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macguymike

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 28, 2003
385
0
California
Most frequently in Firefox 4*, but also with other (non-web) applications, the system will randomly hang in the middle of an action. Timing varies from something as simple as typing, to clicking a link, or switching applications. There doesn't seem to be anything consistent about it. It might happen every couple of minutes or it might go an hour between showing up.

When it happens, it will spin for 1-3 minutes, then disappear. Or sometimes the computer will freeze up and I have to try to do something (even just clicking the trackpad button) to prompt the beach ball.

Sometimes, after the beach ball goes away, the computer will still be hanging, though. So I have to just let it sit for a few minutes until things return to normal.

I've tried using Activity Monitor, but usually the system freeze prevents me from seeing if anything is not responding (ie. I can't switch to it until the freeze ends). Same problem with attempting a forced quit.

Also, if it hangs long enough, the fan will start running heavily.

I'm running OS 10.5.8 on the MacBook in my signature.


*In Firefox, this is sometimes (but not always) accompanied by an unresponsive script message.
 
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You have the classic symptoms of a failing hard disk I'm afraid. I suggest you boot off the install DVD and verify the hard disk and see what happens. I would also make sure to have a good backup, as you may need it. If it is the disk (and your symptoms are exactly like mine were) then it will get more frequent as time goes on. In my case, formatting the disk with zeros and recovering from a Time Machine backup fixed it temporarily, but I still changed the disk to be on the safe side.
 
You have the classic symptoms of a failing hard disk I'm afraid.

Oy. That's not what I want to hear. I do have a Time Machine backup drive that is updated regularly.

Another thing I should have mentioned: when I switch over to the Boot Camp partition, it runs absolutely fine.
 
steve is just trying to scare u man, nothing is wrong with your mac, its just clogged i guess, do a fresh OS X install and it will run like new
 
Your sig shows your Macbook having 1 GB RAM. Probably not enough for your use. I'd add a few more GBs before trying a fresh OS X install.
 
I've been meaning to upgrade the RAM for a long time, but have never needed it.

Also, a fresh OS install is significantly less costly than new RAM, so I'll be giving that a try that first. :)
 
told u buddy, that guy above was trying to talk bull to u and feed u crap to scare u saying your harddrive was dieing LOL, too bad many ppl like that are on these forums.

cheers.
 
I was beach-balling every day. I stopped using FF 4 and it went away. I also wanted to spruce up my 'chine so I sprung for a 500 Gig SSD "hybrid" 7200 rpm drive and 4 gig of RAM. Total cost under $200. With all this new hotness in place guess who came along and showed his ugly face? The beachball. Now I run Chrome. Sorry FF but I've gotta be able to use my computer for something besides my browser with 101 tabs open.
 
rok u were beach balling with Firefox4 with a 100 tabs open? thats probably why.

in my opinon , FF 4 is better than Google chrome because of the Smooth Scrolling.
 
rok u were beach balling with Firefox4 with a 100 tabs open? thats probably why.

in my opinon , FF 4 is better than Google chrome because of the Smooth Scrolling.

79 of those tabs were in hidden (presumably inactive) tab groups. My wife's machine was beachballing with 3 tabs open. Chrome still has a quirk or two but as of version 11, I must admit any objections I ever had to using Chrome over FF have been addressed. I use my mouse wheel or fn-downarrow to scroll and as far as I can tell there is no difference between Chrome and FF the way I scroll.
 
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