os x isnt so stable

Atleast once a day now i get applications that unexpectedly quit. For example, just 5 minutes ago safari unexpectedly quit. I had 2 safari windows open and it just closed. I also get this with mozzila, photoshop, and limewire. So why do things just all of a sudden close. ??? And a few days ago i got a kernal panic! I am finding that os x is actually more unstable than windows and to be honest, dont see how it's so much better after using ti for a while. Whats up with the unexpectedly quitting thing? Can i prevent it?

Well I would start with checking your logs. It might tell you what the problem is.

I have had Camino quit on me a few times, but I am running the daily build so that is to be expected. I have also had Safari quit on me a couple times (2 or 3 times in the last 4 months) but nothing overly common. Finally NeoOffice has crapped out on me a couple times, but again I am using a CVS build.

Other than that my system has been pretty stable and reliable. Not everyone has my luck I guess.

how can i check my logs???

Application/Utilities/Console

At a minimum check System and Console logs. Then you might investigate others as needed.

i did that and there was jsut a bunch of stuff about adium and adding people....

i have had limewire crap out on me... it is real glitchy as far as photoshop.... you might want to upgrade your ram 256megs isnt really sufficent for photoshoping..

ok... i thin im going to buy some ram then and see how much better it is. thanks

shaun89 said:

Atleast once a day now i get applications that unexpectedly quit. For example, just 5 minutes ago safari unexpectedly quit. I had 2 safari windows open and it just closed. I also get this with mozzila, photoshop, and limewire. So why do things just all of a sudden close. ??? And a few days ago i got a kernal panic! I am finding that os x is actually more unstable than windows and to be honest, dont see how it's so much better after using ti for a while. Whats up with the unexpectedly quitting thing? Can i prevent it?

Click to expand...

256 meg of ram is rather skimpy for doing multitasking, i would recomend to increase it to at least 512, or better yet add 512 to the 256 you have. I think you will find the iMac will be a lot smoother to operate then. As for the programs closing, don't really know, but my wifes iMac G5 never has that problem, nor does my PowerMac G5.

In the almost 5 months that the wife and I have been running Mac's we have found OS X to be very stable, that is why i think your problem may be hardware related, ie needs more ram. Certainly would be worth trying anyway cause OS X does like its ram...

The adding and removing people from Adium is normal. If you know of a time when one of the applications crashed chek for the log entries around that time. You could also check the crash logs in ~/Library/Logs but those are usually meant for the developer not the end user.

I would ask what you are doing and what you had open when the applications crash but honestly it would not mean much to me given the applications you are using. I don't use any of the apps you are asking about often. Actually Safari is the only one in that list I use at all.

It is mildly possible it is a bad piece of RAM, but I think it more likely that it is a rogue program causing the trouble.

EDIT: Too little RAM is a more likley problem. It is commonly held opinion of people smarter than myself that 512 MB is the smallest practical amount of memory for OS X. I have never tried below 1.25 GB myself not counting first boot up to make sure the PB worked at all.

ok. ill go amd buy a 512 stick... right now actually....

I find OS X to be very stable. I've had my iBook for over a month and it has not crashed once. I cannot say the same for the various XP desktops I have. Yesterday I did get an unexpected quit from Safari though. Memory does help in many ways. I recently added 1 GB to my iBook.

shaun89 said:

Atleast once a day now i get applications that unexpectedly quit. For example, just 5 minutes ago safari unexpectedly quit. I had 2 safari windows open and it just closed. I also get this with mozzila, photoshop, and limewire. So why do things just all of a sudden close. ??? And a few days ago i got a kernal panic! I am finding that os x is actually more unstable than windows and to be honest, dont see how it's so much better after using ti for a while. Whats up with the unexpectedly quitting thing? Can i prevent it?

Click to expand...

The first thing you need to realize is that applications unexpectedly quitting are just that APPLICATIONS, not OS X. You should notice that when these apps quit you do not need to reboot your Mac, unlike any PC I've ever used. In fact the only time I ever reboot my Macs including my laptop is for system updates.

Second, kernel panics do happen from time to time but they are pretty uncommon. In the 2 years I have had my dual G4 1.25 I have had 1 kernel panic and that was due to bad RAM. My Powerbook has never kernel paniced in the year I've had it. Kernel panics are usually an indicator of some hardware problem, be it a device conflict (USB, firewire, PCI, etc), bad RAM or faulty logic board. Did I mention I used to be a Mac Genius and did nothing but troubleshoot Macs all day?

Your anecdotal "evidence" that windows is more stable than Mac OS is little more than that. I use PCs everyday at my current job and have been using Macs for about 14 years. I have a serious sampling of time on both types of systems and many different versions of OSes. Windows has never been as stable as it is now, and yet if I don't reboot XP at work once a day it gets flakey. Win2k was worse. Previous to installing Tiger, my Powerbook hadn't been rebooted since 10.3.8 came out. You just can't do that with a PC.

witeshark said:

Try repair permissions. After every software update, and about every 2 weeks: close all apps and log totally off. Log on, go in Finder, Applications. Utilities, Disk Utility. After the message -getting disk information- select volume (below the hard drive name -upper left corner). Just highlight it. Now look to the lower two things are there near the middle, verify permissions, repair permissions. Click repair permissions

Click to expand...

Sometimes Kernal Panic isn't cause by bad ram. I pulled out ram and tested one by one but I knew it not the cause of problem with Panther. My panther never have problem till I upraded. I found out in the website search there is some software incompatibility with Tiger! I trash most of them that are incompatibility and keep that are compatibility. Virex no longer works for OSX Tiger, DockFun not compatible, Application Enhancer sometimes conflict with OSX tiger so I disabled that. I download and got Tiger Cache and pretty good but you got to know what you doing. Macaronic 2.6 is compatible. Mighty mouse never works in OSX Tiger. That why I get those "unexpectedly quit" I'm still working on it to see if there any improvement of my OSX Tiger after been though Kernal panic in shutdowns and also restart too.

Hope this helps.

AussieDownUnder

its fine now that i have 768mb....