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Spinning beach ball, I've tried everything..
- Thread starter bebenut123
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The S.M.A.R.T. test shows nothing mechanically wrong with your drive.
I presume from your first post that you have already run repair disk from Disk Utility on the internal drive while booted from the install CD or external drive?
[doublepost=1482760852][/doublepost]You say you get no beach balling while booted in safe mode?
I presume from your first post that you have already run repair disk from Disk Utility on the internal drive while booted from the install CD or external drive?
[doublepost=1482760852][/doublepost]You say you get no beach balling while booted in safe mode?
Yes, that is correct. I had run repair disk while booted from external drive on several occasions. No errors were identified at any time.
[doublepost=1482761027][/doublepost]Yup, safe mode works just fine...no beach ball, no issues. Only problem is, the wifi is disabled on safe mode, so can't use it routinely in this mode really.
[doublepost=1482761027][/doublepost]Yup, safe mode works just fine...no beach ball, no issues. Only problem is, the wifi is disabled on safe mode, so can't use it routinely in this mode really.
Do you still have the original disks that came with the MacBook? There should be a hardware test you can run on one of the original disks.
[doublepost=1482761120][/doublepost]Using Apple Hardware Test on computers with OS X v10.7 and earlier
AHT is located on the Applications Install Disc 2 and should be included with your computer or the MacBook Air Software Reinstall Drive on a MacBook Air (Late 2010). To start AHT on these computers make sure the Applications Install Disc 2 is inserted into the built-in optical drive, external Apple Superdrive, or for the MacBook Air (Late 2010) be sure the MacBook Air Software Reinstall Drive is inserted into a USB port. Then, follow steps 1-6 outlined in the previous section of this article: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201257
[doublepost=1482761120][/doublepost]Using Apple Hardware Test on computers with OS X v10.7 and earlier
AHT is located on the Applications Install Disc 2 and should be included with your computer or the MacBook Air Software Reinstall Drive on a MacBook Air (Late 2010). To start AHT on these computers make sure the Applications Install Disc 2 is inserted into the built-in optical drive, external Apple Superdrive, or for the MacBook Air (Late 2010) be sure the MacBook Air Software Reinstall Drive is inserted into a USB port. Then, follow steps 1-6 outlined in the previous section of this article: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201257
How are you reinstalling the OS if you do not have the original Install DVDs?
Mokis -
My thoughts regarding your problems.
I think you're getting clogged up by Spotlight indexing and something called "cvmsComp_x86_64", whatever that is.
What I would do:
1. Disable Spotlight. Open terminal and enter:
sudo mdutil -a -i off
Enter your password when required (you won't see it being typed).
You can always re-enable Spotlight later by substituting "on" for "off" in the above command.
Try this first. Do things suddenly run faster?
2. re the "cvmsComp_x86_64"
I understand this may have something to do with Apple's OpenGL implementation in Snow Leopard. A quick search reveals that others have been having problems with it as well, it seems to use an inordinately high amount of system resources.
Open Activity monitor and check to see if it's running. The Process ID -might be- "481" (no promises).
If it's running, KILL IT.
Does that change anything?
(do both in regular boot mode, NOT in safe mode)
My thoughts regarding your problems.
I think you're getting clogged up by Spotlight indexing and something called "cvmsComp_x86_64", whatever that is.
What I would do:
1. Disable Spotlight. Open terminal and enter:
sudo mdutil -a -i off
Enter your password when required (you won't see it being typed).
You can always re-enable Spotlight later by substituting "on" for "off" in the above command.
Try this first. Do things suddenly run faster?
2. re the "cvmsComp_x86_64"
I understand this may have something to do with Apple's OpenGL implementation in Snow Leopard. A quick search reveals that others have been having problems with it as well, it seems to use an inordinately high amount of system resources.
Open Activity monitor and check to see if it's running. The Process ID -might be- "481" (no promises).
If it's running, KILL IT.
Does that change anything?
(do both in regular boot mode, NOT in safe mode)
Thanks for your thoughts, Fishrrman. It took me a few tries to implement your suggestions as I had to do them in the first few seconds of booting before the system beachballed. Neither of them made a difference however. One more puzzling aspect emerged from this exercise though; I had the 'Activity Monitor' open and had killed the "cvmsComp_x86_64" as soon I found it and was watching the CPU% and memory usage. At no time there was any spurt in activity in either but the beachball appeared sure enough and stayed there....not sure what to make of this, but just in case it makes sense to someone else, I thought I'll mention it.
Once again, while on 'safe mode' everything seems just fine. Very frustrating.
Once again, while on 'safe mode' everything seems just fine. Very frustrating.
[doublepost=1486173913][/doublepost]I am having the same problem.
iMac circa 2009 (model imac 10,1), running 10.6.8
Last month installed new ram but was working fine since then,
Came back from holidays and started it up, was able to connect to new wifi network, opened chrome, but i think it started when i tried to browse to my first webpage (photos.google.com). Maybe something else though
No problems in safe mode.
Repeatedly get beach ball soon after booting up normally.
Removed all login items and peripheral hardware (just apple wireless keyboard, and tried difference mice)
Seems like the problem in this thread was not resolved?
Thanks, but is there any hardware issue that could cause consistent beachballs on normal boot mode and never any problems on safe mode? If so, is there a way to check the hardware issues while you are in safe mode?
It seems some hardware is disabled in safe mode (wifi, sound, graphics?), is there another way to disable hardware bit by bit to isolate the problem, if it is hardware?
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Safe mode stops any launch or startup items from running. So if it works perfectly in safe mode, that is a big clue you have installed some sort of app, utility, or driver that is causing this. Can you think of anything you changed or installed lately that started all this trouble?
There is a free app called Etrecheck you can run that will create an anonymized report showing all those launch items. You can post the report here for us to have a look.
Yes, if you still have your original set of grey DVDs!
DVD disk 2 would have your Hardware Test, which might key on a hardware issue. (The hardware test will be listed on the DVD label)
Also, Safe boot mode does not load some of the drivers that would load during a normal boot, so it's very possible that an issue either won't be noticeable in Safe boot, or not there at all until you boot up normally.
AND, might be caused by issues on the hard drive itself.
Make sure that your hard drive is backed up (if your data, pictures, music, personal files, etc, are important to you), then boot up to your restore DVD, and reinstall OS X. That would reinstall 10.6, but not remove your own files and pictures, etc. ANOTHER reason to try the reinstall would be that a problem in the hard drive hardware may be magnified by a reinstall (which works the hard drive pretty hard), and you might see a hard failure as a result, which is the main reason to backup before you try an OS X reinstall on an older hard drive.
Yesterday I rang Apple support, and after the initial wait on hold i was quite impressed at how responsive they were given my mac is close to 8 years old. But they could not fix it!
The philippines rep got me to try
- removing login items (i had already done it)
- removing items from /Library/LaunchAgents and /Library/LaunchDaemons
- ram reset (command option p r in startup)
- reset by removing power plug for 15 sec.
Then she ran out of ideas and transfered me to a guy in Idaho.
He had similar ideas as well as
- removing items from Library/Extensions, and /Library/LaunchAgents within my user folder
- running this command on terminal, which i terminated after no apparent progress about 5 hours later
> diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u`
Overall over an hour of phone support and more than that on my own. Was very impressed that the american guy called me back when my call dropped out after being transferred. He recommended a procedure (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904) to reinstall 10.6.8 but command r didnt seem to work on my mac.
Still the beach ball soon after starting up, and never any problems in safe mode. Except that safe mode is quite limited because hardware is disabled, such as (on my late 2009 21.5" mac) sound, graphics card (?), ability to recognise usb drives (so you can not do a backup!) wifi, i dont know what else.
I thought it was quite annoying that you couldnt progressively test the disabled hardware. I removed the recently installed ram, tried just the new ram, and put it back after it made no difference.
Then I had an idea
I disabled airport (wifi) as soon as it started up normally.
No problems!!
I can now use my computer offline, do backups etc, and know where to start for solving the problem. Kind of annoying how its so simple, and not having internet is a deal breaker, but at least my mac isnt a brick and i seem to have isolated the problem. Touch wood!
The wifi was always able to connect and it did work for short periods (definitely got some internet at some stage) but after disabling it i am not having the beachballs anymore, and it always used to happen within a minute or so of use since the problem started yesterday.
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The reason that the Command-R doesn't work is that your iMac system (10.6.8) is too old.
That began with the next OS X version (10.7, Lion), which creates a recovery partition when installed. That's when you would be able to use Command-R.
You can reinstall the system, but you need your original restore DVDs to do that (the set of two grey DVDs that came in the box when your iMac was new.
It still might be a good tip to try the reinstall, as your networking software now sounds a little "crunched". A system reinstall may fix that. Or, you can also simply download and install the 10.6.8 combined updater, which does a bit of "cleanup" of your system, and assures that everything about the system appears to be installed correctly.
Might help get your internet connection back "online", eh?
That began with the next OS X version (10.7, Lion), which creates a recovery partition when installed. That's when you would be able to use Command-R.
You can reinstall the system, but you need your original restore DVDs to do that (the set of two grey DVDs that came in the box when your iMac was new.
It still might be a good tip to try the reinstall, as your networking software now sounds a little "crunched". A system reinstall may fix that. Or, you can also simply download and install the 10.6.8 combined updater, which does a bit of "cleanup" of your system, and assures that everything about the system appears to be installed correctly.
Might help get your internet connection back "online", eh?
Thanks very much. About cmd-r, thought so.
I do have the original dvds, just found them. Might give that a try as i cannot download anything (no way to get it from ipad or phone to mac).
I dont have access to my mac time machine backup drive until next month, will have to think whether i want to risk losing anything not backed up in the last few months, I think its mainly photos and video that i have copies of.
So if i get motivated, since you seem to think there is a reasonable chance this will fix the airport, i propose to
- manually back up any files and check i have copies of photos and video
- try the hardware test with original dvd
- reinstall OS using original dvd
- assuming airport working again, update to 10.6.8 with your link
If reinstalling OS X gets your internet working again, then the 10.6.8 update can be through your Software Update. Your internet connection would have to be working to download from that link, so you may as well let the system do the download for you.