I've considered that, but I'd like to make sure the problems isn't elsewhere.
Plus, reinstalling is such a pain!
I have a 2011 Air (13" 1.7GHz) and it has beachball issues occasionally. In my case, the root cause is the battery, which is in poor health, and causes the system to do odd things like permanently reduce the CPU frequency.
Do these issues occur when plugged in? Or only on battery power? Or both? More frequently on one or the other?
I'd suggest doing a few things:
- Check the 'Console' for any obvious issues
- Check your memory pressure when such an event occurs
- Check whether your CPU is throttling up and down correctly
- Check the condition of your battery
- Check the condition of your SSD
- Finally, if you tend to just sleep your computer, restart it immediately the next time the beachballing occurs and see if it makes any difference.
Check the Console for any obvious issues
- Open Console (type it in spotlight) and read the 'All Logs' entry - look for any errors around when you are experiencing the lag
To check memory pressure:
If you're running out of memory and having to use paging on the SSD, your machine may lag. Check the 'memory pressure' to see whether this is the case.
- Open Activity Monitor (type it in spotlight) and click the "Memory" tab
- Check the memory pressure graph at the bottom left. If it's all green, you're not running into memory issues. If it's yellow or red, you may be.
https://support.apple.com/en-nz/HT201464
To check for CPU throttling:
Your CPU should run at a low frequency when idling, and throttle up to a much higher frequency under load. On a 2011 Air, idle is <1GHz, and full load will be >1.5GHz.
- Download the Intel Power Gadget for Mac
- Open it up, and watch the 'Frequency' graph while the beachballing occurs
- If the graph remains steady at a low frequency with no spikes, your CPU is probably permanently throttled. If the graph is very spikey, and you are seeing >1.5GHz during load (i.e. loading a large web page) things are probably normal.
If it's looking like you're permanently throttled, try in this order: a) plug in power, b) sleep then wake the machine, c)
reset the SMC.
To check battery condition:
If your battery is in poor condition or behaving strangely, your Mac may be limiting it's power usage, or it may be running into odd issues with fluctuating power output.
If your battery is the original battery, I can almost guarantee that it is at least somewhat worn (Lithium Ion batteries wear with time, even if not used). However, it's entirely possible that it is still fine, but we should check.
- Download CoconutBattery
- Open it up and have a look at the "OS X Battery status". A good battery will say "Good". A malfunctioning battery will probably say "Check Battery".
- Observe your 'Loadcycles' number - the Air's battery is designed to retain 80% of its usable capacity at 1000 cycles
- Observe your "Maximum Charge" graph (that's the second graph below "Design capacity" - the percentage here tells you how much life your battery has vs a new battery.
If your battery status is not "Good", or your load cycles is getting high i.e. 700 or more, or your 'maximum charge' is less than 80%, your battery could be causing issues. It could be worth replacing the battery.
To check the condition of your SSD
If your SSD is having trouble reading or writing, it can cause the machine to lag as you describe. There are lots of ways to do this. Try Disk Utility first, and if that shows everything is fine you may need to dig into SMART utilities such as DriveX, or smartmontools from the command line.
Hope this helps
