Quantcast
Subscribe to magazine
You are not logged in, click here to log in.
Up to Discussions in Mac OS X
6 Replies Last post: May 21, 2005 9:54 AM by jmincey  
Click to view Nobody's profile New Member
Nobody
58,347 posts since
Oct 18, 2007
Reply

May 18, 2005 1:19 PM

Weird symbols and such in the Process Viewer

I have begun to notice weird symbols and signs in the process viewer. The owner is ??? and it only happens when I get on the internet. It looks like gobblygook to me maybe arabic signs and such. Anyone know a way I can check these out? I was going to include screen captures but don't know how to put them in this format.
Reply
Click to view Nobody's profile New Member
Nobody
58,347 posts since
Oct 18, 2007
1. May 19, 2005 4:59 PM in response to: Nobody
Re: Weird symbols and such in the Process Viewer
nobody has any ideas?
Reply
Click to view Nobody's profile New Member
Nobody
58,347 posts since
Oct 18, 2007
2. May 19, 2005 10:19 PM in response to: Nobody
Re: Weird symbols and such in the Process Viewer
Why don't you try quitting (force-quitting) that process and see what happens when you're online.

When you mention Process Viewer, I presume you're with Jaguar, because I use Panther and Process Viewer is called Activity Monitor.

Screen captures: Command Shift 3 and Command Shift 4, respectively
Reply
Click to view jmincey's profile Old Hand
jmincey
4,202 posts since
Aug 27, 2004
3. May 20, 2005 4:56 AM in response to: Nobody
Re: Weird symbols and such in the Process Viewer
This is a known issue with the Process Viewer in Jaguar (and perhaps even in Panther's Activity Monitor, though I don't think so). I'm not sure what conditions come to bear on this but I think a dual-processor Mac is a necessary condition to the mix. Do you have one?

I would definitely delete the cache files for this one. It may not resolve your problem but I've encountered this before and it was interrmittent even on the platforms where it did occur and the variables were hard to nail down.

You might check the integrity of your fonts as well -- if you have any user-installed fonts in ~/Library/Fonts, I suggest you temporarily remove ALL of them and see if you ever run into that behavior again.
Reply
Click to view Nobody's profile New Member
Nobody
58,347 posts since
Oct 18, 2007
4. May 21, 2005 8:53 AM in response to: Nobody
Re: Weird symbols and such in the Process Viewer
Thanks for the reply. I have done as you suggest they still show up. I have installed a program to track these events and am getting some interesting feed back. Many of these seem to be querys by apple for certain info like software stuff. I can tell the port # now and the ip addresses of these to some degree but not all. One that pops up all the time is systemuiserver and it seems that yahoo finance wants to communicate with my computer on port 80. I really am interested in finding out more about the goings on in unix behind the gui so I guess I'll look for a book on the subject. Thanks
Reply
Click to view Nobody's profile New Member
Nobody
58,347 posts since
Oct 18, 2007
5. May 21, 2005 9:01 AM in response to: jmincey
Re: Weird symbols and such in the Process Viewer
This is a known issue with the Process Viewer in Jaguar (and perhaps even in Panther's Activity Monitor, though I don't think so). I'm not sure what conditions come to bear on this but I think a dual-processor Mac is a necessary condition to the mix. Do you have one?

Yes, I have a dual 867 mdd and am running 10.2.8

I would definitely delete the cache files for this one. It may not resolve your problem but I've encountered this before and it was interrmittent even on the platforms where it did occur and the variables were hard to nail down.

Thanks I'll do just that to see if it helps

You might check the integrity of your fonts as well -- if you have any user-installed fonts in ~/Library/Fonts, I suggest you temporarily remove ALL of them and see if you ever run into that behavior again.

I haven't installed any fonts that I know of. I don't known how to chect to see if any are bad so I'll google to try to find out how. Hey thanks for responding as I live in a town that has no apple groups or stores so I'm kinda on my own as I don't even know anyone other than me who owns an apple. Thats something I think apple needs to improve on is getting out more info on the apple so newbies and dummies like me can be more comfortable with the operating system.

Jeff Mincey

Reply
Click to view jmincey's profile Old Hand
jmincey
4,202 posts since
Aug 27, 2004
6. May 21, 2005 9:54 AM in response to: Nobody
Re: Weird symbols and such in the Process Viewer
I think if you upgrade to Panther (or Tiger) your problem will cease. As for Apple's support of users in remote areas, I suggest you visit its extensive discussion forums available here:

http://discussions.info.apple.com/

And of course you can continue to visit the Macworld site as well for help and an exchange of information.

As for your fonts, if you have any user-installed fonts, they would be located in your home folder in the path ~/Library/Fonts. Now beware -- there is another /Library/Fonts folder directly off the root of your startup volume, and I'm not talking about that one here. I'm speaking instead of the one inside your home folder. If you find any fonts located there, I suggest you move them out (temporarily) and then re-run the Process Viewer. You might even reboot -- just to be on the safe side.

I'm not optimistic about this solution however -- but it's worth a try. I have definitely heard about this problem with the dual 8xx ghz PowerMacs, and I don't recall the exact solution to your problem but if you upgrade to Panther or Tiger I think this will quickly become a moot point.
Reply

Actions

More Like This

Macworld powered by Jive Software's Clearspace ® -1.10.1 (Version: {3}) - Submit product feedback
© Jive Software