System Freezes Randomly after 10.6.3 Update

Hi!
Yes, I have the same problem. Up to installing 10.6.3 I had no problems with the operating system. Now I get the black screen, the stripey screen and a normal screen but cannot do anything other than re-boot from the power switch! Have done the PRAM too.

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? Yes
5. Keyboard key presses do nothing? Yes
6. Only way to re-animate system is by holding down power button? Yes
7. Mouse/Keyboard Model? Wired in aluminium one with wired mighty mouse standard for my set up.

I think Apple are sweeping this under the carpet. In the meantime people with this error are suffering... very bad for Apple marketing for the future!!

Same issue here ...
Can't rely on my computer to work!!!!

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? Yes
5. Keyboard key presses do nothing? Yes
6. Only way to re-animate system is by holding down power button? Yes
7. Mouse/Keyboard Model? Wired aluminium / Magic Mouse

Model Identifier: iMac8,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 4 GB
Boot ROM Version: IM81.00C1.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.29f1
Serial Number (system): QP831165ZE3
Hardware UUID: 0AA2A6D1-3620-55E5-914A-6B04E85FBF73

Video Chipset Model: ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro

bobtibb wrote:
I think Apple are sweeping this under the carpet. In the meantime people with this error are suffering... very bad for Apple marketing for the future!!

Please keep in mind that there are millions of Snow Leopard users & maybe 100-200 reports of random freezes after this update, most of which cannot clearly be linked to the update itself. Not only is it not as if there was a major issue that needed to be kept quiet to prevent it hurting Apple's booming Mac sales, if users with post-update problems don't send Apple feedback about their specific problems, there is little hope that Apple will or even can do anything about it.

Discussions is for user-to-user interaction. It is not a substitute for feedback to Apple, using the form provided for that & providing as much relevant detail as you can. If you want Apple to help you then you have to help it do so.

Dear R C -R,

while most of your suggestions in this post may apply to some, your last remark is misplaced IMHO.
The 100-200 users that are experiencing this problem are the one 100-200 users that know that this board exists. My mother and uncle have the same issue on the same imac 8,1, but never thought it could be anything else than a user error, something they must have done wrong themselves. They would never consider that it was an error due to this update.
Whether it is or isn't; my findings:

Never had this problem. Updated to 10.6.3 on my computer. Problem started.
Clean installed my imac 8,1 10.6.0 no problems,no software other than operating system, no data, updated to 10.6.3, problem returned.
Reinstalled 10.6.0, updated to 10.6.3 using combo update manually, problem only returned after 10.6.3 hit the computer.
Reinstalled 10.6.0, as clean as the other times. Ran combo updater for 10.6.2..
Magically the problem does not exist. Tempted faith and ran 10.6.3.1..
You guessed right: Another hour wasted on reinstalling.

I'm now running 10.6.3 clean on a second partition on my mac, next to my working 10.6.2, for testing purposes. I can safely assume it's a 10.6.3 software issue as by elimination it has been the only time the problem occurs. 10.6.2 is running fine still.

I have now however found out that not plugging in my WD My Book 250 USB2 drive (which is used for backups) has kept the computer going for longer than ever on 10.6.3. IF this is the solution, we have something to present to apple, other than our me too's here and our rantings 😉

On what you said about posting the problem to apple as per bug report, I'm sure that after your latest post in this topic, people get it and will post their bug report to apple, as well as keep the people aware of their findings on this matter here.

I guess sometimes it's also good to have a good rant and s!#$ on Apple on their discussion boards. Normally everything works and we have nothing to complain about, we so rarely get the oppurtunity!!

Will keep everyone posted on the external drive thingy. Maybe some of you have one attached as well? Skip some backups in the course of this week and see if it is the External HDD that's making the computer freeze up with no message.. unplug it!

-Good luck

Actually it is apparent that I have two problems, one related to the 10.6.3 update and the other to the hard drive. The freezing does not occur prior to 10.6.3. The computer freezes consistently under 10.6.3. My new drive arrives tomorrow then I can begin to work on the 10.6.3 freezing problem. The freezing problem may very well have something to do with spotlight indexing.

I agree with everything you said except the implication that the 100-200 users are just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. The numbers just aren't there to support it: it defies logic that out of the millions of users of Snow Leopard & the tens of thousands of Discussions posters there would not be a huge number of posts about this (or any other specific) issue caused by the update if those problems were widespread.

Seriously, Discussions is thought to be among the most heavily trafficked interactive forums on all of the Internet, if not the #1 domain. The enterprise level software that powers it, called "Jive," is pretty much the only software available that can handle that massive load, & as a visit to the "Feedback about Discussions forum" will show, even it is having a hard time keeping up.

And if you read through some of the replies from longtime Discussions regulars, you will see comments that this particular update has generated fewer than the average number of problem reports. With Mac sales increasing, especially over the time that Snow Leopard has been available, one would expect the average to move in the opposite direction.

So sure, there are users with post update problems not reporting them here, but as a fraction of all users applying this update, nothing supports the idea that it is a large fraction of them.

Norwichrob, are you talking about the internal drive arriving or an external like I suggested?

Spotlight is unlikely to be the cause, as I turned it off as per test.
(see http://www.google.nl/search?hl=nl&source=hp&q=turnspotlight+off+snowleopard&meta=&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=)

oh well, I'm still positive here, my computer has been with me for almost 4 hours now. Doing what it's supposed to now I don't have my drive attached. Will attach this drive to my macbook pro and see what's up on 10.6.3 to eliminate the possibility it is the drive that is faulty and causing my problems. If it's the drive, I have more externals and will test on each system soon. Fingers crossed.

R-C-R, I don't know if I buy that. The recession could have an inverse affect on bug reports, too, and mask a widespread problem.

Incidental information from my workspace is that more people are having problems with this update than previous OS X updates in recent memory.

I have an original MBP 1.86, a 2.4 MBP and a new Mini, all 3 run 10.6.3 and I haven't had the issue. Could it be iMac or Pro Tower specific such as a video card. etc? Have you tried leaving the console up so if something has the machine tied up it would be obvious?

I earlier reported this same freezing problem. Since reinstalling the combo update (it installed as 10.6.3--apparently v. 1.1. does not install unless it is needed), I have not had a freeze in nearly a week. I would not go so far as to say, it is cured--only time will tell. I do think that there is some sort of problem with the update. Maybe it only affects certain configurations, but so many have reported the same issue that there must be a reason. My iMac is model 8.1 and has a Radeon HD 2600 Pro graphics card.

Thrasher91604 wrote:
The recession could have an inverse affect on bug reports, too, and mask a widespread problem.

That makes no sense if you consider actual hard facts: last week Apple reported its best non-holiday quarter ever, selling nearly 3 million Macs. The recession clearly is not causing any inverse effects, especially with a free update.

Face it. If there were any widespread problems with the update there would be news of it everywhere.

Very doubtful.

Update on my USB External Drive. Not the problem. System was behaving very well until this morning when I was using the computer. POS 10.6.3. Mind you, this is a system with no software installed, other than 10.6.0 leopard clean install, 10.6.3 combo update.
Attached hardware: Stock apple keyboard and mighty mouse on USB.
iMac 8,1.
My father, my mother and my cousin have the same computer, 24" imac 8,1, same problem, only since updating to 10.6.3
What can I do?
Oh and my PRAM has been zapped so many times it's probably gone
SMC reset done many times.
The problem is not there when I use up to software 10.6.2, so there!
It cannot be external hardware, nor can it be exotic software as there is nothing installed but apple stock 10.6.0 with update 10.6.3 combo.
Hardware test run without error.
Anyone still doubting it's a problem concerning 10.6.3 and imac8,1?
It may affect more systems, but I only have access to the 3x imac8,1 and a macbookalu which does not have the problem at all in 10.6.3

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? Yes
5. Keyboard key presses do nothing? Yes
6. Only way to re-animate system is by holding down power button? Yes
7. Mouse/Keyboard Model? *Apple USB wired KB, Apple USB wired mouse plugged into keyboard.*

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac8,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: IM81.00C1.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.30f1

Chipset Model: ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x9583
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-B2250L-259
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.259

Anyone still doubting it's a problem concerning 10.6.3 and imac8,1?

Me for one, since I have that same iMac model & run 10.6.3 on it with no problems.

More to the point, if you go through the various topics in this & other Snow Leopard forums you will see many other posts from users with similar models & that OS version in their profile not reporting any problems, just asking about other things or trying to help the users that do have problems. If you happen to belong to a user group or subscribe to various Mac-oriented newsletters or listservs like I do, you will see the same thing: most users are not reporting any problems with this update. If you regularly visit geeky technical sites like Ars Technica or AnandTech, or any of the other independent sources of Mac news & technical analysis, you know they pull no punches about any flaws they find (or think they find) in anything Apple does, yet there is nothing there about any intrinsic flaws in the update.

It's pretty simple: if you just look for reports of post 10.6.3 problems then of course you will find them. But if you look at everything you will also find many more reports that don't have anything to do with that. You will also find some initially attributing the problems to this update but later reporting that something else was the cause. You will find others attributing problems to 10.6.2 or even 10.6.

Believe what you want but if you make the effort to check a larger, more representative sample of all 10.6.3 users, all the 'widespread problems' theories fall apart.