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I was trying to install Microsoft Office 2011 when the installer hanged (and it is not going anywhere, I waited about 12 hours before trying to reboot this macbook). Now I can't restart this macbook until the installer finishes.

Is there a easy way to locate what process is preventing my mac from restarting?

Error dialog

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When I asked the question I forgot that I could do a "sudo shutdown -h now" to really force my mac to shutdown (it is a better way to shutdown instead of power button), but that answers "how to force a shutdown/restart", not how to find the process that is preventing the shutdown. – grprado Nov 20 '12 at 13:30
Same problem here, same software being installed. – Chords Mar 3 at 17:11

2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

You could just force your computer to switch off and then restart it. Just push the "Power On/Off" button for a few seconds.

You could also open the Activity Monitor application and check if there is a corrupted process.

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Power on/off for a few seconds just do a very dirt shutdown and thats what I am trying to avoid. – grprado Nov 20 '12 at 13:27
@grprado - I do it pretty regularly (ever week or so. My mac crashes more then my PC!), and have not had any problems yet. – Fake Name Nov 26 '12 at 16:54
up vote 0 down vote

The Microsoft Office Installer should have an icon in the Dock, just right-click it and choose "Quit" for hold the option key and choose "Force Quit" then shutdown or run the installer again. I have had to do that a couple of times due to hangs during the Office 2013 install, although I did not do a shutdown, just force quit and run installer again has worked for me.

EDIT Since this does not work for you you can use the Activity Monitor or "ps -ef" to find the processes and kill them.

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I alread did that, the problem is that MS Office installer starts other processes not linked to the installer. Force quit the installer doesn't kill these processes. By the time I took the screenshot the installer was killed a long time ago. – grprado Nov 20 '12 at 13:55
Ah, that is an issue I have not seen. You can use the Activity Monitor or "ps -ef" to find the processes and kill them. – Dave Nelson Nov 26 '12 at 15:36

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