Serious GUI bugs in OS X?

[yellow]

Could be.. I have GoogleEarth installed on this box I'm using now. I don't use it often but I can test it for sure.

 

[Simon R.]

So bizzare.. most of my users average uptime is 45 days or so.. are we talking longer than that or less than that before the symptoms show up?

Are you folks using any AV software? Remote access software? Anything that hooks deep and early into the OS that might be poorly written (a symantec product, for example )?

Weird. I love a mystery.

I haven't had up times over more than 24 hours... Usually it's maybe 5-10 hours, then I put it to sleep, then continue the next day at some point. Then I might do a restart/re-login, either for some other reason, or to get rid of this problem. Not using any remote access stuff or Symantec programs. And I don't do video editing, not even audio yet (which is what I bought it for). Just simple stuff. iTunes, some widgets, internet browsing, Quicktime, BitRocket. I have a small hunch that BitRocket might be problematic, it often crashes (mostly during initialization or when adding too many torrents to it - it clearly has some bugs). But that doesnt immediately lead to problems, and they don't seen to start depending on whether BitRocket was just doing something erratic. So it's just a very small hunch. I will try to see if the behaviour persists even when not using BitRocket at all. I am sure "meow" doesn't necessarily use BitRocket at all and he's experiencing the same issues.

 

[yellow]

Widgets.... hmmm....

That's a definite source of wastes resources. <ponder>

 

[Simon R.]

Restarts normally only happen when software updates demand them. I've seen this on hardware where the only non-bundled software is Office and a few QuickTime codecs (disappointing, because deep down I really wanted to blame Adobe for this).

I do find it interesting that Google noted the problem.

What do you mean by that, "Google noted the problem"? I don't use Google Earth regularly btw So I can't blame Google Earth since it can happen without it been running.

 

[Simon R.]

Widgets.... hmmm....

That's a definite source of wastes resources. <ponder>

That shouldn't make your OS GUI go nuts, especially not if you're not using them... Am I not supposed to USE the features of OS X or should I treat it like some tender, touchy thing that uuuuuh I shouldn't dare using its more "demanding" features, or I will get in trouble? Widgets shouldn't be doing anything, especially not when they are not in use. And the ones I use are mainly search engines, and then iStat.

 

[yellow]

That shouldn't make your OS GUI go nuts, especially not if you're not using them...

Not necessarily true.. even if they're not in the foreground being "used" they're in the background eating RAM.
If one is particularly out of date or poorly coded and has a memory leak, it could (theoretically) be the cause of your issue.
Theoretically.

 

[Kunimodi]

1) Sometimes windows of applications don't jump to front when you click them. You then have to use e.g. Apple+TAB to choose the app.
2) Sometimes windows don't minimize when I double click them.
3) Sometimes the "close, minimize, maximize" buttons in windows are greyed out.
4) Sometimes the menu line shows that you are in an application (lets just say Safari, for arguments sake) but you can't enter the drop down menus. Seems like the OS is "stuck" between applications, until the application is activated). And right now when I am writing this, nothing except Finder wants to activate the menus. When I choose an app the menu bar changes to show the apps' menus, but they don't work. I logged in and out my user, and everything worked fine again.

I've got it: Bad mouse.

 

[yellow]

When you see these issues, have you checked the Activity Monitor (or top) to see if there's anything clearly being unruly?

 

[Simon R.]

When you see these issues, have you checked the Activity Monitor (or top) to see if there's anything clearly being unruly?

Hmm yeah if you're thinking about excessive memory use, there's nothing to trace. I also tried killing a lot of threads, including widgets, to see if it made it stop, it didn't.

 

[iMeowbot]

What do you mean by that, "Google noted the problem"? I don't use Google Earth regularly btw So I can't blame Google Earth since it can happen without it been running.

Nah, I don't think that Google Earth is to blame, only that google know about the issue.

A copy of the notes here:

- When switching applications, the menu bar from the previous application is occasionally shown. This is more common on slower machines. To correct the menu bar, do the following:
1. Switch to the desktop (by clicking on it)
2. Switch back to Google Earth

This is the very same problem, it doesn't only affect their program though.

 

[uaaerospace]

I would think it would be related to something nonstandard in the OS. I regularly have uptimes in excess of 60 days on my G5 and I have NEVER experienced any of these problems (revision A machine, so I've had it a while). If your machine progressively gets worse after 5-10 hours, then I have no idea. It would seem though that if it is indeed a bug in the OS, something nonstandard (3rd party app) must be conflicting to cause the problem. In other words, the OS by itself would not experience the problem.

 

[Simon R.]

I would think it would be related to something nonstandard in the OS. I regularly have uptimes in excess of 60 days on my G5 and I have NEVER experienced any of these problems (revision A machine, so I've had it a while). If your machine progressively gets worse after 5-10 hours, then I have no idea. It would seem though that if it is indeed a bug in the OS, something nonstandard (3rd party app) must be conflicting to cause the problem. In other words, the OS by itself would not experience the problem.

You are probably right, but the a computer without any 3rd party apps would be a rather boring experience