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Every day, my MacBook Pro freezes at noon and midnight...

C

christophertin

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 6, 2004
36
0
....and I don't know why. I'll be happily doing something totally innocuous; like typing, scrolling around on a webpage, or even just watching the clock widget; and the moment the second hand hits either noon or midnight, my computer will freeze. I'll still be able to move the cursor around, but I won't be able to click on anything.

This only started happening about a week ago as well, so I think there's something software related going on here. Anyone have any brilliant ideas as to what preferences to start trashing, where to start poking around, etc.?
 
christophertin said:
....and I don't know why. I'll be happily doing something totally innocuous; like typing, scrolling around on a webpage, or even just watching the clock widget; and the moment the second hand hits either noon or midnight, my computer will freeze. I'll still be able to move the cursor around, but I won't be able to click on anything.

This only started happening about a week ago as well, so I think there's something software related going on here. Anyone have any brilliant ideas as to what preferences to start trashing, where to start poking around, etc.?
Click to expand...

VIRUS!!!!

no just kidding. It's not a virus. It's the midnight curse.
 
Probably either some system maintenance stuff (macaroni?), or maybe a widget that updates itself twice a day. Try and turn off all programs and widgets, and if possible all 3rd party system preferences, and see what happens.
 
if nothing elce archive and install OS X, it could be a hardware problem in your MBP's clock but i doubt it.
 
sounds like the cron automation tasks are causing a panic, when it happens next give us the logs as i think the cron data should come out
 
semaja2 said:
sounds like the cron automation tasks are causing a panic, when it happens next give us the logs as i think the cron data should come out
Click to expand...

Er....that sounds interesting. How do I do this?

1 hour, 10 minutes till next freeze....
 
EricNau said:
Have you added any software (esp. Norton) in the last week? It may be the problem.
Click to expand...

No, but I did have some old, obsolete Norton preference panes that were migrated over from my old system, that I just trashed. We'll see what happens.
 
NJuul said:
Probably either some system maintenance stuff (macaroni?), or maybe a widget that updates itself twice a day. Try and turn off all programs and widgets, and if possible all 3rd party system preferences, and see what happens.
Click to expand...

Okay, just closed all widgets. Also turned off the iCal Alarm Scheduler in startup items. Not sure how to just turn off all programs and 3rd party preferences, but we'll see if this helps at the next cycle, which is in T-minus 66 minutes.
 
The same happened to me and the cure lay in System Preferences ... the light bulb ... some how the lap top had been set to switch on and off at about the same times you are talking about ...!

There certainly is no default setting it just happened .....
 
The Dreaded Mac

Sure it is a great computer and as sound as hell but it also has a mind of its own.

Just like Steve for no reason whatsoever it goes balmy ... then after a while it recovers by ignoring every warning it gives ... again just like Steve
 
christophertin said:
No, but I did have some old, obsolete Norton preference panes that were migrated over from my old system, that I just trashed. We'll see what happens.
Click to expand...
Others that had similar problems found it was certain preferences in Norton (dealing with scheduled tasks) that caused it to freeze at certain times.

Make sure every trace of a Norton or symantec product is deleted.
 
Okay, this is interesting. So when I go to Date and Time and uncheck the 'Set Date and Time Automatically' button, and then manually reset the clock back to a minute before noon....when the clock reaches noon, it's fine. Nothing happens.

Hmm.
 
christophertin said:
Okay, this is interesting. So when I go to Date and Time and uncheck the 'Set Date and Time Automatically' button, and then manually reset the clock back to a minute before noon....when the clock reaches noon, it's fine. Nothing happens.

Hmm.
Click to expand...
Maybe whichever program (I'm assuming it's a program) does not use system time. Keep your clock on the wrong time and keep changing it so it never reaches noon or midnight. Then wait to see if it still freezes at the actual noon/midnight. (did that make sense)?
 
Yeah, that kinda makes sense. Well, I just set it to Anchorage time, so we'll see if it freezes again in 40 minutes, or if it freezes again tonight at the 'proper' midnight PST.
 
Okay, more interestingly....this seems to only happen when I'm running on BATTERY power. This evening I left for a few hours, and when I came back after midnight my laptop was still running because I had it plugged in.
 
Okay, more interestingly....this seems to only happen when I'm running on BATTERY power. This evening I left for a few hours, and when I came back after midnight my laptop was still running because I had it plugged in.
 
What you need to do for us is make the system freeze then as soon as you get back in goto applications>utlitles>console

then give us the log called "daily.out" its located in /var/logs. to show the log menu click the logs icon
 
Hmm. Okay, the problem seems to have disappeared. I'm not sure what it was (quite possibly removing the Norton?) but thanks for all the tips, everyone!
 
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