Mac Pinwheel – what to do
Mac Pinwheel – what to do: a reader asks…
Hi Chris, my Macbook Pro is stuck – the pinwheel (beach ball?) has been spinning around for hours now. What should I do?
When your Mac boots up and shows the pinwheel and never moves on, longtime Mac users call that the dreaded Spinning Pinwheel of Death (SPOD)! Windows users will immediately relate (they’ve got the ‘Blue Screen of Death’ aka BSOD).
I’ve seen this problem before, and there are a number of things to try, but you have to recognize that they are often unsuccessful. This includes:
- booting into safe mode, or testing and diagnostic modes
- resetting the PRAM
- forcing a hard shutdown
- restarting to the Recovery HD and reinstalling the operating system
But the first thing to do is press and hold down the power button on your Macbook for about 8 seconds. This forces the Mac to shut down. Of course, you’ll lose anything that you hadn’t saved, such as an open document or an email you were drafting. Once the Mac has shut down, release the power button, wait a second and then press and release it to turn your Mac back on. Once it’s fully started and you’ve logged into your user account, see if you can use the Mac. If your Mac goes right back into SPOD mode, then you might want to give a few of these potential solutions a try. But be aware that none of these are guaranteed to solve your issue – there could be a problem beyond a casual fix.
Boot into safe mode by…
- Pressing the power button, then
- Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold down the Shift key. The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
- Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple icon and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
Reset the PRAM by…
- Shut down the computer.
- Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
- Turn on the computer.
- Immediately press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
- Continue holding the keys down until the computer restarts, and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
- Release the keys.
Resetting PRAM may change some system settings and preferences. Use System Preferences to restore your settings.
Force a hard shutdown…
- Hold down the power button until the screen goes dark.
- Unplug your Mac from electrical power (if an iMac or Mac)
- Now plug it back in and start up normally
Restart to the Recovery HD and reinstall the operating system
- Find your recovery CD or thumbdrive
- startup your Mac and boot from the CD or thumbdrive by pressing the C key during startup
- startup your Mac and boot from the recovery system by pressing the Command and R keys during startup
If none of these work, then you should take your Mac to an Apple Store, if there’s one you can get to. They are best equipped to diagnose and fix your Mac, because there could be hardware issues. You should do this even if you didn’t purchase AppleCare – it’s well worth the cost to save your Mac and hopefully your data!
If you don’t have that option, and your Mac originally came with OS X Lion (or later), you can re-install the operating system from the internet. Warning, if this is a hardware problem, it won’t really help – but maybe long enough for you to get your personal files backed up, so worth doing. Your Command and R key startup works to do this automatically if you don’t have a recovery CD or thumbdrive.
Older Macs, you really are sort of stuck to using Apple’s tech support. You can call them to send in your Mac for service check here: support.apple.com/kb/HE57 for the right phone number based on your location in the world.
Be aware that your personal data files may be lost, especially if there’s a hardware problem that started you down this path. Mac users enjoy a great resource in Time Capsule/Time Machine, but it’s useless if you didn’t set that up before you had a problem! So a word to the wise, spend a buck or two and get a backup drive (Apple Time Capsule for about $300, or just an external hard drive like this one for about $130), and turn on Time Machine. It will really be worth it should you encounter a problem with your Mac.
To turn on Time Machine on your Mac:
- click on the time machine icon at the top on the right-hand side of your screen
- click the On slider
- Choose a location for the backup (your Time Capsule or external hard drive)
That’s it, Time Machine will automatically backup your system every hour, then save a daily, weekly and a monthly backup from each day’s set.
Remember, Time Machine will only work if your external hard drive is connected to your Mac, or if you are in the same wireless network as your Time Capsule. We think the Time Capsule is worth the extra money, because it connects to your existing home wireless network and works automatically without you having to do anything except leave your Mac plugged into electrical power and turned on overnight at least once a week or so. The latest breed of Macs will even let Time Machine work when your Mac is sleeping!
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Author: Chris Gardner
Your Tech Coach at PosiTek.net
There are currently 1282 reader comments on published articles, care to join in? Use the Leave a Comment form below/at the bottom of any existing comments. This is a good place to ask follow-on questions on this subject.
I have version 10.6.8 and have trouble with pinwheel when using Safari for about a week. I have to shut down and restart using option-command-P-R. Remaining memory is high.
I can upgrade to 10.8 but have not. I was told by Applecare that my computer could barely handle it.
I’ve deleted lots of files in the last two months.
I’ve heard pros and cons about the “clean my MAC” software.
HI Bill, thanks for your question. I started writing a long and involved answer for you, but upon reflection, I’m sorry but I’m going to have to punt. I can’t really offer you any good answers for your Mac, it’s too old and outdated (and a security risk to use imo). I’m all for getting my money’s worth out of consumer technology, but your system hasn’t been given any support by Apple (including security updates) since 2013. You’ve gotten your money’s worth out of it.
The only recommendation I can give you is to say that it’s time to retire that old Mac and get a new(er) one. If a new Mac is beyond your budget, any Mac from 2013 or newer (there are plenty of refurbished models on the market) will run the current version of MacOS (which is 10.12.5).
This is the same type of advice I would be giving someone who wanted my help with their Windows XP computer btw. Sorry, it’s time to replace.
I hardly create responses, however i did a few searching and
wound up here Mac Pinwheel – what to do – Practical Help for Your Digital Life®.
And I actually do have a couple of questions
for you if it’s allright. And, if you are posting at other online sites, I’d like to follow anything fresh
you have to post. Would you make a list of every one of all your
public sites like your Facebook page, twitter feed, or linkedin profile?
Hello, feel free to post follow-on questions on any article, or send me a new question using the Ask Your Tech Coach link in the menu bar. Btw, I’ve edited your comment to remove objectionable words.
If you look at the top or bottom of every web page on this site you’ll see links to my various online locations, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
I post one article every business day on this website and the various social media sites post a status update automatically, linking back to the article on this website. Every once in a while I might post something on social media that’s not directly tied to an article here, but that’s pretty rare.
Hello – I have a MBP running OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)
It has 2.8 GHZ and a Core 7. with 8 GB memory
I hardly use the MBP except for music – which is mostly on my external hard drive
I keep having this SPOD and I have tried all the mentioned among other things. I installed clean my mac and after a while I got the SPOD.
Any ideas?
Hi zfbm, thanks for your comment. If the SPOD lasts for just a few seconds, it may be that your hard disk is slightly damaged (disk errors in software, not hardware related). If the SPODs go on for a long time, it could be that your hard disk has hardware damage. Before you do anything else, make sure you have a good backup of your personal files, or a good time machine backup.
The first thing I’d suggest is for you to run the Disk Utility and run First Aid on your hard drive. You can first try this while the Mac is running by opening Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility. With Yosemite, the First Aid tab may have 4 buttons (verify disk permissions, repair disk permissions, verify disk and repair disk). Just do the repair disk permissions and repair disk, then restart your Mac. If the SPOD incidences continue, then start your Mac in repair mode first (restart your Mac and when you hear the startup chime, hold down the Command (⌘) and R keys). Run the same options to repair both permissions and disk.
The second thing I’d suggest, is that if your Macbook Pro is capable of being updated to MacOS Sierra, then by all means you should take the free upgrade. Any 2010 or later MBP is eligible for the free upgrade. I should note that the Repair Disk > First Aid feature in newer versions of MacOS don’t have separate options, they do all repairs in one fell swoop.
If the repairs fail, and/or you continue to get lots of SPOD, then consider making a Genius bar appointment. If there’s an Apple Store near you, you can bring your Mac in. If not, then you can start with chat or phone at https://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/ and they can walk you through some diagnostics and maybe find something else wrong (such as a bad logic board). Then, depending on your warranty/AppleCare status and the age of the Mac, you might get a free repair.