Snow Leopard 'crashing'
MBP unibody, 3.06 core2 duo. 8 GB ram. 500 Gig 5400 RPM drive. OSX 10.6.2
Symptom:
Starting about four weeks ago, my system slowly spins out of control - dock/finder/force quit become some of the first apps to fall. This ends in a freeze - UI responsive (mouse, some window movement) with the eventual need to force restart (holding down the power button) It's so bad that I'm constantly running the Console and Activity Monitor to see if I can find some clues.
It has been intermittent - with no fixed pattern of Apps running. It seems to take at least 3-4 hours for it to occur - but has gone longer than 19 at least one.
Initially, a some of the restarts resulted in the system thinking it needed a firmware update. This hasn't continued, but it was a very strange symptom.
I ran Techtool's full set of tests: Ram, drive integrity, Smart status. Passed.
Big obvious things: Permissions, Disk Util, Disk Warrior. FSCK. Onyx (and cleared all the major caches.) Font book's font check and Keychain's first aid.
When I took my system to my local dealer, we pulled my drive (as they give me a replacement.) The problems happened on the replacement system (with my drive in it.)
The dealer ran Apple's full suite of tests (including a couple of overnight tests) and still nothing; We added my HD back and it still passed all Apple tests.
OS Repairs that have failed:
I've tried a combo update.
I've done an Archive & Install.
I've tried a Clean install and moved over key parts of my user- documents, music and photos. *I added back my preferences & some key Application support items.* I star this because it leads me to believe that it's related to my specific user.
We replaced my HD with a new one and I did a time machine restore. Since none of the above system updates made a difference - I felt it was better to work on my full system.
Things I've removed:
Orbicule/Undercover, VMWare/Fusion, Glims, Little Snitch.
Jumpcut, evernote
Blueharvest, Pinpoint, Mouse Locator.
I think it's specific to my user - but I can't really be sure; the problem is very much intermittent. Just creating another user won't necessarily show the problem - the system has run over 19 hours without a crash. I'm really resistant to this because it doesn't show where the problem came from.
I thought it might be related to iTunes, my iPhone, Adium, Safari or Sleep, as each of these seem to have triggered it.
I pulled corrupt extensions (that Onyx wouldn't read) and items that mdimporter (spotlight) had trouble with (mostly some IMAP attachments)
I've spent all day running/quitting/sleeping the machine trying to CAUSE the problem. I can't seem to - and I'm at a complete loss.
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