Does Your Mac Hang

[KRS1]

Im wondering if all of you Mac users out there face the same problems as Windows users with a computer that hangs up and freezes usually for no good reason ?

Ive never had a windows based system that didnt hang sometime in its lifespan and cause excessive grief, and honestly its getting pretty old having to deal with it on a recurring basis. Forcing a power down by holding the power button, then having to restart in safemode to get it going again etc...ahhhh ! its all getting very annoying after 15 years !

So do Macs hang also?

Id like an OS that simply works all the time, and doesnt always require updating resulting in a 50/50 chance of screwing things up worse than before.

[ShopBoy]

not as often as PC once in a bluemoon

[SoloFlyer]

Hangs like a motherFu@#@$;

[negreanu]

nowhere near as much as a windows machine.

[Mobi]

I am no fan of Microsoft and sometimes it drives me crazy with its endless updates, and yes, the many times when it 'hangs'.

However I can't recall the last time I had to resort to a forced shut down to solve the problem. I always get the task manager window up by hitting crtl/alt/delete and then shutting down the applications that are causing the hang until the system clears itself.

I find that keeping your machine as 'clean' as possible - i.e. by running software that tidies up your hard disk and registry and clears out unnecessary clutter helps a lot in this regard.

But I still get 'hangs' even on the latest version of Word, which you would think would be fine - but its not, by any means....grrr...

[villagefarang]

I have an oldish iMac 24 and the only time I have had problems is when I have forgotten to run the maintenance scripts or run permissions for too long. I shut things down at night so the scripts don’t get run automatically. Running OnyX software occasionally seems to keep my system running smoothly. I have never had any major issues with any of my Macs.

[KRS1]

ctr/at/del only works 50% of the time now. Mouse gets stuck and whole system freezes.

Thought i was in the clear for a few days after doing some maintenance, but alas its starting to get the hiccups again.

Tried using ReadyBoost but its not doing diddly squat.

Whenever i talk about it , it gets better. Than just when i think everythings A-ok, everything goes back to shit. Its like its possessed by Bill Gates evil brother or something.

Anyone know how much a 500 gb hard drive cost for a laptop?

[technologybytes]

My Mac (27" iMac, about 9 months old) has never hung. My 13" Macbook Air (about 1 years old) has also NEVER hung, but I don't use that very often. I have been using macs for years (as well as PCs) and I can confirm that Macs DO hang, but much less often than the average PC, it really depends on what sort of software you run on it. The Mac OS itself is very stable, but occasionally a rouge program can make it hang, I am very selective over the programs that I run and I don't download "free" programs from bittorrent etc, thoght I do use bittorrent for movies etc.

My many years of experience using PCs convinced me that if you buy a good brand PC, with the OS properly installed by the manufacturer (not a pantip copy of windows installed by a Thai shop assistant), you run a decent antivirus and be careful about what software you run, you should rarely ever hang or crash provided you have sufficient memory etc.

PC hardware and a Mac are actually very similar and use identical components, it's the OS that makes a Mac more reliable because there are less opportunities to install rouge programs and you dont "need" antivirus programs.

[richard_smith237]

I have a 3 year old Macbook Pro - It hung once in the first year of ownership. Since then about once per month, but I leave it plugged in a powered up most of the time so it probably only gets 2 or 3 re-boots per month anyway.

[SaNim]

I have a 3 year old Macbook Pro - It hung once in the first year of ownership. Since then about once per month, but I leave it plugged in a powered up most of the time so it probably only gets 2 or 3 re-boots per month anyway.

I have 2 iMacs and 2 Macbook Airs in my office and I would say Richards experience correlates with mine.

[Jimmu]

I have 2 year old 24" iMac duo, 1 year old 27" iMac quad i7, a six month old Macbook air and an iPhone. Only the Phone has hung.

[x5david]

I have 2 MacBook pros, 1 iMac, 2 iPhones and a partridge in a pear tree and only the partridge has ever hung...in the tree....

[damo]

Bought my son an iPad & my daughter an iPod. The wife got me an iPhone & I got her an iRon. Wife wasn't overjoyed even after i explained it can be integrated with the iWash, iCook, iClean network. This opened the iNag reminder service which totally wiped out the iShag function.

Edited April 4, 2012 by damo

[Crushdepth]

Are you using Windows 7? It's considerably more reliable than any of my Linux boxes. Any older version of Windows, yes, I would agree that they suck, but we have about 20 Windows 7 machines and reliability is not a problem.

[KRS1]

Are you using Windows 7? It's considerably more reliable than any of my Linux boxes. Any older version of Windows, yes, I would agree that they suck, but we have about 20 Windows 7 machines and reliability is not a problem.

Yes its a legit copy of Windows 7. But something just isnt right. Im typing this just after holding the power button down to reboot again. The cursor froze up again.

[KRS1]

Bought my son an iPad & my daughter an iPod. The wife got me an iPhone & I got her an iRon. Wife wasn't overjoyed even after i explained it can be integrated with the iWash, iCook, iClean network. This opened the iNag reminder service which totally wiped out the iShag function.

iSee

[nikster]

I have a 3 year old Macbook Pro - It hung once in the first year of ownership. Since then about once per month, but I leave it plugged in a powered up most of the time so it probably only gets 2 or 3 re-boots per month anyway.

I have 2 iMacs and 2 Macbook Airs in my office and I would say Richards experience correlates with mine.

There's something wrong with a Mac that hangs once a month. I am certainly using the heck out of my MacBook Pro yet it only hangs very rarely. Most recently due to overheating, I guess I need to clean this thing after 3 years of constant use. There's probably all sorts of crap stuck in the vents. I've carried and used this laptop everywhere and anywhere...

Also not sure if by "hang" you mean "crash" or you mean "doesn't respond for a minute but is OK after". If the latter, that can happen if you don't have enough RAM, or an app runs amok - can't be prevented. I force quit apps often, and if there's an unusual pause I check activity monitor / iPulse to find the offending party. But crashes? No.

Haven't had a Windows machine in years so don't really know - back when I had one it only crashed very rarely too, didn't bother me. But what really annoys me about Windows, apart from the shitty hardware, and the clunky user interface, is that it deteriorates over time. No amount of system cleaning can restore a Windows install once it's slow - you have to re-install. And re-install all apps, and so on.

This is how a Mac is cheaper from day one - connect it to the time machine backup, and all settings, apps, documents, preferences you have get transferred to the new machine. No fiddling with things, no re-installing things... it's great.

[nikster]

Bought my son an iPad & my daughter an iPod. The wife got me an iPhone & I got her an iRon. Wife wasn't overjoyed even after i explained it can be integrated with the iWash, iCook, iClean network. This opened the iNag reminder service which totally wiped out the iShag function.

LOL

[FarangBha]

I've had an absolute nightmare with my MBP. Batt and HD just failed within 2 days of each other. Prior to that constant issues. One weekend I logged 7 restarts because of crashes - and thats just while I was home.

And to top it off, when I picked up my replacements yesterday from MacCare Chiang Mai, they had put the replacement HD in someone elses machine and tried to give that to me. dam_n lucky I checked.

Am about to do the time machine recovery thing... will be interesting to see how that goes.

[jamesbrock]

I'm on my 15" MBP constantly, and it hangs every now and then, usually when I'm doing something in Win 7 (via VMWare Fusion) - so of course I blame Windows for this ; but as Nickster says, the hangs are usually brief, and rarely if ever require a forced reboot.

For me, one of the major differentiating factors between Macs and PC's, is that the OS is specifically designed to take advantage of every bit of technology in every high-end component inside it, so everything plays together perfectly inside that down-to-the-micron-fit enclosure; unlike PC's which are a hotch-potch of different pieces of hardware from different vendors, of varying quality and design, (which is why a Windows install is so bloated with drivers for every conceivable combination of hardware componentry - and even then needs to find drivers for any piece of hardware you might add lest you get a dreaded BSOD at any time) all slopped into a big tin box!

This in itself make Mac ownership a wonderful experience, and explains how Macs hold their resale value years after a similar aged PC is either given away or used solely as a downloading machine. Sorry, got a bit there...

[FarangBha]

This in itself make Mac ownership a wonderful experience

Absolute opposite experience here. Unbelievable beyond words. So bad I started a blog about it. Will post the link when I get a pc that functions well enough to edit etc as smoothly as should...

This MBP is a total piece of crap. Worst machine Ive had since.... no, haven't had worse.

[FarangBha]

... For example... just had battery and hd fail and replaced (less than 1 yr old); time machine backup implemented today and all the old problems re-emerging... I just had to ditch the expensive magic mouse for a 2 buck chuck mouse because it started to take forever to drag curser across screen....

Really, you fanboys make it sound fantasticall and all that... but as a switcher, I'm finding it far far far worse than any windows machine I ever ownedd.

[jamesbrock]

Yeah, I'd much prefer a fanboi to get a lemon than a switcher! Nothing worse than hearing of a switcher getting a lemon like you appear to have.

[FarangBha]

Thanks JB, but what can I do about it??

[Phil Conners]

Moved to Apple forum.

[Jimi007]

Thanks JB, but what can I do about it??

Sounds like you have some software issues. You should do a fresh install of the OS and your applications, not a backup from time machine that is full of the same problems that crashed your internal HD.

[FarangBha]

^ Thats what I would have thought. But AppleCare said with a fresh HD, things should improve. But they didn't. So ...

Great news - they are going to send me an advance replacement.

[jamesbrock]

Sounds like you have some software issues. You should do a fresh install of the OS and your applications, not a backup from time machine that is full of the same problems that crashed your internal HD.

Yep, Jimi007, that's exactly what I wrote earlier this morning before I got interrupted and obviously forgot to press 'Post'!

^ Thats what I would have thought. But AppleCare said with a fresh HD, things should improve. But they didn't. So ...

Great news - they are going to send me an advance replacement.

That is indeed great news.

[ianwuk]

My Macbook Pro used to do that but I could still force close Finder to solve the issue.

I found maxing out the RAM to 8GB and the hard drive to 750GB (I have an early 2010 13-inch MBP) soon stopped it from crashing/freezing and now it is fine.