Saturday, February 11, 2012


How to Fix a Mac OS Crash

When an application crashes on a Mac, it usually does not affect the operating system or other computers. You can usually close it by clicking the "Force Quit" option from the Apple menu or by clicking the Option button as you right-click the application's icon in the Dock. Sometimes, however, the application will freeze the computer making the Apple menu or Dock unavailable, in which case you can use the Force Quit Applications window by pressing keys. If your Mac crashes while starting up, you should troubleshoot your peripherals first, then try a Safe Boot. If these do not work, insert the Install disc and use the Disk Repair utility.


Instructions

Application Crash

1
Press "Command-Option-Esc" at the same time. The Force Quit Applications window opens, displaying all of the open applications, with "Not Responding" beside the application that caused the Mac to freeze. If this window does not open, press "Command-Option-Shift-Esc" for three seconds to force quit the unresponsive program. Then open the Force Quit Applications window.

2
Click any application that says "Not Responding" and click "Force Quit."

3
Restart your computer if you have not shut it down in more than 24 hours. This will clear memory being held by any troublesome applications.

4
Click the "Finder" in the Dock to open a new Finder window. Click "Applications," then the "Utilities" folder. Double-click "Activity Monitor." This will show you what resources are being used by processes and applications.

5
Click the "%CPU" tab to sort this column. Processes and applications are now sorted in descending order. Processes using most of the Mac's CPU (Central Processing Unit) will be shown first.

6
Click the "Real Memory" tab to see which processes and applications are using the most memory. Do the same for "Virtual Memory." Real memory is stored on the memory chips, while virtual memory is stored on the hard drive.

7
Close any application that is using an unusual amount of memory or percentage of the CPU. What is unusual for memory usage will depend on the programs you run, but anything over 700MB should be examined. Any process using more than 20 percent of the CPU for more than a second or two should be considered unusual.

8
Relauch the application that caused the Mac to crash.


System Crash

1
Shut down the Mac by pressing the power button and holding it for several seconds.

2
Disconnect all peripherals and cables from the Mac except the power supply, primary keyboard,
mouse and primary monitor.

3
Turn on the Mac. If it starts, connect one peripheral at a time to identify which peripheral caused the crash. If it does not start, continue to the next step.

4
Press the power button to start the Mac. Then immediately press and hold the "Shift" key to start a Safe Boot. If this works, turn off the computer when it has finished booting, then restart it as normal. If it doesn't work, continue to the next step.

5
Insert the "Mac OS X Install" disc into the disc drive. Press the power button to start the Mac and immediately press and hold down the "C" key. The computer will boot from the disc.

6
Click the "Utility" menu, then select "Disk Utility." Click "Disk Repair." The Mac will scan and repair the hard drive. If the Disk Utility reports it has repaired a problem on the disk, run Disk Repair a second time. Restart your computer as normal.




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