entire computer freezes

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entire computer freezes

With the new POS Mountain Lion, my MacPro has become more unstable than my Windows 7 .... so much so that I'm actually considering going back to my pc.

While using the computer, the entire system will freeze. Can't click the apple to do a force quit ... the only thing that I can do is a hard turn off / on.

At first, I thought it was Mozilla products causing the crash (either Firefox or Postbox - which is based on thunderbird). But it really doesn't matter what I'm doing on the computer. Today, I clicked on the app store and the entire computer froze. At other times, I've clicked on finder and entire computer froze. Sometimes I'll be opening up a new program, other times I'm trying to close software - and at other times I'm simply trying to save a file or open a new file.

It just doesn't seem to matter anymore - my macpro is freezing now about twice a day. I never had this issue prior to upgrading to the new Mountain Lion OS.

Is there anyone out there that has any recommendations about how to either fix this problem or uninstall the Mountain Lion OS?

Thank you.

Mac Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), 12 GB Ramm

Posted on Nov 20, 2012 6:21 AM

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Answer 1

a brody

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83,047 points

Nov 20, 2012 6:28 AM in response to dngrwill

Mountain Lion is typically not that unstable. What it does say is you probably have something not compatible that is installed, or your machine has other inherant issues that just happened to surface with the install of Mountain Lion. Is your data backed up?

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Answer 2

dngrwill Author

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Nov 20, 2012 6:31 AM in response to a brody

Yes. Time Machine does a daily backup. I currently have 4 hd's installed. I use my mac for work.

As such, I regularly use firefox, postbox, evernote, dreamweaver, photoshop, coda2, filezilla, open office and xampp.

Prior to the updated os, I had ZERO problems with all the same software.

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Answer 3

a brody

Level 10

83,047 points

Nov 20, 2012 6:40 AM in response to dngrwill

OK, see if temporarily booting with no hard drives attached at least solves the freezes. Having multiple hard drives attached at once can cause issues with asynchronisity of the drives, especially if there are other peripherals attached to the same bus that don't understand Apple's Energy Saver, or other standards. Simplify. Also double check each application version's compatibility on http://roaringapps.com/apps:table making sure all reports are newer than July 25, 2012. Anything older may not be accurate. Generally speaking backing up is best done when you aren't doing anything else. Background tasks can also create issues for Time Machine. So first simplify and see if the external drives are at issue.

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Answer 4

dngrwill Author

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Nov 20, 2012 7:00 AM in response to a brody

I checked all the apps - according to the website everything I'm running has a checkmark.

OpenOffice - is displayed twice. One with a question mark and the other with the checkmark. No difference in versions ... a little confusing there.

LogiTech control center shows an X in red. But my keyboard and mouse work fine ... although sometimes the mouse does freeze up momentarily and I have to use the trackpad.

Regarding the hard drives ... they are all internal drives that came with the Mac. I've run the disk utility on each drive and all have come back ok.

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Answer 5

dngrwill Author

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Nov 20, 2012 7:09 AM in response to a brody

Appears the Logitech issue is bigger than I thought.

The whole system crashing thing is happening to just about everyone using logitech on the mac.

http://forums.logitech.com/t5/Mice-and-Pointing-Devices/After-Mountain-Lion-upgr ade-my-mac-is-no-longer-compatible-with/td-p/887368

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Answer 6

a brody

Level 10

83,047 points

Nov 20, 2012 7:17 AM in response to dngrwill

Steer Mouse and USB Overdrive have both been software that work better with mice than many manufacturer drivers. See if you can remove the Logitech drivers, and find a compatible version of one of these drivers and see if it works better.

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Answer 7

dngrwill Author

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Nov 20, 2012 11:48 AM in response to a brody

I'm shocked that something as small as a Logitech driver was the constant cause of the mac crashing.

I purchased the USB Overdrive to handle the logitech keyboard and mouse .... and have had no issues since.

Maybe someday Apple with design an ergonic keyboard and mouse for people like me that work on a computer 14 hours a day!

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Answer 8

jh100

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4 points

Jan 8, 2013 1:17 PM in response to dngrwill

I am having the same problems you describe, with a very unstable machine that I have to restart many times a day. It was fine before I installed Mountain Lion. I have barely gotten any work done for a month because of it. I am not using anything by Logitech. I don't know how to troubleshoot this properly. When I look at the Activity Monitor, there are lots of items in there, but it's not clear what they are. Everything I have is supposedly Mountain Lion compatible according to the roaringapps.com website. Any suggestions on how to figure it out?

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Answer 9

dngrwill Author

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Jan 8, 2013 1:22 PM in response to jh100

The other thing I've found that just kills my mac is Firefox & other mozilla based software. Which really *****. I prefer firefox & postbox - which are all mozilla based. Postbox seems to be the worse.

My solution has been that when I go for lunch, or am going to be away from the computer for a sustained period of time, I make sure to quit all mozilla software. Since I've been doing this, I think I've had one freeze in the last 45 days.

Hope it helps.

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Answer 10

jh100

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4 points

Jan 8, 2013 1:24 PM in response to dngrwill

So, I am using Safari, though I do have Firefox installed. I find if I leave my computer on for about an hour without using it, it's a mess when I return, so I am now shutting it down a few times a day. That helps, but is not a solution in my opinion. I am so fed up with it I am ready to throw it out.

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Answer 11

jh100

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4 points

Jan 8, 2013 4:00 PM in response to jh100

Anyone know if DivX is causing problems with Mountain Lion? I went to About This Mac>More Info>System Report, and clicked Software>Installations, then sorted the list by Source. There were 3rd party items listed for just a few items. DivX was one, and after poking around the web, it sounds like others are having trouble with DivX and Mountain Lion. I removed all DivX files, including the folder in HD>Library>Application Support>DivX, HD>LIbrary>Internet Plug-Ins, and HD>Library>QuickTime. So far, so good. Will see what it's like tomorrow.

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