New MBP issue

meghatronic · 14 Jul 2009 at 14:58

Is this right? Seems stupid:

Nothing is running other than Safari and VLC.

****** thing keeps freezing during video playback for a few seconds. It locks the whole computer up, and if I'm typing, and carrying on typing during the freeze, the text doesn't appear post freeze.

It's a 2.8Ghz/4Gb laptop - if it can't operate without freezing it is getting smashed up.

meghatronic · 14 Jul 2009 at 15:05

VaderDSL said:
open activity monitor and have a look at what might be causing the problem

There isn't anything.

Safari has 230mb, VLC 75mb, Parallels 50mb. 16% CPU is the max. Nothing is taking anything. It just objects and freezes now and then.

meghatronic · 14 Jul 2009 at 15:18

EVH said:
Repair permissions?

Aha the silver bullet. Will try.

Didn't fix it. Neither does using Quicktime, although it may not just be in video.

Edit - it happens even in safari - no video. This ****** freezing is annoying me. Just that spinning wheel comes on for about 10 seconds.

Added to the fact I can't use the laptop leaning back as the hinge is so weak it just closes.

£1500 for a pile of ****.

meghatronic · 14 Jul 2009 at 16:49

NickK said:
That does seem odd.

Wired = held by the OS (OS, Drivers, workspaces etc).
Active = programs running (applications etc).
Inactive = programs ran then quit thus are kept cached by the OS just in case you reload them. This can be reduced to zero by the OS if need be.
Free = idle memory unused.

The page swaps show something large was loaded. I normally don't have any swapping (4GB RAM MBP). If that large thing was quit the OS will take a while to go through it's virtual memory to sort itself out with a 5,400rpm drive.

If you were running Parallels was that 3.0 or 4.0? Also what size was the VM? (also if you were using 4.0 are you using the hypervisor?).
Parallels 3.0 is a memory hog as it doesn't dynamically change the memory allocation to the VM if the VM doesn't need it.

The only time my MBP has slowed through swapping - running VM for Windows (2GB), Ubuntu 64bit and Redhat 4 AS 64bit along with an external monitor. That's with an SSD too.
The other time was last night - but that's because I'm developing something that requires ridiculous amounts of memory (considering a Mac Pro with 16GB or 32GB for example).

Parallels 4.0, with an XPSP3 (512mb) VM open - but nothing open in that. I've set Parallels memory to Automatic, and hypervisor was off. I'll try enabling that.

meghatronic · 14 Jul 2009 at 17:33

NickK said:
It may be something has a memory leak - perhaps you have an application that's got a leak.. only way to identify that is looking at the RSIZE.

Go into Activity Monitor then at the top menu View>Columns>.. then add RSIZE, VSIZE, Threads and Kind.

This should make it easy to spot the offending component with a high RSIZE or VSIZE.

I'll keep an eye on them. Still got a VM of 45Gb

Code:

Active Memory: 793.88 MB
Free Memory: 557.14 MB
Wired Memory: 664.06 MB
Used Memory: 3.22 GB
Inactive Memory: 1.79 GB
Total VM: 41.27 GB
Number of processes: 58

ID     Process Name              User        CPU      RSIZE            VSIZE
0      kernel_task               root       4.1      277.29 MB       1.97 GB          
1      launchd                   root       0.0      508.00 KB       586.74 MB        
10     kextd                     root       0.0      1.04 MB         586.19 MB        
11     notifyd                   root       0.0      408.00 KB       586.17 MB        
12     syslogd                   root       0.0      432.00 KB       587.24 MB        
14     ntpd                      root       0.0      596.00 KB       586.12 MB        
15     usbmuxd                   _usbmuxd   0.0      476.00 KB       587.46 MB        
16     update                    root       0.0      196.00 KB       585.57 MB        
17     SystemStarter             root       0.0      376.00 KB       585.61 MB        
20     securityd                 root       0.0      1.43 MB         586.79 MB        
23     mDNSResponder             _mdnsrespo 0.0      1.01 MB         587.61 MB        
25     KernelEventAgent          root       0.0      484.00 KB       585.68 MB        
27     hidd                      root       1.8      896.00 KB       587.25 MB        
28     fseventsd                 root       0.0      1.08 MB         592.20 MB        
30     dynamic_pager             root       0.0      476.00 KB       585.61 MB        
33     diskarbitrationd          root       0.0      912.00 KB       585.69 MB        
34     DirectoryService          root       0.0      3.09 MB         589.39 MB        
36     configd                   root       0.1      1.43 MB         587.71 MB        
39     autofsd                   root       0.0      440.00 KB       585.62 MB        
40     socketfilterfw            root       0.0      864.00 KB       585.93 MB        
41     sh                        root       0.0      164.00 KB       586.11 MB        
42     distnoted                 daemon     0.0      744.00 KB       585.59 MB        
45     coreservicesd             root       0.0      18.55 MB        625.47 MB        
48     blued                     root       0.0      652.00 KB       597.00 MB        
108    launchd                   jd         0.0      516.00 KB       585.74 MB        
141    prl_naptd                 root       0.0      1.66 MB         601.99 MB        
159    prl_disp_service          root       0.0      5.61 MB         622.09 MB        
160    coreaudiod                root       0.0      4.20 MB         593.62 MB        
166    cupsd                     root       0.0      1,004.00 KB     586.87 MB        
1754   loginwindow               jd         0.0      8.05 MB         941.13 MB        
1755   WindowServer              _windowser 14.2     44.75 MB        1.22 GB          
1770   AirPort Base Station Agen jd         0.0      1.45 MB         890.98 MB        
1774   Spotlight                 jd         0.0      17.63 MB        1.03 GB          
1775   UserEventAgent            jd         0.0      1.62 MB         855.25 MB        
1776   Dock                      jd         0.2      9.89 MB         956.68 MB        
1777   ATSServer                 jd         0.0      9.19 MB         680.87 MB        
1778   pboard                    jd         0.0      344.00 KB       586.65 MB        
1779   SystemUIServer            jd         0.0      9.17 MB         1,018.97 MB      
1781   Finder                    jd         0.9      16.79 MB        1,004.51 MB      
1830   Mail                      jd         0.0      43.54 MB        1.05 GB          
1835   Transmission              jd         4.8      21.08 MB        976.46 MB        
1842   Safari                    jd         0.4      296.77 MB       1.53 GB          
1882   AppleSpell.service        jd         0.0      5.16 MB         601.72 MB        
1955   RFBRegisterMDNS           root       0.0      508.00 KB       585.59 MB        
1956   AppleVNCServer            jd         0.0      1.01 MB         849.88 MB        
1957   kdcmond                   root       0.0      528.00 KB       585.73 MB        
1958   VNCPrivilegeProx          root       0.0      340.00 KB       586.61 MB        
1959   krb5kdc                   root       0.0      484.00 KB       586.05 MB        
2034   DashboardClient           jd         2.6      8.75 MB         931.41 MB        
2035   DashboardClient           jd         0.0      9.84 MB         915.28 MB        
3432   mds                       root       0.0      99.86 MB        860.08 MB        
3949   Terminal                  jd         0.0      8.04 MB         933.87 MB        
4070   Activity Monitor          jd         14.0     23.03 MB        1,016.07 MB      
4071   pmTool                    root       0.7      1.39 MB         595.69 MB        
4111   mdworker                  jd         0.0      3.61 MB         599.79 MB        
4141   mdworker                  _spotlight 0.0      2.00 MB         598.62 MB        
4145   spindump                  root       7.8      1.84 MB         587.64 MB        
4147   nmblookup                 jd         0.0      928.00 KB       19.50 MB

And I've had two more lockups just writing this post. I don't understand why it doesn't 'remember' what I type when it's locked.

meghatronic · 14 Jul 2009 at 21:42

VaderDSL said:
Aye, I'd be tempted to do a fresh install.

I've restarted, and I'm still get very high VM sizes. It's a brand new machine!

meghatronic · 14 Jul 2009 at 21:45

I've just SSH'd into by Mac Pro - and you're right, the R/Vsizes on this laptop are insanely high. 2-10x higher.

meghatronic · 14 Jul 2009 at 22:04

Argh. Thanks guys. I'll keep an eye on it and reinstall when I'm bored. I've only just got everything up and running, and can't take the time out. I'll just have to live with the stalls and what not - I'll pretend it is a Windows machine.

meghatronic · 14 Jul 2009 at 23:03

NickK said:
The odd point is that he's not running out of proper usable memory.

SNIP

Thing is, on restart, vsize is that high. So something has definitely gone wrong. It isn't as though i've opened every app on the laptop then closed them all.

meghatronic · 14 Jul 2009 at 23:53

NickK said:
Good point! It's late so probably not the best time to attempt to analyse this!

Macs a? They never go wrong

meghatronic · 15 Jul 2009 at 23:03

Common problem, I now find out:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2054387&start=0&tstart=0

meghatronic · 15 Jul 2009 at 23:36

NickK said:
Interesting - have you replaced your HD?

Even though I have a Vertex 120, the system runs at SATA 1.5Gbit as it's an old Model 3,1 which means I didn't have the firmware update that started the issue in the first place.

Nope. Stock 500 5400 - which judging from other forums seems to be the main victim. I can't really take the laptop back as it's a company machine - and the returns process is so complicated it isn't worth it. I'll just hope Apple fix it - but I hear they're denying there's an issue.