Applications Fail to Load

Question

Applications Fail to Load

I find that after using my Early 2011 15" Macbook Pro w/ Lion 10.7.4 for a period of time, my applications do not load/open. I will be working in an application that was previously open, want to open another one (any application) and the application icon will bounce forever in the dock. The program will never open.

I am forced to Force Quit the application. I then try to restart the computer and I get the lovely beachball and the computer never restarts. I have to hold down the power button to turn off and restart the computer.

I have tried the following to resolve this issue:

1. Repaired Permissions (numerous times)

2. Reinstall the 10.7.4 Combo Pack

3. Used Onyx and run all maintenance tasks

I really don't want to have to do a fresh install of everything. Any thoughts?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jul 2, 2012 9:01 AM

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Answer 1

macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

Jul 2, 2012 9:09 AM in response to Jonathan Woodruff

What does Verify Disk report?

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Answer 2

Jul 2, 2012 1:54 PM in response to macjack

Verify Disk gives me an A-OK.

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Answer 3

macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

Jul 2, 2012 4:25 PM in response to Jonathan Woodruff

Create a new User go to System Preferences > Users & Groups > "+" (make it an admin acct) and test the apps in this new account, if they work the problem is isolated to your User and not systemwide.

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Answer 4

Jul 2, 2012 6:01 PM in response to macjack

I'll give this a try. Unfortunately, it's not something I can easily reproduce. It seems to happen after using programs for a long period of time, putting my computer to sleep, using some more, then it starts to happen. Give me a few days and thank you for the suggestion.

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Answer 5

macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

Jul 2, 2012 6:05 PM in response to Jonathan Woodruff

Understood, not easy to troubleshoot sporadic problems.

The next it happens post your Console log.

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Answer 6

Jul 2, 2012 6:31 PM in response to macjack

I checked my console from around the time it happened and I'm receiving a lot of 'imagent: [warning] Received memory warning, dispatching to listeners'

Also had the following set of errors:

"com.apple.backupd: Error -35 while resolving alias to backup target"

"com.apple.backupd: Backup failed with error: 19"

"mds: (Error) DiskStore: No block in wakeup"

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Answer 7

macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

Jul 2, 2012 7:19 PM in response to Jonathan Woodruff

See Ralph Johns reply here on the imagent

The disk store errors sound like they're coming from Spotlight and you might try re-indexing by toggling your HDD in and out of Spotlight > Privacy in System Preferences. Re-indexing will take a while and your Mac will run slowly during the process.

The TM errors I can only refer you to our resident TM specialist's comprhesive troubleshooting.

Section C -backup failures.

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Answer 8

Jul 2, 2012 8:04 PM in response to Jonathan Woodruff

Greetings Jonathan, I am a tier 1 AppleCare advisor. The advice given in the above comments are fantastic. The cardinal rule with repairing permissions is to really avoid that step altogether. You only want to repair permissions if there is an actual permissions issue.

I would tinker around with a test user account to see if the issue can be replicated. If it does happen in the test user I would just try a simple reinstall of Lion first. I am also curious, what applications are giving you this issue. Or does it even matter?

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Answer 9

Jul 3, 2012 9:44 AM in response to unknown316

I'll just have to do some more troubleshooting to see if I can replicate this issue. I'm trying to avoid doing a fresh install, but may just have to do it when mountain lion comes out.

I am usually using the following when this happens:

- Photoshop CS6

- Lightroom

- Excel

- Safari

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Answer 10

Kurt Lang

Level 9

58,344 points

Jul 3, 2012 11:48 AM in response to unknown316

The cardinal rule with repairing permissions is to really avoid that step altogether. You only want to repair permissions if there is an actual permissions issue.

And I don't believe for even a split second you work for Apple.

Repairing permissions can't do anything other than set permissions where they should be on system files, if they're wrong. Two, how do determine there is a permissions issue without doing a repair permissions? Do you have the correct permissions settings memorized for the thousands of files which belong to OS X? So when you do a listing in Terminal you can say to yourself, "Well! There's one that's wrong. Better run Repair Permissions."

Go away.

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