My MacBook Pro is hanging for very long periods of time whenever I try to perform any functions.

Question

Hello Collective Wisdom,
I have a MacBook Pro from mid-2009 and have recently experienced some problems. There's an above-average bootup time, and whenever I try to perform any functions (say, open a browser window, go into Finder, launch an app, try to type a URL, search for anything), the Spinning Ball of Death comes up for about 5-7 minutes before the function resolves.
I've been able to get into Disk Utility and it suggested I use Command + R at the bootup screen to do a HD Repair, which I did. But the problem is still occuring.
What do I Do?

Answer 1

The next time you have the problem, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.
If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console 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 Console in the icon grid.
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. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Scroll back in the log to the time you noted above. Select any messages timestamped from then until the end of the episode. Copy them to the Clipboard (command-C). Paste into a reply to this message (command-V).
When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.