OS won't shut down - spinner goes around and around

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Level 1

96 points

OS won't shut down - spinner goes around and around

For the last month or so my Mini will not shut down (or restart). I am on the latest rev. of SL (10.6.8). It gets to the blue screen and then the spinning wheel goes around and around until I have to turn it off by the power button.

I found much older thread (now archived) that suggested that this spinning wheel on shutdown has something to do with power management settings.

I have done the typical steps of repairing permissions and (from the Install CD) running Disk Utility, which reported no problems. I also trashed the com.apple.powermanagement.plist file, which is what seemed to fix things in that earlier (2009) discussion.

I have the same rev. of SL running on my MacBookAir, which is having no problems doing a shut down (or restart).

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Mini + Air11, Mac OS X (10.6.8), iPhones, iPods, iPad, MacBook Pro (10.6), PB G4 (10.4), ATV

Posted on Aug 31, 2011 1:35 PM

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Answer 1

rmgman

Level 3

538 points

Aug 31, 2011 1:57 PM in response to keriah

K:

Are you quitting the applications normally before trying to shut down or are you just attempting to shut down with programs running?

Have you tried logging out first and then shutting down?

BTW: I am envious of all the Apple Toys you have listed!

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Answer 2

Aug 31, 2011 1:59 PM in response to keriah

Try Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

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Answer 3

keriah Author

Level 1

96 points

Aug 31, 2011 2:24 PM in response to rmgman

Are you quitting the applications normally before trying to shut down or are you just attempting to shut down with programs running?

Yes, I have shut down all applications. I have also tried dismounting all external drives. In my most recent attempt I have fired up Activity Monitor and quit anything (such as "Helper" tasks) that were still running.

Have you tried logging out first and then shutting down?

Good suggestion but that too was suggested in the 2009 thread and that also just gets me to the blue screen that spins and spins.

BTW: I am envious of all the Apple Toys you have listed!

Ah, and sometimes more Toys means more things to debug. (!!!)

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Answer 4

rmgman

Level 3

538 points

Aug 31, 2011 2:34 PM in response to keriah

Are you using any Font Management software or Adobe Creative Suite software?

Are you running Time Machine?

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Answer 5

keriah Author

Level 1

96 points

Aug 31, 2011 3:00 PM in response to rmgman

Are you using any Font Management software or Adobe Creative Suite software?

Nope. I do have some Macromedia (now Adobe) software -- Fireworks and Dreamweaver. But, actually, I don't think I've fired those up on the Mini in months. I use them on the MBAir and it's not experiencing problems shutting down.

Are you running Time Machine?

Nope again. I run SuperDuper for scheduled backups -- have been doing that for years.

But this is related to where I started noticing the problem. I have SD set to run around midnight and it was set to do a restart when it completes. I started to notice that the system would be in this "hanging" mode when I'd check in the morning. I had thought it was a conflict with EyeTV (which is about all I use the Mini for these days). If I run SD and then have EyeTV try to start recording without a restart, EyeTV throws up. So I then had a system restart scheduled to run at 3:15 a.m., between the SD backup's end and the start of EyeTV's daily recording routine. However, since this problem has started I am getting up at 4 a.m. to "push the button" to do a manual shutdown and restart.

It was suggested that I note the time of the shutdown, do a shutdown, force it to power off, and then check the system log. I did the latest shutdown at 2:19 (14:19) and here is the end of that log. Problem is, I don't really know what it's telling me. I haven't run Parallels on this machine for some time now. And Virtual PC (if that is referring to the very old old package and not something that's part of Parallels) is not supposed to even be on this machine -- it was on my earlier G4.

===== Started a shutdown at 14:19 ======================

Aug 3114:19:53 myMini shutdown[1117]: halt by keri:

Aug 3114:19:53 myMini shutdown[1117]: SHUTDOWN_TIME: 1314825593 239955

Aug 3114:19:53 myMini Parallels[1119]: Stopping Parallels Dispatcher Service

Aug 3114:19:53 myMini Parallels[1131]: Stopping Parallels networking

Aug 3114:19:53 myMini SystemStarter[40]: Operating System enhancements for Virtual PC(1124) did not complete successfully

Aug 3114:19:54 myMini SystemStarter[40]: The following StartupItems failed to stopproperly:

Aug 3114:19:54 myMini SystemStarter[40]: /Library/StartupItems/VirtualPCOSServices

Aug 3114:19:54 myMini SystemStarter[40]: - execution of Startup script failed

Aug 3114:19:54 myMini prl_naptd[158]: Exiting Parallels Network Daemon

Aug 3114:19:54 myMini Parallels[1151]: Unloading kernel extension prl_netbridge.kext

Aug 3114:19:55 myMini Parallels[1174]: Failed to unload kernel extension prl_netbridge.kext

Aug 3114:19:55 myMini Parallels[1179]: Unloading kernel extension prl_vnic.kext

Aug 3114:19:55 myMini Parallels[1202]: Failed to unload kernel extension prl_vnic.kext

Aug 3114:19:55 myMini Parallels[1205]: Parallels Networking was stopped

Aug 3114:19:55 myMini mDNSResponder[21]: mDNSResponder mDNSResponder-258.21 (May 262011 14:40:13) stopping

Aug 31 14:19:55myMini DirectoryService[11]: BUG in libdispatch: 10K549 - 1960 - 0x10004004

Aug 3114:19:55 myMini prl_naptd[219]: Exiting Parallels Network Daemon

Aug 3114:19:55 myMini WindowServer[96]: hidd died. Reestablishing connection.

Aug 3114:19:55 myMini WDButtonManager[204]: CGSShutdownServerConnections: Detachingapplication from window server

Aug 3114:19:55 myMini WDButtonManager[204]: CGSDisplayServerShutdown: Detachingdisplay subsystem from window server

Aug 3114:19:55 myMini WindowServer[96]: bootstrap_look_ip failed: Unknown servicename

Aug 3114:19:55 myMini WDButtonManager[204]: 3891612: (CGSLookupServerRootPort)Untrusted apps are not allowed to connect to or launch Window Server beforelogin.

Aug 3114:19:55 myMini WDButtonManager[204]: kCGErrorRangeCheck: On-demand launch ofthe Window Server is allowed for root user only.

Aug 3114:19:55 myMini WDButtonManager[204]: kCGErrorFailure: Set a breakpoint @CGErrorBreakpoint() to catch errors as they are logged.

Aug 3114:19:55 myMini WDButtonManager[204]: HIToolbox: received notification ofWindowServer event port death.

Aug 31 14:19:55 myMini WDButtonManager[204]:port matched the WindowServer port created in BindCGSToRunLoop

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Answer 6

keriah Author

Level 1

96 points

Aug 31, 2011 3:09 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

Try Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

Thanks. Tried that too.

For a Mini:

Resetting the SMC for Mac Pro, Intel-based iMac, Intel-based Mac mini, or Intel-based Xserve

Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord.
Wait fifteen seconds.
Attach the computer's power cord.
Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.

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Answer 7

mag96

Level 1

15 points

Aug 31, 2011 3:10 PM in response to keriah

Try booting into safe mode (hold shift while starting up) what this will do is check the startup volume, and load only essential kexts to help pinpoint where your problem is. Also, have you tried repairing the startup volume? Boot from the OS X install disc, select your language, select Disk Utility from the Utilities dropdown menu, select your startup volume, select the First Aid tab and click repair disk.

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Answer 8

rmgman

Level 3

538 points

Sep 1, 2011 9:41 AM in response to mag96

mag96 wrote:

Also, have you tried repairing the startup volume? Boot from the OS X install disc, select your language, select Disk Utility from the Utilities dropdown menu, select your startup volume, select the First Aid tab and click repair disk.

In keriah's 1st post he(she) stated that this was already attempted.

I wonder is the problem is the scheduling of SuperDuper. Try turning the scheduling off and just doing your backups manually. You may have to also delete your SuperDuper preferences.

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Answer 9

keriah Author

Level 1

96 points

Sep 1, 2011 5:32 PM in response to rmgman

In keriah's 1st post he(she)

...she...

stated that this was already attempted.

Yes, indeed.

I wonder is the problem is the scheduling of SuperDuper. Try turning the scheduling off and just doing your backups manually. You may have to also delete your SuperDuper preferences.

I think SD is out of the picture. Weeks ago I stopped SD from doing a restart at the end and switched to System Preferences to do a timed restart at 3 a.m. When I found that hanging I then turned that off as well. (That's when I started getting up and doing the restart -- a hard shut down, actually -- at 4 a.m.) I haven't run SD for the last week or so.

Today I tried: (1) the Safe Mode reboot -- did that with NO peripherals and without the KVM switch in the mix -- made no difference; the restart still hung. (2) I ran TechTool but it reported no problems. (3) I booted from DiskWarrior and it did find/fix some problems (so had it do a Directory replace from the repaired version). But, alas, still hanging on the attempt to do a restart.

Not much left to try, I'd think. A reinstall of the OS? ... or learn to live with it.

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Answer 10

keriah Author

Level 1

96 points

Sep 2, 2011 3:15 PM in response to keriah

Not much left to try, I'd think. A reinstall of the OS? ... or learn to live with it.

Learn to live with it was a leading contender ... until I got a kernel panic doing a simple launch of Word. <sigh>

So, long story short, reinstall made the problem go away. (Also, got a couple of GB back by doing a more careful custom install.) And, for anyone following this saga, don't forget to checkmark Rosetta on the Install (if that matters to your config.) -- the default is for it to be left out. After the reinstall, my keyboard and mouse were initially not being recognized but, thank goodness, after performing the Software Update things got back in working shape.

Thanks to all who jumped in with suggestions.

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Answer 11

Jan 20, 2012 8:02 AM in response to keriah

I've had strange shut-down behavior like this for some time with Snow Leopard (I refuse to go to Lion yet). It got so bad on mine that I finally - recently - did a fresh, clean install of both the OS and all my apps. And I did that *after* doing literally every in-home maintenance routine I could think of, including zapping PRAM, resetting the SMC, Safe Boot, running all Onyx maintenance/cleaning routines, etc.

Things worked fine for about a month then the hanging shut-down began happening - but NOT all the time.

There seem to be 3 potential fixes/issues with this:

- If you have Onyx (excellent freeware utility) you can use it to scan for corrupt preferences, which I did find *once* and fixed.

- Older versions of Adobe Flash player can cause odd shut-down behavior.

- An out-of-whack directory can do this too. Use DiskWarrior to fix that.

However, at present there doesn't seem to be a solid reason why this happens, and unfortunately now that Apple has moved onto Lion I seriously doubt there'll ever be any effort into addressing this particular issue. As I say, even with a fresh and perfectly maintained system it will occasionally hang on shut-down.

Console messages aren't always informative to the general user since they contain string codes and commands that unless you know how the OS is designed just don't make sense.

If mine keeps hiccuping on shut-down I'll take it into the Genius Bar but for now it's not occuring often enough to be a worry.

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