Best way to eliminate the Itunes Pinwheel of Doom

mdz72 · Dec 12, 2011, 07:50 PM

I have a mac mini 2010 edition 2.4 ghz 4 gb ram, running snow leopard 10.6.8.

About 6 months ago I finally completed uploading my 300 or so Cds into the Macmini in apple lossless format. Probably deluding myself in terms of my acoustic abilities, but wanted to do that so I had CD quality and could put them away forever.

Ever since then, when itunes has been on for a while (usually on weekend mornings I'm playing music for a few hours at a time), itunes gets wonky on me when trying to select music, and soon the pinwheel of death comes on and soon music starts skipping and computer is basically unusable for a 5-10 min until I can force quit it closed. I did notice this happened almost all the time when safari was open, so I stopped using that but it's still happening. Driving me nutty as I hate it when things just don't work. I've really had no other issues with the computer, although as iphoto has gotten larger that seems to be slowing down a bit as well and I have had the occasional icky pinwheel with that as well.

So, my question for the resident geniuses here:
1) is it the ram? (ie will upgrading to 8 gb cause this to happen less)
2) is it the 2.4 ghz processor? (buy an imac, moron)
3) is it the slow/somewhat full hard drive? (I have 127.3 gb of music on itunes, 85 gigs left on the hard drive)
4) is it itunes itself? (bloated program that doesn't do well with lots of lossless files?) I did play around with the preferences without much relief.
5) or something that I haven't thought of

thanks in advance for any help on this.

zodiaque · Dec 13, 2011, 09:27 AM

well i think it could be the memory since safari is a memory hog. you could always try to check activity monitor for possible page-outs and used memory

Tinmania · Dec 13, 2011, 09:36 AM

I would just update the RAM. It is so inexpensive now it is almost a no-brainer. I have a 2010 mini as well but do not experience those kinds of slowdowns in iTunes (8GB RAM). Basically that mini is an iTunes server so to speak and it has iTunes running 24/7. But I also remote into it from other machines while home and away--so it also has Safari running too (<8 tabs in 2 or 3 windows). The little machine has surprised me and surpassed expectations.

As for CPU what you are doing should not be all that CPU intensive. I would venture upping the memory should help. The hard drive should not be an issue--perhaps if your iTunes library was on an external drive but it does not appear the case in your situation.

Michael

Dec 12, 2011, 07:50 PM	#1
mdz72 macrumors newbie Join Date: Dec 2011	Best way to eliminate the Itunes Pinwheel of Doom I have a mac mini 2010 edition 2.4 ghz 4 gb ram, running snow leopard 10.6.8. About 6 months ago I finally completed uploading my 300 or so Cds into the Macmini in apple lossless format. Probably deluding myself in terms of my acoustic abilities, but wanted to do that so I had CD quality and could put them away forever. Ever since then, when itunes has been on for a while (usually on weekend mornings I'm playing music for a few hours at a time), itunes gets wonky on me when trying to select music, and soon the pinwheel of death comes on and soon music starts skipping and computer is basically unusable for a 5-10 min until I can force quit it closed. I did notice this happened almost all the time when safari was open, so I stopped using that but it's still happening. Driving me nutty as I hate it when things just don't work. I've really had no other issues with the computer, although as iphoto has gotten larger that seems to be slowing down a bit as well and I have had the occasional icky pinwheel with that as well. So, my question for the resident geniuses here: 1) is it the ram? (ie will upgrading to 8 gb cause this to happen less) 2) is it the 2.4 ghz processor? (buy an imac, moron) 3) is it the slow/somewhat full hard drive? (I have 127.3 gb of music on itunes, 85 gigs left on the hard drive) 4) is it itunes itself? (bloated program that doesn't do well with lots of lossless files?) I did play around with the preferences without much relief. 5) or something that I haven't thought of thanks in advance for any help on this.
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Dec 13, 2011, 09:27 AM	#2
zodiaque macrumors member Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Belgium	well i think it could be the memory since safari is a memory hog. you could always try to check activity monitor for possible page-outs and used memory
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Dec 13, 2011, 09:36 AM	#3
Tinmania macrumors 68020 Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Aridzona	I would just update the RAM. It is so inexpensive now it is almost a no-brainer. I have a 2010 mini as well but do not experience those kinds of slowdowns in iTunes (8GB RAM). Basically that mini is an iTunes server so to speak and it has iTunes running 24/7. But I also remote into it from other machines while home and away--so it also has Safari running too (<8 tabs in 2 or 3 windows). The little machine has surprised me and surpassed expectations. As for CPU what you are doing should not be all that CPU intensive. I would venture upping the memory should help. The hard drive should not be an issue--perhaps if your iTunes library was on an external drive but it does not appear the case in your situation. Michael
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