2014 rMBP 13" 2.6 GHz hangs for 10 seconds a few times an hour

[Dekema2]

As the title says, I could be doing anything (primarily browsing Safari), and the whole computer will lock up. The seconds flasher will stay put and then it'll catch up around 5-10 seconds later. I am on the latest version of High Sierra.

Why is this happening? How can I find out more? It's annoying and sounds like a hardware issue.

 

[treekram]

Try running in safe mode.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

If the problems do not occur in safe mode, there is very likely some 3rd-party software that is causing the problem. Software mode will disable non-Apple kernel extensions, startup items and login items so obviously those won't be available as you do your test.

Also, check on how much available space you have on the disk. Lack of available disk space may cause problems. A lack of memory combined with low available disk space can be a problem. Use Activity Monitor to see your memory usage. You can also use it to monitor your CPU to see if there is a process which spikes during the times your system hangs.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201464

 

[crucifixx]

I have the same problem here. Exactly the same. Everything would freeze for about 20 secs or so in a random interval every hour or so. I have the 2016 rMBP.
[doublepost=1526571349][/doublepost]

As the title says, I could be doing anything (primarily browsing Safari), and the whole computer will lock up. The seconds flasher will stay put and then it'll catch up around 5-10 seconds later. I am on the latest version of High Sierra.

Why is this happening? How can I find out more? It's annoying and sounds like a hardware issue.

When did it start happening to you? It started happening for me yesterday really. But I didn't remember installing anything before that day that might've caused this. The only new apps I've added is the new Tweetbot for Mac. Did you happen to install this app as well? Currently I'm trying to run my Mac without Tweetbot to see if it's the culprit.

 

[mijail]

That thing of "X secs freeze from time to time" is exactly what happened to me when I had a mechanical HD that was failing. While the HD was retrying the read of some bad sector, the whole computer would just freeze. Sometimes the freezes would last minutes, depending on the size of the bad zone; each failing sector adds its X seconds.

I don't know if something similar could happen in SSDs.

You could try some SMART checking software ASAP, to check if the monitoring is warning you of the impending demise of the disk. There are free options; I use smartmontools from macports, which is commandline, but I think I have seen free GUI options too.

Anyway, if SMART does confirm a problem, you should assume the HD is about to fail totally, so stop whatever you're doing and backup as much as possible.
And if SMART does NOT confirm a problem, you should still backup as much as possible before the problem gets worse .

So ... how are your backups going?

-----------------------------------------------

Actually, years ago I wrote a blog post about my problem and how I salvaged the data, using free tools. The tools and disk formats might not be current, but the general procedure should be.

https://hmijailblog.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/damaged-hard-disks-and-data-savaging.html

 

[crucifixx]

That thing of "X secs freeze from time to time" is exactly what happened to me when I had a mechanical HD that was failing. While the HD was retrying the read of some bad sector, the whole computer would just freeze. Sometimes the freezes would last minutes, depending on the size of the bad zone; each failing sector adds its X seconds.

I don't know if something similar could happen in SSDs.

You could try some SMART checking software ASAP, to check if the monitoring is warning you of the impending demise of the disk. There are free options; I use smartmontools from macports, which is commandline, but I think I have seen free GUI options too.

Anyway, if SMART does confirm a problem, you should assume the HD is about to fail totally, so stop whatever you're doing and backup as much as possible.
And if SMART does NOT confirm a problem, you should still backup as much as possible before the problem gets worse .

So ... how are your backups going?

-----------------------------------------------

Actually, years ago I wrote a blog post about my problem and how I salvaged the data, using free tools. The tools and disk formats might not be current, but the general procedure should be.

https://hmijailblog.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/damaged-hard-disks-and-data-savaging.html

I just checked my SMART condition and everything seems good, so this might be a software issue more than anything. This might be a High Sierra thing?

 

[Honza1]

Just checking the obvious...
1. You did run Disk Utility.app and run First Aid on the disk? Exactly these symptoms have been happening to me when there were errors in disk structure - and that is not identified by SMART (that monitors disk hardware, not system structure).

In any case, having recent reliable backup is critical.

2. If all else fails, you can make backup, verify it (or make second backup on separate disk, Carbon Copy CLoner is great tool for this), wipe the main system disk, install clean system, and test this does not happen on clean system. Only if not, then you should use Migration Assistant.app to migrate your stuff back.
If the fresh system works fine, computer is OK. If not, it calls for hardware check and repair. Apple store or support can help with this.
If the bad behavior comes back after migrating your data and applications back, it is something you have. Then you have to figure out what it is and no one can really do that for you, too many possibilities.

NOTE: there is a lot of complaints about High Sierra. With latest updates most are overblown, current release is generally OK. Most bugs have been resolved (yes, not all...), especially such visible ones. What you see is NOT normal for HS. It is not HS itself, it is something else - or possibly something badly interacting with HS...

 

[mijail]

A way to check if the problem is in the hard disk (and not the OS) is to boot from an external drive (for example, with a Linux pendrive). That OS should be freeze-free while you don't access the HD. Conversely, when you start navigating the HD and come across the damaged part, you'll start experiencing again those freezes.

 

[crucifixx]

So turns out it might be related to the new Tweetbot after all. I've contacted the developer and they said they're looking into it. A couple of other guys also mentioned they were experiencing the same problem right after they installed Tweetbot.

 

[Dekema2]

I have the same problem here. Exactly the same. Everything would freeze for about 20 secs or so in a random interval every hour or so. I have the 2016 rMBP.
[doublepost=1526571349][/doublepost]
When did it start happening to you? It started happening for me yesterday really. But I didn't remember installing anything before that day that might've caused this. The only new apps I've added is the new Tweetbot for Mac. Did you happen to install this app as well? Currently I'm trying to run my Mac without Tweetbot to see if it's the culprit.

This started about 3-4 months ago, although I can't really pinpoint exactly when because it's been so frequent.

 

[mijail]

So turns out it might be related to the new Tweetbot after all. I've contacted the developer and they said they're looking into it. A couple of other guys also mentioned they were experiencing the same problem right after they installed Tweetbot.

Does that mean that your freezes only happen when Tweetbot is running? If so, that's quite the hint ;P.

Please, if/when you get any new information about that Tweetbot problem give us an update. I'm really curious about how an app can cause system-level freezes (apart from a massive memory leak, that should be easily visible in Activity Monitor...)