Snow Leopard freezing problem!

CGGuy · May 17, 2011

Hello guys,
I have these freezing problem for a few months now. My OS freezes for almost 1min while I'm working. Anybody have an idea why? It drives me crazy when I'm in the middle of a project.

I looked for solution in the the forum but got nothing.

MacBook Pro - 10.6.7 Snow Leo
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

McBie · May 17, 2011

What exactly do you mean with " Freeze " ?
Is the application not responding or is the OS not responding ?
Do you see the spinning beach ball ?

What is the size of your hard disk and how much free space do you have on it ?

It may be an indication of a failing hard disk and I suggest you make a backup whilst you still can.

Cheers ... McBie

Randy B. Singer · May 17, 2011

CGGuy said:
Hello guys,
I have these freezing problem for a few months now. My OS freezes for almost 1min while I'm working. Anybody have an idea why? It drives me crazy when I'm in the middle of a project.

Open Activity Monitor and leave it open. Click on the "%CPU" column to sort from most to least.

When you have a bout of freezing/slowdown, switch to Activity Monitor and see what is taking up all of your CPU time.

I wouldn't be surprised if you have a corrupted Spotlight database that is constantly trying to update.

CGGuy · May 17, 2011

McBie said:
What exactly do you mean with " Freeze " ?
Is the application not responding or is the OS not responding ?
Do you see the spinning beach ball ?

- I see the spinning ball all the time but can't get any reaction from any software. But the "All Windows" function is working.

McBie said:
What is the size of your hard disk and how much free space do you have on it ?

- I have a 500GB Hdd and have 80GB free space.

McBie said:
It may be an indication of a failing hard disk and I suggest you make a backup whilst you still can.

- Thanks, already did.

CGGuy · May 17, 2011

Randy B. Singer said:
Open Activity Monitor and leave it open. Click on the "%CPU" column to sort from most to least.

When you have a bout of freezing/slowdown, switch to Activity Monitor and see what is taking up all of your CPU time.

- Well, it depends on which app I'm using. Sometimes its Safari and sometimes ITunes. And the CPU indicator doesn't change, just says its "Not Responding".

Randy B. Singer said:
I wouldn't be surprised if you have a corrupted Spotlight database that is constantly trying to update.

- Yes, makes sense. HDD error is causing that, isn't it?

Randy B. Singer · May 18, 2011

CGGuy said:
- Well, it depends on which app I'm using. Sometimes its Safari and sometimes ITunes. And the CPU indicator doesn't change, just says its "Not Responding".

I'm not sure that you are looking at what I was trying to point you to. The %CPU column in Activity Monitor will list everything running and what percentage of CPU time each thing is taking up.

CGGuy said:
Yes, makes sense. HDD error is causing that, isn't it?

One can't be entirely sure why the Spotlight database has become corrupted. When it is, and you look in Activity Monitor, "mds" and/or "mdimport" will be listed as taking up a lot of CPU time. These are Spotlight processes. If they are what is causing the slowdown, Spotlight probably has a corrupted database.

To fix this, Open System Preferences (in the Apple menu) , choose the Spotlight panel, click on the Privacy tab, and drag your main drive's icon into the Privacy window. Now highlight your hard drive's icon within the Privacy window (by clicking on it once) and
click on the "-" (that is, the minus button in the Privacy Window).

Or you could highlight the hard drive icon in the Privacy window and hit the delete key.

This will cause the Spotlight database to be deleted and automatically rebuilt. (You won't be able to use Spotlight while its database is being rebuilt.).

After doing this, set your Mac so that it won't go to sleep, and leave your Mac on for the whole day, and allow Spotlight to index your entire drive uninterrupted.

CGGuy · May 18, 2011

I just got this!

Thanks again, I'll try the reindexing! Hope it works.

schweb · May 18, 2011

What do you have on your Dock? That's really bizarre that it's taking 20% CPU.

6string · May 18, 2011

schweb said:
What do you have on your Dock? That's really bizarre that it's taking 20% CPU.

Indeed, and activity monitor taking about the same! ???

Something's not right.

CGGuy · May 18, 2011

schweb said:
What do you have on your Dock? That's really bizarre that it's taking 20% CPU.

Nothing actually. It just popped out for a few seconds and then its gone!

schweb · May 18, 2011

Have you installed any system modifications, tweaked anything, installed any strange system-level software like an A/V?

McBie · May 18, 2011

Can you go back into activity monitor and select " All processes " instead of " My Processes " .
Then sort by CPU usage and send us a print screen .

Cheers ... McBie

CGGuy · May 18, 2011

schweb said:
Have you installed any system modifications, tweaked anything, installed any strange system-level software like an A/V?

No, I reinstalled the whole OS a few months ago just to work clean and fast! Nothing modified!

CGGuy · May 18, 2011

McBie said:
Can you go back into activity monitor and select " All processes " instead of " My Processes " .
Then sort by CPU usage and send us a print screen .

Cheers ... McBie

Here;
Thanks again!

Randy B. Singer · May 19, 2011

CGGuy said:
Here

It looks to me as if you might indeed benefit from clearing Spotlight's database.

"MDS" is a Spotlight process.

CGGuy · May 19, 2011

Randy B. Singer said:
It looks to me as if you might indeed benefit from clearing Spotlight's database.

"MDS" is a Spotlight process.

Didn't work either. But I discovered that it happens mostly by using Safari! Might be a Java or Flash error!

Randy B. Singer · May 19, 2011

CGGuy said:
Didn't work either.

Did you give Spotlight the entire day to re-index your drive before you concluded that it didn't work?

CGGuy said:
But I discovered that it happens mostly by using Safari! Might be a Java or Flash error!

An outdated Flash plug-in is a frequent source of problems for Safari users. Delete your old Flash plug-in and download and install the latest one and see if that helps.

Adobe - Install a different version of Adobe Flash Player

CGGuy · Jun 11, 2011

I don't know what caused it but a reinstall solved the problems!

Thanks everyone!