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MAC Spinny Circle Issue

SeikoKid

SeikoKid

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Joined
Oct 15, 2022
Messages
679
Location
London
I have a Mac mini 2022 M1 chip. 16GB RAM. - 2 screens and generally have the following open. Safari, Mail, Finder, Invoice Software ( Media Altier ) , Photos and sometimes another program.

2/3 per screen and swipe to access them all.

Mainly when Im composing an Invoice and I swipe into finder to search for some info or to mail for the info there and swipe back and then proceed to write the invoice I get the skinny circle. It can last from 10 secs up to and over 1 min at times. All other programs I can use bar the invoice program.

Other issue is im composing an email and as I attach a file be it pdf or photo when I select Choose file - it will then stick / freeze and I have to wait sometimes 2 mins for it to then attached the files and allow me to continue.

Ive spoken with the invoice people who have analysed their software and my log uploads for almost a year and cant find any issues and don't have this issue with anyone else. I know my Mac should be running very fast but it doesn't. Ive signed out of I cloud and deleted the archive and singed in again and updated to latest OS. Still happening.

Had a computer guy round this evening and straight away he put his hand on the Mac and said it was running hotter than it should.. I could not sense any heat at all. He then went to explain about the heat paste drying out and the main chip not cooling properly and that is why it is struglging

My MAC is never turned off, so always on standby.

Is he pulling my leg as was quoted £100 to take it away and remove the chip, reapply paste and resolder it. He will also check the fan

I just tied it now after turning off and on the machine and simply swiped between invoice and safari then went to type on the invoice and had the skinny for 30 sec

If anyone is a computer tech and can solve this I really would be happy to pay for you to do so
 
Go to your Applications/Utilities folder and start Activity Monitor and see what that is showing for CPU and Memory usage and also have a look at Disk. An M1 cpu with 16GB of RAM should monster what you're doing without breaking a sweat! I assume it's got a decent size and speed SSD in it as well?

It's highly unlikely that the the thermal paste has dried out on a 2022 machine unless it was bad from the factory in the first place.....I think your computer man is talking sh*t :D

Has it also been like this in terms of poor performance and how does it behave if you close certain apps down (like the invoice software)?

You say it's always on stand by but I assume you have power cycled it just to clear everything down?
 
If the thing was cooler than expected then I would expect the paste to have dried out. But hotter? Sounds like bs to me.

The hangups sound like an IO wait. You notice it when browsing for a file, so it could be trying to load a network drive that is no longer there, and timing out? Any temporary drives look like it's mounted?
 
If you wanted to be sure re: the cpu temp then download a tool (something like Hot from the iMazing site) and it will measure it for you. I don't think you can check CPU die temps from the terminal on Apple silicon machines like you used to be able to do on Intel Macs.

Going down the road of Tim's thinking re: disk IO, you're not using One Drive or anything like that are you?
 
I have an M2 and managed to make it a little bit warm when imaging two Bluray disks at the same time as encoding a disk image into a 4k movie. In other words, these machines are beasts and so to get warm need to be wasting their cycles doing something. Find that something and kill it.
Yes, I can't see CPU temps any more but do see a GPU one.
If you don't get it sorted, I will take a look next time I am over.
 
To add to others, if you select 'force quit ' when the problem occurs does the app appear in the list with a message at all / or any other apps?
The software you mention, is it shareable so a few others with MAC's could see if they get a similar issue?
 
thanks, i’ll check these tomorrow

I use one drive or icloud drive ? and also have synology redundancy drives for time machine backup.

The machine just gets used for office work. im not running photoshop or video software and imo it should be fast as hell but it isn’t

Geoff - it’s prob best that you take a look please as also need this shared folder setting up please

The force quit isn’t an issue and the program doesn’t show there .
 

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I couldn’t answer if it’s shared ? the name of it is grand total 3
 
Installed and used ok, saved invoices to one drive - no hang up's at all.
Version 8.1.4.9 - Classic
OS 13.4.1 (c) (M2 , 2022 16GB)

Hope that helps rule some things in / out
 
thank you - mine works fine. It’s when flick between screens and then return to it and start typing that it happens. the owner Stefan also does not have this issue and is perplexed
So it’s back to my mac ?
 
I just connected my mac to a second screen, I can move from screen to screen / program without an issue.
I had a similar problem once; in the end I opted to do a clean install and then restore what I wanted from my Time Machine back up using the migration assistant - took some time but sorted it.

Of course you need to be certain you have a proven back up, Time Machine as you probably know keeps incremental back ups so unlikely if there was a problem that you would lose much, belt and braces create a second one first.

Sounds like someone is going to take a look for you so maybe they can solve in another way for you.

Good luck
 
SeikoKid said:
Is he pulling my leg as was quoted £100 to take it away and remove the chip, reapply paste and resolder it. He will also check the fan
Click to expand...

No, he's not pulling your leg but I highly doubt it would solve the issue!

I've no experience of macs so I could be total incorrect with this but I've known people experience issues like you are describing when there are more than one virus checker installed on the machine (they effectively battle each other slowing the machine down).
 
Speaking With Geoff to day im going to start by reformatting my Mac. Just so I get it right and don't mess it up. I have latest Time Machine back up and back up of my invoices software. Can I also back up my document folder ( which I use as a main folder and then have sub folders within ) to a spare 1tb remote drive for ease of re upload. And then format the Mac and re install 1 app at a time. By using the remote drive with my documents on I can avid the Time Machine back up and hopefully isolate any glitches that might be there within the Time Machine. I have an inkling this was present on my previous iMac though I can be certain

Thanks guys for all your help so far


Also ive noticed with the latest OS update that my main screen on restart or start up does not work and I have to unplug the cable and re insert for it to work again. This did not happen 2 weeks ago before the OS update
 
These machines are portable computers they have a smaller footprint and a battery but they are designed to be fully used. They don’t need turning off, I have had a few that spent most of their time building or compiling so were rarely switched off.
I think smcfancontrol because redundant in my m2 when I migrated.
 
is there a way web reformatting to program an external HD to work in tandem with my main HD to save 1 particular folder? or is this complicated. I have iCloud optimised
 
So complete reformat from recovery
mode. Working ok now but will know more further into next week using the system. I also have optimisation set up and i find icloud is never finished up/down loading with a long timer showing - hd isn’t big enough the hold everything so have to think on this one what to do. I have 1 tb external hd waiting for someone to use it

Screen issue has gone with ventura back and then when i updated to Sonoma the main screen stopped working again

Back to the re format
 
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