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Rotating Colorful Ball Question, Please [MERGED]

R

Robert4

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Hello,

Using a several year old imac desktop.

For the last few months, I get that rotating colorful ball
hangup.

What is this indicative of ?

Seems like plenty of memory, and HD fine, etc.

Just "old age" or ?

**Anything I can check out easily ?

Driving me crazy with how often it seems to happen lately.

**Can it be simply a single application that is causing ?

Thanks,
Bob
 
The beachball usually shows when the system is taking a lot longer to process tasks than normal. With the older model Macs, that was sometimes due to the slow HDD (at the time) speed, ability and or age of the device, as well as some apps that would get stuck thus freezing the Mac. It can also be tied to an OS update being a little more than the older system can rightfully handle.
 
You need to tell us more about the iMac
What year was it made?
What KIND of drive is inside?
- platter-based HDD
or
- fusion drive (likely)
or
- SSD

How much RAM?
What version of the OS is running?

You can't expect real help until you provide this info.

My GUESS is that you have either a fusion drive or a platter-based HDD, and it's getting "old and slow" -- can't handle the demands of the OS any more. Or the drive is getting too full. Or the SSD portion of the fusion drive is "aging out".

If it's a drive-related problem (usually slowing down), and it's a fusion or platter-based drive, the easiest/cheapest/quickest way to "liven it up" would be to get an external USB3 SSD, plug it in, and start booting from the external drive.

It's easy to do and ANYONE can do it, if you follow my instructions.
(you'd be surprised at the number of folks who don't seem to be able to follow simple instructions!)
 
Hello,

Have an imac desktop of several years age.

Have still been getting, apparently at random, that rotating
colorful ball that locks everything up. Seems more often now.

I posted re this a while back, and received some very good help and advice.
Thought I'd do it again to see if any additional thoughts from anyone.

So, may I please ask:

What causes, and anything I can check out or correct to minimize its appearing ?
Have an imac desktop, with, I believe, the typical mechanical platter HD.
Not too thrilled about adding a external SSD, but maybe.

Is it usually something very specific, or a "general" type of error, e.g., the HD slowing, or going bad, or... ?


**What's a "typical" life span for these desktops ?

What usually goes first: the HD, or...?

Any thoughts or suggestions most appreciated.

Thanks,
Bob
 
What version of macOS and which specific model of iMac? How much RAM is installed? What's the size of the HD and how much free space is available?
 
The mechanical HDD is likely the first thing that will fail, but it could last a long time. As for the beach balls, if the system is hanging press cmd+option+escape to bring up the force quit dialogue and force quit when an application doesn't respond.

If your iMac has a spinning rust drive, then it's likely a decade old or more and is reaching the end of its useable life. That doesn't mean that you can't still use it, just that it's not supported, can only run an old OS, and will have trouble with the internet.
 
Robert, we can't help unless you can tell us
WHAT YEAR the iMac was made.
WHAT KIND of drive is inside -- is it a platter-based hard drive, or a fusion drive?
 
Hello,

Would like to get some (more) thoughts on this:

Truly driving me nuts.

Quite often (ever 20 minutes or so) that colorful beachball appears,
and I then have to re-boot.

Using a desktop imac, about 5 yrs old.

Appears by itself even when there is no workload going on.
Even when just idling.

Is this indicative of a bad HD ?
Or ?

One more question, please:

Google Chrome, and Firefox, often run by themselves even when I don't open them
up. Not sure if this relates in any way to my initial question ?

They are both in my bottom Dock, and both seem to periodically turn themselves on, even
if I individually close them.

Would taking their icons out of the Dock help this "problem" ?

Thoughts ?

Truly appreciate the help; much thanks.

Regards,
Bob
 
Hi,

Thanks for interest.

Have a HD. 1 TB. Using about 330 GB now.
Apple M1 chip
8 GB Memory
Running Sonoma

Probably about 4 to 5 yrs old. Don't remember exactly.

Bob
 
Robert4 said:
Hi,

Thanks for interest.

Have a HD. 1 TB. Using about 330 GB now.
Apple M1 chip
8 GB Memory
Running Sonoma

Probably about 4 to 5 yrs old. Don't remember exactly.

Bob
Click to expand...
How much free space does the M1 have?

I would switch those apps off at log in, that might be the problem
 
Robert4 said:
Hi,

Thanks for interest.

Have a HD. 1 TB. Using about 330 GB now.
Apple M1 chip
8 GB Memory
Running Sonoma

Probably about 4 to 5 yrs old. Don't remember exactly.

Bob
Click to expand...
Sorry, @Robert4 but you’ve got an SSD. No Mac released in the last 5 years (perhaps even longer) has a hard drive. That being said, what peripherals do you have attached?
 
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