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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Name the culprit

Dee-lish - Nov 6, 2007 - 11:00 am

I'm having these intermittent hangs where
none of my apps are responsive for 5-10-15 minutes, then suddenly will "wake up" and the backlog of various keystrokes and menu selections will suddenly execute.

I'm trying to narrow down which is the culprit.
I do have a few system hacks which could be the issue:

Butler
App Enhancer
MacAfee Virex

Wonder if this sounds familiar to anyone, or if there is a standard debugging routine I could follow.

I've run the free utility FontNuke just to verify that font caching is not the issue...

Natobasso - Nov 6, 2007 - 11:57 am

Remove the MacAfee app unless you're running a pc. Not necessary. There is one Trojan Horse Virus out there right now but it requires you enter your user name and password to download a video codec (usually when you go to a suspicious porn site). So no need for the virus app.

Butler: You can use Actions in Tiger instead of this app.

I'd say the culprit is App Enhancer since it's the most invasive to your system:
http://unsanity.com/haxies/ape/

"an Application Enhancer or its modules crash your system? Application Enhancer itself is not known to have ever caused a crash itself. However, APE modules potentially can crash individual applications if there is a bug in the module or in the application being modified (sometimes APE modules expose "hidden" bugs in the applications)."

and,

"Does Application Enhancer slow down the system? Due to the fact that more code has to be loaded at the application launch time, Application Enhancer can increase the application launch time (usually in the range of 40-60 ms per Application Enhancer module loaded on a modern Mac)."

Do you have a need to debug your apps? If not, you don't need App Enhancer.

Hope this helps.

Dee-lish - Nov 6, 2007 - 6:18 pm

I need the PullTab APE to disable the Command Tab shortcut the system uses to switch between apps.

I wonder is there a way to disable it in Leopard w/o PullTab?

Natobasso - Nov 6, 2007 - 6:48 pm

Just remove one app at a time and see if each brings improvement.

I found an app called LiteSwitch that controls the command + tab functionality and might be a good alternative to PullTab APE:
http://www.proteron.com/liteswitchx/

Why do you need to disable command + tab? Do you use Quark Xpress?

Dee-lish - Nov 6, 2007 - 6:55 pm

you nailed it; I use QuarkXPress.
I know that I can switch between tools by hitting Command Option Tab, but I tried that about 3 times before giving up. Never mind Command Option Shift Tab to go backwards.

Natobasso - Nov 6, 2007 - 7:10 pm

I'd recommend leaving the APE PullTab for now. See if your comp runs better after removing the first two things I 'prescribed' he he. Then let me know the verdict in a day or two. Sound good?

Dee-lish - Nov 8, 2007 - 12:22 pm

Roger. Will do.

By the way, I use Butler's "Pasteboard history" feature, plus its docklet(an extra dock). Also puts a System Prefs menu in the menubar, so you can go right to the control panel--um, system pref pane--you want.

It'll be hard giving that up...

Natobasso - Nov 8, 2007 - 12:37 pm

Hey, at least your comp will probably work faster. And if not, go ahead and put that feature back and see if it has any negative effect.

Shall we close this thread now?

Dee-lish - Nov 8, 2007 - 4:30 pm

Can we put it on a hold, so I can report back on whether the problem persists?

Natobasso - Nov 8, 2007 - 5:45 pm

Sure.

Dee-lish - Nov 27, 2007 - 7:37 pm

After doing some researching, I'm starting to wonder if FireFox (2.0.9) might be the culprit;

I'm the only one in my department that uses it, and I'm reading that several other people have the same symptoms: after a few hours of opening several pages/sites, I get the spinning ball of death, hangs of several minutes...

Wonder if you have an alternative browser you'd recommend. I've Safari can be notorious for the same issue, so it has me leery...

cnorgangrad - Nov 27, 2007 - 8:55 pm

Do you by any chance have the Google toolbar installed within Firefox? I know I was having the same problem a while back and the culprit was the Google toolbar that I installed in Firefox... just a thought...

Dee-lish - Nov 27, 2007 - 8:59 pm

Nada.

I just found out there are Mac-specific builds for FireFox, I'll try the G5 build out tomorrow, and see if that gets me anywhere.

Dee-lish - Nov 27, 2007 - 9:05 pm

The more I think about it, the symptoms seem as if I'm hitting the limit of my RAM...

do you know of any sort of utility that would warn me that I'm getting close to the RAM ceiling, and allow me to preempt the spinning death ball?

TechSupport - Nov 30, 2007 - 9:10 pm

We apologize for not being able to resolve the issue you asked of us. It is the absolute worst case scenario for us to do this. In our review of why this happens, it generally is related to either the particular issue being addressed or frequently, incomplete or incorrect information provided. We hope by moving your request to the public forums that you will be able to get a solution without leaving you empty handed.

Your ticket has been closed with our support team. Your request has just been posted to Mac OS X System & Mac Software and is available for your viewing at:

http://macosx.com/forums/showthread.php?t=296825

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