if the program has built-in maintenance tools, run them. Many complex programs put vital items all over the place when they install, and removing them could break the program or reduce its functionality. Additionally, this is only safe for applications that are bundled in one package. Note that doing this most likely will get rid of your personal settings for the program, but most of the time re-entering them in the program's settings will set things up properly again. You can also use Spotlight to find other files the program has created in your user library folder, and remove or delete them. Also, note that you may lose some settings or other personal data used by specific applications when these files are deleted plist files, so make sure you check for any that contain the product name. In some cases, applications will have several. plist file to the trash, re-launch the hampered application, and check for continuation of problems.
You'll be presented with a list of currently running processes. When the freeze ensues, switch to the Terminal window then type the following command: If you are lucky enough to have a Terminal window open, and can switch to it, you can kill processes that you otherwise would not be able to (since it's virtually impossible to launch Activity Viewer or the Terminal after a thrashing - freezing - process starts).
In some cases - in which a single application causes the Mac OS X kernel to become extremely busy and slows the system to a halt - having a Terminal window open can prove beneficial. Using the command line is a more basic approach to killing the process. The PID can be looked up several ways, but the most common are to use Activity Monitor or the command line equivalent "top". The Terminal Use the terminal to kill a process by PID (Process ID). You can see if one is displayed improperly or if it's using up large amounts of resources, and then kill it specifically to see if that clears the hang.
Alternative Approaches include:Īctivity Monitor Use Activity Monitor to display a list of all the running processes on the computer. I had this problem since I got this computer, please help me."įortunately, Apple's "Force Quit" dialogue box is only one of the many ways to approach targeting a process to kill it. I can't restart the application and most annoyingly, I can't shut down the computer unless I shut it off with the power switch. But even after that message, there's still a blue light under the application. I get the message popup window saying that the application has been forced quit unexpectedly or something like that. "After an application hangs forever, I tried to force quit. However, force quits do not always execute properly, leaving hung or stalled applications in their problematic states.Īs described by user Jude Kim on the Apple Discussion boards:
Often consuming a large amount of system resources as it flails. Mac OS X's force quit mechanism can be a boon when an applications freezes,