[Marco_Polo]

QS G4 with dual 1.6GHz cpu (upgraded), 1.5GB RAM, Mac OS X 10.5.8, latest version of SuperDuper...

This system is pretty darned stable other than this problem...

Symptom: SuperDuper launches to run a scheduled backup to a disk image on a remote volume and starts to mount the volume via SMB. The volume does not mount. Instead, a "phantom" icon for the remote volume appears on the desktop with a generic icon and SuperDuper freezes. The entire OS becomes very difficult to use at this point. Keyboard and mouse input will not work consistently. The Finder is completely unresponsive. The kernel_task process takes up 120% of the CPU.

Force-quitting or killing processes, including SuperDuper, the Copy Job app and the Finder do not help. SD remains visible as a zombie process after killing it.

An ordinary restart will timeout. A shutdown command from the Terminal will quit all apps, but never actually shut down the computer. I have to hold down the power button to shut off the computer.

This occurs with no USB or FW devices other than an Apple keyboard and mouse connected during the scheduled backup.

There don't seem to be any logs in the Console corresponding to the time of the initial event.

After a restart, manually launching SD and running the backup from the Scheduled Copies window works perfectly well if I mount the volume from the Finder before launching SuperDuper, but will result in the same problem if I run the scheduled backup without first mounting the volume.

SD was working perfectly well until recently.

I've done 3 things that I can think of that have changed since the last successful scheduled backup. I've updated the OS from 10.5.6 to 10.5.8; I've gotten an iPhone which I sync to this Mac; and I've installed the latest iTunes.

Any troubleshooting suggestions?