I have a brand new macbook pro, and whenever I use itunes, iphoto, or firefox, I get the spinning "wheel of doom" about every ten minutes. It only lasts about 30 seconds, but happens even when I only have one application open. Is it possible there's something wrong with my computer, or am I just expecting my computer to be faster than it is?
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Keep getting the spinning rainbow wheel
- Thread starter alice321
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Unless you're working with extremely large files or lots of multimedia-intensive sites, 4GB should be plenty. You might check Activity Monitor in your Applications/Utilities folder to see what's running on your system that is using resources.
If you want to be proactive about a potential issue you may want to check how much remaining hard drive space you have, and consider running Disk Utility to make sure the file structure on the drive is ok. Running the Apple Hardware Test isn't a bad thought either, it'll perform a memory test along with a few others.
if you're just browsing, 4GB should be more than enough. I have 1GB and I can browse, play iTunes, have mail open, be ripping a movie in handbrake, and even do some light video editing in quicktime pro.
Of course depending on what I'm doing and how long, I will get slow downs, but OS X handles RAM really well.
Have you verified disk and repaired permissions in disk utility? If it's new and under warranty, you could take it in to see what's going on, assuming you live near an apple store.
Of course depending on what I'm doing and how long, I will get slow downs, but OS X handles RAM really well.
Have you verified disk and repaired permissions in disk utility? If it's new and under warranty, you could take it in to see what's going on, assuming you live near an apple store.
4GB RAM is minimum these days. Sure you can browse with 1GB. I can even browse with 3xxMB on my PowerMac. But to be comfortable and get the max out of the modern technology, you definitely need 4GB.
My Mac Mini have with stock 2x1GB, and went slow as soon as you began to use Tabs in Safari. I upgraded to 2x4GB now, and I can do whatever I want, it floats around at 4GB usage here. I highly recommend at least 4GB of RAM, else modern computers are less fun.
Well mine isn't exactly modern, at least not anymore lol. It's a late 2006 iMac with Tiger. I had no computer or knowledge of what's going on so I didn't realize not only are new aluminum iMacs coming out early 2007, but so was Leopard, the new OS. Now we have even newer i5 and i7 macs with Snow Leopard.
My loss I guess, but this thing doesn't exactly suck so I don't really regret it. It's been going for about 4 years now, so I'll ride it a little longer, then go for a MBP when I know I can spend the $2600. We'll see how much the college takes from me.
BBoD (Beach Ball of Death)
I have a brand new MaxBook Pro (2 GHz Intel Core i7/4 Gb 1333Hz DDR3) and was using Word 2008 with Safari open in Seek.com. Got BBoD in Word during cut&paste between apps and Force Quit would not work. Only lost about 15 min of work but it really P'd me off that Apple still seem at the mercy of developers that don't give a hoot about users or spin control. Shutting Mac down is a real headache and it's about time Apple issued a firmware upgrade to tackle an unresponsive BBoD. Interested to know if any fellow Mac'rs have found a circuit breaker?
I have a brand new MaxBook Pro (2 GHz Intel Core i7/4 Gb 1333Hz DDR3) and was using Word 2008 with Safari open in Seek.com. Got BBoD in Word during cut&paste between apps and Force Quit would not work. Only lost about 15 min of work but it really P'd me off that Apple still seem at the mercy of developers that don't give a hoot about users or spin control. Shutting Mac down is a real headache and it's about time Apple issued a firmware upgrade to tackle an unresponsive BBoD. Interested to know if any fellow Mac'rs have found a circuit breaker?