The Spinning Wait Cursor

The Spinning Wait Cursor or Spinning Disc Pointer

Did you know that these are the official names Apple gave to the thing most of know as the "spinning beachball of death"?
I didn't know that till like 5 mins ago. So I just learnt something today.

How about "The incredibly irritating coloured ball of death?"

I just like to call them "The cue to force quit"

Spinning beachball is how I've always heard it referred to.

I have had the beachball a couple of times now, and is worrying. What exactly causes it? Surely the CPU, or processes can be handled amicably on a MacBook Pro, so why the beachball?

Mickyfin said:

I have had the beachball a couple of times now, and is worrying. What exactly causes it? Surely the CPU, or processes can be handled amicably on a MacBook Pro, so why the beachball?

Click to expand...

Typically it's an application hang. It can be a million different things, but if it's happening often, it's most likely an issue with the file structure on your HD. I would run Verify/Repair and Verify/Repair Permissions in Disk Utility. If that doesn't solve it, take a look at Console (Applications => Utilities) and look at the system log to see if there are any indicators of a failing daemon or app.