# Mac Mini pinwheeling, hanging. HELP



## cheesymcsneezy (Mar 26, 2012)

Hello,

I am fairly new to Macs and love my mac mini, but lately it has been exhibiting some serious problems.

It started pinwheeling often. Youtube videos, itunes, garageband, safari, finder... basically every program has problems running. I tried fixing permissions and a few other things (I don't remember what... I'm pretty new to macs) but when that didn't work, I pulled out my PC knowledge and just blew it away with a reformat. Which fixed the problem. 

For a while. Then after a short time (a few weeks or a month) it quit working perfectly and returned to its pinwheeling ways. I was working on something so I decided to just reformat again. Worked perfectly again, but for an even shorter period of time (2-3 weeks) and I'm back at square one. I'm starting to think hardware. Ram? HD? 

If anyone can help me I would appreciate it sooo much. 

BTW I am using OSX 10.6.8

Thanks for reading.

Ross


----------



## Headrush (Feb 9, 2005)

There could be a number of things causing this including memory issues, HD issues or just rogue processes.

You can get a program to test memory. Many Linux distros CDs have a memtest option you can select during boot time, or dedicated OS X apps like Rember (http://kelleycomputing.net/rember/) or Memtest OS X (http://www.memtestosx.org/joomla/index.php)

For good HD scanning you need something like Drive Genius or Tech Tool Pro. (paid apps, possibly free trials)

If you can reproduce the problem routinely, you can trying starting in safe mode, (Hold CTRL-X) while booting pr create a clean temporary user account and see if the problem is reproducible under either of those situations. If it is not, it is likely software related for your user account.

You should also start /Applications/Utilities/Console and select the All Messages option and look for suspicious errors messages in the log that appears.


----------



## cheesymcsneezy (Mar 26, 2012)

headrush,

thanks for the ideas. I started by creating another account. I am currently surfing on Safari (more than I could do last night) and listening to itunes at the same time. That used to be the killer. We'll see if the problem persists. I guess I suspected reformatting to to reset the users and everything. But it doesn't? If this proves to be a solution, how can I repair my other account?

thanks again for the help. I was down to using my pc last night. ick. 

Ross


----------



## CyndyK2 (Mar 31, 2012)

I have emptied my cache, cleaned out my history, checked my activity level and reset my permissions. I've cleaned out my e-mail and my trash, and nothing seems to help. Every time I try to open Safari or a game, I get that damned spinning rainbow and it's driving me MAD. Is there a program for Macs similar to the PC's CCLEANER that will efficiently remove unused files like the TEMP files in Windows? I'm sure there must be junk files in my Mac, but darned if I know where to go to get rid of them or what program to use. I've heard MacDefender has problems; is this true? I'd greatly appreciate help! Thanks.

Cyndy K.


----------



## cheesymcsneezy (Mar 26, 2012)

I seem to have found a solution from headrush. He said to create a new user account, and try using that. I did, and haven't had a problem in nearly a week. Headrush also said that booting in safe mode should have the same effect. However, it will cut down on your macs usability, I believe.

That worked for me, so why not give it a shot? If you are unsure about how to create a new user account, click help from the desktop screen, and start typing "create new user account". The help topic should come up under the typing bar. Click that for step by step instructions including time saving links.

Good luck

Cheezy


----------



## CyndyK2 (Mar 31, 2012)

Sorry for misspelling your name, Cheesy. I found an extra e-mail account I had forgotten about that had hundreds of duplicate mails in it, which I deleted and dumped the deleted mail, also. That seems to have helped a lot. And all the rest of the things I did, especially the permission repair, are so far holding off the dreaded spinning rainbow. Of course, it's only been a day, so we'll have to wait and see how long it lasts. I think I need more RAM, though, or I need to get rid of a lot of stuff I've piled up. I really wish there was something similar to CCleaner for Macs! Thanks again for your reply.
Cyndy K.


----------



## Headrush (Feb 9, 2005)

CyndyK2 said:


> I need to get rid of a lot of stuff I've piled up. I really wish there was something similar to CCleaner for Macs! Thanks again for your reply.
> Cyndy K.


You hear this a lot, especially in the Windows world and it's generally overplayed and removing "Stuff" usually just eliminates the real problem. (It's not all the "stuff" per sa that is the problem)

How full is your HD? Right click on it and choose Get info to see.
Unless it over 80% full it's not likely your problem.

Open /Application/Utilities/Activity Monitor and click the System Memory tab and look at the Page outs number.
this number will give a good indicator if you need more RAM.


----------



## CyndyK2 (Mar 31, 2012)

By "stuff", I was referring to a lot of games I have installed on my system from Big Fish Games. And I do mean a LOT. I got rid of some, but I'm sure I missed some files. I checked the HD, and capacity is 297.77 GB; available space is 181.9 GB. RAM is 1 GB. Page Ins was at 507.18 MB and Page Outs at 380.47 MB. I'm assuming those numbers are ok for now. The dreaded rainbow is still holding off, thankfully. 

Cyndy K.


----------



## Headrush (Feb 9, 2005)

Sorry if I was confusing you the way I was referring to stuff.
My point was it didn't matter what stuff was; pictures, videos, games etc, that wasn't likely the real problem.
With 181GB free on a 500GB HD, it was unlikely your problem.

More RAM would help. Page outs mean RAM that had to be swapped to disk. The more that happens, the slower the system will be.


----------

