hangmacsafari
I am using a Mac with OSX Snow Leopard.
Sometimes I am playing some media through Safari and my Mac freezes. I basically cannot do anything. The trackpad does not work anymore as well as the keyboard. The only solution is to restart the system.
The question is:
Why the system suddenly freezes? Is the any way to prevent it? Or is there any way to avoid restarting the system every time?
a more generic edition of this answer appears under How do you get system diagnostic files from OS X?
power users may prefer to read nearby Suspect an issue affecting the WindowServer process (brief edition …)
The symptoms you describe are familiar but not commonplace and in my case, not frequent.
In Terminal, run the following command. Be prepared to enter your admin password for the operating system:
sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.stackshot.plist
Take a written note of the following key chord, you'll need it later:
Control-Option-Command-Shift-.
When the problem occurs:
sysdiagnose routine to complete – simply wait as long as you can (with this approach there'll be no on-screen indication of progress)After the computer starts:
/private/var/tmpWhilst I don't encourage carelessness, you can be a little careless with Control-Option-Command-Shift-. … if you struggle to avoid the fn key on your laptop, don't worry; including it by accident should not prevent the run of sysdiagnose.
Hint: someone might like to ask a separate question about analysing the results of sysdiagnose – a more generalised answer could be useful.
/tmp area is a folderPresence of a sysdiagnose_… folder (not a .tar.gz file) indicates that either:
/tmp area is a filePresence of a sysdiagnose_….tar.gz file indicates that all parts of the sysdiagnose routine completed, and that the results were archived. If you wish, open the archive – its contents will appear as a folder.
In the first screenshot below – an example of a completed run of sysdiagnose - I have selected two of the items that may be of interest in a case such as this.
Note that it may be normal to find at least one empty file.
Amongst the .crash, .hang and .spin files – or in the top.txt file – might be a good sign of what was wrong shortly before, or during, the period when you lost control of the computer.
Related:
For an incomplete run of sysdiagnose it may be useful to focus some attention on files that are abnormally empty …
First thing is, after a reboot, to look at /var/log/system.log.
Search from the end for BOOT_TIME. This is the first entry after your mac reboots. Now go up to read the lines above. This might give you a clue what happened right before the mac had frozen.
To take a look at more logfiles, go to /var/log and list them with
ls -ltr
This will sort them by time so that newest files are at the bottom.
If you can't find something helpful inside system.log you might have a chance when looking at the logs that have been written around freeze time (or later).
Best Answer
This is a common Flash interaction issue (sounds like). I use the Safari extension ClickToFlash so I can control what Flash runs and when. And, I also use AdBlock to be sure those pesky side Ads don't bother me. You can still run Flash, but you have control and the freezing will hopefully stop.