Recovering from a Mac Crash / Freeze

Recovering from a Mac Crash / Freeze

Here are the things you should try and do when you suspect you're in a crashed state. Taken in this order, these steps will cause you the least trouble and disruption.

A system crash on a computer usually leads to you needing to restart / reboot the computer. Doing that will cause you to lose any edits you've made to documents since you last saved documents to disk.

Save and Save Frequently!

How can you tell you're in a "crashed state"?

A Mac crash shows up in a number of different ways:

• You may see a system error message on your screen (a "bomb") with Restart as the only option to click.
• You may see some visual disruption on your screen (e.g.: half of the bomb dialog box drawn, for example).
• You may be able to move the mouse but your clicking the mouse button doesn't do anything.
• The arrow on the screen won't track mouse movements.

Note that for these last two you might want to hang out for a little while before taking the below steps as you computer might be in a "wait state" while processing some process in the background. This is often true when trying to perform some network function (Internet or file sharing) or addressing a volume (floppy disk, CD, DVD, etc.). Give it another two minutes and see if control returns to you.

Force Quit

If you hit the Command-Control and Escape keys on a Mac running System 7 or later you will get a Force Quit dialog box. If you hit the Force Quit button the system will dump that program out of memory -- stop it from running.

Activity 1: Try a Force Quit

Note: Force Quitting an application creates a degree of instability in your system. In generally, you don't Force Quit unless you have to.... You might want to restart your Mac after you're finished with this lesson.

1) Quit out of all programs running on your Mac in order to return to the Finder.

I have you take this step in case your system crashes during this exercise -- so the crash won't take have you lose any changes to documents.

To do this, move through the Application menu, quitting each program until just the finder is left. Click here if you're unfamiliar with this tactic. (Clicking on this link will cause another browser window to open. Read through / practice that and then close that window and you'll be back here.)

2) Open the SimpleText program. (Click here if you don't know how to do this. Clicking on this link will cause another browser window to open. Read through / practice that and then close that window and you'll be back here.)

3) Type some stuff in the the document window that opens. Do not save this document.

4) Force Quit the SimpleText program by holding down the Command and Option keys and, while holding them down, typing the escape key and then releasing all three. This will cause this dialog box to show up:

5) Click the Force Quit dialog box. The dialog box will go away and the SimpleText program will go away (its menus and document window).

Activity 2: Restarting Your Mac

If pressing the Force Quit buttons doesn't work or if clicking on the Force Quit also doesn't work, you need to restart your computer. (NOTE: If you follow these instructions you'll have to wait for your Mac to come back up / restart / reboot!)

1) Quit out of all programs running on your Mac in order to return to the Finder.

To do this, move through the Application menu, quitting each program until just the finder is left. Click here if you're unfamiliar with this tactic. (Clicking on this link will cause another browser window to open. Read through / practice that and then close that window and you'll be back here.)

2) On the keyboard, hold down the Command and Control buttons and press the Power key and release all three. If you keyboard has these keys (keyboards have varied overtime) and depending on the model of Mac you have this may restart your Mac.

This will cause your Mac screen to go black, you'll then hear the restart sound, and the Mac will start up again.

3) If this doesn't work, look for a button that has a triangle on it on the front face of your Mac or, in the case of an iMac, on the side near where the cables go into the iMac. Press that button.

4) If you don't have any buttons on your Mac that allow you to restart your Mac, toggle off the power or pull the power plug, count to five and plug it back in / power it on.

When things continue to go bad....

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