System Profiler save causing memory crash

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Level 1

4 points

System Profiler save causing memory crash

Hi all-
I somehow find the strangest problems to have.
Tech support for an application I use asked me to send them a System Profiler document, and when I went to do that, it slowed in the "icons" stage, then froze there, then I got the spinning rainbow of death, and eventually a message telling me there is not enough memory.
I updated software, restarted, and quit all applications and tried again - same problem. It is hard to imagine that 4GB of memory is insufficient to process this.
Repaired permissions - same problem
The only thread I could find was 5 years old and seemed related but not the same.
Any idears?
Thanks folks,
Matthew

MacBookPro, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Nov 4, 2010 4:19 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 4, 2010 7:52 PM in response to ninthname

ninthname wrote:
Tech support for an application I use asked me to send them a System Profiler document, and when I went to do that, it slowed in the "icons" stage, then froze there, then I got the spinning rainbow of death, and eventually a message telling me there is not enough memory.

Try moving to the Desktop the file com.apple.SystemProfiler.plist in the folder "yourhomefolder"/Library/Preferences . Then launch System Profiler and see if it works any better. If it does, trash the file you moved.

It is hard to imagine that 4GB of memory is insufficient to process this.

It's not so much that you don't have enough memory but that something is corrupted in a way that makes OS X think that it needs a lot of memory.

Repaired permissions - same problem

You might try doing a "verify disk" operation to rule out disk structure problems.

By the way, your system details mention OS X 10.5.5, but you posted your message in a section for OS X 10.6.

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Answer 2

ninthname Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 5, 2010 12:47 PM in response to William-Boyd-Jr

Hi-
Thanks very much for your suggestions. Alas, neither worked in my case - and verify disk reported no problems. The save is actually freezing at "logs," so I tried moving them to the desktop as well, still no progress.
Would reinstalling the OS help this? I know that personal settings and applications are left alone, but I am not clear on whether it replaces things like preference files that may be causing the problem.
I really appreciate the help, and apologize for not having updated my OS info before posting 🙂
Matthew

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Answer 3

Nov 5, 2010 6:03 PM in response to ninthname

ninthname wrote:
Would reinstalling the OS help this? I know that personal settings and applications are left alone, but I am not clear on whether it replaces things like preference files that may be causing the problem.

As you imply, it could, depending on whether the reinstall replaced whatever was corrupted.

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Answer 4

ninthname Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 6, 2010 8:25 AM in response to William-Boyd-Jr

I tried this and the install disk couldn't find any hard drive - this suggests to me that there's a problem with one of my memory chips. Just wanted to follow-up in case anyone else ever runs into the same weird little issue.
Thanks for your replies, Boyd.
Matthew

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Answer 5

Nov 6, 2010 8:38 AM in response to ninthname

ninthname wrote:
I tried this and the install disk couldn't find any hard drive

Please confirm that you can boot from your normal boot drive.

this suggests to me that there's a problem with one of my memory chips.

I'm not sure why you feel that way. I'd instead suspect a problem with the disk. If you suspect a hardware problem, boot with the system disc in your Mac with the "D" held down to invoke the system diagnostics, then run all the tests several times.

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