Troubleshooting a hanging mac

M

minimalistic

Registered
Today my mac started hanging - 3 times so far. The only common thing I've observed between those was that there was some intensive disk activity - first 2 times I was downloading smth, and the last time I started the Disc Verification from the Disk Utility tool.

My question is - how do I debug/troubleshoot this thing? In windows the task manager is always responsive, even if explorer.exe dies. How/what do I do when Finder hangs on me?

A weird thing is that when it hangs, the browser (firefox) is still running just fine. If I however try to open the 'Force quit' app or start a Terminal, then everything hangs completely and the only option is forced shutdown (holding the button for 10secs).

Any ideas on how to approach this?

p.s. I was looking in the system.log, but can't see anything suspicious. If anyone is interested, I can send it over.

Thanks for your ideas!
 
no, but seriously - how do I intercept a hung Finder? I need an analogue of the win's task manager or generally anything that would give me control (so I can start a console, apps, etc.)
 
Try safe boot by holding down the shift key until you get a login screen.
Then log in and see how everything acts.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top