In rare cases, the whole system freezes and then the only option is to press the power button until the computer is forced to shut down. It could be a temporary failure from which the application will recover. The spinning rainbow wheel indicates that an application that is not responding. Even one impacted application can affect the processor and make it unable to click off onto another application. The spinning cursor means that some task is blocking your OS X system from running the program properly usually indicates an issue with your hard drive.

Typically, when frozen, the computer will not allow you to do anything for a few seconds and then it will resume. What Causes the Mac Spinning Rainbow Cursor? Frozen processes will say 'not responding.' Sort the applications by clicking the % CPU column and see what applications and processes are hogging your machine's CPU cycles. This window shows how much of you CPU different applications are using. In the menu toolbar, select All Processes. Using the Activity Monitor, check the Central Processing Unit (CPU) under the CPU tab.Click on the First Aid tab and select and repair your internal hard disk from the column on the left. Choose Disk Utility from the utilities window.

It should start up with a Menu Bar and a Utilities Window. Restart your computer and hold the Command and R keys while it boots.

Check your Disk Utility using the OS X Recovery.

Depending on what it finds, you can then determine how to fix the problem using Apple's online support or going to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store. Your system will run a diagnostic test and inform you of any problems. Turn it on, and before it can boot your desktop, press and hold down the letter D on the keyboard.

Run an Apple Diagnostics or Apple Hardware Test (depending on what model you have) to see if anything is wrong with your computer's hardware.

If your computer is writing a lot of Page Outs, you may need more memory. Page Outs occur when the RAM is full, necessitating information to be moved from the RAM to the hard drive. Two of the stats you'll see are 'Page Ins' and 'Page Outs,' which describe the information moved between the RAM to the Mac's drive. The System Memory tab will tell you information about your computer's RAM (random-access memory) usage.

Go to your Activity Monitor (you can find it by typing it into the Spotlight).

Checking your machine's vitals-RAM, CPU, disk space, and so forth-will keep things running smoothly: Try a Mac cleanup utility such as Mackeeper. How to Stop the Mac Spinning Rainbow Wheel These recurring short freezes are a nightmare for Apple computer users.

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