Q: Random freezing from Snow Leopard - total lock-up for about 30 seconds

In my opinion Apple released even a wrong driver for Nvidia 9400. I have a MacBook late 2008 and I share with the MBP the graphic card. The overheat is mostly done by an exceptional CPU consumption due to graphics activity like Flash Player and Skype video calls.
What is unacceptable is that after almost a month after the release Apple didn't find a fix.
This is really an MS-like OS !

Sorry, I posted in the wrong topic.... But, please take in account the possibility that the two issues (overheating and freeze) should be correlated.

Sorry I should have been clear with my experiences - as z1ross quite rightly says, my definition of a clean install is literally that - completely formatted hard drive, only with Snow Leopard installed. I did however add the update to 10.6.1.

A few days have passed now with no beachballs or hangs on the 5400rpm HDD; whereas with the 7200rpm HDD (same brand) the 30 second hang occurs a lot. Both have exactly rhe same clean install. TechTool Pro and SMART Utility both report no errors on either hard drive. Every other factor - machine, ram, etc - is the same.

So I can only conclude that in my case, with a 15" Late 2008 MBP, that the issue is with 7200rpm drives. To answer one question - yes, in both cases i have the jumper on the HDD that limits the speed to 1.5 instead of 3 (as Apple's release notes for EFI 1.7 state that the higher speed is unsupported).

robrecord,

You can now download v. 5.5.2 of Path Finder. (Check the thread I submitted before, there is a link there for the 5.5.2 download if it is not generally available to the public.) It has a new system check at launch that will disable PF's use of Core Image's layers for the sidebar if it detects the 7300GT. The 'fix' for PF will increase CPU usage since the GPU isn't handling the redrawing of the sidebar, but this is negligeable on a MP. The overhead on the CPU is very minimal and, more than likely, you won't notice a difference at all. I've been running it since yesterday and have not had an OpenGL error when using PF. Note: the underlying problem is with the driver for the 7300GT and NVIDIA is working on a new driver. No one knows when that will be so this is a temporary 'fix'.

I hope it works out for you as it has worked for me.

D.

Message was edited by: D. Fraser

I am experiencing the same problems (freezes, agonizingly slow response, beachballs, etc.) as many of you since installing 10.6 on my Mac Mini. I don't know if it's relevant, but I upgraded the HD myself some time ago to a 500 GB WD 5400 RPM (WDC WD5000BEVT-00ZAT0).

I first tried installing 10.6 over 10.5 with disastrous results - total freeze after a few minutes. I then did a clean install and migrated my info over. I tried this 2 or 3 times with limited success. At present response is mostly very slow with short periods of near-normal behavior.

I'm now holding out until Apple fixes this or I find out it's unfixable and I retreat to 10.5. I have a MB Pro and Mac Pro that I'm definitely not upgrading until this problem is solved. One thing I've noticed: Activity Monitor consistently shows only about 10 MB of free memory on the Mini. On my MB Pro (10.5.8, 2GB) it's up around 50 MB.

In retrospect I wish I'd done a clean install and not migrated anything over. At least then I'd have an idea if it's a hardware issue.

I was having a similar issue until I read a post advising to go through the following folders and remove any third-party stuff:

/Library/Bundles/
/Library/Contextual Menu Items/
/Library/InputManagers/
/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/
/Library/LaunchAgents/
/Library/LaunchDaemons/
/Library/PreferencePanes/
/Library/QuickLook/
/Library/ScriptingAdditions
/Library/StartupItems/

You should also check the Library folder in your home folder.

Since I've done this SL is running perfectly.

Same thing is happening to me!!! I really wish Apple would get on top of this. I wonder why I installed Snow Leopard in the first place! I'm not a very technical person, so if anybody has a set way, can you please write how-to-do-it instructions for "dummies" like me? I hope Apple sends a new update to deal with this problem.

Hi gajones,

Could you send a link to the post you are refering to?

Thanks

My experience today has been similar in some ways yet different.

I've had basic applications (see list below) freeze up for longer than 30 secs and for no apparent reason. Each required either a 'force quit', or a total shut down:

Mail (opening emails, deleting emails)
Spotlight (froze after typing the first letter for a search)
Safari
System Preferences (non-responsive upon launching)
Time Machine Preferences (non-responsive)
Emptying Trash (freezes on "preparing to empty trash")

Prior to installing the 10.6.1 SL update, I had no problem running SL 10.6.

I'm really looking forward to the next SL update with the hope that there's a fix. Until then, each "force quit" means another report to Apple !

Hi there,

The freezes were driving me CRAZY, however since rebooting in 64 bit mode they've stopped. Following gajones post I've deleted all the 3rd party stuff in the Library folders and am waiting to see how that pans out in regular 32 bit booting.

Hi Jason, thanks for steering me onto a track to start trying to work through this bug!

This morning was even more fun, Mail froze up on loading my password requiring a force quit, and when running only Activity Monitor to see what was happening it froze on the first click!

Unfortunately I'm not a really technical user so I don't have a clue about rebooting in 64 bit mode vs regular 32 bit booting. Can you point me in the direction of reading up on that so that I know a little bit about what I'm to do? Or if you can give me some simple directions to follow that'd be great.

Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide!

Hi,

Well deleting all the 3rd Party stuff from the relevant Library folders has worked for me. Please see gajones' post of Sept 23 above. No freezes in 24 hours. I had some old old menu extensions pref panes and finder haxies in there.

By default Snow Leopard always boots the 32 bit kernel but 64 bit booting is easy. Restart your Mac and hold down the "6" & "4" keys.

http://macperformanceguide.com/SnowLeopard-64bit.html

Before I deleted the files I presume it didn't load the old software/ finder hacks in 64 bit mode.
I didn't notice much performance difference except that Parallels wouldn't work so I'm back to regular booting. Touch wood the cat finally begins to purr...