You have a specific problem. Here's how to diagnose and resolve it.
A Time Machine backup taking hours, or stuck at 'Preparing Backup,' usually has an identifiable cause — the first backup, local snapshots, or something else.
About This Mac says the disk is nearly full, but visible file sizes don't come close — how to find what's actually consuming space, hidden data included.
Force Quit doesn't work, the icon keeps bouncing, or it's stuck 'Not Responding' indefinitely — the actual escalation path, gentlest to most forceful.
Working through the network preference files macOS updates most commonly leave inconsistent, before assuming a hardware or router problem.
Diagnose stretched retro games by separating core geometry, pixel aspect ratio, integer scaling, overscan, and saved display overrides.
Isolate emulator black screens with verified content, lawful firmware, verbose logs, core requirements, clean overrides, and safe renderer tests.
Separate physical stick drift from mapping and calibration faults, then apply the smallest safe deadzone at the correct input layer.
Resolve missing or invalid emulator firmware by checking core requirements, configured paths, exact names, hashes, permissions, and lawful dumps.
Recover an incompatible save state by preserving every artifact, matching the original trusted core and content, then migrating to an in-game save.
Separate emulated-GPU shader generation from RetroArch post-processing, then test caches, official drivers, backend, and documented precompile modes.