Spinning beach ball accompanied by subtle rhythmic sound from laptop

what does it mean? can it be fixed?
It happens randomly, like when I'm checking email. bummer!

could be failing hard drive, consider backing up any important files right away
if it's the hard drive, the fix is around $150-200 parts/labor

Similar Messages

Why do I get the spinning beach ball when I try to change from Events to Photos. How do I fix it?

Why do I get the spinning beach ball when I try to change from Events to Photos. How do I fix it?

Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Repair Database. If that doesn't help, then try again, this time using Rebuild Database.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In early versions of Library Manager it's the File -> Rebuild command. In later versions it's under the Library menu.)
This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, albums and keywords, faces and places back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.
Regards
TD

Finder periodically plagued with Spinning Beach Ball of Death

SBBOD = Spinning Beach Ball of Death
Could someone who understands MacOS X internals please explain to me why the finder needs to wait for an external Firewire drive to spin up to:
1. Open an app from the doc. (sbbod until the FW drive spins up)
2. Quit an app via right clicking the dock icon of the app. (shows 'Application not Responding' until FW drive spins up then
'quit' is the available choice)
3. Get a running program to respond. (sbbod then app responds as usual when FW drive spins up)
Let me set the scene. I do not have 'put drives to sleep' in energy saver. Spotlight is configured to ignore all of my external volumes. None of my apps use the external volumes for scratch or anything else. I rarely if ever directly save to an external volume from any application. I cannot change the behavior of the FW drive going into Stand-By mode (I've checked with Seagate and the feature is not changeable via firmware or dip-switch/jumper settings)
My only thought is poor filesystem buffer cache management. Problem is even that doesn't make sense. If I haven't read from or written to the external drives there shouldn't be ANY in memory buffers associated with the now in stand-by state firewire drive.
The SBBOD usually only takes 5-10 seconds to go away and Finder behavior to return to normal. I know it sounds 'petty' but it definitely is a flaw in what is supposed to be (and usually is) a very responsive GUI. I've experienced this annoying behavior with the standard Apple apps (Mail, Address Book, iCal, iTunes etc) and my 3rd party apps (Photoshop CS3, Excel, Word, Cisco VPN client. I'm thinking about writing a crontab entry to 'touch' the FW drive every few minutes to keep it spun up as a workaround.
Running 10.6.1 and hoping Apple would have gotten it right with this release.

AFAIK, the Seagate bare HDs don't have that limitation. At least the 750 GB SATA, ST3750640AS, one doesn't have the standby mode. Neither do any in that family. Spec sheet at http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=Barracuda7200.10_SATA_750.3GB&vgnextoid=138697c102ede010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD&locale=en-GB

Print error - there was a problem connecting to the server - spinning beach ball

This has happened pre-yosemite and since. It used to only happen at home but now also happens at work. Every time I try to print, I get a spinning beach ball and a long delay until I get an error message saying there was a problem connecting to the server. At home, after clicking OK, I get a second spinning beach ball session with same error. Once I click OK second time, I get print window and can print. At work, it's only one session of spinning beach ball. The office problem occurred after upgrading to yosemite. I've deleted and added the printers without resolution. I've repaired permissions. The home problem has been going on for at least a year, probably a couple. Using a macbook pro.

There are many possible causes for this issue, and it may be very hard to resolve without wiping your account clean of everything except documents as a last resort. Please take each of the following steps that you haven't already tried. Back up all data before making any changes.
If you get the alert in the login screen before you log in, stop here and ask for instructions.
Step 1
If you get the alert as soon as you log in, it's probably caused by one of your login items or by software that otherwise loads at startup or login. Ask if you need help identifying it. Known offenders are "1Password" and "Adobe Resource Synchronizer."
Step 2
If there's an icon representing the server in the sidebar of a Finder window, hold down the command key and drag it out.
Step 3
In the Finder, press the key combination command-K or select
          Go ▹ Go to Server...
from the menu bar. In the upper right corner of the window that opens is a Recent Servers popup menu represented by a clock icon. From that menu, select
          Clear Recent Servers…
and confirm. Test.
Step 4
Open the Printers & Scanners pane in System Preferences and delete any network devices you no longer use. If in doubt, delete them all and add back the ones you want.
Step 5
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it, then copy the text to the Clipboard by pressing command-C:
~/Library/PDF Services
In the Finder, select
          Go ▹ Go to Folder...
from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return. A folder may open. If it does, move the contents to the Desktop, or to a new folder on the Desktop. Log out and log back in. Test. If there's no change, put the items you moved back where they were and continue.
Step 6
Open the folder
~/Library/Preferences
as in Step 5 and move the file named "loginwindow.plist" items in that folder to the Trash, if it exists (it may not.)
Log out and back in again, and test.
Step 7
Other possible causes are references in the iPhoto, iTunes, or iMovie library pointing to the server, bookmarks in the Preview application, and PDF files created by Adobe Acrobat with embedded scripts.
Try rebuilding the iPhoto library, if applicable.
Step 8
Resources such as images or sounds stored on the server may have been added to various applications. Examples would be pictures added to Contacts and custom sounds added to Mail. The range of possibilites here is practically infinite, so I can't be more specific. You might get a hint by launching the Console application and looking for error messages that appear at the same time as the alerts.
Step 9
Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed to start up. Start up in safe mode. Test. After testing, restart as usual (not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem.
Note: If FileVault is enabled in OS X 10.9 or earlier, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a Fusion Drive or a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.
Step 10
Triple-click the line below to select it:
/System/Library/CoreServices/Directory Utility.app
Rght-click or control-click the highlighted text and select
          Services ▹ Open
from the contextual menu.* The application Directory Utility will open.
In the Directory Utility window, select the Directory Editor tool in the toolbar. Select Mounts from the Viewing menu in the toolbar, and/Local/Default from the node menu, if not already selected. On the right is a list of names and values. By default, the list is empty. If it's not empty, post a screenshot of the window and stop here.
*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C). Open a TextEdit window and paste into it (command-V). Select the line you just pasted and continue as above.
Step 11
Open the following file as you did in the last step:
/etc/auto_master
It will open in a TextEdit window. The contents should be exactly this:
# Automounter master map
+auto_master          # Use directory service
/net               -hosts          -nobrowse,hidefromfinder,nosuid
/home               auto_home     -nobrowse,hidefromfinder
/Network/Servers     -fstab
/-               -static
If there are any other lines in the window, post them. Otherwise, close the window.

ITunes 11 hangs (spinning beach ball) in Mountain Lion

Whenever I open iTunes, it hangs with a spinning beach ball for about three minutes. During this time, Activity Monitor shows iTunes (not responding) using 90–130% of the CPU.
After a few minutes, the beach ball stops and iTunes works fine...for a while. Double clicking on any audio file on my desktop, sets off the spinning beach ball again for another three minutes, at which time iTunes becomes responsive again, but the sound file does not play.
I've tried tossing the iTunes preferences and running Disk Warrior to no avail. I'm running 10.8.2 on my mid-2007 iMac. Any ideas/suggestions for troubleshooting?

Okay, I think I've finally solved my problem. I moved my entire iTunes library from one hard drive to another, then I deleted everything from iTunes (selected all songs, hit delete key, but didn't delete songs from disk) and then reimported them by dragging my Music folder into iTunes.
I'm not sure if moving the songs from one disk to another really helped, but deleting and reinstalling the songs definitely did.
I actually let iTunes perform a "scan for music" to reinstall the tracks, but that never seems to bring in everything. I had to drag in all of my compilation disks and some other miscellaneous tracks. P.I.T.A.
But, the good news is iTunes no longer hangs.

Spinning beach ball - all applications

iMac Intel - ealry 2009 - spinning beach ball with all applications - could not force quit or use keyboard shortcuts to restart - had to perform hard restart - ran hardware test with original install disk and result was no error - not sure how to proceed

That is bad news. Sounds like the Hard Drive has failed. Try a
SMC RESET
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and ALL peripherals.
Wait 15 seconds.
Attach the computers power cable.
Wait another 5 seconds and press the power button to turn on the computer.
The 5 second timing is important to a successful reset.
That may reset power to the Hard Drive, but it's a long shot. Hope you have backups.

Spinning beach ball when quitting Logic and loading projects

Hello,
Whenever I load a Logic project I get the spinning beach ball. After a while, the project is loaded and it all works, but it is taken way too long to load the plugins. I'm not even talking about big projects, and I have an SSD, so it should be much faster.
The same happens when I quit Logic. Not when I close the project, but when I actually quit Logic. The "Logic Pro" menu in the top left corner of the menu bar in OS X would light up in dark blue when I press CMD + Q, and it would stay like this for 30 seconds or so. The spinning beach ball would appear again during this time. Then it would finally quit.
I have reinstalled OS X and reinstalled Logic Pro X. But the problem was still there. It sounds like a core audio problem, but the problem occurs no matter what my sound output is set to. It happened when the audio output was set to the built-in speakers of my Mac Pro (yes Mac Pro have that!), when it was set to the speakers of the Cinema Display (LED one) and when it was set to my RME Babyface.
I don't think it's a Driver problem because it happened as well when I reinstalled OS X and Logic, and when I tested it on the Macs/Cinema Displays speakers, without the RME Babyface, basically without having installed any drivers or anything yet. So everything was fresh and untouched.
This is a very weird issue. I'm wondering if someone knows what I could do next.
My specs:
Mid 2010 Mac Pro 12-core 2,92 GHz
32 GB RAM
27" LED Cinema Display
OS X 10.9.5 Mavericks
Logic Pro 10.1.1
Thanks a lot

Hi,
thanks for your reply.
Like I said, this is a complete fresh install – I installed OS X Mavericks 10.9.5 from a USB installer, and re-downloaded Logic Pro X from the App Store. That's all. That means there's no 3rd party plugins, no 3rd party drivers, nothing, just the stock OS X system.
However, I just installed the RME Babyface drivers. But this makes no difference, as the problem was present before as well. I'm just saying that, because it appears in my EtreCheck Report which I will post an the end of this message, so you may be wondering.
I tried to delete the preference files and such before – no change.
Logic started normally (= no message or appeared or anything) while holding down Shift + Control, and also while holding down the Option key. The issue is still there. What would or what should it do if I hold these keys while starting? When I hold only the Control key however, it asked me if I wanted to start Logic without the Core Audio. I clicked to start without it, and then obviously everything worked.
So here's my EtreCheck report. Everything looks normal I'd say?
EtreCheck version: 2.1.8 (121)
Report generated 09. April 2015 16:30:01 MESZ
Download EtreCheck from http://etresoft.com/etrecheck
Click the [Click for support] links for help with non-Apple products.
Click the [Click for details] links for more information about that line.
Hardware Information: ℹ️
    Mac Pro (Mid 2010)
    Mac Pro - model: MacPro5,1
    2 2.93 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon CPU: 12-core
    32 GB RAM Upgradeable
        DIMM 1
            16 GB DDR3 ECC 1333 MHz ok
        DIMM 2
            Empty
        DIMM 3
            Empty
        DIMM 4
            Empty
        DIMM 5
            16 GB DDR3 ECC 1333 MHz ok
        DIMM 6
            Empty
        DIMM 7
            Empty
        DIMM 8
            Empty
    Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported
    Wireless: en2: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Video Information: ℹ️
    AMD Radeon HD 7950 - VRAM: 3072 MB
        LED Cinema Display 2560 x 1440
System Software: ℹ️
    OS X 10.9.5 (13F34) - Time since boot: 4:52:33
Disk Information: ℹ️
    HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GH61N
    HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GH61N
    Samsung SSD 850 PRO 512GB disk0 : (512,11 GB)
        EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
        Macintosh SSD (disk0s2) / : 511.25 GB (494.58 GB free)
        Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB
    ST2000DM001-1ER164 disk1 : (2 TB)
        EFI (disk1s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
        Macintosh HDD (disk1s2) /Volumes/Macintosh HDD : 2.00 TB (2.00 TB free)
USB Information: ℹ️
    General UDisk
    Apple, Inc. Keyboard Hub
        Logitech Apple Optical USB Mouse
        Apple Inc. Apple Keyboard
    Apple Inc. Apple LED Cinema Display
    Apple Inc. Display iSight
    Apple Inc. Display Audio
    RME Babyface (23483046)
    Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub
        Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Gatekeeper: ℹ️
    Mac App Store and identified developers
Kernel Extensions: ℹ️
        /Library/Extensions
    [loaded]    de.rme-audio.driver.RMEFirefaceUSB (2.05 - SDK 10.9) [Click for support]
Problem System Launch Agents: ℹ️
    [failed]    com.apple.uhfu.ledcinemadisplayaudio.plist
Launch Agents: ℹ️
    [running]    de.rme-audio.RMEfirefaceUSBAgent.plist [Click for support]
User Login Items: ℹ️
    iTunesHelper    Programm (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)
Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
    Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9
    QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️
    None
Time Machine: ℹ️
    Time Machine not configured!
Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️
         1%    WindowServer
         1%    Logic Pro X
         1%    coreaudiod
         1%    fontd
         1%    sysmond
Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️
    241 MB    Logic Pro X
    137 MB    mds_stores
    137 MB    Safari
    103 MB    com.apple.WebKit.WebContent
    103 MB    WindowServer
Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️
    29.92 GB    Free RAM
    2.07 GB    Active RAM
    573 MB    Inactive RAM
    1.77 GB    Wired RAM
    491 MB    Page-ins
    0 B    Page-outs
Diagnostics Information: ℹ️
    Apr 9, 2015, 11:37:27 AM    Self test - passed
EDIT:
Okay, apparently there *is* a little problem. This part here:
Problem System Launch Agents: ℹ️
    [failed]    com.apple.uhfu.ledcinemadisplayaudio.plist
I believed this was normal because my audio output was set to the external USB audio interface when I ran the test, but I ran it again with the sound output set to the Cinema Display, and this message still appeared. When I click the Information symbol, it says:
These are low-level parts of your operating system, usually provided by Apple, that run in the background while a user is logged in. Any failure that appears here may indicate a problem with your system.
I can't tell if there's a link to my Logic problem, however.
PS: I just remembered that I installed a system update for the LED Cinema Display which I downloaded from the Apple Support page. Maybe it has to do with that. It may have been an old update that was not needed.

What causes spinning beach ball upon waking from sleep

I have a 4 year old iMac that has recently developed an intermittent problem. If I put it to sleep, sometimes on waking up, the hard drive access seems to stop. I hear a tap sound as though it was trying to read the disk, but it gets stuck and a spinning beach ball appears instead of the cursor. I can move it around, but I cannot perform any actions. The ball will stay forever if I let it.
Another variation occurs shortly after wake-up, where I start to click on a file on the desktop or even an icon in the Dock. The name will become highlighted and then the same spinning beach ball appears.
The only cure for the behavior has been to shut it down and reboot. It then works fine.
The weird thing is that I have just been using it for 6 hours straight with out any hassles... until I will put it to sleep!
I have tried running Disk Utility from the Leopard System Disk as well as repairing permissions and I have used Disk Warrior 4 . It seemed to allow about 6-8 sleep cycles before the symptoms re-appeared.
I verified the disk and repaired the permissions again yesterday and all seemed OK. Yet today, when I started up from sleep. the system froze. The only cure so far is to never allow the hard drive to sleep. I put the display to sleep after 15 minutes but the hard drive continues to spin.
I am concerned that not sleeping the hard drive will do harm to it.
I am using OS 10.5.8 on a 233 Ghz Core 2 Duo iMac
I have Parallels 4 installed and cannot tell you if the problems started after a PC session.

HI Studio Guy,
Welcome to the forums. When ever your having trouble with a computer; it's really a good idea to back every thing up. If your not backing up; http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427 explains how to back up your computer to an external hard drive. (assuming your using 10.5 or 10.6)
You could try running a hardware test on the computer. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1509
You could try a safeboot, it can repair lots of issues. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1455
This article explains how to delete the sleep image; a bad sleep image can cause wake from sleep issues. http://osxdaily.com/2010/10/11/sleepimage-mac/
But if your hard drive is rapidly making a taping noise you may want to take it to a genius bar; they might recommend replacing the hard drive. http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/

Persistent Spinning Beach Ball

I have a spinning beach ball problem that I can't resolve.
The computer will boot up to the login menu then when I login as a user (it happens with all users) the screen flips to my background then the beach ball starts. I can hear the drive working and over the course of 30 min. it eventually loads my desktop. After a few times of scrolling through the finder window with 5 min beach balls the window will scroll freely. Ditto with all other programs (Safari, Appleworks, Mail etc.) where after initial hangs they work with no beach balls.
Other oddities - Top right login menu does not highlight user and the words LOGOUTSTRING is displayed where it should read Login Menu at the bottom.
- Couldn't access System Profiler
- 2 days ago iMac would boot up to Login Window at this speed. It took about 45 min. but boots up fine now.
- Lately, prior to these beach balls I have been having trouble uploading pictures to iPhoto from my son's digital camera. Computer wouldn't recognize it as being connected at the USB port.
Tried - manual daily, weekly, monthly sudo file clean up
- fixing permissions
- deleted an odd iPhoto cache file that was dated 1903
- DiskWarrior wouldn't work because I got an error message. Hardware test OK though.
I have 55gb of available HD space according to Activity Monitor. Also, I have had it up during some beach ball incidents and it actually shows low CPU usage during those times. Printer works fine.
Connected to computer is Canon i350 printer and HP scanjet 3670
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

Hi northernapple
deleted an odd iPhoto cache file that was dated
1903
that must have been a steam powered déraguer black
and white.
It sounds like your hard disk has a major problem.
Can you run Disk Warrior from a boot disk. If not,
can you boot from the OS X Install CD and run Repair
Disk from Disk Utilities? Then afterwards try to run
Diskwarrior if needed.
Attempt to back up your files now, as you may need to
reinstall your OS.
regards roam
Thanks Roam,
Just got back to it. Busy work week.
Hopefully a major reinstall will be the last resort but backing up now is definitely wise.
I was attempting to run DiskWarrior from the cd at the time. I may try that again after backup because I have been able to run permissions a couple of times whereas it previously hung part way through.

Entering URL in address bar causes spinning beach ball...doesn't return

entering URL in address bar causes spinning beach ball. Safari then doesn't return and I have to force quit. This happens every time I try to type a url. It only
does this on one account on the computer and not another on same computer.
Under library preference I dragged the internet pref pane into trash. This did not help. I also dragged the system user perference pane com.apple.safari.plist as well into the trash but also did not fix the problem.
I can not drag the internet pref pane from the trash back to the library folder. Will this cuase any problems?

Glad you took the next step. My next suggestion was going to be the History file, which too is in the Safari folder. Sounds like that was the culprit.
Thanks for the and Aloha from Big Island.

M2v file causes Spinning Beach Ball of Death? How do you use Video???

I used FCP to mark a silent video and sent it to Compressor. I was going to use Soundtrack Pro to add some sound to the track for DVD. Every time I try to drag an m2v file over, I just get a spinning beach ball and if it loads at all, it takes about a minute or two before I regain control over the program. The m2v file is 500 megs. The problem now is if I try to scrub the video, every time I do, I get the spinning ball again. I've had to force quit a few times.
I've got over 5 megs of RAM, but I'm on a G5 dual processor 2.5 ghz, not an intel.
I'm wondering if I am trying to do something in a way I should not, or if there is a problem with StPro. I have the latest updates to the Studio. I'm on Tiger 10.4.11
Also, I cannot see the markers from the compressor file, while they are visible in DVD Pro.
Thanks in advance,
Jeff

I am referring specifically to the type of compression used in the .mov file. MPEG-2, Sorenson, H.264, DV, etc., are all types of codecs used to compress the picture in a QuickTime movie.
Some are easier to work with than others.
I'm not sure how you produced the .m2v file, that is usually a format with MPEG-2 video. Could it be you just got it from a DVD?
When you export the picture from FCP choose a different output format. Make a QuickTime movie and choose a hi-quality intermediate codec like DV.

Spinning Beach Ball - HELLFEST

It appears I am not the only one fighting trying to get a 6 minute montage to render to IDVD....
I have been trying for 3 days to render...support says I should have patience...for the rendering of audio.... R U Serious..... 3 days of a spinning beach ball !!!
To Date here is what I have done...
Used all of Onyx for cache and system optimization...
- Run nothing but IDVD
- Removed all MP3's and replaced with AIFF
_ Removed and regenerated the plist associated with IDVD
- Used utilities to reset all permissions...
I mean a simple "we got a bug and we will fix it" would go a long ways toward putting the user community at ease...
No one seems to have a clue about why this is happening with 6.02...
If ANYONE has any insight I would appreciate it...
thx
tjm

FINALLY, Got it to burn....The 6 minute montage only had pictures with cross disolve and other transistions and just a little of video....fair amount of Imovie 6 sound effects from Ilife06..
Had to remove the mp3 from the IDVD6 movie theme and just used a garageband standard....
For those who have yet to go down this path.....The spinning beachball will say the program is unresponsive under the force quit command which is why after hours of waiting one is thinking "well it must be locked" when in fact it is still cooking...I hope the next release returns messaging that gives a more accurate portrayal of what is going on..
I still think there is something amiss with the audio-rendering portion. If one can convert media in Itunes in mere seconds then it would not be too much of a stretch to assume that 20 or 30 minutes tops should be the order of the day...6 to 8 hours to render audio is excessive don't you think?

Just ran a recent update, and computer woke up with plain blue screen and spinning beach ball, was it the update that made the computer crash?

just ran a recent update for my macbook pro/mid 2010, and the computer just woke up with a plain blue screen & spinning beach ball - I had to do a hard shut down.
I am also having the problem of having my screen going black for a couple of seconds, I read up on it in Support. But I was wondering if there is something else going on.
Any ideas?
thanks

Hmm sounds like a bad update, follow the links here
cheat sheet has a link to blue screen issues
do a data recovery first
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents

Frequent spinning beach ball

Hello community,
I've had my iBook for almost two years now. Some months into owning it, a couple of days after update 10.4.3 came out, I started to see the spinning beach ball. Usually it would happen at random times, but certain activities guaranteed it (going over an icon in the dock w/ magnifying effect on, opening system preferences, and when checking for available software updates).
Well, I got sick of it after about a year, so I did a clean reformat a few weeks ago. At first, wow! super fast, just like the first months of ownership. Well, the spinning ball has returned now, about 2-3 weeks after the reformat. It's kind of annoying how Apple is running those ads on TV where the Mac is confused that the PC keeps on getting stuck, because I have 2 PC's and the 1 Mac, and the PC's never get stuck, as opposed to the Mac.
As before, it sometimes happens at random times when I'm just surfing the internet, always happens when I open system preferences, and usually when I open a .pdf file. This time, however, the dock's magnifying effect doesn't bother it. Sometimes I can use the computer for an hour or so before it happens, but sometimes it occurs very quickly. On average, it happens about once every 30 minutes and lasts for about a minute or two. Also, while it is happening, I can hear the HD making a very quiet repetitive click-click-click-clack sound until the ball disappears. All of my software is updated.
I'm inclined to think that it's a software issue since it runs fine after a reformat.
Despite this issue, I still like the computer, but would love to get this solved. Thanks in advance for the help.
HD: 60 GB total, about 45 free.
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Hi,
Welcome to Apple discussions,
Along with the other good help you received
Did you run disk permissions before & after the attempt to reapply the Mac OS X 10.4.8 Combo PPC
** See this Updating Faq Mac OS X updating FAQ which should come
in handy for the newly released 10.4.9 just out today.
See this concise article on running disk permissions repair &more.Travis A.'s Regular Maintenance/General Troubleshooting
Do you run any maintenance to clean the Internet clutter you collect whilst
browsing? If not see this freeware tool OnyX and this article, Clearing caches with OnyX
Did you check your HD for the S.M.A.R.T status as Allan recommended?
In System preferences->Energy Saver do you have "put the hard disk to sleep when possible" selected if yes deselect that.
There are many aspects that will make for the spinning curser, look at the Macmaps & subsequent links it provides for more info.
Good luck & keep us posted.
Eme'~[)

IPhoto Unresponsive, Spinning Beach Ball

Whenever I attempt to open iPhoto, I get the spinning beach ball and have to force quit. This occurs every time. Any suggestions?

Try trash the com.apple.iPhoto.plist file from the HD/Users/ Your Name / library / preferences folder. (Remember you'll need to reset your User options afterwards. These include minor settings like the window colour and so on. Note: If you've moved your library you'll need to point iPhoto at it again.)
What's the plist file?
For new users: Every application on your Mac has an accompanying plist file. It records certain User choices. For instance, in your favourite Word Processor it remembers your choice of Default Font, on your Web Browser is remembers things like your choice of Home Page. It even recalls what windows you had open last if your app allows you to pick up from where you left off last. The iPhoto plist file remembers things like the location of the Library, your choice of background colour, whether you are running a Referenced or Managed Library, what preferences you have for autosplitting events and so on. Trashing the plist file forces the app to generate a new one on the next launch, and this restores things to the Factory Defaults. Hence, if you've changed any of these things you'll need to reset them. If you haven't, then no bother. Trashing the plist file is Mac troubleshooting 101.
If tht doesn't help:
Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one. .
Regards
TD

Spinning beach ball accompanied by subtle rhythmic sound from laptop

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