DVD Player = spinning beach ball of death

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DVD Player = spinning beach ball of death

When I start DVD Player 5.0.1 on my powerbook, I just get the spinning beach ball of death. I can't quit DVD Player or switch to another application. The only solution is to shutdown the computer "hard" by holding down the power button until is switches off.

Occasionally, I watch DVDs on my PowerBook. Help?

PowerBook G4 12 1.33 GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Feb 28, 2008 2:04 PM

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Answer 1

Feb 28, 2008 2:20 PM in response to sez

First, run Disk Utility and use the Repair Disk Permissions routine in First Aid.

If that does not fix the problem, try deleting the DVD Player preference file. It is at

<your user directory>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.DVDPlayer.plist

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Answer 2

Feb 28, 2008 2:23 PM in response to sez

Has it ever worked?

If so it could be a damaged preference file. You might try going to your home/library/preferences folder and find the file com.apple.DVDplayer.plist and trash the file. Then try opening DVD player again and see if it will work.

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Answer 3

Feb 28, 2008 2:30 PM in response to sez

- Does this happen with a DVD in the drive ?
- Is that DVD showing up on the desktop ?
- What exactly happens between the moment you load DVD Player and your PB stalls?
- Can you get the "Force Quit" application to come up (opt-command-esc)?
- Can you switch between apps using command-tab?

Do you have another computer on your network you can use to ssh to your PB? If yes, the idea is to log in through SSH onto your MBP and study what is abnormal on your system when you loose the hand on it (through the Finder)

Have you looked into the system logs (Console application, in Utilities) for some abnormal reporting.

You mac may just look like it's frozen but it's only the WindowServer server process which is hosed. Through SSH you can certainly still access it and shut it down (sudo shutdown -r +0)

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