11-02-2011, 05:04 PM

MBP 2009. Never had beach ball trouble before. Don't know why now. Using latest upgrade of Lion. Repaired my permissions this morning. Happens when I open Firefox or Pages for instance. Any explanation or solution for the beach ball frequency? Thanks.

11-02-2011, 05:24 PM

Did you try running repair disk permissions it usually fixes apps behaving badly.

11-02-2011, 05:27 PM

Originally Posted by osxx

Did you try running repair disk permissions it usually fixes apps behaving badly.

I did.

11-02-2011, 05:31 PM

Did you try reset Safari ?

11-02-2011, 05:41 PM

Originally Posted by osxx

Did you try reset Safari ?

Using Firefox, but what do you mean by "reset?" You mean closing it, and re opening the browser?

11-02-2011, 05:45 PM

Originally Posted by tenashus1

Using Firefox, but what do you mean by "reset?" You mean closing it, and re opening the browser?

Most browsers have a reset option that cleans out the cache,cookies and history. Not using Firefox right now but it should be in tools I think. correction in options for clear history and cache.

11-02-2011, 06:56 PM

Originally Posted by osxx

Most browsers have a reset option that cleans out the cache,cookies and history. Not using Firefox right now but it should be in tools I think.

Will do that. Thanks. But, it's happening with Pages as well.

11-02-2011, 09:52 PM

Lion saves all copies of your work and I wonder if that might be causing it in Pages.

11-03-2011, 07:13 AM

Originally Posted by osxx

Lion saves all copies of your work and I wonder if that might be causing it in Pages.

Maybe. Whatever the reason, I'm not used to seeing the beach balls. Not thrilled about em.

11-03-2011, 08:42 AM

Originally Posted by tenashus1

Maybe. Whatever the reason, I'm not used to seeing the beach balls. Not thrilled about em.

In addition to what "osxx" mentioned above...the reason why you're seeing so many "beachballs" is most likely because:

- too many applications are open at once
- don't have enough ram relative to the # of simultaneous apps you have open
- the computer is not being restarted enough (this clears the ram)

Whenever you start seeing "beachballs":

- open "Activity Monitor" (Applications > Utility Folder)
- click on the "System Memory" tab
- take a look at the "page outs" and "swap used"

If these numbers are large & getting larger...this is why things are slowing down. "Page Outs" and the "Swap used" are indicators of how much info is being written to the hard drive because there's not enough ram to hold all the info. Writing info to the hard drive is EXTREMELY slow compared to the speed of ram.

In the ideal situation...you would want the "page out" and "swap used" values to be zero! I've upgraded the ram on my wife's MacBook, my MacBook Pro, and my Mac Pro...and all three now regularly have zero "page outs" and zero "swap used".

I also monitor these values regularly...and when they are no longer zero (maybe after a couple weeks of not restarting the computer)...I restart the computer and everything is back to zero. This restart...acts as a "brain dump" so to speak.

If someone has too many applications open at once, doesn't have enough ram, or doesn't restart their computer regularly...the "page outs" and "swap file" values start getting real high/real large...and this is when things slow down...and frequent "beach balls" start appearing.

Here are some articles on the topic as well:

Does my mac need more memory?
Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor
Does your Mac need more memory? How to know if you need a RAM upgrade

HTH,

- Nick

p.s. If nothing above works...how full is the hard drive (gigabytes used vs. gigabytes free)...and lastly...there is the possibility that the HD is failing.
p.p.s. Also try "Repairing Permissions" within "Disk Utility".

11-03-2011, 04:55 PM

Thanks very much Nick. Appreciate it.

11-17-2011, 06:03 PM

Originally Posted by pigoo3

In addition to what "osxx" mentioned above...the reason why you're seeing so many "beachballs" is most likely because:

- too many applications are open at once
- don't have enough ram relative to the # of simultaneous apps you have open
- the computer is not being restarted enough (this clears the ram)

Whenever you start seeing "beachballs":

- open "Activity Monitor" (Applications > Utility Folder)
- click on the "System Memory" tab
- take a look at the "page outs" and "swap used"

If these numbers are large & getting larger...this is why things are slowing down. "Page Outs" and the "Swap used" are indicators of how much info is being written to the hard drive because there's not enough ram to hold all the info. Writing info to the hard drive is EXTREMELY slow compared to the speed of ram.

In the ideal situation...you would want the "page out" and "swap used" values to be zero! I've upgraded the ram on my wife's MacBook, my MacBook Pro, and my Mac Pro...and all three now regularly have zero "page outs" and zero "swap used".

I also monitor these values regularly...and when they are no longer zero (maybe after a couple weeks of not restarting the computer)...I restart the computer and everything is back to zero. This restart...acts as a "brain dump" so to speak.

If someone has too many applications open at once, doesn't have enough ram, or doesn't restart their computer regularly...the "page outs" and "swap file" values start getting real high/real large...and this is when things slow down...and frequent "beach balls" start appearing.

Here are some articles on the topic as well:

Does my mac need more memory?
Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor
Does your Mac need more memory? How to know if you need a RAM upgrade

HTH,

- Nick

thanks I have zero page outs and zero swap used but still clunking and beachballs a go go.......

11-17-2011, 06:55 PM

Originally Posted by Mike44

thanks I have zero page outs and zero swap used but still clunking and beachballs a go go.......

I sure hope that we're not talking about your 800mhz iBook that's listed in your profile! Because when we're talking computers that are 9 years-old (2003)...trying to do "modern" things in what's almost 2012...that's a whole different "rulebook"!!!

- Nick