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C2D weird locking up/freezing/hanging?

Hey everyone,

I have been experiencing some weird locking up/freezing/hanging when using my Core 2 Duo. The first couple of days after I got my MacBook Pro and after using the Migration Assistant I would get locking up -- the machine would go in a state where some functions are working (like the mouse, you could move it around) but everything else would not be available to use.

This meant that I could move my mouse around but can't click on any windows, any buttons, can't type anything in and the dock doesn't magnify, nor do its icons work. Since I can't click on the Apple menu to log out/restart/shut down, I have no option but to force a shut down by holding onto the power button.

This happened twice within 4 days of owning the machine, so I reformatted and moved everything over from my old PowerBook G4 manually -- reinstalled all my apps manually, copied my mail over manually, all my data over etc.

This freezing or whatever hasn't occurred until 15 mins ago, so there has been about 2 weeks between lock-ups. Up until now, I put the previous lock-ups down to something that perhaps was copied over from the PPC side of things over to the Intel side that the MBP C2D didn't like.

But now this is really weird. I can't remember what I was doing the first time the machine locked up, and I think I was command-tabbing through open apps the second time it happened and as I released the keys it froze then. The third time this happened (today), I was doing the same thing as the 2nd time.

When it did this today, I was listening to a podcast, and when the machine froze the podcast was still playing! So clearly half the machine is unresponsive, while some other parts of the OS and apps are still working. Unfortunately I didn't have Activity Monitor open during any of the locking up, so I can't see if there are any wayward applications.

Could this be a graphics problem? Maybe the drivers or the video card is a little dodgy? I sometimes get graphics corruption as well, either in Safari with the tabs showing up as black rectangles, or once when I woke up the machine from sleep the usual black background for the Username and Password dialog box was "coloured random static". I also sometimes get graphic rendering bugs in pages in Safari -- there would be a "line" missing from the browser screen, but scrolling up and down again usually corrects this.

This has never happened to me on my PowerBook G4, and find this rather odd. Anyone got any ideas? If anyone needs more information I'll be more than happy to provide.

15" MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz, 15" PowerBook G4 1.67GHz, Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Nov 24, 2006 1:17 AM

192 replies

Nov 4, 2007 6:17 PM in response to George Haritonidis

Just a little input;

I have an eMac G4 running panther, and i've had this a couple of times. Interestingly enough, it never used to happen, except when i got a new mouse (by BENQ). I couldn't understand it, but 2nd time it happened, i tried switching the mouse to the other usb port on my keyboard and it's never frozen since o.o although it does seem to change speeds from time to time <.<;; =p

probs not much help, but just in case it was, i though I'd give my input anyways

mopsko

Level 1

0 points

Nov 5, 2007 4:03 AM in response to Morn

Morn wrote:
Well this does not seem to be fixed in Leopard.
Ran into a freeze other day.

Are you sure you can reproduce this problem with the steps I described here:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=4392544#4392544

1. plug in an external monitor, maybe open a few apps
2. unplug it
3. alt-tab between your apps for an extended period of time (a few minutes)

Sorry for asking but I'm not running leopard yet and it seems simply unbelievable to me that Apple didn't fix this annoying and serious bug after 2,5 years. This might not concern most Apple-users. But those who have an external display and still want to be mobile with there mobile computer - imho not uncommon - will be affected by this nasty bug: I'm having a second screen at home, I need to unplug that when I go visit my customers. The only way to avoid an almost daily (!!!) freeze (and the loss of all my unsaved data) is to log out and in after unplugging it which is sometimes unacceptable if not impossible. There have been filed numerous bug-reports (I even filed a very detailed one myself) and it seems to be a perfectly reproducible software-bug. I could reproduce it on every single Powerbook/Macbookpro I tried it on. Yet nothing seems to have been done about it. I didn't even receive a response.

This is very lame.

deesto

Level 1

25 points

Nov 5, 2007 6:17 AM in response to mopsko

I've had the misfortune of reproducing this problem multiple times on my MacBook with 10.4.10.

Nov 8, 2007 6:31 PM in response to George Haritonidis

I spent an hour on the phone with Apple Tech Support today. My last day of the free phone support... I figured I'd use it well.

Anyway, the tech I spoke with had heard NOTHING about this issue and was quite surprised. Once I started explaining in detail the suspicions regarding WindowServer, and the various Console logs we've all been seeing, he didn't ask me to do any of the basic trouble-shooting steps we've all done.

The most disturbing thing though, was the fact that there were no recent issues of this in the Tech Support Database. So he took about a page and a half of notes regarding our conversation and logged it. He also said that he would check the forums regarding the issue.

My recommendation would be for everyone who's having this issue to calmly call in and explain that you are experiencing the WindowServer Freezing Issue. Explain the steps you've taken, how it can be reproduced, and the contents of the Console logs that indicate the problem. The more of us that call in explaining THE EXACT SAME THING, the more likely it'll get fixed.

Nov 16, 2007 7:44 AM in response to George Haritonidis

It would appear that I've solved the problem on my machine. I noticed that the first week or so of running Leopard I didn't have any problems. Then all of a sudden the freezes started, just like in Tiger. So I started going over what had changed... I had upgraded Growl from 1.1.1 to 1.1.2.

I un-installed Growl and haven't had a freeze yet. I'm not sure if something low-level that Growl relies on changed in Leopard, or if its a conflict between Growl and one of the Growl-aware applications I had installed (Firefox, Adium, Stuffit Expander, Transmit). But whatever the case, now that Growl is gone, my machine is running better than at any point since I've owned it.

And its a bit more responsive when waking it up. I believe that somehow Growl was causing a slowdown as it was waking due to its trying to catch notifications from apps like Adium as to their status.

Obviously, your mileage may vary. But for me... the problem seems to be solved.

Wolfpup

Level 1

25 points

Nov 16, 2007 7:53 AM in response to Matt Milano

Interesting. Is everyone with issues using Growl? I had it on one Mac breifly, but I really didn't see the point, and trashed it.

Morn

Level 1

30 points

Nov 16, 2007 8:30 PM in response to mopsko

I don't particularly want to try and cause my computer to freeze.
But I will say so far I've had it freeze one time a few minutes after disconnecting an external monitor.

Nov 18, 2007 11:25 AM in response to Morn

"I don't particularly want to try and cause my computer to freeze.
But I will say so far I've had it freeze one time a few minutes after disconnecting an external monitor."

"Interesting. Is everyone with issues using Growl? I had it on one Mac briefly, but I really didn't see the point, and trashed it."
.
.
It could be an issue where Growl is having trouble with handling multiple monitors in Leopard...

Message was edited by: !!!Chris!!!

DPSG-Scout

Level 4

1,138 points

Nov 18, 2007 1:31 PM in response to George Haritonidis

For what it's worth:

Another crash (freezing UI) this morning:

iMac 24", running 10.4.11, that means all software updates installed, including the new iMac Graphics Firmware Update.

Haven't upgraded the production machine to Leopard yet, mainly because Smart Folders are missing the "Others" button and are totally useless now. See http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=5725429

mopsko

Level 1

0 points

Nov 19, 2007 1:24 AM in response to DPSG-Scout

I can confirm that the problem described happens without growl as well. Growl isn't really doing anything special imho. It's just a daemon running in the background with user privileges an when it receives special messages displays a window. It has nothing to do with the ALT-TAB switch and especially nothing to do with the windowserver log-errors. At least not more than any other app.

DPSG-Scout

Level 4

1,138 points

Nov 19, 2007 9:10 AM in response to mopsko

I forgot to mention, that both the iMac and MacBook as well as the now brocken iMac G5 have never even seen Growl. With OS X 10.4.x installed from scratch and a second display connected all the time ! , every computer I have tried so far will freeze after a few days uptime. It's totally ridiculous. I've unplugged the external display now…

Morn

Level 1

30 points

Nov 22, 2007 3:44 AM in response to !!!Chris!!!

As I do not have growl that is not very likely.

tsuna

Level 1

0 points

Dec 10, 2007 4:18 PM in response to DPSG-Scout

Hi guys, I'm posting here to complain because I've also been bitten by this bug (UI totally freezes on Cmd-Tab, SSH and mouse remain responsive, iTunes still playing) and I am also frequently pluging a 2nd screen (for my day work). I seriously hope Apple will fix this in what will be 10.4.12.

This is my 2nd MacBook and I've always had this bug.

Jan 2, 2008 11:36 AM in response to George Haritonidis

I have the same problem. I have a Cinema HD connected to the MBP, but it happens whether it's connected or not.

When I cmd-tab to switch apps, it hangs for 20 seconds for the first tab and 20 for the release. I know this, because if I hold the tab key down for the first 20 seconds, I can then tab tab tab quickly through the open apps. When I then let go to choose one, it hangs for another 20 seconds.

Other symptoms include: login won't respond until the background image is displayed on both screens (about 20 seconds for each one, sometimes much more), same 20 second hang when launching either searchlight or dashboard, and very slow log out time.

This is driving me nuts. We have multiple users on this machine and they all are experiencing the same symptoms.

Jan 5, 2008 11:19 PM in response to George Haritonidis

Same **** problem... mine will freeze for 20 seconds then VOMIT all of the commands I do during the lockup, then it will often lock up again... sometimes it will work for a bit then lock up again.

2.4ghz C2D purchased a month ago - neato

C2D weird locking up/freezing/hanging?