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Possibly unfreeze a process with Activity Monitor
Authored by: TGV on Feb 20, '08 01:02:19AM

Yesterday I saw Powerpoint beachballing during a presentation. When the system was switched to another app and back, it resumed working, and something similar has happened to me once or twice. This might be related to the solution mentioned above.

It could be that an application gets stuck in its main loop waiting for something that is managed at system level. If the system is confused or out-of-sync (think pseudo-deadlock here, e.g. on a shared resource, such as "full screen"), then kicking the system may just lift the blockade and let the program continue.

It would be a bug somewhere in the kernel, and a difficult one to trap...



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