MBP Froze and required hard reboot

[machomer]

My computer froze on me twice in one day. Once when I was using VLC, the mouse would not respond and the screen just froze on the video.

The second time it happened, it was using Firefox. I could move the mouse, but the browser, and menu bar would not respond to the mouse.

Without knowing any other tips, I had to reboot by holding down the power button.

Is this considered a crash, which the Mac OS should experience. Can anyone suggest what may have caused it to happen? The computer is 2 months old.

 

[0007776]

try repairing permissions, also how much RAM do you have?

 

[CaptainWOW]

What type of file were you trying to play when VLC froze?

Was it a WMV or AVI? Sometimes VLC just doesn't "like" those files... I've had VLC lockup on me (causing my system slooooooooow down) when trying to play those.

As for the Firefox issue, I'm not so sure.

I do have to ask though, you did try and force quit (both of) the app from the dock before you hard booted, yes?

And, as the previous poster suggested, if the problem persists try repairing permissions.

 

[tsd]

perms

Delete the preferences file (ApplicationName.plist) for VLC. It will be found in "Macintosh HD > Library > Preferences.

 

[machomer]

I was playing an AVI file. I will try to delete that file as you suggest and see if it happens again.

I have 2GB of ram. I am new to the Mac OS, and did not remember the equivalent of Ctrl+Alt+Delete for Mac. I remember seeing it in thread, but I wish I wrote it down.

How do you force quit from the dock? During the VLC freeze, nothing responded, the mouse would not move. During the FireFox Freeze, the mouse worked, but none of the windows or menu bar would respond to the mouse.

 

[IJ Reilly]

How do you force quit from the dock? During the VLC freeze, nothing responded, the mouse would not move. During the FireFox Freeze, the mouse worked, but none of the windows or menu bar would respond to the mouse.

You click and hold on the application icon. If the application is frozen, you'll have the choice to force-quit it. From your description though I doubt you've got an application issue. No application should be capable of freezing the Mac. I suspect you've got a more serious problem, probably with hardware, and most of them are related to bad RAM.

 

[PkennethV]

Command (the apple key) option, esc. to force quit. It has almost always worked for me no matter how badly it seem to freeze. You can navigate with the arrow keys and use Enter/Return to force quit the app if the mouse isn't working.

 

[machomer]

You click and hold on the application icon. If the application is frozen, you'll have the choice to force-quit it. From your description though I doubt you've got an application issue. No application should be capable of freezing the Mac. I suspect you've got a more serious problem, probably with hardware, and most of them are related to bad RAM.

The good and bad thing is that its a new computer, so it is still under warranty. Are there any ways to see if this is a ram problem?

How would I bring this topic up for warranty service?

 

[IJ Reilly]

The good and bad thing is that its a new computer, so it is still under warranty. Are there any ways to see if this is a ram problem?

How would I bring this topic up for warranty service?

RAM problems are notoriously difficult to pinpoint. The easiest way is to removed user-accessibler RAM modules. Assuming you get lucky, you'll know soon enough if it cures the symptoms. The other way is to run a RAM checker, like memtest, which isn't 100% effective either.

Personally, if I were in your shoes, I'd probably bring it in for service. I think you've explained the problem adequately. Describe it the same way to Apple.