Macbook grinding to a halt.

atilladehun

Its a 2Ghz C2D with 1GB of RAM. I can't switch between tabs or click a link without getting the beachball. iTunes is stopping mid play and iPhoto is jumpy too. The only other apps I use are skype which is fine and neo office which has remained as slow as it has alway been. I've deleted alot of stuff off, run onyX and Disk utility and nothing has helped. Its driving me up the wall, what can I do? Do I have to get more RAM? This wasn't a problem two weeks ago. grrrrr. Thanks for listening, even if you can't help.

WUSBDesign

Run Activity Monitor (from the Utilities folder) and see what activities are choking the CPU or HDD or both.

TBH, 1GB is fine for MacOS, but once you start running multiple applications on a regular basis, then it is time for more RAM.

jmck87

I would imagine 1GB RAM is more than sufficient to run all the applications the OP has mentioned at the same time.....

How old is your mac? Did it get gradually worse or just instantly slowed up?

atilladehun

It just kind of started about two weeks ago, I've been downloading alot of uni content but thats not a couple of hundred MB. I bought it in January, its a refurb. I'm fairly dilligent with keeping it clean, using not too many processes etc, I shouldn't have problems switching programs. Thanks for the replies.

nialler

Restart, hold down S at startup it'll boot to a black screen

type the following

/sbin/fsck -f

let it run through it's stuff if it says *FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED* hit the up arrow on the keypad and you should see the /sbin/ bit again hit return until it says everything is ok.

Now type

cron daily
let it do it

then
cron weekly
let it do it

then
cron monthly

These are just normal utilities that help keep yer mac healthy, if it's still having trouble you might have to update pre-bindings and clear font caches.

atilladehun

nailer, I've tried to that three times and the OS just keeps loading back up.

The problem seems to be around the web browsers only. I can have ichat, itunes ad neo-0ffice all humming away nicely but I can't write this post in safari, firefox, camino and opera without getting four spinning balls so far.

Also Network is the only thing peaking in the activity monitor. I use Three different internat connections, wireless, Lan and mobile usb at home work and on the road. In every situation surfing the web has this issue.

I have googled 'make firefox/opera faster' and changed a few settings but none helped. Im getting frustrated and miss my ibook that only froze once in 3 years.

Sad Professor

Have you tried logging in with a new user account (you can create one in System Prefs > Accounts)? Make any difference?

If not try (as I advised someone in another thread) temporarily removing the "Internet Plug-ins" folder in the Library folder (note, there are two Library folders, one in your HD's root directory and another in your user folder. It's the first one you need to remove, just temporarily to test.)

Also what version of OSX are you running?

Is there any difference if you close everything except the web browser?

atilladehun

Sad Professor thank you.

The plugin removal seems to be the problem. I took them out and put them on my desk top and I haven't had a problem since. Just so you know there were no differences if I only had the browser open with one web page opened and I'm running 10.5.2

I decided to write down all the plugins I was using because in reality I'm going to need to put some of them back in, so far I put Flash player in again to wtch youtube. I'm also asking why should there be a problem, plugins are normal. Maybe someone will spot a dodgy one here.

AdobePDFViewer.plugin
CaptureCAM-PRO Player.plugin
Flash Player.plugin
Flip2Mac WMV Plugin.plugin
iPhotoPhotocast.plugin
JavaPluginCocoa.plugin
JoostPlugin.plugin
NO-PPC-Dir-Shockwave (would this be a problem or just not work)
nslQTScriptablePlugin.xpt
Quartz Composer.webplugin
QuickTime Plugin.plugin
QuickTime Plugin.webplugin
RealPlayer Plugin.plugin
VerifiedDownloadPlugin.plugin

the meaning if the word plugin is now destroyed plugin plugin plugin....

Thanks again

Sad Professor

It's trial and error but I'd start with these:

CaptureCAM-PRO Player.plugin
JoostPlugin.plugin

Could be any of them though.

atilladehun

Grrrr, I'm So bloody annoyed, It just won't stop. I can't even type this message without it freezing. the only thing I haven't done is use more RAM but I can't afford it at the moment. It ridiculous, I have a gig. Plus I'm not convinced its a ram problem because of the activity monitor I mentioed above. Its with all the programs now, I was trying to avoid the internet and I'm still having the problem. Sometimes its beyond usable, barley worth my time. Is there anything else I can try?

Sad Professor

In Activity Monitor what process is using the most RAM (RSIZE)? Also what's using the most CPU? If you click on CPU or RSIZE at the top it will order everything.

How many apps do you have open? 1GB of RAM isn't really enough on Leopard but the system shouldn't be unusable.

I suspect however that there may just be a misbehaving background process.

Is Spotlight indexing by any chance?

whiterebel

I was getting a similar thing with browsers, especially if Powerpoint was going too. Checking the CPU/RAM usage, I found those apps were hogging massive amounts of RAM. Ran Onyx, uninstalled and reinstalled firefox, repaired permissions, and constantly cheecked FontBook and sorted out duplicates - looks for the small black dots beside fonts. Select all of them, got to edit>resolve duplicates. It does help.

Hugh_C

If this were me I'd reinstall the System - you can do this without destroying your User(s).

Make sure you've a decent backup before you do anything drastic though!

Hugh

tenandtracer

have found Drive Genius pretty good in the past for excessive beach balls!

muggyog

Before you go down the reinstall system route, I suggest that you follow Niallers suggestion i.e. Start up in single user mode (UNIX interface). The reason that it dident work for you is that you must press the 'apple' key AND the 'S' keys together when starting up ( keep pressed until you see white text on a black background). Follow the instructions on this text based interface and when fsck has done its work type 'logout'. This should bring you back to your familiar logon. Then use activity monitor to view your running applications and see which ones are hurting your MacBook.

atilladehun

Hi guys,

Just to let you know, I have been trying your suggestions over the last few days. I'm mad busy with college so its not getting my full attention. I'm pretty sure its a flash problem. I have it un installed, I have no problems, I need it for something on the net, I install it, all my troubles start. I delete it and restart and I'm fine again.

I still tried all your ideas, of Onyx and disk utility. I got into the start up UNIX section and typed in what you said to.
/sbin/fsck -f
nothing happened, I left it for a half hour. on the screen it said to type in
/sbin/fsck -fy
still nothing happened. Infact what ever it said to type for exit, i think it was exit didn't even work and I had to hard shut down.
I took some screen shots of as close to a freeze as possible while activity monitor was open. I'm pretty sure there's nothing there.
so I googled flash problems and there's a few of us on leopard that have this problem but I haven't found a solution. Its not good enough really I need flash but don't know a way out. I don't think an older version of flash would work on Leopard would it?
Picture 1.png
I'll put up the other photos if you want.
I'm really grateful for all your help, this is driving me up the wall at the moment, so it is great to get some support.

muggyog

First thing is you definitely should be able to run fsck in single user mode. Its not critical that you get it working but it makes me suspicious of your analysis of your problem.

The fsck command is simply a UNIX File System ChecK which will run at the command prompt when you are in single user mode ( after root# ).

You suspect Flash, so what is it you are installing & uninstalling?

If all your browsers are 'beachballing' its obviously common to them all.

Flash would not be used to type to the forum.

Have you checked your log files ( console application, click log icon )?

atilladehun

Hi,

Thanks for he help. I tried the unix start again and I got these results:

after I typed
/sbin/fsck -f
the computer ran for a while and then said the HD appears to be ok.

when I typed in any of the cron commands it said
cron: can't open or create /var/run/cron.pid: Read only file system

I don't know what to look for in the log files. If you ask me a specific or give me instructions I can tell you or take a picture.

I was uninstalling the plug in as had been mentioned before. It certainly makes a difference, but there are less frequent and shorter freezes happening still.

Thanks again,
Paul.

muggyog

Before doing any more log stuff it might be simpler to avail of the Activity Monitor app.

Open Activity Monitor, Select CPU column, select most usage at top. now open your browser while watching activity monitor in the background (resize both windows to suit) . If you are getting beachballing you should be seeing fun and games going on. I would also select network tab at the bottom and watch that too.

Ive enclosed a sample from my machine , I have both Firefox and Safari open.

atilladehun

Thanks, I appreciate all the help by the way. Like I said I'm mad busy with college so thats why there are gaps between my correspondence. My problem remains however. Its not constant, its random, I can't see a pattern for when it happens but all I know it does and when it does I'm screwed. Its only an internet problem. It effects all apps if safari is open I think I'll show you the picture but I opened a few apps and there was no problem, I closed them all and open safari and although when there's no immediate problems after a while it all hangs up. The pictures I'm putting up will show you. Any ideas?

Sad Professor

atilladehun, take another screenshot of Activity Monitor except this time order it by CPU usage like muggyog said above. The RAM usage seems ok to me.

Did removing the Internet Plug-ins folder fix this problem or not?

atilladehun

I thought it made a difference, but it doesn't. I just deleted them there to check and no I'm still getting halts.

muggyog

I dont think this is a RAM problem either. Some process appears to be taking over which you need to find. Maybe operating system or network related.

To exclude your OS you need to keep an eye on what processes are going on. To do this you need to have your browser window and activity mon. open. Sized so as you can view activity mon. while using your browser. As requested earlier select the CPU column and chose most at top. This is to enable you to immediately see what is causing the beachballing because rogue procees ( high CPU user) will go to top position. Use the browser as you would normally and wait for for the 'beachball of unhappiness'. We can guess all day what is causing your problem but if you follow this advice you will catch the problem yourself.

Also can you do a screen grab when it 'hangs'?

atilladehun

Yeah I've been trying to take them as the computer hangs but it often doesn't snap until afterwards. I'll put up a another one I've taken. Just from watching though there are often different things at them top. Sometimes Safari, with different CPU% from 5 to 45. Quite often though it disappears off the list or goes red and is not responding. Other times kernal_task is up the top again ranging from low numbers to the mid forties. The green line on the graph is usually quite high for Data received per sec.

Sad Professor

I don't know if you mentioned this already but how do you connect to the internet?

Also how long does the system hang for? A few seconds? Minutes? Is the mouse pointer affected?

Forget about taking snaps of Activity Monitor, just keep an eye on it yourself. See if you can identify any misbehaving processes. Just make the window small and leave it in the background where you can see it while in other apps.

I think Safari may be the problem though. Have you tried using Camino?

atilladehun

Ok, so I had a thought about your question prof. I had said before that I was connecting a few different ways, Airpot at home and uni, usb modem and rarely but sometime ethernet. There are general problems with the wireless set up at uni so I had a look at the network preferences while there was a hang and I found it interesting.

The Airport symbol at the side had turned orange and was at the bottom.
the location name was set to uni and not automatic.
the network name was blank.

So I went into advanced.
In the Airport Tab I saw that home network was second to my uni network so I switched them. There was also two lines with my home network. I don't know why this is. So I deleted one. I also went and cleared the proxy because its only supposed to be in for uni, and clear for home.

problem solved..... for a while. At the begining my computer changed from running so badly to smoothly in a second and I though everything was going to be ok. After a while though the airport radar at the top started to lose reception and everything was stalling just like before. So I had a look again and I found that my network was missing from the list, appearing and disappearing. So back in advanced my network was on the list twice again, i couldn't tell why. so I turned off Airport for a while and turned it back on, chose one of my home networks again and for the last while its been ok.

I'm sorry for rambling but I was trying to get in every point that I came across today. Thanks for all the help guys too. This is very frustrating to have to work at my laptop all the time and not even be able to type a sentence half the time. But I determined to get it back to fantastic working ways.

do you think this might be the source of the problem? From having the Activity monitor open all the time there is no regular offender, all the browsers have the same problem. Sometimes ichat has the problem. kernal_task is often top but I read in another thread that that is the main function in the OS. So I want that hammering away. It couldn't be a RAM problem because I can have IDVD, iphoto etc going for it. It was definitely an all round internet problem. Even though I connect through different mediums this is the most common, and for now seems to be sorting me out.

I wonder why this ever became a problem in Airport, and why there are two lines with my home network in it.

Thanks again.

Sad Professor

Hmmm, perhaps OSX is getting confused between the different network locations. It's a pain I know but maybe try going into Edit Locations and deleting everything and then re-entering the settings. But just do your Home network for starters to see if the problem remains.

atilladehun

Ok,

This is driving me up the wall. I am going to try and sum up everything again to see if you can help me because I don't know how to deal with it.

The computer hangs frequently, mostly on the internet, but sometimes, in other apps.

When it hangs the beach balls spins, I can't click anything and I cannot use short cuts. this happens for up to a minute.

On the activity monitor when sorting by CPU the programs can run up to 45%. More important though they will disappear off the list for allot of that time or appear in red and say not responding.

This is with every web browser, Safari, Firefox, Camino, Opera, Real Player. they are all the same.

I tried removing the plug ins, and thought it may be the flash plug in, but after testing that, I had problems with out.

I also thought it may be because I had logged onto the university wireless network and changed some settings. It remains after I deleted those settings.

It could have been because my network was in my Airport list 3 times, however I deleted them and still have a problem.

Its also somewhat annoying because its not all the time, sometimes It will work fantastically as a macbook should, others my win95 compaq would put it to shame.

I have run disk Utility and onyX several times with nothing to report back and I opened up another user account with similar problems.

I think that is everything. Thanks for you time and help.
Paul.

WUSBDesign

Confirm you have 1GB RAM by clicking on "About This Mac".

pow wow

I'm having the exact same problem with mine lately (1GB 10.4.11). The whole thing has been on a go-slow for weeks. You're not alone mate!

atilladehun

Ok while the going is good, I re installed the OS. which meant I had to re install Tiger then Leopard and I'm still in this mess. I hate my mac now.:eek: There I said it. With nothing extra on the laptop its still hanging left right and centre. Just so you know. :mad: I can't express all the mixed emotions I have going on here.

WUSBDesign

It is possible that one of the RAMs go "missing" - hence the suggestion to check the RAM using "About This Mac".

Have a read on the heat-related woes the MacBookAir is afflicted with - here - and you might get more debugging ideas.

While you're at it, do installl one of those temperature monitoring apps and see if abnormal readings coincide with the problems you have.

atilladehun

Ok, so its Airport.

I cut it out and through LAN and usb modem things are working fine. Just have to find out why Airport might be a problem.

I know I said it was a problem to use all connections, but its not now, and I need something to go with here. So Airport is my new least favorite.

whiterebel

Anything between the router and teh computer like a Microwave, digtital cordless phone? These do cause problems with wireless signals.

atilladehun

nah, tried it right beside, i think its a computer problem really. thanks

WUSBDesign

I am interested in finding out exactly what is wrong with your Airport. Did you disable the Airport and connect via the ethernet port to get expected performance? Will you be asking Apple to replace the Airport Extreme card?

atilladehun

Yeah I turn off Airport and connect the cable, works a charm. Airport is mostly a problem when i type, like here and email and google a im. i'd like to be sure I know what's wrong before I go contacting anyone. If you glance back over this thread you'll see i had a few ideas and if I contacted apple before they may have told me I was just wrong.

sailorfoley

Could it be that there are many wireless networks in the area that are all operating on very close channels? i had an issue like this before. many wireless networks in an area can cause interference with each other.

see the link below from apple's website. There is a section on how to change the channel.

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/DesigningAirPortNetworks0190271.pdf

Sad Professor

I don't really understand how Airport could be slowing your whole system down.

When you reinstalled was it a clean install? Did you migrate your old user account over?

muggyog

This is like pulling teeth (we're eventually going to get the bad one!)

We need to narrow down the problem, so firstly what wireless router are you using?

I have seen beachballing caused by wireless networks ( usually signal strength issues). Signal strength can be observed graphically by number of semi-circles in the wireless icon @ top of the screen. A more accurate method is to select the wireless icon and choose 'open Internet Connection' at the bottom. This will open a further window which gives more detailed information on the wireless connection. If you dont have a wireless icon (cone made from arcs), go to system preferences --> network, in the show pulldown menu select Airport and tick 'Show Airport status in menu bar'.

Even better option is AG Grapher which is free and can be downloaded from http://www.chimoosoft.com/products/apgrapher/. The grapher application gives a continuous graph of various wireless parameters which you can compare with beachball time.

atilladehun

Hi,

Thanks for he replies. To answer your questions, there are five networks showing up. The signal strength is full and I'm using a Netcomm nb6w. I'm in Australia if it makes a difference. Maybe Airport doesn't work upside down?

I'll give the channel change a go in a day or two when I have a chance.

Paul.

nialler

I wonder would it be constantly releasing and renewing it's DHCP address? Thus causing the beachballing. I've never heard of airport doing that.

WUSBDesign

What is the firmware version of AE wireless card? About This Mac > More Info > Airport Card will tell you this.

muggyog

Final suggestion ( Nialler may have something ). Open to your console application ( its in the Utilities folder ) Click the Logs icon at the top of the screen, select system.log and leave open. Do all the stuff that causes beachballing and when it happens note the time. Go back to your system log and as it is time stamped you should see the culprit.

And another thing, stop standing on your head:)

atilladehun

Hi, thanks for the help.

It turns out my house mate does have a digital phone just on the other side of the wall, so while that would be a good solution I'm getting hanging with the wireless turned off and Lan plugged in.

I've no idea what it means other than its taken me all weekend to do work that should have taken a couple of hours

18/05/08 10:07:33 PM /Applications/Pages.app/Contents/MacOS/Pages[105] /Applications/Pages.app/Contents/MacOS/Pages ATS AutoActivation: Query timed out. (elapsed 5.0 seconds. params: queryString = {com_apple_ats_name_family == "Helvetica-Bold"}, valueListAttrs = {<CFArray 0x55d3280 [0xa09521a0]>{type = immutable, count = 1, values = (
0 : <CFString 0xa077c9d8 [0xa09521a0]>{contents = "kMDItemContentType"}
)}}, sortingAttrs = {<CFArray 0x55d32a0 [0xa09521a0]>{type = immutable, count = 1, values = (
0 : <CFString 0xa077c908 [0xa09521a0]>{contents = "kMDItemContentModificationDate"}
)}}, scopeList = {<CFArray 0x55d3330 [0xa09521a0]>{type = immutable, count = 1, values = (
0 : <CFString 0xa077db48 [0xa09521a0]>{contents = "kMDQueryScopeComputer"}
)}}.)
18/05/08 10:08:52 PM [0x0-0x1b01b].com.apple.Safari[149] [0x0-0x1b01b].com.apple.Safari [INFO] Application stopping...
18/05/08 10:08:52 PM [0x0-0x1b01b].com.apple.Safari[149] [0x0-0x1b01b].com.apple.Safari [INFO] exit status thread
18/05/08 10:08:52 PM [0x0-0x1b01b].com.apple.Safari[149] [0x0-0x1b01b].com.apple.Safari [INFO] Application stopped
18/05/08 10:10:40 PM DashboardClient[177] DashboardClient com.apple.widget.weather: Fetching data failed, no <CurrentConditions>
18/05/08 10:10:40 PM [0x0-0x7007].com.apple.dock[82] [0x0-0x7007].com.apple.dock 2008-05-18 22:10:40.620 DashboardClient[177:10b] com.apple.widget.weather: Fetching data failed, no <CurrentConditions>
18/05/08 10:10:41 PM DashboardClient[177] DashboardClient com.apple.widget.weather: Fetching data failed, no <CurrentConditions>
18/05/08 10:10:41 PM [0x0-0x7007].com.apple.dock[82] [0x0-0x7007].com.apple.dock 2008-05-18 22:10:41.355 DashboardClient[177:10b] com.apple.widget.weather: Fetching data failed, no <CurrentConditions>
18/05/08 10:11:24 PM DashboardClient[177] DashboardClient com.apple.widget.weather: Fetching data failed, no <CurrentConditions>
18/05/08 10:11:24 PM [0x0-0x7007].com.apple.dock[82] [0x0-0x7007].com.apple.dock 2008-05-18 22:11:24.180 DashboardClient[177:10b] com.apple.widget.weather: Fetching data failed, no <CurrentConditions>
18/05/08 10:12:22 PM DashboardClient[177] DashboardClient com.apple.widget.weather: Fetching data failed, no <CurrentConditions>
18/05/08 10:12:22 PM [0x0-0x7007].com.apple.dock[82] [0x0-0x7007].com.apple.dock 2008-05-18 22:12:22.087 DashboardClient[177:10b] com.apple.widget.weather: Fetching data failed, no <CurrentConditions>
18/05/08 10:13:20 PM DashboardClient[177] DashboardClient com.apple.widget.weather: Fetching data failed, no <CurrentConditions>
18/05/08 10:13:20 PM [0x0-0x7007].com.apple.dock[82] [0x0-0x7007].com.apple.dock 2008-05-18 22:13:20.038 DashboardClient[177:10b] com.apple.widget.weather: Fetching data failed, no <CurrentConditions>
18/05/08 10:19:01 PM kernel kernel jnl: unknown-dev: flushing fs disk buffer returned 0x5
18/05/08 10:19:02 PM DashboardClient[177] DashboardClient com.apple.widget.weather: Fetching data failed, no <CurrentConditions>
18/05/08 10:19:02 PM [0x0-0x7007].com.apple.dock[82] [0x0-0x7007].com.apple.dock 2008-05-18 22:19:02.141 DashboardClient[177:10b] com.apple.widget.weather: Fetching data failed, no <CurrentConditions>
18/05/08 10:20:09 PM kernel kernel jnl: unknown-dev: flushing fs disk buffer returned 0x5
18/05/08 10:22:34 PM kernel kernel AirPort: Link Up on en1


I was doing a few things here so if you can make sense of this i would appreciate anything

this came up alot earlier on too

18/05/08 6:53:35 PM [0x0-0x84084].com.apple.iWork.Pages[661] [0x0-0x84084].com.apple.iWork.Pages Sun May 18 18:53:35 Macintosh.local Pages[661] <Error>: The function `CGFontGetGlyphsForUnicodes' is obsolete and will be removed in an upcoming update. Unfortunately, this application, or a library it uses, is using this obsolete function, and is thereby contributing to an overall degradation of system performance. Please use `CGFontGetGlyphsForUnichars' instead.

Its not just dashboard that has a problem, its everything, just what happened to be feeling the brunt of whatever is wrong now.

muggyog

Some questions (Im a glutton for punishment!)

It is unclear at what stage you got beachballing (was it for approx 15mins of log?).
What time in the log did you first get beachballing?

Why did you install Tiger then Leopard? And was it a erase install?

If your directly connected to router and wireless is off why are you getting

18/05/08 10:22:34 PM kernel kernel AirPort: Link Up on en1

What version of Pages are you using? There is an issue with version 2


Your

18/05/08 10:11:24 PM DashboardClient[177] DashboardClient com.apple.widget.weather: Fetching data failed, no <CurrentConditions>

problem could be caused by a permissions problem (repair them in disk utility) or the fact that you have lost network connection. If you want you can use this application to turn the dashboard off/on.

This is better than 'Home and Away'

muggyog

.......also......... dident like

18/05/08 10:20:09 PM kernel kernel jnl: unknown-dev: flushing fs disk buffer returned 0x5

Open the console app and select 'all messages' in the log list. In the search window ( top right ), type the word 'flushing'. This will filter out all instances of the error and see if you have many. While your there , type 'ioatacontroller' or part of, and see if there is any of them. Both errors are pointers to HD failure or at least illness.

atilladehun

ok so I ran another disk utility today and this time this came up....

22/05/08 3:34:40 PM Disk Utility[323] Disk Utility ACL found but not expected on "System/Library/User Template/zh_TW.lproj/Library/iMovie".

an whole load of them infact. So i googled it as I tend to do

and I found this...

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1497423&tstart=105

I didn't really understand it (the input commands mostly), but still did it.

Dramatic change.....
False Dawn? New Hope?

Stay tuned in to find out...........

atilladehun

I brought it to the shop on tuesday and they weren't sure what was wrong but tried replacing the logic board and it seems to have done the trick. I don't know anything about logic/mother boards or why or how they break but it hasn't beach balled in nearly 24 hours I have it back. thanks guys for your help, I was happy I exhausted any possibilities beyond my knowledge before I brought it in.

It also turns out the crack on the top case is not y fault and is a standard problem so I'm getting it replaced on monday, woo. win win.

uberwolf

I have been suffering similar symptoms for months. The machine is next to useless. I've decided to push all required files on to an external and do a clean upgrade of OS. Only thing for it

atilladehun

If you've gone through everything like I have here then getting it checked out was the only step I had left. the guy reckoned it was a common issue to see, but I suppose if you work in a place that only sees sick macs then thats going to be his view. Are you still in warranty?