Although Macs are considered to be more stable and resilient than Windows computers, they suffer from their own share of problems from time to time. People believe getting a Mac means buying security and stability, that the computer will never misbehave and that it’s immune to viruses. Although Macs are more resilient when it comes to system errors, they suffer from a lot of problems and viruses too. A Mac, after all, is still a computer: it’s still running on code and from time to time, these codes tend to misbehave, prompting you with a blank starting screen or a busy beach ball cursor that does not go away. Until recently, Apple claimed that Macs were impervious to virus infections, but malicious software can be created for any system, be it Windows or Mac, and although Apple did little to dispel this notion, they have recently admitted that a Mac can indeed suffer a virus infection.

Much like these small misconceptions that we have of Macs, they suffer from quite a bit of hardware and software problems as well. Here are some common problems that might plague your Mac and the ways to try to fix them before taking them to an Apple Genius.

Startup Failure

Sometimes when you start up your computer, you might run into a problem where the OS does not boot at all. When this happens, you will be greeted with a grey screen with the Apple logo and the computer refuses to move past this screen. Although this seems like a complex problem, it can be fixed rather easily. This problem mainly comes up when some of the devices hooked to your computer are not compatible with the system. Try rebooting the system by disconnecting all the additional peripheral devices and it should load up. But if the OS refuses to boot up even after you’ve disconnected all of your devices, the problem might be deeper. Try booting up in Safe Mode; this can be done by holding down the Shift key when the Apple logo appears, and rebooting normally once Safe Mode starts. Macs automatically check your hard drive while booting up in Safe Mode, so it should identify any problem and rectify it automatically. If your computer still refuses to start up, then you might have to manually check your hard drive; this can be done from the Disk Utility.

Persistent Beach Ball

On a Mac, when the computer is busy undertaking some tasks, the cursor changes into a colourful busy beach ball. It’s a sign that the computer is processing something and that it’s busy, but sometimes the beach ball refuses to go away. This happens most commonly when there is a software that’s taking up too much of the processor’s resources. If you know which application is hogging up resources, simply force quit the application by holding down Command + Option + Esc. If you’re not sure which application is causing the problem, start up the Activity Monitor (under Utilities) and look for the process that’s taking up the highest CPU, and kill it. You can try re-opening the application but if the Persistent Beach Ball error happens again, you might need to upgrade your RAM. Also, alternatively, this problem can also crop up when your hard drive is full and does not have enough space for virtual memory. Try cleaning up your hard drive, because sometimes that works as well.

Kernel Panic

This is one of the most frustrating errors on a Mac and is usually caused by a software. Kernel Panic happens when your computer displays a black and white screen telling you, in a different language, to restart the computer. This is mostly caused by an incompatibility between applications, and if you can isolate which application is causing the Kernel Panic, you can avoid using that application until you find a workaround or wait for an update. If the Kernel Panic happens right after you boot, you might need to check which applications are starting up automatically on system boot. You can do this by booting up your system in Safe Mode (hold down Shift during the Apple logo) and loading up your system preferences. Under your User ID and the Login Items tab, you can find all of the applications that start up automatically at system boot. Try removing all these applications and booting up again. This should clear the Kernel Panic; if not, you might need to take it to the Apple Store.

Although Macs are stable and reliant, they do suffer from occasional hiccups now and then. A computer often misbehaves, and when this happens it can be quite frustrating for the user. But many of these problems can be easily fixed if you know what you’re dealing with.

If you have problems with any of your technological devices or just want to ask a question in general that you’re curious about, feel free to send your questions along with your full names at [email protected]