MacBook won't shut down.

MacDude121 · Jun 21, 2012

Hey guys, so I've been having some trouble with my MacBook recently, for some reason, after I select "Shut Down" from the apple menu, my computer does not shut down, instead the dock disappears, the menu bar disappears, and then it gets stuck. My mouse is still moveable and my background is still visible, but that's all I can do. I've waited 20 minutes and still no change, it forces me to do a hard shut down. (which I hate doing)

Any ideas? I've repaired disk permissions, and checked activity monitor with no other Apps running and everything seems normal, at least no processes that should keep it from shutting down successfully. This all started after I installed a software update, can't quite remember exactly what it was but it included a Java and security update, could this somehow be causing the issue?

Any help would be appreciated.

Vash108 · Jun 21, 2012

So I am new to the MacVerse myself but do you know if they have some sort of OS repair you can run like windows has? If so you may want to run it, and not sure if repairing disk permissions is the same?

EDIT: Try this
http://osxdaily.com/2012/02/08/repair-boot-disk-mac-os-x-disk-utilit/

Also Check your Disk Space, it seems it has problems if the disk is too full

ALSO found this.

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ If you’re running Mac OS X 10.7 or later, open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the page that opens.

Step 1

Select "system.log" from the file list. Enter "BOOT_TIME" (without the quotes) in the search box. Note the timestamps of those log messages, which refer to the times when the system was booted. Now clear the search box and scroll back in the log to the last boot time when you had the problem. Post the messages logged during the time something abnormal was happening. That time might be before or after the boot.

For example, if the problem is a slow startup taking three minutes, post the messages timestamped within three minutes after the boot time, not before. If the problem is a system crash or freeze, post the messages from before the boot time, when the system was about to crash or was failing to shut down. In either case, please include the BOOT_TIME message at the beginning or the end of the log extract.

Post the log text, please, not a screenshot. If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don’t post many repetitions of the same message.

If the log doesn't go back far enough in time, scroll down in the Console file list to /private/var/log/system.log.0.bz2. Search that archived log, and if necessary the older ones below it, for the same information.

Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Edit it out by search-and-replace in a text editor before posting.

Step 2

Do the same with kernel.log.

Step 3

Still in Console, look under System Diagnostic Reports for crash or panic logs, and post the most recent one, if any. In the interest of privacy, I suggest you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if present (it may not be.) Please don’t post shutdownStall or hang logs — they're very long and not helpful.

MacDude121 · Jun 21, 2012

Vash108 said:
So I am new to the MacVerse myself but do you know if they have some sort of OS repair you can run like windows has? If so you may want to run it, and not sure if repairing disk permissions is the same?

EDIT: Try this
Repair Boot Disk in Mac OS X Lion with Disk Utility & Recovery HD

Also Check your Disk Space, it seems it has problems if the disk is too full

ALSO found this.

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ If you’re running Mac OS X 10.7 or later, open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the page that opens.

Step 1

Select "system.log" from the file list. Enter "BOOT_TIME" (without the quotes) in the search box. Note the timestamps of those log messages, which refer to the times when the system was booted. Now clear the search box and scroll back in the log to the last boot time when you had the problem. Post the messages logged during the time something abnormal was happening. That time might be before or after the boot.

For example, if the problem is a slow startup taking three minutes, post the messages timestamped within three minutes after the boot time, not before. If the problem is a system crash or freeze, post the messages from before the boot time, when the system was about to crash or was failing to shut down. In either case, please include the BOOT_TIME message at the beginning or the end of the log extract.

Post the log text, please, not a screenshot. If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don’t post many repetitions of the same message.

If the log doesn't go back far enough in time, scroll down in the Console file list to /private/var/log/system.log.0.bz2. Search that archived log, and if necessary the older ones below it, for the same information.

Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Edit it out by search-and-replace in a text editor before posting.

Step 2

Do the same with kernel.log.

Step 3

Still in Console, look under System Diagnostic Reports for crash or panic logs, and post the most recent one, if any. In the interest of privacy, I suggest you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if present (it may not be.) Please don’t post shutdownStall or hang logs — they're very long and not helpful.

Yes, a disk utility repair is similar to Windows in respect to cleaning out and repairing permissions in your system. I have 80GB of HD space left, so that shouldn't be a problem either.

A search of BOOT_TIME in the system.log only brought up one line of text:
"Jun 21 10:41:42 evans-new-mac bootlog[50]: BOOT_TIME: 1340289656 0"

Not sure what that even means, all other system logs seem irrelevant, just processes that the OS seems to be making normally. And besides that, my Boot Time is totally normal, shutting down is the real issue.

Also found this: "Jun 21 10:41:15 localhost DirectoryService[11]: Improper shutdown detected"

MacDude121 · Jun 22, 2012

Anyone else?

SoulRed12 · Jun 22, 2012

When I had this problem, I opened up disk utility, clicked on verify disk (not permissions), and it told me my disk had problems. So I clicked on repair disk and it told me it could only fix the problems from the recovery mode. I rebooted in recovery mode and used the disk utility to repair the drive from there, and after that it started shutting down again. Hopefully that helps you.

MacDude121 · Jun 22, 2012

SoulRed12 said:
When I had this problem, I opened up disk utility, clicked on verify disk (not permissions), and it told me my disk had problems. So I clicked on repair disk and it told me it could only fix the problems from the recovery mode. I rebooted in recovery mode and used the disk utility to repair the drive from there, and after that it started shutting down again. Hopefully that helps you.

Well dang, as it turns out Macintosh HD is corrupted. (that sounds scary) unfortunately, I don't have an OS 10.6 disk to repair with... and I cannot repair the disk while the MacBook is using it to run...

This isn't good news...

SoulRed12 · Jun 22, 2012

Can you borrow a friend's Snow Leopard disk?

Another option is to go into an Apple Store and see if they'll do it for you while you wait. Might do it for free since they wouldn't really be doing anything. One time they did an Archive & Install for me for free (my computer was waaaay past warranty, too)--and that actually took them a full day.

MacDude121 · Jun 22, 2012

SoulRed12 said:
Can you borrow a friend's Snow Leopard disk?

Another option is to go into an Apple Store and see if they'll do it for you while you wait. Might do it for free since they wouldn't really be doing anything. One time they did an Archive & Install for me for free (my computer was waaaay past warranty, too)--and that actually took them a full day.

Unfortunately No, don't know any friends that would have one that I could borrow and the nearest Apple store is a 2+ hour drive away...

$:\$