Menu Bar crashing

loren_ryter · 12-07-2012, 12:10 PM

Lately my menu bar has been apparently crashing on a fairly regular basis – seemingly a few times an hour. I say seemingly because the visible sign is a quick flash with several of the menu bar items disappearing and then immediately reappearing. It's too quick to see what's actually disappearing. Everything then functions as normal, so this is mostly an annoying distraction.

I've removed 2 applications (social networking) that I've installed relatively recently, but the same thing continues to happen. I know I could further debug by quitting them one at a time until the problem goes away, but I wonder if there's anything else to try. I don't see anything telling in the system or console logs, and no apparent crash logs either.

I'm running OS 10.7.5. Here's a list of items from left to right:

Phone Amego
Menu Tab
Tracks
Growl
Dropbox
Fantastical
SmartReporter 2
BetterTouchTool
Moom
SoundSource
Stuf 2
MediaTap
HoudahSpot
Papers
ScreenSharing Menulet
iStat Menus 2 (Network display only)
Battery (engery saver)
iChat bubble (from Messages Beta I think)
TimeMachine
Scripts Menu
Bluetooth
Eject icon
Fast user switching user icon
Meridian
Spotlight

trevor · 12-07-2012, 12:17 PM

What appears in your logs when you see the menubar flash? You can easily view your logs using the Console app, found in /Applications/Utilities.

Trevor

loren_ryter · 12-07-2012, 01:12 PM

Trevor, thanks for the reply. As I mentioned above, nothing obviously related appears in the logs (viewing "All" in Console). Next time it happens I'll take a 3rd look, though.

OK, just happened. This is in the log:

12/7/12 2:26:24.896 PM QuicKeysUserEventHelper: QuicKeysUserEventHelper received a timeout
12/7/12 2:26:32.000 PM kernel: IOSurface: buffer allocation size is zero
[last repeated several times]

Does not appear to be consistent, as I searched for "IOSurface" error and it does appear earlier today but this problem has happened several times in between those messages.

benwiggy · 12-07-2012, 01:21 PM

Try removing the preference file com.apple.systemuiserver.plist from your user /Library/Preferences folder.

The Library is hidden by default in 10.7 and later: hold down the <alt> key and click on the Go menu in the Finder to select it.

loren_ryter · 12-07-2012, 02:03 PM

Thanks, I used:

rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.plist*

because there were a bunch of files like:
com.apple.systemuiserver.lockfile
com.apple.systemuiserver.pd6tC9g
com.apple.systemuiserver.kp3238h

wonder what those last ones are? I seem to have a few system pref files like that.

Whether this has any effect is still TBD.

Edit: Just happened again. The systemuiserver.plist file had been regenerated since last time. And again nothing apparently related in logs. Only log messages around the same time were some unrelated hacking attempts:

12/7/12 3:40:07.417 PM screensharingd: Authentication: FAILED :: User Name: N/A :: Viewer Address: 122.49.39.218 :: Type: VNC DES

benwiggy · 12-08-2012, 02:36 AM

Note that the shell command you used won't remove the files that you listed.

However, the most methodical thing to do would be to uninstall all those third-party items, then reinstall each one and see which one, if any, causes the problem.

loren_ryter · 12-08-2012, 05:24 AM

oops I did use:

rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver*

… so they did remove those files. But to no effect. Will commence removing them one by one.

chabig · 12-08-2012, 05:27 AM

You have a lot of stuff running in the menubar. The old fashioned way to identify the troublemaker is to remove them all, then add them back one by one until you figure out which one is causing the problem.

12-07-2012, 12:10 PM	#1
loren_ryter Triple-A Player Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 117	Menu Bar crashing Lately my menu bar has been apparently crashing on a fairly regular basis – seemingly a few times an hour. I say seemingly because the visible sign is a quick flash with several of the menu bar items disappearing and then immediately reappearing. It's too quick to see what's actually disappearing. Everything then functions as normal, so this is mostly an annoying distraction. I've removed 2 applications (social networking) that I've installed relatively recently, but the same thing continues to happen. I know I could further debug by quitting them one at a time until the problem goes away, but I wonder if there's anything else to try. I don't see anything telling in the system or console logs, and no apparent crash logs either. I'm running OS 10.7.5. Here's a list of items from left to right: Phone Amego Menu Tab Tracks Growl Dropbox Fantastical SmartReporter 2 BetterTouchTool Moom SoundSource Stuf 2 MediaTap HoudahSpot Papers ScreenSharing Menulet iStat Menus 2 (Network display only) Battery (engery saver) iChat bubble (from Messages Beta I think) TimeMachine Scripts Menu Bluetooth Eject icon Fast user switching user icon Meridian Spotlight

12-07-2012, 12:17 PM	#2
trevor Moderator Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Boulder, CO USA Posts: 19,551	What appears in your logs when you see the menubar flash? You can easily view your logs using the Console app, found in /Applications/Utilities. Trevor __________________ How to ask questions the smart way

12-07-2012, 01:12 PM	#3
loren_ryter Triple-A Player Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 117	Trevor, thanks for the reply. As I mentioned above, nothing obviously related appears in the logs (viewing "All" in Console). Next time it happens I'll take a 3rd look, though. OK, just happened. This is in the log: 12/7/12 2:26:24.896 PM QuicKeysUserEventHelper: QuicKeysUserEventHelper received a timeout 12/7/12 2:26:32.000 PM kernel: IOSurface: buffer allocation size is zero [last repeated several times] Does not appear to be consistent, as I searched for "IOSurface" error and it does appear earlier today but this problem has happened several times in between those messages. Last edited by loren_ryter; 12-07-2012 at 01:34 PM.

12-07-2012, 02:03 PM	#5
loren_ryter Triple-A Player Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 117	Thanks, I used: rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.plist* because there were a bunch of files like: com.apple.systemuiserver.lockfile com.apple.systemuiserver.pd6tC9g com.apple.systemuiserver.kp3238h wonder what those last ones are? I seem to have a few system pref files like that. Whether this has any effect is still TBD. Edit: Just happened again. The systemuiserver.plist file had been regenerated since last time. And again nothing apparently related in logs. Only log messages around the same time were some unrelated hacking attempts: 12/7/12 3:40:07.417 PM screensharingd: Authentication: FAILED :: User Name: N/A :: Viewer Address: 122.49.39.218 :: Type: VNC DES Last edited by loren_ryter; 12-07-2012 at 02:43 PM.

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12-07-2012, 01:21 PM	#4
benwiggy League Commissioner Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 5,040	Try removing the preference file com.apple.systemuiserver.plist from your user /Library/Preferences folder. The Library is hidden by default in 10.7 and later: hold down the <alt> key and click on the Go menu in the Finder to select it.

12-08-2012, 02:36 AM	#6
benwiggy League Commissioner Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 5,040	Note that the shell command you used won't remove the files that you listed. However, the most methodical thing to do would be to uninstall all those third-party items, then reinstall each one and see which one, if any, causes the problem.

12-08-2012, 05:24 AM	#7
loren_ryter Triple-A Player Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 117	oops I did use: rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver* … so they did remove those files. But to no effect. Will commence removing them one by one.

12-08-2012, 05:27 AM	#8
chabig Hall of Famer Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 2,934	You have a lot of stuff running in the menubar. The old fashioned way to identify the troublemaker is to remove them all, then add them back one by one until you figure out which one is causing the problem.