Cannot force-kill a process, even with Terminal

Question

Level 1

8 points

Cannot force-kill a process, even with Terminal

Hi,

I've been having issues with apps going into "Application Not Responding" state after I finish using it and press +Q. The application doesn't fully quit - I can still +tab to it, albeit the top File/Edit/View menu does not switch to the application that's not responding. I cannot quit the application by ANY MEANS and I cannot restart the system, as the system hangs and fails to restart. Once an app stops responding, the only solution is to hold the power button to force-shut down the MBP.

Which app?

Doesn't even matter - sometimes it's Firefox, sometimes it's Chrome, most recently it was Adobe Premiere CC.

What I've tried and it does not work:

+tab to the app and try to +Q => nothing
right click on the app in the dock and force quit it there while holding Option => nothing
try to sudo killall -KILL command in Terminal => cannot find the process
when I open Activity Monitor to try to find either the exact name of the process that's not responding OR its PID, I cannot find it - the process does not exist on the list. If it was firefox that's not responding, I am confident I could have found "firefox" in the list of processes - but it is simply not there. As far as Mavericks is concerned, the process has quit itself already. Only it hasn't. The process itself doesn't even seen to matter, as it's process-agnostic. This problem happens to any process, so it's not the fault of Firefox or Chrome or an Adobe app - this is a system problem.
obviously, Activity Monitor has been of no help, as it can't quit a process that's not listed

About the system:

MBP late-2011 running 10.9.5, all system updates are installed and up-to-date
Firefox and Chrome are fully up-to-date
system is running on an SSD that was recently installed.
don't know if the SSD is in any way involved in this, but this issue didn't use to happen when the system was on an HDD.
I don't have a ton of apps open when this happens - most of the time there would be 3-4 apps open, such as Chrome, Firefox, iTunes/iWork or maybe a creative cloud app. It's never the same combination of apps.
Once this problem starts, the system keeps working fine, except that one app that's not responding.
If I try to re-open the app that's not responding, I get this message:
"The application "<name>" can't be opened. -600"

I cannot attach a crash report, as there is no report generated as the app doesn't crash until I turn the power off.

This is unbelievably frustrating and I haven't been able to figure out what triggers it - this problem happens randomly, only every so often and I cannot figure out a pattern that would make this issue appear on purpose.

I would appreciate any help in figuring out how to force kill the @#$^*ing processes in Mavericks 10.9.5. Thank you!

Posted on Oct 3, 2014 4:40 PM

Reply

Answer 1

BobHarris

Level 9

56,735 points

Oct 3, 2014 5:30 PM in response to anamnet

If "killall -KILL process_name" or "kill -KILL process_pid_number" does not kill the process, then that process is hung in the kernel, as a kill signal cannot be delivered until the process returns from kernel space to user space.

That makes me suspect that maybe you have a 3rd party kernel extension running on the system, or you have a real hardware problem, as you say it can be any program that hangs.

a) consider posting the EtreCheck output for opinions on what 3rd party kernel extensions you have have loaded

<https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6174>

b) Boot into Safe Mode, which will clear the kernel caches AND when the Mac boots it will NOT load any 3rd party kernel extensions.

<http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1564>

Does the problem still occur? If it stops, then that is a very strong indication there is a 3rd party kernel extension causing problems.

c) If Safe Mode does not stop the hangs, then my guess is a hardware problem.

c.1) USB devices can fail. Try removing all USB devices, and if you use a USB keyboard and/or mouse, try using an alternate keyboard and mouse to eliminate them as possible problems.

c.2) do you have 3rd party RAM? If so, try removing it and putting back the original Apple RAM.

c.3) if you have gotten this far, consider making an Apple Genius Bar appointment, and having them do an evaluation.

Hopefully, you stopped back at b) and have identified the offending 3rd party kernel extension.

Reply

Answer 2

anamnet Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 3, 2014 4:46 PM in response to anamnet

I should add that I have tried to quit it via +Option+Esc and the process DOES appear on that list, but pressing Force Quit in that window doesn't actually do anything to the "Non Responding" app in question.

Reply