sherifhanna

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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Q: System Freezes Randomly after 10.6.3 Update

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  • by napabill,

    napabill napabill Jul 27, 2010 8:29 AM in response to mert
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 27, 2010 8:29 AM in response to mert
    After experiencing more and more frequent freezes/crashes since being on 10.6.4, and after having a bad experience with trying a Time Machine restore of 10.5, I just used my retail disk to re-install 10.6.0 followed by MacOSXUpdCombo 10.6.2 and have been working happily ever since. Mail, iCal, etc. are fine (although the previous Time Machine restore had severely messed with Mail). I did have the usual process of "Are you sure you want to run this program for the first time?" but everything works and no more freezes or black or green screen crashes or unintended restarts.
  • by napabill,

    napabill napabill Jul 27, 2010 8:37 AM in response to napabill
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 27, 2010 8:37 AM in response to napabill
    Oh, yes, when I inserted the OS 10.6.0 disk and began the install it started immediately, with no reboot and no choice of erase and install, archive and install, etc. The install process happened while still running from 10.6.4, took about thirty minutes, then the machine rebooted itself and I was back to 10.6.0 followed by the Combo Update to 10.6.2 which I had previously downloaded.
  • by ITNurse,

    ITNurse ITNurse Jul 27, 2010 9:20 AM in response to sherifhanna
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 27, 2010 9:20 AM in response to sherifhanna
    I also have a problem with my new imac since updating to 10.6.4. Basically what happens is that the system will freeze displaying a spinning beach ball right after I login. This does not occur every time, affects not only one account but all accounts on the system. The only option is to power down and restart. The system does not freeze when in Windows via Bootcamp likely ruling out hardware issue. I talked with Apple Care and did re-install of the system (not erase install although I am going to do this today I think).
    Interestingly I have exactly duplicate machine running the same software which is not having this issue.

    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 Magic Mouse/Apple wired Aluminum KB with number pad
  • by automaticit,

    automaticit automaticit Jul 28, 2010 8:40 AM in response to R C-R
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 28, 2010 8:40 AM in response to R C-R
    R C-R wrote:
    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.


    I believe I solved the crashes on my system. VMware Fusion is not the root cause, but a Firefox extension was. Still not sure which one, but the following extensions in Firefox 3.6.8 active at the same time do NOT cause the OS X crash, as far as I can tell in a week of testing so far: Adblock Plus 1.2.1, BarTab 2.0, Firefox PDF Plugin for Mac OS X 1.1.3, Greasemonkey 0.8.20100408.6, ScrapBook 1.3.7, Session Manager 0.6.8, and TinyUrl Creator 1.0.5. Turning off al other extensions I was using definitely stabilized the system. I will report back if I crash again with the same symptoms as before, but as of today I believe I have identified the root cause (I'll have to turn one extension at a time, wait for 1-2 weeks, then try another to locate the specific extension that is causing the crashes, but all my most critical extensions are cleared by now so I'm in no hurry to track this down to the ultimate root cause). I'm no longer hesitant to quit Firefox or VMware Fusion, afraid that doing so might cause OS X to lock up / crash.

    What helped me track this down was to use Apple's Activity Monitor utility to watch memory utilization as I worked. Occasionally, I would run "sudo /usr/bin/purge" in Terminal to strip wired memory so I could get a true picture of memory utilization (at the cost of latency to page in previously-released blocks of memory). I noticed that no matter how many times I purged wired memory, Firefox's memory utilization would keep growing despite lack of any activity in Firefox. Experimenting with turning off all extensions and subsequently correlating that to lack of this memory leak-like behavior helped me isolate what I believe is the problem.
  • by mert,

    mert mert Jul 28, 2010 10:04 AM in response to automaticit
    Level 3 (880 points)
    Jul 28, 2010 10:04 AM in response to automaticit
    automaticit wrote:
    R C-R wrote:
    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.


    I believe I solved the crashes on my system. VMware Fusion is not the root cause, but a Firefox extension was. Still not sure which one, ...


    Glad your making progress, but I get the freeze without running Firefox nor VMware Fusion. I've seen it in just about every application (PowerPoint 2008, Safari, iPhoto, etc.). Doesn't seem to matter which app in my case.
  • by mert,

    mert mert Jul 28, 2010 10:21 AM in response to mert
    Level 3 (880 points)
    Jul 28, 2010 10:21 AM in response to mert
    I would also add that it doesn't matter which of my three user accounts are active. The same freeze symptoms have been seen in all of them. Two of the accounts are non-admin accounts.
  • by napabill,

    napabill napabill Jul 28, 2010 12:04 PM in response to mert
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 28, 2010 12:04 PM in response to mert
    I was getting frozen although I never run Firefox and don't have VMware Fusion. It does seem to happen only when Safari is running, but that is all the time <g>. Last freeze I had before reverting to 10.6.2 was during launch of Google Earth.
  • by retiredoc,

    retiredoc retiredoc Jul 29, 2010 2:22 PM in response to sherifhanna
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 29, 2010 2:22 PM in response to sherifhanna
    After innumerable crashes with 10.6.3, I reverted to 10.6.2 and have been totally stable for several months. I'd be interested to hear whether anyone with this 10.6.3 problem has successfully upgraded to 10.6.4 and had no crashes. My guess is probably not.
  • by jzelko,

    jzelko jzelko Aug 2, 2010 12:35 AM in response to retiredoc
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 2, 2010 12:35 AM in response to retiredoc
    Hi everyone!
    I have the same problem with freezing the system after the apdejta 10.6.3. I've tried many variations but no help. iMac 7.1 20 "alu.
    First zatamnio screen and responding to a fire and burn through the switch.
    Other times he appeared colorful screen pattern.
    Third times the image froze but the cursor remains on the screen and I could move it and nothing else.
    Last time again zatamnio screen.
    I tried to boot it to 10.6.4 but also to freeze the system. I went back to 10.6.2 and no problems. Carlson to take what they annoy me.
  • by jzelko,

    jzelko jzelko Aug 2, 2010 12:42 AM in response to jzelko
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 2, 2010 12:42 AM in response to jzelko
    Sorry litle korektion !Hi everyone!
    I have the same problem with freezing the system after the apdejta 10.6.3. I've tried many variations but no help. iMac 7.1 20 "alu.
    First a black screen and responding to a fire and burn through the switch.
    Other times he appeared colorful screen pattern.
    Third times the image froze but the cursor remains on the screen and I could move it and nothing else.
    Last time again a dark screen.
    I tried to boot it to 10.6.4 but also to freeze the system. I went back to 10.6.2 and no problems. Carlson to take what they annoy me.
  • by tommie_c,

    tommie_c tommie_c Aug 3, 2010 10:41 AM in response to sherifhanna
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 3, 2010 10:41 AM in response to sherifhanna
    My local Apple Premium Reseller has all of their store demo machines loaded with 10.6.2. Is this a coincidence? What versions are other Apple Premium Resellers running?

    Message was edited by: tommie_c
  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Aug 3, 2010 10:54 AM in response to tommie_c
    Level 6 (17,700 points)
    Aug 3, 2010 10:54 AM in response to tommie_c
    What Mac models were on display? Most of the current 2010 models won't even run 10.6.2.
  • by tommie_c,

    tommie_c tommie_c Aug 3, 2010 11:38 AM in response to R C-R
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 3, 2010 11:38 AM in response to R C-R
    R C-R wrote:
    What Mac models were on display? Most of the current 2010 models won't even run 10.6.2.


    http://www.jaunted.com/files/1425/macs2.jpg
  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Aug 3, 2010 12:12 PM in response to tommie_c
    Level 6 (17,700 points)
    Aug 3, 2010 12:12 PM in response to tommie_c
    You are a funny person, tommie_c!
  • by mert,

    mert mert Aug 4, 2010 2:54 PM in response to sherifhanna
    Level 3 (880 points)
    Aug 4, 2010 2:54 PM in response to sherifhanna
    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)
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