Spinning Beach Ball and Startup Disc issue

My friend has an IMAC and it has the latest updates and all... About once every day or two the mac just freezes and the rainbow beach ball spins... If she immediately restarts, she gets the question mark folder so her Imac is looking for a startup folder... If she lets it sit overnight, it reboots into her startup disc. The only thing I can think of that could change overnight is a temperature issue??? I have repaired permissions, repaired the startup disc and used Disk Warrior, Drive genius and Cocktail. No fix. Any ideas ladies and gentlemen? I have reinstalled the system software and tried everything I can think of.

What is the S.M.A.R.T. status of the HD in Disk Utility. You Can try running the AHT http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1509

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  • Spinning Beach Ball and computer freeze

    Tonight I continually receive the spinning beach ball. The computer freezes and I need to do a hard shutdown. I have run repair permissions several times. I do receive the modified and no repaire messages. I have traced message lines on the forum and it does not appear to be a serious issue. However, it does not change the fact I repeatedly get the spinning beach ball and after some period of time need to do a hard shutdown. At first this took place in Aperture only, but it did he same thing in other applications as well.
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    Probably a relatively simple fix, or series of steps, that will return it to normal.

    BD,
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    The LaCie is connected via DVI to thunderbolt adapter.  It had been working, and then when I switched off the computer and restarted several days later, I see the signon screen flash quickly, followed by nothing, followed by the signon screen and spinning beach ball and it simply freezes.  Any thoughts?

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              DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION ▹ System Diagnostic Reports
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    I know the report is long, maybe several hundred lines. Please post all of it anyway.

  • Spinning beach ball and slower performance

    I have been noticing that the performance of my iMac is becoming slower, with the dreaded spinning beach ball apearing whenever I change between applications to perform relatively basic functions. However, the worst is when I am in iTunes, where I experience the spinning beach ball for several minutes after connecting and choosing a device, and I typically cannot do anything else in other applications until it stops. As for other applications, I have nearly abandoned Aperture because anything from scrolling to adjustments will cause the spinning beach ball to return several seconds to minutes.
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    I was hoping that the above solution would be the answer I was searching for but alas, that is apparently not the case, since the issues have returned and the spinning beach ball continues to churn... (nothing like the elation of finding a solution only to later feel crushing defeat as the problem returns...)
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  • Spinning beach ball on startup

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    Hi
    Have you repaired permissions http://www.ncmug.org/tips/repair_permissons.html
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  • Spinning beach ball and black screen on my new macbook pro

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  • Spinning beach ball and frozen spotlight on iMac

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  • Spinning beach ball and no Finder icons

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    Carolyn
    Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit

  • IMac - spinning beach ball and freezing problems

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  • Spinning beach ball and a restart

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    Message was edited by: jofima

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    Message was edited by: jofima

  • Spinning beach ball and MPEG Streamclip

    I've downloaded MPEG Streamclip to transfer some Video TS files from a DVD. The files are copied to my desktop and I've tried to open the files using MPEG Streamclip and all I get is the spinning beach ball.
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    D

    I'm afraid that it might be copyrighted material, though I was told that it wasn't.
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  • IPHOTO 11 causing spinning beach ball and freezing. help

    I have a mid 2009 macbook with 2.3 dual core and 2 gb ram. i installed iPhoto 11 after a very successful  10.7.3 install. all was well then i began to import my photos from a thumb drive that i downloaded from a macbook pro onto a thumb drive. after few hiccups i realized i had a file that was stopping the import as it cam eup with the error message. so i deleted that and then about 3/4 of the way through the laptop just choked up and the spinning beach ball started and wouldnt stop. couldnt get it to force quit etc..
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    Select the options identified in the screenshot. 
    Fix #2
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    Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
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  • IPhoto causing 20-30 second hangs - spinning beach ball and music stops

    Very often when I browse through my pictures, suddenly iPhoto will freeze, the beach ball appears and if I attempt to use other programs the entire system freezes. If I'm playing music in iTunes, it will pause and then restart after 20-30 secs when iPhoto and the rest of the system suddenly works again as if nothing happened.
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    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.
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