Spinning beachball

Hey guys,

have a noob question for you. What exactly is the dreaded spinning beachball? and when does it happen and how to prevent it from happening?

 

YouTube - The Rainbowball of Ultimate Doom - AKA The Spinning Beach ball of Death
YouTube - Mac Vs PC - Parody

Enjoy.

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/sbbod.html
Here's more 'scientific' information on it.

 

thats pretty hillarious. So its basically the pc equivalent of the blue screen of death. Out of curiosity, how often does this usually occur? and when it does happen do you just (i dare say) restart the machine? is there a way to manage how the issue? sorry for the numerous questions, as you might have noticed, am a recent pc leaver

 

YouTube - Spinning Rainbow Of Death - Family Guy S08E07


The spinning beach ball is Apple's way of saying; "something has just happened, or will happen, but you don't want to know, so watch the pretty ball." It will make the time go by faster.

 

As far as I know, they can be random, but usually occur during processor-intensive processes. Only if you have a kernel panic will you HAVE to restart. I don't know what Mac users do when they get a BBoD, and if they lead to kernel panics too.

 

The spinning beachball is almost the same as the egg timer in Windows IMO.

 

thanks for the replies guys. SO basically it would return to normal after a few mins (after the spinning beachball appears that is) and in the worst case scenario - a restart.

Is there a good app which monitors the programs that are running at any given time and which enables you to cancel whatever u want to? something similar to the task manager in windows

 

Windows hasn't used an egg timer for a while.
Now, it's a spinny blue thing.

 

Applications, Utilities folder, App Monitor.

 

thanks clearskies appreciate the help

 

If you're focused on the crashed application in question, you can press Cmd + Esc.

 

Neat thanks for that tip.

 

Yeh, thats what I do if I ever get it.

Oh yeh, sorry I forgot!

NIce tip, didnt know that

 

What! No more egg timer?


Also if a program locks up you can also use Command+Option+Esc and you should be able to kill it that way. I always forget this command when I need it, or I always forget what activity monitor is called so I can pull it up.

 

Command Option Esc is the best way to go if you have a program locked up you need to kill... anything that will have a stuck beachball... its the Mac version of the 3 finger salute!

 

thanks for the replies guys. appreciate the support. Im suprisied that apple chose a spinning rainbow/beachball. Coz for me its like i want to see it rather than having to completey avoid it. Its hypnotic.