[herbsman]

What exactly is 'SystemUIserver'? Somtimes in the activity monitor I notice that it hangs. Is it OK to 'quit process' in activity monitor? I'm not sure what this means or what will happen because I'm assuming 'SystemUIserver' is apart of the OS and I'm a bit cautious trying to do anthing when it comes to messing with the main system. Thanks

[Basilisk]

SystemUIServer is one of the controller processes for the user interface. Its most visible responsibility are the MenuExtras on the right end of the menubar. It does have some other less visible tasks, such as volume mount handling, iPod access, etc.

While you don't want to kill it indiscriminately it is safe to kill SystemUIServer when it hangs. The WindowManager will start a new SystemUIServer as soon as it notices the old one is gone (usually this takes just a few seconds).

Of course you probably also want to figure out why its hanging. Try disabling MenuExtras and trashing its preference file com.apple.systemuiserver.plist (make a backup copy first).

Alex

[herbsman]

thanks basilisk for all the info and i'll try what you suggested when i get home tonite. oh and here's another weird thing that happened. after I force quit the SystemUIServer process in Activity monitor, i restarted the computer just because at that time i had no idea what SystemUIserver was, and i felt uneasy knowing that it wasn't on when i felt it shouldve been. so i restarted, and during startup i got a kernel panic. i'm not sure if it was coincidence or if it had anything to do with the quit process, but it was the first kernel panic ever on my new computer and the first i've ever seen on startup. it basically had a bunch of garbled text (in my eyes of course) splattered over the grey apple startup screen.

[Chuckit]

They probably both come from the same cause. Have you installed any new RAM or programs recently?