Unfreeze -- HELP!

[GodBless]

There are a number of documents that are unsaved on my family computer and we have been trying to unfreeze it for the past 48 hours.

Here are the details of how it got frozen:
1. Lots of RAM was already used up (many applications are still open)
2. Fast User Switching was activated
3. The Fast User Switching dialogue box disappeared
4. Then the computer was at a standstill

Here is the current state of the computer:
- The mouse can move
- The Fast User Switching is trying to process so nothing can be clicked on
- The screen hasn't rotated yet so the previous user's account is still visible


Here is what we have already tried to unfreeze the computer:
1. Pressing Option-Apple-Escape
2. Pressing Option-Apple-Shift-Escape
3. Waiting for 48 hours.
4. Tried to click icons with the mouse

Nothing has worked yet so I hope somebody here can help. Thanks in advance for your response.

 

[mad jew]

Unplug everything but the keyboard, mouse and screen for a start, if you haven't already. Could you network another computer to it and retrieve the files that way?

 

[Chundles]

Are you using Office? Pretty sure it has an auto-save function. You'll have to figure out how to retrieve them, there might be an option when you re-open Word.

Just turn it off and on again.

 

[mad jew]

Chundles makes a good point (yeah, I'm as shocked as you). Word's autosave feature should just reopen the files it has managed to save when you next open Word. Hopefully that's the case for you.




Just kidding Chundles.

 

[GodBless]

Word's autosave feature should just reopen the files it has managed to save when you next open Word. Hopefully that's the case for you.

We don't have Office on that computer so we are using TextEdit which doesn't have an autosave/backup feature. Thanks for the unplug advise. We had a USB to Midi adaptor and a printer plugged in at the time so hopefully now that we've unplugged them those drivers will unload and free up some RAM.

 

[mad jew]

Okay, so networking's out of the question at this stage too then? Did the COMMAND-OPTION-ESCAPE key sequence bring up the dialogue box or did it not provide any response?

 

[GodBless]

Just turn it off and on again.

I would if I had Office on that computer.

 

[GodBless]

Okay, so networking's out of the question at this stage too then? Did the COMMAND-OPTION-ESCAPE key sequence bring up the dialogue box or did it not provide any response?

No. Basically the next step the computer should take is rotating but it still hasn't done it yet. I've tried Option-Command-Escape many times but there is no response.

 

[Chundles]

Chundles makes a good point (yeah, I'm as shocked as you).

Crazy I know. I did just tell Multimedia that the battery life of a Merom-based laptop depends on the price of a Sidcrome socket set so it sort of evens out in the end.

GB, hopefully the unplug will help - I'd hate to think it was a hardware problem although that sounds unlikely. More likely some part of the software got out of control and sapped up all the available space. I had one of those "download accelerators" for dial-up internet - officially supported by Rogers Wireless in Canada for the Mac - and it went from a 5.5MiB program to a 6GiB monster in about 10 minutes. Similar symptoms to your experience but I found the problem in time to delete the program. I also had some random process use up all my RAM once but was able to quit it in time.

There's a lesson here I suppose - save, save, save, backup, and save again.

 

[GodBless]

GB, hopefully the unplug will help - I'd hate to think it was a hardware problem although that sounds unlikely.

Well we've had the computer on for over 60 day without a permissions repair or a restart so I think it is a software problem. I hope it isn't a hardware problem.

More likely some part of the software got out of control and sapped up all the available space. I had one of those "download accelerators" for dial-up internet - officially supported by Rogers Wireless in Canada for the Mac - and it went from a 5.5MiB program to a 6GiB monster in about 10 minutes. Similar symptoms to your experience but I found the problem in time to delete the program. I also had some random process use up all my RAM once but was able to quit it in time.

Boy Rogers Wireless sounds reliable. It's good you caught the problem in time.

There's a lesson here I suppose - save, save, save, backup, and save again.

I'm not the causer or the victim of the problem; just the person looking for a solution.

 

[Integra]

just gotta drop this in...

my audio editing/sequencing program went and froze on me right when i was working with a large file of music (i had not saved it) the program was frozen for while and after a lot of key pushing and clicking all over the place i found that by simply doing this:

X11/
Window/
Minimise/

it unfroze the program and everything was beautiful and back to normal!

also should mention that this was a windows program running on a macbook pro via WINE!