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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Safari Problem

dethomp - Nov 12, 2005 - 7:31 pm

When I am viewing a web page which has been loaded and click on the scroll bar to scroll down, I get the swirling spectrum wait icon (what is it called?). I have to wait 4 or 6 or 10 seconds before I can scroll down. This does happen when I use Explorer.

I run OSX 10.3.9 on an iMac, Safari 1.3.1 (v312.3.1). I've run Symantec (Disk Doctor 8.0.2 (151) without success.
-Daniel

one1step1 - Nov 13, 2005 - 8:42 am

Daniel,
That is affectionately called the spinning 'Beachball'.

Try this free program called main menu:
http://www.santasw.com/products.html

Sounds like you have a cache problem, so
Run all of the cleaning/optimization utils and it should take care of the problem
It's a great little program.

I don't recommend any Symantec products for your Mac, I have found they make things worse, not better.

Let me know if this helps!
Thanks,
-Jonathan
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Think-Mac.net
Mac Tips Daily!

dethomp - Nov 13, 2005 - 10:51 am

Jonathon,

Thanks for the suggestion. I ran everything on the "Main Menu" utility with multiple restarts to no avail.

Corrections to my original post:
The beach ball spins for around 15 seconds.
I have an iMac, not an eMac.
Explorer does NOT have the beach ball problem (nor does any other program).
I even get the beach ball when pasting the clipboard into a text box in Safari.

I have another problem I didn't mention in my first post, as I didn't want to ask two probably unrelated questions, but maybe they are related. Safari sometimes "unexpectedly quits." Quicken "unexpectedly quits" even more frequently. I bought the new Quicken to cure that problem but it still happens No problems with Word, Photoshop, Excel, iTunes, etc.

Should I reinstall Safari to stop the beach ball? If so, can I do it from the Install and Restore disk, or is that just the OS?

Thanks.
-Daniel

one1step1 - Nov 13, 2005 - 6:56 pm

As far as Safari,
You could try and delete the Safari preferences file, and see if that works.

Should be in your home folder, Library->Preferences->com.apple.Safari.plist
You can do the same thing with the 'Quicken' program.
When programs mess up, it usually is a disk permissions issue, or the application Prefs.

There is also a common issue if you have installed an HP printer, sometimes it adds some Fonts that can conflict with Safari.

You can reinstall safari, from your panther cd/dvd. You will need a program called Pacifist to extract the package, but you can do it.
http://www.charlessoft.com/

Next,
Open Pacifist -> Open Package -> Navigate to Panther CD1 (or DVD) -> System/Installation/Packages/EssentialSystemSoftware.mpkg -> Click Open -> click the twisty next to Essentials -> click the twisty next to Applications -> Select Safari.app -> Click Install (at the top of the Pacifist window).

Let me know if this helps!
Thanks,
-Jonathan
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Think-Mac.net
Mac Tips Daily!

dethomp - Nov 14, 2005 - 7:54 pm

I deleted the Safari preferences file – no change.

So, what are disk permissions? I ran “repair disk permissions” in “main menu" -- no change.

I downloaded Pacifist and reinstalled Safari - no change.

It seems like I do remember that I had to get a new font to run Quicken. Quicken documentation says Geneva 9 anad 10, and Lucida Grande 11 and 13 are used. I haven't had a font conflict since maybe 10 years ago when I was working in desktop publishing.

I'm not the only person to run Quicken on an eMac. Shouldn't this problem (and its fix) be documented somewhere?

-Daniel

one1step1 - Nov 14, 2005 - 10:17 pm

If it was a page not loading problem in safari, you could try this:
Remove all copies of the "Times RO" font. It might be in /Users/username/Library/Fonts/ or /Library/Fonts/

Give that a go. (I would back them up into another folder, in case it doesnt fix the problem.)

To repair disk permissions, open the Utilites Folder, run Disk Utility, then click on the drive that you have OSX installed on, and in the righthand pane, click on Repair Permissions.

I actually just did a tip on my web site, you can more details if you need them at www.thinkmac.net

Let me know if this helps!
Thanks,
-Jonathan
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Think-Mac.net
Mac Tips Daily!

one1step1 - Nov 17, 2005 - 10:14 am

Hi Daniel,
What was your outcome with this?

If you don't have a solution, I will send it back to the open question pool, and maybe we can get some more help.
Thanks,
jonathan
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Think-Mac.net
Mac Tips Daily!

dethomp - Nov 19, 2005 - 11:28 pm

I have no Times RO font. In case you meant Tiimes NR (as in New Roman) I got rid of or disabled all instances of Times New Roman and restarted. No change.

I ran the disk utility and repaired disk permissions. No change.

-Daniel

one1step1 - Nov 22, 2005 - 6:18 am

Daniel,
I just found some new info from our local Mac Users Group.
Several people have reported that lately
they can't use yahoo mail with safari, using version 1 of safari.

Not sure what the fix is yet, but I will keep you updated if no one solves it in the meantime.


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Think-Mac.net
Mac Tips Daily!

dethomp - Nov 27, 2005 - 12:25 pm

Jonathan,

Oops? My beachball-with-Safari problem continues, but I may have finally realized that the problem only occurs (I think) when I am at the Yahoo! Finance site checking stock quotes. If you want to see if it happens on your system, too, paste the following URL into your Safari address window and scroll down with the down arrow a few times. (The URL displays a dozen yearly charts of stock and mutual fund prices.)

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?t=1y&l...CX+dodfx+lsbrx

This doesn't explain the Quicken 6 quitting with loss of data.

Would Tiger 10.4 cure these problems? If so, what's the least expensive source for Tiger without signing up for unlimited junk email?

I went to your web site briefly -- I'll go back now to see more.

dethomp - Nov 27, 2005 - 12:58 pm

Jonathon,
I was wrong in my previous followup. The beachball just occured when I tried to scroll down an already loaded web page from www.imdb.com.
-Daniel

one1step1 - Nov 27, 2005 - 1:35 pm

Thanks for the updates.
I haven't heard anything else regarding issues with Yahoo lately, but it seems like it may not be isolated to yahoo with you, since you had a problem with IMDB.

You can upgrade to Tiger, the best deal I have seen on it is with an educational price. If you are a student, have a student, or work in the school system, you will qualify for this. I believe it runs about $69 and I highly recommend it. If not, you can usually get it online for under $100 or so, if you shop around.

In the meantime, I would try to reinstall. With the mac, you can do what is called an Archive and install. Basically it saves all of your home folders, reinstalls with a clean Operating system, and you still have your data intact. You may lose some system prefs, but nothing you can't fix up very quickly.
Are you up for that?
-jonathan

dethomp - Jan 2, 2006 - 8:16 pm

Sorry about the long hiatus. I'm getting fed up with my beachball - program quitting problem and decided to take a break.

I reinstalled 10.3.9. I reinstalled Safari. I ran Mac Utilities from the startup disk. I ran everything on "main menu." No change.

OS Tiger is on the way (via education disount -- I'm a teacher).

This problem has reminded me that I need to have a current disk backup. I've ordered an external HD (double the capacity of my internal HD). Does Tiger have a buitl in back up utility? How do I find recommendations for backup software on this site? I don't want to ask questions that already have answers.

Thanks in advance.
-Daniel T