Mac Mini extremely unresponsive, pinwheel of death all the time, fails reboot.

Question

I got my mac mini 2011 the MC816LL/A model in February and don't give it much usage so I was surprised when it started behaving erratically and and giving me the pinwheel of death all the time, the issues started all of a sudden a couple of months ago. Even when I force reset the computer fails and then i have to turn it off completely and wait more than 15 mins to be able to use it again, totally ridiculous... I've read all the threads about the issue and they mention OSX lion being sluggish and also to reset PRAM as last resort after I've tried everything under the sun(uninstalling buggy software, repairing disk permissions, general maintenance... etc) I know there has to be something wrong on the software side because I still own an old PowerBook g4 that i got back in 04' and it has never given me any issues so I'm extremely fed up with this issue since this computer is supposed to be better. Any suggestions??

Answer 1

First, back up all data immediately, as your boot drive may be failing.
If you have more than ten or so files or folders on your Desktop, move them, temporarily at least, somewhere else in your home folder.
If iCloud is enabled, disable it.
Disconnect all wired peripherals except keyboard, mouse, and monitor, if applicable. Launch the usual set of applications you use when you notice the problem.
Step 1
Launch the Activity Monitor 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.
☞ If you’re running Mac OS X 10.7 or later, open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Activity Monitor in the page that opens.
Select the CPU tab.
Select All Processes from the menu in the toolbar, if not already selected.
Click the heading of the % CPU column in the process table to sort the entries by CPU usage. You may have to click it twice to get the highest value at the top. What is it, and what is the process? Also post the values for % User, % System, and % Idle at the bottom of the window.
Select the System Memory tab. What values are shown in the bottom part of the window for Page outs and Swap used?
Step 2
You must be logged in as an administrator to carry out this step.
Launch the Console application in the same way as above. Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left.
Post the 50 or so most recent messages in the log — the text, please, not a screenshot.
Important: Some personal information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Edit it out before posting.