Mac keeps freezing

[Mikethebook]

I run Mavericks (fully up to date) on a Mac Mini and have never had freezing problems until last night when I believe Google Chrome was updating itself. Since then opening Chrome has resulted in further freezes and the same happened with Firefox - the jury is out on Safari as yet. The disk is fine. No sign of problems there, so what has happened? More to the point, what can I do?

 

[iHate Vista]

What is the specs on your mac mini????

 

[iHate Vista]

Sorry Just saw them under ur name X)

 

[iHate Vista]

Well to start out you only have 2gb ram which is the minimum for mavericks what is your cpu
and what year is your mac mini

 

[Mikethebook]

Actually I haven't updated my specs and I have 4GB RAM. And a 2.26 chip. It's a late 2009 Mac Mini. I'm certain it's not a RAM or CPU problem. BTW I've just had it freeze on Safari too so all browsers seem to be affected.

 

[iHate Vista]

Actually I haven't updated my specs and I have 4GB RAM. And a 2.26 chip. It's a late 2009 Mac Mini. I'm certain it's not a RAM or CPU problem. BTW I've just had it freeze on Safari too so all browsers seem to be affected.

how do you know its not a ram or cpu problem ?????

 

[iHate Vista]

OS are you running ???

 

[Mikethebook]

I'm running Mavericks. I'm assuming it isn't CPU or RAM because neither are overstretched (I have iStat Menus running in the menu bar) and everything was fine until Chrome started to update itself last night.

 

[iHate Vista]

the browsers may have trouble with mavericks because it is outdated if you cant take it anymore I would try upgrading to Yosemite but it is your choice Good Luck

 

[Mikethebook]

Surely they're all backward compatible at least back to Lion especially Safari. Otherwise how do those who continue to run Lion etc manage? It's also VERY strange that suddenly all the browsers have been affected. While I use mainly Chrome I also use Safari on occasion, previously without problem.

 

[iHate Vista]

Surely they're all backward compatible at least back to Lion especially Safari. Otherwise how do those who continue to run Lion etc manage? It's also VERY strange that suddenly all the browsers have been affected. While I use mainly Chrome I also use Safari on occasion, previously without problem.

Apple is trying to push Yosemite

 

[Mikethebook]

Not until the wireless connection problem is fixed!!!

 

[iHate Vista]

What do you Mean???? I haven't had any problems with my wireless in Yosemite

 

[Mikethebook]

Many people have though!! Google Yosemite and wireless.

 

[MacInWin]

Getting back to your problem, the freezing. Can you tell us more? Is the APP itself frozen (won't shut down, can't scroll, etc) or is the loading of a page frozen? The latter is typically either an internet provider problem or a DNS issue.

 

[Mikethebook]

By freezing I mean the cursor freezes (I assume by that the whole computer too) and I can't do anything but switch the machine off and reboot. It isn't a mouse problem either because I've tried two that both work. And it always happens when I'm working on one of the browsers, Chrome, Safari or Firefox. When I reboot the Mac gives me 60 seconds to make the choice of opening the applications that were open when the computer was switched and I when choose that it opens up at the desktop within a couple of seconds which surprised me the first time. I don't know whether that's relevant.

 

[MacInWin]

IF you have to switch off to recover, please be aware that action is very risky for the HD. Also, if you have to do that, you should run Disk Utility and Verify/Repair the drive when you reboot before you do anything else.

I don't have any answer for the cursor freezing, but it's strange that it only happens in the browsers but it happens in all three of them. Is it on the same page on all three? Do you have any Antivirus/cleaner/memory managers/etc, installed?

 

[Mikethebook]

I've checked the drive and it is fine. I didn't realise that it would be risky. I've had to do it before (in fact many times) so I've not thought about it and sometimes there is really no option. In System Preferences there is the choice to have the computer automatically reboot following a power cut (and that has happened more than a few times) so I assumed it was almost expected.

I have Sophos Antivirus and Onyx. Don't know what you mean by memory managers. And I see no correlation between the browsers as regards particular pages. Actually I'm back on Chrome and, touch wood, it hasn't frozen again for an hour. That was after doing a backup and running Onyx.

 

[MacInWin]

OS X is like Unix/Linux, in that withdrawing power is NOT a good idea. The fact that you can set a system to reboot after power loss does not mean you should routinely do that.

Get rid of Sophos, that is a very likely candidate for your problem. There are no viruses for OS X that Sophos, or any other A/V software, can detect. If you feel you must have an A/V package, get ClamXav instead (it's free, IIRC).

 

[Mikethebook]

I've had Sophos for five years now and not had any problems with it. What's your reason for suggesting it could be a problem . . . when you're happy to recommend ClamXav.