I quite often see beach balls on my new MBP lasting for few seconds, especially when I start a new application. Beach balling is random. No freezes. Should I worry about this? How often can you notice beach balls on your system? Sorry for stupid questions but this is my first Mac and thank you in advance.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
2010 MBP beach balls - Common behavior
- Thread starter sergus
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
That's not normal. Try repairing permissions and verifying the disk with Disk Utility
I see this not every time but quite often.
>Try repairing permissions and verifying the disk with Disk Utility
I already did this twice with Onyx but this did not solve the problem. I also run the system test at the startup - no problems.
>Try repairing permissions and verifying the disk with Disk Utility
I already did this twice with Onyx but this did not solve the problem. I also run the system test at the startup - no problems.
Have you tried reinstalling OS X?
It does the same though AFAIK. To get the best result, boot from the install disk and use its Disk Utility to do it
Sounds like the same problem many others are having with their 2010 MBPs. Random hangs and beachballs for no real reason.
I think it has something to do with the hard drives. I swapped to a SSD and haven't experienced a single beachball since. (had TONS with the previous 5400rpm drive)
I think it has something to do with the hard drives. I swapped to a SSD and haven't experienced a single beachball since. (had TONS with the previous 5400rpm drive)
+1 for me. Had a 5400 RPM drive that came with mine. Swapped for a 7200 cause they're cheap... still laggy\beach balls, then went to SSD and it's amazing now, no beach balls since upgrading. I got the Corsair 256gb... bout the most expensive upgrade you can do, but sure beats upgrading the RAM or anything else you can upgrade (including processor)
Thanks for replies. I will try Disk Utility. But this is a quite new system. Should I reinstall it?
I also see this message in the console:
com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[86] (com.apple.ReportCrash) Falling back to default Mach exception handler. Could not find: com.apple.ReportCrash.Self
com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[86] (com.apple.Kerberos.renew.plist[282]) Exited with exit code: 1
I also see this message in the console:
com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[86] (com.apple.ReportCrash) Falling back to default Mach exception handler. Could not find: com.apple.ReportCrash.Self
com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[86] (com.apple.Kerberos.renew.plist[282]) Exited with exit code: 1
That error should not cause any slowness, but here is how to fix it:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=192563
I would not completely Erase and Install the OS, but just Archive and Install it.
+1
At least for beginning. Snow Leopard has archive and install as default so to erase and install, you have to wipe the HD with Disk Utility first
Thank you very much. I will try to fix this problem.
Thunder82:
>Sounds like the same problem many others are having with their 2010 MBPs. Random hangs and beachballs for no real reason.
I did not see any freezes with my system. I run Portal with no problems. However, Portal beachballs at startup.
Thanks for good advice!!! SSD? I already spent 2000$. My wife will kill me
A 2 year old Macbook 1.8ghz with an SSD will blow away the $3300 top of the line Macbookpro with a 5400 rpm available today
Right, I don't mean hard freezes like where you have to hold down the power button and reboot. I mean random system hangs, like your experiencing with Portal.
There are a good number of people that have the same problem (myself included - until i got the SSD)
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/912218/
I am feeling a bit crazy after reading this thread.
I re-installed the system but still have the same issue. I found that spinning balls always appear only during the start of applications, especially heavy applications like Open Office, but never in the middle. More specifically, they always appear during the cold start, after re-booting of MBP, but I do not remember if I see them on second and following runs of the same application. Today, I saw beach balls during the start of Photo Booth, Automator, Fink Commander, Portal. How often do you notice this behavior on your system? Should I bring my MBP to the Apple store? Recently, I compiled few applications in Fink and watched movies. Several times without any problems, no freezes, no beach balls in the middle. Temp. was around 65 - 75 C. My old HP runs at 90 - 95 during compilations and without movies.
I am feeling a bit crazy after reading this thread.
Recently, I compiled few applications in Fink and watched movies. Several times without any problems, no freezes, no beach balls in the middle. Temp. was around 65 - 75 C. My old HP runs at 90 - 95 during compilations and without movies.
Your HD might have defective read head so yes, bring it to Apple store.
you notice a beach ball when you start finder? i never quit my finder or started up my finder since day 1 of booting up my mac for the 1st time. i see no reason to ever start or quit your finder? pretty much is there a benefit to restarting the finder?
Thanks. I will do this.
I noticed beach balls soon after I bought MBP from Amazon but did not worry about this. They did not appear often. Now, it is annoying and I am after 14 days period.
I noticed a beach ball in finder when I tried to open something in /sw directory for few seconds.
The machine feels very responsive and it boots and opens apps in seconds. It doesn't speed up things like encoding though, it only speeds up opening things. CPU, RAM and GPU matters more when actually working on something which requires speed. SSD will make the computer to feel like new as HD is the slowest component in todays computers