Mac will freeze every few seconds

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Level 1

11 points

Mac will freeze every few seconds

About an hour ago I opened a video on Youtube in Firefox. About halfway through the video everything on my Mac froze. The video stopped playing, the dock animations froze, I couldn't click anything, etc. I could still move the cursor around, but it was in it's wonderful spinning beach ball form.

After about 10 seconds of this everything started working again, but about 10 seconds later everything froze again. This happened about 10 times before I decided to restart the computer. After the restart, everything was slow to load up, and once everything was loaded, it went right back to freezing every few seconds again. Any idea what the problem is or how to fix it?

iMac 27", Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Oct 5, 2010 4:10 AM

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Answer 1

sig

Level 8

35,862 points

Oct 5, 2010 5:21 AM in response to Jack Talon

1. Are you using the latest version of Adobe Flash Player?
2. Could be the web site. Have you tried other web sites?
3. Have you tried using Safari?
4. What have you tried?

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Answer 2

Jack Talon Author

Level 1

11 points

Oct 5, 2010 5:34 AM in response to sig

Everything on my system is up to date. I don't believe it is the website or the browser causing the problem, because this happens even when there are no programs running on my computer. I have noticed that it seems to happen a lot when I try to right click something in my dock or click on something in the menubar.

Message was edited by: Jack Talon

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Answer 3

sig

Level 8

35,862 points

Oct 5, 2010 12:26 PM in response to Jack Talon

You haven't answered any of the questions I asked. I am not asking about your system. I am asking if you have the latest version of Adobe Flash Player. What version are you using? Your belief that it isn't the web site or the browser brought an erroneous conclusion. In trouble shooting you try lots of things in order to eliminate variables.

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Answer 4

Jack Talon Author

Level 1

11 points

Oct 10, 2010 4:28 PM in response to sig

When I said that my system is updated, I meant all of the software, plugins, etc. that are on my system. Adobe Flash is at version 10.1 I believe. As for it being a web site or the browser that I am using, I figured it wasn't the cause because this is happening with no browser open. It happens when there are no apps running at all. I restart my computer and the problem still persists.
It generally happens whenever I try to do something (open a program, close a program, change system settings, etc.). It also seems to happen randomly. Like right now, it isn't doing it, but earlier today it did it for about 4 hours, then stopped and started running smoothly.
I have tried repairing disk permissions, running virus scans, etc. and nothing has helped.
Actually, as I started typing this message the problem has started again. Every so often while I type the spinning beach ball of death will pop up and nothing will work in the browser, then it will start working again.

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Answer 5

Oct 10, 2010 6:26 PM in response to Jack Talon

I'm having a very similar problem too. At first, I thought it was Firefox since that's mainly what I use. But, I realized it happens in different programs too. Right now it's only happening in Firefox specially while a flash video is on. Symptoms are: intermittent cursor freezing while I'm typing and then all the text shoots out when it unfreezes; same with scrolling a web page, opening menus won't work during a frozen moment. Even now when the flash video ended, I'm still getting the freezing text cursor while I type.

I'm on Firefox v3.6.1
Flash v10.1r82

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Answer 6

Jack Talon Author

Level 1

11 points

Oct 11, 2010 1:09 AM in response to greyrobot

Yeah, when it happens with me I can still move the cursor, but everything else on the computer freezes.

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Answer 7

Oct 11, 2010 2:03 AM in response to Jack Talon

I'm having similar problems with my iMac over the last few days.

Either the beachball spins away, or everything freezes and I have to use to power button to switch the machine off and restart.

I'm running Safari, and believe all is up to date.

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Answer 8

Jack Talon Author

Level 1

11 points

Oct 12, 2010 5:53 AM in response to sig

I have an update. I contacted apple support yesterday and for two hours we tried to resolve the issue with no luck. We tried resetting the PRAM, repairing the disc, repairing disc permissions, resetting the home folder password, using a different user account, and booting up in safe mode (we were unable to do this, because my computer would lock up at the login screen). I am supposed to get back in touch with support today to try a few more things, but so far everyone seems pretty baffled.

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Answer 9

caspar_v

Level 1

0 points

Oct 13, 2010 2:49 PM in response to Jack Talon

yep, me too. exact same issue. it has started to get particularly bad in the last few days. whether in ichat, browsers, pages, mail.app ... you name it. constant intermittent little beach ball freezes. **** it's happening right now occasionally i as write this post.

i figure it's got something to do with the latest system update. i was about to wipe my hard drive clean and start over until i read this thread.

would love to see anyone shed any light on this. it's making using my computer a total chore right now and i have lots to get done.

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Answer 10

Oct 13, 2010 3:29 PM in response to Jack Talon

So far I haven't found a real solution to this issue, just took someones advice to disable all addons in firefox. I narrowed it down to Flash. When i disable the flash plugin, everything works the way it should. So who'se fault is it? Adobe, Mozilla, Apple?

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Answer 11

caspar_v

Level 1

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Oct 13, 2010 7:32 PM in response to greyrobot

hmmm, problem persists for me even with flash disabled. really **** annoying. i hope a system update comes out soon that deals with this. total party when trying to do design work.

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Answer 12

ishawn24

Level 1

0 points

Nov 4, 2010 8:55 PM in response to Jack Talon

Hi

I have the same problem can someone help?!!!

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Answer 13

ishawn24

Level 1

0 points

Nov 5, 2010 4:02 PM in response to Jack Talon

Hi mr Talon;

Is your problem solved? If yes, can you tell me how?!! Because I have the same problem.

Thanks

Shawn

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Answer 14

Nov 15, 2010 3:13 PM in response to Jack Talon

has nothing to do with flash.
my iMac is doing it too

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Answer 15

DrumPhil

Level 1

0 points

Nov 15, 2010 3:39 PM in response to joelharrison

I'm having a similar random freeze issue with my new Mac Pro. The cursor moves and remains an arrow (no beach ball), but everything else stops except audio. The only way out is to power down. Since I've been authoring in Flash a lot lately, I thought that was the problem. But I've seen my system lock up when nothing is running but Mail. I've even done a clean install of the OS on a new partition, and same result. The 10.6.5 update didn't help either. Anyone know of an actual fix?

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