Mac freezes

Question

Level 1

8 points

Mac freezes

Hi everybody, almost everyday my iMac (mac OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard, 12GB Ram, 3.06Ghz, Intel Core 2 Duo, Late '09) freeze almost completely, I can move the mouse (wheel of death!) for a while but after everything goes frozen!

My iMac is always up&running, 24hx7, starting from midnight till 8 AM it goes on stop (through the preferences panel) and when it comes out after a stop or screensaver it asks for the password, I disabled those two settings without any luck...freeze again!

One of my always up&running apps there's Skype, I disabled also it without again any luck...always freeze!

The pc is heavily used by remote control through LogMeIn (it's another always up%running app on myiMac)

I'm asking what to look for on log system files (console), if does exist some tools/apps to buy or to use, ecc. ecc.

Does resetting PRAM and NVRAM solve my problem ? Which are the disadvantes on doing that ?

If needed I can attach my log system files, please tell me which add...

Many thanks to who will want to help me, I'm very frustated but I want to understand and solve this problem...with your help naturally!

Roberto.

iMac late '09 3.06 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo 4GB 1067 MHz RAM, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 12GB RAM

Posted on Sep 16, 2011 6:55 AM

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Answer 1

Zlig

Level 4

1,340 points

Sep 16, 2011 7:24 AM in response to dalrmi

Hi Roberto,

The first thing I would try is disconnect all peripherals (printer, Hard Disks, Graphics Tablets etc. etc. and see if the problem persists. If not then I would add them back one by one to see which is causing the problem.

If the problem remains I would then try creating a new user Mac OS X 10.6 Help: Creating a new user account and see if the problem happens under this new user.

If it does I suggest that you run a hardware diagnostic by inserting original disks that came with your computer and rebooting holding down the "D" key. Newer Macs have Apple Hardware Test located on a hidden partition on the hard drive, in which case you can restart with the "D" key pressed and you'll launch AHT.

Hope it works out.

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Answer 2

dalrmi Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 20, 2011 1:56 AM in response to Zlig

Hi, I did a Apple Hardware test (better, a Apple Service Diagnostic test which last 5-6 hours!) and nothing was found! but I'm happy for that.

I tried also to use the pc without peripherals attached to it but no success!!!

At last I found out that restarting my iMac every night the problems went away so I'm thinking about a software related issue, I guess the best thing to do should be reinstall the entire operating system from scratch (taking in consideration the opportunity to switch on Lion) but now I can't waste time so I scheduled an automatic restart every morning at 07:30 AM (with the Lingon application) and all works fine.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Regards, Roberto.

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