Wierd Mac problem
February 20, 2006 7:51 PM Subscribe
Mac OS X can't start new programs, or shut down. Long explanation follows.
I periodically encounter a very odd problem on my Panther iBook whereby I will suddenly lose the ability to start any new programs. The problem occurs infrequently, and intermittantly.
Customarily, I will be working normally and will attempt to launch a new program from the dock. My first sign of trouble is that the application icon continues to bounce for an abnormally long time, and will simply continue to bounce for about a minute, then just stop. End result, no program. I find that once I've encountered this condition, I am completely unable to start any new programs. From that point on its Click, Bounce, Wait, Nothing.
Currently running programs appear to operate correctly. All running programs can be shut down, but if I try to shutdown or log off, I only end up with a bare desktop. I can never get back to the login screen, and to shut the machine all the way down, I have to hold the power button down for 5 - 7 seconds to do a hardware reset. I'm guessing the shutdown problems must be due to the fact that the underlying Unix layer needs to run something like "shutdown", but can't because of the original problem.
Initially, I figured I simply had a problem with the current session and that a reboot would fix it, but no dice. I then hypothesized that the abnormal shutdown might be contributing to the problem, so when I was forced to do a power reset, I would bring the machine back up, log in, and then immediately log out again in a healthy fashion. Next time I brought the machine up, I'd run into the same problem, no new programs. After dealing with this sort of thing for about an hour, I'll just become too frustrated to carry on any further and will shut the machine down and put it aside for a few days. The next time I come back, no troubles at all.
I can go weeks or months (this is secondary machine, and I don't use it daily) without encountering this problem at all, but once it does occur, I'm hosed for the rest of the day. The best that I can figure from going through this 10 or 15 times is that at some point, my system just won't create any new processes. That is the only way that I can explain why running programs work, but newly launched programs never actually come to life.
This has got me completely mystified. I've posted queries about this at Apple and at MacOSXHints, but gotten no meaningful responses. I'm hoping some other Mac owner out there has at least seen this before and confirm that I'm not alone in seeing this weird behavior.
I periodically encounter a very odd problem on my Panther iBook whereby I will suddenly lose the ability to start any new programs. The problem occurs infrequently, and intermittantly.
Customarily, I will be working normally and will attempt to launch a new program from the dock. My first sign of trouble is that the application icon continues to bounce for an abnormally long time, and will simply continue to bounce for about a minute, then just stop. End result, no program. I find that once I've encountered this condition, I am completely unable to start any new programs. From that point on its Click, Bounce, Wait, Nothing.
Currently running programs appear to operate correctly. All running programs can be shut down, but if I try to shutdown or log off, I only end up with a bare desktop. I can never get back to the login screen, and to shut the machine all the way down, I have to hold the power button down for 5 - 7 seconds to do a hardware reset. I'm guessing the shutdown problems must be due to the fact that the underlying Unix layer needs to run something like "shutdown", but can't because of the original problem.
Initially, I figured I simply had a problem with the current session and that a reboot would fix it, but no dice. I then hypothesized that the abnormal shutdown might be contributing to the problem, so when I was forced to do a power reset, I would bring the machine back up, log in, and then immediately log out again in a healthy fashion. Next time I brought the machine up, I'd run into the same problem, no new programs. After dealing with this sort of thing for about an hour, I'll just become too frustrated to carry on any further and will shut the machine down and put it aside for a few days. The next time I come back, no troubles at all.
I can go weeks or months (this is secondary machine, and I don't use it daily) without encountering this problem at all, but once it does occur, I'm hosed for the rest of the day. The best that I can figure from going through this 10 or 15 times is that at some point, my system just won't create any new processes. That is the only way that I can explain why running programs work, but newly launched programs never actually come to life.
This has got me completely mystified. I've posted queries about this at Apple and at MacOSXHints, but gotten no meaningful responses. I'm hoping some other Mac owner out there has at least seen this before and confirm that I'm not alone in seeing this weird behavior.
hardware glitch meaning some hardware glitch that causes the kernel to go haywire. It could also be a corrupt kernel file. So my first bet would be to reinstall the OS. If that doesn't work, then it's definitely a hardware problem.
posted by delmoi at 8:04 PM on February 20, 2006
posted by delmoi at 8:04 PM on February 20, 2006
It sounds like a hardware problem. Quite possibly something heat-related.
One way to troubleshoot it is (if you have an external firewire drive) to clone your system disk using Carbon Copy Cloner onto the external drive (when it's not screwed up!), and next time it happens, try booting from the cloned disk (which should be in a 'known good' state). If this fails you probably have a hardware issue.
What do your system.log and crashreporter logs say? (Use Console to inspect them). There is usually good info there. It is also worth using Activity Monitor to see if any invisible processes are having problems.
posted by unSane at 8:11 PM on February 20, 2006
One way to troubleshoot it is (if you have an external firewire drive) to clone your system disk using Carbon Copy Cloner onto the external drive (when it's not screwed up!), and next time it happens, try booting from the cloned disk (which should be in a 'known good' state). If this fails you probably have a hardware issue.
What do your system.log and crashreporter logs say? (Use Console to inspect them). There is usually good info there. It is also worth using Activity Monitor to see if any invisible processes are having problems.
posted by unSane at 8:11 PM on February 20, 2006
Response by poster: In response to delmoi, I can't run programs from Terminal either. If I try running something like "ls -l", the prompt just goes away and doesn't come back.
In response to michaelskuznet, this machine has already been in for service for a screen problem, and had the logic board replaced at that time. Roughly mid-2003.
In response to unSane, I've tried tracking this problems with Activity Monitor and the log viewer and couldn't see any problems at all, though I don't claim to have been exhaustive.
posted by hwestiii at 3:01 AM on February 21, 2006
In response to michaelskuznet, this machine has already been in for service for a screen problem, and had the logic board replaced at that time. Roughly mid-2003.
In response to unSane, I've tried tracking this problems with Activity Monitor and the log viewer and couldn't see any problems at all, though I don't claim to have been exhaustive.
posted by hwestiii at 3:01 AM on February 21, 2006
I've seen problems very similar to this on a few powerbooks (except the "unable to shut down all the way" issue there wasn't intermittent). I'm also thinking that your problem might be hardware related - maybe memory?
I would recommend the following steps (from least to most drastic) to see if the problem goes away:
-Repair permissions
-Run the Hardware Test CD that came with your laptop (hold down "ctrl + L" to loop it, and let it run overnight)
-back it up (everything)!
-Verify/repair HD from disk
-Reinstall OS X with the "Archive & Install" option (preserving user & network settings)
- Clean install, manually reinstall all apps/copy personal data from backup.
posted by sluggo at 4:12 AM on February 21, 2006
I would recommend the following steps (from least to most drastic) to see if the problem goes away:
-Repair permissions
-Run the Hardware Test CD that came with your laptop (hold down "ctrl + L" to loop it, and let it run overnight)
-back it up (everything)!
-Verify/repair HD from disk
-Reinstall OS X with the "Archive & Install" option (preserving user & network settings)
- Clean install, manually reinstall all apps/copy personal data from backup.
posted by sluggo at 4:12 AM on February 21, 2006
I've seen this come and go on perfectly fine hardware, so I'd rule that out. Sadly I don't remember what the problem really was.
posted by cillit bang at 6:07 AM on February 21, 2006
posted by cillit bang at 6:07 AM on February 21, 2006
How much free space do you have on your hard drive when this happens?
I've had virtually the same symptom on my G5 desktop when free space on the drive dropped too low.
It's possible that when you've left it alone for a few days, it's clearing out some temp files as too old, thus freeing up space.
posted by notbuddha at 7:47 AM on February 21, 2006
I've had virtually the same symptom on my G5 desktop when free space on the drive dropped too low.
It's possible that when you've left it alone for a few days, it's clearing out some temp files as too old, thus freeing up space.
posted by notbuddha at 7:47 AM on February 21, 2006
This has happened to me maybe 3 times in the last 2 years on my desktop Mac. I think it's just an intermittent bug - it's certainly not related to free HD space on my computer.
posted by ikkyu2 at 8:23 AM on February 21, 2006
posted by ikkyu2 at 8:23 AM on February 21, 2006
I've seen this happen when the launchd process gets stuck. It's probably not a hardware problem.
What version of the OS are you running? Do you have any network volumes connected?
posted by xil at 10:13 AM on February 21, 2006
What version of the OS are you running? Do you have any network volumes connected?
posted by xil at 10:13 AM on February 21, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by delmoi at 8:02 PM on February 20, 2006