sherifhanna
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: 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

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sherifhanna

Q: System Freezes Randomly after 10.6.3 Update

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  • by bobtibb,

    bobtibb bobtibb Jun 18, 2010 6:08 AM in response to R C-R
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 18, 2010 6:08 AM in response to R C-R
    Hi Again! I had returned to 10.6.2 several weeks ago following the problems of freezing, etc with the 10.6.3 update. Since then I have had absolutely no problems at all with my system. Today, I downloaded the 10.6.4 Combo update, along with a new Java update and the new iTunes update. They are all now loaded . . . and, guess what? Two minutes after loading the 10.6.4 update, I had a 'grey screen' freeze and had to restart the system from the power switch!

    I have repaired permissions and zapped the PRAM. I am now waiting to see if I get any more mouse/keyboard, odd screen freezes. So I won't be doing any 'work' on the Mac until I am confident that I won't get a lock-up like with 10.6.3.

    I am afraid to say, that if it does start showing the same symptoms as with 10.6.3 I shall go back to my back-up from yesterday (10.6.2) and stick with that. At least I know that it performs the way is should.

    Are there any suggestions other than going back to 10.6.2?

    Thanks chaps, I just thought I would let you know what is going on here.

    Bob

  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Jun 18, 2010 6:32 AM in response to bobtibb
    Level 6 (17,700 points)
    Jun 18, 2010 6:32 AM in response to bobtibb
    If you have not already done so, try running the Apple Hardware Test to make sure there are no obvious hardware issues with your Mac. (Do not assume that there are none just because the system works OK with 10.6.2. It sometimes happens that the different usage patterns of one OS version vs. another reveals marginal hardware in one case but not another.)

    Also see if there are any updates available for any third party software installed on your Mac. Some may require an update to be compatible with a later version of the OS.

    And not to beat a dead horse, but something in your system clearly isn't performing the way it should or you would not be having any problems with the updates.

  • by bee41,

    bee41 bee41 Jun 18, 2010 6:44 AM in response to bobtibb
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jun 18, 2010 6:44 AM in response to bobtibb
    Same here, After 3 days on 10.6.4 my iMac is freezing 4 or 5 times today, after the install it was good the first 2 days, but its back to freezing again. I know it runs well in Tiger, that's what came with it, so when I get rid of this machine around October, that's what I'll install on it.

  • by bobtibb,

    bobtibb bobtibb Jun 18, 2010 7:37 AM in response to R C-R
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 18, 2010 7:37 AM in response to R C-R
    I am still running (as I tap) and not yet had another freeze. Let's see how this develops . . . I will certainly report back if anything else happens. Thank you for your help and advice. Bob

  • by i_Lou,

    i_Lou i_Lou Jun 18, 2010 12:19 PM in response to sherifhanna
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 18, 2010 12:19 PM in response to sherifhanna
    I updated to 10.6.4 two days ago. Reconnected my external drive and got Time Machine running again. Everything was fine for the first day and yesterday, but today things changed.

    First, I could not access my hard from my finder window. Not only could I not see my drive, I could not see or access a single folder or file on my computer. I could see other drives, folders and files on our office network, but not on my computer... This got my pulse racing.

    Then, I tried launching another program, but my doc froze.

    My mouse and keyboard kept working, I could click into windows that were open and I could launch programs from the Apple - Recent Items Menu, but not from the doc. Strangely enough I was able to see and click into from my the Apps folder of the finder Window.

    I tried to relaunch Finder, without any success. Nor could I restart the computer from the Apple Menu. I had to resort to a holding down the power button in order to shut down and restart.

    So much for the 10.6.4 update.

    I going to disconnect Time Machine and my external drive again. That seemed to work with my 10.6.3 freeze-ups.

    I have used PC's and Mac's in the work place since 1992. Personally, I have always favoured and loved the ease and simplicity of the Mac. I hope this doesn't change.

  • by Carrick Talmadge,

    Carrick Talmadge Carrick Talmadge Jun 19, 2010 12:37 AM in response to Carrick Talmadge
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 19, 2010 12:37 AM in response to Carrick Talmadge
    I just wanted to update that I've had no crashes this week after shutting off spotlight (the system has been up continuously, or slept.. and has returned from sleep mode seamlessly).

    I had this same problem a number of years ago on much older hardware...it seems to occur when you have a lot of inodes on the file system (or possibly a large number of files in the same directory)

    % df -i
    Filesystem 512-blocks Used Available Capacity iused ifree %iused Mounted on
    /dev/disk0s2 975577056 569197984 405867072 59% 71213746 50733384 58% /
    devfs 215 215 0 100% 614 0 100% /dev
    map -hosts 0 0 0 100% 0 0 100% /net
    map auto_home 0 0 0 100% 0 0 100% /home

    Since I collect and analyze data on this computer, reducing the number of inodes isn't an option.

  • by vexbit,

    vexbit vexbit Jun 19, 2010 6:34 AM in response to sherifhanna
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 19, 2010 6:34 AM in response to sherifhanna
    I'm also having problems with 10.6.3, and 10.6.4 with the Radeon HD 2400. About 20 minutes after installing 10.6.4 my system starting playing up with the black-screen-of-death. However, my machine wasn't dead, I could Remote Desktop into the machine and continue using it from there without issue.

    But I managed to recover my machine from this state by unplugging the external monitor adapter I had connected to the iMac, and it recovered. Plugging in/removing these adapters reinitialises the graphics, and should resume "normal service" as long as the kernel itself hasn't locked up.

    Again, no problems with 10.6.2 - I'm 95% certain in my case that this is purely a graphics driver issue. And it's definitely a software issue - I may just get a copy of the 10.6.2 driver and use that for the time being.

  • by automaticit,

    automaticit automaticit Jun 20, 2010 9:55 AM in response to Carrick Talmadge
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 20, 2010 9:55 AM in response to Carrick Talmadge
    I can also report crashing after upgrading to 10.6.3 (from 10.5.8, clean install of 10.6.0, then Combo Update to 10.6.3). In my case, it seems VMware Fusion 3.0.2 and 3.1.0 has a propensity to trigger the crash. I have turned off Spotlight as of today and will report back to this thread my experience.

  • by automaticit,

    automaticit automaticit Jun 21, 2010 2:15 PM in response to automaticit
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 21, 2010 2:15 PM in response to automaticit
    I have likely isolated the crash to Apple's Rosetta, and am fairly certain that it is not VMware Fusion that is the root cause (though it seems to exacerbate the issue). Yesterday, I quit Fusion in the morning, stuck to running only Terminal.app, Preview.app, and Mail.app, and by the afternoon I had another crash. I turned off Rosetta, turned back ON Spotlight (as it was turned off when the crash happened), combed through all my Preference Panel add-ons, Safari plug-ins, and Mail.app plug-ins, and updated any I had to the latest versions. I then upgraded to VMware 3.1.0, and have been running all day today without a crash. If I make it through the end of the week without another crash, I will consider Rosetta the root cause. I only kept Rosetta around for some old compiled AppleScripts that I was too lazy to recompile; I finally took the time to recompile those and am completely free of PowerPC dependencies, so it was an easy decision to turn off Rosetta.

  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Jun 21, 2010 2:52 PM in response to automaticit
    Level 6 (17,700 points)
    Jun 21, 2010 2:52 PM in response to automaticit
    How did you "turn off" Rosetta? It should only be active when PPC apps are running, so unless you are using at least one of them it should not be "on."

    It seems as likely that somewhere in your Preference Panel add-ons, Safari plug-ins, and Mail.app plug-ins you may have one or more that isn't fully compatible with Snow Leopard or 10.6.3.

  • by Carrick Talmadge,

    Carrick Talmadge Carrick Talmadge Jun 22, 2010 7:36 AM in response to Carrick Talmadge
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 22, 2010 7:36 AM in response to Carrick Talmadge
    Another followup--I had no more freezes after turning off Spotlight. I don't think that was actually a real fix, but it caused the bug to get exercised less often (less disk drive activity). Apple described it as "keyboard/trackpad becomes unresponsive." That is technically true, but it was a true system freeze up, on my system, not just a loss of control of certain peripheries. That would be like having your engine die in your care and describing it as a "loss of control using accelerator".

    I have upgraded today to 10.6.4, and have reactivated Spotlight. I suspect their fix will resolve this problem, but will comment again if it does not.

  • by bobtibb,

    bobtibb bobtibb Jun 22, 2010 12:23 PM in response to Carrick Talmadge
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 22, 2010 12:23 PM in response to Carrick Talmadge
    Have been using the 10.6.4 update since June 18, and although I had one grey screen freeze 2 mins after updating, I have not had any further trouble. Fingers crossed... maybe this update has solved at least 'my' problem. Of course, it could change and I will let you all know if it does. Thanks. Bob.

  • by Phil Bridges,

    Phil Bridges Phil Bridges Jun 23, 2010 12:17 AM in response to sherifhanna
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 23, 2010 12:17 AM in response to sherifhanna
    Phew. .and I thought I was only me! 10.6.3. and 10.6.4 give the problem.. so I'm back on 10.6.2. I still a few months Applecare so maybe I can follow this up with Apple ...

    Model Name: iMac
    Model Identifier: iMac7,1
    Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
    Processor Speed: 2 GHz
    Number Of Processors: 1
    Total Number Of Cores: 2
    L2 Cache: 4 MB
    Memory: 2 GB
    Bus Speed: 800 MHz
    Boot ROM Version: IM71.007A.B03
    SMC Version (system): 1.20f4
    Serial Number (system): W87300DFX**

    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 Microsoft USB mouse /Apple Aluminum KB w/number pad

  • by napabill,

    napabill napabill Jun 23, 2010 12:53 PM in response to batondor
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 23, 2010 12:53 PM in response to batondor
    batondor,

    Don't know what, if any, effect repairing permissions had, just something I routinely do after an upgrade. And after a month back on 10.6.2 with only one freeze and now a week on 10.6.4 I can report one freeze but it was different than the ones on 10.6.3 where the mouse and keyboard just stopped having any effect. Yesterday I accidentally (as usual) hit the Expose hot spot and all of my open windows started to fly out of the way then they just stopped halfway and stayed there. Had to use the power switch to restart.

    Also, I occasionally see the odd horizontal lines running across a Safari or Mail window, but they go away as mysteriously as they appear. I was going to take a screen shot with Grab but by the time I opened the app and hit the button the lines had gone.

  • by automaticit,

    automaticit automaticit Jun 23, 2010 2:50 PM in response to automaticit
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 23, 2010 2:50 PM in response to automaticit
    Well, I didn't make it through the end of the week without a crash, and VMware Fusion 3.1.0 is implicated again. This time, I was not quitting VMware Fusion before putting my system to sleep. That seems to be triggering the crash more frequently (I've had two within 24 hours now). I'm going to try upgrading to 10.6.4, then start quitting VMware Fusion before sleeping my laptop, leave Rosetta turned off, and report what happens.
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