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Q: System Freezes Randomly after 10.6.3 Update
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Jun 24, 2010 9:02 AMby danni l,My experience was almost identical, with one difference: my iMac continued to be rock solid after the 10.6.3 upgrade in early April UNTIL I moved to a new office later that month. Same peripherals, same cables, same configuration--even the same surge protectors! With one exception: I swapped the previous external monitor for one I'd been using with my MBPro (which had, and continues to have, no problems with 10.6.3). After days of random freezes, including the various frozen screens and unresponsive keyboard/mouse, I worried that I'd damaged the iMac in transit. But found this discussion, and after trying everything else, downgraded to 10.6.2. NO freezes, or any other issues for the last several weeks. I waited until this week to upgrade to 10.6.4. All was well for the first day, then I had a freeze the second. And 2 more yesterday. And another this morning. Two of these freezes have been different--instead of simply freezing, the screens blink and go dark, almost like the iMac has gone to sleep. But it doesn't wake, and as with 10.6.3, takes a power down to get it back. As before, Console has nothing to indicate what happened. So, I'll give it another couple days, but it might be back to 10.6.2 for me.T-squared wrote:
I, too, experienced the freeze-ups after upgrading to 10.6.3. I have an iMac8,1; Intel Core 2 Duo; 2.8 GHz; ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro. The system was rock solid on Leopard and Snow Leopard through 10.6.2. Five days after upgrading to 10.6.3 (in April), the system would freeze, mouse & keyboard unresponsive, sometimes the screen would go dark, sometimes the screen would go gray with thin vertical white lines, sometimes the screen would remain as-is. Power off/on was the only way to regain control. I re-installed 10.6.2 and haven't had any freezes in 7 weeks. I'm interested in hearing if 10.6.4 fixes this. On several freezes I ended up with corrupt files that I was working on at the time of the freeze, so I'm hesitant to move off of 10.6.2. Thanks to everyone that has posted their 10.6.4 results. Please keep us informed. -
Jun 24, 2010 9:45 AMby napabill,Well, just had a new kind of crash under 10.6.4. Was in the process of exporting a PDF from an Indesign file when the spinning beach ball appeared. After a minute or two both monitors went black and I had to power off and back on with the power switch. This is the second crash in three days. If things deteriorate I will be going back to 10.6.2 again. -
Jun 24, 2010 1:20 PMby bobtibb,Hi again . . . I feel like we are old friends now!
After giving it a go, I can confirm that after booting this morning and several minutes of activity it crashed again. I was merely selecting some text in Safari to do a search in the search field and 'bang'.... complete 'grey' screen and absolutely nothing would free my Mac. I had to do a power down to get it back. I am loosing my confidence using the Mac under 10.6.4 and also 10.6.3.... there must be something in 10.6.3 that is causing this problem...there are too many people reporting problems with it. How is it that so many who use 10.6.2 in preference to the upgrades are reporting that their systems are solid. Upgrade . . . and there you go . . . back to the problems! I am sorry to say that I need to revert once again to 10.6.2. Apple need to sort this properly so that people who were happy with 10.6.2 (with all their usual software apps) can continue to use their Apple purchases confidently! At the end of the day we have paid for an ongoing, stable software platform. I haven't added anything new to my system since 10.6.2 . . . so logically, the upgrade has actually 'downgraded' my experience of the Mac. What sort of strategy is this? I guess it's the strategy of 'let's keep changing things so that the mugs out there will be tempted to purchase what we want them to purchase'. I understand the need for progress but in real terms it's one step forward and two steps back (literally) at the moment. Can you sense my frustration? -
Jun 26, 2010 10:21 AMby bobtibb,I have gone back to 10.6.2 after it crashed for a third time this morning. I was just scrolling a program by the scroll bars and then.... freeze up but with the images on the screen as they were just as it froze. Restart was needed by the power button. So I am now back on 10.6.2 and watching with interest how this all develops. Thanks chaps. Bob -
Jun 27, 2010 11:16 AMby napabill,I too will be going back to 10.6.2. After 2+ weeks on 10.6.4 the crashes and freezes have begun and accelerated. Now it is freezing, then black screen and self-restart. I agree that Apple needs to stop dithering and address this issue with 10.6.3 and 10.6.4. They are starting to remind me of another OS company. -
Jun 28, 2010 8:23 PMby MacLoyal,Using my MacPro has become such an unpleasant experience that I'm rarely turning it on anymore. That makes me terribly sad. I want to be forever MacLoyal and this is almost too embarrassing to admit it is even happening on my beloved Mac.
1. Problem started happening after 10.6.3 update? YES and on 10.6.4 it's worse
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? Keyboard that came with my MacPro and Logitech wireless mouse - I have two and they both "disappear"
8. Flashing artifacts on the screen driving you to distraction? YES and getting much worse every time I turn the computer on
9. Horizontal lines popping up on background and various applications? YES, and getting much worse
10. Stray 'eject disk' message popping up randomly? Yes
I've been reading the discussions off and on the last couple or three months, hoping to find the magic bullet. I've installed all the Apple updates. I am a year and a half beyond my Apple Protection Plan coverage so I feel helpless and hopeless.
I am so sad. Please let the answer on how to fix this come soon. -
Jun 29, 2010 6:31 PMby mert,mert wrote on 6/17/2010:
I used the 10.6.4 Combo update on the evening it was released, and so far, I have not seen a freeze (the freeze where the mouse still moves the pointer but the WindowServer process gets "stuck" according to top, and have to reboot to fix). With 10.6.3 I would usually see a freeze within an hour of use. (A few weeks ago was when I first upgraded to Snow Leopard. I went from rock solid 10.5.8 directly to 10.6.3 using an Apple Retail DVD that contained 10.6.3).
aluminum 20inch iMac7,1
2GHz Core2Duo, ATI RadeonHD2400
Just an update... I have been getting the same kind of 10.6.3 freezes on my Combo updated 10.6.4 iMac.
Here's a couple of the unorthodox things I've tried based on stuff I've read in this thread and elsewhere (these are in addition to the usual PRAM zap, repair disk, repair perms, etc. etc.):
+ disconnected Time Machine drive
+ disabled Spotlight with this command: sudo mdutil -a -i off
Niether of the above stopped the freezes (defined as: beachball, mouse moves pointer but clicking does nothing and keyboard does nothing; machine still running - can ssh in and run top where you can see the windowserver process listed as "stuck").
Additionally, I ran the iMac's HW tests in looping mode overnight - no problems found.
Next, I will reinstall 10.6.3 from my retail DVD, apply 10.6.4 and all Apple updates again. -
Jun 29, 2010 8:01 PMby R C-R,Don't neglect to check your installed software for compatibility with Snow Leopard & versions 10.6.3 & 10.6.4 specifically. Some problems have been traced to out-of-date stuff, including things users forgot they installed or never realized were installed along with something else. -
Jun 29, 2010 8:29 PMby mert,R C-R wrote:
Don't neglect to check your installed software for compatibility with Snow Leopard & versions 10.6.3 & 10.6.4 specifically. Some problems have been traced to out-of-date stuff, including things users forgot they installed or never realized were installed along with something else.
I believe all my software is up to date. I have very little non-Apple SW installed on this machine. The freezes generally occur using Apple software including Mail and Safari and iTunes. I will have to see if the reinstall of the OS helps.
Message was edited by: mert -
Jun 30, 2010 1:45 AMby bee41,I did a clean install on my iMac and transferred files over from a Mac Pro that has no difficulties within 10.6.4. This particular iMac has crashed in 10.6.3 and 10.6.4 was alright in 10.6.2. The old iMac has been running just fine since the transfer of files for 2 days now. New news is, after 3 days on 10.6.4 the old iMac is starting to freeze 2 times a day. Let's see what it does after 4 days? After 4 days it was freezing 4 or 5 times a day. Now I have installed a program called fan control on my iMac and I do not believe it, but it seems to have cured the problem of freezes for my iMac, the fans make a little more noise, but my newer Mac Pro makes more noise than the iMac and I can live with it. Very strange problem, but using Fan Control has stopped my freezing for over 3 days now, I think Apple has problems with the GPU in their updates to Snow Leopard in General. That is Just my opinion, do not jump on me for my opinion please, yours is yours, mine is mine. iMac 5,1, ATI RadeonX1600. -
Jun 30, 2010 6:52 AMby R C-R,I'm not jumping on you but do keep in mind that one possible explanation for your problems is a hardware issue in the iMac, one that may be getting worse over time. Speeding up the fans should not be necessary if all the hardware is in good shape & that may or may not keep any hardware issues from getting worse.
One thing you might want to do is run the Apple Hardware Test to see if it turns up any problems. However, it may not detect anything wrong until the issue (if it exists) gets worse.
This is what happened with an older G5 iMac I have -- it started having a few minor random problems I could not find any cause for but as they got more numerous & severe eventually AHT found a problem in the video memory. -
Jun 30, 2010 11:32 AMby mert,mert wrote on 6/29/2010:
Next, I will reinstall 10.6.3 from my retail DVD, apply 10.6.4 Combo and all Apple updates again.
Wow, that didn't take long. I logged in to the iMac this afternoon, started using Safari and after visiting a couple of sites (like this one), the screen flashed and then went black. This freeze was much more harsh than usual in that the entire machine appeared to have locked up. I could not even ping the machine from another Mac on the same subnet. -
Jul 2, 2010 3:10 AMby raccc,Well I got my iMac back from Apple this afternoon. I was doubtful that they could duplicate my flickering freeze issue, since it took a week between freezes, but they called me a day later saying they saw it. 3 days later my iMac had a new LCD display and cable,inverter power. Been running for 7 hours no problem. Will report back if the flickering returns.
Good luck to all -
Jul 3, 2010 2:49 PMby Rasert,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 aluminum keyboard (with numeric...) and mighty mouse.
I have an iMac 20" with Radeon HD 2600 Pro.
