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 Tom in London,

    Tom in London Tom in London Dec 6, 2010 6:46 AM in response to mert
    Level 4 (1,626 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 6, 2010 6:46 AM in response to mert
    Quote "Changing RAM didn't help, the hard drive was not involved, all that's left is the logic and/or video board. My problem is solved."

    How?

  • by mert,

    mert mert Dec 6, 2010 6:47 AM in response to Tom in London
    Level 3 (880 points)
    Dec 6, 2010 6:47 AM in response to Tom in London
    Tom in London wrote:
    Quote "Changing RAM didn't help, the hard drive was not involved, all that's left is the logic and/or video board. My problem is solved."

    How?

    Hardware was replaced.

  • by Tom in London,

    Tom in London Tom in London Dec 6, 2010 7:48 AM in response to mert
    Level 4 (1,626 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 6, 2010 7:48 AM in response to mert
    What hardware did you replace?

  • by paulmacsmurf,

    paulmacsmurf paulmacsmurf Dec 6, 2010 12:01 PM in response to sherifhanna
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Dec 6, 2010 12:01 PM in response to sherifhanna
    Okay, here's my two pennies worth. iMac C2D 2.66 20", 4GB RAM. Problems started after 10.6.3 update (and persisted through 10.6.4 and 10.6.5). iMac would lock up completely, sometimes with the display going to an interesting vertically-striped blankness, every time needing a hard restart. Revert to 10.6.2, problems gone away.

    A couple of days ago I found a link (elsewhere on these forums? I honestly can't remember) to the following:

    <http://classictutorials.com/2010/08/snow-leopard-freezes-or-application-hangs-i n-snow-leopard/>

    I have now set the iMac to start up in 64 bit mode, and so far, I cannot make it lock up (previously, a few games of Klondike Forever were guaranteed to produce the lock up). YMMV of course, but so far, it's all looking good. I will post back in a few days (or if the Mac crashes again), whichever happens first.

  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Dec 6, 2010 12:16 PM in response to paulmacsmurf
    Level 6 (17,700 points)
    Dec 6, 2010 12:16 PM in response to paulmacsmurf
    This suggests that for you the problem may be in a 32 bit extension to the OS installed on your Mac (because they are not loaded when the Mac starts up in 64 bit mode). If this is true, the most likely culprit would be something installed by a third party installer (something not developed by Apple), especially an extension that supports special features of some hardware device like a scanner, printer, or multi-function mouse. The device does not necessarily have to be connected to your Mac; it is sometimes enough that its extension loads during startup.

  • by ocroquette,

    ocroquette ocroquette Dec 15, 2010 2:55 AM in response to sherifhanna
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 15, 2010 2:55 AM in response to sherifhanna
    Since I have downgraded to 10.6.2 (which was not trivial for me) last week, I didn't experience this crash anymore.

  • by remixracer,

    remixracer remixracer Dec 23, 2010 1:19 AM in response to sherifhanna
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 23, 2010 1:19 AM in response to sherifhanna
    I just started having this problem on 12/21. I turned on my computer and noticed I had no internet. Then my menu bar with the bluetooth, airport, volume, etc status did not appear. When i clicked several applications I got the spinning timer and everything froze. Did a hard reboot with the power button, then my computer booted to a blue screen where could see a mouse. But the comptuer had the gray spinning cursor and would not launch to the desktop. Another hard reboot and the desktop finally appeared. however, i had severe lag for various applications, that i started to receive the spinning timer. I eventually gave up and shut down.

    Now this is happening again. Any ideas? Or is it just that my imac is now "old" and needs to be replaced?

    1. Problem started happening after 10.6.3 update? No, currently running 10.5.8
    2. Did you get any errors during 10.6.3 update process? NA
    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

  • by EBaly,

    EBaly EBaly Dec 26, 2010 9:40 PM in response to sherifhanna
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Dec 26, 2010 9:40 PM in response to sherifhanna
    Having same problem with random screen freezes as those already posted. Same conditions, etc. Problem did not exist until upgrade from OSX4.11 to Snow Leopard 10.6.3. As yet have seen no viable fix posted.

  • by 3DayFunk,

    3DayFunk 3DayFunk Jan 4, 2011 8:53 AM in response to paulmacsmurf
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 4, 2011 8:53 AM in response to paulmacsmurf
    I had this issue for a while with my MacBook Pro running 10.6.5. It would freeze up for about 3 or 4 seconds every couple minutes or so. I tried the 64 bit mode in the link mentioned by paulmacsmurf and so far it appears to have fixed this!

    paulmacsmurf wrote:
    A couple of days ago I found a link (elsewhere on these forums? I honestly can't remember) to the following:

    <http://classictutorials.com/2010/08/snow-leopard-freezes-or-application-hangs-in -snow-leopard/>

    I have now set the iMac to start up in 64 bit mode, and so far, I cannot make it lock up (previously, a few games of Klondike Forever were guaranteed to produce the lock up). YMMV of course, but so far, it's all looking good. I will post back in a few days (or if the Mac crashes again), whichever happens first.

  • by Jacob99657,

    Jacob99657 Jacob99657 Jan 6, 2011 4:33 AM in response to sherifhanna
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 6, 2011 4:33 AM in response to sherifhanna
    I just tried installing the 10.6 update, it said that it could not expand the file and now my computer won't load and tells me I need to restart the computer, it's a brand new IMac less than a month old so any help would be greatly appretiated

  • by kremik,

    kremik kremik Jan 6, 2011 2:16 PM in response to sherifhanna
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 6, 2011 2:16 PM in response to sherifhanna
    So what about 10.6.6? Did anybody try it if it solves the freezing problem? Thanks.

  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Jan 6, 2011 3:24 PM in response to Jacob99657
    Level 6 (17,700 points)
    Jan 6, 2011 3:24 PM in response to Jacob99657
    Which update do you mean?

  • by Eminemdrdre00,

    Eminemdrdre00 Eminemdrdre00 Jan 6, 2011 8:20 PM in response to kremik
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 6, 2011 8:20 PM in response to kremik
    I've been running on 10.6.6 for 6 hours now without a freeze... *knocks on wood*

  • by im1kissfan,

    im1kissfan im1kissfan Jan 7, 2011 7:07 AM in response to Eminemdrdre00
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 7, 2011 7:07 AM in response to Eminemdrdre00
    10.6.6 for 12 hours now... and 5 lockups

    It's not only not fixed, but worse.

  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Jan 7, 2011 11:59 AM in response to im1kissfan
    Level 6 (17,700 points)
    Jan 7, 2011 11:59 AM in response to im1kissfan
    If you have unresolved preexisting problems with the system, the chances that applying an update over it will fix them are unfortunately not very good. The most common causes of freezes are hardware issues, damaged files, & incompatibilities in installed third party OS domain software. It is generally a good idea to try to eliminate them as possibilities before looking for other things to try.
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