Random Freezes - Another possible culprit?

[jameswuk]

Hi,

I've been getting some of the legendary/infamous freezes on my Hackintosh recently. Most often when I'm using Chrome. Sometimes this just causes the computer to become unresponsive and I see a lot of the dreaded spinning beachball.

Other times, the computer will just lock up and restart.

Since I'm a web designer, not being able to use Chrome reliably is a bit of a 'bummer', to say the least...!

However, I think that one of the culprits may be an interraction bewtween Spotify and Chrome. I launched Activity monitor, and one of the tasks that's constantly marked in red (not responding) was Spotify Helper. It was showing 126 hangs!!

Upon getting more info on this, the paths/frameworks it was running were:

/
/Applications/Spotify.app/Contents/Frameworks/Spotify Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/Spotify Helper
/Applications/Spotify.app/Contents/Frameworks/Chromium Embedded Framework.framework/Libraries/libcef.dylib
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreMIDI.framework/Versions/A/CoreMIDI
/usr/lib/libexpat.1.dylib
/Applications/Spotify.app/Contents/Frameworks/Chromium Embedded Framework.framework/Resources/en.lproj/locale.pak
/usr/share/icu/icudt51l.dat
/Applications/Spotify.app/Contents/Frameworks/Chromium Embedded Framework.framework/Resources/cef.pak
/private/var/folders/w2/n7dhgyy917164svm2lfds0q00000gn/C/com.apple.LaunchServices-044501.csstore
/Applications/Spotify.app/Contents/Frameworks/Chromium Embedded Framework.framework/Resources/devtools_resources.pak
/System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework/Versions/A/Resources/GLSLBuiltins.GL2.glpa
/System/Library/Extensions/GeForceGLDriver.bundle/Contents/MacOS/GeForceGLDriver
/usr/lib/dyld
/private/var/db/dyld/dyld_shared_cache_i386
/dev/null
/dev/null
/dev/null
->0x778582fdabf85857
count=2, state=0x2
/Applications/Spotify.app/Contents/Frameworks/Chromium Embedded Framework.framework/Resources/en.lproj/locale.pak
/Applications/Spotify.app/Contents/Frameworks/Chromium Embedded Framework.framework/Resources/cef.pak
/Applications/Spotify.app/Contents/Frameworks/Chromium Embedded Framework.framework/Resources/devtools_resources.pak
count=0, state=0x2
->0x778582fda9152477
->0x778582fda9150c67
/dev/urandom
count=0, state=0x2
->0x778582fdb4d92bd7
->0x778582fda91523c7
/private/var/folders/w2/n7dhgyy917164svm2lfds0q00000gn/C/com.nvidia.OpenGL/58FFC859-4EF6-390B-9918-37B17A22F98D/E84D16E71305016E/B288E380-CEB3-3163-B955-135B68878DB5.toc
/private/var/folders/w2/n7dhgyy917164svm2lfds0q00000gn/C/com.nvidia.OpenGL/58FFC859-4EF6-390B-9918-37B17A22F98D/E84D16E71305016E/B288E380-CEB3-3163-B955-135B68878DB5.bin


I'm no developer/expert, but this does seem to indicate some sort of interraction/issue between Spotify, Chrome, and the NVIDIA drivers (maybe others with more expertise can tell me more). I've force-quitted this helper, turned off 'allow web pages to launch Spotify', and reduced the size of the Spotify cache to 1Gb. Will let you know if there's an improvement.

James

 

[jameswuk]

As a follow-up to this, since I force quit the unresponsive Spotify Helper, I have had NO freezes or slowdowns whatsoever (famous last words!!).

I will monitor it for now, and also check what happens after I restart!

I also reduced the permissable size of the Spotify cache to 1GB (the minimum).

If this works, it will be brilliant, as I've had so many slowdowns and crashes while using Chrome. It didn't even occur to me that Spotify might have been loading something that interfered.

James

 

[RallyVermont]

Just checked and the Helper was really not "helping" the situation. Force quite the process. You still freeze free?

Can't force quite all the Helpers running.

 

[jameswuk]

Yup, still freeze free!!

Woohoo!

Saying that, am back at home now, and the hackontosh is at the office, so will see what happens when I wake it from sleep tomorrow.

Your screenshot is much as mine was - Most of the helpers are to do with Spotify's 'feature windows' - Friends list etc. It is obvious which the 'problem' one is, as on yours.

Just to be safe, I also turned off the Spotify Facebook sync, turned the cache down to 1Gb, and unchecked the box for 'allow web pages to start Spotify'.

So far, it's all good (I may live to regret saying this)....

 

[RallyVermont]

Just froze on my end. I've been running spotify with their online app to avoid the helper being loaded on my machine. Watched a couple youtube videos and BAM, freeze. Doesn't seem to be related to Chrome being open or Spotify being run.

Time to try and change my ram speed from 1600 to 1333 which I've heard helps.

PITA!

 

[RallyVermont]

Odd it posted my reply twice... anyway. Still freezing here.

 

[Tino2]

I tried all kind of things with my 8Gb Kingston Blu, replaced the Ram (RMA), increased different Voltage, changed frequnzy, changed timings no solution.

Then i bought a 4gb Ram stick Kingston Blu an the system runs perfect without any crashes.

And yes the 8Gb is on the compatible Ram list from Gigabyte. I already contacted the GA support lets see what they know....

 

[jameswuk]

Well, 3 days later, and post 10.9.2 installation, I can (fairly confidently) say that Spotify IS still the cause of hangs/freezes, when running Chrome at the same time.

I did a complete 'virgin' reinstallation of 10.9.1, followed by a 10.9.2 update, and I was getting the same random slow-downs (spinning beachball etc).

Viewing Activity monitor showed thew same red-highlighted Spotify Helper, with multiple Hangs.

Force quit it (had to do it several times), and since then, NO FREEZES.

I think it's connected both to the Spotify Web Helper, but also the 'home page suggestions' on Spotify. If I keep my Spotify window on anything but the suggestions page, the guilty Spotify Helper process doesn't relaunch.

I realise this won't work for everybody (Anybody?), but it has definitely worked for me.

A quick Google search shows several Spotify AND Chrome threads flagging the same issue.

 

[jameswuk]

OK, OK, so you guys are probable getting really bored of me going on and on about Chrome/Spotify instability, but....

Crossing fingers and touching wood....

I've started using SPotify exclusively on the web, and have ditched Chrome as my browser for a while (using Safari). Since then I've had ZERO freezes in 3 days.

Time will tell....