When an application hangs on your Mac, sometimes the quickest fix is to force the application to quit. In most cases, this will free the system and allow you to re-launch the program to get on with your work. There are three main ways to force-quit a program in OS X. The first is the Force-Quit menu, activated by pressing Option-Command-Escape or by choosing it from the Apple menu. With this, you can quit OS X application programs launched in your user account. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Activity Monitor
How to overcome a massive memory leak in OS X
When programs perform tasks on OS X and other platforms, chunks of memory are allocated for their needs, but these should be relinquished when the task is done. If not, then a memory leak may occur, where progressively more memory is reserved (sometimes at a rapid rate), until the system cannot allocate anymore and is strained for resources. When this happens, the entire system may run slow, pause, or hang and require a forced restart. Unfortunately there is little you can do as an end-user to prevent a memory leak, but with quick identification you can knock out a program that is causing one, before it starts affecting the entire system. Continue reading
Force-quit processes to fix a hot Mac with blaring fans
Your MacBook has limited battery life, so what do you do when your system’s fans suddenly crank on at full tilt, and you notice that your system is getting hotter and hotter to the touch? Generally this happens when you are in the middle of your work where you have a number of programs and windows open. You may also see the battery life remaining on your system drop to an hour or two at most when you expected to have quite a few more. In addition to a hot system, you may also notice slowdowns with other tasks you attempt to perform, though this will depend on the task and might not always be the case. Continue reading
Overcome processes ‘Not Responding’ in Activity Monitor
Apple’s Activity Monitor utility is a good tool for viewing the status of every program and background service that is running on your Mac, and as such you may regularly use it to check on how resources are used, especially when you are experiencing slowdowns with your Mac. However, when you do so, you may find several processes that are listed in red text, and which have “(Not Responding)” displayed next to them. Continue reading
New feature helps Safari page troubleshooting in OS X Yosemite
A small change in the way Safari manages web pages in Yosemite will allow you to more easily troubleshoot any pages that are unresponsive or otherwise stuck.
If you ever run across a site that either hangs, or repeatedly shows a message that you cannot get rid of and which prevents you from otherwise interacting with Safari (e.g., closing the window), then you might find yourself resorting to force-quitting the program; however, there is an alternative you can use to more specifically manage the problem. Continue reading
Prevent the WindowServer process from dragging Yosemite down
One potential issue in OS X Yosemite that you might run into is a problem with the WindowServer, where at times this background process can use a large amount of your Mac’s CPU. This may result in not only choppy performance, but also excessive energy usage and heat generation, and therefore greatly reduce the battery life of MacBook systems. Continue reading
Seven subtle changes in OS X Yosemite
Apple’s new OS X Yosemite comes with a number of exciting new features, including integration with iOS 8 to send and receive voice and text chats, an new interface style that mimics the look of iOS 8 and iOS 8, better power management, and integration with online services. However, hidden in and around these augmentations are some subtle changes to Yosemite that might not pop out at you right away. Some of these might be useless, but others might be fun additions that you might enjoy. Continue reading
Determine which OS X process IDs are for your Safari windows
Quite often when browsing the Web, you might find yourself with multiple browser windows and tabs open. This may be convenient for workflow, but if a problem occurs where Safari stalls or otherwise runs slow, or causes your Mac to use excessive CPU percentage and run hot, then while you might be tempted to simply force-quit Safari and relaunch it, you might also benefit from knowing which Safari process is causing the problem. Continue reading
What apps are killing your battery life?
While Apple touts 7-9 hour battery lives for its various portable products, MacBook owners will know that sometimes this simply is not the case. Even though you might not be doing any active work in power-hungry programs, you might see your battery life plummet and only last a couple of hours at most.
If this happens, then there are several things you can do, with one quick option being to Continue reading
How to force-quit an application in OS X
Force-quitting an application is a quick way to clear a program that is hanging, running slowly, or otherwise cannot be quit by normal means using the Quit function in the Application menu. While you might be familiar with the standard Force-quit dialogue box to force-quit programs, there are a number of other ways to do this.
First and foremost is, of course, the Continue reading