Halp! [Mac Technical Difficulties]

[Tyrandar]

So out of nowhere my computer's suddenly slowing down and, at the least opportune moments (like when I'm raiding), locking up - even when I would try to perform the simplest tasks (like writing this post). My Logitech G15 has a little performance monitor and while my RAM % is within normal parameters (I think), my CPU % is almost always ('cept when running WoW) < 5% and oftentimes below 2%. I've consulted Activity Monitor and not seen anything out of the ordinary and switched to Google Chrome in hopes that it would hog less... something than Firefox. Thus far, nothing has changed.

This is driving me batty since normally I can run WoW, the internet, and iTunes without running into any trouble. Now I'm wide awake with the obnonxiously loud snoring of my roommate slowly eating away at my sanity.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[golentan]

Power it down for a night, then boot it back up.

I've noticed that a lot of mac users don't feel the need to reboot regularly because it's such a stable OS. Sometimes leaving it running for months. And it remains stable, for the most part. But with graphic intensive stuff especially, it can start dragging or needing to force quit programs.

If that doesn't apply to you, try flushing your caches, downloading any firmware and software updates available, clearing out old download fragments, and maybe check if you have a virus. They're rare for macs, but do exist. Not necessarily in that order.

[Tyrandar]

That first thing totally applies to me and I am trying it right now (hooray for netbooks).

[IonDragon]

I'm afraid I can't help you. Unfourtunately, there's nothing I can say about macs that wouldn't be considered flaming except: The local mac store has people there who will almost always at least take a look at your computer. If rebooting doesn't fix your problem, that's probably the best place to go next since the main reason people buy macs is to avoid technical issues.

[Tyrandar]

Well now it's refusing to boot up, so I guess it's off to the Apple Store.

[Mando Knight]

If rebooting doesn't fix your problem, that's probably the best place to go next since the main reason people buy macs is to avoid technical issues.

IMO, this is the most amusing bit of schadenfreude for a PC user. PCs break down, sure, but you can fix it yourself. Apple doesn't trust its users to have any sort of clue as to what they're doing, so they hide all of the options and in-depth troubleshooting behind the tech support counter.

[lesser_minion]

IMO, this is the most amusing bit of schadenfreude for a PC user. PCs break down, sure, but you can fix it yourself. Apple doesn't trust its users to have any sort of clue as to what they're doing, so they hide all of the options and in-depth troubleshooting behind the tech support counter.

Not so much, really.

No matter how Apple try to market it, a Mac isn't really much more than a PC with a shinier chassis and a different operating system, with a few interesting innovations. Cocoa is kind of nice, but gcc is available for everything with a screen, and most of the libraries underpinning cocoa have been ported to everything with a screen as well.

They certainly do put a lot of effort into customer service, but even then, it's more a case of being willing to provide free services to their customers that you'd normally have to do yourself (buy compatible parts for any Mac and Apple will install them free of charge) than not trusting their users to know what they are doing.

As for the OP, I imagine there are a few different things that could cause hangs - I'm not so sure about something that could cause a computer to hang and then suddenly prove incapable of booting however.