Snow Leopard freezes over time

Disabling Growl was not enough. I have found another nasty extension, used for 3G connection via USB keys (I don't know if "3G" is an international name, or just the French one). This page has instructions that seem to have addressed my concerns: http://tumblr.mloughran.com/post/173997552/removing-vodafone-malware-that-spoils -the-snow-leopard

I believe I found the solution for my battery problems since i installed snow leopard.
I did the reset and I am typing: no screen freeze anymore!
SEE:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411?viewlocale=en_US

Apple Portables: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

The System Management Controller is an integrated circuit (computer chip) that is on the logic board of the computer. As the name implies, it is responsible for power management of the computer. It controls backlighting, hard disk spin down, sleep and wake, some charging aspects, trackpad control, and some input/output as it relates to the computer sleeping.

I just upgraded Snow Leopard to 10.6.1: My screen freezes again!!
I had to repeat the steps mencioned:see below. My Macbook Pro seems to be fine again.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411?viewlocale=en_US

Apple Portables: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

The System Management Controller is an integrated circuit (computer chip) that is on the logic board of the computer. As the name implies, it is responsible for power management of the computer. It controls backlighting, hard disk spin down, sleep and wake, some charging aspects, trackpad control, and some input/output as it relates to the computer sleeping.

Hello,

I 've choose Safari in 32-bits and Reset All Safari ( Menu Safari ). It seem's to be right now.

@+

All of the discussion seems to center around current generation MacBook Pros, but the symptoms described by people match my experience on an iMac Core Duo (early 2006). I don't know if EFI 1.7 is the problem on it also. Is anybody else having these issues with iMacs or machines other than current-gen MBPs?

Josh,

I know where you are coming from! I regret having upgraded to SL, and I too do not wish to get into involved troubleshooting like I did with windows. I have only had my Mac since mid July and until I upgraded to SL I thought I had left all this technical stuff behind.

I contacted apple but they were not helpfull at all. For my print problems I was directed to Hp, My Pdf problems to Adobe, My application problems to the application developers, but all of this worked under Leopard so why not under SL, I asked, but I got no helpful replies, perhaps you will have better luck, if you call. I'm too inexperienced to attempt a fall back to Leopard, and risk even more trouble and loss of more valuable time and my data which, thankfullis still intact.

Dale

Yes, running on iMAC Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16MHz, I have the same issues of freezing screens. Reloaded 10.6.0 and upgraded to 10.6.1. Random freezes on non-admin account. Also showed lines on screen. Changed account to an admin -> still the same. Sorry no idea what could cause that.
BTW my EFI driver Version (Graphics/Display) is 01.00.139

thanks

The trouble shooting you're asked to do is simple... this is NOT Windows. Whining is no reward for folks who are taking their time to try to help you help yourself. If you don't want help DON'T POST HERE! What you wanting... A MAGIC WAND!? Heads up–Harry Potter is a book of fiction in case you're confused.

I made a clean install, and now I have an updates SL, so 10.6.1.

And the OS simply freezes sometimes. Even if I don't do anything!
(Like only Mail and Skype was running.) So disturbing!

It disturbs my ... basically everything.

No error screen, no nothing, it just STOPS.

Once it happened after un-mounting an external drive. After that everything stopped, but I could switch between the open tasks. Than the rest freeze too. Or an other time during a half freeze I managed to clicked on Spotlight and looked for Terminal, but after pressing enter everything freeze (I wanted to try re-lunch the Finder).
But nowadays everything simply freezes, the whole OS. Only the mouse moves.

Hope they manage to fix it soon!

I was thinking to do a clean install. After your experience not anymore!

I bought a new battery and no improvement:
I can only use my MBP while connected to a wall outlet, otherwise (using the new battery) my screen freezes after a kind of ligthning.
I can move the cursor, no forced quit available.

I've experienced the exact same issue. My iMac locks up, sometimes with the rainbow cursor sometimes not. I can move the cursor around, nothing responds. I have to do a hard reset. I noticed the issue also occurred under 10.5.x. I've recently upgraded to snow leopard (all patches) but still experience the lockups. The only pattern I've noticed is (for me) it seems to happen mostly when I am running VMWare Fusion. I updated to the latest version of Fusion hoping it would alleviate the problem but it has not. I've also run the disk repair utilities including the latest Disk Warrior.
As I mentioned I see the issue the most when running Fusion, but I have had the same lockups not running Fusion.

interesting. while typing my lockup experience post (previous) my iMac unfroze. It took about 5-10 minutes. I highly suspect my issue is with Fusion. Anyone else let their Mac sit frozen for a while and have it eventually unfreeze?

I hate replying to myself but more info.
After I posted my last message I went back to the now unfrozen iMac and opened the system console to look for any clues. While reviewing the log, the system froze. This time it did not have the spinning rainbow cursor, just the pointer. I can move the cursor but nothing responds. After waiting about 10 minutes I did a hard reboot. I immediately opened the system console to look for clues. Nothing stood out but during the 10 minutes of lockup the system was still logging messages so back ground processes are still running during GUI lockup. Most prominent message in the log is a com.seagate.notificationexec.plist) Throttling respawn.... There are other posts on this. I think it is incidental. For me Fusion is still high on the suspect list.

The notificationexec respawn is due to 3rd party software from maxtor (seagate). If you do not use the software and have tried to uninstall it, the uninstall software from Maxtor (at least in my case) did not remove a file called com.seagate.notificationexec.plist from the 'Library/LaunchAgents' folder. Hence launchd was executing the contents of this plist. In my case it was trying to run some of the notificationexec software that maxtor installs. By removing this plist from this folder, I stopped the console messages. Obviously if you use your maxtor software, then this probably won't work for you.

Thanks Tully. I forgot seagate owns maxtor. I know I've searched for the file and its not on my machine. A reference to it shows in launchd. Maybe I can unload it there.

Regarding the freezes, I havent run either Fusion or Parallels in several days. Woke up this morning to a locked GUI (mouse moves, nothing else) on my IMac. Hard reboot. Back to square 1.