Mac Spinning Wheel  How To STOP Spinning Rainbow Mac Rainbow Circle, Beach Ball of Death Mac

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Mac Spinning Wheel: Beware The Spinning Rainbow Beach Ball of Death!

Does you Mac constantly freeze for a few seconds? Is it always SLOW? Are you seeing the spinning beach ball, spinning pizza or rainbow circle of death more often?

Officially referred to as the "spinning wait cursor" in Apple's Human Interface Guidelines, the spinning rainbow wheel on Mac is an indicator that an application is not responding to system events in the proper manner. It is often called the "spinning pinwheel of death", "spinning rainbow circle of death" etc..

This problem is a nightmare for Mac users as their computers are functioning as a result of this at snails pace. So, is there help for us if we are experiencing this rainbow wheel problem constantly? Is there a way to stop this and SPEED-UP our Macs...?

===> Slow Mac? Click Here to Speed up your Mac now!

Spinning Rainbow Wheel on Mac: Causes

Typically, when this cursor is seen, the computer will not allow you to do anything for a few seconds, then resume. The problem is for many Mac users, it happens constantly.

Usually, this situation indicates that some task is blocking your OS X system to interact with a program. This indicates an issue with your hard drive. Only one application may be affected, but it usually goes into an infinite loop that ties up the processor so that one is unable to click off onto another application.

In rare cases, the whole system freezes and then the only option left open to you is typically to hold the power down until the computer is forced to shut down.

The spinning rainbow wheel indicates an application that is not responding. It could be a temporary failure from which the application will recover. However, this situation is not a normal occurrence in Mac OS X, and should be dealt with quickly because they may point to other underlying problems. Here's what to do to get rid of and stop this Spinning rainbow beach ball permanently.

Stop The Spinning Rainball Ball, Permanently!

Speed-up your Mac

Spinning Rainball Beach BallThe easy way to fix the problem is to optimize your hard drive by getting rid of unnecessary files.

To do this, download a Disk Utility for the Mac such as MacKeeper (Download Now).

How Does MacKeeper Work?

This program will optimize your hard-drive and identify any problems before it is too late and before your hard-drive crashes or worse becomes corrupt and causes you to permanently lose data.

Running a Disk Utility will ensure that the file structure on the Mac drive is organized and functioning correctly. It ensures that when the computer tries to locate or reference files, it had no problems in doing so and hence this results in your Mac working at optimum speed.

If you Mac is running slower and if you're seeing the beach ball more and more and if your hard drive is filling up and you don't know why - try MacKeeper (Download Now) and optimize your hard drive.

The new MacKeeper now includes new features such as Anti-virus and spyware protection, a clean-up utility, duplicate files finder, and more which allows you to monitor the overall health of your drive, alerting you to possible issues before they become major problems.

Mac Spinning Wheel - Solutions & Worst Case Scenarios

spinning beach ball macIf you Mac is permanently frozen and you are seeing the spinning rainbow beach ball, try to force quit the application by hitting the key combination command-option-escape. Failing this, the only choice left is to perform a force shut down and reboot.

Sadly, in these circumstances, the most common solution to the problem of the spinning pinwheel of death is to reboot because the entire machine tends to lock up when one application enters an infinite loop from which it cannot recover.

Many people compare the appearance of the Spinning Rainbow Wheel on Mac to the dreaded Blue Screen of Death on Windows based computers. This analogy is actually very accurate. In both cases, the computer system has encountered a problem related to an issue with the hard drive.

Solutions:

===> In most situations, using a good Disk Utility for the Mac such as MacKeeper will fix and stop the problem, and you will increase the speed of your Mac. This solves the problem in 95% of cases.

However, you could be having a lack of RAM problem and you need to upgrade your Mac memory. You may also want to uninstall a few programs off your Mac to save space.

Finally, you might be experiencing a hardware issue. In this case, you should reform an Apple Hardware Test (AHT) which contains a suite of diagnostics that will test the hardware of your computer. In any case, it is a great way to rule out a hardware issue when troubleshooting your computer.

Nobody wants to see the spinning rainbow on Mac. Frequent and persistent rainbow cursors are not a normal occurrence in Mac OS X, and should be dealt with quickly because they may point to other underlying problems.

This is a situation that all computer users, regardless of what platform they are operating under find frustrating. Sadly, it is also a situation that occurs all too often. Being forced to constantly use a slow computer will seriously affect user experience as well as to shut the computer down and reboot while in the middle of a task is all more than enough reason to be wary of the spinning rainbow wheel of death.

Have Your Say: Spinning Wheel of Death

Mac Spinning Wheel

Have you experienced the spinning rainbow wheel of death on your Mac?

Share your thoughts with others or ask a question and get an answer right here:

My Issue is.....:

  • Colleen Apr 28, 2012 @ 11:20 pm | delete
    I'm having the very same issue right now and don't know if my last edit in document is saved so I took screen pictures of my document and then forced quit.
  • ariel Jan 12, 2012 @ 9:54 pm | delete
    isn't there a way to force quit without losing everything? because I tried saving my word document and thats when the wheel popped up, and I have to hand in my essay tomorrow!!!!
    HELPPPPPP
  • gvtzgdezewa Mar 20, 2012 @ 4:00 pm | delete
    i am having the same trouble and it won't even let me save my work !!
  • caroly ruckern Oct 9, 2011 @ 3:40 pm | delete
    this is a blue circle, not a rainbow. help
  • Aki Teramoto Feb 28, 2011 @ 6:53 pm | delete
    i have been cussing out this Apple for many months now, maybe years, and when AppleCare was in effect and i would mention the stupid pinwheel to anyone they would just ignore my comment. it has taken a lot of control to keep from throwing the GD thing out the window. in the morning when i click on Safari or e-mail it takes like 5 minutes for this p.o.s. to respond and after that anything i try to do results in the freaking colored ball or "Safari can't find the server", preferably both. it takes like a full minute for a simple e-mail message to "load" or a reply to get sent.
    the Drive Genius 3 download mentioned in this article is anything but free and we are considering a local Mac repair guy as a last resort before putting this rotten Apple out on the sidewalk where anyone in his right mind wouldn't waste the energy to pick it up.
  • Adey Oct 15, 2011 @ 5:20 am | delete
    Do a clean re-install OS X and only install the key programs you actually use. Delete any items that really fon't have to run on start-up. Set Onxy to run automatically. If you are still having problems then it sprobably your harddrive needs replacing. Machines are no perfect sometimes they need parts replacing. That is the nature of computers. You seem very angry and have not even tried the basics to reset your computer?
  • Boomy Feb 24, 2011 @ 12:26 am | delete
    I have a really important essay on the Spinning Wheel of Death. Really really hoping that it recovers!!! O.O
  • merebearrrr123 May 9, 2011 @ 4:18 pm | delete
    me too!!!!!!
  • AndrewBBC Sep 5, 2010 @ 8:48 am | delete
    As well as the BBoD, I get an irritating/disconcerting noise - sounds like shgadg-shgadg-shgadg-didididididi - and sometimes a buzzing and clicking. It sounds bad but usually stops after about 30 seconds. Any idea what it is and will dealing with the BBoD also cure it??

The "Spinning" Beach Ball: A Background

Originally, Apple used a wristwatch to indicate that a program was performing a function that was expected to take a few seconds. This later evolved into a beach ball. As advances in hardware and software came along, the beach ball was animated to that it appeared to be spinning. In the latest evolution of Mac OS, rainbow colors were added in an effort to make the cursor appear more dynamic.

Just as the original cursor has evolved, so has the set of conditions that will trigger the display of this cursor. Originally, applications that began a routine expected to take several seconds would trigger the spinning cursor. However, as time and software applications have changed, so has the reason for one to see this cursor.

Spinning Rainbow Ball on Mac Links

Spinning Rainbow Mac - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The spinning wait cursor is a cursor in Apple's Mac OS X that indicates an application is not responding ...
Apple - official site
Apple discussion on Spinning wheel of death
outlook pst repair tool
Outlook pst repair mac
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Recover trash on mac and undelete files
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How to jailbreak iphone 4.

Rainbow Ball on Mac Google Search

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