Force Quit Won't Work/Epic Lock Ups

So I just recently started having trouble with my Macbook Pro involving applications locking up, and then not being able to force quit. Oh, they pretend to force quit. In fact they show dialogues saying they've quit, and their windows disapear, however in the force quit box, the cmd+tab window, and the dock the apps are all still there.
If I try and do a force quit again from the dock, the finder locks up.
The only fix is to force my computer to reboot, which cannot be healthy doing so much.
Other weird bugs is that once I do this forced shutdown/reboot my external drives will be missing files I previously moved to them (say I moved from drive a to b, after this forced reboot they'll be back on a and not on b)
The only thing I can think that's causing it is I have an external drive that's been acting up and I didn't start having this problem until the drive starting acting up... but I wouldn't think they're related!
Any ideas? I don't want to destroy my computer!
Running OS 10.5.6
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2 gb 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Macbook Pro
Message was edited by: ehmjay

ehmjay wrote:
The only fix is to force my computer to reboot, which cannot be healthy doing so much.
True.
The only thing I can think that's causing it is I have an external drive that's been acting up and I didn't start having this problem until the drive starting acting up... but I wouldn't think they're related!
Why not? That's the first place I'd look! It's likely your Mac is going nutso (pardon the technical term) trying to talk to a disk that isn't behaving. Eject that drive and see if the problems stop. If they do, back it up immediately if you can. Then try repairing the disk and permissions.
You might also look in your logs. Note the time of an incident, then use the Console app (Applications/Utilities). Click Show Log List in the toolbar, then select Console Messages in the sidebar and navigate to the date & time of the incident.
Most of the messages there are gibberish to us mere mortals, but some may provide a clue or two. Copy a representative sample and post here, if you wish.

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My dad has a brand new iMac. If he quits an app, this window closes, but the app won't finish shutting down, Force quitting does not work. Once another app is opened, it will not close either. Now none of the apps are responding. Any ideas?

My dad has a brand new iMac. If he quits an app, this window closes, but the app won't finish shutting down, Force quitting does not work. Once another app is opened, it will not close either. Now none of the apps on the dock are responding. I asked him to click on the apple, and drop down to "About this Mac", but that wouldn't open either. Any ideas? If I was at his house, I would call Apple Care in a heartbeat, but am home with my sick daughter,,, Thanks!

For starters, have him open Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, select the volume (the indented listing) and Verify Disk. If it reports any problems, have him try a Safe Boot by holding the Shift key at startup. This boot will take much longer than usual. It's checking and trying to repair the drive directory, if possible. Once in Safe Boot, have him repair Permissions.
For other Disk repair remedies see
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417
Also, have him try a PRAM Reset. At the startup chime, hold down CMD-Option-P-R together, listen for two more chimes, total three, then let go to finish booting.
Also, is he running any AV? If so, have him uninstall it. It might be responsible for this behavior. (There are no viruses for OS X.)

Force-Quit No Longer Works on Safari

Safari freezes nearly every day since I've upgraded to Leopard. When it does, force-quit doesn't work. When I try to force-quit, Safari disappears from Activity Monitor but still has the active light/arrow in the Dock. When this happens, Safari won't let me shut down or log out; either process stops right after the Dock and menu bar disappear. The only way to recover is forced shutdown.
What could cause this, and is there another way to get it to quit without forcing shutdown?
Thanks.

If you are updating Safari (or just have):
Input Managers and other plug-ins from third parties can do as much harm as good. They use a security loophole to reach right into your applications' code and change that code as the application starts up. If you have installed 10.4.11 and Safari is crashing, the very first thing to do is clear out your InputManagers folders (both in your own Library and in the top-level Library), log out and log back in, and try again.
So, disable all third party add-ons before updating Safari, as they may not have been updated yet for the new version. Add them back one by one. If something goes awry, remove it again and check on the software manufacturer's website for news of an update to match your version of Safari. Remember: Tiger up to 10.4.10 used Safari 2.0.4 or, if you downloaded it, Safari 3.0.3 beta. Safari 10.4.11 uses Safari 3.0.4 which is not a beta. If Safari 3.0.4 on 10.4.11 is not the fastest browser you have ever used, then something is wrong!
Moreover, trying to revert to Safari 2 when running 10.4.11 can have repercussions, as Safari 3.0.4 uses a completely different webkit on which other applications like iChat, Mail, Dashboard widgets etc also rely.
Most errors reported here after an update are due to an unrepaired or undetected inherent fault in the system, and/or a third party ad-on. Two such add-on that have been frequently mentioned here, among others, for causing such problems are Piclens and Pithhelmet. If you have them, trash them and go the developer's sites to see if new versions are available for Safari 3.0.4.
You should also ensure, if you are running Tiger 10.4.11 or Leopard, that you have downloaded and installed the correct version for your Mac of Security Update 2007-009.1.1, which also deals with the Quicktime/Flash issues you may have experienced, as well as the latest Java update.

Force Quit Doesn't Work/Freezing, Crashing

Oy. So I have to put this in context. Clutz that I am I dropped my Macbook Pro a year ago. Resulted in a cracked screen, screwed up optical drive and LED light/audio issues. Other than that it worked. It finally decided to clock out over the summer. Spent the money to get a new logic board(they pretty much gave me new computer and put my stuff on it). A few weeks after I got it back(and am now 4hrs away from nearest Apple store) It would freeze ocassionally(SBBD), no big deal, I'll force quit. Or reinstall that program(back then it was usually Mozilla Firefox, now it's kind of any program). As time has gone on it started freezing more frequently and force quit is no longer working. Had to look up what to do when force quit doesn't work, but the thing is, EVERYTHING freezes. I can usally click on a program(activity monitor) all I want, but it wont open. So this all results in having to force shut down, and it kills me inside to do that. Sooo I can wait until I'm back home and take this baby back to Apple, but I figured I'd give this a shot.
Should have mentioned this, I recently uprgraded to Mountain Lion about a month ago, hoping it would help. Worked for a while...but no such luck.
Programs that seem to crash most:
Sibelius
Mozilla Firefox
Google Chrome
iTunes
Microsoft Word

Forgot mention the important part. Was forced to force shutdown last night. Then I turned it back on. It got stuck on the white boot up page with Apple logo and loading circle for about 15 minutes. Fans were really load. Shutdown again and left it off all night. This morning I try it again and it makes an odd noise and till gets stuck on white screen for about five minutes Then it turns grey, and then it turns on.

Need help...Force Quit doesn't work & keep crashing HD b/c of it

For a week now, I have been trying to re-download my iTunes library from the iTunes store. Turns out, the problem has to do with the amount of downloads they put in my queue, which causes iTunes to crash. But, when it does crash, Force Quit doesn't work UNTIL I am forced to unplug the hard drive it was writing to. This is BAD and could kill my hard drive (I've had to do this AT LEAST 20 times this week and have repaired it 4 times with DiskWarrior and TechTool Pro during the past week).
Is there ANY way to get force quit to work without having to do this to the hard drive?? Seagate is no help as their phone just rings...no customer support avail even though hours say they are open. I am using 10.4.10 and a 500GB Seagate Pro External Hard Drive. I would put this in iTunes, but Force Quit is a Tiger thing. Off topic a bit, do you think iTunes would crash less if I downloaded to my internal HD instead (though, not really feasible as my internal couldn't fit all the downloads anyway)???
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

The previous reply was correct -- the freeze you are experiencing has nothing to do with the number of songs in the iTunes queue. The problem is with your hard drive. The newer Seagate FreeAgent drives (and all FreeAgent Pros) use a chipset that does not play well with recent versions of MacOS. I am not sure if Seagate uses two individual chipsets: one for USB and one for eSATA (assuming you are using a FreeAgent Pro), or simple one that supports both protocols, but that is the causing your mysterious freeze.
I have spent weeks troubleshooting this very same problem and have yet to find a solution. Right now, I am in standby mode until Apple releases 10.4.11 which is said to have fixed "issues with USB devices." I have tried many brands of external drives (Western Digital, Hitachi, roll-your-own, pre-FreeAgent Seagates) and they all work fine. I have even removed the drives from the FreeAgent Pro drives and put them into roll-your-own USB enclosures and they work fine. The problem is with the Seagate FreeAgent interface chip itself.
Hopefully you can still return your new FreeAgent drive to the store you bought it from. I am a strong believer in Seagate drives and use them extensively at home and work (over a dozen externals total) and the FreeAgents have caused more trouble than I've ever experienced with an external device. As of now, I am using a Western Digital 750GB MyBook drive until Seagate or Apple can find a permanent fix for the issue.
That being said, the FreeAgents have worked fine in the past and only recently have begun to have issues, so if you can, try rolling back to an earlier version of 10.4 and try again. Being a software developer, that option wasn't available to me.

Mdnsresponder will not quit. Consumes above 100% CPU and kills my battery. Also causes my fan to run constantly and my computer to get extremely hot. Force quitting doesn't work. It just comes back.

The mdnsresponder will not quit. Consumes above 100% CPU and kills my battery. Also causes my fan to run constantly and my computer to get extremely hot. Force quitting doesn't work. It just comes back. I posted about this earlier and never got an answer. Somebody, please help.
Thanks.

mDNSResponder is a background process that runs all the time. If you kill it, it's relaunched automatically.
Please launch the Console application and select "system.log" from the file list. Enter "mDNSResponder" (without the quotes) in the search field. Post a sample of the log messages in the Console window -- only one example of each repeated message, please.

When forced quit doesn't work???

What do I do when forced quit doesn't work?? This happens occasionally when something freezes, like Logic did today. I force quit, and wait... and wait... and nothing happens. I try and restart and it keeps coming up with the same window: Logout timed out, please force quit to continue or cancel.
Anyways I hit force quit over and over and nothing happens. I resolve to holding the button and manually restarting the computer. How can I get this thing to force quit?!!
- All updated
- Repaired permissions
- Repaired disk (nothing was wrong anyways)

Funny you should ask as I had the EXACT same problem this afternoon.
I had to do a hard restart.
But, then I got the gray spinning startup.
So, I had to restart from my backup drive (thank you SuperDuper!).
Then, 5 minutes later my internal hard drive reappeared.
Then, I restarted from my internal drive.
I had this problem in April (I took notes) and Apple replaced my hard drive.
Your mileage may vary.

How can i stop the i tune pop force quit doesn't work

hi ,
please help " how can i stop the i tune pop force quit doesn't work"

Refunds on downloaded software are virtually nonexistent.
I have had cases where I purchase software on a physical disk. If I don't like the software I can uninstall it from my computer and sell it legally. Recouping most of my loss.

How do I shut down safari when force quit doesn't work either?

My Safai would not shut down, force quit didn't work either. What to do?

Once you do that, check your system, something is wrong
Step by Step to fix your Mac

Leopard hangs - have to power off - force quit doesn't work

On several occasions Leopard has hung - try to run activity monitor to kill problem app - I get the bouncing icon but nothing else. force quit does not work on it. Can't log off - can put to sleep, but resumes in same hung state. Once I hard power off and restart, a I get a series of beeps, not just one and a normal start - no error messages. Other programs also would not respond to force quit including parallels desktop.

Hi,
Have had same problem here. My iMac is only a few days old, and barely anything on it before the upgrade from tiger to leopard.
Tried lauching thunderbird tonight, and the app just sat on the dock bouncing for a while, but the application never actually seemed to launch.
Tried force quit, but didn't have any effect. Also could not log-off, or shut down, as it said the application wasn't responding. This does seem very windoze-like!

Since 2.2.1 upgrade, force quit doesn't work after an application freezes

Sorry if this was posted before, but I couldn't find a post that matched my issue.
Has anyone else noticed that since upgrading to 2.2.1 on the 3G, if an application freezes, force quit doesn't work. I have to do a hard reset inorder to get the OS to respond again. Even tried to just hold the power button to do a power off and it doesn't respond.
Any advice? Tried restoring to 2.2.1 many times didn't help.

Thanks for the response. I have done a many restores as "new iphone" and reinstalled apps. I normally get freezes when I'm in a twitter type application and using the "mini/lite safari browser" within the twitter app.
When the phone doesn't freeze, I can force quit apps at will. It's only after a freeze (when I need force quit the most) does it not work....
I would make a Genius Bar appointment but I can't recreate it at will.

I am in Aperture 3, editing from raw, getting bouncing ball every few edits. i created a new aperture library to see if this would help. it does not. i have to force quit to keep working. I shoot alot as my work.. this is making the process take lon

I am in Aperture 3, editing from RAW, i get a beachball every 5 or so edits, so have to force quit to keep working.
I created a new aperture library to see if that would remedy the situation.. it does not.
Very time consuming.. can anyone help? ami doing something wrong? looked for software updates on my computer and did not fine any for aperture.
any ideas? Thank you

How much RAM, how full is the hard drive, and what computer? 8 GB RAM is recommended, and I also recommend that you do not upgrade to OS 10.7 Lion at this time.
HTH
-Allen

Force quit will not work what do I try next

force quit will not work what do I try next

Other than the keyboard & mouse, disconnect all devices from your iMac.
Check out: Troubleshoot the spinning beach ball/freezing & crashing and Troubleshoot the spinning beach ball. Not sure if you have tried everything mentioned in these articles. If you have, and no one else can come up w/any suggestions, then it's time to lug your iMac to your local AS or an AASP. Diagnostic testing is FREE!!!

Mac starts but has 2 open windows that I can't force quit. mouse works, nothing will respond.

mac desk top starts fine but has 2 open windows that I can't force quit. Mouse works but nothing will respond.

Looks like you didn't see the note about what should be posted here. Please read the note at http://forums.adobe.com/community/robohelp/robohelp_flash where you will see this is not the place to get help on using Flash.
Your post can be moved to either of the locations shown there or to http://forums.adobe.com/community/production_studio
Tell us which one and we will move it.
I am assuming your mouse works for all other applications. If not it sounds more like a Dell issue.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

Recently bought Mac air in March 2014, but it keeps freezing and force quit is not working?

Hi all,
I had trouble with my mid-2009 Macbook Pro during finals week (it kept shutting down by itself), so I opted out and thought it was time to upgrade. I had bought myself the Macbook air 13 inch, Version 10.9.2, processor 1.3 GHz Intel Core i5, Memory 4 GB... everything was fine until on the third day, the air froze for the first time. The rainbow wheel started showing up, so I wanted to force quit (I think I had youtube running). Force quit wouldn't work when I moved my mouse over to the apple logo on the top left. I also tried holding down control+command+esc but nothing came up.. I'm quite disappointed since I literally bought this two weeks ago. From the first freeze, it has frozen 4 times and I have been force restarting it. What can I do to fix this? Will apple replace this machine?
Thanks for your help in advance!
Jenny

The warranty entitles you to complimentary phone support for the first 90 days of ownership.
If you bought the product in the U.S. directly from Apple (not from a reseller), you have 14 days from the date of delivery in which to exchange or return it for a refund. In other countries, the return policy may be different. If you bought from a reseller, its return policy applies.

Force Quit Won't Work/Epic Lock Ups

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