beach ball on startup

J

jhy720

Registered
The beach ball spins and doesn't stop. I restarted the computer several times and it boots up normal except that it's extra slow. When it gets to the regular screen the beach ball starts spinning and I'm unable to do anything. I recently upgraded to OS 10.2.6 and was previously runing OS X.

I restarted it holding down apple F. It comes up with Disk2s4: I/O error, .waiting for local disk

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions, I have a paper due tomorrow! Thanks
 
You may have to downgrade. I upgraded to 10.2.4 (I think, either that or .3) and the Finder quit whenever I did something. I had to downgrade back to 10.2.
 
Before you downgrade try and boot in to safe mode just startup your mac with the shift key down. When you see the OS X logo appear you should notice you have the text SAFE MODE. Let go of the shift key and let the machine boot.

If you get to the desktop ok without the spinning beachball of death. Then you might have a problem with a third party Library my guess would be Nortons.
 
I rebooted in safe mode and the beach ball didn't come up. There was an error with the disk I had inserted in my zip drive, which may have been causing the error.

What is safe mode? Should I reboot my computer again? Can I work in safe mode? I'm scared it won't work if I reboot it.

Thanks for the advice about safe mode!! :D
 
A Safe Boot is a special way to start Mac OS X when troubleshooting. Safe Mode is the state Mac OS X is in after a Safe Boot. Starting up into Safe Mode does three things to simplify the startup and operation of your computer:

It forces a directory check of the startup (boot) volume.
It loads only required kernel extensions (some of the items in /System/Library/Extensions).
It runs only Apple-installed startup items (some of the items in /Library/Startup Items and /System/Library/Startup items - and different than login items).

Taken together, these changes can work around issues caused by software or directory damage on the startup volume.

Some features do not work in Safe Mode

Safe Mode can be useful for troubleshooting an issue. However, certain Mac OS X features do not work when you are started up in Safe Mode. For example, you cannot use DVD Player, capture video in iMovie, use an AirPort card, use some audio input or output devices, or use an internal or external USB modem. Use Safe Mode only if you need to troubleshoot a startup issue.


Yes you can restart your machine now as normal.

I'm glad I could help : )
 
jhy720,

I would suggest you downgrade only after pursuing other options. 10.2.0, for example, has a nasty CD-R bug.

What kind of computer do you have?

How much free hard drive space?

Doug
 
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