Activity monitor freezes and shows no processes

I've been having a recurring problem lately. I have two large Numbers files with lots of cell references. When working with these files, my MacBook's brain seems to be melting: operations as simple as changing worksheets can take a few minutes, editing cell contents can take several minutes more. Copying and pasting is a "set it up, make some lunch, come back and check" kind of operation.
The performance was so remarkably bad that I thought I should open up the Activity monitor and see how much of the CPU Numbers was using. However, I found that whenever I try to open the Activity Monitor, no processes are listed and the monitor hangs indefinitely with the swirling "waiting" pointer. No processes ever show up, no matter how long I wait, and the monitor is frozen with the "waiting" pointer. If I try to force quit the process, it is listed as "Not Responding".
Any suggestions for what might be going on here and how to fix it? Could the Activity Monitor and Numbers issue be related? I'd like to troubleshoot the Activity Monitor first and then move over to the Numbers forum if necessary to figure out the problem there.
Thanks very much,
Adrian

Had to do a disk repair from the Mac OS X install disk.

Similar Messages

Activity monitor is not showing any processes - why?

Hi there,
I have a new MBP which seems to get really hot for no reason. The CPU temperature is at 68-70°C constantly and I only have mail and firefox running. I opened the activity monitor to see what is taking so much effort and it is not showing me anything. Not a single process is listed. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks for your help!
Claudia

Has this been the case since you bought the computer
or did it once work? Is the computer quite new?
Have you made any changes to the original installed
software such as updates, installation of
third-party software, etc.?
The computer is brand new (bought it in December) and I don't think it ever worked.
Here are two things you might try:
A. Boot into safe mode. Does Activity Monitor work?
Tried it, didn't work.
B. Create a new temporary user account. Log into
that account. Does Activity Monitor work?
Did that. The activity monitor wouldn't work in the test account either.
On the off chance your copy of Activity Monitor is
corrupted you can replace it with a fresh one as
follows:
Restoring Lost OS X
Files
If you erase or otherwise "lose" an OS X system
application or utility (such as Mail or Disk Utility,
for example) you can restore them without having to
reinstall OS X.
Download the shareware utility Pacifist.
Read the documentation. Use Pacifist to extract a
fresh copy of the missing application from the file
archives on your OS X Installer disc. The file
archives are usually found on the installer disc in
the /System/Installations/ folder.
After restoring the application you need to reinstall
the OS X Combo Updater for the version of OS X you
currently have installed. This assures the new copy
of the application is updated to the current
version.
Lastly, it's a good idea to repair permissions.
Well, I downloaded Pacifist and replaced activity monitor and that finally did it. Thank you so much for that suggestion. I spend nearly two hours on the phone with Apple support this morning and they gave up on it. The only useful thing they could contribute is that the problem was probably created when I migrated everything from my PB to the new MBP. Anyways, problem solved. Thank you thank you thank you!
Best wishes,
Claudia
MacBook Pro 2.33 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Activity Monitor, Memory and Freezes

I've had a few Logic freezes recently so I open Activity Monitor to try and find some info. Firstly if the CPU use and threads next to Logic Pro keep changing is there a chance that Logic will unfreeze if it's been stuck for say over 5 minutes?
Also I'm trying to see how near I am to the memory ceiling. I've got 32 GB in my MacPro so it's not a shortage of RAM more hitting the single app limit. I don't understand the relationship between "Real Memory" and "Virtual Memory" as regards the single app limit. Logic has just crashed and the associated readings are Logic Real 2.13GB Virtual 3.88GB, VSL Daemon Real 7.02MB Virtual 867MB, VSL Server 2.35GB Real 3.31 GB Virtual. ousiad (is this East West Play plug-in?) 816kb Real 2.57 GB Virtual, Vienna Ensemble 882MB Real 2.5GB Virtual. Total free memory is 20.11GB.
If someone can help my understanding this would most be welcome!
Thanks
Julian

"Virtual 3.88GB" - That's the one that kills your Logic app.
You can read a lot on the forums that Logic has this limit of around 3.5GB of memory that it can allocate. I want to point out two things from my experience.
1) This limit is about the "Virtual Memory" not the "Real Memory".
2) When you get close to that limit, Logic just crashes. You would figure that it might give you just an alert box with a memory warning, no - poof - Logic is gone.
A few more things.
* Keep your Activity Monitor open and be very careful when you go across the 3GB "Virtual Memory" line. Every additional Plugin could push you over the edge.
* Besides loading additional instruments, there are other factors that you should be aware of. i.e. Apple Loop Browser. If you have a big Apple Loop library and you make a search on all loops, you can see in the Activity Monitor that such a search could require a few hundred MB of additional Virtual Memory. That's enough to cross the line and crash Logic. Believe me, it took me a while (and a lot of frustration and restarts) until I figured that out.
So why the difference between the "Real Memory" and "Virtual Memory" number. I seems that this leads into hardcore programming voodoo,aka "I have no idea". One observation I made is the impact of the graphic cards. Usually the Virtual Memory number is about 300-500MB bigger thatn the Real Memory number. When I changed my 2 graphic cards to new ones with more VRAM the difference between the Real and Virtual Memory number grew to 1GB . Don't asked me how long it took me to figure out that relation. All I saw was that I couldn't load big Logic Projects that I worked on before with no problem.
Bottom line:
The more stuff you load into Logic, the closer you have to monitor Activity Monitor and save more frequently.
Think about how often you read forum posts that Logic is completely unstable and crashes all the time. I bet that a high percentage is related to user hitting that Virtual Memory limitation.

I can't run activity monitor application. It just processes with the multicolored disc spinning, but does not open.

I can't run activity monitor application. It just processes with the multicolored disc spinning, but does not open. It also won't close without using "Force Quit." When I access it in Force Quit it's listed as not responding. I am getting the messase that my start-up disc is full, but I can't assess the status without using the activity monitor app. Thanks for any assistance you can give. -F.J.

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
If your hard drive is full, you have to delete files. Open Finder, search in all your user's folders and delete files that you don't need, or move them to an external drive.
When the hard drive is full, OS X works slow and applications may freeze, so I wouldn't be surprised if this is the reason why Activity Monitor isn't working

Activity Monitor Freezes

Since installing Leopard I have been getting Activity Monitor freezes. I have to quit the application and relaunch to get it going again. Happens every 30 minutes or so.
Anyone else have the lockup? Any clues to fixing the problem?

Welcome to the Mac world. Basic Mac user rule: don't move Apple apps or utilities from where Apple installs them. Basic problem isn't what you ran into, but future updates won't occur because the installer ignores anything not in the correct location.
Since you're new, see:
Switching from Windows to Mac OS X,
Basic Tutorials on using a Mac,
Mac 101: Mac Essentials,
Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts,
Anatomy of a Mac,
MacTips, and
Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Snow Leopard Edition.
Additionally, *Texas Mac Man* recommends:
Quick Assist,
Welcome to the Switch To A Mac Guides,
Take Control E-books, and
A guide for switching to a Mac.

Activity Monitor: How to know what processes to turn off?

I cant seem to find something like a glossary for the processes that appear in Activity Monitor.
I get the idea for using the AM - to find out what processes are running and how much memory they are using, however, I just don't know what processes are "suspicious", uneccary, good, bad or whatever. Anyone know of some resource to help me know what I should turn off?
Many thanks!

Ah, in that case, watch your CPU usage.
When Activity Monitor starts, select either +All Processes+ or +Active Processes+ in the toolbar, and sort the list by the +% CPU+ column, so the highest numbers are on top, and select the CPU tab towards the bottom.
For this purpose, also select +View > Update Frequency > Less Often+ from the Menubar.
Various processes will "spike" up and down normally as they do things, then are idle, so you need to watch it for a while and get a feel for the processes that are using the most CPU, and the +% Idle+ at the bottom.
When the slowdown occurs, see if something changes significantly, especially if the +% idle+ goes to near zero. If that happens, see what process(es) are using the most CPU.
If the process(es) involved aren't familiar to you, post their names here (and/or check this out: http://triviaware.com/macprocess/all)
You may also want to select the +System Memory+ tab towards the bottom. Keep an eye on the total of Free and Inactive memory (if they're near zero, you may need more), and the +Page outs+ (if that's high, it's another indication you may need more memory).

I just got my Mac Pro repaired from Apple but I am experiencing the same issue: Screen freezes and shows funny rectangular bars. I shut it down manually and when I try to turn it back on it beeps 3 times. I know its the RAM but is there a way I can fix it

I just got my Mac Pro repaired from Apple but I am experiencing the same issue: Screen freezes and shows funny rectangular bars. I shut it down manually and when I try to turn it back on it beeps 3 times. I know its the RAM but is there a way I can fix it

If you just got it back and it isn't fixed or something else is wrong with it take it back and have them do the repair correctly.

HT4623 Hi, There was ios 4.1 in my iphone3gs.i have tried to update it through itunes but there is a problem.After installation through itunes,there is problem that it is not activating my iphone and shows a message that your iphone could not be ac

Hi,
There was ios 4.1 in my iphone3gs.i have tried to update it through itunes but there is a problem.After installation through itunes,there is problem that it is not activating my iphone and shows a message that your iphone could not be activated because the activation server is temporarily unavailable,try connecting your iphone to itunes to activate it,or try again in a couple of minutes.i tried many times but it again shows the same message,
after installation,when i connect my iphone to itunes it shows a message that we are unable to activate your iphone at this time please try again or contact customer care.please reply me urgently to resolve this problem.

That is usually a symptom thet the phone was hacked or jailbroken. Was it?

2011 MacPro freezes and shows several multiple pink lines

My 2-month-'old' MacBook Pro suddenly freezes and shows multpile vertical lines and makes loud beeping noises.
When I manually reboot, again it freezes mid-boot and I have to reboot again.
The second time I reboot, it successfully starts up.
This is the third time it has happened in 3 hours!!
See the video I uploaded on YouTube for a better idea of what I am talking about - http://bit.ly/kuBaFb
I sincerely hope there is nothing major wrong with the computer. :-/
It is running OS X 10.6.7

Hello-
I had a static issue like this a few Years ago with a Sony Point and Shoot Digital Camera not long after its warranty ended. Unfortunately the fix was replacing the Optical Sensor which cost more than a newer model. Time to Visit the Genius Bar. Remember You have 30 days if bought at Apple Store too Exchange for a brand new unit or for a Refund.
best, s
btw. Great Video Evidence, Plus There Seems to be A Very Subtle Saphire/Violet Saturation mixed with White, Your Window frames look slightly Violet throughout the video so Apple might have a bad batch of cameras or issues with the camera software struggling with discrepancies from the new hardware or just crap production or...? Keep the Faith & Everyone Updated & You'll Work It Out Soon

My ipad mini fades out, freezes and shows streaks of lines on the screen. What is the problem or how can this be fixed?

my ipad mini fades out, freezes and shows streaks of lines on the screen. What is the problem or how can this be fixed?

try reseting the device
try restoring the device as new
then replace

Photoshop freezes and shows blank windows in Maverick. Any news on this ?

Photoshop freezes and shows blank windows in Maverick.
This is a known issue for a while. Is there any news or development on this ?

Please check SAP note 1383873, once it is supported, this note will mention it.

HT201401 My iphone 3GS keeps freezing and showing the apple logo during phone calls. Can anybody help plese ? Bee

My iphone 3GS keeps freezing and showing the apple logo during phone calls. Can anybody help plese ? Bja

Hiya thankyou for the answer.
Trying to set it up as a new device but can't find the backup to save it.
I have no "mediasync" folder in my library/application support. Did these folders get moved around with Lion?
Thankyou again,

Activity monitor does not show processes

When I run activity monitor it will not show any activity. Also, it does not show system memory, disk activity, or network. I think that the CPU section it not running correctly, either. Any suggestions.

Nevermind..... I was using the activity monitor that transfered over from the powerbook!!

Activity monitor - what are all these processes and how do i stop them?

hi.
i have a laptop that i use completely for live music performance and i want to disable everything on the mac that could be taking up RAM and CPU power.
i firstly notice airport base station agent and spotlight. can i disable these?
i also notice itunes helper... whats that?
i also have lots of others such as - ATSServer, launchd, loginwindow, mdworker, pboard, syncserver, systemUIServer and UserEventAgent... what are these and do i need them running?
many thanks....

hi.
thanks for coming back with an answer so quickly.
in activity monitor i can see spotlight is taking up about 25mb.
i have a 6GB music session to run with a huge CPU load so every bit of my 4GB RAM is taken up.
i do use spotlight a lot but could do without if it meant freeing up a little bit of space... it all helps!
i can see no page outs and it says 0 bytes but even though im running nothing on my computer i only have 3.3GB of my 4 available. 260MB is active and 420MB is wired.
im sure ableton live (my live music app) would appreciate even a little bit more RAM...
i know the maximum RAM my mac can have is 4GB but i think thats the limit for the application anyway so buying a new mac and more RAM wouldnt help i dont think....
any ideas?

Hello I am getting some nasty popups on safari. looks like malware. virtually all menus on safari are frozen out. Search with firefox and followed some directions to use the activity monitor to force quit these processes and it was no use.

malware on safari. tried activity monitor > force quit but they just popped back up. Please help.

wow thanks holding down the shift key worked. Is there anything else I should do know?
The problem wasn't in quitting safari but everyone time I opened it, that crap would pop up. Should I be able to use it now without holding down shift?

Activity monitor freezes and shows no processes

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for