QuickTime 7.5.5: iChat freezing after a few minutes of Audio or Video chat

Some users have noticed that iChat seems to be freezing, resulting in users having to force-quit the program. Upon restarting, chat sessions will resume but only for a few minutes before freezing again.

Apple Disussions poster slgxx writes:

"My friend and I started to ichat, [and] it began to freeze! She would freeze, and then my picture would, until only the sound worked, if even that. So, following the advice in another thread, I changed the speed (or something, to 1.5) and it worked better, but within five minutes-- frozen again!"

This problem seems to have cropped up after recent updates released by Apple, and may be linked ot QuickTime 7.5.5. Many found this problem seemed to start on or around the 12th of September, before the OS X 10.5.5 update was released but right after both iTunes 8 and QuickTime 7.5.5 were released on the 9th. However, other users noticed the problems after installing the Mac OS X 10.5.5 update.

Since video pausing behavior could be caused by bandwidth issues, users have tried setting their QuickTime preferences to different bandwidth settings; while for some this has shown a small improvement, the freezing still persists. In addition, users are experiencing this problem on very high-speed broadband connections that clearly are not being saturated.

Unfortunately, if this is due to a bug in the coding of either iChat or QuickTime, then users will have to wait for an update from Apple to completely address the problem. However, users can try reapplying recent updates to see if that helps resolve the issues.

Potential Fixes

Reinstall the QuickTime 7.5.5 update Since the problem seemed to appear before the OS X 10.5.5 update and therefore be more associated with the QuickTime 7.5.5 update, it is recommended that users reapply this update first. To do this, download the QuickTime 7.5.5 installer here. With the file downloaded, it is recommended that users the extra precaution and reboot the computer into Safe Mode by holding the shift key at bootup. This will take a little longer to boot, but when loaded the system will only be running essential system services and extensions. When in Safe Mode, first open Disk Utility and run a permissions fix on the boot drive to ensure system files are properly accessible, and then open the downloaded QuickTime update and run the installer again, rebooting after the installation completes.

Reinstall the 10.5.5 Combo update If reapplication of the QuickTime update does not fix the issue, users can try doing the same thing for the OS X 10.5.5 update. To do this, follow the same steps mentioned above for the QuickTime update, but be sure to download the Mac OS X 10.5.5 combo updater as it contains all files needed for the update instead of just changed files since 10.5.4.

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