Mac is becoming unresponsive

SkyHog

SkyHog

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Any clue, Mac peeps?

Random programs just fail to run, and sometimes they crash and won't restart no matter what I do (short of rebooting). So far, its happened to Firefox, Safari, OpenOffice, VirtualBox, and StuffIt.

I didn't think rebooting was the answer on a Mac, but it seems to help. For what its worth, my uptime never exceeds 3 days anymore before I start having wonky issues.

Another weird issue, a lot of times, if I start a program, it loads, but doesn't show a window until I go to File>New Window. Firefox and Terminal both seem to do that now.
 
1. which mac, which OS, how much memory?
2. do you keep the software updated? the Software Update under the apple logo.
3. if on a network, are you using a firewall or protection software?

I should point out that I've been having problems with Firefox since the 3.5.7 release came out. I'm sure the FireFox people are really tired of my crash reports, sometimes as many as 10 a day. I don't use Safari, so I can't help there.
 
Which version of OS X? Look in "About this Mac" in the Apple Menu.

Repairing permissions will sometimes help.

Sometimes, so will reinstalling the latest OS update standalone installer. Go to Apple's Support pages, in the downloads section.

You may have a corrupt plist (preferences) somewhere.

Try creating a new user and login under that new account and see if it has the same problems.
 
I am running Mac OSX 10.5.8, I ditched Windows on the Mac about 2 months ago (so this is a fairly fresh install).

2 GB RAM, 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.
 
SkyHog said:
I am running Mac OSX 10.5.8, I ditched Windows on the Mac about 2 months ago (so this is a fairly fresh install).

2 GB RAM, 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.
Click to expand...

Any anti-virus stuff?

Is any of your software phoning home to check for updates?

Indexing of your hard drive? Spotlight?

Next time it occurs, use the activity monitor to check which apps
are running. Occasionally I run across a website that causes firefox
to chew up cpu cycles (usually it's a NWS site with a radar loop done
with Java). On my macbook pro, Norton AV occasionally launches
a scan.
 
I'm running OSX 10.5.8 and Firefox 3.5.7 on an older iMac; 1.8Ghz Intel Core Duo, 2G RAM, with no issues like this.

Multiple users, system up for weeks at a time without reboot.
 
Troubleshoot it like you would a Windows or Linux system. Take a look at the processes running, the memory being consumed, etc. Try to figure out where those resources are going.
 
Nick,

Something's clearly not right... My uptime shows "12:31 up 30 days, 10:58, 2 users, load averages: 1.03 0.56 0.48" and that would be since my last software update. You should get similar results. So...

1) Boot off your system DVD, run Disk Utility, and do both "Repair Disk" and "Repair Permissions."

2) Do what Rich said and report back with the results:
rpadula said:
Try creating a new user and login under that new account and see if it has the same problems.
Click to expand...

3) Try booting up with the shift key down and see if that has any effect.

4) If none of the above does any good, reinstall the system. Choose the "Archive and Install" option, that will archive your current OS and install a fresh one. Run Software Update when you're done until you don't have any available updates.

5) If none of the above works, it's most likely a hardware problem. Find your nearest friendly Apple store and make an appointment at the Genius Bar.
 
Why do you guys leave your computers on? I go to bed, the computer goes to bed. Not sure how much electric they use just sitting there, but I know it's more than zero.
 
EdFred said:
Why do you guys leave your computers on? I go to bed, the computer goes to bed. Not sure how much electric they use just sitting there, but I know it's more than zero.
Click to expand...

Mine goes to sleep when I'm not using it. If your computer has a "hibernate" or sleep mode, that's probably more energy-efficient than turning the computer off. Sleep uses VERY little energy, probably less in 12 hours than it takes to boot the computer back up which takes a lot of processing.

For the most part, the transistors on computer chips only use energy when they switch states. Playing a game uses a bunch of power, just sitting there (even on and not asleep) uses very little, being asleep it's almost negligible. The screen backlight and hard drive are the largest consumers of power. If you have an LCD and you can get it, your hard drive and all the fans to spin down in sleep mode, you shouldn't have to worry about power consumption.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Mine goes to sleep when I'm not using it. If your computer has a "hibernate" or sleep mode, that's probably more energy-efficient than turning the computer off. Sleep uses VERY little energy, probably less in 12 hours than it takes to boot the computer back up which takes a lot of processing.

For the most part, the transistors on computer chips only use energy when they switch states. Playing a game uses a bunch of power, just sitting there (even on and not asleep) uses very little, being asleep it's almost negligible. The screen backlight and hard drive are the largest consumers of power. If you have an LCD and you can get it, your hard drive and all the fans to spin down in sleep mode, you shouldn't have to worry about power consumption.
Click to expand...

My hard drive is solid state, and my boot up time is less than 15 seconds from power on to 100% ready to use. No whirring, no spinning, no clicking or clunking. :no: I should put a meter upstream of the power strip and do a test.
 
EdFred said:
My hard drive is solid state, and my boot up time is less than 15 seconds from power on to 100% ready to use. No whirring, no spinning, no clicking or clunking. :no: I should put a meter upstream of the power strip and do a test.
Click to expand...

That'll certainly help. :yes:
 
caveat with "back in the old days" ... electronics operated best/longest/most reliably when kept up and running. May not be correct any longer, but we have a lot of older systems running that we're somewhat afraid to shut down ... our sysadmins grimace when they hear they have to power cycle some of these old systems - "Do we have to? There's a 50/50 chance that they won't power back up" is their favorite response
 
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