Need to Relaunch Finder (Spinning Wheel) Every Few Clicks (MacOS Sierra)

[trevor25220]

Macbook Pro 13-inch, 2011, 525 GB SSD, MacOS Sierra 10.12.5 .

I *may* have inadvertently caught a virus from a bad website. The Finder, which I am not using, apparently crashes every few random mouse clicks, requiring Alt-Cmd-Esc to clear it with Force Quit Applications (Finder only). The Mac is otherwise useable except for this irritating defect which slows down work considerably. I have tried :

PRAM reset
SMC reset
Disk Utility repair feature

Clearing the dyld Cache (tried but would not understand the Terminal command or accept the correct password)

At the Terminal prompt, enter the following command. Please note this is a single line; some browsers may show this command spanning multiple lines.
sudo update_dyld_shared_cache -force
Press enter or return.
You will be asked for an administrator account password.
Once the password is accepted, Terminal may display some warning messages about mismatches in the dlyd cache. Don't worry; these are warnings about the content that is being cleared out and then updated by the command.

Another recent fault is that the Trash will not clear. Only 61 items but when clearing it counts up to hundreds of thousand of files, and then never clears any!

Never experienced these issues prior to Sierra, or even initially with Sierra. Any ideas? Can I scan for viruses? Should I re-install MacOS Sierra 10.12.5 or High Sierra? High Sierra is a public beta but could it pick up any virus present from existing Sierra? Other users seem to experience Spinning Ball and Trash issues with Sierra too. Thanks very much.

 

[MacInWin]

There are no viruses for Mac, so you didn't get a virus.

What does Finder do when you think it crashes? What symptoms do you see?

Have you installed any "helper" software like antivirus, speedup, cleaner, tester, etc? Anything to "improve" Finder?

Trash is working ok, I suspect. What is in the trash? If it's an app, then there may well be thousands of files to delete. Apps in macOS are actually folders of files that are needed for the app to run, so when you delete ONE app, it could be hundreds or thousands of files, depending on the app itself. And when Trash is emptied, it first assesses everything in the trash for where the bits and pieces are, then does the delete.

And I would HIGHLY recommend not mucking about with the command line or anything requiring sudo unless you really, really, really know what you are doing, and from your post, you aren't in that category yet.

 

[IWT]

@trevor25220

I'm sorry you'e having this trouble.

I assume you've tried the obvious things:

Shut down your Mac. Then restarted it.

Removed any anti-virus or "clean up" software.

Now there is one piece of software very highly recommended and used by members on this Forum - OnyX.

This must be downloaded from the developer's site: https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html

Make sure that you download the version for macOS Sierra. Then install it in the usual way - as it's not an Apple app, you will probably have to Right Click on the installer and choose "Open anyway".

Then it will check your Drive. After that, from the Menu Bar, choose "Automation" and the click on "Execute". You must reboot your Mac when it's finished.

If you follow these steps in order, your problem should be resolved.

Please post back.

Ian

 

[trevor25220]

I was in a hurry and posted my question on Mac Rumors too. They recommended Malwarebytes (performance went from below normal to excellent) and EtreCheck which both helped. Removed Sophos antivirus (useless). Ran Disk Utility repairs on all drives. Problem solved. Did have some Adware spigots but no viruses. I did have Onyx but the above are more thorough. Thanks.

 

[IWT]

I did have Onyx but the above are more thorough

Not more thorough - they all do different things.

Removing Sophos was the best thing you did.

Malwarebytes detects and removes malware which you had - quite possibly acquired via Sophos.

EtreCheck is an excellent diagnostic facility.

OnyX works in a quite different way and is a very good and professional app - does a lot more than Disk Utility; but not needed in your case because your problem was likely Sophos-related.

I'm really glad you got yourself sorted out.

Ian

 

[trevor25220]

Can I ditch CCleaner as well? The spinning ball issue started after visiting some sex sites. They may have installed :

Adware.Spigot
Adware.Vidx/MacVX
PUP.MPlayerX
PUP.JDIBackup

All removed with Malwarebytes.

 

[IWT]

Can I ditch CCleaner as well?

Yes. I note that CCleaner is widely advertised for download on CNET, softonic and Macupdate - all three have been accused of bundling adware with their downloads. You don't need CCleaner anyway.

If you feel inclined to visit sites of a personal interest, you might consider using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) - the Browser Opera offers one free as part of its product. And you might want your Search Engine not to track you (DuckDuckGo for example) and you could consider using a Private Window, which all Browsers offer.

And don't download anything that might appear as an extra window or an Ad.

Please understand that I am an advocate of safe computing, but I recognise that different people have different definitions of "safe" and different tastes as well.

Ian

 

[pm-r]

@Ian

Ian, you should have been a diplomat, especially with your ability to use such descriptions as "sites of a personal interest".

I almost choked when I read that and luckily I don't have any red wine swirling in my mouth as yet this late afternoon.






- Patrick
======

 

[trevor25220]

Sorry to trouble you all again but the Spinning Ball is back whenever I click on any desktop file or try to clear the trash. The Finder is 'not responding' in the Force Quit box and has to be quitted to avert the ball, which soon comes back whenever I try to perform any task. Ran Malwarebytes and EtreCheck again but no issues found. Etrecheck performance down from Excellent to Good. I'm getting fed up with this! Can you advise me how to do a completely-clean install of Sierra? Is it worth trying High Sierra? Thanks.

 

[harryb2448]

Suggest Trevor buying a copy of Snow Leopard OS X.6 from Apple Online for the outrageous sum of $20 including postage!

Pop in the DV in to the machine and immediately after the chime gold down 'C'. Leave Installer, go to Utilities and format the hard drive Mac OS Extended (Journaled), back to Installer and run. Hook up to the net and update using the OS X.6.8 Combo Updater. From there you can download from the App Store El Capitan OS X.11, and after that macOS Sierra OS X.12. High Sierra will run on your machine but it will be a couple of months before the full release is available. One thing you did not tell us how much memory is installed. For modern operating systems suggest at least 8GB an d 16GB would be better.

You will need an App,e ID to download from the App Store. See second link:-


https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MC573Z/A/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard

https://appleid.apple.com/account#!&page=create

 

[trevor25220]

Thanks Harry. I have 4 GB RAM installed but with the SSD it's lightning fast. Something is making the Finder ultra-sensitive to any mouse clicks, which cause it to crash (Spinning Ball). I still have my original Snow Leopard install disks from 2011. Could I format the hard drive and install Snow Leopard? I know Sierra has had several issues ... the question is: would Snow Leopard or Sierra be the 'least worse'? Guess I could try Snow Leopard first to see how it runs before considering the full update.

 

[MacInWin]

If the SL disks came with the machine, you can do a full reinstall, including reformatting the HD, from them. Sierra has been around now for a good time, and runs well, but it would do better if you had 8GB instead of 4. So, what I would recommend is to follow Harry's suggestions to get going. I don't think you need to install El Capitan, but can go directly to Sierra.

And stay away from those websites. They are known to contain all sorts of nasty malware and worse. If you still want to go there, get a cheap windows machine you don't mind having to reinstall frequently. That way it can crash and burn and your "real" machine isn't harmed.

 

[ferrarr]

Have you tried creating another User account, to see if the problem exists there too?

 

[Slydude]

That's a good question.

@trevor25220 Before you follow Harry's suggestion try member Ferrarr's suggestion. If things work well for a period of time that suggests that the problem switch something running in your current account. Here's one way to identify the possible culprit.

1. Reboot your Mac, go to the Utilities folder, and open Activity Monitor.
2. Click on the CPU tab and make sure things are listed in descending order.
3. Leave the window somewhere easy to access / see.
4. When the problem occurs look to see which processes are using the largest percentage of CPU power.
5. Posts the results and perhaps we can help you identify whether this is something that needs to b removed.

 

[pm-r]

Have you tried creating another User account, to see if the problem exists there too?

That's a good question.

@trevor25220 Before you follow Harry's suggestion try member Ferrarr's suggestion. If things work well for a period of time that suggests that the problem switch something running in your current account. Here's one way to identify the possible culprit.

1. Reboot your Mac, go to the Utilities folder, and open Activity Monitor.
2. Click on the CPU tab and make sure things are listed in descending order.
3. Leave the window somewhere easy to access / see.
4. When the problem occurs look to see which processes are using the largest percentage of CPU power.
5. Posts the results and perhaps we can help you identify whether this is something that needs to b removed.

+1!!!
You both beat me to the suggestions I was just about to post, and especially using Activity Monitor.app could save a lot of possible unnecessary OS installing and time etc.

Especially watch for any listings in red saying "xxx…Not Responding…" etc.

If needed, select and click the "i" icon and then the "Pages…" tab to get more info on the troubled process.





- Patrick
======

 

[Slydude]

+1!!!


Especially watch for any listings in red saying "xxx…Not Responding…" etc.

If needed, select and click the "i" icon and then the "Pages…" tab to get more info on the troubled process.

- Patrick
======

Good idea. I always forget to mention that.

 

[trevor25220]

Nothing obvious in Activity Monitor (see screen shot). However, closing Chrome, with my online financial charts and trading platform, does make this 2011 MacBook Pro more stable. Fewer tasks for the CPU makes it less prone to crashing. Could it be due to having only 4 GB RAM then pushing the system too hard? Worth trying an upgrade to 8 GB (£50) or 16 GB (£95) perhaps? Thanks for the ongoing assistance.

 

[pm-r]

Good idea. I always forget to mention that.

If you're wearing that big hat they were going to send you Slydude, it may just be too tight!! :Blushing:

Just joking, maybe , but it's pretty hard to not miss including some details when replying.





- Patrick
======

 

[Slydude]

My problem is sometimes I forget that just because I know something and consider it basic knowledge doesn't mean everyone else does. I used to have a devil of a time coming up with ideas for How To articles because of this.

I'm sure they will encounter a similar problem one day soon when they end up helping me with something.

 

[pm-r]

Nothing obvious in Activity Monitor (see screen shot).

Keep it running and handy for a while so you can easily and quickly take a look when goofy things start happening or just crawling along.

PS: You might want to select Memory or CPU tabs instead and also have View(menu) > "All Processes" selected. Your present view option (Energy) is only showing a fraction of processes of what your Mac is actually doing.





- Patrick
======