Snow Leopard = Spinning Beach Ball?

It seems like ever since I installed Snow Leopard, using Safari is a chore. Almost every time I try to open a new tab, I get the Spinning Beach Ball for so long I have to go do something else. Is this an issue with SL? I can hardly get any work done.

I have to say that I'm starting to be angry about all this. I have a Macbook Pro Unibody 2.53 Mhz with 4GB.
Everything was fine. Then I bought Snow Leopard ...
Was this software even tested in the new macbooks?
The system stalls (I get this spinning beach ball) all the time with any app (Apple Mail, Firefox, Safari, System Profile you name it).
This even thought the Activity Monitor says that the system no under any stress.
I don't know why, but I suspect it may have something to do with drivers. But what a heck, isn't the hardware specifications defined and built by Apple.
Can someone post what info is needed to trace the problem?
I have my laptop connected to the company Active Directory, that is the only idiosyncrasy I can think of.
Best regards,
Nuno
PS: I don't want support, I want a OS that works as advertised in my latest model Mac Book Pro. Heck, the Windows 7 installed in BootCamp works better then Snow Leopard.

Similar Messages

Spinning beach ball with Leopard 10.5 - mach_msg_trap - Hangs

Hi,
since I upgraded to Leopard, my Macbook Pro hangs sometimes. I recorded today such a hang (10-20 minutes, spinning beach ball) with "Spin Control".
It seam to me, that some resources are locked by the OS. Is anybody able to describe what happens?
Thanks a lot in advance
Henri
e.g. For "Mail.app":
307.45s machmsgtrap
478.74s CFRunLoopRunSpeciﬁc
478.76s CFRunLoopRunInMode
478.76s RunCurrentEventLoopInMode
478.78s ReceiveNextEventCommon
478.78s BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInMode
478.79s _DPSNextEvent
478.79s -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:i…
520.86s -[NSApplication run]
520.86s NSApplicationMain
520.86s 0xfb012
520.86s Thread_981b
307.45s machmsgtrap [TOP]
e.g. for "MkConsole.app":
47.11s machmsgtrap [TOP]
47.11s machmsgtrap
236.38s CFRunLoopRunSpeciﬁc
236.38s CFRunLoopRunInMode
236.38s RunCurrentEventLoopInMode
236.38s ReceiveNextEventCommon
236.38s BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInMode
236.38s -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:in…
236.38s -[NSApplication run]
236.38s NSApplicationMain
236.38s _start
236.38s start
236.38s Thread_d303
236.38s _DPSNextEvent
e.g. for Keycue.app:
24.00s machmsgtrap [TOP]
24.00s machmsgtrap
24.00s _AXMIGCopyAttributeValue
24.00s AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue
24.00s -[AXObject getIntegerAttribute:at:]
36.00s +[Shortcut shortcutWithMenuItem:]
48.00s -[ShortcutList(Collector) scanMenuItem:menuInd…
61.51s -[ShortcutList(Collector) scanMenu:menuIndex:level:]
61.51s -[ShortcutList(Collector) scanMenuItem:menuInd…
61.51s -[ShortcutList(Collector) scanMenu:menuIndex:level:]
61.51s -[ShortcutList(Collector) scanMenubar:]
61.51s -[ShortcutList(Collector) collectShortcuts]
61.51s -[ShortcutList(Collector) checkFrontProcess:]
61.51s __NSFireTimer
61.51s CFRunLoopRunSpeciﬁc
61.51s CFRunLoopRunInMode
61.51s RunCurrentEventLoopInMode
61.51s ReceiveNextEventCommon
61.51s BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInMode
61.51s -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDa…
61.51s -[NSApplication run]
61.51s NSApplicationMain
61.51s _start
61.51s start
61.51s Thread_6903
61.51s _DPSNextEvent
13:08:24 2301.90 seconds
Acrobat
12:43:09 0.39 seconds Safari
12:43:14 1.39 seconds witchdaemon
13:07:08 1435.03 seconds
Safari
12:46:11 0.23 seconds Mail
12:46:14 1.23 seconds witchdaemon
12:46:15 1.91 seconds Mail
12:46:28 7.48 seconds Mail
12:48:09 89.17 secondsMail (sampled for maximum time)
13:06:43 1202.90 seconds
KeyCue (sampled for maximum time)
12:46:45 4.23 seconds witchdaemon
13:08:24 908.30 seconds
Mail (sampled for maximum time)
13:07:10 309.39 seconds
MkConsole (sampled for maximum time)
13:06:54 274.96 seconds
witchdaemon (sampled for maximum time)
13:06:42 41.38 secondsOfficeTime (stopped because too many samples i
13:06:42 32.77 secondsIntegoStatusItemHelper
(stopped because too many samples i
13:06:42 30.08 secondsvmware (stopped because too many samples i
13:06:42 28.07 secondsAirPort Base Station Agent
(stopped because too many samples i
13:06:42 26.44 secondsTerminal (stopped because too many samples i
13:06:43 24.81 secondsVersionTracker Pro(stopped because too many samples i
13:06:43 23.86 secondsPrinterProxy (stopped because too many samples i
13:06:43 23.05 secondsCAPT Helper (stopped because too many samples i
13:06:46 23.25 secondsGrowlHelperApp (stopped because too many samples i
13:06:48 22.94 secondsHazelHelper (stopped because too many samples i
13:06:48 22.94 secondsHazelHelper (stopped because too many samples i
13:06:52 25.53 secondsSMARTReporter (stopped because too many samples i
13:06:54 26.10 secondsScanSnap Manager(stopped because too many samples i
13:06:56 26.27 secondsiTunesHelper (stopped because too many samples i
13:06:56 23.29 secondsNML2NDeviceObserver
(stopped because too many samples i
13:06:58 23.50 secondsFolder Actions Dispatcher
(stopped because too many samples i
13:06:58 21.85 secondsSpotlight (stopped because too many samples i
13:06:58 21.42 secondsDashboardClient (stopped because too many samples i
13:06:58 20.59 secondsMenuCalendarClock iCal
(stopped because too many samples i
13:07:01 21.16 secondsPath Finder (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:01 19.58 secondsCrossOver (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:11 27.41 secondsTypinator (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:12 26.32 secondsLittle Snitch UIAgent
(stopped because too many samples i
13:07:12 25.29 secondsOfficeTime (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:14 26.00 secondsIntegoStatusItemHelper
(stopped because too many samples i
13:08:24 93.35 secondsvmware (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:17 25.30 secondsAirPort Base Station Agent
(stopped because too many samples i
13:07:19 24.49 secondsTerminal (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:19 22.79 secondsVersionTracker Pro(stopped because too many samples i
13:07:56 58.91 secondsKeyCue (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:20 22.36 secondsPrinterProxy (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:22 23.69 secondsCAPT Helper (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:24 24.00 secondsGrowlHelperApp (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:25 23.06 secondsHazelHelper (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:26 23.45 secondsSMARTReporter (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:26 22.64 secondsScanSnap Manager(stopped because too many samples i
13:07:26 22.12 secondswitchdaemon (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:27 21.44 secondsiTunesHelper (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:27 19.91 secondsNML2NDeviceObserver
(stopped because too many samples i
13:07:28 19.65 secondsFolder Actions Dispatcher
(stopped because too many samples i
13:07:28 18.75 secondsSpotlight (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:29 17.94 secondsDashboardClient (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:29 17.46 secondsMenuCalendarClock iCal
(stopped because too many samples i
13:07:30 16.35 secondsPath Finder (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:46 28.77 secondsCrossOver (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:07 48.67 secondsDashboardClient (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:07 48.67 secondsDashboardClient (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:24 63.83 secondsSafari (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:08 47.44 secondsMkConsole (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:08 45.97 secondsX Resource Graph(stopped because too many samples i
13:07:36 12.95 secondsTypinator (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:36 12.18 secondsLittle Snitch UIAgent
(stopped because too many samples i
13:07:36 12.00 secondsOfficeTime (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:38 12.34 secondsIntegoStatusItemHelper
(stopped because too many samples i
13:07:38 11.74 secondsAirPort Base Station Agent
(stopped because too many samples i
13:07:38 11.08 secondsTerminal (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:38 10.37 secondsVersionTracker Pro(stopped because too many samples i
13:07:38 9.77 seconds ChronoSyncBackgrounder
(stopped because too many samples i
13:07:38 9.09 seconds PrinterProxy (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:38 8.60 seconds CAPT Helper (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:39 9.00 seconds GrowlHelperApp (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:42 10.80 secondsHazelHelper (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:43 11.68 secondsSMARTReporter (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:43 11.38 secondsScanSnap Manager(stopped because too many samples i
13:07:54 21.50 secondswitchdaemon (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:43 10.46 secondsiTunesHelper (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:43 9.45 seconds NML2NDeviceObserver
(stopped because too many samples i
13:07:44 9.40 seconds Folder Actions Dispatcher
(stopped because too many samples i
13:07:44 8.65 seconds Spotlight (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:45 8.79 seconds DashboardClient (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:45 8.28 seconds MenuCalendarClock iCal
(stopped because too many samples i
13:07:45 7.18 seconds Path Finder (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:51 13.13 secondsTypinator (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:52 13.43 secondsLittle Snitch UIAgent
(stopped because too many samples i
13:07:53 13.70 secondsOfficeTime (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:53 12.99 secondsIntegoStatusItemHelper
(stopped because too many samples i
13:07:53 12.39 secondsAirPort Base Station Agent
(stopped because too many samples i
13:07:54 12.17 secondsTerminal (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:54 11.50 secondsVersionTracker Pro(stopped because too many samples i
13:07:54 10.91 secondsChronoSyncBackgrounder
(stopped because too many samples i
13:08:24 40.27 secondsPrinterProxy (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:55 11.03 secondsCAPT Helper (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:55 11.03 secondsCAPT Helper (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:56 11.74 secondsGrowlHelperApp (stopped because too many samples i
13:07:58 12.81 secondsHazelHelper (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:00 13.70 secondsSMARTReporter (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:00 13.53 secondsScanSnap Manager(stopped because too many samples i
13:08:01 13.77 secondsiTunesHelper (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:02 13.46 secondsNML2NDeviceObserver
(stopped because too many samples i
13:08:03 13.33 secondsFolder Actions Dispatcher
(stopped because too many samples i
13:08:03 12.62 secondsSpotlight (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:04 13.15 secondsDashboardClient (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:06 14.71 secondsMenuCalendarClock iCal
(stopped because too many samples i
13:08:06 14.04 secondsPath Finder (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:24 30.41 secondsCrossOver (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:09 14.63 secondsTypinator (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:10 15.07 secondsLittle Snitch UIAgent
(stopped because too many samples i
13:08:10 14.36 secondsOfficeTime (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:11 14.49 secondsIntegoStatusItemHelper
(stopped because too many samples i
13:08:11 13.83 secondsAirPort Base Station Agent
(stopped because too many samples i
13:08:11 13.30 secondsTerminal (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:11 12.61 secondsVersionTracker Pro(stopped because too many samples i
13:08:12 12.60 secondswitchdaemon (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:12 12.56 secondsChronoSyncBackgrounder
(stopped because too many samples i
13:08:23 22.92 secondsCAPT Helper (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:24 23.06 secondsKeyCue (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:24 21.64 secondsGrowlHelperApp (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:24 21.08 secondsHazelHelper (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:24 20.45 secondsSMARTReporter (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:24 19.62 secondsScanSnap Manager(stopped because too many samples i
13:08:23 18.84 secondsiTunesHelper (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:24 17.62 secondsNML2NDeviceObserver
(stopped because too many samples i
13:08:24 17.21 secondsFolder Actions Dispatcher
(stopped because too many samples i
13:08:24 16.70 secondsSpotlight (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:23 15.34 secondsDashboardClient (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:24 15.42 secondsMenuCalendarClock iCal
(stopped because too many samples i
13:08:24 13.84 secondsPath Finder (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:24 13.29 secondsDashboardClient (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:24 13.29 secondsDashboardClient (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:24 12.35 secondsMkConsole (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:24 11.64 secondsX Resource Graph(stopped because too many samples i
13:08:24 11.21 secondsTypinator (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:23 9.36 seconds Little Snitch UIAgent
(stopped because too many samples i
13:08:24 9.41 seconds OfficeTime (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:24 8.15 seconds IntegoStatusItemHelper
(stopped because too many samples i
13:08:24 7.29 seconds AirPort Base Station Agent
(stopped because too many samples i
13:08:23 6.31 seconds Terminal (stopped because too many samples i
13:08:24 5.96 seconds VersionTracker Pro(stopped because too many samples i
13:08:24 6.04 seconds witchdaemon
13:08:24 4.84 seconds ChronoSyncBackgrounder
13:17:32 1.13 seconds Acrobat (sampled for maximum time)
13:17:32 0.14 seconds witchdaemon
13:25:19 4.19 seconds witchdaemon

Solved, by deinstalling Intego Antivirus X4 (Leopard ready).
No more hang since 7 days.

Help - spinning beach ball w/one minute of Leopard install left on G5.

I just tried installing Leopard (10.5.4) on my G5 single with "archive and install". It worked fine until the end, where I got a message saying that the installation was almost complete - a minute left. After about 10 minutes, I clicked on the "utilities" menu in the menu bar and suddenly got a spinning beach ball. The progress bar stopped moving at the same time. The situation remained the same for over an hour before I shut down my G5.
I rebooted without the install DVD and got an intro video and then Migration Manager kicked in. The video and Migration Manager continued recycling if anything besides migrating system and network prefs. I went for that as I thought that the other bits could probably be transfered later. I got the following error message:
"Networking settings could not be transferred correctly"
I booted into the system. Looong boot up with a yellowish-white screen, then a black one and then finally I got a prompt to set settings, register, etc. Access to the Internet through my router worked, I also suddenly got a prompt that updates to the system were available. I decided things couldn't get that much worse, so I updated to 10.5.5. The system rebooted and things still seem to be working, though I still think the system boot is long compared to Tiger.
Looking at the bright side, I have what seems to be a working system. I also have a folder on the drive labeled "previous system". What do I do now?
1) Should I boot from the install DVD and run Disk Utility to check disk is OK and permissions are fine?
2) How do I get all of my user stuff, apps, preferences registration keys, etc. (particularly my Mail prefs, mailboxes, accounts, etc.) transfered from the "previous system"?
3) Can I just move the OS 9 stuff that was with Tiger to the trash?
I waited as long as I did to upgrade to Leopard, to make sure that Apple had sussed out the upgrade procedure. This obviously still isn't the case.
Cheers

You can get your stuff back from Previous System, you will find your old system inside stamped by date and time of the installation, inside Users folder you will find your old home folder name which contains all your things like Desktop, Documents, Library, Music, Movies and Public
Just copy and paste things from your home folder to your new home folder and that applies to your Library folder which stores all your settings, preferences and things like Mail, Contacts, keychain passwords. But be careful because if you copy any problematic file, it will probably cause problems.
If you want for example to copy all your mails, copy the Mail (messages) and Mail Downloads (attachments) folders from your old Library folder to your new Library folder, then in order to copy your Mail Accounts settings and the Mail application preferences, copy a file named com.apple.mail.plist from your old /Library/Preferences to the same exact location in your new system and so on, your contacts are inside /Library/Application Support/Address Book and your safari bookmarks are inside /Library/Safari but if it's FireFox, it's inside /Library/Application Support/FireFox
hope that helps

Spinning beach ball in Leopard mail

There are two actions that always cause the spinning beachball since running Leopard. In both cases the app will eventually freeze altogether or I will have to force quit.
• Dragging a file onto Mail's dock icon which should create a new message with the file attached. worked great in Tiger.
• Creating a new note, then trying to send it.
Has anyone else faced these issues? Any suggestions?

I think I fixed it. Just deleted the preferences file:
username --> Library --> Preferences --> Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 Prefs
Then I rebooted my Mac, and launched DW. Now I can actually use the program, without the spinning beach ball.

Safari won't open... spinning beach ball

Out of the blue this morning, Safari won't open. I click it, the icon bounces, and then I get the spinning beach ball. If I go to the Force Quit Applications window, it says it's not responding. Any ideas what may be causing this and how to fix it?
-B

What is the exact wording of the message you see, and what are you doing when you see it?
These are the steps I took this morning, again, along with the wording. Before these steps, I logged into my account through the Google browser, and verified that I had a purchase in October of OS X Lion:
1 - booted computer under recovery.
2 - Disk Utility - Repair Disk (Result: The Volume New Macbook appears to be okay)
3 - Disk Utility - Repair Disk Permissions - (Result:0 Repaired - Permissions Repair Complete)
4 - Reinstall Mac OS - "Your computer's eligibility will be verified with Apple - OK
5 - "To Continue, you must agree to the terms and conditions" - Agree
6 - Select New Macbook - Install
7 - signing into Apple Store (Result: This Apple ID has not purchased Lion)
8 - rebooted and tried to launch App Store - back to spinning beach balls, along with all other internet apps; Safari, Mail, App Store, iTunes, etc.
Aps not affected: Google Chrome, Outlook (as long as I don't click on an email connected to an HTTPS server) and anything not on the internet.
I hope this helps and thank you for your advice. I wish I could use my Snow Leopard disks; my dvd drive is broken.

Spinning beach ball suddenly? MacBook Pro slowed to a *crawl*

Was updated to 10.6.2 - All of a sudden last night, I started getting the spinning beach ball for like minutes at a time. No better today after multiple reboots - when the system starts up the ball spins and it takes over 10 minutes for my desktop to fully load up and look normal. Then...if I try and open Finder, Mail, Safari, 8-10 minutes of spinning ball, ultimately it WILL respond, but on the next mouse click back to 8-10 minutes of spinning ball and no work getting done When Safari opens after the 10 minutes or so, it works somewhat OK.
Nothing in the system monitor is an obvious probelm - and the CPU usage graphics completely stop working when the ball is spinning a long time.
Here's what I've tried:
verify disk - both from install disk and desktop
verify/repair permissions - same as above - one warning keeps popping up "SUID File.....ARDAGENT has been modified and will not be repaired"??
(verify/repair log at bottom of message)
Reinstalled 10.6 from DVD
Reset PRAM/NVRAM
Reset SMC
Used Font Book to resolve duplicates (only a few)
Still no go - everything runs SO SLOW, ten minutes to reboot and ten minutes if I click on finder at a time of the spinning ball? I have not tried software update yet - frankly haven't had time to wait out the spinning ball!! Time machine seems to still be backing up, mail comes in (mail takes ten minutes to open as well), etc.
Some things done in the last few days - uninstalled some old printers a few days ago - and installed a Lexmark pro905 with 10.6 drivers - all of that has been working fine for a few days. Yesterday one thing I did was relocate a VmFusion "Virtual Machines" folder from "Documents" up to my \Users\tomscal\Virtual Machines. Again, that didn't seem at the time to cause any troubles, I worked late into the afternoon after making that change.
Any suggestions??
Tom
2009-12-19 12:47:05 -0800: Disk Utility started.
2009-12-19 12:47:16 -0800: Verifying volume “Macintosh HD”
2009-12-19 12:47:16 -0800: Starting verification tool:
2009-12-19 12:47:28 -0800: Performing live verification.
2009-12-19 12:48:37 -0800: Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
2009-12-19 12:48:37 -0800: Checking extents overflow file.
2009-12-19 12:48:37 -0800: Checking catalog file.
2009-12-19 12:48:37 -0800: Checking multi-linked files.
2009-12-19 12:48:37 -0800: Checking catalog hierarchy.
2009-12-19 12:48:37 -0800: Checking extended attributes file.
2009-12-19 12:48:37 -0800: Checking volume bitmap.
2009-12-19 12:48:37 -0800: Checking volume information.
2009-12-19 12:48:37 -0800: The volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK.
2009-12-19 12:48:38 -0800: Repair tool completed:
2009-12-19 12:48:38 -0800:
2009-12-19 12:48:38 -0800:
2009-12-19 12:51:04 -0800: Verify permissions for “Macintosh HD”
2009-12-19 12:54:14 -0800: ACL found but not expected on "private/etc/apache2/users".
2009-12-19 12:54:14 -0800: ACL found but not expected on "private/etc/postfix/main.cf".
2009-12-19 12:54:14 -0800: ACL found but not expected on "private/etc/postfix/main.cf.default".
2009-12-19 12:54:43 -0800: Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAg ent" has been modified and will not be repaired.
2009-12-19 12:55:01 -0800: ACL found but not expected on "System/Library/Keychains/X509Anchors".
2009-12-19 12:55:39 -0800: ACL found but not expected on "private/etc/hostconfig".
2009-12-19 12:55:42 -0800:
2009-12-19 12:55:42 -0800: Permissions verification complete
2009-12-19 12:55:42 -0800:
2009-12-19 12:55:43 -0800:
2009-12-19 12:59:07 -0800: Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”
2009-12-19 13:01:47 -0800: ACL found but not expected on "private/etc/apache2/users".
2009-12-19 13:01:47 -0800: Repaired "private/etc/apache2/users".
2009-12-19 13:01:47 -0800: ACL found but not expected on "private/etc/postfix/main.cf".
2009-12-19 13:01:47 -0800: Repaired "private/etc/postfix/main.cf".
2009-12-19 13:01:47 -0800: ACL found but not expected on "private/etc/postfix/main.cf.default".
2009-12-19 13:01:47 -0800: Repaired "private/etc/postfix/main.cf.default".
2009-12-19 13:02:16 -0800: Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAg ent" has been modified and will not be repaired.
2009-12-19 13:02:33 -0800: ACL found but not expected on "System/Library/Keychains/X509Anchors".
2009-12-19 13:02:33 -0800: Repaired "System/Library/Keychains/X509Anchors".
2009-12-19 13:03:12 -0800: ACL found but not expected on "private/etc/hostconfig".
2009-12-19 13:03:12 -0800: Repaired "private/etc/hostconfig".
2009-12-19 13:03:16 -0800:
2009-12-19 13:03:16 -0800: Permissions repair complete
2009-12-19 13:03:16 -0800:
2009-12-19 13:03:17 -0800:

Well, I tried most of the tips suggested above, and tip/tricks found elsewhere. Nothing worked, I continued to have 10-15 minute hangs with the beach ball spinning. If I clicked on a folder in like Finder, ten minutes would go by then the folder would open. Rebooting took 10-15 minutes.
Finally out of frustration I erased the hard disk using the Disk Utility on the Snow Leopard 10.6 disc, and used migration assistant to restore.
Much to my surprise it worked - the clean install/restore is working OK at the moment.
Hard/long way to fix the problem though.....

Spinning beach ball for 45-60 seconds, then fine

For several months now, I've had the spinning beach ball issue on my Macbook Pro. Within the first 5 minutes after boot up, the spinning beach ball will occur, seemingly at random (no specific app or action), for 45-60 seconds. While this happens, the system becomes completely unresponsive. But after this occurrence within the first five minutes after startup, it never happens again and everything is fine - until I reboot of course.
I am running Snow Leopard and this problem was happening before I installed Snow Leopard, so that's not it. But one thing I did do, which I am semi-convinced is the culprit, is I replaced my hard drive with a Seagate 500 mb Momentus drive. The actual model # is SEAST9500420AS. I don't know for sure, but that's around the time this issue first started. I know there is/was a spinning beach ball problem with the newer Macbook Pros and they were attributing it to the hard drive which just so happens to be the same hard drive I now have in my Macbook Pro. There was recently an EFI update that seemed to fix the problem for the newer models, but mine is the first generation right when they went to Intel chips (bought mine in April, 2006). Problem is, if it is my drive, this new EFI update that fixes the issue on the new models won't install on mine.
I also did a verify disk and repair disk permissions, but that was no help. Another thing I found going through the discussion groups was that the problem could happen because both the Macbook Pro and the Seagate drive have anti-shock technology that could conflict with one another. So if you disabled the anti-shock on the Macbook Pro, it might solve the problem as it seemed to for some folks out there. But I did that and it didn't help either.
I'm thinking it's my hard drive, but don't know how to fix it. But it could be something I haven't looked at yet or thought of. I've been trying everything the last several months with no luck and it's been driving me batty! What's really strange is it only happens once and always within the first 5 minutes after start up. Anybody have any suggestions? Thanks.

I just finished doing lots of different tests to try to solve my problem. Didn't resolve it, but I did manage to eliminate some things and narrow it down further.
First I removed all my login items and restarted my computer. That didn't fix the problem.
So then I thought it might have something to do with Safari since that's one of the first things I open up when I start my computer and there are numerous reports in the discussions of spinning beach balls with Safari 4.0.3 which I have. So I purposely did not open Safari after startup. Problem still happened.
So then I thought maybe it has something to do with my internet connection. So I disconnected my internet connection and rebooted. Then I only opened programs that don't use online access. I leisurely opened up a program, did a few things in it, closed it, and then did the same thing with another program. Did some things with Finder. Purposely did not rush things. Waited 4-5 seconds after every operation's completion before executing another task. Never had more than one program open at any given time to eliminate any issue with two many resources open. You guessed it - the problem STILL happened. Not that it matters, but it happened when I hit Command-I on my hard drive icon to get the info pane. A fairly innocuous task. Froze up with the spinning beach ball for at least 45-50 seconds. Tried clicking a few other things while this was happening, but nothing. Once it freed up, a few things I clicked on previously suddenly became active and everything was fine again. Tried Command-I for a lot of different things with no problem. Response was instantaneous.
It pretty much happens 3-4 minutes into a session and then never happens again. And I think my test here eliminated several possibilities. Very frustrating. I hope this helps someone come up with a possible solution. Thanks.

Spinning Beach Ball of Death (Mainly from idle)

Hey folks..
This might be a long one, so please bare with me !
After about 3 fabulous faultless years of using my Macbook Pro, recently I've had lots of issues with the dreaded spinning beach ball of death !
I wish I could say I was able to narrow it down to one application or one specific event, but sadly it's proving to not be that easy!
Recently, the SBBOD has appeared MOSTLY when the macbook is sitting there idle. I tried all the suggestions I could find on the forums - ie not putting the HDD to sleep, etc etc.
What generally happens, is I come back to the computer - and try to open an application (doesn't matter which one) and it bounces in the dock, and then the SBBOD appears, I can usually get to try and open other apps as this is happening, but in 20 seconds or so - everything is frozen except the mouse. I have tried leaving it for 5 mins, 10mins 2 hours, but in the end the only option is to manually turn off and swtich it back on. I thought it might have been just my user, but I tested when leaving it idle when other users logged on, and in the end - the same SBBOD
This started happening about 3 weeks ago, when I was on Leopard (not snow).
I tried to make sure the HDD was ok - so I install the SmartReporter app to monitor it - and nothing is pointing towards a HDD failure? SMART status is always showing ok.
In the end, I backed up and formatted the HDD. I bought a copy of Snow Leopard and did a total fresh install. I didn't migrate any applications, just user data and re-install all Applications etc.
I have Clean My Mac installed and MainMenu which runs all the repair permissions, and I keep it really clean and efficient since the fresh install - but still, the SBBOD is coming whenever I have the machine idle. I tried also, to install the smcFanControl to cool the CPU incase, it was over heating and then failing??
So, in conclusion (thanks for reading this far !!) I really don't know what else to do?
Seeing as it happened to all users logged in, I can assume it's not user specific?
Meaning it could very likely actually be a HDD issue?
Are there any good free diagnostic tools to see if it is a HDD issue?
I'm almost tempted to buy a new HDD, and install that and not use the Migration Assistant to bring files across, but to just manually bring my information and documents.. thus creating the user from scratch? Are there any opinions on the Samsung SpinPoint M7's ?
Honestly - I'm at a loss here, I can't see what else I can do?
It's a Macbook Pro MA609LL from 2007 3Gb RAM, with a Samsung 500GB HDD (added way back in Nov 2008)
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
CIAO!
Alessandro

I would try running the extended version of your Apple Hardware Test.
It's not perfect but may flag something.
DALE

Spinning beach ball in menu bar, sys pref does not work etc

Since last 2 days I have the following problem with Macbook:
1. When i hover the cursor over the menu bar, the beach ball appears. this is for the Mac menu items such as Airport, Spotlight, Fast switching, time & date and also for iStatmenus. However, Little Snitch menu bar indicator is not affected
2. Sysprefs also does not work. It opens up and immediately the beach ball appears and I can't click on any of the sys preferences
3. If i try to watch a video, then the video will not display, though the progress indicator will happily be progressing away (QT, VLC etc)
4. When i run in Safe mode, then everything seems to work ok (at least the menu bar, though the video part still doesn't work)
5. And also in Normal mode, Safari/Netscape Navigator/Camino et al hang & the beach ball appears, but in safe mode they work ok though very sluggish.
6. Though i can't be certain, I think all these problems began after iTunes crashed on me while running a podcast (?)
I have tried everything; repair prefs and repair disk, have run Tinkertool system2 to see if that would help but to no avail. I even downloaded and installed OS X 10.6.7 Combo update-didn't do any good.

I have been trying to deal with the same problem for the last week.
My machine is a MBP 17" 4 GB 2.6GHz, 250 GB alluminum.
1) I've immigrated my whole user apps and doc files to an IMAC 20" 2GB 2.66GHz 350 GB, and the system works just fine on the IMAC (I am using my system that used to be in the MBP right now).
2) I've over written everything on the HD with zeros and have done a clean install of SNOW LEOPARD on my MBP, but as the system got loaded, already before any working files or app files have been reinstalled, the spinning beach ball appears on the upper RIGHT portion of the menu bar and makes the system inoperable.
3) Done system update and made it into a 10.6.8 but the problem persists.
I've basically done what Ravindra had tried.
Please HELP.

HT1338 I cant upload photos to send as email i keep geeting the spinning beach ball that freezes

I cant upload photos to send as email i keep geeting the spinning beach ball that freezes the whole system can anybody tel me how to get ovet this problem please (explain for a dummy please)

Hi,
I have a Folder called "Pictures" (My Pictures seems a bit "Windowsy" to me)
I don't have a Media folder inside there.
It would help to know if this is actually within the iTunes Library
Having said that I tend to use Eric's Method.
Pic of My own Card in the Contacts list
It shows where I have used Faces (from iPhoto) and Defaults (Login pic choices for the Account pic).
My iChat/Messages pic is the same Signature pic as used here and is in the Recents Tab on show.
You can even use the Camera if one is attached (Mac Minis and Mac Pro require External Cameras).
Drag and Drop is my preferred method.
9:47 PM Saturday; December 22, 2012
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"
 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

MacBook Pro is slow in loading pages. Lots of spinning beach balls. What to do?

MacBook Prois slow in loading pages from the internet. Lots of spinning beach balls. What should I do?

Lots of similar stories and help in the Mac OS X Snow Leopard (and Lion) forums for 10.6.x or 10.7
And might want to find the real MacBook Pro forum.

Spinning Beach ball for 1 hour after Lion X installation, pls help

I have the Spinning Beach ball for 1 hour after Lion X installation, pls help
How long is it going to take?
Using Mac Book Pro corei5 with all previous updates.
Thanks

This happened to me too.
I bought Lion and let it download and install.
I had to leave my computer while the installer was running and when I came back a few hours later it was disoplaying the mac equivalent of a blue sceen: "You need to restart your computer. Hold...".
I restarted and I get to the login screen, but as soon as I start typing my password I get the beach ball and then tha fans start working like crazy.
I upgraded from snow leopard and my home account is encrypted.
What do I do?

Oh my what to do? Dreaded Spinning Beach Ball in CS5 Photoshop

Hi,
After installing CS5 Subscription, unable to begin working within photoshop due to spinning beach ball. Happens only in Adobe!
System Specs:
Mac OSX - snow leopard 10.6.8
RAM: 3 GB
Free disk space: 222.14 GB
Memory status: OK
Have removed prefs files, login items, deselected hard drives to prevent standby mode. Also, after signing into Adobe Live Services noticed that Growl was installed onto my computer -- so I had to uninstall that. Checked also to see if any background processes were going, but can't find any.
Activity Monitor Reads for both PS and Bridge as follows (idle with no files yet opened):
At the bottom portion of monitor -- Space Utilized: 27.46 GB (disk usage)
Memory: Free: 1.77 GB
Page Ins: 540.5 MB
Page Outs: 132 KB
VM Size: 110.04 GB
CPU: idle at 97.%
When each app is clicked on processes:
PS: PID - 640/CPU - 2.1/Memory - 196.3 MB
Bridge: PID - 657/CPU - 0.5/Memory - 67.4 MB
At top of process window is CS5.5 Service Manager: PID - 648/CPU - 0.0/Memory - 15.9 MB
Are these readings normal?
Any help most appreciative.
Cheers, June

Thanks for this Jeffrey!
Read both very informative articles. Now even more confused.
Definitely a lot of decisions to ponder... More Ram or install perhaps an internal SSD for my imac.
Recently purchased a Lacie 2 TB external and might use as my scratch disk. Meanwhile, lots of optimization to do with cs5.
Cheers.

Right clicking causing spinning beach ball

I am having trouble with accessing contextual menus via right clicking in several applications. I use Pathfinder and every time I right click on a file/folder the program hangs and need to force quit. I searched their forums/support site and saw several complaints about this since Snow Leopard. So I thought it was a PathFinder problem.
Now I noticed it happens also in Excel 2004, Evernote, iTunes 9.0.2.
I have not tested all my apps but it doesn't happen in Mail, Safari, Finder, Address Book, 1Password, etc.
In searching forums, etc. I have found complaints about many of these individual applications without any consistent resolution.
This seems like a bigger issue than an individual application.
I am running SL 10.6.2 and Mac Pro quad core Xeon
Any help, thanks.
Jim

Thanks a lot for the quick reply. This helped me isolate the problem. It appears that Pathfinder has a problem.
After I followed you suggestion I tried each of the applications that I was having problems with. First I tried Pathfinder because I have that starting at Login. I still got the spinning beach ball. I forced quit. Then tried iTunes - worked fine. Then I tried Excel - worked fine. Then I tried Evernote - worked fine. Tried Pathfinder again - spinning beach ball. This time I just left it and didn't force quit. I tried iTunes and Evernote - worked fine. Tried Excel - spinning beach ball.
So I rebuilt LaunchServices again and this time tried Pathfinder last. All other applications worked fine until I tried right clicking in Pathfinder then I started having right clicking problems in some other applications.
I am going to share this with the Pathfinder folks. Like I said I did see some complaints of this problems there. I didn't understand that it could cause me problems in the other apps.
btw - after rebuilding the LaunchServices as you suggested I also noticed that my login time was DRAMATICALLY reduced. I load about 10 apps at login and they all loaded very fast now. So that rebuild really helped with that also.
also - I use Onyx about once a month and run many of the recommended scripts. I noticed that they offer an option to rebuild LaunchServices. Do you know if this is the same thing as the command you recommended?
Thanks so much for your help.
Jim

Frequent Spinning Beach Ball after SSD Upgrade

I have several original MacPro's (2.66GHz quad core) each with 10GB of memory and all running Mac OS X Leopard (10.5.8) - please no comments that I need to upgrade to Snow Leopard or Lion. I have replaced the original hard drive in two of them with a brand new 120GB solid state hard drive (cloning the information from the original hard drive to the SSD using Disk Utility) and all is well.
This morning, I repeated the same upgrade process on a 3rd MacPro. Since the upgrade, I am getting frequent spinning beach ball cursors sometimes when performing the most simplest of tasks:
1. Opening System Preferences
2. Clicking the Apple menu.
3. Opening an application.
4. Pressing Command-Shift-A to access the Applications folder.
I have ran Disk Utility and it finds nothing wrong. I thought it might be something to do with Spotlight indexing the drive so I let it completely index the drive. Still having frequent spinning beach ball cursors.
What am I missing? I have 7 MacPro's all bought at the same time, all configured exactly the same (hardware, software, everything!).
Please help!
TIA,
Jon

In brief, there are threads with pros and cons of cloning the OS to an SSD vs clean install.
There is always the issue of what make/controller/firmware SSD you used.
Are all of them the very same? hard to do with all the changes going on and with OWC issuing firmware update for their controller firmware (SandForce 2200 series I think).
3G? 6G?
http://macperformanceguide.com/index_topics.html#SSD_OWC_6G
I think one reason for OS X is it may handle an SSD different (or not).
I used Dec 2010 Corsair 3Gs in my 1,1 model just fine: 2 x 40GB and 1 x 120GB with no issue for months.
What's different? the model and firmware of your latest SSD. And always a chance it is a dud. Or Disk Utility isn't always best for cloning, even with hdd it isn't and many use CCC or better perhaps SuperSuper.
So there are threads, trouble cloning an SSD, and the recommendations to just clean install and use Setup Assistant. And of course move your home media and data to standard type drive.
Something else worth considering:
SoftRAID 4.3

Snow Leopard = Spinning Beach Ball?

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