Serious Macbook Help please!

[macbookboy1]

Hi there all just purchased my first macbook and I am very happy. But my mac now appears to keep getting that “spinning beech Ball”… I have tried re-installing the OS (LEPORD) I have all the updates. Now the wired thing is the beech ball only appears after about 5 minutes of the macbook being on? Its just hangs there I can’t do anything, I have to wait ages for me to gain control again, seconds later it will get the beach ball again!

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do? I am a new Mac user so when explain what to do could you please give a detailed explanation on how to do this! The person who manages to solve my problem I am willing to give £10 away for their help as I live miles away from the nearest Apple Store.
So a quick run down:

1) Start macbook up
2) Start using macbook works really fast!
3) 5 mintues later it gets the beach ball
4) stays like this for ages!

Many thanks guys

 

[eric]

You reinstalled the whole OS, and installed the updates without getting hung?

also, did you reinstall without any peripherals attached? extra hard drives, etc?

i'm assuming you've restarted to see if that clears it up.

did you load any apps, or attempt to load any apps after your reinstall?

 

[macbookboy1]

Yes the instaltion was fine, no beach balls during the insterlation, I did not connect any peripherals attached, apart from the Power Cabel, I have restarted it till im blue in the face.

Yes all the applications work after the re-install. they work for 5 min's or so then the whole system gets the beach ball!

 

[macbookboy1]

Forgot to say, when i turn the macbook on after the first beach ball, it takes only seconds to gain the beach ball again!

 

[Seibel88]

If you haven't already done so, open Activity Monitor and sort processes by CPU, once the beach ball appears, check to see if anything is using a large amount of processing power.

 

[Weird Fish]

Have you tried letting it run for a minute or two to let it do whatever it's doing?

 

[macbookboy1]

HDD was broken...

Simple fix, replacee HDD

 

[MacbookWilis]

good to know your make is working fine now your gonna love it