Macbook random freezing.

[Fub]

Hello all.

I have a problem with my Macbook (Late 2009). First I'll describe some context. It all started 2 days ago. I got a external 1,5TB disk (Brand: WD Elements) which I wanted to use for back-ups using Time Machine. So far so good. I did the initial run with Time Machine where I had to format the external drive and do the initial backup (130Gb in my case). This did took a while but eventually I think it went well.
However, ever since this day my Macbook has strange problem which I can't locate or manage to solve by my self (I have limited expertise with OSX or Macs). The problem is the following:
Random processes freeze. It's not specific one application which freezes all the time but it seems random. I get the colored spinning wheel of death and I can't do anything with that process besides waiting and getting angry. This has happened with Safari, Mail, iChat, Activity Window, Disk Utility, Spotlight, Tweetdeck and iTunes so far.

I tried the following solutions, all leading to not solving the problem:
- Repair disk permissions
- Verifying disk
- Rebooting
- Turning off Time Machine and unplugging the External HDD

I've been inspecting Activity Window and can't find anything that shouldn't be there.

Oh, I am using my Macbook in Clamshell with a external monitor, mouse and keyboard. But the problem occurs when using the Macbook normally too.

Does anyone have any idea what the problem can be?

A million thanks in advance.

- Bram

 

[harry*333]

to get rid of spinning ball you have to force quit the application
either right click on the application and select force quit
or open any other application and select force quit from the menu tab
the only solution I can think of is reinstalling os x

 

[celticpride678]

Download Onyx and run all the maintenance tools in the application. Make sure you clean caches also.

 

[Fub]

Hello

Thank you for your responses. I did the AHT, both the basic and the extented. Both turned out that there are no hardware failiures and it works as intented.

Further more I reinstalled OS X and copied my backup from yesterday back on it.

I also ran OnyX and cleared all the cash memories etc.

None of the above helped. Booting now takes about 5 minutes longer then it used to and it still freezes randomly. I'm totally clueless about what to do now. Should I just get it to a Apple premium reseller and let them fix the problem? Or is there anything more I can do about it?

Thanks in advance.