Spinning beach ball is driving me crazy

When I do any of the following I get the spinning beach ball (SBBOD) for 20-30 seconds, sometimes considerably longer --
- click the Apple Menu
- attempt to insert the cursor in text
- attempt to delete text with Delete key
- attempt to insert an "x" in a box
- attempt to type an email or type in a webpage
- attempt to type anything (except in w/p doc)
- click to close a window
- click to minimize a window
- click to open a window from Dock
- click to open an email
- attempt to scroll the scroll bar
Other than blinking my eyes, nearly everything I do brings up the SBBOD.
I've been using my iMac 18 months. I do software updates at least once/month. About a month ago, upon update to 10.5.6 the beach ball completely disappeared for 1-2 days. Since then, the spinning beach ball has gradually become worse, it appears more often, lasts longer, and is much more disruptive and annoying.
Everything I do take 10-20 times longer -- due to waiting on the beach ball.
I've never had a freeze or a crash. My iMac is reliable, stable, flawless and fabulous -- except for the spinning beach ball which first appeared 2-3 months ago.
I'm not an IT guru, just a regular ardent Mac lover/user.
My hard drive has buzzillions of empty space.
Please help. There has to be a simple fix.

Hi there MacAsia,
I'm having exactly the same problem, and even wiped the hard drive and reinstalled OS X to see if this would fix it.
Nope.
You may be interested in these threads:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8845594
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1745204&start=0&tstart=0
Dan

Similar Messages

ID CS4: Spinning beach ball is driving me mad

I mentioned this inside another thread, then decided I needed to start my own topic.
I've got a 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Mac with 4 GB of memory (running Tiger), and have noticed a serious slow-down when moving from ID CS3 to ID CS4.
I have shut off dynamic spelling, page thumbnails, link thumbnails, etc., and yet I still am seeing WAY too much of that spinning beach ball. Worse, it frequently shows up in Force-Quit as "Not Responding". It does eventually respond, but I can't stand having to pause after every single edit to wait on the program.
I have also tried restarting my Mac, and dumping the preferences for ID, and it doesn't seem to help. My next step is to try rebuilding the document fresh, in case the file is corrupted. Luckily, this particular document is only 4 pages; I hesitate to think what this would be like on a long document!
Are there any bugs with this most recent patch release that I should be aware of?

I'm leery of creating a new user, so I haven't tried that yet. My InDesign is version 6.0.1.
Of course this happened AFTER I decided to upgrade my magazine from CS3 to CS4. And it is happening with multiple documents.
Just this morning, I ran Onyx and repaired permissions, along with executing the usual maintenance routines. I even cleaned the font cache. Nothing has seemed to help.
Several times this morning ID hung up as "not responding", and if I left it alone, it would clear out 5 minutes later (which is not exactly time-efficient, if you know what I mean). I noticed that someone else mentioned it hanging up when using tables, and this latest freeze-up did indeed happen while I was working with a table.

Powerbook with spinning ball is driving me crazy

My powerbook has OS 10.5.8 installed. The spinning ball is driving me crazy. Can I download an earlier operating system to replace 10.5.8. What system do you suggest. I am at my wits end I tried multiple programs to clean up my mac.

Useful article here on the causes of the Spinning Beach Ball and how to troubleshoot it:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9177479/Troubleshoot_the_spinning_beach_b all?taxonomyId=89&pageNumber=1
and also this:
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/sbbod.html

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 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?

Os x running very slow. Spinning beach ball happens often

I dont know what happened latley here the last few days i cant do much of anything for long before i get the spinning beach ball. It drives me crazy because i am typing or doing something and i have to stop wait for it to go away then i can do something for a few minutes then it comes up again and i have to wait again.
I have run permissions, and all the things on itool and it still slow as anything.

boot to single user mode. (boot holding comand s) hold untill u get to a black screen w/ white type.
when it comes up and says root # type sbin/fsck -fy ( note there is a space between the k and the - )
it will launch a file system check.
when finished type the word reboot and press enter.

Excessive Spinning Beach Ball

I'm sick of seeing the spinning beach ball. At times it just gets silly, every click leads to a 30sc-5min wait, I want to kill my macbook.
The macbook in question is the black version, 2GHz core duo, 1GB RAM, 80G free space on the disk (v10.4.10). I tried re-installing the OS from scratch (Windows-style!) and I've repaired the disk permissions.
As for when the beach ball appears, it's quite random. The silliest example is when I'm watching something in VLC (full screen) and the clip ends, whatever I do doesn't take (spacebar won't pause, esc wont return to normal size, etc) and it usually takes 2-5 min for VLC to restore to normal size and stop playing.
It other examples are when browsing on opera/safari, or when browsing for a file in finder with no other apps open. It's driving me insane, any useful advice?

Greetings,
Mine has been flawless so far - no, no negative issues at all. It's a work horse, and has not let me down at any time.
Cheers,
M.

The spinning beach ball keeps rolling

Hey there!
I've got a late 2009 Macbook and since updating to OS X 10.6.5 the spinning beach ball's been a frequent problem. It's mostly when I use Safari(5.0.3 newly updated) so I tried downloading Firefox but no luck. It's like the computer has slowed down after the update and I also get the spinning beach ball in Itunes and Spotify from time to time.
I've been scanning the board for an answer and tried some of the tips you good people gave to others in need but nothing's helped.
Any suggestions?
/Johan

After serious troubleshooting on my new MacBook with almost constant beach-balling, i realized the only time the computer works as supposed to do is WHILE SPOTLIGHT IS INDEXING. When indexing is done or if it is shut off the beach ball returns.
This is on a completely new installation of 10.6.3 on a formatted hard drive with no 3rd part soft installed. It even beach-balls on the user registration form directly after install... and the welcome-video lagged for a cpl of seconds.
This is crazy. I tried everything
Repaired permissions
Cleared caches
Checked hard drive SMART Status
Reinstalled osx twice
turned off journaling
disabled spotlight
disabled the motion sensor
There, now the indexing is done and in this sentence i got 2 beach balls...
Come on apple! (2 beach balls in this sentence)

Problem description: My macbook pro since this afteon has been slower, every application I open, it takes a long time to open, and shows the spinning beach ball for a while before it opens or performs some task, or responds to a click- EtreCheck

My computer
Problem description:
My macbook pro since this afternoon has been slower, every application I open, it takes a long time to open, and shows the spinning beach ball for a while before it opens or performs some task, or responds to a click…
EtreCheck version: 2.1.8 (121)
Report generated 31 de março de 2015 18:29:15 BRT
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
    MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011) (Technical Specifications)
    MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro8,1
    1 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core
    16 GB RAM Upgradeable
        BANK 0/DIMM0
            8 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok
        BANK 1/DIMM0
            8 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok
    Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported
    Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n
    Battery Health: Normal - Cycle count 250
Video Information: ℹ️
    Intel HD Graphics 3000 - VRAM: 512 MB
        Color LCD 1280 x 800
System Software: ℹ️
    OS X 10.10.2 (14C1514) - Time since boot: 0:25:47
Disk Information: ℹ️
    Hitachi HTS545032B9A302 disk0 : (320,07 GB)
        EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
        Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB
        Macintosh HD (disk1) / : 318.84 GB (47.94 GB free) - 51 errors
            Core Storage: disk0s2 319.21 GB Online
    MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-898
USB Information: ℹ️
    Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
    Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub
        Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
    Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
    Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️
    Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
Gatekeeper: ℹ️
    Mac App Store and identified developers
Launch Agents: ℹ️
    [not loaded]    com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist [Click for support]
    [loaded]    com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist [Click for support]
    [running]    com.trusteer.rapport.rapportd.plist [Click for support]
Launch Daemons: ℹ️
    [loaded]    com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Click for support]
    [loaded]    com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist [Click for support]
    [loaded]    com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist [Click for support]
    [loaded]    com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist [Click for support]
    [loaded]    com.oracle.java.JavaUpdateHelper.plist [Click for support]
    [running]    com.trusteer.rooks.rooksd.plist [Click for support]
User Launch Agents: ℹ️
    [loaded]    com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist [Click for support]
    [loaded]    com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist [Click for support]
    [loaded]    com.google.keystone.agent.plist [Click for support]
    [running]    com.spotify.webhelper.plist [Click for support]
User Login Items: ℹ️
    iTunesHelper    UNKNOWN Hidden (missing value)
    AdobeResourceSynchronizer    Application Hidden (/Applications/Adobe Reader.app/Contents/Support/AdobeResourceSynchronizer.app)
    Stickies    Application (/Applications/Stickies.app)
Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
    JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 8 Update 31 Check version
    FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 17.0.0.134 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
    Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10
    AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 10.1.13 [Click for support]
    AdobePDFViewer: Version: 10.1.13 [Click for support]
    Flash Player: Version: 17.0.0.134 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
    QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
    SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.4.8 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
    Google Earth Web Plug-in: Version: 7.1 [Click for support]
    Silverlight: Version: 5.1.30514.0 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
    iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0 - SDK 10.8
User internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
    npsf_cef: Version: sf 3.3.1.1 [Click for support]
    Google Earth Web Plug-in: Version: Unknown
Safari Extensions: ℹ️
    DivX HiQ
    DivX Plus Web Player HTML5 <video>
3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️
    Flash Player [Click for support]
    Java [Click for support]
    MacFUSE [Click for support]
    Perian [Click for support]
    Trusteer Endpoint Protection [Click for support]
Time Machine: ℹ️
    Skip System Files: NO
    Auto backup: YES
    Volumes being backed up:
        Macintosh HD: Disk size: 318.84 GB Disk used: 270.90 GB
    Destinations:
        Time Machine Backups [Local]
        Total size: 999.86 GB
        Total number of backups: 60
        Oldest backup: 2012-07-15 01:16:54 +0000
        Last backup: 2015-03-29 19:28:06 +0000
        Size of backup disk: Excellent
            Backup size 999.86 GB > (Disk size 318.84 GB X 3)
Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️
        97%    rapportd
         3%    WindowServer
         1%    mds
         0%    fseventsd
         0%    distnoted
Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️
    155 MB    Safari
    120 MB    Finder
    86 MB    rapportd
    86 MB    WindowServer
    69 MB    mds_stores
Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️
    12.56 GB    Free RAM
    2.53 GB    Active RAM
    428 MB    Inactive RAM
    1.66 GB    Wired RAM
    1.04 GB    Page-ins
    0 B    Page-outs
Diagnostics Information: ℹ️
    Mar 31, 2015, 06:00:15 PM    Self test - passed
    Mar 31, 2015, 01:13:05 PM    /Users/[redacted]/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Microsoft Error Reporting_2015-03-31-131305_[redacted].crash
    Mar 31, 2015, 01:05:42 PM    /Users/[redacted]/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Microsoft Error Reporting_2015-03-31-130542_[redacted].crash
    Mar 31, 2015, 12:24:33 PM    /Users/[redacted]/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Microsoft Error Reporting_2015-03-31-122433_[redacted].crash
    Mar 30, 2015, 05:45:38 PM    /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Skype_2015-03-30-174538_[redacted].cpu_resource .diag [Click for details]
    Mar 30, 2015, 01:52:07 PM    /Users/[redacted]/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Last.fm Scrobbler_2015-03-30-135207_[redacted].crash
    Mar 29, 2015, 05:55:05 PM    /Users/[redacted]/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.WebKit.WebContent_20 15-03-29-175505_[redacted].crash
    Mar 29, 2015, 01:06:38 PM    /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/VLC_2015-03-29-130638_[redacted].hang
    Mar 29, 2015, 01:02:47 PM    /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/VLC_2015-03-29-130247_[redacted].hang

Open Activity Monitor and kill this process - rapportd.
Reinstalling OS X Without Erasing the Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Reinstalling OS X Without Erasing the Drive
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility and press the Continue button. After Disk Utility loads select the Macintosh HD entry from the the left side list. Click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If Disk Utility reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit Disk Utility and return to the main menu.
Reinstall OS X: Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
Alternatively, see:
Reinstall OS X Without Erasing the Drive
Choose the version you have installed now:
OS X Yosemite- Reinstall OS X
OS X Mavericks- Reinstall OS X
OS X Mountain Lion- Reinstall OS X
OS X Lion- Reinstall Mac OS X
     Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet
                 if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

New (8/14) Macbook Pro Retina - Premiere Pro CC 2014 spinning beach ball

Help! Seems my shiny new wiz-bang 4-core Macbook Pro with 16 GB of Ram and a 512 solid state drive works just fine with Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2014 until my project reaches a certain size, then it won't open the project and immediately gives me the deadly spinning beach ball. The only way to exit is to force quit whereupon I get the "Sorry, a serious error has occurred...". Aggravating beyond words.
Saw one forum comment where it was recommended to update to the 6.0 CUDA driver, but not even sure I have a CUDA driver. Plenty of space left on hard drive. In Premiere Pro preferences under the "Memory Tab" it doesn't seem to matter if it's set to "Optimize rendering for.... Memory or Performance." I've reinstalled the Premiere Pro App twice. Doesn't help.
Some specs:
Processor 2.5 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics Intel Iris Pro
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M GPU PCie
Intel Iris Pro GPU Built-in
8 GB DDR# 1600 MHz (x2) = 16 GB RAM
350 GB of 499 GB left on drive
Of the 16 GB of RAM I have 11 available for Premiere Pro and the other 5 GB allocated for other apps.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

>NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M GPU PCie
>Intel Iris Pro GPU Built-in
Dual graphics adapters are a bane on civilization!!!
-http://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/kb/error---preludevideo-play-modules.html
-http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1001579
-Use BIOS http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1019004?tstart=0
-link to why http://forums.adobe.com/message/4685328
-http://www.anandtech.com/show/4839/mobile-gpu-faceoff-amd-dynamic-switchable-graphics-vs-n vidia-optimus-technology/2
-Mac Utility for dual adapters http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1017891?tstart=0

Spinning beach ball each time I make an edit!

Hi guys - have done a search on this to no avail.
I upgraded to Leopard (foolishly) and recently have found that I am getting the spinning beach ball on every edit I make, making the whole thing unbelievably slow.
I have tried repairing disk permissions, closing all sequences / projects except the one that I am working on. The project is only 24 minutes long, and isn't particularly graphic heavy. I have also split the project in to shorter 5 minute sequences but still no luck. I haven't trashed preferences as FCP Rescue 6 doesn't work.
My settings / setup:
Mac OSX 10.5.1
G5 Quad
FCP 6.0.2
Motion 3
DV PAL Anamorphic
FCP Project folder on internal hard drive
Capture scratch and render files on external Sata drive
2 other 1TB External firewire drives
External monitor
Sony HDV Dec
2 screens
Any help would be much appreciated!
Stephen

If you go with the reinstall
"Not sure what you mean by 0s and bad sectors"
Disc Utility (applications/utilities) Highlight the hard drive, erase tab, should be under "security" (in 10.4 not sure about 10.5). *This will erase everything on drive*
"or if there are any specific steps to take backing up the system drive..."
well anything you want to keep must be copied to another drive or dvd/cd; projects, plug-ins, browser bookmarks, downloaded programs...everything. Which is a really good idea anyway - all drives will fail sooner or later.
Edit - You know you get into this to be creative and you wind up being an IT guy just to keep it all running - it's inevitable if you want well running system.
Message was edited by: javabob

I am having trouble with a LaCie 526 monitor working with my new Mac Pro. When I boot up, I see the sign-in screen for a second, then it disappears, reappears with some of the screen pixelated and the spinning beach ball -- and then freezes. Any thoughts

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?

When you have kernel panics, the pertinent information is in the panic report.
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 and start typing the name.
In the Console window, select
DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION ▹ System Diagnostic Reports
(not Diagnostic and Usage Messages) from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
There is a disclosure triangle to the left of the list item. If the triangle is pointing to the right, click it so that it points down. You'll see a list of reports. A panic report has a name that begins with "Kernel" and ends in ".panic". Select the most recent one. The contents of the report will appear on the right. Use copy and paste to post the entire contents—the text, not a screenshot.
If you don't see any reports listed, but you know there was a panic, you may have chosen Diagnostic and Usage Messages from the log list. Choose DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION instead.
In the interest of privacy, I suggest that, before posting, you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.)
Please don’t post other kinds of diagnostic report.
I know the report is long, maybe several hundred lines. Please post all of it anyway.

I accidentally quit my CC on my Macbook pro and now the cloud icon is grayed out and every time I hover over it with the mouse I get the spinning beach ball of death on the icon. I have no idea how to open it because when I use spotlight search to open it

I accidentally quit my CC on my Macbook pro and now the cloud icon is grayed out and every time I hover over it with the mouse I get the spinning beach ball of death on the icon. I have no idea how to open it because when I use spotlight search to open it it gives me a message saying "Creative Cloud is not open anymore" help!

Since you didn't include any pertinent info such as the Mac model and OS version you are running, here is some general information:
Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
Depending on which OS yours came with originally - and which OS you are now running - you would either need your original install disks - you can call Apple for replacements by giving them your serial number. Or you may be able to reinstall the OS by using recovery (again, depends on which model/which OS).

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.

New MacBook and The Infinitely Spinning Beach Ball: Anybody Else?

I wonder if I'm the only MacBook owner having this experience, or if there might be some company in my misery?
I purchased a new Aluminum MacBook on Nov.14. This one is the high-end, 2.4GHz model with 4GB of RAM and currently running OSX 10.5.5.
I have in the past few days (or week, or so) encountered what appears to be an intermittent performance failure. I will, for example, be in Apple Mail: Open a new message to compose, and as soon as I click on the open window, the beach balls starts spinning... and continues to spin for a minute or two. Typically, when this starts happening, when I get the cursor back I click again, and the beachball resumes spinning.
This will also happen in Firefox, or, as it did yesterday, even accessing items in the upper-right menu bar. Suspecting an impending hard-drive failure, I clicked the Time Capsule icon in the menu to see when I got my last backup, and instead of getting Time Capsule, I got... the spinning beach ball of death.
The most difficult thing about this dilemma is that it appears to be intermittent. I took the MacBook to the dealer that sold it to me yesterday, was unable to replicate the issues. Everything worked fine in the store. Came home, problem returned for about 10 or 15 minutes, then it went away and the computer performed normally until I closed the lid to go out for the evening.
Then this morning I opened the lid again and.... spinning beach balls for a total of about 17 minutes. And now, again, it appears to be working fine.
While I was at the store, we ran a disc verify in disk utility, and it returned the message "The volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK."
This is the worst kind of problem -- the intermittent one. I suspect something in the computer itself, in the believe that hardware issues are more likely to be intermittent than software issues; I could be wrong about that, I dunno.
All I do know is that I can have maddening periods when I can't do anything with the computer, and then, just as suddenly, everything goes back to normal.
So I wonder if there might be anything in the circuitry in these new MacBooks that might be causing a similar problem for others. Or is this my unique cross to bear until the thing goes completely south?
Thanks,
--PS

Have you tried running the diagnostics from the Leopard disc? If not, give it a go to see what it finds. To run it, boot while holding the "d" key (with Leopard disc in ofcourse).
Haven't tried that, I did not know that was on the disk. I'll run it, how long might it take? What sort of tests does it run, what sort of results should I expect?
Another thing to try is reset the SMC.
Following the link you provided suggests there might be some things in the SMC that could be causing my problems. Should I do that before or after I run the diagnostics? Would the diagnostics tell me if that's something I need to do?
If still nothing... perhaps a reinstall of Leopard.
I call that the "Vietnam Solution" -- destroying the village in order to save it. I thought was done with that sort of thing when I abandoned PCs and Windows. Not a desirable outcome.
As a last resort, you might consider trying a new hard drive. A failing drive can cause theses intermittent delays.
That was my initial thought, too. Are there any diagnostics I can run besides dick utility to determine the integrity of the hard drive? Do the diagnostics on the Leopard install disk do that?
Thanks,
--PS

Spinning beach ball is driving me crazy

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