System Freezes Randomly after 10.6.3 Update

Have been following this thread from the start, my iMac crashes 4 or 5 times a day, have a new Mac Pro with the same things on it, no problem there. I've done everything I can think of to fix it, it's all useless. I wiped the drive once and reinstalled, always returns with the crashes. Do not have time to fool with this anymore. Of course Apple Care ran out on this machine 8 months before I updated to 10.6.3, so it's junk for now, cannot do work on this.

1. Problem started happening after 10.6.3 update? Yes
2. Did you get any errors during 10.6.3 update process? No
3. Mouse cursor moves? Yes (Sometimes it's a Beachball sometimes not, anyway same result)
4. Can you click anything with the mouse? No
5. Does the system respond to keyboard key presses? No
6. Only way to re-animate system is by holding down power button? Yes
7. Mouse/Keyboard Model? Microsoft wireless mouse, Apple wireless keyboard the white one.

iMac late 2006 20 inch, ATI Radeon X1600

IMO, anyone who is foolish enough to download & install any Apple OS software from any source other than Apple's servers deserves what they get, which is likely to be a compromised system. Basically, you have no way of knowing if this is really the authentic version of the latest beta or something with a few "extras" like backdoors, key loggers, or who knows what else.

Hello all

I have a Mac Pro with the same problem. I have followed this fix

http://appletoolbox.com/2010/05/another-fix-for-mac-os-x-10-6-3-freezes-turn-off -spotlight/

turning off spotlight since last Friday and no freezes since then.

I jhope it keeps the same and it works for you

Regards from Barcelona, Spain

bee41:

I understand you are frustrated to the point of exasperation, but here are three suggestions:

(1) Have you tried deactivating Spotlight as indicated by indicated here (found after your post):

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11639683#11639683

I am frankly intrigued to see if this will help your iMac because this is the first time I have seen this proposed... but for reasons I explain below, I cannot test this at the moment...

(2) If (1) does not help, try starting the machine under a "Safe Boot"?

Just restart the machine while holding the Shift key... but be aware that any kernel extensions that other programs might install are not loaded (and audio might not work... at least that is how my iMac behaves). You should be able to use Safari via either a wired or wireless connection, thus trying the same mechanisms that cause your iMac to "freeze" under a normal boot...

If your machine seems to behave OK under a "Safe Boot", open the System Profiler here

About This Mac->More Info->Software->Extensions

and note what extensions start with the prefix ATI...

(3) If the machine works fine under (2), then look here:

About This Mac->More Info-> Software->Extensions

to see what ATI drivers are loaded now. It should be all the ones that you find in (3) plus, perhaps, a few additional ones...

Depending on what you find, you might be able to deactivate the additional drivers that only run in normal mode... and if you provide this information after doing these tests, I would be happy to offer an idea of whether and how it might work...

... and before RC-R responds, be aware that this might make the machine impossible to boot without a reinstallation (though it could be booted into a non-graphics mode and then have the drivers returned to their original state manually). I'm frankly just trying to see if you are having a problem similar to the one that I experienced on my iMac... and that the Apple Store is currently attempting to repair by simply replacing the logic board and graphics device even though they test out perfectly OK for them.

PS to RC-R: It may end up that I was wrong and that the problem is a hardware glitch in my machine alone, and it may turn out that the replacement devices are identified differently than the ones in my machine and that we might never know if they updated a component with a more reliable one (or for that matter, whether there was an upgrade to the logic board itself during production...). I am still convinced that something was added to the system graphics libraries that only effected certain models. I know you disagree with this diagnosis, so please don't waste your time with counterpoint...

... but on the other hand, I agree 100% that using unofficial (and pirated) versions of operating systems like Mac OS X is a bad idea. Even if it were to work, one would never know if something unreliable (and perhaps nefarious) was going on in the background... until it was too late.

Good luck.

Thanks for you help, but it is too late now, I went back to 10.6.2 and experience no problems after 1 1/2 days of it. I did try most of the things you suggest. However, I should have tried what you suggested about booting in safe mode and checking the ATI drivers, as this screen acted strange before. After your suggestion about the drivers, feel kind of stupid for not checking them while it was in safe mode. I see no reason to update this old iMac to 10.6.3 again, so it will remain with what works for me and besides I'll probably get rid of this machine next year anyway. But your suggestion is valid for all the people who do have problems such as I had. Thanks anyway.

I am having the same problem with 10.6.3 update. As far as I could tell my iMac had been running just fine prior to this update.

While using my iMac, the system becomes unresponsive and exhibits the following symptoms:
1. Problem started happening after 10.6.3 update? Yes
2. Did you get any errors during 10.6.3 update process? No
3. Mouse cursor moves? Yes
4. Can you click anything with the mouse? No
5. Does the system respond to keyboard key presses? No
6. Only way to re-animate system is by holding down power button? Yes
7. Apple Mouse and Apple Aluminum KB w/number pad

Has anyone having this problem tried the 10.6.3 v.1.1 update to see if this solves your problems?

DocDeth wrote:
Has anyone having this problem tried the 10.6.3 v.1.1 update to see if this solves your problems?

The 1.1 update only fixes an issue for people who upgraded directly from 10.6.0 to 10.6.3, skipping the in-between versions:

http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/decipheringapples_mac_os_x_10.6.3_v1.1update/

*Here is my update for what it is worth.*

I recall reading a recent post from someone that felt there was some issue with Time Machine and/or the backup drive they were using. They disconnected their drive choosing to back up once a day rather than having Time Machine run continuously and found this to be an affective work around.

I have Time Machine backing up to a firewire connected external Elephant Drive. Besides the constant system freezes, I have also been getting the odd Time Machine error message.

I have tried using Apple's Disk Utility, Drive Genius 2.3 and 3.0.1, but have had no success at fixing the system freezes or the error message. So as a test, I tried disconnecting my external drive as well.

And...so far so good.

I have not had a system freeze in over 24 hours since I disconnected my backup drive and stopped running Time Machine. Prior to this I was having have dozen or more a day.

I am going to give it another 24 hours before reconnecting my external drive...and keep my fingers crossed.

i_Lou I have been down the same path. In the end I went back to 10.5.8 where everything works.

I feel like my $29- Snow Leopard upgrade was a donation to the software development program, because the software makes my system unreliable and virtually unusable.

I will decide shortly whether I will exercise my right for a refund.

exactly the same problem----has happened 3 times.

paul

My two cents. I've been having problems with random freezes on my MacBook pro since I upgraded to 10.6.3 also. I've tried all of the obvious stuff, resetting PRAM, deleting my Safari extensions, shutting off any external services, etc), none of them helped.

The problem in my case was traced Spotlight. This is what I used to disable it:

sudo mdutil -a -i off

My system now seems to be running smoothly again. (BTW, without getting too speculative, I don't think it was the upgrade to 10.6.3 that caused the problem.)

Another data point:
I have a aluminum 20inch iMac7,1 (2GHz Core2Duo, ATI RadeonHD2400).
This iMac has been an absolute rock solid, use for months-at-a-time, no crash machine, WHILE it was running 10.5.8. About 3 weeks ago I bought a retail package of Snow Leopard: 10.6.3 was on the media. It installed without a hitch and my machine is fully patched. I haven't installed any additional utilities or application since moving to 10.6.3.

Since moving to 10.6.3, I have had several freezes. The screen just locks up - can't switch apps or Command-Option-Esc. Seems to happen randomly, once or twice a day. Really hoping a Combo update of 10.6.4 restores my machine to its previous reliability level.

I also have an i7Mac with 10.6.3 and basically the same set of apps. That machine is rock solid. My guess is something with the graphics card drivers in 10.6.3 don't agree with my 20inch iMac (but I really have no idea).

1. Problem started happening after 10.6.3 update? Yes
2. Did you get any errors during 10.6.3 update process? No
3. Mouse cursor moves? Yes
4. Can you click anything with the mouse? No
5. Does the system respond to keyboard key presses? No
6. Only way to re-animate system is by holding down power button? Yes
7. Mouse/Keyboard Model? wired Apple Mighty Mouse and wired Apple Aluminum KB w/number pad

At least once, I was able to ssh into the locked up Mac. I was unable to spend a lot of time debugging but I noticed, via top, that the WindowServer process was listed as "stuck".

mert:

I believe you are having exactly the same experience that I had on the same hardware.

Before you do anything else, please try the approach of shutting off Spotlight that someone suggested earlier in this thread. I did not hear about it until after I had returned my iMac to the Apple Store for the second time about ten days ago and I will be very interested to see if simply shutting off Spotlight works for you because it might have worked for me...

On the other hand, here is my latest post on the subject:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11663560#11663560

If you are game, try starting your iMac via Safe Boot to see if it runs without freezing (restart while holding Shift... and note that audio, as well as any kernel extensions, will not work)...

If it works fine, then I would suggest that you might try my "trick" of hiding the accelerated ATIRadeonX2000 driver as described here:

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11595697#11595697

So that you're not obliged to reread everything, here's the "recipe":

Safe Boot
open a terminal
sudo sh
cd /System/Library/Extensions
mkdir z_ATIRadeonX2000
mv ATIRadeonX2000* z_ATIRadeonX2000
du -sx /
sync; reboot

I wouldn't try this if you're not comfortable moving around UNIX directories from the terminal; on the other hand, "undoing" this simply involves positioning doing the process in reverse:

Safe Boot
open a terminal
sudo sh
cd /System/Library/Extensions
cd z*
mv ATIRadeonX2000* ..
du -sx /
sync; reboot

Now, if you "hide" the X2000 driver and your system works, I would guess that you have the same unusual hardware-related conflict with the 10.6.3 update that I encountered. It may just be the logic board and/or graphics card that need to be replaced, but I would not be surprised if it is simply the LVDS display cable that is somehow overtaxed (either a bit too hot, etc.). I'm not sure why the WindowServer process would be stuck... unless the sync between the LCD is monitored and the actual framebuffer update cannot continue at some point...

I would be very interested to hear if you try this... and if it works (and please be aware that if you make a mistake moving the files, or move different ones than these, you could make your system directly unbootable (though an erase/install will still be possible because these changes should not harm the hardware in any way...).

One way or the other, I hope you have Apple Care and can get it fixed at no cost...

Message was edited by: batondor

Don't think it has to do with the X2000 ATI driver. My system has the ATIRadeonX1000 and the ATI1600Controller and I suffered innumerable freezes (five, six a day) before I retreated to 10.6.2. It has been over a month since my last freeze. I'm waiting for 10.6.4 and THEN I will run without Spotlight.