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Ok, now I'm irritated with the freezing

CalBoy

CalBoy

macrumors 604
Original poster
May 21, 2007
7,849
37
So I've noticed that with my mbp, which I got in the first week of production (June 8th), it will freeze ONLY when I'm watching a tv show or youtube. I really can't figure out why it does this, because there is no discernable pattern. It will freeze at random times, at random points in an episode or video clip, and even at random temperatures.

So here's my question: have any of you noticed that it freezes ONLY with videos? I've heard of cases which involve software and the like, but that isn't my issue. I want to know if this is something I need to call Apple and tell them about, or if it's something that I can fix quite readily. Thanks for reading:)
 
Since you haven't been specific enough, I'd ask if the players are using Flash, are you using the latest Flash plug-in/player?
 
Check Console in the Utilities folder for any relevant crash logs. While you're at it, keep Activity Monitor running in the background showing All Processes. See if anything gets highlighted red (hanging) or starts using a significant amount of CPU cycles or RAM when the freezes occur. :)
 
bousozoku said:
Since you haven't been specific enough, I'd ask if the players are using Flash, are you using the latest Flash plug-in/player?
Click to expand...

Yes they are using flash, sorry:eek: I think I have the latest one, but I'll double check.

mad jew said:
Check Console in the Utilities folder for any relevant crash logs. While you're at it, keep Activity Monitor running in the background showing All Processes. See if anything gets highlighted red (hanging) or starts using a significant amount of CPU cycles or RAM when the freezes occur. :)
Click to expand...

I'll try this out. It might be a while, because the freezes do occur very randomly. For example, I had three yesterday, but none for the three weeks prior to that. I really don't know what could be happening to my baby:(
 
mines been freezing loads too recently, extremley irritating.

ive noticed mine does it when im watching youtube or using itunes.
 
ajck said:
mines been freezing loads too recently, extremley irritating.

ive noticed mine does it when im watching youtube or using itunes.
Click to expand...

Hmm...I haven't had an iTunes freeze happen yet. I really don't know what to make of it. How old is yours, and has it been happening since the beginning, or did you notice an increase after a certain update or date?
 
mad jew said:
Any news on more freezes CalBoy? Anything showing up in Console or Activity Monitor?
Click to expand...

I spent a good two hours today watching Futurama (best show ever:D). No freezing:( The only thing I noticed was a sharp spike in CPU usage by Safari, even after the video had fully loaded. It was at a good 37% for a good deal of the time; a little high no? I'll keep at it. For now, I'm letting the videos run with the activity moniter on while I study. I'll keep you posted. Thanks for all your help mad jew.

By the way, what should I be looking for in the logs? Is there a specific line which screams, "crash!!!!"?
 
Ok, I had a freeze!:):confused::(

It happened after six episodes of Futurama. The episode had loaded about 80% of the way through, and I had watched about two-thirds of it. Now, as for some information:

Activity Moniter showed only a few processes besides my widgets:

mdimport <<<This process had 3 threads, and I was the user

pmTool <<<This process had one thread, and its user was "root."

lookupd <<<This process had two threads, and its user was "root."

Safari had 11 threads, with me as the obvious user. The remainder of the screen showed only Dashboard widgets. However, there were a total of 203 threads, 59 processes, and net CPU usage was at 30.5%, which really puzzles me because Safari was using 37.5% on its own:confused::confused:

I checked the crash logs, and the only one is one from a few days ago. This one doesn't show up.

However, the System logs do show something interesting. I believe that this was sometime before the crash:

NVChannel(GL): Graphics channel timeout!

A little bit afterwards, the log shows:
Sep 3 21:31:03 localhost kernel[0]: hi mem tramps at 0xffe00000
Sep 3 21:31:03 localhost kernel[0]: PAE enabled
Sep 3 21:31:03 localhost kernel[0]: 64 bit mode enabled
Sep 3 21:31:03 localhost kernel[0]: standard timeslicing quantum is 10000 us
Sep 3 21:31:03 localhost kernel[0]: vm_page_bootstrap: 511854 free pages
Sep 3 21:31:03 localhost kernel[0]: mig_table_max_displ = 71
Sep 3 21:31:03 localhost kernel[0]: Enabling XMM register save/restore and SSE/SSE2 opcodes


mad jew, if you need more info than this, just ask. Thanks again.
 
you should first see if your problem is browser specific or not, are you using the safari beta? if yes try to go back to the stable version and see if it helps. try also using firefox or camino to see if the problem lies in the browser of flash plugin.
 
If this is a heat related problem, this should reproduce it quickly. Open up a terminal window and type the following:

yes > /dev/null

This will use 100% of a single CPU core. If you open another window and type in the same thing that should then use up both CPU cores completely. See whether it crashes during that test. If it does, then it's heat related.
 
mad jew said:
I agree with wise old deadpixels about checking other browsers. Does everything freeze up? Does Activity Monitor stop updating? :)
Click to expand...

Everything does freeze. Nothing responds, including the mouse, keyboard, or Activity Moniter. I have a stable version of Safari; I never went for the beta. However, I haven't tried it in Firefox yet. I'll give that a go assuming that it isn't heat related as dusanv suggests.

Edit: Ok, so I ran the command yes>/dev/null in two Terminal windows, and while my CPU did hit about 99%, and my temp did go as high as 87C, my computer did not freeze. I allowed it do this for about three minutes. Should I wait longer? I'm sceptical that heat is the problem because I always moniter my tempurature closely, and when it freezes, it's usually no higher than about 65C. Unless it's prolonged heat, which means that I might have to try this test for about fifteen or twenty minutes.
 
Maybe wait a little longer although it doesn't sound like a heat problem. Weird. Flash is the culprit by the sound of it. Can you try update it? Maybe also run repair permissions. I don't have any better ideas right now...

You stop the 'yes > /dev/null' by hitting ctrl-c in the Terminal or just by closing the Terminal.
 
mad jew said:
Yeah, check Firefox and maybe try uninstalling then reinstalling the latest version of Flash. :)
Click to expand...

Awww...but I don't like Firefox as much:( OK, I'll give it a try. I did update my Flash to be sure, but I guess a fresh install might work better. BTW, it did freeze while I was trying to watch another episode today, and this time, it was only a few minutes in. I really think this could be a Flash problem.


dusanv said:
Maybe wait a little longer although it doesn't sound like a heat problem. Weird. Flash is the culprit by the sound of it. Can you try update it? Maybe also run repair permissions. I don't have any better ideas right now...

You stop the 'yes > /dev/null' by hitting ctrl-c in the Terminal or just by closing the Terminal.
Click to expand...

A few weeks ago, I repaired disk permissions thinking that it would help. Alas, it was to no avail.

I'll try the yes>/dev/null again before bed tonight. I'll let it go for a full seven or eight minutes. If it doesn't freeze by then, I think I'll be able to rule out heat.
 
I hate Firefox too, partly because it plays by its own rules in terms of system files. That's also why it's a pretty good troubleshooting test of where the problem might be coming from. :)
 
mad jew said:
I hate Firefox too, partly because it plays by its own rules in terms of system files. That's also why it's a pretty good troubleshooting test of where the problem might be coming from. :)
Click to expand...

I guess:(:p

Ok, now it's time for, "really really stupid question time!"
I uninstalled flash by taking it to the trash (from Finder) but when I ran a search for Flash, it's still there, with a 6/11 date (I believe the day it was first active on my mbp). Should I be deleting this as well? And if so, how? Here's a pic so you can see what I mean:
 

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mad jew said:
Just remove everything related to Flash. Reinstalling it should get all (or most) of these folders back. :)
Click to expand...

Ok, anything that had "flash" attached to it has been removed, and the new Flash is in place.

Now, I've begun loading a few episodes in Firefox. If freezing does occur, we can rule out both flash and browser as potential causes. If there isn't any freezing, I'll try again in Safari. If there is again no freezing, I'll assume it was Flash. Thanks for all your help guys. I'll post tomorrow with results.
 
mad jew said:
We can't rule out Flash that quickly. It could still be a conflict with another plugin... Good luck! :)
Click to expand...

Darn. Well, I hope this will at least be helpful to others. My pain and suffering better not go to waste:mad: Seriously though, this is the only problem I've had with my very own Mac after two and half months of use; it's beat my PC experience by leaps and bounds.
 
Well, it'd be nice to get to the bottom of this all the same. Macs are notoriously bad with Flash but they shouldn't be this bad! Next time it freezes, post a URL of the frozen page. We can then see if there's anything tat sticks out as to what might be causing it. :)
 
mad jew said:
Well, it'd be nice to get to the bottom of this all the same. Macs are notoriously bad with Flash but they shouldn't be this bad! Next time it freezes, post a URL of the frozen page. We can then see if there's anything tat sticks out as to what might be causing it. :)
Click to expand...

Will do. Well, I think it's time I got to studying...that NBC thread on the front page has kept me here for the past hour. :eek::)
 
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