Keynote crashes...MacBook spontaneously restarts

[khunsanook]

MacBook Core Duo, Leopard 10.5.5, Keynote 4.0.3

Periodically when I play a Keynote presentation my MacBook will spontaneously restart. I've searched many different forums and found many others with the same problem, but no working fix yet. I have a huge presentation next week and obviously I can no longer trust Keynote to do it (quite a few ugly stories on the other forums about embarrassing keynote crashes in front of large audiences).

Anybody else have luck with fixing this unlucky problem?

Guess I'll be using P-Point...not nearly as pretty. bummer.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

Maybe you could remove iWork and reinstall?

 

[shwc]

Sounds like bad ram to me.

I have had 4 different macs spontaneously restarting. New ram fixed all four. Keynote just happens to be the most ram intensive program your are probably running. I believe that keynote presentations are saved in ram after the first time through, for quicker/smother side changes on successive showings.

 

[chatoyer]

You're right that it's a known problem, but one way I get around it (happened once, but thankfully not just as I was just about to give a lecture - I'm a prof). I usually power down completely before going to the lecture theatre, boot it up once there, and then *just* run Keynote. Knock on wood, have never had a problem. But watch, I've just jinxed myself and tomorrow's lecture will blow up...

Edited to add: also, don't add or change anything in the slide deck before launching the presentation. I read on the Apple thread that can trigger the re-start sometimes.

 

[khunsanook]

Thanks for all of your suggestions everyone. appreciate all of them.

I have reinstalled iWork...a couple of times...still no luck.

RAM is fine and I've also tried other RAM chips- and believe me Keynote is far from the most RAM intensive program I'm using. I've never had any other program evoke this restart problem.

I will try the full power down and see what happens. The thing that worries me is I've been unable to predict why, where, when this shutdown happens.

Unfortunately I'm still not sure I want to put faith in Keynote for my final presentation. PPoint is better than it used to be, but Keynote is still so much nicer!

 

[ubercool]

I have Keynote crash on me so badly that it hosed the system. The first time I was able to recover in the "Single User" mode. Last Friday, before *three* presentations here in Amsterdam, it decided to crash so badly that I had to spend the entire day, until 3a, fixing it so I was able to reinstall the System.

Both times, my MacBook immediately restarted after the crash. And I have, like the OP, already tested all my RAM and disk hardware (lucky I had both Leopard OS and TechTool Pro disks with me). Now, I can't play QuickTime movies, a problem that reared its ugly head during the first version of Leopard.

I do have to say, though, that Keynote has yet to crash during an actual presentation, knock on wood.

 

[minicrazy592]

I just lost 4 hours of work because of this. Guess who didn't save! >.<

 

[tknv]

My case more worse...

Hi et., al.

I use leopard on Macbook core duo(not core 2 duo).
When I start keynote('09) presentation.suddenly mac down.
and restart.
at that restart,mac try to read drive(this is normal boot scheme I think).
But. no boot up anymore,just try to read drive.
Then I insert MP3 music cd.confused:I could not remember why insert MP3 cd).
anyway no boot,just mac try to read drive media again to again.

Also my drive could not work before that issue,maybe 6month ago.
But I no need to fix it(drive).

Now I'm thinking,how to do.

• reinstall Leopard from firewire drive.
• give up this macbook and rescue data.

 

[xraydoc]

I feel bad for everyone who's had trouble, but I've been using Keynote nearly constantly since version 1.0 and I've never, ever had it crash the entire computer nor crash during a presentation. And I don't see it using an unusually large amount of RAM, either.

But, basic troubleshooting may help, such as repairing permissions and verifying/repairing the startup disk. Also, check your fonts as a corrupt font could have unpredictable results.

 

[ltldrummerboy]

Have you thought about exporting it as a Quicktime video? It keeps your transitions intact and you can play it on any computer. That's what I had to do for one of my presentations.

 

[tkermit]

Macbook Core Duo ('06) - Snow Leopard 10.6.3 - Keynote 4.0.4

I get the same behavior as the OP. Completely ridiculous that this has never been fixed, considering this critical bug is at least 2-3 years old. I would even update to the newest version of Keynote if I thought that would fix it, but it's been reported for Keynote '09 too. Anyone know for sure whether this has been fixed in a point release ?

http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/30/keynote-bug-spontaneous-reboots/

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1076436&tstart=0

 

[tknv]

I remember that issue

Then I bring my Mac to Mac Dr.,He said logic board is broken.
So That incident was not keynote issue,Just at that time I used keynote.
I could salvage all my data. But Mac die...

Hi et., al.

I use leopard on Macbook core duo(not core 2 duo).
When I start keynote('09) presentation.suddenly mac down.
and restart.
at that restart,mac try to read drive(this is normal boot scheme I think).
But. no boot up anymore,just try to read drive.
Then I insert MP3 music cd.confused:I could not remember why insert MP3 cd).
anyway no boot,just mac try to read drive media again to again.

Also my drive could not work before that issue,maybe 6month ago.
But I no need to fix it(drive).

Now I'm thinking,how to do.

• reinstall Leopard from firewire drive.
• give up this macbook and rescue data.