Mac keeps freezing; what steps to take?

Does turning it off really work? I had the same problem, because I don't turn off my mac. When I load a youtube video on my mac and I go somewhere without internet connection, I can still watch the video. I've tried to turn it off for the past few weeks every day, but it doesn't have an effect on my mac. Are you 100% sure that turning it off is the way to solve the problem, or is it something else you tried?

Hi-

Yes it did help for sure and no I didn't change any settings or anything else. But I do close all other all the windows before I shut it down. :-)

HMMMM... If you only have 2GB of RAM running 10.8 you are stuffed. Erase and reinstall 10.6/upgrade the RAM in your Mac.

Apply your software updates

And then Enjoy. 

BDAqua

Pageouts are totals since last boot or login, but looks likie you need more RAM/Memory, 2 GB is just enough for the OS to run basically.

H

I have to post this because I found the answer to this similar, nearly duplicate problem. On Mac OS 10.8.3, iMac, 3T drive. Had same problem, thinking it was internet/safari related, tried different browsers which helped for a while, but then the problem of freezing kept happening. It also became more frequent and to the point every single time waking up from sleep would cause it to freeze, forcing a reboot. Went through all the forums and tried just about everything posted and to no avail.

My solution, after sytematic diagnosing it, was to run DiskWarrior 4.4, though I'm sure other versions would work as well. Standard rebuilding of the directory did not completely cure the problem, freezing kept happening several times a day and was getting worse. I then repaired disk permissions, which can be done from the standard Disk Utility app in your Utilities folder.

Freezing still happened.

I then used the Check All Files & Folders diagnostic in DiskWarrior and it came up with a bunch of errors in files that had resource headers that were damaged and could not be repaired, these being several large Word files pertaining to my novel. I left those alone for the time being, planning on copying the file information and deleting the offending files later.

The next problem on the list were several data.plist files. DiskWarrior identified these as having "Detected that Property List data is damaged and cannot be repaired."

These were within .graffle files (from the originator program OmniGraffle). I opened the files, copied out their information into new documents, and then deleted the damaged files containing the data.plist (data.plist can be found using: right-click/Show Package Contents on certain document files and apps.)

DiskWarrior also showed Property List data was damaged in Library/Cookies. I removed the file from that location, and then later deleted the file after the system created a new one. I had every suspicion this was the main culprit.

One other file's data.plist was also damaged, the com.apple.appstore.plist. I moved this file to another location, ran the app store program to make sure everything was still working (it created a new plist file after running), and then deleted the file.

I have since, even with the Word files still damaged and on my drive, had no, I repeat happily: no system freezes since doing that. Waking up the computer from sleep, which normally made me cringe, produced no freezing.

Eight days and still going completely freeze free, never shutting the computer down, but letting it sleep.

I hope this solution helps most of you ou there who are having system freezes. Nothing more frustrating when working on a novel, or editing video, than having system lockups.

Hi-

Turning off and closing all the windows and apps only helped my laptop freeze-free for a month or so, and it started freezing again worse than before. So I brought my laptop to Apple shop for repair, at first the techy thought it was just because of the some apps I downloaded (Utorrent), which I didn't accept as I know it wasn't the reason at all, cuz if it was, then how come my husband's laptop works just fine and it's even a months older than mine. So the techy said he would reformat my Mac Os blah blah and basically back to as new laptop. Soon as he started formatting my laptop, it froze again and gave an error.

Took him an hour to figure it out. This is what he diagnose on my laptop:

Problem Description/Diagnosis

Issue: Cx reports that mac book air is running very slow and beach balling.
Steps to Reproduce: Tested in cx OS X and found after about 5 min that system would start beach balling then would have then would have to be shut down.
tested system in storage diags and a WARNING show as the result.
Proposed Resolution: Replace SSD. and reinstall OS X
Cosmetic Condition: Good normal wear and tear
Known Liquid Damage: No
Check-in Required: Yes
Username: none
Password: none
Would the customer prefer to create a temporary password while their computer is being serviced?: No
Estimated Turn Around Time: We'll call you within 48 hours
Mac OS Version: 10.8.4
Hard Drive Size: 128GB
Memory Size: 4GB
iLife Version: 11

Employee 1130472870

Repair Estimate

Came back after 3 days as they needed to order the item and until now (15th day) my laptop hasn't froze or anything. Good as new.

PS: Didn't have to pay anything as it's still under warranty so if your laptop is still under warranty, might as well bring it to the apple repair shop.

Cheers!

Hi, I've got a similar problem

It started about tree weeks ago. My Mac just started to get slower and slower, so I thought it was perhaps the hard drive was too full, so I started deleting stuff. However, I usually store things on my external hard drive, so I have 180Gb free out of 300Gb. This didn't help and it got slower to the point of freezing, and no amount of leaving it rest helped. So I bought 2Gb of RAM (had 1Gb, which has served me well for 3 years) and although things work quicker, soomer or later the BBoD turns up again. THis usually happens with browsers; Firefox or Chrome, usually when combined with something else, like Word or finder. I have OS 10.5.8.

I looked in the forums and ran a disk utiity check. I found a couple of errors and cleaned them plus permissions using Disk Utility from the original install disks. No luck. I have ordered Snow Leopard, which should arrive in the next couple of days, but will this help? I know tere are problems with some flash plugins for Firefox, but Chrome and SAfari also go mental. Strangely, the other day I was on Skype for 45 minutes (without opening any other programmes) and it went beautifully (it had been switched off for about 6 hours previously)

I laso think that it is getting too hot. When I touch it it seems too hot but I can't remember how hot it used to get, so I don't really know. Will I have to back-up my docuements to install the Snow Leopard? And do you think it will help at all?

Thanks go to Ming-Core! Ran DiskWarrior. Removed offending files with Property List errors.

The comical part is that trying to fix the App Store com file does not work - so I left it.

Now my screen & laptop are freeze free again. Ming-Core you ROCK !

( To the other old school folks out here - same issues for 30 years of PC'ing - some things are constant. )

Ming-Core's post just matched my past experience. The more I love my Macs - the more the fixes from the PC world still apply!

Hi,

Just wondering if you're still having this problem? I have exactly the same symptoms even though I'm running OS X 10.6.8 and have previously upgraded my RAM to 4GB. I also use PS6 a lot (I'm a photographer) and have a feeling that the problems started around the time I upgraded from PS3. Do you by any chance use an Evoluent Vertical mouse? I find that my mouse starts playing up and then shortly after the whole screen freezes. I'm still able to move the cursor but I can't click on anything. RAM and disc space all seem okay, I've recently repaired the OS X disc from my install disc and there are no pageouts showing in my Activity Monitor or any problems in my Console.

Any thoughts welcome...

Have just bought and installed DiskWarrior as per Ming-Core's recommendations above.

Thank you!!! I think it worked!

I found several problem .plist files in the library and elsewhere which I have removed. Looks like I had particular issues with my Epson scanner settings.

So far so good. Cheers Ming-Core.

what worked for me was first doing a software update download and then following these steps:

1. attempt a Restart (for me it failed due to Finder running some process)

2. go to Activity Moniter (under applications -> utility) and force quit Finder by first double-clicking the Finder process to open a window

3. on that window, click "Quit", which should give an option of "Force Quit", so click on that

then a lot of stuff starting freezing and going blank, and the screen was all grey except for a little loading icon on the bottom, but eventually my MBA restarted and I was able to log in back into my account. I've been freeze-free so far...

my problem possibly lied in some error in the Finder function. my desktop was frozen for months but i never really paid attention to it until i started having these super frequent freeze problems. so the Finder reboot and system update/restart probably set everything back to its usual function

Try DiskWarrior. It has solved many similar issues for me.... The strangest one DiskWarrior solved was my screen going 'crazy'. It looked like it was a video hardware issue. It was not. DiskWarrior found all kinds of errors in the Plist of iTunes. Ran DiskWarrior, scanned files, reboot - fixed.

I still run DiskWarrior regularly for prevention.

Another recent trick to try is to go into System Preferences, Users & Groups, Login Items and uninstall any applications that show as missing. For example I had some old Blackberry app items on my system that were giving me trouble.

Good Luck !

I had the same problem and I used disk warrior and it was giving me the same trouble... then I cleaned out my google chrome tool bar and set it back to factory settings and that fixed it. So it could be a problem with an application that is causing that problem. If the computer freezes hen you have a particualr app open that could be the culprit... good luck.. I'm glad i figured out the problem because it was starting to get annoying

I've expierenced this on my girlfriends MacBook. After deactivating the flash Plugin the problem was gone. Other users on this MacBook did't have the problem. So it seems to be something with flash user data in the personal folders of the user.

I've deleted flash with the adobe uninstaller and reinstalled: Problem is gone now.

Thank God for Disk Warrior. I have no preference for any OS. Sorry Mac fanatics, however I must say Windows have better utilities to fix errors. Having said that I had to use Disk Warrior to fix the problem. They sent me the usb and I used it rebuild the directories. Now my mac is running like new.

Thanks so much. This sounded the easiest and it worked. Haven't had a freeze up since I uninstalled Adobe flash. Installed ClickToFlash plugin for Safari. May reinstall Adobe since it worked for you. Sometimes the simplest solution works best. When I couldn't find my screen shots there were a ton of suggestions and the simplest was just to relaunch Finder - - - it worked.