New iMac Getting SPOD

[joeholl1979]

I've been loving my new iMac, and haven't looked back since switching from PC. However, over the last few days I've been getting the Spinning Pinwheel Of Death, seemingly at random times. It's REALLY annoying because the only way I know to resolve it is hard boot the computer.

Any help to permanently resolve this issue would be much appreciated!

[GGJstudios]

When you're getting beachballs, follow every step of the following instructions precisely. Do not skip any steps.

1. Launch Activity Monitor
2. Change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes"
3. Click on the "% CPU" column heading once or twice, so the arrow points downward (highest values on top).
   (If that column isn't visible, right-click on the column headings and check it, NOT "CPU Time")
4. Click on the System Memory tab at the bottom.
5. Take a screen shot of the entire Activity Monitor window, then scroll down to see the rest of the list, take another screen shot
6. Post your screenshots.

[simsaladimbamba]

Open Activity Monitor and go to the System Memory* tab and look for Page Outs and Swap used and report back.

Using Activity Monitor to show you CPU and RAM usage

* Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor

[joeholl1979]

Whenever this happens, the computer is completely frozen, so I won't be able to do that...

[TennisandMusic]

This is actually one of the reasons I switched back from Mac to PC. OS X is simply incredibly slow, buggy, and just not performant.

Go look at the articles posted at macperformanceguide.com to get an idea. My Windows install blazes...

Good luck with your computer (no sarcasm).

[Mike in Kansas]

Originally Posted by TennisandMusic

This is actually one of the reasons I switched back from Mac to PC. OS X is simply incredibly slow, buggy, and just not performant.

Go look at the articles posted at macperformanceguide.com to get an idea. My Windows install blazes...

Good luck with your computer (no sarcasm).

That's a riot!

[J. Rab]

Originally Posted by TennisandMusic

This is actually one of the reasons I switched back from Mac to PC. OS X is simply incredibly slow, buggy, and just not performant.

Go look at the articles posted at macperformanceguide.com to get an idea. My Windows install blazes...

Good luck with your computer (no sarcasm).

My experience has been the complete opposite. I went without a reformat on my MBP for about three years -- and it started slowing down -- with windows I can't go more than a year without it bogging down. To each their own I spose.

[simsaladimbamba]

Originally Posted by joeholl1979

Whenever this happens, the computer is completely frozen, so I won't be able to do that...

Then do the System Memory part afterwards.

[pete78]

Originally Posted by joeholl1979

I've been loving my new iMac, and haven't looked back since switching from PC. However, over the last few days I've been getting the Spinning Pinwheel Of Death, seemingly at random times. It's REALLY annoying because the only way I know to resolve it is hard boot the computer.

Any help to permanently resolve this issue would be much appreciated!

I would run disk utility to make sure your hard drive is okay. I had a similar symptom, and turned out to be a bad HD. Good luck.

[joeholl1979]

Originally Posted by pete78

I would run disk utility to make sure your hard drive is okay. I had a similar symptom, and turned out to be a bad HD. Good luck.

Ugh, that would suck...

[joeholl1979]

It just did it again. I hard booted then took these screen shots.

[ssls6]

Originally Posted by joeholl1979

It just did it again. I hard booted then took ]

1) open system pref's and put your hard drive in spotlight exclusions. This will wipe away your .DS_Store files.

2) Reboot and go into recovery. Repair your HD and then repair permissions

3) Reboot again and remove your hard drive from spotlight exclusions.

Now wait while your drive is reindexed. You can work on it but don't mess with spotlight until it is finished. This should help if mds is really going wild.

[joeholl1979]

Originally Posted by ssls6

1) open system pref's and put your hard drive in spotlight exclusions. This will wipe away your .DS_Store files.

2) Reboot and go into recovery. Repair your HD and then repair permissions

3) Reboot again and remove your hard drive from spotlight exclusions.

Now wait while your drive is reindexed. You can work on it but don't mess with spotlight until it is finished. This should help if mds is really going wild.

This didn't quite work, but it did make me realize that Spotlight was probably causing the issue. I reset the PRAM and now Spotlight is re-indexing my hard drive. So far, no Spinning Pinwheel.
Hopefully this will resolve the problem!

[Giuly]

mds = hard drive indexing for Spotlight. Look at the top right of the screen, there should be a dot in the loupe. Click it and it'll tell you when it's done. A full indexing only takes place when you attach a new volume.

Ah, you've figured that out already.

[GGJstudios]

Originally Posted by ssls6

This will wipe away your .DS_Store files.

.DS_Store files are not part of the problem and deleting them only means the system will recreate them.

Originally Posted by joeholl1979

This didn't quite work, but it did make me realize that Spotlight was probably causing the issue. I reset the PRAM and now Spotlight is re-indexing my hard drive.

PRAM/NVRAM has nothing to do indexing issues. Resetting it will not help.

About NVRAM and PRAM

If a drive is constantly active or your CPU utilization is high (possibly with increased temps and fan speed) when you're not running any major apps, you can check to see if Spotlight is indexing by looking at the Menu Bar icon:

(not indexing)
(indexing) (pulsing dot)

When it's indexing, you may also see increased CPU and RAM usage by the mds and mdworker processes in Activity Monitor.

To re-index your drive:

Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes

If that fails to index, enter the following command in Terminal:

sudo mdutil -i on "/Volumes/your drive name"

[ssls6]

Originally Posted by GGJstudios

.DS_Store files are not part of the problem and deleting them only means the system will recreate them.

PRAM/NVRAM has nothing to do indexing issues. Resetting it will not help.

About NVRAM and PRAM

If a drive is constantly active or your CPU utilization is high (possibly with increased temps and fan speed) when you're not running any major apps, you can check to see if Spotlight is indexing by looking at the Menu Bar icon:

Image (not indexing)
Image (indexing) (pulsing dot)

When it's indexing, you may also see increased CPU and RAM usage by the mds and mdworker processes in Activity Monitor.

To re-index your drive:

Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes

If that fails to index, enter the following command in Terminal:

sudo mdutil -i on "/Volumes/your drive name"

How I told him to reindex his drives works perfectly well.

[highlightshadow]

Hmmm ... thinking this might be my issue ... seems like the dotted icon for spotlight is constantly popping up despite no real change day to day ...

Might do the procedure myself now

[GGJstudios]

Originally Posted by ssls6

How I told him to reindex his drives works perfectly well.

I didn't say the part of the post which refers to reindexing doesn't work. In fact, that procedure is in the link I posted. I only addressed the fact that the .DS_Store files are not part of the problem.

[joeholl1979]

I went ahead and did the re-indexing procedure after the OSX recovery, just for good measure. I'm leaving it run while I go run errands.