Random Beachball

Hi I have a macbook pro running 10.6, 4 gb ram, c2d @ 3.06 ghz and 320 gb hdd. I have a bootcamp partition running windows 7. My problem is that randomly during the day i will get the beachball for about 10 seconds and it freezes up my computer. This doesn't happen a lot but for a $2,500 laptop, it happens too much. Can someone help me or point me to a place where i can fix this issue?

 

I get them 10-40 seconds for no reason , I have done all the normal diskcheck , but found no problems.

 

It's really annoying!

 

I get the hdd clicking noise as well every 10-50 seconds or so, unless i use the hdapm to disable the hdd power managment , I did not pay $3000 for this.

 

Have you tried repairing disk permissions?

 

every other day, usualy finds very little wrong, i fix it anyway.

 

sometimes this happens to me but i fortunately i didn't get any disk clicking.

 

Do you have istat software running? If so, try completely removing it and see if that helps.

 

This has been a problem for many SL users for a while now. We're all still waiting on Apple to release a fix for this.

 

I think ev ery other day is maybe a little too often, i usually do it once every 2 - 3 months. Have you tried taking your mbp to an apple genius to see if they know whats causing the beachball. because i have the 17" unibody MBP aswell and i have only seen this happen once when Messenger:Mac froze, so it could maybe be an issue with the batch of them that yours was in

 

Tends to happen more frequently on my iMac 10.6 when multiple windows are open and I try to access another program while one of the current windows is actively doing something. Occasionally seen on our various Macbooks at home. Seems like this might be something going on with Grand Central Dispatch.

Annoying, but not dealbreaking.

 

that's odd. mine will usually do it if i log in and open safari. then it will hang for awhile (~10 seconds)

 

mine never freezes in any way unless I have a specific app running I can attribute it to... I wouldn't be surprised if its some application running in the background causing your issues.

A for hard drive clicking noises. It happens if the HDD has protection built in and fights with the computers version of the same thing. This should NOT happen on on any Apple branded hard drives, and if it is you need to get Apple to replace the drive, as its firmware is not running the right version. If its a 3rd party drive, then hdapm is the best answer... but I make sure I buy 3rd party drives that don't ever have this problem.

 

APPLE don't make harddrives.
They brand third party drives as theirs

 

lol too funny!!!!! !!!! It's the first time i heard about apple branded hard drives!!! What do we call them?? Mighty Drive??

 

Hey I saw an apple branded Drive once.... in a G3, there was an Apple Logo over the top of IBM travelstar Drive

 

Since some of you seem to be lost... "branded" doesn't mean "made by"... it means a label... many companies sell stuff branded as their own that are made by someone else.. including Apple.

Apple branded drives come in Macs, they are not made by Apple and I never said or implied that they were, but they physically say "Apple Inc" on them, or at least Apple part numbers, etc... and sometimes also the maker of the drive.

Hello? I'm the only one here that should be doing a facepalm...

 

See this thread that Blackmamba started.

My Mac is running much better with hardly a beach ball to be found after a clean install of SL and resetting the SMC.

-HM

 

You seemed to be implying that Apple branded drives should not have any issue which is naive because Apple is just taking third party drive and branding labels over them.
Issue or not, it is the harddisk manufacturer calls nothing to do with Apple.
All Apple does is pasting stickers over them, they do not by any means imply better or worse standard and have no special firmware or whatever sort you are implying that are in them.
In other words Apple branded drives are just as good as any other third party drive, but you come across as trying to imply them as different.
This is the reason for facepalm.

 

I never implied they were different, just that Apple makes sure they work, and tests them, with their computers... Do any of their current drives have custom/modified firmware? I do not know, but in the past they have. There have been issues in the past that Apple has customized to fix. More likely these days they are a big enough customer they can have the manufacturer do that before shipping to Apple. This exact issue is a good example... that Apple buys drives with the built in sensor disabled, since Apples hardware does it on its own.

You don't have to try to justify your misreading of my post, mistakes happen.

 

You don't know yet you claim customized firmware in your previous post...

Since you are implying there is a firmware for a Apple Branded Drive, so what exactly is the firmware version then ?
I can tell you for sure they don't.
They use Standard Serial ATA standard, evidence is that you can plug in any third party drive and they work out of box.
The same WD BEVT works on laptops as well as Macs

They don't disable the drives sensor read http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1934
They disable the Apple Sensor or buy drives without sensor as I have been trying to say NO OEM messes with the firmware unless there is a major drive defect like the seagate issue not too long ago.