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Beach Ball Hell

Me1000

Me1000

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 15, 2006
1,794
4
So my friend bought a 17" MacBook pro a few days before I bought my 15".
A few days ago he started complaining that Safari 4 kept beach balling on him. I noticed a few days later than mine is doing the same thing. It's strange because I hadn't noticed any problems with Safari prior to this.

Then I noticed that sometimes it's not safari that beach balls, but the whole system. Today I've noticed that it is sometimes beach balling when iTunes changes songs. That got me thinking about my HDD.

I notice that the HDD disengages much more frequently than my old penryn MBP did when I move the machine. (you know, how the MBP detects the movement of the machine and moved the HDD head to the center of the drive to prevent damage).

I verified the disk in disk utility, though I wouldn't consider it top notch in HDD damage detection.

Has anyone else who bought a MacBook Pro recently noticed an unusual amount of beach balling?

Any ideas how to troubleshoot this? Are there any free solutions out there to make sure my disk isn't damaged?

Thanks,
:apple:
 
mcdj

mcdj

macrumors G3
Jul 10, 2007
8,964
4,214
NYC
did you upgrade to EFI firmware 1.7? have you upgraded the hard drive? have you reset the PRAM? google this stuff or search here.
 
Me1000

Me1000

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 15, 2006
1,794
4
mcdj said:
did you upgrade to EFI firmware 1.7? have you upgraded the hard drive? have you reset the PRAM? google this stuff or search here.
Click to expand...

Both of our HDDs are stock. My firmware is up to date, though I can't say for sure his is... though I would imagine it is.

I just reset the PRAM, we'll see if that fixes anything.
 
W

wessto

macrumors member
Jul 16, 2002
31
0
You didn't mention the infamous click + beep, but we are experiencing beachballs and slow downs from the problems described here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/727453/
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2049659
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2042490

We all seem to have the "G" version of the drive which from some peoples guesses is conflicting with the internal sudden motion sensor. This is yet to be confirmed.

Pure speculation here, but your problem could be the same, but without the characteristic sound.
 
Me1000

Me1000

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 15, 2006
1,794
4
wessto said:
You didn't mention the infamous click + beep, but we are experiencing beachballs and slow downs from the problems described here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/727453/
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2049659
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2042490

We all seem to have the "G" version of the drive which from some peoples guesses is conflicting with the internal sudden motion sensor. This is yet to be confirmed.

Pure speculation here, but your problem could be the same, but without the characteristic sound.
Click to expand...


Both he and I have Seagate drives (5400 RPMs) He has a 500GB and I have a 320GB.

I should say that resetting the PRAM didn't fix it. My whole system just froze for about 7-15 seconds while I was typing this. iTunes froze mid song the beach ball came up and I couldn't do anything.

I can confirm we both have the latest firmware updates too.

The computer is completely stationary sitting on my desk right now too...


EDIT: I just beach balled twice in less than two minutes. I was scrolling down a page on digg and listening to music. I think I'll call Apple tomorrow. Are there any free tools out there to test the HDD?


EDIT2: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/739804/ ah ha. So it sounds like I'm not the only one seeing these problems... That makes me feel better about my drive.
 
HLdan

HLdan

macrumors 603
Aug 22, 2007
6,383
0
Pop in your restore disc and bootup to the install screen. Go into Disk Utility and do repair disk and see any errors show up. Sounds like you either have errors on your hard disk or it's failing.
 
F

freesonwang

macrumors member
Apr 19, 2009
87
0
Check your console and see what errors are popping up...maybe it's something specific installed that's causing the system to hang.

Otherwise, :eek:.
 
Me1000

Me1000

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 15, 2006
1,794
4
I left the console up to see what was going on when it beach balled this time this was posted.

7/5/09 3:45:58 PM /usr/sbin/ocspd[1860] starting

I just got a beach ball again and this was the last thing right before that.

7/5/09 3:48:12 PM quicklookd[1865] [QL ERROR] Generator database update takes too long... we will use what we currently have

then after the beach ball this line

7/5/09 3:49:11 PM [0x0-0x1b01b].N124U_ButtonManager[324] Looking for devices matching vendor ID=1193 and product ID=8718

showed up about 200 times ...

I am seeing a lot of that in the console, and it's repeating itself over and over again just like that.


EDIT:
A search turned up this article
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20030601001541548

I don't even know where the scanner is any longer so I think it might be safe to delete them...
 
Me1000

Me1000

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 15, 2006
1,794
4
Well after I deleted both the files mentioned in that article and restarted the machine I haven't noticed a beach ball since.

:)

Relieved it's not the HDD failing! :D


Thanks all!!!

:apple:
 
S

Slither

macrumors newbie
Feb 2, 2008
12
0
I bought a brand new MacBook Pro 13" (2,53GHz + 4GB RAM) two weeks ago. I've been having beach balls quite often. Never had them like this before and I have been a mac user for 4 years now.

I don't have any scanners or anything "extra" that I haven't had before. Just opened the console and left it running backround... let's see what happens.
 
L

lapino

macrumors regular
Mar 6, 2009
238
11
A few weeks ago, I fell down stairs with my MBP in a bacpack (inside sleeve). Since then, I noticed two things:
* when I move my laptop (for example put it next to me when surfing on the couch), there's a noticeable 'click' sound (I think it's the hdd motion sensor)
* I have quite a bit of the beachball syndrome since then

Could the fall have damaged the motion sensor, causing this problem? I did a disk check and no errors came up. Any other way to check the hdd?
 
C

covertyows

macrumors member
Jul 2, 2009
36
0
off topic, sorry, but I have a question:

is it the beach ball or pinwheel? I have heard both, and I'm not sure.
 
T

tsa1

macrumors 6502
Nov 8, 2008
265
190
I too have randomly been getting those beachballs ugh! i will try deleting those two files that were mentioned in that that article.

OP have you noticed anything wrong from deleting those files?
 
T

tsa1

macrumors 6502
Nov 8, 2008
265
190
Me1000 said:
Well after I deleted both the files mentioned in that article and restarted the machine I haven't noticed a beach ball since.

:)

Relieved it's not the HDD failing! :D


Thanks all!!!

:apple:
Click to expand...

i cant find those files anywhere on my mac, i went to system>library>CFMsupport but they arent in there
 
S

Slither

macrumors newbie
Feb 2, 2008
12
0
tsa1 said:
i cant find those files anywhere on my mac, i went to system>library>CFMsupport but they arent in there
Click to expand...


If you don't have the scanner you don't have the files. I have the same problem. Something else is causing the beach ball stops :confused:
 
Å

åidån

Guest
lapino said:
A few weeks ago, I fell down stairs with my MBP in a bacpack (inside sleeve). Since then, I noticed two things:
* when I move my laptop (for example put it next to me when surfing on the couch), there's a noticeable 'click' sound (I think it's the hdd motion sensor)
* I have quite a bit of the beachball syndrome since then

Could the fall have damaged the motion sensor, causing this problem? I did a disk check and no errors came up. Any other way to check the hdd?
Click to expand...

I haven't fallen down the stairs, but mine does the same click/clunk sound when moved. Other than desktops, my last PC was an HP TC1100, so I could chuck it anywhere and not have a problem. I'm getting better, and obviously don't chuck my MacBook around, but even someone jumping onto the couch can cause it. Normal behavior, or an aberration?
 
S

Slither

macrumors newbie
Feb 2, 2008
12
0
No beach ball for hours but when I started iTunes I got the first beach ball in less than 10mins. AND now another one a few minutes after the first (in the middle of writing this)

Here is what happens:
1. The music (mp3) stops. Mouse and everthing else works fine.
2. after 5-10 seconds the whole system freezes and the beach ball starts spinning. It spins 8-15 seconds and then everthings returns to normal and the musics starts playing again.

wtf? :mad:

Last console message says:
06/07/2009 16:29:29 /usr/sbin/ocspd[8047] starting
But I've had beach balls after that, too. Nothing in the logs..?
 
S

Slither

macrumors newbie
Feb 2, 2008
12
0
Slither said:
No beach ball for hours but when I started iTunes I got the first beach ball in less than 10mins. AND now another one a few minutes after the first (in the middle of writing this)

Here is what happens:
1. The music (mp3) stops. Mouse and everthing else works fine.
2. after 5-10 seconds the whole system freezes and the beach ball starts spinning. It spins 8-15 seconds and then everthings returns to normal and the musics starts playing again.

wtf? :mad:

Last console message says:
06/07/2009 16:29:29 /usr/sbin/ocspd[8047] starting
But I've had beach balls after that, too. Nothing in the logs..?
Click to expand...


Speaking about the logs:

/usr/libexec/hidd[27]: IOHIDEventQueueEnqueue: Error enqueuing memory. (0xe00002e8)
Jul 6 16:57:28: --- last message repeated 254 times ---
 
S

Slither

macrumors newbie
Feb 2, 2008
12
0
It seems like PRAM reset did the thing for me. My system feels really snappy and fast now and the best thing is no more ****ing beach balls!!! :D
 
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