account. I clicked "Apply to Enclosed Items..." and while I thought I had selected the correct Profile, I must have in fact selected "Users", so soon I began to get permissions errors in my Profile for iTunes, Mail, etc.
I could still log in to all accounts, but each got permission errors.
I was able to resolve the permissions issue for my Profile, but it persists for other Profiles.
When I open the "Info" editor and unlock the padlock, I get the Spinning Wheel of Death (SWOD) when I click the "+" to pull up the Users list.
It does not matter which Profile I am in.
I am running OS X Mavericks v10.9.1 on a 27" iMac.
How can I deal with this problem so that I will get the Users list instead of the SWOD when i click the "+" so that i can add my admin User account and give it Read & Write control?

Spinning Beach Ball
Spinning Beach ball (2)

Mail and the spinning wheel of death

we have a office macbook pro running 10.4.11 that is having some problems with mail.
normal email are sending and coming in fine, however emails going or coming with attachments are causing mail to lock up.
when mail is locked up you can not force quit only powering down the computer closes mail.
any ideas? thanks for the help
-Dan

Hi Dan,
Very Important, how much Free Space is on your Hard Drive first of all? Click on the Macintosh HD on the Desktop, then do a Get Info on it.
Not certain, but this can fix myriad Mail problems...
Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), it will try to repair your Disk Directory while the spinning radian is happening, so let it go, run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, then move these folder & file to the Desktop.
Move this Folder to the Desktop...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Caches/Mail/
Move this file to the Desktop...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/Envelope Index
Reboot.
If that doesn't do it and you can afford to redo all your Rules, try these & reboot...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/MessageRules.plist
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/MessageRules.plist.backup

IPhone 4s unresponsive stuck on the spinning wheel of death.

Hi,
My 4s has gotten progressively more unresponsive for the last few days. It worked flawlessly for two weeks or so, but the last two or so days have seen it getting weird.
Symptom 1 appeared 2-3 days or so ago: Facebook started getting freezy. 50% of the time it would take after opening it would take 15-45 sec to become to finish loading and become responsive to touch commands.
Symptom 2 happened 2 days ago: The phone froze for 15 or so seconds, went to black screen, showed the spinning wheel of death, and then rebooted to lock screen very quickly.
Symptom 3 happened 4 hours ago: The phone was searching for the carrier when I took it out of my pocket. Other iphone users in the room had perfect reception. I solved the problem by turning on airplane mode briefly and then turning it off again.
Symptom 4 happened just now: I was playing music, paused with the earbud control, switched to a different set of headphones, pressed play on the lock screen and got no response. Realized the phone was frozen. It stayed that way for 2-3 minutes, went to black screen and the spinning wheel of death, but then the spinning wheel of death froze as well. It has been in this state for the last 20 minutes.
I will be happy to post time-stamped photos of the locked up phone if anyone needs proof.
A hard-reset solved the problem. For now.
Any advice on what this could be? A software setting? An app interaction?
Any advice on if I should return the phone and get a different one?
Thanks!
--Jason

Hey sorry to hear about your frustration.
A couple of things.
First, Facebook is known for causing issues on iPhone. It takes up a lot of memory and has been known to crash a lot. It has gotten a lot better with time and updates but can still cause problems. I tend to manually quit it from the App-switcher/multitasking tray.
Second, the reception issue you mentioned ("Searching", lack of data connection) sounds like it might be similar to some of the reports on this thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3511559?tstart=30#3511559
Personally, I've been having the same problems on my 4S with reception as well as Siri being unavailable in spite of having 3G and being able to make/receive calls.
Thirdly, now that you mention it, I have noticed lack of responsiveness to touch input at times. Sometimes when my phone is locked, I'll press the home button or the wake button and it will take quite awhile before the phone reponds amd the screen turns on. Sometimes it doesn't at all and I have to press the button multiple times to get a reponse.
So, yes, many of your issues sound familiar. Unfortunately, I think I share some of them with you.
One thing you might want to check is what software version you have. The most recent is 5.0.1 build 9A406. If you have 5.0.1 build 9A405 you're not running the most up-to-date software. In that case, update by backing ul and restoring from iTunes (sofware update on the phone will not show the update; it has to be done via backup+restore in iTunes). To check what version you have, go to Settings>General>About. Scroll down and check what it says under "Version".
I hope that helps somewhat.

URGENT!!! FCP 5.04 keeps giving the Spinning wheel of Death

Everytime we load up the FCP with the Apple Raid on, it will give me the spinning wheel of death, so we trashed the preferences, and it went along fine for a while and then we shut down and the spinning wheel of death. Now on the load up, the spinning wheel of death.... WHAT DO I DO? Should I delete FCP, and reload, if so what is the safest way to delete FCP??? If not, what other solutions might one have. Thanks

Interesting event: I manually override the Raid Admin while the computer was down, and waited for it to boot, then I turned the computer on and the Raids mounted, and everything was fine, but when I went to the Raid Admin (Version 1.5) it loaded up fine as well. I can't quite put my finger on the issue, but manually overriding the boot up seemed to help out.
Now as for the issue of having one side striped raid 5 and one striped raid 0, is this a good way to have my system setup or should I do something about this setup, if so what can I do???
Thanks

What is the cause of the Spinning Wheel of Death (SWOD) and how can we fix it?

What is the cause of the Spinning Wheel of Death (SWOD) and how can we fix it?
I get the SWOD using Safari, Mail, Google chrome, Firefox, Mathematica, and other programs. This cannot be a browser plug-in issues as other forums suggest. I suspect a windows process at the root but I don't enough to know how to trace. Does anyone know what's causeing this epidemic?

I'm having a similar problem. Someone PLEASE HELP!
I'll start with just an example of what I've been facing. During the composing of this post, when I switched from Firefox to Word, I had to wait 60 seconds before the spinning wheel stopped and I got a cursor. I then copied one set of Etrecheck results, switched back to Firefox, hit Command-v to paste and had to wait 45 seconds or so for the spinning wheel to stop. And the paste operation didn't paste until I hit Command-v again (with no wait this time).
Here's what I've done:
I tried three times to run a scan with avast! and all three times the scan was unable to complete.
I restarted holding down Command-r and it found and fixed many permissions, but found no problems with files.
I ran Etrecheck in a "Safe Boot" and in a normal startup and there were two things that were tagged as "[failed]" in the normal startup:
Launch Agents: [failed]com.logmein.LMILaunchAgentFixer.plist Support
User Launch Agents: [failed][email protected]
I apologize for taking up so much space, but here are the results from both Etrecheck runs:
EtreCheck in Safe Mode
EtreCheck version: 1.9.12 (48)
Report generated July 24, 2014 3:38:40 PM CDT
Hardware Information:
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2008) (Verified)
MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro4,1
1 2.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2 cores
5 GB RAM
Video Information: GeForce 8600M GT - VRAM: 512 MB
Color LCD 1680 x 1050
System Software: Mac OS X 10.7.5 (11G63) - Uptime: 0 days 0:12:35
Disk Information: WDC WD1600BEVS-00VAT0 disk0 : (160.04 GB) disk0s1 (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 159.18 GB (27.6 GB free)
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
USB Information: Apple Inc. Built-in iSight
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Apple Computer Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
Kernel Extensions:
[not loaded]com.AmbrosiaSW.AudioSupport (4.1.2 - SDK 10.6) Support
[not loaded]com.avast.AvastFileShield (2.1.0 - SDK 10.9) Support
[not loaded]com.avast.PacketForwarder (1.4 - SDK 10.9) Support
[not loaded]com.devguru.driver.CDFree (0.1.8) Support
[not loaded]com.devguru.driver.DevGuruVsp (0.1.8) Support
[not loaded]com.logmein.driver.LogMeInSoundDriver (1.0.3 - SDK 10.5) Support
[not loaded]com.parallels.kext.prl_usb_connect (7.0 15107.796624) Support
[not loaded]com.vmware.kext.vmci (3.1.4) Support
[not loaded]com.vmware.kext.vmioplug (3.1.4) Support
[not loaded]com.vmware.kext.vmnet (3.1.4) Support
[not loaded]com.vmware.kext.vmx86 (3.1.4) Support
Startup Items: HP IO: Path: /Library/StartupItems/HP IO
Launch Daemons:
[not loaded]com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support
[not loaded]com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist Support
[not loaded]com.ambrosiasw.ambrosiaaudiosupporthelper.daemon.plist Support
[not loaded]com.avast.init.plist Support
[not loaded]com.avast.uninstall.plist Support
[not loaded]com.avast.update.plist Support
[not loaded]com.cloudpath.maccmd.plist Support
[not loaded]com.crashplan.engine.plist Support
[not loaded]com.google.keystone.daemon.plist Support
[not loaded]com.logmein.logmeinblanker.plist Support
[not loaded]com.logmein.logmeinserver.plist Support
[not loaded]com.logmein.raupdate.plist Support
[not loaded]com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist Support
[not loaded]com.oracle.java.JavaUpdateHelper.plist Support
[not loaded]com.orbicule.uc.plist Support
[not loaded]com.parallels.desktop.launchdaemon.plist Support
[not loaded]com.vmware.launchd.vmware.plist Support
Launch Agents:
[not loaded]com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist Support
[not loaded]com.avast.userinit.plist Support
[not loaded]com.google.keystone.agent.plist Support
[not loaded]com.hp.help.tocgenerator.plist Support
[not loaded]com.logmein.LMILaunchAgentFixer.plist Support
[not loaded]com.logmein.logmeingui.plist Support
[not loaded]com.logmein.logmeinguiagent.plist Support
[not loaded]com.logmein.logmeinguiagentatlogin.plist Support
[not loaded]com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist Support
[not loaded]com.orbicule.UCAgent.plist Support
[not loaded]com.parallels.desktop.launch.plist Support
[not loaded]com.parallels.DesktopControlAgent.plist Support
[not loaded]com.parallels.vm.prl_pcproxy.plist Support
User Launch Agents:
[not loaded]com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist Support
[not loaded]com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist Support
[not loaded]com.akamai.single-user-client.plist Support
[not loaded][email protected]
[not loaded]com.avast.home.userinit.plist Support
User Login Items:
CrashPlan menu bar
VMware Fusion Start Menu
Dropbox
TeamViewer
EvernoteHelper
Internet Plug-ins: GlancePlugIn: Version: 2.5.6 - SDK 10.4 Support
o1dbrowserplugin: Version: 5.4.2.18903 Support
OfficeLiveBrowserPlugin: Version: 12.3.6 Support
Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: Version: 3.2.0.16 - SDK 10.8 Support
AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 10.1.10 Support
FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 14.0.0.145 - SDK 10.6 Support
LogMeIn: Version: 1.0.935 - SDK 10.7 Support
Silverlight: Version: 5.1.30317.0 - SDK 10.6 Support
Flash Player: Version: 14.0.0.145 - SDK 10.6 Support
iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0
CitrixICAClientPlugIn: Version: 11.1.0 Support
googletalkbrowserplugin: Version: 5.4.2.18903 Support
AdobePDFViewer: Version: 10.1.10 Support
LogMeInSafari32: Version: 1.0.935 - SDK 10.7 Support
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.1
SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.1.2 Support
JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 7 Update 60 Check version
Safari Extensions: avast! Online Security: Version: 9.0.2022.120
Audio Plug-ins: iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.1 - SDK 10.7
iTunes Plug-ins: Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.3 - SDK 10.7
User iTunes Plug-ins: TuneUp Visualizer: Version: 2.2.0 Support
User Internet Plug-ins:
CitrixOnlineWebDeploymentPlugin: Version: 1.0.26 Support
WebEx64: Version: 1.0 Support
3rd Party Preference Panes:
Akamai NetSession Preferences Support
Citrix online plug-in Support
Flash Player Support
Flip4Mac WMV Support
Java Support
Perian Support
Time Machine: Time Machine not configured!
Top Processes by CPU:
23%firefox
2%WindowServer
1%Microsoft Word
0%Finder
0%Microsoft Excel
Top Processes by Memory:
307 MBfirefox
164 MBMicrosoft Word
108 MBMicrosoft Excel
90 MBWindowServer
72 MBDock
Virtual Memory Information:
1.11 GBFree RAM
1.14 GBActive RAM
392 MBInactive RAM
2.36 GBWired RAM
341 MBPage-ins
0 BPage-outs
EtreCheck in Normal Mode
EtreCheck version: 1.9.12 (48) Report generated July 24, 2014 3:59:15 PM CDT
Hardware Information:
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2008) (Verified)
MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro4,1
1 2.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2 cores 5 GB RAM
Video Information:
GeForce 8600M GT - VRAM: 512 MB
Color LCD 1280 x 800
System Software:
Mac OS X 10.7.5 (11G63) - Uptime: 0 days 0:11:57
Disk Information:
WDC WD1600BEVS-00VAT0 disk0 : (160.04 GB)
disk0s1 (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 159.18 GB (27.56 GB free)
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
USB Information:
Apple Inc. Built-in iSight
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Apple Computer Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
Kernel Extensions:
[loaded]com.AmbrosiaSW.AudioSupport (4.1.2 - SDK 10.6) Support
[loaded]com.avast.AvastFileShield (2.1.0 - SDK 10.9) Support
[loaded]com.avast.PacketForwarder (1.4 - SDK 10.9) Support
[not loaded]com.devguru.driver.CDFree (0.1.8) Support
[not loaded]com.devguru.driver.DevGuruVsp (0.1.8) Support
[loaded]com.logmein.driver.LogMeInSoundDriver (1.0.3 - SDK 10.5) Support
[not loaded]com.parallels.kext.prl_usb_connect (7.0 15107.796624) Support
[loaded]com.vmware.kext.vmci (3.1.4) Support
[loaded]com.vmware.kext.vmioplug (3.1.4) Support
[loaded]com.vmware.kext.vmnet (3.1.4) Support
[loaded]com.vmware.kext.vmx86 (3.1.4) Support
Startup Items:
HP IO: Path: /Library/StartupItems/HP IO
Launch Daemons:
[loaded]com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support
[loaded]com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist Support
[loaded]com.ambrosiasw.ambrosiaaudiosupporthelper.daemon.plist Support
[loaded]com.avast.init.plist Support
[loaded]com.avast.uninstall.plist Support
[loaded]com.avast.update.plist Support
[loaded]com.cloudpath.maccmd.plist Support
[running]com.crashplan.engine.plist Support
[loaded]com.google.keystone.daemon.plist Support
[not loaded]com.logmein.logmeinblanker.plist Support
[running]com.logmein.logmeinserver.plist Support
[loaded]com.logmein.raupdate.plist Support
[loaded]com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist Support
[loaded]com.oracle.java.JavaUpdateHelper.plist Support
[running]com.orbicule.uc.plist Support
[running]com.parallels.desktop.launchdaemon.plist Support
[loaded]com.vmware.launchd.vmware.plist Support
Launch Agents:
[not loaded]com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist Support
[loaded]com.avast.userinit.plist Support
[loaded]com.google.keystone.agent.plist Support
[loaded]com.hp.help.tocgenerator.plist Support
[failed]com.logmein.LMILaunchAgentFixer.plist Support
[running]com.logmein.logmeingui.plist Support
[running]com.logmein.logmeinguiagent.plist Support
[not loaded]com.logmein.logmeinguiagentatlogin.plist Support
[loaded]com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist Support
[running]com.orbicule.UCAgent.plist Support
[loaded]com.parallels.desktop.launch.plist Support
[loaded]com.parallels.DesktopControlAgent.plist Support
[running]com.parallels.vm.prl_pcproxy.plist Support
User Launch Agents:
[loaded]com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist Support
[loaded]com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist Support
[running]com.akamai.single-user-client.plist Support
[failed][email protected]
[loaded]com.avast.home.userinit.plist Support
User Login Items:
CrashPlan menu bar
VMware Fusion Start Menu
Dropbox
TeamViewer
EvernoteHelper
Internet Plug-ins:
GlancePlugIn: Version: 2.5.6 - SDK 10.4 Support
o1dbrowserplugin: Version: 5.4.2.18903 Support
OfficeLiveBrowserPlugin: Version: 12.3.6 Support
Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: Version: 3.2.0.16 - SDK 10.8 Support
AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 10.1.10 Support
FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 14.0.0.145 - SDK 10.6 Support
LogMeIn: Version: 1.0.935 - SDK 10.7 Support
Silverlight: Version: 5.1.30317.0 - SDK 10.6 Support
Flash Player: Version: 14.0.0.145 - SDK 10.6 Support
iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0
CitrixICAClientPlugIn: Version: 11.1.0 Support
googletalkbrowserplugin: Version: 5.4.2.18903 Support
AdobePDFViewer: Version: 10.1.10 Support
LogMeInSafari32: Version: 1.0.935 - SDK 10.7 Support
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.1
SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.1.2 Support
JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 7 Update 60 Check version
Safari Extensions:
avast! Online Security: Version: 9.0.2022.120
Audio Plug-ins:
iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.1 - SDK 10.7
iTunes Plug-ins:
Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.3 - SDK 10.7
User iTunes Plug-ins:
TuneUp Visualizer: Version: 2.2.0 Support
User Internet Plug-ins:
CitrixOnlineWebDeploymentPlugin: Version: 1.0.26 Support
WebEx64: Version: 1.0 Support
3rd Party Preference Panes:
Akamai NetSession Preferences Support
Citrix online plug-in Support
Flash Player Support
Flip4Mac WMV Support
Java Support
Perian Support
Time Machine:
Time Machine not configured!
Top Processes by CPU:
6%WindowServer
4%mdworker
2%SystemUIServer
0%LogMeIn
0%configd
Top Processes by Memory:
113 MBCrashPlanService
108 MBcom.avast.daemon
108 MBDropbox
92 MBFinder
67 MBSystemUIServer
Virtual Memory Information:
2.61 GBFree RAM
1.19 GBActive RAM
651 MBInactive RAM
573 MBWired RAM
534 MBPage-ins
0 BPage-outs
There were two listed as [failed]:
Launch Agents:
[failed]com.logmein.LMILaunchAgentFixer.plist Support
User Launch Agents:
[failed][email protected]

I get the spinning wheel of death every time I try to open the desktop

How can I fix the spinning wheel of death when trying to open the desktop /screensaver icon in system preferences?

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
First, open Disk Utility, select Macintosh HD in the sidebar and repair permissions.
If it doesn't work, open Finder, select Go menu > Go to Folder, type ~/Library/Preferences, delete "com.apple.desktop.plist" and "com.apple.systempreferences.plist" and restart

My Mac is lagging big and whenever I click on something it just goes to the spinning wheel of death I can't do anything I need help

Somebody help me My Mac is lagging big and whenever I click on something it just goes to the spinning wheel of death I can't do anything I need help

What model year Mac and what version of OS X are you running.
If this is on an older Mac with standard Rotating HDD it could be a sign the HDD is either to full of data or it is starting to fail. It could also be caused by 3rd party software you've installed.

Every time I click on something, the spinning wheel of death pops up and won't go away.

I restarted my computer recently, and ever since, the "spinning wheel of death" pops up and won't go away, every single time I click on something. It's getting really annoying, and I just need to do my school work on it. Please help. Someone!

Mac OS X (10.7)
Use Lion Recovery

The Spinning Wheel of Death

For the past couple of months I have been having a problem of the spinning wheel spinning and spinning and spinning, taking seemingly forever to upload a new screen in Safari or a new application from the HD.
I did read several of the posts on the 30+ page discussion regarding freezing of machines after the latest large update of Snow Leopard. Although there seems to be a few times per week such freezing does occur, this is fairly infrequent when compared to the 95% of activity that is falling victim to the Spinning Wheel of Death. I have loved the Apple OS from the moment I began using it 5 or so years ago and this is really the very first time I've had such a frustrating issue with an Apple product (I haven't even experienced the antenna issue with my iPhone 4).
At work I have to use a PC and if this were a PC, I'd do something like check for malware to see if that was slowing the process down. I've done that on my MacBook Pro with the Mac-compatible equivalent to the Malwarebytes program I have at work, but still I get the Spinning Wheel of Death. I've even dumped some recent applications that I downloaded to see if they might have been the cause. Nope.
I don't know how to check which programs are running in the background, so that has not yet been done.If I did, I'd obviously turn off some of those I don't need to start up at login.
Does anyone have a "for Dummies" explanation of what other things I might do to attempt to remedy this situation? It shouldn't take 2-5 minutes for a web page to download or an application to begin.
Thanks in advance.

Gr8ful -
The link baltwo linked is a great one.
I have a couple questions for you, OK?
1. What are you using to check for "malware?"
2. Have you ever checked your Font Book Application in your Applications folder
for duplicates or corrupt fonts? That would be something I would check.
You can open up "Activity Monitor" in your Applications > Utilities folder.
Leave it open on your desktop, and select "All proceesses" rather than "My processes."
Have a look and monitor what kicks in when the beachball appears.
For browser slowness:
Are you emptying your Safari Cache & History lists (assuming you're using Safari as your browser).
Message was edited by: ~Bee

Why is it that it would take a very long time [if ever] to change or adjust the tempo of a loop in the audio track when i set it to adjust regions to locators? Until now the spinning wheel of death is still very much spinning. thanks for any help. Is th

Why is it that it would take a very long time [if ever] to change or adjust the tempo of a loop in the audio track when i set it to adjust regions to locators? Until now the spinning wheel of death is still very much spinning. thanks for any help.
Is there another way to adjust tempo of loops the faster way, any other technique?

No clue why the final processes have suddenly started to take so long. Two things I'd try: a) capture from an older tape to see if some problem with the new tape is at fault. And b) check the health of your RAM and the hard drive.
The red frame sounds a bit like a glitch we used to have in OnLocation (actually in its predecessor HDV Rack) which was caused by a partial GOP. But that was a product of HDV Rack recording from the live video stream. It turned out that HDV cameras intentionally interrupt the data stream for an instant upon starting to record--specifically to avoid recording a partial GOP to tape. So my gut says that the tape has partial GOPs at the points where you stopped/started recording.

In Word I constantly get the spinning wheel of death. Tried force quite several times, did restart i`mac, waited for a day etc etc but problem remains, what to do next?, i my

In Word I constantly get the spinning wheel of death, wait a few seconds and then go again. I have tried force quit several times, restarting the IMac etc. Waited one day, nothing seems to work. What to try next?

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When I click on Pages I get an old document and the spinning wheel, I can't create a new doc, open another doc, or edit the one that does open, what do I do now?

I go to the Pages application and click on it, and instead of getting the normal Pages menu I get an old Pages document and the spinning wheel. I can't open the menu bar, can't create a new document, can't open another document, can't access the menu. All that happens is the spinning wheel, it's been thirty minutes now and it's still spinning

Menu > Apple > Force Quit… > Pages
Try opening Pages with the shift key held down.
To escape what is happening in Pages if you can't get at the menu, click on your Desktop then come at the Apple menu by sliding around from top right.
Peter

Google Desktop and the spinning wheel of death

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