Mac mini: Repeatable freeze under certain conditions (#2)
Last week we reported on an issue where the Mac mini persistently freezes when it is running headless (without a monitor) and the system is set to sleep automatically.
We've received several notes of confirmation under similar circumstances.
Geoff Cross, for instance, writes:
"I too am having random/occasional freezing of headless Mac Mini systems. I have two Mac minis running headless, one running FileMaker Pro 5.5 and the other FileMaker Pro 7."
For many users, simply unchecking the option to put the hard drive to sleep (in the Energy Saver pane of System Preferences) results in no further appearance of the freeze issue.
One MacFixIt reader writes:
"I had the freeze problem with the Mini too. I decided to uncheck the sleep option on the hard drive and the problem has not happened since. I remember reading about this issue for Powerbooks also. There too, once the hard disk sleep is disabled, the problem vanished."
Meanwhile, MacFixIt reader Ben reports another, USB-related freeze trigger for the Mac mini:
"I've also notice random, regular lock-ups with my Mac mini. I seemed to have narrowed it down to the USB. If I have either my Canon LiDE 35 scanner or my SanDisk ImageMate 8 in 1 media reader (SDDR-88) plugged in, after a period of time (sometimes hours, sometimes days) my Mac mini will lock. Looking in the /var/log/system I see what looks like an attempt to access the USB devices followed by the inevitable hard reboot I had to perform. I'm not sure if it's the devices, but two different types of devices and two different manufacturers make me think it's something with the USB software/hardware subsystem or the Belkin Hi-Speed USB 2.0 7-Port Hub I have my USB devices plugged into."
Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.
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Desktop as a VNC server and if I have an authentication dialog up. All I have
to do is hit enter instead of clicking on the OK button with the mouse. I use
an ssh tunnel to VNC to my mini but I don't think that is the cause of the
problem. This freeze is 100% repeatable. This is not a fatal error though. All I
have to do is ssh in to the shell and kill the window server. This terminates all
of the running programs but doesn't log out and it consistently works to
unfreeze ARD.
You can use this script to kill the window server:
kill `ps -x | grep 'WindowServer' | grep -v 'grep' | cut -c '1-6' `
Or the much shorter "killall WindowServer"
- by Slemmon May 23, 2005 6:50 PM PDT
- My mac mini is frozen as we speak. During start up it simply goes to the apple logo, and no further. This occurs even if I follow the trouble shooting instructions and hold down the control and option keys while pressing the power button. Any ideas?
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