Hey there I have a uMBP 17" w/ the standard 500GB 5400rpm drive and I'm getting beachballing probably around every three or four minutes or so. The problem has gradually gotten worse and worse. Thing is....this is the 3rd replacement machine that i've had. Two of the others have had failed hard drives and one had another unrelated problem. Does this sound like another hard drive failure? Why is apple using such unreliable drives in their machines? I' seriously not mistreating my computer in any which way, I let it rest on the table for a few minutes when I sleep it while it is writing the contents of the memory to the hard drive. Honestly, I am really starting to get sick of failing drives and cannot afford the downtime... Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!
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Constant Beachballing-3rd replacement machine this has happened on
- Thread starter nicoritschel
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Oh, and while I am playing music or watching a video saved on my hard drive, it will stop playing for about 30 second to a minute intervals and beach ball, and then start up again.
Agreed. Once, sure maybe twice (huge maybe) but three times? Perhaps you should go out and buy a lottery ticket tonight. Have you installed any third party applications or is everything Apple software?
Haha seriously... I haven't installed anything too invasive, just your typical software. I might just do a reinstall tonight
I would do a clean install and just run with Apple software for a while to see if anything strange happens. Also, if you think it might be a failing HDD, try running the Apple Hardware Test by pressing on the "D" key on startup and run the extended test.
I believe I know the problem! You have a case of Munchausen By Proxy in the realm of Electronics. I hope you seek the appropriate course of action for treating this psychological illness. ;-)
LOL thats a good one huh? Someone should call CPS (Child protective services , aka Computer protective services) on this guy. C'mmon give us a "break" already! You computer abuser...
does it beachball only on the 9400 and not on the 9600? that's how it is for me..which leads me to believe its not an hdd issue at all..
also running 'snow leopard cache cleaner' maintenance scripts as recommended by another forum user seemed to eliminate most beachballing under the 9400
also running 'snow leopard cache cleaner' maintenance scripts as recommended by another forum user seemed to eliminate most beachballing under the 9400
How many applications do you have open at a given time, and what applications?
How many windows in each application?
How many windows in each application?
I'm seeing this - It happens more with something HD intensive (Transmission for example). And it happens more with lower free hard drive space.
My suspicion is that the click-beep issue related beachballing didn't get fixed. The frezing was happening to some alongside the clickbeep issue, and I think whilst they fixed some of the problem, there's still the beachballing happening.
Your best bet is to load up Activity monitor, then monitor HD activity, RAM usage, hanging applications etc when it next happens.
Having got a 7200rpm MBP replaced due to vibration and HD issues, including beachballing, i'd wager this is something similar. (Happened under both Leopard and Snow Leopard). Might be worth checking the click beep forum thread on Apple Support.
My suspicion is that the click-beep issue related beachballing didn't get fixed. The frezing was happening to some alongside the clickbeep issue, and I think whilst they fixed some of the problem, there's still the beachballing happening.
Your best bet is to load up Activity monitor, then monitor HD activity, RAM usage, hanging applications etc when it next happens.
Having got a 7200rpm MBP replaced due to vibration and HD issues, including beachballing, i'd wager this is something similar. (Happened under both Leopard and Snow Leopard). Might be worth checking the click beep forum thread on Apple Support.
A few things that I've seen destroy an OS, making it slow to the point of unusability.
Startup items. See if you have a fun list of those in System Preferences -> Accounts -> Login items.
Check
/Library/Startup Items
/LIbrary/LaunchAgents
/Library/LauchDaemons
and of course your Activity Monitor.
Anti Virus software, filevault, and OpenDirectory user accounts will cause slowdowns.
Beachballs are often isolated to a specific program. Try switching apps and see if it goes away, that way you can isolate it to a specific app.
Also, if you loaded your data using migration assistant or simply imaging your drive from a backup image, you may simply be re-introducing the problem thats been haunting you from the beginning. Try a fresh erase / install'd system and copying your user folder in, (be picky as far as what you pull from ~/Library), and re-install all your programs fresh.
And make sure all software / firmware updates are run.
Startup items. See if you have a fun list of those in System Preferences -> Accounts -> Login items.
Check
/Library/Startup Items
/LIbrary/LaunchAgents
/Library/LauchDaemons
and of course your Activity Monitor.
Anti Virus software, filevault, and OpenDirectory user accounts will cause slowdowns.
Beachballs are often isolated to a specific program. Try switching apps and see if it goes away, that way you can isolate it to a specific app.
Also, if you loaded your data using migration assistant or simply imaging your drive from a backup image, you may simply be re-introducing the problem thats been haunting you from the beginning. Try a fresh erase / install'd system and copying your user folder in, (be picky as far as what you pull from ~/Library), and re-install all your programs fresh.
And make sure all software / firmware updates are run.