Level 1

16 points

System Freezes Randomly after 10.6.3 Update

Hi,

I have seen other people post various other problems they have experienced after 10.6.3. But I want to dedicate this thread specifically to Macs freezing randomly during operation after applying the 10.6.3 update.

It has happened twice in the past 24 hours. While using my iMac, the system becomes unresponsive and exhibits the following symptoms:

1. Though the mouse pointer moves, I cannot click on icons, links, select text or interact with anything using the mouse.
2. The system is also unresponsive to key presses on the keyboard, whether they be individual key presses or pre-defined keyboard shortcuts.
3. The only way to make the system respond is by holding down the power button until the iMac shuts down.

I cannot tell if the problem is related to the specific activity I was performing on the Mac - the freezing may seem random to me but it could be caused by the same event (maybe Flash, Javascript, or some background program)

If you are having the same issue, please post here by copying and pasting the text below and entering your answers:

1. Problem started happening after 10.6.3 update? Yes/No
2. Did you get any errors during 10.6.3 update process? Yes/No
3. Mouse cursor moves? Yes/No
4. Mouse clicking does nothing? Yes/No
5. Keyboard key presses do nothing? Yes/No
6. Only way to re-animate system is by holding down power button? Yes/No
7. Mouse/Keyboard Model?

I'll fill in mine to start:
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? Magic Mouse/Apple Aluminum KB w/number pad

iMac 24" (Late 2008), Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Mar 30, 2010 11:06 PM

682 replies

Eleebad

Level 1

10 points

Aug 15, 2010 6:04 AM in response to Eleebad

I put the wrong info above concerning the mouse cursor — it does move.
Also, there is no improvement after downloading 10.6.4. My graphics card is a Radeon X1900.

mert

Level 3

880 points

Aug 17, 2010 5:42 PM in response to mert

mert wrote:
OK. I found someone with a 10.6.0 retail DVD (mine had 10.6.3 on it), and I've reverted my iMac7,1 to 10.6.2 (10.6.0 from DVD, 10.6.2 Combo update, Software Update to latest of everything else).

The clock is ticking (started Aug 3). I hope this returns my iMac to its freeze-free, month-plus uptimes of 10.5.8. Will report back in a couple weeks - sooner if it's still freezing. (see my previous posts for what I've done to try to deal with the 10.6.3/10.6.4 freezes)

As promised... it's been 2 weeks. Not a single freeze since reverting back to 10.6.2.

Wonder if the just-released "Snow Leopard Graphics Update 1.0" will have any affect on this issue. I won't be trying it any time soon (at least without hearing positive results from folks in this thread).

Aug 17, 2010 6:44 PM in response to mert

The Graphics Update did not fix the problem. 😟

DKisling

Level 1

0 points

Aug 19, 2010 8:30 PM in response to Mr Winther

I agree.

I also posted this to <http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2384136&tstart=0>

Another post on similar issues. I just discovered these today.

No the Graphics Update did not help for me, it made my finder freezes worse. So much so, that what was a once a day or so problem became so frequent since the graphics update, that I finally called AppleCare Support tonight.

To my surprise the Tech had NEVER heard of this issue and was unaware of this thread. I gave him the thread ID number and he was reading it as he work thru the "normal suspects" (zapping Pram, repairing permissions, deleting cache, etc, etc) with me.

So what good are these forums if Apple doesn't read them?

Aug 19, 2010 11:46 PM in response to DKisling

Indeed, it took me two months to get me iMac repaired. Apple en my AASP looked at each-other to solve this issue, but none of the two parties took initiative. Apple said it wasn't aware of this issue (but I've sent them loads of information, including these Apple Discussions-topics). Two months of unworkable and unacceptable lockups... Most amazing for an A-brand!

I finally contacted my insurance company so I could bring it to court. Which was about to happen. I also contacted a consumer organization to make these problems available for the public.

Next, I have informed Apple and my AASP about the steps I was about to take. The iMac was repaired in about 2 days after! The problem was a simple faulty video card.

The iMac has been doing great since the repair! No more lockups and freezes.

Anyway, court is suspended. But I'm absolutely publishing this with my consumer organization.

My hints for this issue: be assertive: demand a repair! And go further when needed.

Hope this helps.

Message was edited by: tommie_c

mert

Level 3

880 points

Aug 20, 2010 4:25 AM in response to Community User

tommie_c wrote:
...
The iMac was repaired in about 2 days after! The problem was a simple faulty video card.

The iMac has been doing great since the repair! No more lockups and freezes.
...

In your case, did the freezes not occur in 10.6.2, started in 10.6.3 and continued in 10.6.4. And, the hardware issue was not detectable by Apples hardware test suite that comes on the DVDs that ship with it?

R C-R

Level 6

17,794 points

Aug 20, 2010 7:14 AM in response to DKisling

DKisling wrote:
So what good are these forums if Apple doesn't read them?

Discussions is intended for user-to-user support. As described in the "Who are the Apple Discussions personnel?" section of the Help & Terms of Use page, the "Apple Hosts" do gather technical feedback from Discussions & forward it to the appropriate Apple group where possible, but you cannot depend on this making its way back to Applecare Support in the form of any specific recommendations, at least until the issue is resolved.

That is particularly time consuming for a huge topic like this one that may have multiple causes, affects different users differently, & many of the affected users do not post many details that might help sort things out more quickly.

It certainly doesn't hurt to mention a Discussions topic to an Applecare support agent, but keep in mind that one like this, with well over 400 posts, is not something that by itself will define the issue very well for the agent. It will take some time for the agent to read through it all, looking for clues & perhaps forwarding something you have said back to some engineering group for additional consideration. And annoying as it may be, the agent will still probably need to work through the list of "normal suspects" with you to eliminate them as a cause of your issue.

Aug 21, 2010 4:36 PM in response to mert

Mert, I posted the same problem in this thread on June 17th. I had the same problems that you did with the freezing on 10.6.3 and 10.6.4, but stable on 10.6.2. I've been working with AppleCare (yes, I made them aware of this thread) and sending them logs, etc. They were unable to reproduce the problem in the lab. I then sent them pictures of the screen when it would freeze. From the pictures they decided it was a video card issue. AppleCare replaced the video card and my iMac has been freeze-free for 17 days on 10.6.4. Keeping my fingers crossed

Aug 21, 2010 6:14 PM in response to Mr Winther

Hey, I've been on this forum thread ages ago. Just an update for my Macbook pro (mid 2007 model):
10.6.2 : stable, no performance problems
10.6.3 : complete system freezes at random moments, even with clean install, had to revert to 10.6.2.
10.6.4 : no more freezes but poor performance, frequent reboots were required to get performance back.
Graphics update (17 August 2010): Performance is good again, no more problems.

I hope the problems for most! others have been solved as well.

Aug 22, 2010 4:31 AM in response to mert

mert wrote:
In your case, did the freezes not occur in 10.6.2, started in 10.6.3 and continued in 10.6.4. And, the hardware issue was not detectable by Apples hardware test suite that comes on the DVDs that ship with it?

Indeed, the system was somewhat stable with 10.6.2. A lot of hardware testing was done by myself and this was once repeated by the AASP. No hardware issue detected by Apple Hardware Test. But it seemed to be a hardware problem after all.

<Edited by Host>

R C-R

Level 6

17,794 points

Aug 22, 2010 5:42 AM in response to Community User

Unfortunately, no host-based hardware test (IOW, software running on the hardware device being tested) is capable of detecting all possible hardware problems. That's true for the Apple Hardware Test & even for more specialized software tools techs use. Even dedicated high-speed hardware testers costing thousands of dollars can miss intermittent problems or fail to simulate the exact conditions needed to reveal an obscure flaw.

The value of the Apple Hardware Test is that when it does detect a problem, you know you have one, but when it does not there is still a small chance that one exists it cannot detect. The only sure test is by substitution with known-good hardware, but aside from easily user-replaceable items like memory modules, that isn't practical for most of us.

For problems like the one in this topic, all you can really do is by process of elimination make sure to the extent possible that there is no other cause involved. That is particularly hard to do when OS updates are involved because there are a lot of other possible causes, including third party software or peripherals that are not fully compatible with the update. Sometimes, a totally "clean" install & update to the apparently faulty OS version with no non-essential peripherals attached eliminates the problem, so that may be worth trying. But since it can be a tedious, time-consuming chore to do that right, it isn't necessarily the best approach.

bee41

Level 1

11 points

Aug 22, 2010 5:42 AM in response to Community User

tommie_c I do admire your fortitude.

mert

Level 3

880 points

Aug 22, 2010 8:04 AM in response to Community User

tommie_c wrote:
Indeed, the system was somewhat stable with 10.6.2. A lot of hardware testing was done by myself and this was once repeated by the AASP. No hardware issue detected by Apple Hardware Test. But it seemed to be a hardware problem after all.

Thanks for the additional details.

"somewhat stable in 10.6.2"
is where my symptoms may diverge from yours. 10.6.2 has been rock solid for me, since I reverted to it on Aug 3. Likewise, 10.5.8 was also rock solid (many many weeks of uptime usually interrupted only by an Apple update requiring a restart). My display freeze problems only surfaced with 10.6.3 (installed twice from retail DVD) and continued with 10.6.4 (Combo updated). 99.9% of my freezes resulted in only the display freezing (no strange artifacts, mouse moved but clicks and keyboard did nothing), and all the other dozens & dozens of background processes continued chugging along.

I own AppleCare on my iMac (7,1) but I hesitate to employ it, at least not yet, because I know the dance they'll put me through for a problem that's impossible to reproduce on demand. While it's in various test configurations, freezes could be lurking, and I couldn't confidently use the machine for real work. Essentially this would take the machine out of general use for weeks, with no guarantee of a fix. Right now, in its current configuration (10.6.2), it is "fixed". I'm willing to hold out for another 10.6.x update to see if things improve (my AppleCare is good until late Nov.)

Aug 22, 2010 8:26 AM in response to mert

You have described my situation exactly! I agree completely about the uselessness of Apple Care for this problem. They had me search for "all the usual suspects" which accomplished nothing but a waste of my time. I plan to stick with 10.6.2 indefinitely, or at least until someone comes up with a solution.

R C-R

Level 6

17,794 points

Aug 22, 2010 8:54 AM in response to mert

Holding out for another 10.6.x update is probably not a good strategy. Despite appearances, most users of 10.6.3 & 10.6.4 are not reporting random freezes, so it is unlikely Apple will find anything to fix in a new update that will affect your issue, at least for the better.

I understand that you can't be without a working computer for long, but you might consider doing more than running OS updaters. It is relatively quick & painless to reinstall Snow Leopard & update to the current version. That might help, but if it doesn't, you can always reinstall & update only to the version you are confident about.

If you have not done so recently, it is also a good idea to run the Apple Hardware Test & Disk Utility's two First Aid procedures, especially the Verify Disk one, to eliminate the things they address as possible causes of the issue. Ideally, if you reinstall the OS, do these procedures first since they can eliminate problems that will interfere with the install or updates.

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System Freezes Randomly after 10.6.3 Update