MacBook Air won't shut down!

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Level 1

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MacBook Air won't shut down!

I just got my MacBook Air a month ago and now it's having trouble with shutting down. 😟 I was running some games yesterday when I closed the lid and put it to sleep. It lost battery that way, so I charged it, and then when I tried to shut it down or restart it, it just wouldn't. Finder's also showing that "the application Finder can't be opened - 10810" error. I already ran Disk Utility and it said my disk is okay; there were some errors with permissions though, so I repaired those. Additionally, I've used Activity Monitor and Force Quit to quit applications like Safari; I noticed that Activity Monitor was able to do that but Force Quit couldn't. The menu bar for Safari disappears, but the Safari item on the list of applications on Force Quit won't disappear. My Mac still won't shut down. What am I supposed to do? 😟

Thanks so much for your help!

MacBook Air 13" Model, 1.8 GHz, 4GB RAM, 128 GB flash storage, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Jan 2, 2011 7:39 PM

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Answer 1

hawleyrw

Level 3

629 points

Jan 2, 2011 8:21 PM in response to Flowerling

I'd start with downloading an app like Onyx (free) and run the maintenance and cleanup utilities. These utils clean up lots of junk that builds up (in a nutshell), and restores you MBA to peak efficiency after a reboot. I run it periodically OR if I see my system slowing down on shutdown or startup (both should be very fast). My system usually takes about 5 seconds to shut down, and between 10-14 seconds to startup.

Try it.

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/11582/onyx

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Answer 2

Flowerling Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 2, 2011 9:25 PM in response to hawleyrw

Hey,

I tried using Onyx to repair the permissions and it did that; it says that my disk is fine too, however. My Air still won't shut down 😟.

Any other ideas? Thanks for the tip, though 🙂

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Answer 3

Flowerling Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 2, 2011 9:48 PM in response to Flowerling

I'm sorry for double posting, but I found an article at Cnet that solved my problem, at least for now:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10365239-263.html?tag=mncol

There's a whole bunch of stuff there that I don't quite understand, but I did manage to restart my Mac via the Terminal. Maybe that'll work for others, too. I'm not sure if that's the end of this whole affair though, and where I should be concerned about a more serious problem in my computer.

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Answer 4

hawleyrw

Level 3

629 points

Jan 3, 2011 5:21 AM in response to Flowerling

I also use the Cleaning button (Go through the options here and choose the areas you want to clean) to clean out any old temp/unused files, logs, etc. For me, I check all options under the first two sections (System and User), and go through the other sections and choose based on how I use the computer.

Then, Execute each section under this part). Once I do that, is when I see boot times increase dramatically.

Just a few days ago - I found a situation where the machine wouldn't shut off also just a blue screen with the twirling dashes...stayed that way. I forced the machine down (holding down the power button), then started, and ran Onyx with what I've mentioned...back to normal now.

Good Luck

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