Lion, RAM, Spotlight & Hazel

Hi folks,

I'm trying to get to the bottom of a recurring crash on my system. Specs:
• macbook mid-2007
• 10.7.2
• 3GB RAM (= max. possible)
• 320GB HDD

Hazel is one of many possible (or so it seems to my geek-challenged mind) contributors. Every few days my system crashes (black screen, unresponsive to any input activity). After safe boot & restart Spotlight rebuilds its index, taking about 2 hours and a lot of resources. I mention Hazel because I note that hazelfolderwatch seems to spike the CPU quite often.

I'm aware that my RAM is 1GB less than what Apple says is ideal for Lion (though 1GB above the minimum required). I'm also aware that reports vary widely on Lion's performance on systems the age of mine - with or without Spotlight enabled, and with varied amounts of RAM.

How likely is it that an app like Hazel which interacts with Spotlight a fair bit could be causing my RAM to be overstretched, and thus crashing the system?

Thanks.

I suggest checking your Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports folder. Find any crashes that correspond whatever crashes you are experiencing. The file should be named after the process that is crashing so you should be able to get more of a sense from there. Also, check the Console logs for any error messages around that time.

Thanks. I'll try to do that. The Console has always appeared a geek mystery to me, but guess I'd better give it a go.

I did note one spindump error recently in there, which seemed to coincide with a crash. But then the next crash didn't appear to have any relevant entries, so I'm not sure.