Mac freezing still in Safari, Acquistion and mail?!

Question

I have for some time been having 'what i thought' was issues with Safari freezing and being unable to even force quit. I thought i had it solved thanks to replies on here - but it's still happening sometimes. So I began to contemplate that perhaps Safari wasn't the issue - because it's happening with other programs.
First of all I am now using Firefox - as it seems much more stable whatever I do or visit on the web - under my current circumstances. (it has yet to crash on me?) Safari seems fine everywhere I go - unless I turn on the password access auto fill-in (using Keychain) and then some sites seem to cause the safari freeze (as above)? So my issue be Keychain I thought?
However, It has also happened only once or twice when I used apple mail to access my google email account (again I think these setting stored via keychain?) - if it automatically logs in when you open mail. This doesn't concern me too much though as I am still in the habit of getting my email via the website direct! However it may aide in the problem solving....
The final piece of the issue, is that I keep trying to open and use acquisition - and again it rarely gets beyond the point of logging into the networks (sometimes it will log into the networks but won't get beyond the start of searching for something) - before the freezing happens and again I need to hard reset? Now I am pretty sure that this program doesn't use Keychain, so...?
I realise there are many variables - but the issues all revolve around internet access and possibly keychain access - but is not soley confined to Safari?
Finally, I have my done all the normal repairs/checks etc - the OS, Safari, firefox and acquisition are all upto date versions. I do also have Allume 'Internet cleanup' - which blocks traffic/pop-ups etc but although this is fairly upto date 3.0.2 (not latest version 4) - I have also tried accessing acquisition with this program disabled - but still freezes. So in conclusion I have removed this as a possible issue? (plus firefox works through it fine all the time?!)
So, now I am head scratching and looking for suggestions as what might be causing this issue?
Thanks for reading my lengthy problem!

Answer 1

Hi,
I would probably completely uninstall Internet Cleanup (which is done via the Installer application) just to make sure none of the files it installs are somehow affecting the Mac. Sometimes disabled applications can still cause havoc.
Both Mail and Safari do indeed use the keychain for storing user/password information. Have you tried repairing the keychain from within Keychain Access? This can be done from the Keychain menu -> Keychain First Aid.
One quick test you can do to help narrow down things is to try these applications in another user account. This will help us to know whether your problem is local to your account or system wide. If you don't have another account you can use System Preferences -> Accounts -> [+] to create a test one (and [-] to remove it if needed)