Lion keeps freezing up

[jo.mansson]

OK, I'm going to try and describe this problem as thoroughly as I can.
First of all, I've been looking through the forum and tried googling now and again for about a month, and while a couple of topics does concern random freezes, I haven't been able to find a solution to my problem.

Whenever I run Lion I experience random freezes, most often they only last for a couple of seconds, but sometimes I have to make a hard reboot. It most often happens when I use Firefox, but it does happen in all programs.

It usually begins with the cursor starting to stutter, then it freezes, turns into the beach ball and then the entire system freezes for a couple of seconds. This often happens when I load a new web page, but the only way that I've been able to replicate it somewhat consistently is by loading a new object in Blender (a 3d modelling program) and start messing around with the view. Doing this usually causes some small freezes from time to time.
There are no weird messages in the console when this happens..
I haven't experienced any problems when running Windows.

Does anyone have an idea what might be causing this?

These are my specs:

Mobo: Gigabyte p67-ds3s b3
Hdd 500gb Hitachi 7K1000.C
Cpu: intel core i7 2600k 3,4ghz
Mem: Corsair 4gb (2x2gb) cl9 1600mhz vengeance
Graphics: MSI gtx 560ti

 

[karacho]

I've had the same with my GTX 550 TI. Please read that Thread from the beginning, and please read the whole thread before doing any changes to your system. -> http://tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=33185

Perhaps this will work for you

 

[joe139]

I posted this reply in another section. I wanted to be sure you got this. As you will note, I believe this problem is extensive and happening on Apple products also:

I have been experiencing mouse lock-ups when either the pointer quit working and "froze" while everything else continued to work. OR, The mouse pointer continued to "point" but would not complete any "click" or "double-click" action.

Apple and various Mac forums are loaded with posts about Lion locking up or freezing. For example:
http://9to5mac.com/2011/07/28/users-rep ... s-in-lion/
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/32 ... 5&tstart=0
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=366476

These are laptops and desktop Macs purchased from Apple described in the above links. The problem seem to be quite extensive with thousands of posts on this topic. It would appear action by Apple is required to correct this issue. And, it would not appear to be an easy fix either.

Personally, I didn't notice a problem until I updated 10.7.2 from Apple. Prior to that I don't recall it happening... not sure really. With 10.7.2 I started experiencing problems very much like those described. I wasn't using any video (ie: flash etc).

Anybody hear about a solution... please post

Except for this glitch, OSX runs as well or better than Win7 64 my my computer.

My machine:
Dual boot: OSX 10.7.2 and Win 7 64bit
EVGA GTX 460SE
Asus P8P67 with i7 2600k
Patriot 16GB DDR3 RAM

 

[joe139]

Possible Solution to Lion Freezing (That is my hope any way...)

I responded to this thread before and stated I've experienced many Lion mouse lockups and system freezes on 10.7.2 and 10.7.3 in various apps. Not repeating all my previous trials, there may be a solution. It may be a graphics card driver problem. As I related before, Apple Macs are also experiencing this problem (see my previous note). I personally experienced similar issues with Windows machines in years past. It was nearly always video driver related...

I noticed most people posting freeze problems have NVIDA cards either in Macs or hackintosh builds. While ATI cards don't seem to be entirely immune, NVIDA cards seem to be the most effected. Be advised, there are new drivers out for Lion 10.7.3 machines with NVIDA Cuda and GeForce cards (version 270.00.00f01 released 2/27/2012). The Nvidia website details state "Contains performance improvements and bug fixes for a wide range of applications." It also goes on to say its for "...is for Mac Pro 5,1 (2010), Mac Pro 4,1 (2009) and Mac Pro 3,1 (2008) users only.". That said, I have a hackinstosh (see spec below) that I've just installed the driver. No crashes yet!... fingers crossed. Machine has been running for about 3 hours now with hard Firefox use...

This is the link: http://www.geforce.com/Drivers/Results/42416. The file is 31MB.

Or, search the NVIDA site for the phrase "Quadro & GeForce Release 270.00.00f01 ".

Hope this helps...

My build:
Multi-boot Win7 64bit, OSX 10.7.3 and OSX 10.6.8
Asus P8P67 Pro, i7 2600K
NVIDA GeForce 460SE
Patriot, 16GB (4x4) DDR3 RAM 1600mhz
Corsair H70 Cooler

 

[joe139]

Possible Solution to Lion Freezing (That is my hope any way...)

I responded to this thread before and stated I've experienced many Lion mouse lockups and system freezes on 10.7.2 and 10.7.3 in various apps. Not repeating all my previous trials, there may be a solution. It may be a graphics card driver problem. As I related before, Apple Macs are also experiencing this problem (see my previous note). I personally experienced similar issues with Windows machines in years past. It was nearly always video driver related...

I noticed most people posting freeze problems have NVIDA cards either in Macs or hackintosh builds. While ATI cards don't seem to be entirely immune, NVIDA cards seem to be the most effected. Be advised, there are new drivers out for Lion 10.7.3 machines with NVIDA Cuda and GeForce cards (version 270.00.00f01 released 2/27/2012). The Nvidia website details state "Contains performance improvements and bug fixes for a wide range of applications." It also goes on to say its for "...is for Mac Pro 5,1 (2010), Mac Pro 4,1 (2009) and Mac Pro 3,1 (2008) users only.". That said, I have a hackinstosh (see spec below) that I've just installed the driver. No crashes yet!... fingers crossed. Machine has been running for about 3 hours now with hard Firefox use...

This is the link: http://www.geforce.com/Drivers/Results/42416. The file is 31MB.

Or, search the NVIDA site for the phrase "Quadro & GeForce Release 270.00.00f01 ".

Hope this helps...

My build:
Multi-boot Win7 64bit, OSX 10.7.3 and OSX 10.6.8
Asus P8P67 Pro, i7 2600K
NVIDA GeForce 460SE
Patriot, 16GB (4x4) DDR3 RAM 1600mhz
Corsair H70 Cooler

Footnote 36 hours after the driver install...

(03/09/2012) [sigh] I was HOPING to report that my hackintosh had not locked up after installing the new NVIDA Cuda & GeForce family graphics driver (2700.00.0f01) was applied. Unfortunately, I've experienced 2 lockups requiring a reboot in the past 24 hours. The new driver has minimal impact on the problem it would appear.

(03/12/2012) Further Footnote regarding the new NVIDA 10.7.3 driver. I should have mentioned that I have 2 running Lion installs on different drives. I always use one for "testing", if it works I then install on my regular system. My "test system" (#1) seems to be running better and without crashes with the new driver installed. It seems stable and has NEVER crashed after almost 72 hours of running all sorts of applications (Firefox, Photohop, Safari, iTunes etc.). I even ran intensive memory tests. No problems or crashes. Since that was the case, I installed the new driver on my other regular (#2) system. It was there I experienced a couple of "lockups". I must add, that one lockup was with a Windows "wine" app which could have been the problem in this case.

In synopsis, I continue to believe this is a graphics driver problem. Both my Lion systems seem to be more stable with the new NVIDA driver. I'm saying this because recent crashes occurred after about 25+ hours running on my (#2) regular system. I won't speculate as to the cause but I was running it pretty hard! Before the driver install, a lockup could have happened after 5 minutes, 45 minutes or 5 hours after boot. I am back on my test system (#1) trying to see if it will bomb at some point. So far, so good.. no crashes yet!