Why So Many Spinning Beach Balls?

[Huntn]

Feb 2014 Update: this issue has been resolved. The problem in my case was a failing hard drive.
See my signature for hardware. Using Mac 10.8. I have 4 GB RAM. I have 4 external hard drives hooked to this mac and active processes in the background illustrated below (Activity Monitor). When I took this shot it only appeared like I had about 40% system usage. I have a Snyc program, an Avast Anti-virus.

The problem, I seem to be getting lots of spinning beach balls. What else should I check? Thanks!

 

[Bear]

In Activity Monitor, check memory usage.

 

[Huntn]

In Activity Monitor, check memory usage.

In the example, Firefox 21%, is this what you are referring to?

 

[Bear]

In the example, Firefox 21%, is this what you are referring to?

Nope. I believe you said you were running 10.8, so at the bottom of the Activity Monitor window, select System Memory and post a screen shot of that. It should be taken when you are getting beach balls. The attachment is an exanple from a 10.8 system.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Can you update the RAM? 4gb is pretty low theses days. 8 or 16 wouldn't cost you that much.

 

[Huntn]

Nope. I believe you said you were running 10.8, so at the bottom of the Activity Monitor window, select System Memory and post a screen shot of that. It should be taken when you are getting beach balls. The attachment is an exanple from a 10.8 system.

Will do.

Can you update the RAM? 4gb is pretty low theses days. 8 or 16 wouldn't cost you that much.

Really? I thought 4gb should be adequate to handle the basics and that is all I'm doing with the spinning beach balls. I wonder if my hardware accepts RAM upgrades (sig). I'll look into that.

 

[Huntn]

Does anyone know if this 2011 MBP (signature) allows for RAM upgrades?
Thanks! Happy Holidays!

My impression is that the MacOS is supposed to manage memory to avoid slow downs. If spinning balls are being experienced why does it not free up memory on it's own?

Experiencing Spinning Balls while using Firefox:

After Purge:

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

You have almost 2GB free and inactive, which is more than sufficient.

I assume an SSD upgrade would be much more beneficial to you, for removing beach balls.

 

[chabig]

Quit Firefox and see if that makes a difference. I am not suggesting that it is, i'm just suggesting that you do some testing.

 

[Huntn]

You have almost 2GB free and inactive, which is more than sufficient.

I assume an SSD upgrade would be much more beneficial to you, for removing beach balls.

This was after I purged the memory using The Terminal. The first one is where the SBs were happening.

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Quit Firefox and see if that makes a difference. I am not suggesting that it is, i'm just suggesting that you do some testing.

I can do that. The thing is my impression is that when it's Firefox experiencing a slow down, I get a spinning refresh arrow within the app, not the spinning beach ball.

 

[Peace]

You need more memory . I think your MBP can hold 8GB.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Apple_MacBook_MacBook_Pro/Upgrade/DDR3


Also check a couple of apps for any updates. Especially the Razer Mouse. Or better yet get a different mouse that doesn't need any drivers.

 

[Huntn]

You need more memory . I think your MBP can hold 8GB.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Apple_MacBook_MacBook_Pro/Upgrade/DDR3


Also check a couple of apps for any updates. Especially the Razer Mouse. Or better yet get a different mouse that doesn't need any drivers.

I think I agree, but want to stress that I am not doing anything extraordinary with my computer and maybe an unrealistic expecation, but I expect that it should be able to handle what I am doing on 4GB...

Since I have upgraded to 10.9, I am continuing the topic in the 10.9 forum.

 

[gslrider]

I get the spinning beach ball much more now, than when I was on 10.6.x. Almost every time I copy files from one drive to another (all internals). I also find that when I click on a non-selected window, it doesn't bring that window to the front. I can click on it several times and it still won't come to the front. What I have to do now is actually click on a file in that window, to bring it to the front. Clicking anywhere else does nothing. Never did this in Snow Leopard. I though updating to ML would be a pleasant and welcome change. It's pretty much garbage compared to SL. But when your apps are requiring Lion or Mountain Lion to update, you really have no choice.