Spinning pinwheel/slow start up

My MacBook Pro has started acting funky. It takes forever to start up my computer, and I get the spinning pinwheel constantly. It started acting wonky when I was on picmonkey(dot)com....the cursor started jumping around and I couldn't smoothly move objects. I need that website to do my work.

I installed MacKeeper and did a scan and clean up

I secure emptied my trash

I have OS X Version 10.6.8

All my software is up to date

I'm majorly computer-illerate so if you can help, please talk to me like I'm a 10 year old (seriously).

Thank you!!!

Download/run OnyX and then run Disk Utility.

And remove MacKeeper from your machine - definitely do not give them any money for that thing.

How much free space and what size is your drive?

I don't know what a drive is, but here's what it says in my "About This Mac" box:

Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3

I don't know where to find how much free space I have. When I went to Activity Monitor it said I have 2.26 GB free....does that make sense?

I haven't paid for MacKeeper...will uninstall straight away.

I will run the other program you suggested. Anything else I should know/do??

Thank you so much!! Stay tuned!

Also....why is it that every time I secure empty my trash I suddenly have nearly 3000 items in it??

What exactly am I supposed to use in OnyX? I downloaded it but don't know what feature to use.

In Onyx, I use the Automation tab and check off everything in the Cleaning and Maintenance sections - nothing in the Rebuilding section. Have found that running Onyx 3-6 times a year is enough for most folks.

Open Activity Monitor and look at the Disk Usage option in the bottom of the window.

Thanks...I did what you suggested. It still took a long time to fire up when it restarted. Will see if the pinwheel starts appearing.

awact said:

Thanks...I did what you suggested. It still took a long time to fire up when it restarted. Will see if the pinwheel starts appearing.

Click to expand...

Have you taken a look in Activity Monitor to see your disk usage? Check out your system memory while you're in there.

Have you run Disk Utility?

ChrisMan287 said:

Have you taken a look in Activity Monitor to see your disk usage? Check out your system memory while you're in there.

Have you run Disk Utility?

Click to expand...

Disk Usage says:
Space utilized: 62.02 GB
Space free: 187.7 GB

System Memory says:
Free: 1.90 GB
Wired: 718.0 MB
Active: 760.4 MB
Inactive 674.1 MB
Used: 2.10 GB

I ran Disk Utility just now. It stopped because the disk needs to be repaired. It says to try starting up with another disk, but I haven't the slightest idea where my installation disc is. Now what?