(Rant-ish) almost Fall now but I'm seeing more beach balls than ever

[Sijmen]

I have been using and enjoying Apple products for little over 4 years now. It started with a PowerBook 12″ with Tiger, which since has been replaced by a (stock) MacBook Pro 13″ and accompanied by an iMac. Each of them great machines.

But now I am having increasingly more problems. It started with the MacBook Pro which, since I bought it, randomly stops every so often (sometimes as much as every few minutes) when using any WebKit program (it seems) and beachballs for anywhere from 10 to 30 seconds or so. It frustrates me incredibly and makes me use the laptop less. I hope Snow Leopard would provide relief but it didn’t. A lot of suggestions have been made on this issue, but resetting NVRAM and other such tips have had no effect. Now I’m stuck with a laptop I can use only frustratingly.

The iMac (the 24”/2.4/2600 model) has been performing fantastically since I got it over a year ago. But now after upgrading to Snow Leopard, I can’t browse the internet with Safari because it crashes every *** two web sites on Flash ads or whatnot. Yes, I could use Firefox or Opera, yes I can use the “click to play” extension, but I like Safari and this is a defect.

So no I have two computers that hang regularly when performing the most basic of tasks. Regardless of the underlying cause, this isn’t what I paid or hoped for .

I’ll be visiting the Apple reseller who sold me the MBP to get it fixed, but the iMac is out of warranty and it looks life a software issue anyhow.

 

[gr8tfly]

The good news is you still have over two days left of summer (the equinox is Sept. 22nd, at 21:19 UTC). That should take some of the pressure off...

Anyway, what have you tried to fix the problem? You've probably read that most don't have the issues you've described. Have you tried, for instance, resetting Safari (clearing caches, etc)? Or, even a clean install?

There usually is (as you admit) a cause and effect for the problems you're having. You've even come to the conclusion that it's not a hardware problem (which is good).

You have two machine which seem to have similar problems. It's at that point you should be looking for things which the two of them have in common [software-wise]. At this point, the best place to start is with a new, clean install of SL, complete with a new user. If that all works, then you can consider migrating from your old installation.

I hope some of these suggestions help.

 

[Sijmen]

I might do that with the iMac (a clean install).

The MBP however has had the problem ever since I first started using it. It's also a wholly different kind of issue. With the iMac, just Safari hangs on some Flash elements and needs to be Force Quit. The MBP just hangs in its entirely at random and then continues as normal.

Hey I know, I’ll install SL on an external HD so I won’t lose all my stuff.

 

[gr8tfly]

I might do that with the iMac (a clean install).

The MBP however has had the problem ever since I first started using it. It's also a wholly different kind of issue. With the iMac, Safari hangs on some Flash elements and needs to be Force Quit. The MBP just hangs randomly for some seconds and then continues as normal.

Hey I know, I’ll install SL on an external HD so I won’t lose all my stuff.

I've had a couple of the Safari hangs - no doubt Flash related. So far, just an annoyance (Flash's done that in previous incarnations, to some degree, so I don't entirely blame SL).

When the MBP's hanging, try and look at Activity Monitor (make sure "all processes" is selected) and see if there's one particular process at fault.

Installing SL on the external's a good way to isolate the problem(s). Then, you can narrow it down to either the system or something in your user account.

Another way to attack a "bad" user account is to create a new, temporary account. Login and go to the same sites and run the same apps - see how it goes. If it's something corrupt in your user account, then you can use the Migration Assistant and a new account to migrate from the "bad" account - hopefully, leaving the bad stuff behind.

 

[Sijmen]

Thanks for all the tips

Unfortunately I haven't been able to get to Activity Monitor when the MBP is hanging, because even that won't launch. When I click the Apple menu it only opens after the hang is over; same for the key combination.

I just created a partition on one of the two external HDs, but I completely forgot OS X needs a GUID partition table. So now I reformatted the other external HD which I use for Time Machine as GUID, then created partitions for TM and the new OS X install. Downside is that I now have to wait for the two machines to finish a full backup—wouldn’t want to risk a failed install with no backups.

 

[gr8tfly]

Thanks for all the tips

Unfortunately I haven't been able to get to Activity Monitor when the MBP is hanging, because even that won't launch. When I click the Apple menu it only opens after the hang is over; same for the key combination.

I just created a partition on one of the two external HDs, but I completely forgot OS X needs a GUID partition table. So now I reformatted the other external HD which I use for Time Machine as GUID, then created partitions for TM and the new OS X install. Downside is that I now have to for the two machines to finish a full backup—wouldn’t want to risk a failed install with no backups.

You can keep Activity Monitor running, and possibly use cmd-tab to switch even if it's hanging. It does take some resources when running, so a "lighter" way is to keep Terminal open. Then, cmd-tab to it and run "top". I always have one Terminal session open, just in case. I tend to use it to check then network and my server, though.

Backups = good.
Sounds like you've got a good plan going now to try and figure out what's going on.