[OAW]

This is the second time that this has happened to me. I'm working in OS X 10.2.6 with various apps open. Safari, Mail, Address Book, iCal, MS Remote Desktop, Word, Excel, System Preferences, etc. I click a link in Safari ... and while it is rendering the page, I get the spinning beachball for a few seconds. Then all of a sudden, my screen goes Aqua blue and the next thing I know my desktop returns .... all of my open apps no longer have the triangle underneath in the Dock ... and all my Login Items launch. I've effectively been logged out and then logged back in ... and much faster than the "manual" way I might add!

Does anyone have a clue what just happened and why?

OAW

[tobster]

Just happened to me a few minutes ago. Has happened a few times before and I'm just as stunned as you and have no clue why it happens, would like to though.

Kind of sucks when you are a "save-forgetter" like me. But that's just my own fault.

- tobs

[nigeljedi]

That's pretty weird. Haven't heard of that one.

[Brass]

Sounds like the WindowServer or loginwindow.app crashed. Being that they are the parent processes of everything you are running, that might have taken down all your other running processes.

Of course they restart automatically, I suppose, which is why you get something similar to logging in happening.

Check the crash log for these processes to find out what is actually crashing.

(view your crash logs sorted by date)

[Art Vandelay]

I'm guessing you have your Macs set to autologin as your account. Otherwise, when the WindowServer dies, you are just logged out.

[OAW]

Originally posted by Art Vandelay:
I'm guessing you have your Macs set to autologin as your account. Otherwise, when the WindowServer dies, you are just logged out.

Indeed I do have my machine set to auto-login.

OAW

[Zim]

I have always (rightly or wrongly) equated this with the Finder crashing. Now that you have 10.2.x you could look in ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter and see if anything is there, or in /var/log/system.log.

While I never had this as a reproducible event, in the past 2+ years of using 10.x.x I am sure I've had it happen well over 100 times. Usually with Terminal open, and lots of files opening in preview (if I selected 40 or so 2M files from my digital camera and clicked open so that I could prune out the pics I cared to keep). (save the iPhoto comments please, regardless of that app, this does happen, and should not happen).

I guess I should check the logs myself next time this happens, but I'm just too used to it now. Also no longer sure where joe-schmo can submit bug reports to Apple even if I did have something to send them.

I'd say it takes down all the other open apps >75% of the time, so maybe it is more than the Finder.

I put the "recovery" time at 1/3 of a re-login.

Mike

[dole]

I actually had a similar thing happen to me a few times about a month ago. I would have a few apps open and then the screen would turn the aqua blue as you described, then it would take me to the login screen but I would have to login manually.

[Deicide]

This is most likely a bad font or corrupted ATSServer plist. Do a search in apple's support and discussion boards. Major flaw in the OS if you ask me.

[CallumM]

this happens to me daily.. its one heck of an annoying thing for me.. I have checked my RAM.. no probs.. repaired permissions.. no probs.. erased and reinstalled..

BUT.. it KEEPS COMING BACK

Does anyone know what i can do to fix it? It is really annoying to be working on some important stuff and suddenly to be logged out..

[moki]

Originally posted by CallumM:
anyone know what i can do to fix it? It is really annoying to be working on some important stuff and suddenly to be logged out..

As people have described, what is happening is the login window or window server is dying on you.

What causes this is often a corrupted font... two things you can try:

1) create a new user and see if it continues to happen to that new user account

2) if it does, remove any fonts you've installed, including fonts in your OS 9 system folder (OS X looks there too).

[RGB]

This happened to me quite frequently when I had a bad RAM DIMM. Removing / replacing the DIMM solved the problem. Do you have any 3rd party RAM installed?

[CallumM]

well.. i haven't got any third-party fonts in there. This occurs with any clean install, so new user doesnt change anything..


I do have third-party RAM in there, but i did a check in OS9 for bad ram.. and it said it was ok.

Would the positioning of the RAM matter? Such as which slots it is in?

[Deicide]

CallumM:

Have you ran the hardware test CD that came with your mac?

If this is happening after a clean install with no 3rd party software then it is hardware no doubt about it. You will want to pull out or unplug anything none essential to boot. If it still does it then try different ram, videocard, HD.

[CallumM]

I have run the hardware test CD, and it doesn't find anything.

I guess I can test it with one of the two RAM sticks in there at a time,.

Unfortunately, I cannot afford to buy new RAM to test with and my flatmates computers are using DDR whereas I am using PC133..

So no one to swap with..

[SMacTech]

Happened to me for the first time two days ago when I clicked on a link in safari for a pdf. It downloaded the file and then blue screened <sic> and the Finder relaunched. All has been fine since.

[chris v]

Just for grins, try trashing /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist

and let's see if that clears it up.

CV

[disco_stu]

Just happened to me two minutes ago when I logged in and opened Mail, Safari, and Entourage. Can anyone make any sense of the loginwindow's crash log? I don't have any devices attached, nor any fonts other than the default OS X set.

Code:
Date/Time:  2003-08-02 18:01:09 -0400
OS Version: 10.2.6 (Build 6L60)
Host:       G4Tower.local.

Command:    loginwindow
PID:        1308

Exception:  EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes:      KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE (0x0002) at 0x00000044

Thread 0 Crashed:
 #0   0x0005082c in 0x5082c
 #1   0x901684f4 in _postNotification
 #2   0x90165be4 in _CFNotificationCenterPostLocalNotification
 #3   0x90173174 in _localPortCallBack
 #4   0x9015bd8c in __CFMachPortPerform
 #5   0x9015bbf8 in __CFRunLoopDoSource1
 #6   0x90148c9c in __CFRunLoopRun
 #7   0x90180f58 in CFRunLoopRunSpecific
 #8   0x969a3b70 in RunCurrentEventLoopInMode
 #9   0x969b3b00 in ReceiveNextEventCommon
 #10  0x969dabbc in BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInMode
 #11  0x9308dedc in _DPSNextEvent
 #12  0x930a0158 in -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:]
 #13  0x930b1d88 in -[NSApplication run]
 #14  0x00006c18 in 0x6c18
 #15  0x00004c3c in 0x4c3c
 #16  0x00004abc in 0x4abc

Thread 1:
 #0   0x90073c28 in mach_msg_trap
 #1   0x90005f70 in mach_msg
 #2   0x901489f0 in __CFRunLoopRun
 #3   0x90180f58 in CFRunLoopRunSpecific
 #4   0x97e05680 in -[NSRunLoop runMode:beforeDate:]
 #5   0x97e19188 in -[NSRunLoop run]
 #6   0x00335688 in -[BezelServicesTask cgsListen:]
 #7   0x97e2cc50 in forkThreadForFunction
 #8   0x90020d28 in _pthread_body

Thread 2:
 #0   0x90073c28 in mach_msg_trap
 #1   0x90005f70 in mach_msg
 #2   0x0000a3b0 in 0xa3b0
 #3   0x0000a2a0 in 0xa2a0
 #4   0x90020d28 in _pthread_body

Thread 3:
 #0   0x90000e0c in read
 #1   0x0000af6c in 0xaf6c
 #2   0x90020d28 in _pthread_body

PPC Thread State:
  srr0: 0x0005082c srr1: 0x0200f030                vrsave: 0x00000000
   xer: 0x20000000   lr: 0x000507cc  ctr: 0x9005e2b8   mq: 0x00000000
    r0: 0x000507cc   r1: 0xbfffead0   r2: 0x88004242   r3: 0xa0130d98
    r4: 0x00000000   r5: 0x00000000   r6: 0x00000001   r7: 0x00000000
    r8: 0xa0131e98   r9: 0x00000000  r10: 0x000d00f0  r11: 0x00070698
   r12: 0x88004242  r13: 0x00000000  r14: 0x00000000  r15: 0x00000001
   r16: 0x00000000  r17: 0x00000000  r18: 0x00000002  r19: 0x00000001
   r20: 0x00000000  r21: 0x778d0192  r22: 0x0194bb70  r23: 0xbfffed00
   r24: 0x0194bb70  r25: 0x00000000  r26: 0x00000000  r27: 0x00082158
   r28: 0x000f1890  r29: 0x0194bd90  r30: 0xbfffed1c  r31: 0x00050698

It looks like the windowserver didn't like notification posted to the NotificationCenter...

Oh well, I'll let our friends in Cupertino know...

Thx.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally posted by Art Vandelay:
I'm guessing you have your Macs set to autologin as your account. Otherwise, when the WindowServer dies, you are just logged out.

Well I don't and in the middle of some Photoshop operations the computer LOGS OUT! It does not let me save anything.

The has happened 3 times in 2 months on a new Dual 1.25.

[Immortal K-Mart Employee]

Anyone know what is causing this yet or a cure?

[VValdo]

But I have NEVER had this problem, and I have never thrown any non-standard fonts in the system.

Has everyone who has experienced this added unusual fonts? If so, I'm betting it's related to the problem.

W

[antisonne]

This used to happen to my iBook 800 with just 128 ram... It used to annoy me alot, After I maxed out my ram to 640 I forgot totally about the problem because it has NEVER happened since. So im thinking its lack of ram, too many processes, or something like that. Use terminal and type in "UPTIME" all uppercase. See what loads it gives you and what users are logged in... If it gives you more than one terminal launch another terminal window and type "logout"... Also do a "top" in terminal to see all processes, kill any ones that shouldnt be running (to your knowledge).

Hope this helps.

[Socially Awkward Solo]

Originally posted by VValdo:
But I have NEVER had this problem, and I have never thrown any non-standard fonts in the system.

Has everyone who has experienced this added unusual fonts? If so, I'm betting it's related to the problem.

W

What is an unusual font exactly?

[asdasd]

The loginwindow crash seems like a memory smasher because the crash is in what seems like a normal runloop notification.

loginwindow also hosts a lot of plugins, so any of these plugins could smash memory and bring it down . The problem with memory smashers is that it is impossible to tell after the even what smashed the memory: there is no way that the crash log shown above is reproducible or else the loginwindow would never run.

The existance of the bezelservices thread may be a clue - that thread would never be spawned unless you had used the bezel buttons, like the brightness controls etc.

this may be machine dependdant, as the bezel code path is device and/or monitor dependant while most the rest of loginwindow is machine agnostic.

[ASIMO]

It happens when OS X is stretched beyond its limit.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally posted by ASIMO:
It happens when OS X is stretched beyond its limit.

I hope not because if a Dual G4 1.25 is stretched beyond its limits by launching iPhoto we are all in trouble.

[t_hah]

It has happened to me before. Of course it was before my hard drive crashed, then I bought a new drive and with the fresh install all these problems went away.


t

[Judge_Fire]

Originally posted by ASIMO:
It happens when OS X is stretched beyond its limit.

Yeah, I get this once every few months, usually when I have lots of apps open, working on things and then one gets stuck. Like Java beachballing Safari, for example.

But not without some software misbehaving. At work, my processor is working 100% all the time, because of various copying/rendering/calculations going on in the background, but this alone has never been a prob. Except the GUI gets slow as molasses.

And obviously I'm returned to the login screen, as I don't use autologin.

J

[hardcat1970]

i supect is the memory leak for some applications. I have the finder kick me out also. Then i notice that for some reason, some applications don't release the memory after quitting, and the vm isn't running like it should.

[antisonne]

How much ram do you have? Cause it wouldnt really matter if you had a dual 2s... If you only had 128 ram (They come preloaded with 512 at least)... Running alot of apps or opening alot of things will put a load on the ram, and OSX LOVES ram.

[hardcat1970]

Originally posted by antisonne:
How much ram do you have? Cause it wouldnt really matter if you had a dual 2s... If you only had 128 ram (They come preloaded with 512 at least)... Running alot of apps or opening alot of things will put a load on the ram, and OSX LOVES ram.

i have 768 mb installed on my b/w g3. By the time i login, i only have 500 mb free.

[asdasd]

Idle speculation folks. The crash is in loginwindow so some process - almost certainly a plugin that loginwindow hosts - caused a memory smasher.

Is it more common in dual processors? It would be interesting if people who see this posted their configs.

[hardcat1970]

Originally posted by asdasd:
Idle speculation folks. The crash is in loginwindow so some process - almost certainly a plugin that loginwindow hosts - caused a memory smasher.

Is it more common in dual processors? It would be interesting if people who see this posted their configs.

i haven't experience any crashes since i repair the disk permission, and disabled the root user.

[jbelch3]

I just started having this problem within the last week. It seems to happen daily. I have a G4 400 w/768 mb ram. I have not added any new fonts or any new ram. I have noticed this happen both when my processor usage is maxed out and also when my machine is idle. I think I've also been having a problem with Meteorologist. Maybe that has something to do with it.

[Terri]

I tossed all the preferences located in /Libary/Preferences and ~/Libary/Preferences and the problems went away. I did move my non system preferences located in ~/Libary/Preferences back in after I saw which preferences were created by the system.

I'm running Meteorologist without any problems, but I did turn it off for awhile as I did all my 3rd party stuff until I saw that I was not having anymore problems.

I'm going to turn on the last of my 3rd party stuff today, ABMenu, and see if ABMenu causes any problems.

BTW, I'm on a 17" Powerbook with 1 gig of memory that I had upgraded to 10.2.8 and then restored from a backup to 10.2.6.

[jbelch3]

Originally posted by Terri:
I tossed all the preferences located in /Libary/Preferences and ~/Libary/Preferences and the problems went away. I did move my non system preferences located in ~/Libary/Preferences back in after I saw which preferences were created by the system.

I'm running Meteorologist without any problems, but I did turn it off for awhile as I did all my 3rd party stuff until I saw that I was not having anymore problems.

I'm going to turn on the last of my 3rd party stuff today, ABMenu, and see if ABMenu causes any problems.

BTW, I'm on a 17" Powerbook with 1 gig of memory that I had upgraded to 10.2.8 and then restored from a backup to 10.2.6.

Thanks Terri...I'm just about to do the same thing. I'm glad it's not Meteorologist I love that app

[K++]

From the crash log I see a bad memory error. It says it tried to use some memory but that the memory wasn't there. Im not sure whether it was the NSNotificationCenter's fault or the windowserver's but its defintely someone accesing memeory that isn't thiers to access.

[Terri]

Very strange, today I was on a client's machine, G4 pinstripe Mac with 1.75 gigs of memory, and it logged me out as I was quitting out of a bunch of design apps. I know this Mac well and it has never done this before and is a well maintained Mac running 10.2.6.

Didn't do anything as I'm seeing if it does it again. If it does I'm going to toss prefs first since this seems to have fixed my Powerbook.

[Vader’s Pinch of Death]

This happens to me a lot when i use Photoshop on the dual 1.25 at work.

[nobitacu]

Weird... I have auto-log in, and I use photoshop a lot, but this has never happened to me, as this is also the fist time I've heard of this weird problem.

Ming

[Vader’s Pinch of Death]

Originally posted by nobitacu:
Weird... I have auto-log in, and I use photoshop a lot, but this has never happened to me, as this is also the fist time I've heard of this weird problem.

Ming

It has never happened to me on my home computer but about once a week on my work one.

[dillerX]

I do this all the time to one of my nephews. SSH into his system. Terminal, top, find Window Man, kill -9 PID.

Instant logout.

Then I usually get a phone call, asking why one of my computers keeps crashing.

All in good fun.

[as2]

Used to happen to me onece in a blue moon, but not since I got pas about 10.2.3

Adam