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Snow Leopard Freeze - Possible Solution?

I am having the same problems many users are having with Snow Leopard freezing up. I noticed it would randomly freeze in Finder, Mail, Safari and even at the login screen. I tried removing software and all associated files that I thought might have caused it. I removed old software like FontExplorer, HP print drivers, etc.

The latest thing I found is that my Logitech mouse may be the culprit. I found a thread where they mentioned to: Go to /Libary/InputManagers and delete the folder "LCC Scroll Enhancer Loader", then restart your computer. Note: this was after I did a manual reinstall of the Logitech Control Center. I would recommend that the control center be reinstalled: http://www.tuaw.com/2009/09/01/snow-leopard-get-your-logitech-mouse-and-keyboard -working-again/

If I do not experience any more freezes for the next 24-48 hours, then I will report back. The amount of freezing I was experiencing was insane. I hope this finally takes care of it.

MacBook Pro Unibody

Posted on Sep 6, 2009 12:21 PM

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28 replies

Sep 6, 2009 1:14 PM in response to christo101

Another piece of problem software might be SIMBL which is used by Safari for plugins such as Pith Helmet. Either remove SIMBL at /Library/InputManagers/SIMBL or upgrade to the latest Snow Leopard beta version here: http://www.culater.net/software/SIMBL/SIMBL.php

Please respond with your results if this solves your problem.

Message was edited by: creativedirector

Sep 6, 2009 3:43 PM in response to christo101

Another tip:

Try opening the Console application in your Utilities folder. I scanned through the log and was able to find error messages that helped me isolate the problem. So far I have been going all day without a freeze after removing a problem with the logitech offending directories. Make sure it is safe to delete files before doing so.

I am posting possible solutions as I come across them. My hope is that this topic helps to solve freezing issues for many with Snow Leopard. Please post if any of these solutions work for you.

Sep 6, 2009 3:58 PM in response to christo101

Hello-
I am as well having the same issue.I notice that finder is the biggest culprit, on my computer, it will get as bad as I have to force shut down the computer.The caps lock light comes on (which is how you used to be able to tell if your mac was frozen, don't know about now), and the mouse still moves, just nothing responds.I find I have to force shut down my computer, and restart, and that holds it off for 30 minutes or so.If this isnt fixed within the week, or a fix is found, I may have to even go back to leopard... 😟
I did a clean install, and have not installed any new programs as of now....So, it's not a 3rd party issue in my ex.
Thanks
-M

Sep 7, 2009 11:01 AM in response to christo101

I am still experiencing freezes at various points of using Snow Leopard. My latest attempt was to remove old startup items from my Library. I found old Adobe CS2 files and a Retrospect file named "RetroRun" Check this directory for old files and remove them, then restart. /Library/StartupItems/

Below is a list of everything I have done thus far. I used AppZapper to remove many applications and/or located files manually to remove.

1. Time Machine backup of drive.
2. Clean install of Snow Leopard.
3. Transferred Applications, Settings, etc. from Time Machine backup via Snow Leopard.
4. Reinstalled Logitech Control Center via manual install. (Google for Instructions)
5. Started noticing random freezing and Airport problems
6. Deleted Airport settings via Network Preferences, restarted and reset Airport.
7. Deleted all HP All-In-One printer files, startup items, etc.
8. Booted from Snow Leopard install disk, ran Disk Utility, repaired permissions and repaired disk. Several permissions repaired, disk was listed as o.k.
9. Deleted all FontExplorer X files, startup items, etc.
10. Set MobileMe to sync "Manually"
11. Removed any SIMBL files. SIMBL enables plugins for Safari and should be upgraded or removed.
12. Removed any old files from /Library/StartupItems/ in which I found old CS2 files (I use CS3 now) and RetroRun (a retrospect startup file.) I removed both of these files and restarted.

Sep 7, 2009 11:09 AM in response to mgartner0622

You are probably right. I have so many applications installed, that the freezes are probably the result of several things. I decided to transfer all my applications, settings, etc. after reading a review of Snow Leopard and how it does such a good job of migrating compared to previous versions of OS X. But I have found several extensions, files, etc. that have probably caused problems. As I isolate problems, I will continue to fix them until it works properly.

Sep 7, 2009 4:57 PM in response to christo101

I've been chasing down the solution all day, and have come to this conclusion.
It seems that the problem, from what I can see, has to deal mainly with safari.I've checked the console, and it reports numerous crashes from within only safari.Usually, I don't go on the internet that much, mainly to check macrumors...Console reports some issues with flash plugins crashing, as well as javascript issues.
As well as that, just to see, today, I rebooted my computer....and have not launched Safari at all.
There have been no crashes, freezes, or hesatations in finder or anything close.I may have to just stick with web browsing on my old PowerBook G4.... 🙂
Thanks for your tips and responses!
-M

Sep 7, 2009 5:15 PM in response to mgartner0622

I'm having the same problem with my iMac. It freezes and sometimes it slows down. During an episode of a slow down I was able to do some troubleshooting and discovered that the system is using almost all of the available memory (2GBs) leaving just about a meager 28 or 30 MB of free physical memory. I never thought Snow Leopard would take that much memory. Right now I just use one application at a time while my 8GBs memory module arrives. I don't know if this is exactly your situation but I just thought I share mine just in case.

Sep 7, 2009 6:37 PM in response to christo101

Actually, No, I have not, thank you for the suggestion, after trying it, Safari gets only Javascript errors.This even happens on a website like MobileMe, which is optimized for Safari, so it may be some issue with snow leopard.On my Leopard PowerBook, with the same version of Safari, there are no issues, so I am going to keep looking into this....

Sep 8, 2009 12:08 PM in response to christo101

I have been experiencing this on on MBP 13" unibody with everything fully updated.

However, I came across this thread which seems to be relevant:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2084745&start=150&tstart=0

It was started r/t freezes in Quicktime, but grew as other people with random freezing issues joined the discussion.

It seems the EFI Firmware 1.7 update is to blame. There are instructions on how to downgrade to 1.6 here:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=8414998&posted=1#post8414998

Numerous people in that thread reported that the random lockups ceased after the downgrade. It seems 1.7 enabled SATA-II, but this is causing IO access to be buggy.

Sep 10, 2009 9:07 AM in response to powerpak

Thanks for posting this. This seems like the solution we have been looking for. My system went back to an insane amount of freezes again these past two days after a couple of days without any problems. It's very random and very frustrating. Now I have consistent problems with my Airport disconnecting and the computer freezing. I will try installing the firmware downgrade and report back.

Message was edited by: creativedirector

Snow Leopard Freeze - Possible Solution?

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