Applications Crash After Use Of Open/Save/Pick File or Folder Dialog

Question

Hi, all.
This has been a problem since I installed 10.6 (the day it was released).
The 10.6.1 helped somewhat, but this is still a real problem.
I'll describe what happnes:
I'll be in a program (any program: MS Word, TextEdit, Safari, anything) and I'll use any of the following dialogs:
-Open
-Save Pick
--a-file
-Pick-a-folder
or anything like that.
Then, never during the time I'm using the dialog, always soon (there's often a delay of a few seconds) afterward, I'll get a message saying that the program quit unexpectedly. It says that an error report has been sent, and gives me the option the reopen the program or ignore the quit. (Except MS Word; it has it's own error reporting system).
Now, this is a BAD program because it happens when I save something.
It is important for me to note that this doesn't happen all the time. Some programs seem more stable than others, and some file formats (the one I select) stabler than others. Also, it seems that (at least with Safari) I can do things to reduce the likelihood of this crash happening. Sometimes opening using Rosetta helps. Sometimes 64-Bit helps. Sometimes disabling the cache helps.
It all seems pretty random.
Bottom line: this is REALLY annoying, especially when it occurs after use of the save dialog. Apple needs to fix this.
Is there a way for me to fix this myself?
Apple Hardware Test comes out clean. No problems with my startup disk, as far as I know.
It is nice to have QuickLook available in these dialogs, but if that's what's causing the problem, it'd be worth it to me to disable it. Any way to do that, just to try?
Anyone have any other ideas?
Thanks!
-Nate

Answer 1

Thanks for the reply and info!
All right, so I found crash reports for each recent such crash.
Here's the most recent one, caused by either an open or a save (I can't remember which) dialog. I think I clicked Cancel on that dialog, but it crashed anyway. Here's the part of the log you mentioned (Sorry for the links in that, they aren't supposed to be there, and I sure didn't make them myself):
The .crash file can be found here.
Process: TextEdit [550]
Path: /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit
Identifier: com.apple.TextEdit
Version: 1.6 (264)
Build Info: TextEdit-2640000~1
Code Type: X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [93]
Date/Time: 2009-10-10 08:09:47.315 -0700
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.6.1 (10B504)
Report Version: 6
Exception Type: EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000
Crashed Thread: 0 Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
Application Specific Information:
abort() called
Thread 0 Crashed: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x00007fff85b7eff6 __kill + 10
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x00007fff85c20072 abort + 83
2 libSystem.B.dylib 0x00007fff85b37095 free + 128
3 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x00007fff8571fcbe TFSInfo::~TFSInfo() + 38
4 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x00007fff85720195 TFSInfo::RemovePtrReference() + 37
5 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x00007fff85738114 TNode::IsUnresolved() const + 52
6 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x00007fff8572cc40 TNode::SetAliasTarget(TNodePtr const&, bool) + 246
7 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x00007fff8575c185 TNode::ClearAliasTarget(bool) const + 55
8 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x00007fff8575ceca TNode::RemoveSelf(TNodeEventPtrSet&) + 170
9 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x00007fff8575d347 TNode::RemoveAllChildren(bool, TNodeEventPtrSet&) + 473
10 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x00007fff8575d400 TNode::RecursivelyRemoveAllChildren(bool) const + 72
11 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x00007fff8575dc8a TNode::Finalize(TNodePtr*&) + 58
12 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x00007fff8575df09 TNode::Finalize() + 229
13 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x00007fff85775dd4 NodeContextClose + 466
14 com.apple.AppKit 0x00007fff8645e73b _NSSavePanelContextEnd + 66
15 com.apple.Foundation 0x00007fff8003b500 __NSFireDelayedPerform + 404
16 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x00007fff82207a78 __CFRunLoopRun + 5480
17 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8220603f CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 575
18 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x00007fff8315dc4e RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 333
19 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x00007fff8315da53 ReceiveNextEventCommon + 310
20 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x00007fff8315d90c BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInMode + 59
21 com.apple.AppKit 0x00007fff85db1520 _DPSNextEvent + 718
22 com.apple.AppKit 0x00007fff85db0e89 -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 155
23 com.apple.AppKit 0x00007fff85d76a7d -[NSApplication run] + 395
24 com.apple.AppKit 0x00007fff85d6f798 NSApplicationMain + 364
25 com.apple.TextEdit 0x0000000100000fb8 0x100000000 + 4024
Thread 1: Dispatch queue: com.apple.libdispatch-manager
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x00007fff85b49b16 kevent + 10
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x00007fff85b4ba19 dispatch_mgrinvoke + 154
2 libSystem.B.dylib 0x00007fff85b4b6d6 dispatch_queueinvoke + 195
3 libSystem.B.dylib 0x00007fff85b4b1f6 dispatch_workerthread2 + 244
4 libSystem.B.dylib 0x00007fff85b4ab28 pthreadwqthread + 353
5 libSystem.B.dylib 0x00007fff85b4a9c5 start_wqthread + 13
Thread 2:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x00007fff85b4a94a _workqkernreturn + 10
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x00007fff85b4ad5c pthreadwqthread + 917
2 libSystem.B.dylib 0x00007fff85b4a9c5 start_wqthread + 13
Thread 3:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x00007fff85b4a94a _workqkernreturn + 10
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x00007fff85b4ad5c pthreadwqthread + 917
2 libSystem.B.dylib 0x00007fff85b4a9c5 start_wqthread + 13
Thread 4:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x00007fff85b749f2 select$DARWIN_EXTSN + 10
1 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x00007fff82228252 __CFSocketManager + 818
2 libSystem.B.dylib 0x00007fff85b69f66 pthreadstart + 331
3 libSystem.B.dylib 0x00007fff85b69e19 thread_start + 13
Thread 0 crashed with X86 Thread State (64-bit):
rax: 0x0000000000000000 rbx: 0x0000000000000004 rcx: 0x00007fff5fbfe2c8 rdx: 0x0000000000000000
rdi: 0x0000000000000226 rsi: 0x0000000000000006 rbp: 0x00007fff5fbfe2e0 rsp: 0x00007fff5fbfe2c8
r8: 0x0000000000000e03 r9: 0x0000000000000000 r10: 0x00007fff85b7b036 r11: 0x0000000000000206
r12: 0x0000000100847600 r13: 0x0000000100043000 r14: 0x0000000000000000 r15: 0x00000001001bad10
rip: 0x00007fff85b7eff6 rfl: 0x0000000000000206 cr2: 0x0000000100401000
And, now that you mention it, yes: there are aliases in the CrashReporter folder to some of the crash files in the DiagnosticReports folder. Oddly, only those that belong to AppleScript Editor are present.
As for the system.log:
Here's what happens right after one of the crashes (Again, sorry for the mystery links):
Oct 10 17:30:15 nathan-greensteins-macbook com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[97] ([0x0-0x36036].com.apple.TextEdit[463]): Job appears to have crashed: Segmentation fault
Oct 10 17:30:16 nathan-greensteins-macbook ReportCrash[546]: Saved crash report for TextEdit[463] version 1.6 (264) to /Users/ngreenst/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/TextEdit2009-10-10-173016nathan-greensteins-macbook.crash
So, what's a Segmentation Fault? That looks like the problem right there.
Thanks again!
-Nate