Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Mac OS keeps freezing! Please help!

S

ShortyDK85

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 11, 2011
39
0
Hey, mates :)

I really hope ya'll can help me out, I really don't know what to do... Recently my iMac (v.10.9.4) started freezing up for no apparent reason. It doesn't matter what I'm doing, how much ram I have left, which programs I am running, it just freezes up!

I searched for similar cases, and tried out some possible solutions, such as looking at my ram usage, activity monitor, hard drive space and such... I have the following info:

HDD:
Capacity: 499,25 GB.
Available: 128,44 GB.
Used: 370,77 GB.

CPU:
full


MEMORY:
full


DISC:
full


As I do not receive any error message or anything like that when it freezes, there is nothing to copy/paste. I could just reinstall, but my Time Machine does not have enough time to backup my hard drive before it freezes, which means I can't save my data - ergo, I can't very well format and reinstall :(

Really hope somebody can help! Thanks a bunch!

Best regards,
Shorty
 
Looks like you have plenty of memory and nothing is going wild with CPU usage.

A failing drive often causes these symptoms. Try a command-r boot to recovery and do a verify disk. Does that show any errors?

Have you recently installed any new hardware or software that may have caused this? If it just started out of the blue with no hardware or software changes, my bet would be a bad drive.
 
I've now tried a verify disc, but no errors were found :( I recently updated Mac OS along with a few apps, and as far as I recall that is when the freeze-problem started happening...

full
 
Last edited:
ShortyDK85 said:
I've now tried a verify disc, but no errors were found :( I recently updated Mac OS along with a few apps, and as far as I recall that is when the freeze-problem started happening...
Click to expand...

Try booting to safe mode. That bypasses and login or startup items for testing. If the problem goes away in safe mode that tells you it is a startup or login item causing the issue.
 
I have now been running in safe mode for over 50 minutes, so it would appear it has something to do with the login items... Any ideas as to how I identify the program in question
 
ShortyDK85 said:
I have now been running in safe mode for over 50 minutes, so it would appear it has something to do with the login items... Any ideas as to how I identify the program in question
Click to expand...

Just trial and error by removing a few at a time. Run the app Etrecheck and it will give you a complete list of startup and login items and where they are and you can work from that list.
 
Any ideas on how to remove the startup items? I know that I can find login items in System Preferences, Users, Login items, but don't know about startup items?
 
ShortyDK85 said:
Any ideas on how to remove the startup items? I know that I can find login items in System Preferences, Users, Login items, but don't know about startup items?
Click to expand...

They can be in several different folders. Here is an article that describes them all.

What might be easier is just use Etrecheck I linked to get a list of them, then use the free file search app iFileX to search for them and delete them that way.

Make sure you do a full backup before you do this in case you mess things up. :)
 
ShortyDK85 said:
I've now tried a verify disc, but no errors were found :( I recently updated Mac OS along with a few apps, and as far as I recall that is when the freeze-problem started happening...

Image
Click to expand...

Disk Utility absolutely sucks in detecting HDD failures.

In my case, when a HDD went south on me, it first displayed lagging symptoms, intermittent successes in booting, but DU didn't show anything.

And one day, it just totally went south without showing any error messages.

I've since replaced it with an SSD and it boots in just 11 seconds now.
 
I'm pretty sure it doesn't have anything to do with a defective disc, since I was able to run for an hour in safe mode without any problems and it ALWAYS crashes around the 30-min. mark in regular mode...

It is the Launch Agents and Launch Daemons I need to concern myself with, right? Copy from EtreCheck:

EtreCheck version: 1.9.15 (52)
Report generated 23. sep. 2014 16.14.40 CEST

Hardware Information: ?
iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011) (Verified)
iMac - model: iMac12,1
1 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 4 cores
8 GB RAM

Video Information: ?
AMD Radeon HD 6750M - VRAM: 512 MB
iMac 1920 x 1080
DELL U2212HM 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz

System Software: ?
OS X 10.9.5 (13F34) - Uptime: 0 days 0:1:55

Disk Information: ?
ST3500418AS disk0 : (500,11 GB)
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209,7 MB
Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 499,25 GB (124,52 GB free)
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

HL-DT-STDVDRW GA32N

USB Information: ?
Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Apple, Inc. Keyboard Hub
Apple, Inc Apple Keyboard
Apple Internal Memory Card Reader
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Thunderbolt Information: ?
Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Configuration files: ?
/etc/hosts - Count: 100

Gatekeeper: ?
Mac App Store and identified developers

Kernel Extensions: ?
[not loaded] com.roxio.BluRaySupport (1.1.6) Support
[not loaded] com.roxio.TDIXController (2.0) Support
[loaded] com.sophos.kext.sav (9.1.55 - SDK 10.7) Support
[loaded] com.sophos.nke.swi (9.1.50 - SDK 10.8) Support
[loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv (4.3.6) Support
[loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp (4.3.6) Support
[loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt (4.3.6) Support
[loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB (4.3.6) Support
[loaded] xxx.qnation.PeerGuardian (1.1.10) Support

Launch Daemons: ?
[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support
[loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist Support
[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist Support
[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist Support
[loaded] com.oracle.java.JavaUpdateHelper.plist Support
[running] com.sophos.autoupdate.plist Support
[running] com.sophos.configuration.plist Support
[running] com.sophos.intercheck.plist Support
[running] com.sophos.notification.plist Support
[running] com.sophos.scan.plist Support
[running] com.sophos.sxld.plist Support
[running] com.sophos.webd.plist Support
[not loaded] com.teamviewer.teamviewer_service.plist Support
[not loaded] org.virtualbox.startup.plist Support
[loaded] xxx.qnation.PeerGuardian.kextload.plist Support

Launch Agents: ?
[loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist Support
[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist Support
[loaded] com.sophos.uiserver.plist Support
[not loaded] com.teamviewer.teamviewer.plist Support
[not loaded] com.teamviewer.teamviewer_desktop.plist Support

User Launch Agents: ?
[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist Support
[loaded] com.spotify.webhelper.plist Support
[not loaded] org.virtualbox.vboxwebsrv.plist Support
[loaded] ws.agile.1PasswordAgent.plist Support

User Login Items: ?
None

Internet Plug-ins: ?
FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 15.0.0.152 - SDK 10.6 Support
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
Flash Player: Version: 15.0.0.152 - SDK 10.6 Support
AdobePDFViewer: Version: 10.1.1 Support
Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9
SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.0.0 Support
ViewRightWebPlayer: Version: 3.3.0.0 Support
Silverlight: Version: 5.1.30317.0 - SDK 10.6 Support
JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 7 Update 67 Check version

Safari Extensions: ?
Tab Reloader

Audio Plug-ins: ?
BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9
AirPlay: Version: 2.0 - SDK 10.9
AppleAVBAudio: Version: 203.2 - SDK 10.9
iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9

iTunes Plug-ins: ?
Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.9

3rd Party Preference Panes: ?
Flash Player Support
Java Support

Time Machine: ?
Mobile backups: OFF
Auto backup: YES
Volumes being backed up:
Macintosh HD: Disk size: 464.96 GB Disk used: 348.99 GB
Destinations:
BACKUP [Network] (Last used)
Total size: 2 TB
Total number of backups: 25
Oldest backup: 2014-08-16 21:11:06 +0000
Last backup: 2014-08-31 20:35:57 +0000
Size of backup disk: Excellent
Backup size 2 TB > (Disk size 464.96 GB X 3)
Time Machine details may not be accurate.
All volumes being backed up may not be listed.

Top Processes by CPU: ?
8% CalendarAgent
3% InterCheck
2% kcm
2% WindowServer
1% mds

Top Processes by Memory: ?
164 MB InterCheck
164 MB SophosScanD
147 MB Safari
123 MB MenuTab for Facebook
98 MB SophosAntiVirus

Virtual Memory Information: ?
3.46 GB Free RAM
2.55 GB Active RAM
1.12 GB Inactive RAM
886 MB Wired RAM
142 MB Page-ins
0 B Page-outs
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
ShortyDK85 said:
I'm pretty sure it doesn't have anything to do with a defective disc, since I was able to run for an hour in safe mode without any problems and it ALWAYS crashes around the 30-min. mark in regular mode...

It is the Launch Agents and Launch Daemons I need to concern myself with, right? Copy from EtreCheck:
Click to expand...

Yes exactly. The fact it happens in regular mode and does not happen in safe mode pretty much proves it is a startup/login item causing the problem.

Now you just need to start removing these to pinpoint the offender.

I would start with all the Sophos and Peerguardian stuff first if it was me.
 
I removed alle four of my login items, and now the computer have been running for over 2 hours :O Seems like that did the trick... Now I can start adding them again, one by one until I find the faulty item :)

Thanks a bunch for all your help!
 
Damn! I thought that was the end of it, but now it started again, despite having removed all of the login items :( Guess I gotta delve into the startup items...
 
ShortyDK85 said:
This may be a stupid question, but can't I just delete all .plist files?
Click to expand...

Oh no... you don't wanna do that. :eek:

There are about one bajillion plists that contain settings for everything on your Mac, like for Mail, Calendar etc.

There is no easy way to do this other than tracking then down one by one.
 
Hehe, fair enough then :p So I think I'm just gonna track down and delete all the .plist items from Launch Daemons, Launch Agents and User Launch Agents - of course after I've made a full backup. That sound better?
 
ShortyDK85 said:
Hehe, fair enough then :p So I think I'm just gonna track down and delete all the .plist items from Launch Daemons, Launch Agents and User Launch Agents - of course after I've made a full backup. That sound better?
Click to expand...

Whew... :D Yes, much better.

It sure would be nice if Apple provided a pref pane or someplace where all these are listed and you could just click to remove them.
 
Hehe, that would have been great, but on the other hand that means that they would have to admit that there was a need to find the .plist files - ergo that there was something wrong with their OS or the communication between OS and a program :rolleyes: I don't see that happening :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back