System Freezes Randomly after 10.6.3 Update

Well I spoke too soon. I got another freeze today. The 10.6.3. combo update looked like it helped, but did not completely remove the bug. Something is still wrong...

Please post the characteristics of your mac because I think this problem its affecting to some models of mac, and video cards, I notice that around 8 persons have the iMac 7.1 with the ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT.

Characteristics:

Model: iMac 7.1
Year: 2007
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2 GHz
Graphics: ATI,RadeonHD2400 128MB
RAM: 3.0 GB
Hard drive: 250 GB

You can get all the characteristics in system profile.

Here is more info on my specs:

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro4,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.6 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP41.00C1.B03

NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT:

Chipset Model: GeForce 8600M GT
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0407
Revision ID: 0x00a1
ROM Revision: 3212

Hitachi HTS542525K9SA00:

Capacity: 250.06 GB (250,059,350,016 bytes)
Model: Hitachi HTS542525K9SA00
Revision: BBFAC3GP
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
Macintosh HD:
Capacity: 249.72 GB (249,715,376,128 bytes)
Available: 116.69 GB (116,692,987,904 bytes)
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s2
Mount Point: /

Model: iMac 7.1
Year: 2007
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2 GHz
Graphics: ATI,RadeonHD2400 128MB
RAM: 4.0 GB
Hard drive: Velociraptor 300gb

Good article here on things that you can try:

http://appletoolbox.com/2010/04/mac-os-x-10-6-3-freezes-and-stalls-remove-startu plogin-items/

This was very annoying. I disconnected all external, used only the original mouse/keyboard. Restarted in "safe mode", verified the disc, repaired permissions, ran "daily, weekly, & monthly" krons in terminal. Restarted, installed 10.6.3 v1.1 combo. Repaired permissions and restarted. So far, (three days) the condiiton appears to be corrected. Also the "snappy" feel of SL has returned.

Only fix that worked for me was reversion to 10.6.2. No problems whatsoever with this update version.

My mac
Model: imac 7.1
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo
Graphics: ATI,RadeonHD2400
RAM: 4 gb

more info available upon request.

FWIW, the login/startup items check is something that has been suggested in these forums for years for troubleshooting many different issues & is not confined to problems with this or any other update.

Also, the article is a bit unclear about how to remove login items. Many users make the mistake of thinking the checkbox next to a login item controls that, but it just controls hiding the item on login (which only really has an effect on applications that display something when they start, not "faceless" applications like iTunes Helper).

To remove a login item, select it & click the minus button at the bottom left of the window.

You may wonder how these items get there & if you should remove them. Startup items are in the system domain & thus can only be placed there with admin privileges. This normally occurs during the installation process, after you authenticate as an admin user like with most items installed with the Apple installer, but might be placed there 'silently' when you are logged in as an admin user if you run a sufficiently privileged process. Login items are in the user domain so they can be created any time you are logged into that user account & will start up automatically every time you log in to that account after that.

Of course, any of these items can also be installed if you migrate them from a backup.

Currently, no Apple OS or update installer creates anything in /Library/StartupItems/ or in /System/Library/StartupItems, so anything you find in either location is suspect. It is most likely something installed to alter the fundamental operation of the OS, like to support automatic anti-virus scanners or user interface "enhancements" the OS does not normally provide. Several of these items have been known to interfere with the proper installation of OS updates, so it is often not enough just to remove them after running an updater -- the damage has already been done & you will usually have to reinstall the OS & update it without that item in place to recover.

Log-in items are a little different. While some can also cause problems with updates, others are Apple-provided or approved. This includes iTunes Helper & some printer or scanner support software installed along with the OS itself or with Apple updates. The rule here is to make sure any non-Apple provided log-in item is the most current, up-to-date version & is known to be compatible with the currently installed OS version. It is usually obvious which items are not provided by Apple. For instance, GrowlHelperApp is a part of Growl, a popular notification utility. It is among those that "broke" when Snow Leopard was released but its developer soon released a compatible version.

What did you try that did not work?

I called apple and they had me empty caches, remove start-up items, run disk repair, reinstall 10.6.3 combo update. After reading this discussion, I reinstalled snow leopard, reinstalled 10.6.3 v1.1 combo update and most recent security update. None of this worked. So I reinstalled snow leopard and updated to 10.6.2 which appears to be working great. BTW, none of the apple people I talked to admitted that this was a recognized problem, despite my referencing this discussion.

I don't have any login items and no start up items. I don't even have itunes helper and can't find it (using spotlight) on my computer.

iTunesHelper should be installed automatically when you launch iTunes for the first time in a user account if it isn't there already. The 'master' copy of the app is a file in the iTunes application package & should be at path /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources/iTunesHelper.app. (Spotlight doesn't normally search inside application packages, which is why it didn't find it.)

Several other apps use a similar 'first run' mechanism to install per-user (as opposed to system-wide) support apps. (Growl is another.) This is usually a good thing, since it means each user account gets its own copy of the support app as needed without the bother of a separate install -- just running the parent app installs it automatically without user intervention, in much the same way that preference files are created automatically as needed.

However, this can cause sometimes mysterious problems if the parent app isn't up to date & compatible with the current OS version, or if any of its files used in this process are damaged: Everything works fine until you launch the parent app for the first time & then things start to go wrong because the log-in item isn't what it is should be. Depending on its function, the problems may appear in something seemingly totally unrelated to the parent app, making diagnosing it a real headache.

Hi.

I'm seeing a variant of this problem. This consistently happens on my MBP when I disconnect my external screen and continue working after sleeping without any externals connected.

The symptoms seen are temporarily unresponsiveness to keyboard and mouse. The machine seems to pause for about 5 seconds and then working for a second or two. This repeats until I log out and in again.

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. Mouse clicking does nothing? Clicks and moves are delayed up to about 5 seconds, then executed.
5. Keyboard key presses do nothing? Same as above
6. Only way to re-animate system is by holding down power button? No, logout/login helps.
7. Mouse/Keyboard Model? MBP Trackpad

I really don't have itunes helper. I reinstalled itunes 9 just a day or two ago (after my original copy--also itunes 9-- failed to recognize my ipod touch and I had to discard itunes and all its associated files, etc.). The reinstall works fine and recognized my ipod touch. I didn't know I should have itunes helper, and when you discussed it in your recent post, I looked for it, unsuccessfully. I restarted, and it still isn't there. Its absence doesn't seem to be a problem for me, but I'm worried that it may represent the tip of the iceberg of some more serious issue. Any thoughts?

iTunesHelper at least should be inside the iTunes app at the path I mentioned before. As I said, Spotlight will not find it, but if you navigate in the Finder to the iTunes app & right (or control) click on it, you should see a "Show Package Contents" item in the popup menu. Choose that & look inside the Contents > Resources folder in the window that opens. It should be there.

AFAIK, you can get along fine without iTunesHelper running. Basically, it just provides iTunes info to the Finder, "Get Info" windows, & similar things & enables the "open in iTunes" option when you insert a music CD into the optical drive. You can think of it as a tiny app that is always running, even when the much more resourse-intensive iTunes parent app isn't. IOW, it is a convenience, not a necessity.

However, it seems obvious that you do have more serious issues, otherwise you would not be posting about freezes or iTunes not originally recognizing your iPod. There are a few troubleshooting tips scattered among the many posts in this topic, but for more effective & personalized help, I suggest you start a topic of your own, describe your symptoms fully, & title it so that it is less likely to become the free for all this one has.