[dec]

Hey guys,
I'm new to the mac so maybe im doing something wrong. But im noticing the os
locking up from time to time. It doesnt happen on any perticular program, its random,but what happens is the mouse stays responsive but the keyboard wont react to any input, after a while around 20-30 seconds it kicks back in and tries to handle the input i was doing. Also even though I can move the mouse around it doesnt respond to clicks etc. Did anyone else experience this? Is it some setting im making a mess of ? It may just be working its way up to full operation as i only got it yesterday morning.

If its worth mentioning, when it started doing this a small circle used to appear that looked like a rotating lollipop, now it just locks up without any icon.

Can anyone help?

[mintcake]

Ah, the 'spinning beachball of death' - yes you'll get to know it well.

This doesn't sound right though. Can you give more details about what you were doing at the time? You say it's random but perhaps something was running in the background? Were you networked? Copying files?

[JasonPro]

Using networked volumes either Apple File Sharing or Windows (Samba) File Sharing over a slow or poor connection can cause this to happen. If you're using 802.11b (not g) that could explain things, or if you're on a corporate network that uses vlans there is a bug in the ethernet driver that is causing your network connection to be unreliable. Give us more info on your situation.

[dec]

Thats whats worrying me I cant seem to replicate it when I try. Hrmm I wonder is it network related, I'm generally always doing something network related either sshing or web browsing etc
I'm trying to remember a time when it locked up on just a standard app but I do think it did. If it was network related could that stop the os from responding? No keyboard reaction no mouse clicking etc?

What does the spinning beachball represent just so I know
I thought it was equivalent to the windows egg timer just telling me to wait.

[dec]

I'll try to take note of the app im in next time it occurs

[PurpleRabbit73]

what machine are you using anyways?

[PurpleRabbit73]

Originally Posted by dec

What does the spinning beachball represent just so I know

Probably the equivalent to the hourglass, just happens when apps aren't behaving properly or too slow opening/performing

[dec]

Originally Posted by PurpleRabbit73

what machine are you using anyways?

macbook pro (see topic )

2.0ghz 1gig ram 100gd hd

[dec]

I'm just noticing that "i think" its only happening on battery power, maybe the disc is spinning down for too long or summit. Further testing is required

on the plus note though I am SOOOO happy I got one, they rock so hard. Its the little details that make the difference

[mintcake]

I guess he meant which Macbook Pro. Including specs.

Anyway, my best guess is that it's networking related and it's probably the Finder. The SBOD occurs most frequently when the Finder is trying to do something - resolve an alias, mount/unmount a volume, that kind of thing. If there's one thing that I've never grown to love about the Mac, it's the Finder. It really does need sorting out.

Apart from that, it's great. Congrats on your purchase.

[dahcar]

I've had the same issue with the keyboard locking up. It's only happened to me a couple times, but I just assumed i was running too many programs or something. I'm new to mac so I just assumed i was doing something wrong.

I was using the AC adapter, however. So if it is the same issue it wouldn't have to do with running it on battery power. I am networked with a Windows PC, but not all the time. I can't remember if I had it on at the time. Like i said it's probably only happened twice, and i was enjoying the processing power by running so many different applications, so i just attributed it to that.

[mintcake]

This could well be a case of the network connection dropping (perhaps your PC went to sleep or something). I do get this problem a lot when I have active shares (AFP or SMB). Don't forget, just because you unmount a network volume does not mean that the share has become inactive. If the target is no longer available the Finder will keep searching for it for a while.

[inkhead]

mine has never locked up. Lockup, & Airport Problems are almost certianly related to RAM in the top slot

[Enigmaaron]

I've had this issue as well. I narrowed it down to Mail. I have my MacBook (stock 2GHz model) set to never go to sleep. If I leave Mail open during the night or while I am at work then I get the lockup. Same as the OP said, absolutely no keyboard response (not even the power button) but the mouse will still move (clicking does nothing). If I close the lid to put the MacBook to sleep and then wake it back up all is good. This is with the MacBook plugged in and connected to the internet through wireless 802.11g.

[dec]

Just happend again there now, ok heres what happened.
My second battery jsut arrived so I wanted to charge it up and calibrate it.
I turned off the machine and swapped the batteries.
When I turned it back on I got the aple symbol and a circle icon with lines coming out of it rotating around it (standard bootup) this went on for longer than usual maybe 40 -50 seconds ?
Then the osx login screen came up and I logged in. It joined my wireless network.
I also decided to click on interference robustness. (hadnt done that before but id got the stall without it on anyway so dont think its a factor)

I click on my terminal icon it bounced up and down and did nothing, I click on
safari, it bounced up and down and did nothing. It became unresponsive and then after maybe 15-20 seconds terminal and safari opened up and it responded again.

It does seem to a network thing.

Oh also this morning when I asked my machine to join my network i got the beachball of death
I think my router had an issue this morning. I could resolve it at all. Applications were not responding I had to force quit a few etc, but I just couldnt get control so had to reboot.
At least now I know what the beachball means

[Big Mac]

If it's occurring when you're launching applications, I would place blame on the hard drive. Why not work with the machine for a bit without connecting to the Internet. If it still occurs when you're not online, you know it's not a network issue.

[dec]

Thats what occured in that instance, other times im already in apps when it happens. Yeah im gonna turn the wireless off later and see what happens. It hasnt happened all day since it did it earlier. Maybe It just needs to be broken in

I do have to repeat though.. sooooooo sweet
*kid in candy store*

[schmoe]

Hey dec, has your MBP crashed again since your last post? I experienced a similar problem last night, first lost the wireless connection and then Terminal stopped responding. Ended up having to turn it off by holding the power button down... I have intermittent wireless connectivity outages as well and I wasn't on battery power or using the Finder.

[dec]

Hey, it did happen again yup, I suspended it went to another room, unsuspended it and i got the beachball of death a few times and a long lockup.

Its not too bad now, I've noticed that if I leave my wireless connected when i suspend I have issues when I unsuspend, but if I have it set to disconnect from the wireless on suspend, things come back up smoothly. I've also found If I leave it in suspend all night its a bit dodge in the morning but if I power down at night its grand. These may be coincidences but im gonna keep doing it cause its seems to have a positive affect

[gregjsmith]

I had similar problems, but me thinks its a 10.4 problem since my 1Ghz TiBook had these issues after upgrading to 10.4. I wrote a little bit about it here, I think my problem is a memory/swap file issue. But I have 30GB of free space so it's really strange.

[dec]

This has now gotten much worse. I powered down the machine last night went to college today powered it up and it just sat on the apple logo with the rotating lines underneath it. I had to keep powering down so i started it up and i left it for a bit, 3 minutes 40 seconds into it it told me to reboot, so i did 5 minutes and counting after that still nothing. Whats really weird about it is if i close the lid if gets a step further. i.e one time it was hanging on the apple logo i closed the lid and reopend it and i got the osx loading screen, i closed the lid i had the login screen, i logged in , it stalled, i closed the lid and when i opened it i had my desktop. So im now going to nuke it and do a blank install, I should just be able to sleep this whenever i like shut it down whenever I like etc and it should just work for the cash I payed for it. So If the reinstall doesnt help, back to apple with it.

[mintcake]

OK, that's not normal, I'd sort it out under warranty. I wouldn't even bother with the fuss of reinstalling, to be honest, not on a new machine like that. It's a huge pain to have to send it back and wait again, but for a machine of that value I'd exploit the official support channels first. It sounds as if it's a hardware, not a software problem.

[discotronic]

I would reinstall first. I had an iMac G4 that had the same problem. The initial install from the factory was bad. After I did the reinstall, everything worked perfect. Apple will most likely ask you to do the same thing when you call.

[dec]

I did the reinstall. When it came from the factory It had 40gig free on a 100gig disk, After a new install choosing what I wanted, adding extra software including the developer tools and a full version of office. I still have 78gig free. So thats better for starters. The initial setup (personal information/language/etc) was MUCH faster, first time round i got the beachball of death for ages. Plus so far no real lockups. The odd spinning ball or lockup due to a slow network or running a heavy program but it only lasted for seconds, and you cant expect to never get any.
All bootups and suspends and shutdowns have been flawless so far. Shutdown of 7 seconds bootup of 20 from time I push the button. So I'm gonna hammer it for a while and see what happens. I'm happy I got the 3 year warranty anyway Maybe the upgrade to 10.4.5 before shipping might have caused some issues, maybe they had .4 on and then ran some sorta upgrade pack on it. Anyway I shall keep you informed.

[mintcake]

OK, well glad you ignored my advice, always a good general rule of thumb.

[dec]

Well unfortunately i spoke too soon. I decided to suspend and leave it for a while, as it always seemed to be after a long period of downtime or suspend time. Upon unsuspend I got the spinning beachball and just kept spinning and spinning and spinning. So i couldnt enter my password. I dunno if theres any key combination I can use to get out of that like ctrl alt del to get up a tasklist in windows and kill whatever causing trouble.

I had to shutdown with the poer button, good news though it came back up no problem with a bootup of about 18 seconds so i dunno now wether its good or bad ...

For 3000 this is ridiculous. I'm due to start using it to give lectures this thursday, i have to revert to overheads now cause i cant rely on it.

[dec]

Well its going back to apple.