Mac Troubleshooting Woes & Tips

Macs are generally trouble free, at least in my experience. I've had a few annoying things happen over my last few years as a Mac enthusiast. Here are a few errors from the past and my current troubles.

Perhaps some of the steps I have taken can help you troubleshoot some of the problems on your Mac.

I recall one particular time my Mac totally thought all of the accounts were 'new' and every time I logged into one of the accounts, it presented me with new setup options. This happened early on, about 3 years ago, so that could've simply been something I did, being a novice at that time. I don't even remember how I fixed it. I probably reinstalled OS X, since that was the way to do things in the Windows world from which I had just come from.

Another time I had some really annoying problems with my Mac not going to sleep, and waking up in my notebook bag.. and quickly heating up the insides of it to fire hazard status. I think I solved this by resetting the PRAM & PMU and a few other tricks.

Today however, my iMac has been presenting me with the most aggravating behavior. I didn't really notice this erratic behavior until I upgraded to 10.4.9, the latest update as of this writing.

The Symptoms

• Can't access iDisk. It simply prompts me for username/password, and then does nothing.
• Terminal usually works, but sometimes when I launch it, it is a blank window and says 'Completed Command' in the titlebar.
• Disk Images (DMG) files routinely fail to mount telling me 'too many processes' or some other cryptic errors.
• Applications Routinely crash or fail to launch altogether.
• Spotlight frequently tells me it's busy indexing.



• Mail.App routinely fails to exit. In fact, SEVERAL apps have to be subjected to the 'Force Quit'.
• Some Widgets launch.. but then do nothing.

Possible Cures

• Repair Permissions.
• Verified the Disk.
• Booted into Safe Mode.
• Hardware Test.
• Checked for corrupt Preferences files
• Removed all of the items from the startup folder.
• Tried a different user account.
• Reboot (this seems to fix a few of the annoying things, like the Terminal and Disk Image problem... for awhile.
• Checked the Activity Monitor for suspicious activity, processes, & RAM usage, but everything seems normal to my untrained eye.
• Reset every possible internal RAM thing you can with every possible keystroke I know!
• Ran Onyx, and did a 'complete optimization' and let it do everything it can possibly do.
• Tried Disk Warrior & Tech Tools Pro ... they both found errors, but neither one could fix them. To do any disk repairs, they expect some free contiguous space on the hard drive; according to them, I am extremely fragmented. I tried to de-fragment with Tech Tools Pro, but it was going so slow I couldn't take it anymore. I let it run for 36 hours, and it was only 3% done. I'm thinking I've got more than fragmentation problems.

  I'm sure i've done a few other things, but just can't remember. It's been going on for over a month. I was waiting and waiting, hoping Leopard would ship before I had to reinstall, but I just can't take it anymore. A reinstall is mandatory, since NONE of these worked to cure my problems.

  Back Up & Reinstall

  
  I am contemplating using one of Mac OS X's features, Archive and Install. This saves you from having to reinstall most of your apps, and keeps your user account and documents and such just the way they are. A very nice feature. However, since my disk is extremely fragmented, according to Tech Tools Pro, I am thinking a 'Clean Install' is the best solution for me.

  My iMac drive is 160GB internal; this is where OS X and all of my apps are located. I have an external 250GB drive as well, but it's pretty much stuffed with backups from my other Macs, and it's also where I house my Music & Photos. No room to backup my data there. My only solution was to get a new drive. I found one online & on sale at Amazon, a LaCie FA Porche 320GB External drive. I got a great deal at $99 w/ free super saver shipping. Little did I know that free shipping would take 3 weeks to get here. I ordered it over a week ago, and still the estimated time delivery is between April 23 - April 30.

  Re-install Method

  You may be wondering how I plan to do this. There are several ways to stir this cauldron, but I am going to go this route. It may be more difficult, but it will assure me of a super clean install.

  1. Boot from the OS X install disk, and install OS X onto the new external drive.
  2. Run Migration Assistant, which will help me import my accounts & some of the needed items onto this new drive. I will probably only import Files & Folders, although you can select Applications. I don't want to take many chances of some rogue applications causing trouble, so I will cross that bridge when I come to it, and I do foresee myself migrating a few of the bigger ones over.
  3. Install the 10.4.8 Combo update. I am holding off from 10.4.9. It left a bad taste in my mouth.
  4. Once I have all of that done, I'll start testing applications and also check to see if there are any ancillary files I need from the internal 160GB drive.
  5. Use Super Duper to do a Disk Copy from the External Drive to the Internal drive.
  6. The Final step: Install Boot Camp. I have a Windows Vista Business edition sitting here awaiting install. Boot Camp wouldn't install previously, since my drive was so fragmented.

  If all goes well, I will be left with a mostly unfragmented hard drive with Boot Camp installed & a Fresh & Clean version of Mac OS X 10.4.8.

  Now, if only the post office would hurry up with that drive...

  Update:

  Read my follow up!

  
  
  Technorati Tags: Apps Archive Boot Camp iMac Install Mac Software Troubleshooting
  Bookmark/Search this post with:

  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  •