Snow Leopard Freezing

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(I'm a newbie here, so if I'm posting in the wrong spot, please let me know.)

I'm running OS 10.6.8 on a 5 year old 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. Lately, and randomly, I'll be working and then I'll hear a very small sound like the hard drive stops spinning and I'll get a SBBOD. At that point, I can't switch between apps, I can't force quit, I can't save. My mouse cursor will still move and I can drag the top most window around, but that's about it.

I try to note what's I'm doing when it freezes, and I can be doing almost anything. However, it seems to only happen when I have a program that uses the internet open (most often Firefox or Chrome, but occasionally I'll have no browser open, but I will have iTunes or Adobe Reader open). I don't have to be IN those programs (I'm often in Word or InDesign), but they are open. It happens whether I'm running wired or wirelessly.

I'll reboot and everything will be fine (at least for 2 minutes, though often times it will go hours before freezing again).

I've rebooted, run software update, cleaned my caches, and deleted potentially offending plists...any other ideas? Will an upgrade to Lion (which I've been putting off because of the age of the machine) potentially help?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 

chscag

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2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
Welcome to the Mac Forums.

Upgrades (any kind) never help in a hardware problem situation. And I believe that's what you have. I suspect your hard drive is acting up. First thing to do before anything else, is make a backup of all your data. Don't wait, do it now.

Next, boot your machine with your original install disk and run Disk Utility from the disk. From the First Aid tab do a verify and repair. Let us know the results.
 

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