Like clockwork, MacBook Pro freezes for about 30 seconds every 20-30 minutes... Why?

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Any troubleshooting suggestions?

After upgrading my MacBook Pro (mid-2009, 15-inch) with 8GB RAM for $82, and 1TB internal drive 7200 RPM for $98, and replaced one damaged keycap for $7, it runs a lot peppier now. Feels almost like a new machine. Looking at a new battery... $120. for A1321, 77.5-73wh.

What I did:

Installed 8GB RAM, ran memtest, five passes overnight, after changing the RAM, and it found no errors.

Installed new internal hard drive, formatted and installed OS X 10.6.8 from flash drive.

Restored from Time Machine backup; the boot drive name was "Mac750GB" which I renamed to "Mac1TB" on a whim.

The Finder has been running at 70-90% CPU for many, many days now. I have rebooted once every few days. I am guessing that the Finder is rebuilding the Spotlight index for the boot drive, because I had renamed it.


However, there is another anomaly, which causes problems.


What happens now:


Every 20-30 minutes the entire system hangs for about 30 seconds.


The mouse pointer continues to move, but the menu bar clock FREESES (no flashing ":" and no seconds counting) for thirty seconds.


Typing ceases, the keyboard is frozen, and mouse clicks usually cause a SBBOD (Beachball.)

Any ideas what is going on with these freezes?

Could it have anything to do with the Finder 90% CPU for days?

How to troubleshoot this?


Should I just be patient and let the Finder run for a few more days?

Mac OS X 10.6.8 (getting ready to update to Mavericks when the system is stable.)

Macbook Pro Core2Duo Mid-2009 2.53GHz MC118LL/A 15.4 inch, MacBookPro5,4.

Activity Monitor screenshots attached.

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro5,4
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.53 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP53.00AC.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.49f2

Power On Self-Test:

Last Run: 11/16/13 5:22 PM
Result: Passed

Memory Slots:

ECC: Disabled

BANK 0/DIMM0:

Size: 4 GB
Type: DDR3
Speed: 1067 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0x859B
Part Number: 0x435434473353313036374D2E4D3136464D44
Serial Number: 0x00000000

BANK 1/DIMM0:

Size: 4 GB
Type: DDR3
Speed: 1067 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0x859B
Part Number: 0x435434473353313036374D2E4D3136464D44
Serial Number: 0x00000000

Internal boot drive:

HGST HTS721010A9E630:

Capacity: 1 TB (1,000,204,886,016 bytes)
Model: HGST HTS721010A9E630
Revision: JB0OA3B0
Serial Number: JG4........U8C
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Rotational Rate: 7200
Medium Type: Rotational
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
Capacity: 209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)
Writable: Yes
BSD Name: disk0s1
Mac-1TB:
Capacity: 999.86 GB (999,860,912,128 bytes)
Available: 460.5 GB (460,497,285,120 bytes)
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s2
Mount Point: /

finder-cpu-disk-freeze-30-sec-every-30-mins.jpg

and
finder-activity_monitor-freeze-cpu.jpg


finder-activity_monitor-freeze-cpu.jpg

finder-cpu-disk-freeze-30-sec-every-30-mins.jpg
 
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Running the CPU like that for so long isn't good for it I can tell you that much. It's probably hanging while the hardware "suspends" to cool down (thus the freezing) - this is my theory anyway.

Also, spotlight indexing shouldn't take THAT long. I have over 1TB of stuff on my hard drive and it takes my system about half a day to a full day to index it from scratch. Something else is at work here.

I wish I could be more helpful! Maybe someone else can jump in here.
 

pigoo3

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Any troubleshooting suggestions?

After upgrading my MacBook Pro (mid-2009, 15-inch) with 8GB RAM for $82, and 1TB internal drive 7200 RPM for $98, and replaced one damaged keycap for $7, it runs a lot peppier now. Feels almost like a new machine. Looking at a new battery... $120. for A1321, 77.5-73wh.

You were bragging about all of the upgrades you did in another thread.:) With what you mentioned is going on currently...I think that "we" should hold off on the bragging.;) Since it would seem that one or more of the upgrades "could" be responsible for the problems.

The Finder has been running at 70-90% CPU for many, many days now.

This is definitely a problem.

My first questions are...how long has it been since you did the upgrades?...and did the problems start right after the upgrades?

My first suggestion would be...try removing the new ram, and installing the old ram to see if the problem(s) disappear. If the problem persists after installing the old ram...I think that installing the old hard drive would be a good idea as well.

Basically we are trying to get this computer back to a state where it didn't have any issues.

Once we get an answer to this...we can try other things if necessary.

- Nick
 

pigoo3

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I also wanted to mention. In one of the images above (where the menu bar can be seen)...you have a lot of "stuff" running/auto loading (all those little icons in the menu bar).

I would try to turn off as many of these as possible. This helps with troubleshooting problems.

- Nick
 

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1. How much stuff do you have on your desktop? Could be a faulty icon preview it's working on.

2. Have Dropbox and trying to view "All My Files" in Finder?

3. Open Finder and with your drive highlighted in the side bar - go to 'View' 'Show View Options' uncheck 'Calculate all sizes' if you have that checked.

4. Logout and login to a different user account to see if it has the same thing happening.

5. mdworker would be the process related to Spotlight not Finder - so it's something else.

6. Do you have some automatic off-site backup running? This could definitely take days and would/can cause a big spike in Finder until it completes.
 
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MacInWin

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How often does Time Machine run the auto backup? That process can tie up the drive for a short time during the backup, making it feel slower.
 
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My suggestion would be to ensure that no apps/items are loaded at login and restart the machine in a clean state ( do not open any apps ). See what happens through activity monitor.
My initial thoughts is that one of those processes is running wild for some reason.
The 30 seconds freeze might be because your CPU decided that it is getting too hot and shuts itself down ( one or more cores )

Cheers ... McBie
 
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Thanks to each and all of you for the brainstorming and troubleshooting suggestions. It helps to get other perspectives on the symptoms.

Rather than using a shotgun approach, I want to leave the hardware as-is for now, and try to eliminate the most likely software possibilities first. Focus on the two symptoms:

1.) Finder CPU hogging (which is very consistent and continuous) and

2.) Periodic beachballs or freezes (which are very predictable and regular, lasting 30 seconds every half hour.)

I want to eliminate as many probable software issues before doing any hardware down-grades. Restoring hardware to the prior conditions is often a logical troubleshooting plan, but in this case the symptoms seem more likely to be software-related, not hardware.

Searching for Finder runaway process there were many others discussing the problem, and lots of suggestions.

To answer some questions:

For Time Machine, I only plug in the external drive about once a day to do a daily backup. Having the external drive connected all the time is overkill and could be unsafe for reliability reasons. When the backup is done, I eject the drive and unplug it.

I've cleaned up a few probable issues, such as eliminating all non-essential startup items and filing away most of the desktop folders, especially a few larger ones. Finder menu bar, select View -> Show View Options; uncheck "Calculate All Sizes"; Click "Use as Defaults". Done. There were some big folders that had calculate sizes checked, but it should not take more than a few hours to calculate all sizes for 500GB on a fast hard drive.

The CPU temperature is averaging about 70 C which is on the upper side of normal range (when the CPU is fairly busy.) Average fan speed is about 2100 RPM which is also in the normal, green range (using the Temperature Gauge app from Tunabelly Software.) So over-temp is probably not throttling, which could cause freezes.

Next, I will try rebooting in Safe-mode (booting with the <shift> key held down) and run for awhile to see what happens.
 
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After the Safe-boot, Finder ran at 60-90% for about 10 minutes while the Mac was mainly idle, only running Activity Monitor and the temperature gauge app. CPU average temp at 50 C, fan at 2000 RPM, cool and quiet.

After about 10 minutes busy, Finder settled down to average less than 10% CPU for more than 5 minutes. The entire system was mostly idle, both CPU and IO, during that time, as shown in Activity Monitor.

Created an empty, untitled folder on the desktop, and Finder went back to 60-90 % CPU, with lots of Disk Activity (reads, not writes, i.e. 100:1 ratio, reads to writes) showing up in Activity Monitor, which lasted more than 5 minutes.

It is as if throwing a rock (empty folder) into the pond (desktop folder) caused ripples (Finder CPU hogging) for a long time...

Update: This behavior is highly repeatable. Same thing happened three times out of three tests. (Yes, view options, calculate all sizes, is NOT set.). This is as if the Finder goes into some kind of disk testing or garbage collection mode on any slightest whim.) Cannot observe the freeze/beachball issue while in Safe mode.
 

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Rather than using a shotgun approach, I want to leave the hardware as-is for now, and try to eliminate the most likely software possibilities first.

I'm not sure this is the best approach. Unless I'm misunderstanding things...it seems that the cpu % issues started after the hardware upgrades. Therefore...restoring the computer back to a "hardware state" that was stable is the best thing to do first. This can be a lot easier & faster to do than trying to track down a software issue.

What you're trying to do initially is...determine if it is software or hardware. This is easiest to accomplish by doing two things:

1. Reinstall all old hardware (when the computer was stable).

- If the problem disappears...then it was a hardware thing (the new ram or the new HD).
- If the problem remains...then it's either software or another hardware item.

2. Boot the computer from an external HD with a fresh install of the OS.

- If the problem disappears...then it was software issue on the internal HD.
- If the problem remains...then it's a hardware item.

I would explore the hardware approach first.

FYI...I experienced the same CPU % problem a while ago. Turns out it was a defective fan. Not saying your problem is the fan...just an example of how this problem can be hardware related.

- Nick
 
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Booted from the old boot drive (750 GB, 5400 RPM, external USB drive) and the Finder behaves normally, so this rules out any possibility that the new 8GB RAM could be a cause.

Note, this 750GB drive created the Time Machine backup that was restored onto the new 1TB, 7200 RPM internal drive, so all the software should be equivalent.

Rebooted normally from the new internal 1TB drive, repeated observing similar behavior as in. Post #9.

Still, cannot rule out software... But for discussion, how could a new internal drive cause this kind of Finder misbehavior?

It is as if throwing a rock (empty folder) into the pond (desktop folder) caused ripples (Finder CPU hogging) for a long time...
 

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Booted from the old boot drive (750 GB, 5400 RPM, external USB drive) and the Finder behaves normally, so this rules out any possibility that the new 8GB RAM could be a cause.

Yes I would agree. If booting from the old boot drive (and the problem disappears)...then this would indicate that:

- it is not the ram (hardware)
- it has nothing do with the old boot drive (hardware)
- it has nothing to do with the OS or apps installed on the old boot drive (software)

Rebooted normally from the new internal 1TB drive, repeated observing similar behavior as in. Post #9.

Still, cannot rule out software... But for discussion, how could a new internal drive cause this kind of Finder misbehavior?

Of course you cannot rule out software (as related to the new HD)!;) The test with the old boot drive proves that it's not software related on the old boot drive...but that doesn't mean something software related on the new HD isn't the problem.

So here is what you're left with:

- Could be software related on the new HD. Did you install ANY new software on the new HD that wasn't on the old HD?
- Could still be hardware related:

* a problem with the new HD (manufacturing defect)
* could have something to do with the actual physical install of the new HD
* could be some sort of incompatability between the new HD and the computer (rare).

Given that the old boot drive worked fine...if it were me...I would start from scratch with the new HD:

- completely erase the new HD
- format the new HD
- do a fresh install of the OS on the new HD (only a fresh OS install).

*** If after doing this the problem is gone...then this means that the new HD is not the problem (no manufacturing defects...no installation issues).
*** If after doing this the problems persist...then you have either a hardware problem with the new HD, the new HD is incompatible in some way, or the new HD was not installed correctly.

Finally. If the problem is gone with the reformatting & fresh OS install on the new HD...but the problem returns after you do the Time Machine restore...then the problem would have something to do with the Time Machine restore.

- Nick
 

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Agree completely with Nick. Erase that new 1TB drive and CLEAN install OSX. You have your backup so won't loose anything.

With a fresh install on the new drive does it work normally like with the old drive?
 
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Mysteries of "Finder busy" are now solved. Observed behavior explained.


Moral of the story, if you have a big tree of folders, uncheck "Calculate all sizes" on the top level and select "Use as Defaults." That is NOT a global setting, it is HIERARCHICAL.

Thanks again to each and all for the help. No hardware problems found, just a simple checkbox...

It seems that default setting will propagate down the tree. Selecting only the desktop folder is insufficient to prevent "runaway Finder" CPU hogging.

View -> Show View Options -> "Calculate all sizes" (do not set) then, click "Use as Defaults." was done on the Desktop folder.

However, it was still set to calculate on the Login User's Home directory. That was causing the CPU hogging by the Finder processes.

The setting is hierarchical, apparently. This was a revelation.

When I had the big folder open (yet minimized, hidden) the Finder CPU usage went ballistic.

When I closed the big folder, Finder CPU was normal.

Open it, minimise it, Finder CPU goes crazy for about 10 minutes.

Change any folder in the hierarchy, Finder CPU goes crazy for about 10 minutes, 60-90% CPU, and then back to normal 0-5% CPU.


Lessons learned:

Uncheck "Calculate all sizes" on the top level folder and select "Use as Defaults" in any big directory or huge folder tree to solve runaway finder CPU hogging problem. That folder tree contained over 100,000 items and 100 GB.

This solution instantly fixed the observed problem.

The "Calculate all sizes" and "Use as defaults" is a hierarchical setting specific to any directory tree and its subdirectories.

So, you must set the default on highest level folder. Otherwise, the Finder goes crazy with the CPU usage calculating file sizes on the slightest whim for the whole directory tree.
 
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Thanks especially to Bob for hints in post #5. I did not read carefully enough. Fixed the DESKTOP folder — not the DRIVE folder. The User HOME directory was causing the whole problem... +1 for Bob!

...

3. Open Finder and with your drive highlighted in the side bar - go to 'View' 'Show View Options' uncheck 'Calculate all sizes' if you have that checked.

The bottom line:

My eyes saw DRIVE but my brain thought Desktop Folder... my bad!
 

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Good going and good advice from Bobtomay. Having it calculate all folder sizes like that will (as you have seen) grab a lot of CPU! Good going.
 
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Well done Bobtomay!
 
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Now we all know.. Calculate Folder Sizes for a Directory Tree of about 100,000 files and 100 GB on a MacBook Pro (2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) with a 7200 RPM drive (1 TB, half full) takes about 10 minutes, when the entire system is idle other than Finder running at 60-90% CPU. Also, making ANY change (even adding or removing an EMPTY folder) causes an entire recalc on the whole folder tree; but only IF the folder window is open, even if the folder window is minimized. CLOSING the window instantly ceases the Finder Disc and CPU activity for the calculation.

Meanwhile, CPU temp will rise from 50 C to 70 C (into the upper half of the normal range) when one of the dual CPUs is busy at 90% for more than a few minutes, but not enough temp rise to trigger higher RPM on the fan.

Otherwise, Finder runs about 3%-5% CPU average, during idle time.

Mac OS X 10.6.8 Finder behavior.
 

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Good bit of troubleshooting here guys. I should have guessed that. I have a folder with over 1200 items that need to be checked to see if they are in my iTunes library. All the little icons make it terribly show to load (especially on a network drive). Moving the files into several folders has helped the load time significantly.

I hate to think what that would be like if calculate sizes were turned on for everything.
 

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