Bouncing Colored Beach Ball Appearance ?

[Robert11]

Hello,

If I asked this before, I apologize.

Have a few years old mac desktop
Works fine, but-

Seemingly at random, I get that colored bouncing beach ball.
Hard to correlate its appearance with anything in particular I may, or may not, be doing.

Drives me crazy.
"Locks up" the mac.

What is it ?
What causes it to appear ?

**What can I do to stop its, random, appearance ?

Thanks and regards,
Bob

 

[Lufbrarunner]

Hello,

If I asked this before, I apologize.

Have a few years old mac desktop
Works fine, but-

Seemingly at random, I get that colored bouncing beach ball.
Hard to correlate its appearance with anything in particular I may, or may not, be doing.

Drives me crazy.
"Locks up" the mac.

What is it ?
What causes it to appear ?

**What can I do to stop its, random, appearance ?

Thanks and regards,
Bob

How much RAM does the Mac have?
How much free HD space?
Do you have background Apps running?

 

[Robert11]

Hi,

Where do I find info on Ram and HD usage (old age problem)?

Do have background Apps running.

Thanks for help.
Regards,
Bob

 

[Robert11]

Hi,

Where do I find info on Ram and HD usage (old age problem)?

Do have background Apps running.

Thanks for help.
Regards,
Bob

 

[Lufbrarunner]

Click on the Apple icon in the top left, and then click "About this Mac" to find amount of installed RAM.
For HD space go to 'Utilities"> "Disk Utility"

 

[Robert11]

Hi,

Thanks for help.

Memory:

 

[Robert11]

Hi,

Thanks for help.
Appreciated. Drives me crazy when that colored ball appears, and I have to do a full re-start to get thiongs normal again.

I think this is what you requested:

Memory: 8 GB
Capacity: 994 GB
HD Used: 13 GB
HD Free: 142 GB

Bob

 

[Lufbrarunner]

That could be what is causing the beachball.
I would try freeing up some disk space and if possible adding some more RAM.

Swap Space: When physical RAM is exhausted, macOS uses a portion of the SSD as virtual memory (swap), which can slow down performance

 

[Robert11]

That could be what is causing the beachball.
I would try freeing up some disk space and if possible adding some more RAM.

Swap Space: When physical RAM is exhausted, macOS uses a portion of the SSD as virtual memory (swap), which can slow down performance

Hi,

Thanks for help with this, and All the previous help you've given me.
Much appreciated.

Isn't 142 GB adequate as for what is left on my HD ?
Sounds like a "fair" amount.

How would I free up "some more" HD space, if you feel it is worth trying ?

Not competent to add any more physical RAM at my age now.

Regards,
Bob

 

[Lufbrarunner]

It's always worth tidying up and freeing HD space.
I always remove unused apps etc. I keep data files on external drives.
The more space you have on the drive, the more that is available as swap space etc.

 

[Lufbrarunner]

Is your drive a mechanical drive or an SSD? as that will influence performance too.