Mac users: what is this?

[jgriffin]

Many times when I am using Safari I get what I call "the rainbow wheel of patience" (I have other names for it when I'm less patient!) It usually appears when I am trying to load a page, or scroll through a page, and sometimes lasts a really long time. What is it, and is there anything I can do to minimize its appearance? It's getting pretty annoying....

(I have a 2yo iBook G4 running OSX, if that makes a difference.)

TIA!

Jen

[LD92599]

Basically it means the page is hanging and you'll need to force quit. Force quit is: Apple Key + Option + Esc. I find that i sometimes need to hit 'em all together forcefully a few times in order for it to come up w/ the force quit box.

To minimize its appearance you can drag the safari box lower in your window and open something else while you wait.

Laura
Mom to Will

http://b4.lilypie.com/BhyBm5.png

[juliasmom05]

I think it is fairly normal, but I had a similar problem not so long ago which got worse over time. It drove me bonkers when the thing continued to spin and spin and spin.

I'm trying to remember what I did to fix and I think I reset Safari. I think if you do this, it erases your browsing history, empties the cache, clears the Downloads window, and removes cookies. It also removes any saved names and passwords or other AutoFill text and clears Google search entries. So, I'm not sure that is exactly what you want.

For me, not only did the thing keep spinning, but the browser also stopped responding and I would be in the middle of something and I couldn't click on anything and I would have to keep hitting the page back button and eventually it would respond but then I would have lost anything I was doing. So, I was desperate. But, now its back to normal.

I have PowerBook G4 running OSX FWIW.

Good luck

Marci

[tny915]

Whenever my internet feels like it's running slower and the rainbow wheel turns and turns, I run Onyx to clean my system. I found out about Onyx from one of the old Mac threads here on the boards. It's freeware if anyone's interested.

Info here, and then you can click on the Downloads link if you decide you want it.
http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs2/english/onyx_tiger.html

[shilo]

i think marci is on the right track. if you know/are pretty sure it's not a problem with the page you are trying to load (ie. sometimes the lounge takes a really long time to load b/c of the amount of traffic the servers on the windsorpeak end are getting), then it's probably a processing issue on your machine. you definitely do need to shut down/reboot from time to time to clear out the cache. i notice if i leave my machine (mac book) on for a few weeks at a time it does start to get slower, particularly safari. it also is a lot worse when you are running a begillion other apps in the background without really needing them (ie. mail, iphoto, itunes, pages, terminal and ichat are all up, but you're really only using mail/safari). you can use that force quit trick to see what you have running without really intending to, and quit the obsolete stuff as needed to help keep the machine from having to swap out it's attention to so many places at once.

also, i know i've had to free up more memory at times when i'm push the limits of what i'm storing on the computer (usually it's that i've got way to many photo's in my iphoto library). you may need to upgrade your memory/disk space if you're approaching full.

if it spins for more than a minute or two, try the force quit like pp mentioned, and then when it's convenient, restart the machine. if you're rebooting regularly and you have plenty of space on the disk and still having a problem, you could try taking it into the genius bar at an apple store. i'll run it by DH tonight and see if he has anything else to add.

lori
Sam 5/19/05 How lucky I am that you chose me.