Application Issues and Basic Troubleshooting

What Causes An Application Program To No Longer Run or Unexpectedly Quit?

There are many causes for behaviors of this nature, leading among them:

Unusable application

This can occur on a floppy if the floppy disk is damaged by being stored in extreme heat or cold areas, near magnets, and so forth. On a hard drive, it may be that the sector on the drive has become unusable, or one or more files may have been accidentally deleted. Delete the application and reinstall it.

Application issues

Occasionally, you may run into two or more applications, or combination of applications and desk accessories, Extensions, or control panels that are incompatible. This is difficult to troubleshoot because there may be many factors interacting with each other and the behavior may be intermittent, occurring only if the applications were opened in a specific order, or if a certain desk accessory had been run sometime prior to application launch in the same work session. Remove any add-on programs that are contributing to the situation; do not to run them at the same time; get in touch with the software vendors for assistance.

Systematic Troubleshooting Procedures

1. If your difficulties started after installing new Extensions or Control Panels, remove them to determine if they are incompatible.

2. If your difficulties started after installing new System Software, check with application software vendor to determine if there is a compatibility issue.

3. If your difficulties started after installing new application software, try running from the floppy or CD to make sure the software is in good working order; check documentation to determine that you are using system software with which it is compatible; check with software vendor to determine if there is a compatibility issue.

4. Try quitting other applications.

5. Try launching the suspect application first.

6. Make sure that the application you are trying to run has not been deleted or damaged.

7. Check memory allocation and increase if necessary.

8. Replace system software. Use the installer on your original system software diskettes or CD.

9. Rebuild your desktop.

10. Create a folder within your system folder and call it "Suspects". Put all your inits and startup and control panel programs in that folder and restart your computer.

Replace those items, one at a time, and restart. Continue this process of replacing and restarting until the issue reoccurs. Once the issue occurs, you know that it was the last one replaced. Once you determine the faulty extension, check for version incompatibilities with other extensions or the system software. If you have determined that they are compatible, then try removing and reinstalling the extension.

Note: If you are running System 7.5 or later you can use the Extensions Manager to help determined what INITs were conflicting with other INITs. For additional information on Extensions Manager, search the TIL using "Extensions Manager".

If you have investigated all of the procedures above, then you may be looking at a hardware fault. Consult your local Apple Authorized Service Provider and have your computer checked out.

Helpful hint

If your computer stops responding, wait a few minutes to ensure that the computer is not busy performing a task. If necessary, you can force quit an application to quit by holding down the Command and Option keys, and simultaneously pressing the Esc key. This should bring up a dialog box asking if you want to quit the currently running application. Quit the application, then quit any other open applications. After quiting all open applications, restart the computer.

This procedure may not work all of the time, but will work often enough to permit you to possibly Save open documents and to reboot your system.

Important: You can always replace system software, add on software and applications. But the only way you can replace your data is if you are conscientious about backing it up routinely.

For additional troubleshooting information see the following:

Article 4327: System Stops Responding and Basic Troubleshooting