Please help. Keep getting Spinning Rainbow Wheel

Can anyone help please I keep getting this when ever I open a new tab in a browser or whenever I do "anything", the little wheel comes up for about 2-3 seconds, even when typing this right now it's happened. Even if i decide to open a new application it starts up.
I have
Intel i7 Quad
1TB Harddrive
4GB Ram
27" iMac (2010)
1 GB Nvidia Graphics
Now the system has run fine since I had it, now that the apple care has run out it's decided to play up, I've been using apple for 10 years mostly because it's hassle free but this is seriously annoying. I can't do anything?
I tried playing several games too; World of Warcraft, same thing keeps stuttering with wheel. Same with Starcraft.
I've never had any problems before, ever. Been able to play and multitask sometimes without even the slightest problem.
Now I can't even type this query without the wheel happening.
Things I've done to stop it:
-lowered graphics on games
-restarted/shutdown
-opened in safe mode
-run a disk repair
Nothing is working, it's really disheartening, and frustrating.

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.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then try the action that you're having trouble with again. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
☞ The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
☞ Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Similar Messages

I keep getting a rainbow wheel and a message that say webpages are not responding

Can someone help me? I keep getting a rainbow wheel and a message that says webpages are not responding.
Thanks,
Eric

All web pages or specific web pages? Provide an example link.
Does any other internet-related utilities work for you, e.g., mail?
Do you have a little green dot in you Network preferences next to Ethernet or Airport, whichever one you are using?

Iphoto not working - i get spinning rainbow wheel

My iphoto does not work.. It has suddenly stopped!
When I open iPhoto, the spinning rainbow wheel comes up, and I am unable to do anything - so I have to force quit..
I'm not sure what to do? I have the extended warranty for my laptop - it is less than 12 months old
iTunes also wont update to the latest version either.....
Any suggestions on what I should do?
Im mostly concerned about iPhoto...

Hi,
I've had this issue twice now when importing photo's from my iPhone.
First time I rebuild library from backup. The backup did not contain the imported pictures so iPhoto worked fine again.
Yesterday I "retried" to import. So the problem re-occured (duh).
This time however I noticed there was an "update icon" next to places when iPhoto froze.
So I decided to disable automatic "Lookup Places". The trick however is to get into a responsive iPhoto.
For this: start iPhoto while holding the Option (or alt) key, create a new library, open iPhoto using this new library, go to Preferences, Advanced Tab, set Look up Places to " never".
Close iPhoto, open again using Option (or alt) key (because the new, empty, library has been set to default automatically), select your original library and your iPhoto should be fine again.
This did the trick for me. Hope this helps.
Cheers!

I have a new MacBook(2012). Being a new Mac user, I do not know what to do when Safari doesn't open at all. The icon just bounces up and down and when the cursor is on the top main menu bar it is the spinning rainbow wheel. Any ideas for help?

When I try to open safari the icon stats bouncing and then nothing happens other than the cursor turning to a spinning rainbow wheel when it hoovers on the top main menu bar. I have shut down and restart several times. My safari worked yesterday and then today this, but with. I indication of a problem. I can't even get the browser window to open so that I can clear caches or reset anything. When I opened my computer this time I don't even get a bouncing icon. No recognition of selecting the program at all. If I go to spotlight and try to open safari from here I still get no response. Can you help?

Hi ...
If you have moved the Safari application from the Applications folder, move it back.
As far as the cache goes, there's a work around for that when you can't empty the Safari cache from the menu bar.
Go to ~/Library/Caches/com.aple.Safari.Cache.db. Move the Cache.db file to the Trash.
Try Safari.
Mac OS X (10.7.2) < from your profile
If that is corrrect, you need to update your system software. Click your Apple menu icon top left in your screen. From the drop down menu click Software
Update ...
~ (Tilde) character represents the Home folder.
For Lion v10.7x: To find the Home folder in OS X Lion, open the Finder, hold the Option key, and choose Go > Library

Please help - i get as far as downloading illustrator cs6 then it asks me to close down adobe professional 8 which i dont have open then i have to close the whole thing down and start again - this keeps happening

please help - i get as far as downloading illustrator cs6 then it asks me to close down adobe professional 8 which i dont have open then i have to close it down and start again

You have Distiller (used by the PDF Printer) or the Acrobat Quick Launcher running in the background. Shut down the processes or terminate them in task manager.
Mylenium

Slow Macbook Pro with frequent spinning rainbow wheel!

My Macbook Pro suddenly is very slow especially when using Google Chrome. I usually get the spinning rainbow wheel for most tasks and on chrome it often says "waiting on cache" or "waiting on app cache". I don't think it's just chrome because I have had problems with other applications as well. I've tried repairing disk permissions multiple times as well as deleting browsing history and nothing has solved the problem so far. I had a similar problem earlier in the year when I had to go to a store to get theBRACKET,HDD,FRONT,WITHIR/SLEEP/HDCABLE fixed. Any tips or suggestions would help! Don't really want to have to go back to a store to get this fixed again. etrecheck is below
EtreCheck version: 1.9.15 (52)
Report generated September 18, 2014 10:54:44 PM EDT
Hardware Information: ?
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) (Verified)
MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro9,2
1 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2 cores
4 GB RAM
Video Information: ?
Intel HD Graphics 4000 - VRAM: 512 MB
Color LCD 1280 x 800
System Software: ?
OS X 10.8.5 (12F45) - Uptime: 0 days 4:57:11
Disk Information: ?
APPLE HDD TOSHIBA MK5065GSXF disk0 : (500.11 GB)
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
disk0s1 (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 499.25 GB (472.13 GB free)
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-8A8
USB Information: ?
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
Thunderbolt Information: ?
Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
Gatekeeper: ?
Mac App Store and identified developers
Problem System Launch Daemons: ?
[failed] com.apple.coresymbolicationd.plist
Problem System Launch Agents: ?
[failed] com.apple.accountsd.plist
[failed] com.apple.coreservices.appleid.authentication.plist
Launch Daemons: ?
[failed] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support
[running] com.fitbit.galileod.plist Support
[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist Support
[loaded] com.prosofteng.DriveGenius.locum.plist Support
User Launch Agents: ?
[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist Support
[running] com.prosofteng.DGMonitor.plist Support
[running] com.spotify.webhelper.plist Support
User Login Items: ?
Spotify
Fitbit Connect Menubar Helper
Google Chrome
Internet Plug-ins: ?
Silverlight: Version: 5.1.30514.0 - SDK 10.6 Support
FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 15.0.0.152 - SDK 10.6 Support
Flash Player: Version: 15.0.0.152 - SDK 10.6 Support
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.1
JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 14.6.0 - SDK 10.8 Check version
SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.4.4 - SDK 10.6 Support
Safari Extensions: ?
Searchme
Amazon Shopping Assistant
Ebay Shopping Assistant
Slick Savings
Audio Plug-ins: ?
AirPlay: Version: 1.7 - SDK 10.8
iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.1 - SDK 10.8
iTunes Plug-ins: ?
Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.8
3rd Party Preference Panes: ?
Flash Player Support
Time Machine: ?
Time Machine not configured!
Top Processes by CPU: ?
      17% mds
      5% Google Chrome
      2% Google Chrome Helper EH
      1% WindowServer
      0% ps
Top Processes by Memory: ?
209 MB Google Chrome Helper EH
160 MB Google Chrome
89 MB Google Chrome Helper
63 MB mds
57 MB Dock
Virtual Memory Information: ?
301 MB Free RAM
1.87 GB Active RAM
640 MB Inactive RAM
1.21 GB Wired RAM
2.95 GB Page-ins
52 KB Page-outs

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.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
          SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
          View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen. Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then take one of the actions that you're having trouble with. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

IBook freezes on Apple logo white screen, NO spinning rainbow wheel

Hello,
I bought my iBook 12" 1.33Ghz used in May. It has worked flawlessly until two nights ago when I was surfing the web via Airport. Everything started to take forever to load, the spinning rainbow wheel appeared several times, and applications took minutes to switch between. Since the iBook had been on for a few days, I thought it was time to do a reboot to fix whatever was backlogged in the system. It didn't want to respond, so I force quitted all programs. I could click on the blue logo and hit shut down or restart, but they didn't do anything towards a shut down. I finally held the power button to force a shut down. Ever since, when I power up, I get the Apple chime, a gray screen (for less than a second) and then the white screen with the gray Apple logo. There is NO spinning rainbow wheel, as others with similar sounding problems have mentioned. I've cleared the PRAM and PMU, but they didn't help anything. Holding Shift on startup does not do anything differently. It still just freezes on the Apple logo for hours. I did not get a Mac OS X startup disk with my computer. What else can I do to troubleshoot this? Please help, this is my first Mac, and up until 3 days ago, I had all but sworn off PC's, now this thing is acting up too!
Also, I'm guessing which version of Mac OS X I have, is there anyway to confirm without booting? Holding option is the only thing I have found to give me a different startup process, and the mouse pad is very sluggish and there's a watch logo for 20 seconds or so on it.

Hello! Since you don't have the startup disk your best shot is using fsck. Tom
when you re-start, hold down the apple key AND the "S" key You'll start up into a command line interface.. it'll look strange but just hang in there. When it's done booting up, you should see something that looks like this: localhost:/ root# at this point, type in 'fsck -f" please note the space before the dash, and of course, ignore the quote marks, then hit return You computer will no go thru some low level checks on your HD. Most likely you'll get a list of a few files that have problems and this procedure will fix them. This should take about 2 or 3 mins, so don't be in a rush. When the line says "VOLUME WAS MODIFIED", this means that changes were made. At this point you should be back at the same localhost:/ root# prompt. run fsck -f again. Wait for it to finish. if you continue to get the "Volume was modified" message, continue to run fsck -f until you'll get a prompt that says The Volume(your HD) appears to be ok, again with the localhost:/ root# prompt. AT this point, type reboot, hit enter and your computer will start up normally. This is not difficult, but you may want to give it a shot when your feel you have a few moments where you can attempt something new and not stress too much.

Changed AppleID p-word and now can't login to icloud on mac mini. I use correct password and I get spinning grey wheel. I know it's the correct password cause any other p-word gets error message. Also, my time capsule is blinking amber.

Changed AppleID p-word and now can't login to icloud on mac mini. I use correct password and I get spinning grey wheel. I know it's the correct password cause any other p-word gets error message. Also, my time capsule is blinking amber. I've reset my password a few times and it doesn't help. Also have shut down completely and unplugged everything to no avail.

Hey jamesarm97 & diegofoto,
On August 21st, some users may have been unable to access iCloud services for a short period of time. Apple worked quickly to resolve these issues, however you two may have experienced them. To check the current status of these systems please see:
Apple - Support - System Status
http://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/
If either of you are still experiencing issues, you may want to troubleshoot with the following articles:
iCloud: Troubleshooting web browser issues with iCloud.com
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4050
iCloud: Account troubleshooting
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3988
Thanks,
Matt M.

Is there any reason or my why cursor is stuck on the spinning rainbow wheel?

Lately my macbook has been freezing, and I'm thinking that it's being overloaded. Most of the time the cursor is stuck on the spinning rainbow wheel, but it will eventually return back into the arrow. It's currently stuck as the spinning wheel, but I am able to click and access sites. Is there anything I should do to get this checked?
EDIT: When I open a new tab, the cursor goes back to normal. Is there any reason why it is doing that in the other tab?

Hi,
Use the PC KB and hold Windows key + r key at bootup.
Bootup holding CMD+r, or the Option/alt key to boot from the Restore partition & use Disk Utility from there to Repair the Disk, then Repair Permissions.
If that doesn't help Reinstall the OS.

Spinning rainbow wheel for long periods on File Open commands in Acrobat and Office 365 programs

Hardware & Software:
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2009)
77GB of free hard disk space
8GB RAM
Running OS X Yosemite (Version 10.10.2)
Over the last few days, when I try to execute a File Open command from Adobe Acrobat or Office 365 programs (even from an innocuous location such as Documents), I get the spinning rainbow wheel for long periods of time (10 seconds to minutes) before I am able to select a file to open. I copied messages from Console after a File Open command for each of Adobe Acrobat and Excel (the selected location was Documents), given below:
Excel Log Messages
2/24/15 5:50:50.970 PM     WindowServer[147] disable_update_timeout: UI updates were forcibly disabled by application "Microsoft Excel" for over 1.00 seconds. Server has re-enabled them.
2/24/15 5:51:01.280 PM     NetAuthSysAgent[684]        AFP error -1 mapped to EIO
2/24/15 5:51:01.281 PM     NetAuthSysAgent[684]        ERROR: AFP_GetServerInfo - connect failed 5
2/24/15 5:51:01.281 PM     NetAuthSysAgent[684]        AFP error -1 mapped to EIO
2/24/15 5:51:01.739 PM     WindowServer[147] common_reenable_update: UI updates were finally reenabled by application "Microsoft Excel" after 11.77 seconds (server forcibly re-enabled them after 1.00 seconds)
Adobe Acrobat Log Messages
2/24/15 5:58:22.145 PM     bird[257]        Assertion failed: ![_xpcClients containsObject:client]
2/24/15 5:58:23.454 PM     WindowServer[147] disable_update_timeout: UI updates were forcibly disabled by application "Acrobat" for over 1.00 seconds. Server has re-enabled them.
2/24/15 5:58:29.538 PM     NetAuthSysAgent[708]        AFP error -1 mapped to EIO
2/24/15 5:58:29.538 PM     NetAuthSysAgent[708]        ERROR: AFP_GetServerInfo - connect failed 5
2/24/15 5:58:29.538 PM     NetAuthSysAgent[708]        AFP error -1 mapped to EIO
2/24/15 5:58:29.722 PM     WindowServer[147] common_reenable_update: UI updates were finally reenabled by application "Acrobat" after 7.27 seconds (server forcibly re-enabled them after 1.00 seconds)
Can anyone give me an idea of what these messages mean and how I can solve this problem?
If I'm not in the correct Community for this question, could someone kindly tell me where I should re-post?
Thanks.
David Walker

Yes; I have previously connected to an iMac at this location using File Sharing. However, in my attempts to solve this problem last week, I had already unchecked File Sharing in System Preferences. Tonight, I also deleted the folder from the window in the File Sharing System Preferences page, then rebooted. The problem still persists.
I try not open files across a server line, i.e., I try always to copy a file to the local computer and open it there. I may have gotten careless and tried to open a file from the Windows server with either or both Acrobat and Office 365. Although this was an SMB share, is it possible that these programs are now trying to connect to the Windows server on a File Open?
I had about decided to quit chasing this problem; we spend about two weeks every two months at this Boston location, and I'll be returning to my Florida home this weekend. So I decided I would see what the situation was when I returned to my native habitat, although I may be chasing this problem again in our trip to the Boston area in April.
The other thing I wondered (I guess I can't quite let it go), is whether there is a command line in Terminal that would kill all AFP shares.
In any case, thanks for your help; you're very knowledgeable.

Spinning rainbow wheel of death multiple times a day

Hi, I'm on a 2-yr-old MacBook Pro, and for the last few months I am getting the rainbow wheel many times a day. There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to it. I'm fairly new to Mac, and so don't know the best maintenance routine.
I discovered something called EtreCheck, and ran that. I'm including it below in case anyone knows what any of it means.
Thanks for any help!
EtreCheck version: 1.9.15 (52)
Report generated October 6, 2014 at 1:59:50 PM MDT
Hardware Information: ?
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2012) (Verified)
MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro9,1
1 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4 cores
4 GB RAM
Video Information: ?
Intel HD Graphics 4000 - VRAM: (null)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M - VRAM: 512 MB
Color LCD 1440 x 900
System Software: ?
OS X 10.9.5 (13F34) - Uptime: 10 days 1:26:51
Disk Information: ?
APPLE HDD HTS547550A9E384 disk0 : (500.11 GB)
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 499.25 GB (350.8 GB free)
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-8A8
USB Information: ?
Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Thunderbolt Information: ?
Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
Gatekeeper: ?
Mac App Store and identified developers
Problem System Launch Daemons: ?
[failed] com.apple.wdhelper.plist
Launch Daemons: ?
[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support
[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist Support
[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist Support
Launch Agents: ?
[running] com.brother.LOGINserver.plist Support
[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist Support
User Launch Agents: ?
[loaded] com.citrixonline.GoToMeeting.G2MUpdate.plist Support
[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist Support
User Login Items: ?
iTunesHelper
Dropbox
Caffeine
Internet Plug-ins: ?
FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 15.0.0.152 - SDK 10.6 Support
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
Flash Player: Version: 15.0.0.152 - SDK 10.6 Support
Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9
SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.4.4 - SDK 10.6 Support
Silverlight: Version: 5.1.20913.0 - SDK 10.6 Support
JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 7 Update 67 Check version
Audio Plug-ins: ?
BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9
AirPlay: Version: 2.0 - SDK 10.9
AppleAVBAudio: Version: 203.2 - SDK 10.9
iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9
iTunes Plug-ins: ?
Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.9
User Internet Plug-ins ?
CitrixOnlineWebDeploymentPlugin: Version: 1.0.105 Support
WebEx64: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.6 Support
Google Earth Web Plug-in: Version: 7.1 Support
3rd Party Preference Panes: ?
Flash Player Support
Java Support
Time Machine: ?
Time Machine not configured!
Top Processes by CPU: ?
      3% WindowServer
      1% mds_stores
      0% ocspd
      0% Mail
      0% com.apple.WebKit.Plugin.64
Top Processes by Memory: ?
106 MB WindowServer
66 MB Microsoft Word
53 MB Safari
53 MB Mail
45 MB Calendar
Virtual Memory Information: ?
21 MB Free RAM
689 MB Active RAM
678 MB Inactive RAM
765 MB Wired RAM
10.27 GB Page-ins
1.87 GB Page-outs

When you have the problem, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.
These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the 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.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
          SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
          View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Scroll back to the time you noted above.
Select the messages entered from then until the end of the episode, or until they start to repeat, whichever comes first.
Copy the messages to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of it useless for solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Spinning rainbow wheel & all blue wheel. What gives?

I'm usin a Mid-2012 MacIntel tower that is a 2.8ghz Quad-Core Xeon with 20GB of 1066 DDR3 RAM, OS 10.8.2 and using the AIR Radeon HD 5770 with 1024MB of RAM. So, In my mind this is a pretty fast system but recently the spinning rainbow wheel has been appearing as well as the spinning all blue wheel. The system is really dragging. I've done SMC resets, zapped the PRAM and thinking of doing a PMU reset. I've checked activity monitor also. What I see is that Safari Web content, Safari, iTunes, mds, and something called kernel_task are using the most RAM. The kernel_task is eating up 1.31GB!! Even if I quit Safari and iTunes, I'm getting a lot of spinning wheels and just slow responses. I click on something and it actually highlights almost 10 seconds later. I've tested my RAID and internal drives and they appear fine. All are Serial ATA. This only happend after installing Mountain Lion. Is there anything else I can do other than go back to the old school days of running one program at a time. Can I quit out of this kernal_task operation or is that a bad move?

Check your
Safari > Preferences > General ...
... and make sure you are removing History Items: After one Day
Safari and many other Browsers will carry around every stinkin' website you visited for months, and their RAM foot print grows to be enormous. Stuff older than that can be searched for more easily than scrolling through your History.
If you use topsites, choose LARGE views, then fewer fit in the window and it will not works so hard or use so much memory keeping track of them.
In 10.7 especially, Applications whose windows are closed are left running, chewing away at your RAM used. Try to remember to Quit unused Applications rather than just closing their windows.
RE: The display you showed in the screenshot. Click on the %-CPU column to sort by biggest CPU hog at the top. Sometimes that is very enlightening. Things in double-digits may need to be looked at.

Spinning rainbow wheel for some minutes when apps use file open dialogue

OSX 10.4.4
Powerbook, home Cable via Airport.
Whenever an application such as Firefox or Word (the worst) uses the File browse and open file dialog (Finder like window) I get a spinning rainbow wheel for up to two minutes.
I have tried everything I know to hunt this down, but it happens even when newly booted.
Finder on the other hand is fine.
Any clues what I could look at?

My personal experience is that the whole iDisk/WebDAV/Finder thing is hopeless. I keep thinking it will get better, but it doesn't. I've been waiting since Jaguar, and it keeps being "one step forward, two steps back." I have given up on keeping the "official" iDisk on my hard drive. Instead I disabled the local iDisk, keep my own folder with items for my disk, and just use the freeware Goliath when I want to put something from my local files into my iDisk. You will amazed and how much faster Goliath is, and there will be no more agonizing pauses when you try to open or save something.
Francine
Schwieder

I'm getting the rainbow wheel when I try tp pen in internet page (Safari). The page half loads then appears to freeze with the rianbow wheel. I get the same result when I try to stream a movie from NETFLIX. Freezes up rather than plays (after loading).

I get the rainbow wheel when I try to open an internet page. It loads halfway, then freezes, with the rainbow wheel whirring around. Smae thing happens when I try to stream a movie on Netflix. The movie loads, then the wheel shows up and the screen freezes. Same thing when I try a DVD, it takes the disc, but won't play when I hit on PLAY.
I am repair permissions, and all that I can do, but I am a novice. Any help would be greatly appreciated because I spend big bucks and drive 40 miles to get Apple help.
Sharon in the woods of Idaho

Welcome to Apple Support Communities.
If your profile info is up to date, you probably have a 2006 or 2007 MacBook with a CoreDuo or Core2Duo.
It probably came with 512MB or 1GB RAM memory and a 60, 80, or 120GB hard drive.
You're still running OS X Tiger, 10.4.
Your DVD drive may be dirty or wearing out.
For specifics about your computer, click on the  Apple Logo in the menu bar, then About This Mac, and More Info... to find details.)
You may be running short of hard disk space. You should have at least 10% free, or 10 to 15GB free for best performance. Less than that, and your hard disk is spending lots of time searching for places to store data.
Complex web pages and sites like Facebook and Twitter, and pages using Adobe Flash, and high-bandwidth applications like video streaming from NetFlix can all cause your computer to run slowly, and the fan to run at high speed, because the processor is working hard. Conversely, email is not terribly resource-intensive, and probably still works pretty well.
Several things can each provide a small performance increase (listed in no particular order):
Adding more RAM memory. Upgrade to 2Gb to give your programs a bit of 'breathing room', especially if you are running more than one program at a time.
Erasing the hard drive and reinstalling the current operating system and programs from scratch. This erases all your existing programs and data. Unless you have backups and program discs, you lose everything currently stored on it.
Installing a higher capacity, faster hard disk, say 250GB or 320GB will give your programs and data more space, and perhaps faster access if you replace the factory 5400rpm drive with a 7200 rpm drive. If your current hard disk is nearly full (less than 10% free space), the drive has to 'thrash' to free space to store information.
Upgrading the operating system to OS X 10.5 Leopard or OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Both are discontinued OS X versions, still available to order directly from Apple, but not likely found on a store shelf any longer. An upgrade to OS X 10.7 Lion might not be possible for your MacBook (details here: http://www.apple.com/macosx/how-to-buy/), and Lion would likely cause a further slowdown, because honestly, Lion is optimized for newer, faster dual-core or quad-core computers with fast video chipsets and 4GB or more of RAM.
A faster internet connection, for example: I switched internet providers to get a 3.0Mb DSL connection (up from a 512Mb connection) for an extra $10 per month, and saw downloads and internet browsing speeds increase dramatically. With the slower connection, it was not possible to watch video.
Will all of these upgrades together get you close to the performance of the latest MacBook Air or MacBook Pros? NO!
Ultimately, you have a 4- or 5-year-old computer, and spending up to several hundred dollars for upgrades might not be a worthwhile investment for you, versus applying that much money toward the cost of a new(er) Mac, and perhaps passing your MacBook on to a friend, child, or grandchild who needs mainly email capability.
If a brand new Apple is not in the budget, consider a refurbished Mac from the Apple Store online. These are reliable computers from 'last year's models' and have the same 1-year Applecare warranty as a brand new model, and often sell at a discount of 10 to 30 percent of the price when the model was introduced.
I'm using a mid-2007 MacBook, purchased as a refurb from Apple in late 2007. It came with 1GB RAM, a 120GB 5400 rpm hard drive, and OS X 10.4 Tiger. Over the years, I've upgraded it twice. Firs to 2GB, then to 4GB RAM, to a 320GB drive, then to a 500GB 7200 rpm hard drive, and to OS X 10.5 Leopard, and then to OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Rather than one more round of upgrades to OS X 10.7 Lion, I'm saving for a newer MacBook Pro or MacBook Air at some time in the future.

Macbook has become very slow, i get the rainbow wheel whenever i click on something, i can barely do anything!

My macbook pro has slowly been getting worse over the last few months, it takes ages to load up when i turn it on, and whenever i try to click on something (google chrome, itunes, etc) i get the rainbow wheel for an unknown amount of time, its so slow! i can barely do anything on it, im having to upload this question on my ipod because i cant use my mac, ive had the mac for about 4 years, and i dont think its anything to do with the memory, any help would be very grateful!

Sounds like it might be your hard drive.
Go to Applications -> Disk Utility, select your hard drive, and click on the "Info" button and see what is reported for your S.M.A.R.T status at the bottom of the screen:

Please help. Keep getting Spinning Rainbow Wheel

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