Hourly beach ball (possibly time machine)

studyplenty wrote:

Any ideas?

See what happens if you don't use Chrome.

That's not from your system.log and is a screenshot. 😟

Some of the messages are truncated (the ones with the triangles), so we're not seeing the whole message. And, not all messages in your system.log get there.

It does look like Google Chrome was having some sort of problem, and the last message before rebooting might indicate a problem with Google trying to update something on your Mac (but it's hard to read, being a screenshot).

I'm not familiar with Chrome, but you mighy try quitting it (using another browser temporarily) and/or turning off or disabling any extra apps related to it you've downloaded.

If that doesn't help, post the section of your system.log per my previous post by copying and pasting.

And/or, you might want to search these forums for Google Chrome Helper and see if there are any similar threads.

Problem happens without any program running, maybe (if below system.log info does not assist) I can just turn it on, leave it alone with nothing opened after startup, and copy and paste the log info then. In the meantime, I believe the following is from the system.log at that time:

Oct 5 19:59:48 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local WindowServer[123]: CGXSetWindowTransform: Invalid window 0x1a4

Oct 5 19:59:48 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Dock[198]: CGSSetWindowTransformAtPlacement: Failed

Oct 5 19:59:48 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Dock[198]: CGSSetWindowListGlobalClipShape: Invalid window 0x1a4

Oct 5 19:59:48 --- last message repeated 1 time ---

Oct 5 19:59:48 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local WindowServer[123]: CGXSetWindowTransformList: Invalid window 0x1a4

Oct 5 19:59:48 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Dock[198]: CGSSetWindowTransformsAtPlacement: Failed

Oct 5 19:59:48 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local WindowServer[123]: CGXSetWindowTransform: Invalid window 0x1a4

Oct 5 19:59:48 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Dock[198]: CGSSetWindowTransformAtPlacement: Failed

Oct 5 19:59:48 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Dock[198]: CGSSetWindowListGlobalClipShape: Invalid window 0x1a4

Oct 5 19:59:48 --- last message repeated 1 time ---

Oct 5 19:59:48 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local WindowServer[123]: CGXSetWindowTransformList: Invalid window 0x1a4

Oct 5 19:59:48 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Dock[198]: CGSSetWindowTransformsAtPlacement: Failed

Oct 5 19:59:48 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local WindowServer[123]: CGXSetWindowTransform: Invalid window 0x1a4

Oct 5 19:59:48 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Dock[198]: CGSSetWindowTransformAtPlacement: Failed

Oct 5 19:59:48 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Dock[198]: CGSGetWindowTags: Invalid window 0x1ac

Oct 5 19:59:48 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Dock[198]: CGSGetWindowTags: Invalid window 0x1ab

Oct 5 19:59:48 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Dock[198]: CGSGetWindowTags: Invalid window 0x1aa

Oct 5 19:59:48 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Dock[198]: CGSGetWindowTags: Invalid window 0x1a9

Oct 5 20:00:20 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Locum[369]: Connection with distnoted server was invalidated

Oct 5 20:00:20 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local coreaudiod[142]: AudioComponentPluginLoader: can't create bundle: A52Codec.component -- file://localhost/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/

Oct 5 20:00:21 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook kernel[0]: Sandbox: sandboxd(370) deny mach-lookup com.apple.coresymbolicationd

Oct 5 20:00:21 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local sandboxd[370] ([142]): coreaudiod(142) deny file-read-data /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/A52Codec.component

Oct 5 20:00:21 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local sandboxd[370] ([142]): coreaudiod(142) deny file-read-metadata /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/A52Codec.component/Contents

Oct 5 20:00:21 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local sandboxd[370] ([142]): coreaudiod(142) deny file-read-metadata /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/A52Codec.component

Oct 5 20:02:33 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook kernel[0]: considerRebuildOfPrelinkedKernel prebuild rebuild has expired

Oct 5 20:02:33 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook kernel[0]: USBMSC Identifier (non-unique): 001CC0EC34B2EC21163201CB 0x930 0x6545 0x100

Oct 5 20:02:38 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local fseventsd[53]: check_vol_last_mod_time:XXX failed to get mount time (25; &mount_time == 0x10709b528)

Oct 5 20:02:38 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local fseventsd[53]: log dir: /Volumes/16GB USB/.fseventsd getting new uuid: 5EF6593B-1339-41B1-B18D-FDD07C41EC43

Oct 5 20:03:32 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Locum[397]: Connection with distnoted server was invalidated

Oct 5 20:03:39 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Window Tidy[250]: Starting new group

Oct 5 20:03:39 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Window Tidy[250]: Setting window index 0. Now 1 windows

Oct 5 20:03:39 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Window Tidy[250]: Starting new group

Oct 5 20:03:39 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Window Tidy[250]: Setting window index 1. Now 2 windows

Oct 5 20:03:39 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Window Tidy[250]: Starting new group

Oct 5 20:03:39 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Window Tidy[250]: Setting window index 2. Now 3 windows

Oct 5 20:03:39 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Window Tidy[250]: Starting new group

Oct 5 20:03:39 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Window Tidy[250]: Setting window index 3. Now 4 windows

Oct 5 20:03:51 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Locum[398]: Connection with distnoted server was invalidated

Oct 5 20:06:04 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook kernel[0]: 2.4.4 m168efe17

Oct 5 20:06:42 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook kernel[0]: 2.4.4 m168efe17

Oct 5 20:06:42 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local com.apple.SecurityServer[15]: Succeeded authorizing right 'system.volume.removable.unmount' by client '/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app' [199] for authorization created by '/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app' [199] (100013,0)

Oct 5 20:06:42 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local com.apple.SecurityServer[15]: Succeeded authorizing right 'system.volume.removable.unmount' by client '/usr/sbin/diskarbitrationd' [21] for authorization created by '/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app' [199] (100002,0)

Oct 5 20:06:44 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local com.apple.SecurityServer[15]: Succeeded authorizing right 'system.volume.removable.unmount' by client '/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app' [199] for authorization created by '/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app' [199] (100013,0)

Oct 5 20:06:44 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local com.apple.SecurityServer[15]: Succeeded authorizing right 'system.volume.removable.unmount' by client '/usr/sbin/diskarbitrationd' [21] for authorization created by '/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app' [199] (100002,0)

Oct 5 20:06:57 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook kernel[0]: 2.4.4 m168efe17

Oct 5 20:07:04 --- last message repeated 1 time ---

Oct 5 20:07:04 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.coremedia.videodecoder[396]): Exit timeout elapsed (20 seconds). Killing

Oct 5 20:07:21 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Google Chrome Helper EH[423]: Unsure about the internals of CFAllocator but going to patch them anyway. If there is a crash inside of CFAllocatorAllocate, please report it at http://crbug.com/117476 . If there is a crash and it is NOT inside of CFAllocatorAllocate, it is NOT RELATED. DO NOT REPORT IT THERE but rather FILE A NEW BUG.

Oct 5 20:12:07 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local WindowServer[123]: Created shield window 0x1f6 for display 0x04272d80

Oct 5 20:12:07 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local WindowServer[123]: Created shield window 0x1f7 for display 0x042480e5

Oct 5 20:12:07 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local WindowServer[123]: device_generate_desktop_screenshot: authw 0x0(0), shield 0x0(0)

Oct 5 20:12:07 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local WindowServer[123]: device_generate_lock_screen_screenshot: authw 0x0(0), shield 0x0(0)

Oct 5 20:12:07 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local WindowServer[123]: device_generate_desktop_screenshot: authw 0x0(0), shield 0x0(0)

Oct 5 20:31:43 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local WindowServer[123]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: no lock state data

Oct 5 20:31:49 --- last message repeated 1 time ---

Oct 5 20:31:49 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local iTunes[301]: 2012-10-05 08:31:49.998406 PM [AVSystemController] Stopping AirPlay

Oct 5 20:31:50 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Dock[198]: CGSGetWindowTags: Invalid window 0x216

Oct 5 20:31:50 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Dock[198]: CGSGetWindowTags: Invalid window 0x215

Oct 5 20:31:50 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Dock[198]: CGSGetWindowTags: Invalid window 0x214

Oct 5 20:31:50 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Dock[198]: CGSGetWindowTags: Invalid window 0x213

Oct 5 20:32:22 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Google Chrome Helper[443]: Unsure about the internals of CFAllocator but going to patch them anyway. If there is a crash inside of CFAllocatorAllocate, please report it at http://crbug.com/117476 . If there is a crash and it is NOT inside of CFAllocatorAllocate, it is NOT RELATED. DO NOT REPORT IT THERE but rather FILE A NEW BUG.

Oct 5 20:32:22 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Google Chrome Helper[444]: Unsure about the internals of CFAllocator but going to patch them anyway. If there is a crash inside of CFAllocatorAllocate, please report it at http://crbug.com/117476 . If there is a crash and it is NOT inside of CFAllocatorAllocate, it is NOT RELATED. DO NOT REPORT IT THERE but rather FILE A NEW BUG.

Oct 5 20:32:22 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Google Chrome Helper[443]: bootstrap_look_up2 failed with 0x44c

Oct 5 20:32:22 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Google Chrome Helper[443]: CGSLookupServerRootPort: Failed to look up the port for "com.apple.windowserver.active" (1100)

Oct 5 20:32:22 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Google Chrome Helper[445]: Unsure about the internals of CFAllocator but going to patch them anyway. If there is a crash inside of CFAllocatorAllocate, please report it at http://crbug.com/117476 . If there is a crash and it is NOT inside of CFAllocatorAllocate, it is NOT RELATED. DO NOT REPORT IT THERE but rather FILE A NEW BUG.

Oct 5 20:32:24 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Google Chrome Helper[446]: Unsure about the internals of CFAllocator but going to patch them anyway. If there is a crash inside of CFAllocatorAllocate, please report it at http://crbug.com/117476 . If there is a crash and it is NOT inside of CFAllocatorAllocate, it is NOT RELATED. DO NOT REPORT IT THERE but rather FILE A NEW BUG.

Oct 5 20:32:26 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Google Chrome Helper[446]: bootstrap_look_up2 failed with 0x44c

Oct 5 20:32:26 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Google Chrome Helper[446]: CGSLookupServerRootPort: Failed to look up the port for "com.apple.windowserver.active" (1100)

Oct 5 20:32:51 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Google Chrome Helper[446]: Failed to look up domain bootstrapper during domain extension: 0x44c

Oct 5 20:32:51 --- last message repeated 12 times ---

Oct 5 20:32:51 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Google Chrome Helper EH[448]: Unsure about the internals of CFAllocator but going to patch them anyway. If there is a crash inside of CFAllocatorAllocate, please report it at http://crbug.com/117476 . If there is a crash and it is NOT inside of CFAllocatorAllocate, it is NOT RELATED. DO NOT REPORT IT THERE but rather FILE A NEW BUG.

Oct 5 20:32:55 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Google Chrome Helper[446]: Failed to look up domain bootstrapper during domain extension: 0x44c

Oct 5 20:33:18 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook kernel[0]: CODE SIGNING: cs_invalid_page(0x1000): p=449[GoogleSoftwareUp] clearing CS_VALID

Oct 5 20:39:40 localhost bootlog[0]: BOOT_TIME 1349483980 0

Problem happens without any program running

There are lots of things running at all times. Most are standard OSX processes, keeping track of things for you. Some are started by apps, including 3rd-party apps.

I see a couple of interesting things:

A lot of different messages about problems with windows, including some from the Window Tidy app. They're mostly earlier than the crash, so may not be related, but you might try quitting that, if only to rule it out.

Oct 5 20:32:22 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook.local Google Chrome Helper[443]: Unsure about the internals of CFAllocator but going to patch them anyway.

A bunch of those just before the lights went out. I don't know what they mean, but it doesn't look normal.

Oct 5 20:33:18 Nicholas-Fords-MacBook kernel[0]: CODE SIGNING: cs_invalid_page(0x1000): p=449[GoogleSoftwareUp] clearing CS_VALID

The last logged message (others may not have made it to the log). That looks a bit like Google is trying to check for updates on some Google app installed on your Mac (or update it), but something is out of whack (pardon the technical term 😉).

I can just turn it on, leave it alone with nothing opened after startup,

That's good, but not enough. Be sure to quit Google Chrome, and any Google apps you've downloaded.

Also look at System Preferences > Users & Groups. Select your user account in the sidebar, then check Login Items. You may find some surprises. (That's just one way apps can start background processes.) If you find unexpected things there, especially anything related to Google, you'll need to investigate them.

Some may have background processes that run anyway, so you might try just disconnecting completely from the Internet, and wait the hour to see what, if anything, happens. If your system doesn't hang, that would tend to support the idea that Google is trying to check for updates and/or perform them. (It may wait an hour after startup so it doesn't interfere with other things.)

A Google search (how ironic is that?) shows a number of folks with freezing/hight CPU use/crashing while using Google Chrome. Here's a thread from Google Groups: https://productforums.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/chrome/Yo9CTHpBN4s

Obviously this doesn't affect everyone, but does make your problem look more and more related to Google Chrome.

I tried just using Boot Camp to see if it was a straight-up hardware issue and indeed, blue screen of death after almost exactly 1.0 hour of use.

Really odd... Thanks for the Chrome tips - I was using Chrome on the Windows 7 partition as well, but I really can't imagine the program is the problem on both OSes, and I have experienced this problem before without opening Chrome at all for the whole hour.

Pain in the butt.

It doesn't look like you necessarily have to actually use Chrome; it looks like Chrome (or something installed by Google) is trying to check for updates and/or perform an update an hour after you start up.

That's why you should look in your Startup Items for anything you don't recognize. You may find the culprit listed there.

Also try simply disconnecting from the Internet less than an hour after startup; if the problem is something trying to update itself, that won't prevent it from trying, but if it can't connect to the Internet, you may get a message that will tell you what it is, and/or if it can't connect, it may not be able to do whatever's causing the problem.

Have removed anything I don't immediately need from what I have to assume is now called "Login Items" as the description of how to find Startup Items is no longer appropriate.

Nothing in there was related to Chrome - mostly stuff I don't use much though anyway so no harm in removing some of them.

Still don't think it's a Chrome issue considering it's happening in both Windows and OS X, though.

studyplenty wrote:

Have removed anything I don't immediately need from what I have to assume is now called "Login Items" as the description of how to find Startup Items is no longer appropriate.

Yes, sorry, "Login Items" is what I meant (per my earlier post).

Also look in the Startup Items folder in the top-level /Library folder (not the one in your home folder).

If there's nothing suspicious there, also check:

/Library/LaunchAgents

/Library/LaunchDaemons

<home folder>/Library/LaunchAgents

Still don't think it's a Chrome issue considering it's happening in both Windows and OS X, though.

If you're running Chrome in both partitions, and having the same problem in both, it's not a stretch to suspect that Google has installed the same thing in both partitions, and is having the same problem.

Try disconnecting from the Internet before the hour is up and see what happens.

All above suggestions taken into account and attempted - still beachballing after an hour. Been hard powering off and then on again for days now, getting a bit annoying.

Also, iStat Pro is only showing the left fan running, the right fan (at least in iStat) says 0RPM. Wondering if this is related or not.

I can't tell if it's a specific amount of time each time, I made it to about 63 minutes once, but that was the farthest I got while still checking the uptime.

The computer freezes slowly - generally will continue playing iTunes until it needs to move to the next song, for example, and I can scroll around a webpage for a bit while the rest of my programs are freezing, but before a minute is up, I'm beachballed everywhere.

I just had a new battery installed, but this problem popped up about 3-5 days before that even took place, so pretty much in the dark here.

studyplenty wrote:

. . .

Also, iStat Pro is only showing the left fan running, the right fan (at least in iStat) says 0RPM. Wondering if this is related or not.

Doubtful, but I don't know what the right fan does. In theory, if something gets too hot, it should just shut your Mac down before causing any damage. But you should have Apple look at it.

The computer freezes slowly

Ah, I didn't realize that -- your earlier posts sounded like it was sudden.

Watch your CPU usage via the Activity Monitor app (in your Applications/Utilities folder). Start it well before the anticipated slowdown.

When it starts, select either All Processes or Active Processes in the toolbar, and sort the list by the % CPU column, so the highest numbers are on top, and select the CPU tab towards the bottom.

For this purpose, also select View > Update Frequency > Less Often from the Menubar.

Various processes will "spike" up and down normally as they do things, then are idle, so you need to watch it for a while and get a feel for the processes that are using the most CPU, and the % Idle at the bottom.

When the slowdown occurs, see if something changes significantly, especially if the % idle goes to near zero. If that happens, see what process(es) are using the most CPU.

If the process(es) involved aren't familiar to you, post their names here (and/or check this out: http://triviaware.com/macprocess/all)

You may also want to select the System Memory tab towards the bottom. Keep an eye on the total of Free and Inactive memory (if they're near zero, you may need more), and the Page outs figure (if that's high, it's another indication you may need more memory).

Did you ever try this? It worked for me...

http://blog.pythonaro.com/2012/09/free-disk-space-by-removing-timemachine.html

As noted in the link, that won't have any effect on regular backups to an external drive.

And Local Snapshots are expendable -- if your OSX drive gets oever 80% full, they'll be deleted automatically as necessary to keep it under 80%.

See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #30 for the gory details.

Yeah for sure, but it worked for me. Had the exact same problem with spinning beach ball every time Time Machine kicked in. Purged the snapshots and the problem went away. Whatever works...