My MacBook pro freezes during start up after 30 secs. Any ideas?

Thanks again William.

I recently purchased a retail install disc OS X 10.6.3. Initially the DVD drive would not even read the disc. I disassembled the unit, cleaned the laser lens, and now it reads from it just fine. I still believe it is a hardware problem beyond my scope of understading. When I press and hold the "d" key I hear the DVD drive loading data, then I get the "You need to restart you computer" death message.

I then tried to install from disc using the "c" key. Same thing here. I hear data being loaded from the DVD, the gears spin for quite a while, then the screen goes dark and the death message comes up again. I've retried the "c" install with a few other known-good HDDs formated under HFS+. Same thing each time.

I think this may be a lost cause at this point. I've done everything I can think of to no avail.

Thank you for your help.

I believe I figured out the issue to be graphics related. For some reason the install screen finally appeared on the 12th try. The display is blinking very harshly with the attached image. I have no expertise in troubleshooting graphics issues, but this seems like a definite hardware problem. Probably overheated.

Even after this screen finally came up, it just froze on that image. It teased me by allowing me to move the mouse, but unable to proceed with the install.

I am having this same issue.

In detail:

Apple logo and spinner icon appear. Apple logo dissapears, grey screen for 5 - 10 seconds. Mouse pointer appears. Spinner icon appears (no apple logo) for a bit. Screen flashes yellow for a moment, then pointer appears. Spinner icon appears (no apple log) etc. etc.

I never reach the login screen.

Clearly we are stuck in some infintite loop. Please remove if (true) { ... };

Seriously though it began after I installed OS X mountan lion. I am always able to login after the first or second force restart (which is actually a bit confusing considering this appears to be fairly random) and often I boot without issue on the first try.

Spring 2008 Macbook Pro 6GB (upgraded sneakily) RAM 2.5 GHZ Intel core duo 15 inch.

Cheers,

_Chris

Did you try booting into safe mode or verbose mode? If so, what happens when you do either of those?

I have not. I did boot into rescue mode to check the disks (they were fine) and it booted up successfully afterwards (I am not convinced this helped due to the random nature of the issue).

Anyway after posting a realized I should try booting in verbose mode next time the issue arrises to see if I can make sense of the problem. I'll post the results of verbose and safe mode when I have them.

Cheers,

_Chris

I routinely boot into verbose mode every since I had a problem with shutdown and couldn't diagnose it any other way. I have to remember to hold down two keys during the boot process and it may take a few seconds longer, but those are the only inconveniences.

Since it's an intermitent problem, after the first successful boot following a boot failure you might launch the Console utility and see if there are any messages there that explain the problem.

I've determined the cause of the issue (or at least the exception).

Inpescting /var/log/system.log revealed a repeated exception of NSUncaughtSystemExceptionException. Here's a bit of context:

Oct 6 18:36:16 christopher-fustings-macbook-pro.local com.apple.SecurityServer[20]: Session 100009 created

Oct 6 18:36:16 christopher-fustings-macbook-pro.local loginwindow[167]: Login Window Started Security Agent

Oct 6 18:36:16 christopher-fustings-macbook-pro.local launchctl[170]: com.apple.findmymacmessenger: Already loaded

Oct 6 18:36:16 christopher-fustings-macbook-pro.local SecurityAgent[177]: MacBuddy was run = 0

Oct 6 18:36:16 christopher-fustings-macbook-pro.local UserEventAgent[172]: cannot find useragent 1102

Oct 6 18:36:16 christopher-fustings-macbook-pro.local SecurityAgent[177]: objc[177]: Object 0x7fb72c06a660 of class __NSCFString autoreleased with no pool in place - just leaking - break on objc_autoreleaseNoPool() to debug

Oct 6 18:36:16 christopher-fustings-macbook-pro.local SecurityAgent[177]: objc[177]: Object 0x7fb72c0655e0 of class __NSCFString autoreleased with no pool in place - just leaking - break on objc_autoreleaseNoPool() to debug

Oct 6 18:36:16 christopher-fustings-macbook-pro.local SecurityAgent[177]: objc[177]: Object 0x7fb72c064d70 of class __NSDictionaryI autoreleased with no pool in place - just leaking - break on objc_autoreleaseNoPool() to debug

Oct 6 18:36:16 christopher-fustings-macbook-pro.local SecurityAgent[177]: objc[177]: Object 0x7fb72c06a200 of class NSException autoreleased with no pool in place - just leaking - break on objc_autoreleaseNoPool() to debug

Oct 6 18:36:16 christopher-fustings-macbook-pro.local SecurityAgent[177]: NSExceptionHandler has recorded the following exception:

NSUncaughtSystemExceptionException -- Uncaught system exception: signal 11

Stack trace: 0x10278b7ba 0x7fff91fee8ea 0x7fff9073bd62 0x7fff95116e5c 0x1056c1c6f 0x7fff8abaf9f9 0x20039c68f 0x20039cae1 0x7fff92000742 0x7fff91fed181

As you can see this occurs just before the login screen appears, but causes the process to fail, hence the inability to get to this screen. This process repeats indefinitely.

To examine your own logs for this exception:

cd /var/log

cat system.log | grep -C 10 NSUncaughtSystemExceptionException

It may be necessary to extract an archived log file if this has not occurred recently.

sudo bunzip2 system.log.0.bz2 (for example, or .1.bz2, .2.bz2 etc. depending on age)

The exception generates reports you can find in:

/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/SecurityAgent_2012-10-06-183617_name_of_your_computer.crash

/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/.SecurityAgent_2012-10-06-183617_name_of_your_computer.crash.plist

To determine if this exception has occurred recently you can check the dates (and existence of) the files:

cd /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/

ls -alt

In any case, these files (and perhaps the systen.log) are what need to go to Apple to resolve the issue.

Cheers,

_Chris

It sounds like you're citing some debugging authority. Although it's possible to investigate this type of problem using commands in a Terminal session, for most purposes the Console utility is a lot easier.

That "signal 11" is a "segmentation violation", an illegal memory reference.

You might be fighting a hardware or software problem. To investigate a hardware problem, I'd run the hardware diagnostics for your Mac. How to do that depends on what model of Mac you have. I'd look for help on Apple's support pages.

To deal with a software problem, I'd start by downloading and installing the latest "combo" updater for your version of OS X. For Mountain Lion that would be found here. After you install that you should probably reinstall the "supplemental update" for Mountain Lion, found here.

If that doesn't help, look in /System/Library/Extensions and /Library/Extensions for third-party (non-Apple) software. (Note that not all Apple extensions have "Apple" in the name. Invoke the Finder menu option File > Get Info to check ownership. Beyond that, a number of extensions not identified as belonging to Apple are distributed with OS X. Focus on any that might be related to hardware that you added.) Check to see if updates are available for any of those.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by debugging authority?

The console utility appears to be a simple front end for the log files, I'm not sure why this would be a preference over grep, vim, etc.

Anyway indeed this is a memory issue, closely related to drawing the login window with opengl. Perhaps the video card drivers need to be updated. I've submitted this bug and the related log files to Apple.

If anyone else if having this issue, simply disable password authentication on startup.

Cheers,

_Chris

cfusting wrote:

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by debugging authority?

Since you are giving instructions for analyzing the problem when you didn't first seem to be able to do that yourself, it seemed possible that you had found some authority on debugging such problems where those instructions appeared.

The console utility appears to be a simple front end for the log files, I'm not sure why this would be a preference over grep, vim, etc.

It is as you describe, but not everyone is comfortable working in a Terminal session.

I tried to reboot my mac book pro these two ways and its still stuck on the main apple start up screen. Just started doing this and its a mac book pro 2008. Any ideas please help!

Hello William,

I'm having the same problem.

When trying to start up, the spinning gear freezes.

Starting up from the Startup disc also gets stuck in the spinning wheel.

Idem with Hardware test, start up with d-key pressed; got stuck at the wheel and the computer kept making short tones until I released the d-key, then with every tap on the key, a tone sounded.

I resetted the PRam, it also gets stuck in the spinning wheel.

Now I'm starting up in verbose mode, it is stuck. Last message is appleyukon2: rxringsize <= 1024, txringsize 256, rx-max-le 1024, tx_max_le 768, st_max_le 3328.

Incidents started this afternoon, after inserting a USB key from a friend and playing a song off of that usbkey in iTunes. Took that key out, put another one and when I wanted to transfer some jpg files onto that 2nd key, the files were corrupted when I wanted to open them from the key.

Also, one time the screen saver froze. So it's acting very weird today. However, it still makes loading sounds.

margarix wrote:

Idem with Hardware test, start up with d-key pressed; got stuck at the wheel and the computer kept making short tones until I released the d-key, then with every tap on the key, a tone sounded.

If your Mac won't load the diagnostics and makes tones when it's trying to boot, I'd guess that you may have a hardware problem. You could do a Web search for "Mac startup sounds" (without the quotes) to see if you can find more information about what the tones mean. Ultimately, I suspect you'll have to take it to a place that can repair your Mac.

Hi William,

I took it to an Apple repairman and he said the video part of the mother board ('la carte mère') was broken. Replacement would cost 700 $. He said Apple knew it had made faulty video systems in all MBPs of 'my generation', and that Apple used to replace it free of charge until three years of age.

Mine is almost 5 years old, so.... Why did Apple not contact me? They sure had my registration info.

If I sell something and I know it's faulty, then it's rather odd to wait until the client finds out and hope he never does.

I just bought an upgrade for the MacOS two months ago!

ANyway, William, it's probably not your fault! Don't take this personal.

Thanks for your help anyway.

Actually, I think it is an issue with the AirPort. I had this same problem and was able to fix it. All credit goes to mike from superuser.com.

Unplug all external drives, including your Time Machine drive (God bless you if you have a Time Machine drive). Start up the computer and immediately hold down ⌘R (Command and R) until the spinner comes up. Or you can hold down ⌥ (Option) and then click on Recovery. Wait for the recovery to load.

Now click on Utilities in the menu bar, and click Terminal. Terminal will open and display a prompt.

Type and run these commands:

cd /Volumes

ls

It will display 3 or 4 items. Ignore the ones with a dot in the front. One of them should say "OS X Base System". Ignore that. Another one will display "Macintosh HD" or whatever your startup disk is named. Run: (replace Macintosh HD with whatever your startup drive is named. Make sure to include the quotes if your drive name has spaces in it, which it most likely does.)

cd "Macintosh HD"

ls

It should display the contents of the root of your drive, including Applications, Library, System, Users, and a zillion folders with dots on the front. Ignore the ones with dots on the front. These are hidden files that are invisible in Finder and messing with them could really mess up your computer and your important files. Run:

cd /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration

Now the important part. Rename the config file that controls the AirPort to something the computer won't recognize. Do this by running:

mv com.apple.airport.preferences.plist com.apple.airport.preferences.plist~bad

reboot

Your computer will now reboot. When it boots up it should do so normally without freezing. From now on, keep the AirPort on!!! I know you may want to turn it off to save battery life once in a while, but if your Mac is like mine it will unexpectedly freeze in the middle of something and I'll have to force reboot, and if the AirPort is on the computer will get stuck.

Hope this helps you!