Mac OS X 10.3.6 Update Now Available

[mai]

back in 10.3.5 they were still testing powerbook G5 prototypes with panther. now that tiger is getting more and more developed, and since powerbook G5s will undoubtedly arrive after tiger does, all testing is now done with tiger.

interesting point, i must say

[gorkonapple]

safari is faster.
too bad it breaks iSync and iCal.


Syncing normally now. Your having other issues.

[broken_keyboard]

Quite a good update overall. As usual, Safari hasn't been properly tested. It took me less than a day to find a site where the Javascript goes insanely slow and causes beachballs.

But apart from Safari, Panther is getting really fast and stable now - it is great!

[timnosenzo]

This update worked fine on my 550Mhz TiBook, although I haven't tried to plug in my Firewire HDD yet. :cool:

We'll see what happens when I update my eMac Tuesday. :rolleyes:

Good luck to you folks who are having troubles.

[devman]

Since my first experience with UNIX in the mid-1980s, I've thought it to be flaky but then, I was kinda raised on IBM's midrange machines and operating systems. Those just are so good.

Not sure which part you're replying to. If it's the cp example, well... the IBM S/38 and IBM AS/400 (iSeries) CPYF command works the same way as the cp example. I'm pretty sure the IBM S/36 COPYDATA command works the the same as well (but this is really stretching my memory).

[encro]

I REALLY hope this fixes the much-discussed dialup problems with 10.3.5. I was a late adopter of that and STILL paid the price--my AlBook can now dial up maybe 4 times, and then no more unless I reboot. Apple boards suggest that many (not all) laptop owners are affected. A MAJOR pain.

It's been reported for so long that Apple must know... but it's not mentioned in the update documentation. Nothing about modems, dialup or PPP. Fingers crossed a anyway!

This was really annoying in X.3.5. I used to avoid a reboot by either switching Location or changing the modem driver to something different and then switching back to v92. So far so good in X.3.6 but I'll give it a few days for the real answer.

[Lancetx]

I also notice that .Mac mail hasn't been available since yesterday, even via the web.

That has nothing to do with the OS update. .Mac mail has been completely unavailable for a large number of people since Friday night (whether they've updated or not).

[Pax]

700 MHz G4 IMac
Safari is definitely faster, moving between tabs and downloading
Can't see any other changes though.

[JJTiger1]

700 MHz G4 IMac
Safari is definitely faster, moving between tabs and downloading
Can't see any other changes though.

Good Morning:
OS 10.3.6 is running quite well in my (Summer 2001) G3 iMac 600.

No problems downloading and installing the updater via Software Update into the iMac.
... of course I Repaired Permissions BEFORE and after the update.
=-=
I saved the downloaded file for installation into my 2002 QuickSilver G4-733.

The file that was downloaded and installed for the iMac would not work with the G4.

The filename downloaded: MacOSXUpdate10.3.6Patch.pkg 14mb.

Apple Website:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300080
About the Mac OS X 10.3.6 Update (Delta)

Another Apple website:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25799
Mac OS X: Software update sizes can vary

QUOTE:
The sizes of software updates can vary for computers running Mac OS X 10.3.4 or later. This is a feature of Software Update, which automatically detects the best update for your computer.

Sometimes, Software Update preferences is able to offer a "smaller-sized Delta" update than you might expect, or smaller than what you might see on other computers installing the same update. The "smaller Delta" updates are offered when some Mac OS X system files can be modified instead of replaced in their entirety. See "Why are some computers not offered a smaller update?" below for more information.

Smaller-sized Software Updates take less time to download and install than regular-sized Delta or Combo updates.
ENDQUOTE.
=-=
Website (in German language/translation via Goggle) discusses the differences in sizes between the "Patch" and the other 10.3.6 updaters.
http://www.maclife.de/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&p=267449

Apparently, some all-in-wonder computers (including laptops) get the smaller Patch, and that Patch will not load into desktops.
=-=
Later today, I will be dragging the iMac to the Apple Store to use their T-1 to download the 10.3.6 Combo for the G4.

10.3.6 on the iMac makes the iMac fly !!!
=-=
JJ Tiger
2002 QuickSilver G4-733, 10.3.5
(Summer 2001) G3 iMac 600, 10.3.6
PowerMac 6500/250 G3-400, 9.2.2 (bought new in 1998) :)

[wrldwzrd89]

I have good news to report about the 10.3.6 update, at least as far as Safari goes - scrolling is smoother now and doesn't jump around like it used to.

[Doctor Q]

My Mac crashed after the update. The restart never restarted, so I had to do a hard reboot. No system problems since then.

I see that my least favorite Safari "feature" (I consider it a bug) is still with us. If you scroll a scolling text box (like the one you type posts in), change to another tab, and change back, the scrolling text box is back at the top.

[manu chao]

Slightly off-topic but since a couple of you had kernel panics while installing this update, I have a question for you:

There seems to be the high-quality kernel panics where your screen goes black (with the black part, sometimes or even always, starting from the bottom of the screen going up) and a message in several languages pops up, kindly asking you to restart your computer.

And there are the, I presume, nastier ones, where your screen just goes black (usually starting from the bottom as well) and where get a repeat of some cryptic messages like:

Exception state (sv 0x00336230)
pc=0x00092440; MSR=0x00001030; DAR=...; DSIR=...; LR=...; R1=...; XCP=...
Backtrace:
Backtrack terminated - unaligned frame address: 0x003362B8

I had six of these over the last five weeks, always while either using VirtualPC 6 or using the modem.

[funkycheesywhit]

Updated a 450MHz Cube and a 20" G5 iMac...both machine installed the updated without a problem, however...X.3.6 seems to have fixed the auto sleep on the Cube and messed up my external firewire 400 drives on my G5 iMac.

Cube fix: since X.3.2 the cube would not go into deep sleep mode as I specified in the system preference panel, only the graphic card would power down (a known problem reported by other Mac users using a variety of Mac systems)... until now the update to X.3.6 it seems to fixed the sleep problem on the Cube.

G5 iMac problem: on one of the iMacs firewire ports I have 4 external firewire 400 drives daisychained, on the other I have an iSight camera. After updating to X.3.6 on the iMac one of the drives would drop its connection to the iMac and hang the machine if I tried to do shutdown, then after this happening several times none of the drives would mount and hang the Mac when booting until I tuned of the drives. Now if more than 1 drive is plugged in (daisychained) the drives will either hang the Mac until turned off or just won't mount unless only one drive is plugged in.

I have checked each drive individually and with several firewire cabels...alone all drives mount fine and checked out OK with disk utilty but as soon as a second drive is thrown into the chain nothing works...before X.3.6 all drives worked fine together.

[mgescuro]

It's been bad luck for all 3 of my comptuers this week.
Frst my Powerbook 12" screen went on the fritz. Thank goodness for AppleCare.
Then my ThinkPad's motherboard died.

Then 10.3.6 came around... and my G4 tower (Dual 867) has been acting weird. EyeTV wasn't working correctly. That required another update. I've suffered 3 crashes thus far. And it doesn't wake from sleep anymore. :confused:

[trance2]

After applying this update I have noticed Safari runs really, really slow. I now have to wait between switch tabs. I has gotten so painful I have made Firefox my default browser. I downloaded the Combo updater and tried to update again (perhaps something got borked when I did the System Update install)... however same thing. Anyone else seeing the same problem with the 10.3.6 update?

-john

[mxpiazza]

no probs 12" 1.33 ghz powerbook.

tab switching in safari does seem quicker, connecting to my airport network is much quicker. safari still does crash at sites i visit frequently, so i have to use camino/IE to access them, which is annoying.

i have also never had a problem with a system update... i always run disk utility before and after updates, but it probably has more to do with not running any 3rd party widgets or apps that get a bit too deep into the system.

[uncyherb]

After applying this update I have noticed Safari runs really, really slow. I now have to wait between switch tabs. I has gotten so painful I have made Firefox my default browser. I downloaded the Combo updater and tried to update again (perhaps something got borked when I did the System Update install)... however same thing. Anyone else seeing the same problem with the 10.3.6 update?

-john

What V# of Safari are you using? 1.2 is available for download... but there are many users reporting '10.3.6 broke safari!' - when in reality it is those users were running the safari ADC release of 1.3 beta.

Check your safari version. Anything other than 1.2 should be dumped in favour of the current trusted version.

[dubbz]

Haven't noticed much difference between 10.3.5 and 10.3.6, but then I haven't used the system much since I updated.

The only thing whould be that mouting of network drives seems faster. I remember there being a slight delay between pressing OK, and the drive appearing in the Finder window. With 10.3.6 it appears instantly. Or maybe I just remember it wrong.

[wdlove]

I installed 10.3.6 last evening on a G3 iBook. Today I did the update on my PowerMac G4. Ran repair Permissions on both prior to a reboot. No problems incurred. Don't really notice any difference in performance.

[trance2]

What V# of Safari are you using? 1.2 is available for download... but there are many users reporting '10.3.6 broke safari!' - when in reality it is those users were running the safari ADC release of 1.3 beta.

Check your safari version. Anything other than 1.2 should be dumped in favour of the current trusted version.

my Safari version states: 1.2.4 (v125.11) ... what do you think?

[rendezvouscp]

my Safari version states: 1.2.4 (v125.11) ... what do you think?

Well, it's not the 1.3 ADC version that practically broke everything ;).
-Chase

[Elektronkind]

Yep. Case in point:

sh-2.05b# # Here is why they have to do it that way. BSD permissions are
sh-2.05b# # a little freaky, and setuid bits in particular have to be
sh-2.05b# # squashed a little harder than other things. Let's make
sh-2.05b# # some files.
sh-2.05b# echo honk > goose ; echo aroo > werewolf
sh-2.05b# chmod 755 goose werewolf
sh-2.05b# # Let's make werewolf setuid root.
sh-2.05b# chmod u+s werewolf
sh-2.05b# ls -l
total 16
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 5 6 Nov 14:51 goose
-rwsr-xr-x 1 root wheel 5 6 Nov 14:51 werewolf
sh-2.05b# # Now, let's replace werewolf with goose.
sh-2.05b# cp goose werewolf
sh-2.05b# ls -l
total 16
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 5 6 Nov 14:51 goose
-rwsr-xr-x 1 root wheel 5 6 Nov 14:52 werewolf
sh-2.05b# # Hey wait a minute, werewolf is still setuid! Did the cp
sh-2.05b# # really work?
sh-2.05b# cat werewolf
honk
sh-2.05b# # Yep, the file was successfully replaced, but that pesky
sh-2.05b# # setuid bit survived. They don't call it Berserkeley for
sh-2.05b# # nothing!

...and that is why we need redundancy. OS X is built on top of a pretty
good operating system personality, but definitely not a perfect one.

Um, you've apparently not used a UNIX-based system for all that long if this behaviour surprises you in some way.

It does not matter if you're running on a BSD, SYSV, or Linux-based OS, POSIX standards for usablility dictate that data copied to another object will assume that object's permissions. If you don't like this, you should use the -p option with cp. This forces the source's permissions onto the destination's.

/dale

[dizastor]

Just installed, searched the forums to see if anyone else was having this issue since I didn't want to read all 11 pages of this thread.

I'm updating a phpBB theme, changing images in the template directory one at a time. I have the directory open in a finder window, so that I can quickly see in thumbnail view which images have been updated. Every time I save an image to the directory, finder crashes and relaunches itself. I'm not sure what is causing this but my guess is that when a new image is saved, finder creates a new thumbnail image... and in doing so something goes wrong.

Will rebuild permissions, reboot etc.

Just wanted to point this out.

[rendezvouscp]

Just installed, searched the forums to see if anyone else was having this issue since I didn't want to read all 11 pages of this thread.

I'm updating a phpBB theme, changing images in the template directory one at a time. I have the directory open in a finder window, so that I can quickly see in thumbnail view which images have been updated. Every time I save an image to the directory, finder crashes and relaunches itself. I'm not sure what is causing this but my guess is that when a new image is saved, finder creates a new thumbnail image... and in doing so something goes wrong.

Will rebuild permissions, reboot etc.

Just wanted to point this out.

I'm guessing you're using PhotoShop and/or ImageReady. This has always been the case, so unless it didn't happen to you before, no changes in 10.3.6.
-Chase

[0s and 1s]

I'm having issues with this update. I'm constantly having issues connecting to web sites despite having strong signal strength. Also, my computer can't fall asleep as easy as before. I don't know if it needs a computer form of Ambien, but the 10.3.6 update has not done so well on my PB. How can I downgrade to 10.3.5? Thanks!!

[rendezvouscp]

I'm having issues with this update. I'm constantly having issues connecting to web sites despite having strong signal strength. Also, my computer can't fall asleep as easy as before. I don't know if it needs a computer form of Ambien, but the 10.3.6 update has not done so well on my PB. How can I downgrade to 10.3.5? Thanks!!

Sadly, no real way. Back up all your data and re-installing is the only way (I believe). Good luck.
-Chase

[zync]

I'm guessing you're using PhotoShop and/or ImageReady. This has always been the case, so unless it didn't happen to you before, no changes in 10.3.6.
-Chase

He has to be. That's usually what does it to my finder :)

[stefman]

I am so happy with this update :)

It fixes all the issues I had with 10.3.5

Great job Apple

[zync]

I am so happy with this update :)

It fixes all the issues I had with 10.3.5

Great job Apple

Again, I say Ministry of Plenty....(search if you wanna know)

[mstur]

I upgraded the following 9 Macs to 10.3.6:
Powerbooks G3 (Pismo), TiBook G4 667, AlBook 12" G4 1.33
Cube G4 (two), iMac G5, PowerMac G4 (one Digital Audio, two Dual Mirror)

None of these showed any problems afterward. Slower Macs (Pismo, Cube, TiBook 667) seem now much faster. Two Macs (TiBoook, G4 Digital Audio) presented a black screen after I had been away during the update. Seems that they went to sleep and could only be woken by a restart, but function is normal.

IMHO the reported problems are due to corrupted systems. Seems that a 10.3.6 Installation CD might be required for a clean install of these Macs...

[Awimoway]

Wow.

This is the first time I've ever participated in a widely reported bug from an OS update.

Wow.

I, also, have an MDD PowerMac (867 DP) and I, too, have experienced the maximum volume automatically boosted by quite a bit. I'm now at 75% because it sounds quite distorted at that level.

But Safari seems a little better. :confused:

[kettle]

My Mac crashed after the update. The restart never restarted, so I had to do a hard reboot. No system problems since then.


yesh, here too. First real problems with an update, even with precautions.

[SpaceMagic]

All the problems caused by 10.3.5 have been fixed here! Great

[ewoh24]

Since updating my Rev. A 12" PB, none of my network logons work at all. All I get is a message stating the username and logon are incorrect. I don't even get a chance to change them!

This is bad as I network to my PC for work. No work until this gets fixed.

[Stella]

Buttons on my Logitech MX 900 and MX1000 now work - the buttons forward and back on the side..

..unfortunately the rocker buttons now do not work, as does not the task 'switching button'. They used to.

Why can't apple enable all the buttons?

[AidenShaw]

Why can't apple enable all the buttons?

Maybe because they think that one button is all that anyone can understand? ;)

[uv23]

Disclaimer: I haven't read the previous 11 pages of posts. No time.

But, today was the first day after this update that I tried opening my powerbook after it was previously operating with closed lid, connected to an external LCD.

The black screen on wake problem is NOT fixed.

I'm pretty pissed. Every time I cart my PB to work from home and open it, I have to close it again then open it a second time before the screen actually comes on. What a crock.

[stefman]

Disclaimer: I haven't read the previous 11 pages of posts. No time.

But, today was the first day after this update that I tried opening my powerbook after it was previously operating with closed lid, connected to an external LCD.

The black screen on wake problem is NOT fixed.

I'm pretty pissed. Every time I cart my PB to work from home and open it, I have to close it again then open it a second time before the screen actually comes on. What a crock.

Try disconnecting any USB and FireWire stuff you may have connected to the PB while connected to the display before you put it to sleep. I used to have the sample problem until I started disconnecting all USB stuff and then putting the PB to sleep.

[uv23]

Try disconnecting any USB and FireWire stuff you may have connected to the PB while connected to the display before you put it to sleep. I used to have the sample problem until I started disconnecting all USB stuff and then putting the PB to sleep.
Well considering it is operating at home with lid closed, there's no way I can detach the keyboard/mouse before I put it to sleep.

[raincoat]

I'm pretty pissed. Every time I cart my PB to work from home and open it, I have to close it again then open it a second time before the screen actually comes on. What a crock.

I didn't think that you were supposed to move the PB around when it is on, even if the lid is closed, i.e its sleeping. I thought it could damage to hard drive.

Does that mean I can leave it on when i take it to uni? :rolleyes:

[JJTiger1]

Updatered my 2002 QuickSilver G4-733 with OS 10.3.6 Combo:

Sound went to zero.
... I guess that I had better take the computer out to the woods and shoot it with a powerful shotgun. :eek:

OR, I could simply turn the volume up to where it used to be. :cool:

Other than that, no problems. Safari is being cool. Networking is as it was before the updater.

Overall the G4 seems quicker than before the updater.

[geetoo]

My iBook just stops at "Login Window Starting" on the boot screen. So that means I need to reinstall panther and all the updates? Any ideas on howto fix it without reinstalling?

I had the same problem on my Powerbook 15" 1Ghz. I re-installed OSX fine. I then upgraded to Panther and it stopped booting (get the question mark screen). Currently waiting for a friend to come around and fix it.

[visual_guy]

Updated to 10.3.6. Worked fine for a few minutes. Tried to launch FCP. Crashed. Rebooted. Then Nothing. A continous cycle of gray screen, blue screen, desktop picture. Endless. Booted from cd. Repaired permissions. Nothing again. The cycling continues. Freaking out now.

Is there a way to revert to 10.3.5? Help!

[geeman]

Updated my PBTi 1Ghz: No probs with external Firewire HDs, iSight, Skype, FCP.

For the first time I downloaded the update before running it. The update is still sitting in ~/Library/Packages. Can I safely throw it away??

[flyfish29]

Buttons on my Logitech MX 900 and MX1000 now work - the buttons forward and back on the side..

..unfortunately the rocker buttons now do not work, as does not the task 'switching button'. They used to.

Why can't apple enable all the buttons?

Have you gone in and reconfigured the mouse software that came with the mouse? I have full functionality of my logitech MX 500...all six buttons and scroll wheel.

I report no problems so far with 10.3.6 but I don't hack anythine and don't install anything but the most basic programs and updates, etc.

[wrldwzrd89]

Updated my PBTi 1Ghz: No probs with external Firewire HDs, iSight, Skype, FCP.

For the first time I downloaded the update before running it. The update is still sitting in ~/Library/Packages. Can I safely throw it away??
The only reason to download the update and keep the package is if you think you're going to need it the next time you reinstall Mac OS X. If you have never done that before, why bother keeping it? Just toss it. You can always download it again - Software Update will fetch the correct updates for your machine anyway.

[Celeron]

No problems here at all. Updated my rev. B 12'' Powerbook from 10.3.5 to 10.3.6. Rebooted and everyhing is as it was before. Quite honestly I don't even know what the problems with 10.3.5 were so I can't speak as to whether or not they were fixed in 10.3.6. Everything just works.

Sounds like those of you having problems may have corrupted files some place or some other problem. :o

[rog]

No problems before and no problems now on my MDD or ibook 800 G3. Hopefully there will be no problems with a firewire drive or the 9600 pro video card I am installing in the MDD today!

[Stella]

I don't use the logitech mouseware driver.. it is complete junk. Logitech has not put any effort in the Mac versions whatsoever - comparing against the windows Version.

Apple seems to have changed the mouse bindings :-(

I don't care if all the mouse buttons don't work - i just want the rocker buttons and "Application switch" button to work again!




Have you gone in and reconfigured the mouse software that came with the mouse? I have full functionality of my logitech MX 500...all six buttons and scroll wheel.

I report no problems so far with 10.3.6 but I don't hack anythine and don't install anything but the most basic programs and updates, etc.

[rikers_mailbox]

I didn't think that you were supposed to move the PB around when it is on, even if the lid is closed, i.e its sleeping. I thought it could damage to hard drive.

Does that mean I can leave it on when i take it to uni? :rolleyes:

I *never* turn my PB off (1.33GHz-12"). I lug it between work, home, and school with no problems. I was under the impression that sleep mode parks the HD read/write heads, and it is no more dangerous to move it like that than when it's turned off.

[Lord Blackadder]

No problems on my Digital Audio, not noticing much performance difference...

...except that my xBench scores have dropped by 10 points. Weird.

OT:
No problems before and no problems now on my MDD or ibook 800 G3. Hopefully there will be no problems with a firewire drive or the 9600 pro video card I am installing in the MDD today!

Is that a flashed 9600? The Apple version won't work. I've been looking around the 'net for how-tos on flashing a 9600.

Or do you mean 9800 Pro?

[locovaca]

I *never* turn my PB off (1.33GHz-12"). I lug it between work, home, and school with no problems. I was under the impression that sleep mode parks the HD read/write heads, and it is no more dangerous to move it like that than when it's turned off.

You are correct. When your book is sleeping (IE Suspend to Ram), everything is shut down except power to the ram and to the logic board- you could in theory disconnect the hard drive, fly it around the world, then reconnect it and open the lid and the computer would never know...

[Diomedes]

I got a kernel panic after it had downloaded - while it was "optimizin" my disk. When I did the hard boot, it says it is at 10.3.6 - however, I'm afraid the process didn't finish. Any recommendations?

Also, what version is Safari at? Mine says 1.2.4 (125.11)?

[wrldwzrd89]

I got a kernel panic after it had downloaded - while it was "optimizin" my disk. When I did the hard boot, it says it is at 10.3.6 - however, I'm afraid the process didn't finish. Any recommendations?

Also, what version is Safari at? Mine says 1.2.4 (125.11)?
Don't worry - you're fully updated. You're just not "prebound", which is what "optimizing" does. Prebinding is defined as follows:

prebinding: defining the path to external files an application needs to start before starting the application; used to decrease starting time for an application.

Run the following command in Terminal to fix your prebindings:

update_prebinding -root /

EDIT: Your Safari version is normal for a proper 10.3.6 installation. Mine is also 1.2.4 (v125.11).

[pigwin32]

I got a kernel panic after it had downloaded - while it was "optimizin" my disk. When I did the hard boot, it says it is at 10.3.6 - however, I'm afraid the process didn't finish. Any recommendations?

Also, what version is Safari at? Mine says 1.2.4 (125.11)?
[pointless repeat of previous post removed]

Just note you will need to run update_prebinding as admin, i.e. the command is

sudo update_prebinding -root /

You will be prompted for your password before the system runs the update.

[emw]

Okay, I hope I'm not repeating something here, but I didn't see anything.

I updated to 10.3.6 on Friday, and everything seems to be pretty cool. Now in Software Update I get a notice that I need to install Security Update 2004-09-16, which I'm pretty sure I had already done.

Shouldn't this have been installed as part of the 10.3.6 update?

[bennetsaysargh]

ichat and mail not working for me after upgrading. they both hang. anyone else have this problem?

[marctwain]

Worked perfectly for me. Permissions repaired before and after.

[gopher]

Okay, I hope I'm not repeating something here, but I didn't see anything.

I updated to 10.3.6 on Friday, and everything seems to be pretty cool. Now in Software Update I get a notice that I need to install Security Update 2004-09-16, which I'm pretty sure I had already done.

Shouldn't this have been installed as part of the 10.3.6 update?

Yes. If you trashed any of your receipts files in your Library -> Receipts folder, it may have forgotten that you downloaded the update.

[rdowns]

Buttons on my Logitech MX 900 and MX1000 now work - the buttons forward and back on the side..

..unfortunately the rocker buttons now do not work, as does not the task 'switching button'. They used to.

Why can't apple enable all the buttons?

I have an MX-1000 and all buttons work. Sounds like you are not using the Logitech Control Center software.

[Stella]

I have an MX-1000 and all buttons work. Sounds like you are not using the Logitech Control Center software.

I'm not, because it sucks so much.

[~Shard~]

I'm not, because it sucks so much.

Sounds as though you then have a choice to make - putting up with a "sucky" Logitech Control Center or putting up with a mouse that doesn't fully work. Which will it be? :p :cool:

[kjgnola]

was there an update to iCal where it changes the dock icon to show current date? or has it always been that way?

[coolbreeze]

Kernel panic during "disk optimization" Had nothing but a solid blue screen after hard reboot.

After reinstalling OSX :mad:, it works great. Gmail is notably faster and doesn't hang with this version of Safari.

[zync]

was there an update to iCal where it changes the dock icon to show current date? or has it always been that way?

It does as long as you've opened it or keep it open. For instance it always says something like July 17 or something, but if you open it now it'll say november 8. If you close it and the 9th comes up, it'll still say the 8th. If they've changed it should always shows the date regardless of whether or not you open it.

[oingoboingo]

It does as long as you've opened it or keep it open. For instance it always says something like July 17 or something, but if you open it now it'll say november 8. If you close it and the 9th comes up, it'll still say the 8th. If they've changed it should always shows the date regardless of whether or not you open it.

Looks like iCal behaviour in the Dock is unchanged. Post-update on my 1.6GHz G5, iCal is still reporting 'Jul 17' before I start it up, and then the correct date after opening it, ie: the same behaviour as always.

[Zaty]

This somewhat off topic but since many people seem to have problems with Safari, I thought I might post this here. According to German news site Mactechnews.de, Safari 1.3 Developer Preview 5 has been seeded. The major change in Safari 1.3 is that is uses the same WebCore as 2.0. So it seems Apple hasn't killed off Safari 1.3.

Link (in German)

http://www.mactechnews.de/

[cluthz]

Sounds as though you then have a choice to make - putting up with a "sucky" Logitech Control Center or putting up with a mouse that doesn't fully work. Which will it be? :p :cool:

I'm using Mx510 with USB overdrive! USB overdirve is a nice app, it costs $20(? don't remember..). You can try it for free for a month so so to see if you like it.

[Trekkie]

I've updated a Powerbook G4 12" and a iMac G5 20" and haven't found any issues compatibility wise or other. My La Cie drives are still there, th iPod works, and all my Apps have come back up fine.

[~Shard~]

I'm using Mx510 with USB overdrive! USB overdirve is a nice app, it costs $20(? don't remember..). You can try it for free for a month so so to see if you like it.

Cool, I'll keep that app in mind as I'm picking up an MX510 for myself! No complaints, I assume? Looks like a pretty solid mouse...

[JJTiger1]

I'm not, because it sucks so much.

What can I say? If your Logitech device ain't working and you don't want to use the Logitech driver, then you are out of luck.

Sounds like an attitude problem. :p
=-=
http://www.logitech.com

I'm using the Logitech Internet Navigator USB keyboard and a Logitech Marble Mouse (USB).

No problems noted with OS 10.2.8, or 10.3.6, or Classic.
=-=
Logitech does not have a keyboard driver for OS 9.2.2.
Booted to OS 9.2.2: Keyboard extra keys not functional, Option and Command keys are reversed.
... Moot issue: because I don't normally boot the "real G-series" computers to OS 9.
... and my OBM (Old Beige Mac) uses the Apple ADB keyboard and mouse.

[wdlove]

Anybody tried a Kenningston Wireless Trackball yet, any problem?

[displaced]

What can I say? If your Logitech device ain't working and you don't want to use the Logitech driver, then you are out of luck.

Sounds like an attitude problem. :p
=-=
http://www.logitech.com

I'm using the Logitech Internet Navigator USB keyboard and a Logitech Marble Mouse (USB).

No problems noted with OS 10.2.8, or 10.3.6, or Classic.


To be fair, last time I tried the Logitech OS X drivers (about 10 months ago) for my MX900 Bluetooth mouse, I found them to be awful - connection loss, poor performance, crash-prone setup utilities. However, I've since used their SetPoint software on my PC (Desktop MX For bluetooth keyboard & mouse) and they're very good quality.

If there's a more recent release for OS X, I'd be tempted to give them a try. At present, I'm using USB Overdrive, and it's worked (almost) flawlessly. The only problem I've had is that if I switch to another user, the middle button stops working in Safari to open links in new tabs. Logging out the first user corrects this.

BTW, the 10.3.6 update's been fine on my ye olde G3/500 iMac. The only real problem I've been having with my machine is that I've got a weird Bluetooth interaction going on. I've got a Belkin USB BT adapter, and the Bluetooth base for the mouse. The mouse won't work with the Belkin - horribly juddery. And the Logitech base can't be used as a general-purpose BT hub on OS X. About every other boot, my BT apps (Salling Clicker, Address book etc) fail, and System Prefs causes a hang if I try to enter the Bluetooth settings. It's almost as if it's attempting to use the Logitech base instead of the USB dongle. A reboot with the Logitech unplugged fixes this, and I can just plug the base back in to resurrect the mouse. Annoying, but then my Mac rarely reboots.

[emw]

Yes. If you trashed any of your receipts files in your Library -> Receipts folder, it may have forgotten that you downloaded the update.

(Re: Reinstalling Security Update 2004-09-16). Thanks for the response. I know I didn't intentionally delete them, but I suppose stranger things have happened. I'll reinstall, as I don't think that will cause any issues.

[DWKlink]

Cool, I'll keep that app in mind as I'm picking up an MX510 for myself! No complaints, I assume? Looks like a pretty solid mouse...

If you're a righty... just wanted to warn you that if you are a lefty to look elsewhere - this mouse is contoured to only fit in a righty's hand. i settled on a mx310 and its also a solid mouse that works for my right-brained body.

[~Shard~]

If you're a righty... just wanted to warn you that if you are a lefty to look elsewhere - this mouse is contoured to only fit in a righty's hand. i settled on a mx310 and its also a solid mouse that works for my right-brained body.

I am inded a righty, so no problems! Looking forward to getting it now... :cool:

[JSJ1TG]

I'm not so sure I'm happy with the Safari update - though I don't know if it's an old problem. After installing the upgrade I noticed my 12" 1.33 GHz PB spending a lot of time with the CPU fan on. Lo and behold, Activity Monitor tells me that, even though the program is sitting idle as far as I'm concerned, Safari is maxing out the available processor time. Certain websites do it. Though I haven't figured it out completely, it may be related to the animated GIF problem mentioned earlier - for instance the main page and the forums page for MacRumors max out the CPU, but this compose page does not. Seems the only way to solve the problem is to close the offending Safari tab/window. I never noticed the problem until the CPU fan prompted me to check Activity Monitor, so I can't say it didn't happen before Safari 1.2.4.

Anybody else have this problem?

[ShnikeJSB]

Hello fellow Mac addicts! I have had my TiBook 667 (first model) for just over 3 years now, and have had the many typical problems with it as most people, all which have been fixed. There has been a LOOOONG time without any problems with it, basically all through Jaguar and on until Panther 10.3.5. But, now suddenly (at the worst time of course), it looks like I may be screwed. Here's what's up:

I saw that 10.3.6 came out, so I waited a few days to see reviews, and they generally seemed positive except for firewire stuff, which I am not concerned about. So, I did my usual preparations before updates, and ran an fsck -yf, then ran Onyx (repair permissions and clean cache and such), then hunkered down for the LOOOONG update through Software Update (14 megs is even large on my 2k/sec dialup connection, so 90+ for the combo updater was out of the question). It installed fine, and I restarted, ran fsck -yf again, and Onyx again, restarted AGAIN, zapped the PRAM, and hoped for the best. My computer started getting slower and slower, until Photoshop just sat there with the beachball for 20 minutes before I force-shutdown (couldn't force quit anything even). Upon restart, I noticed my hard drive started making a loud, irregular buzzing sound, almost like a fan on the fritz, and it took literally almost 15 minutes to start up! And then, once it did, spinning beachball hell! I tried running FSCK again, and starting up from the Panther CD and running everything, but nothing was found! I called tech support and they of course wanted to charge $50 for the answer, so I basically said screw you, I can't afford that right now (I am a college student). Of course, a project in class was due the next day, so I am dead in the water... Any ideas??? I NEED HELP NOW! I MISS MY TiBOOK ALREADY! I KNEW I should have backed up before the update...

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks -JB

(Titanium Powerbook G4 667, OS 10.3.6, 1 gig of original Apple installed RAM)

[JJTiger1]

To be fair, last time I tried the Logitech OS X drivers (about 10 months ago) for my MX900 Bluetooth mouse, I found them to be awful -
[snippage]
At present, I'm using USB Overdrive, and it's worked (almost) flawlessly.
[snippage]
A reboot with the Logitech unplugged fixes this, and I can just plug the base back in to resurrect the mouse. Annoying, but then my Mac rarely reboots.

USB Overdrive seems to be the alternate choice instead of the Logitech driver.

The Marble Mouse attached to the OBM (Old Beige Mac) that runs a USB PCI card: The marble mouse must be disconnected from the port and then reattached to make the mouse respond after a reboot.

As with anything about a computer: YMMV.

All computers are responding 100% properly when the computer has it's power source removed. No Power? Then the computer should be OFF. :D

[entelechy]

Hi All,

Great forum - first post. I can tell I'm way out of my depth here, but hope to learn a lot.

Like a handful of others, my boss downloaded the 10.3.6 software update and said that it crashed near the end of the process. Upon reboot, it stalls at the Window Login on the progress bar.

Safe boot didn't work, and neither did running Disc Warrior's latest version.

He's out of warranty and didn't purchase Applecare. Is there ANYthing left to try before we wipe everything and lose his data? He hasn't backed-up in many months (I know, I know)...

Thanks in advance for any advice!

~Chris

PS - It seems the new version of Disc Warrior does the optimization inside the rebuild process - correct? I have an old version where it was a separate step...it also used to take hours to optimize, whereas this new version we just bought took 15 minutes or so...has it really come that far!? :confused:

[gopher]

Hi All,

Great forum - first post. I can tell I'm way out of my depth here, but hope to learn a lot.

Like a handful of others, my boss downloaded the 10.3.6 software update and said that it crashed near the end of the process. Upon reboot, it stalls at the Window Login on the progress bar.

Safe boot didn't work, and neither did running Disc Warrior's latest version.

He's out of warranty and didn't purchase Applecare. Is there ANYthing left to try before we wipe everything and lose his data? He hasn't backed-up in many months (I know, I know)...

Thanks in advance for any advice!

~Chris

PS - It seems the new version of Disc Warrior does the optimization inside the rebuild process - correct? I have an old version where it was a separate step...it also used to take hours to optimize, whereas this new version we just bought took 15 minutes or so...has it really come that far!? :confused:

First Archive and Install from the 10.3 installer disks that are newest:

1. If the machine came with 10.3 or later use those disks.
2. If the machine came with 10.2.8 or less use the retail 10.3 installer disk which are black with a white and gray X logo. They should NOT say Update on them, they should not say a Mac model name on them.

Archive and install directions are here, and don't forget to dismount and disconnect any third party peripherals:

http://www.macmaps.com/Macosxspeed.html#ARCHIVE

Then upgrade using the combined update to the last known working version of the operating system. Combined update links can also be found in the above link. Be sure to repair permissions before and after applying the update. To repair permissions go to Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility -> select hard disk in Disk Utility -> Click on first aid, and click repair permissions. This is something you should do every time you update.

You do not need to lose data to downgrade. Just make sure to follow the directions. If you have any questions, you can sign the guestbook on my website.

[MacSA]

Hello fellow Mac addicts! I have had my TiBook 667 (first model) for just over 3 years now, and have had the many typical problems with it as most people, all which have been fixed. There has been a LOOOONG time without any problems with it, basically all through Jaguar and on until Panther 10.3.5. But, now suddenly (at the worst time of course), it looks like I may be screwed. Here's what's up:

I saw that 10.3.6 came out, so I waited a few days to see reviews, and they generally seemed positive except for firewire stuff, which I am not concerned about. So, I did my usual preparations before updates, and ran an fsck -yf, then ran Onyx (repair permissions and clean cache and such), then hunkered down for the LOOOONG update through Software Update (14 megs is even large on my 2k/sec dialup connection, so 90+ for the combo updater was out of the question). It installed fine, and I restarted, ran fsck -yf again, and Onyx again, restarted AGAIN, zapped the PRAM, and hoped for the best. My computer started getting slower and slower, until Photoshop just sat there with the beachball for 20 minutes before I force-shutdown (couldn't force quit anything even). Upon restart, I noticed my hard drive started making a loud, irregular buzzing sound, almost like a fan on the fritz, and it took literally almost 15 minutes to start up! And then, once it did, spinning beachball hell! I tried running FSCK again, and starting up from the Panther CD and running everything, but nothing was found! I called tech support and they of course wanted to charge $50 for the answer, so I basically said screw you, I can't afford that right now (I am a college student). Of course, a project in class was due the next day, so I am dead in the water... Any ideas??? I NEED HELP NOW! I MISS MY TiBOOK ALREADY! I KNEW I should have backed up before the update...

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks -JB

(Titanium Powerbook G4 667, OS 10.3.6, 1 gig of original Apple installed RAM)


If Apple's software update has screwed up your computer completely, they should fix it for you.

[gopher]

If Apple's software update has screwed up your computer completely, they should fix it for you.

Unfortunately they have absolved themselves of all responsibility of that. Read the license agreement each update has carefully. Backup your data at least twice prior to any update. That way, if the backup should fail to read, you'd be able to get access to the other backup. There seems to be more of a Firewire bug with 10.3.6 than earlier versions of 10.3 since 10.3.3 was released. So be careful, only update when no 3rd party peripherals are connected.

[jabbawok]

Good update fro me, no probs so far and samba client picks up the windows machine instantly now, where as b4 it took about a minute after opening the network in finder to see them. very handy in the world of windowz.
:)

[entelechy]

Many thanks Gopher :)

[dmarkman]

Updated to 10.3.6. Worked fine for a few minutes. Tried to launch FCP. Crashed. Rebooted. Then Nothing. A continous cycle of gray screen, blue screen, desktop picture. Endless. Booted from cd. Repaired permissions. Nothing again. The cycling continues. Freaking out now.

Is there a way to revert to 10.3.5? Help!

i suppose you have corrupted file on your desktop
restart in the soft mode
you have to be familiar with unix commands
clean your desktop file
and restart

[JJTiger1]

Hi All,

Great forum - first post. I can tell I'm way out of my depth here, but hope to learn a lot.

Like a handful of others, my boss downloaded the 10.3.6 software update and said that it crashed near the end of the process. Upon reboot, it stalls at [snippage]

Repair Permissions BEFORE and AFTER ... ANY ... updater.

No problems noted on either of my Mac's.

The 10.3.6Patch would not install on my G4 which needed more than the patcher's tweak. That's not a "problem", that is a "feature".

... you can tell a Boss, but you can't tell a Boss much. ;)

[visual_guy]

How can so many folks have all these problems with 10.3.6 and Apple hasn't even addressed it yet? I can't remember a more problematic upgrade (though I'm relatively new to OSX). The posts here surely reflect that. I finally had to re-install from my 10.3.4 cd. Many hours of work lost. But hey, iPod's rock!! Go Steve! When you're off the U2 tour maybe you could check in on your software developers.

[wdlove]

Unfortunately they have absolved themselves of all responsibility of that. Read the license agreement each update has carefully. Backup your data at least twice prior to any update. That way, if the backup should fail to read, you'd be able to get access to the other backup. There seems to be more of a Firewire bug with 10.3.6 than earlier versions of 10.3 since 10.3.3 was released. So be careful, only update when no 3rd party peripherals are connected.

I have a 3rd party peripheral firewire hard drive. Never read anything about disconnecting prior to installation. It has been functioning just fine. Continued backing up as usual.

[whyrichard]

was all this for a mildly faster safari?

[wrldwzrd89]

I have a 3rd party peripheral firewire hard drive. Never read anything about disconnecting prior to installation. It has been functioning just fine. Continued backing up as usual.
Same here. I had a 3rd party peripheral firewire hard drive connected prior to, during, and after the update. Nothing really changed afterwards as far as the hard drive's concerned.

[Diomedes]

I've found my network connections sometimes drop. Yesterday, for example, my PowerBook lost its connection to my AirPort Base Station entirely. My PC laptop could see the network, but I could not. I've also noticed that I will have difficulties reached Web sites or Entourage will error out because it can't connect to the server. This seems to happen more often with Airport, but sometimes with wired connections to. I have a PC connected to the same outlet (meaning, there are 2 RJ-45 jacks which both go to the same wiring closet), and I don't seem to experience that with my PC.

Additionally, my Bluetooth status bar disappears after a reboot, even though the Bluetooth preference pane has it checked. I have to uncheck it, go to another pane, then re-check it for it to appear. Yesterday, my Bluetooth connected froze altogether - my mouse and keyboard would't respond, and the spinning beach ball appeared whenever I moused over the icon in the title bar.

I've repaired permissions; I've even run DiskWarrior from a separate OS X volume, and still the same.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to remedy this, I'd be happy to hear them...

[mangis]

Do not do this update.

My year old iBook has worked like crap since I did it. I have three macs, and I always test updates with the most expenable one first.

My hard drive immediately began to make loud noises, like it was about to fry. This is a consistent problem I have read. Then today, I could not start it up.

While the hard drive could be in the theros of frying, I think it was the update. Now, I have to re install everything. Waht a pain in the a**.

[entelechy]

JJTiger - very true indeed :)

Thanks again to Gopher for compiling that page - very helpful! I used Target Disc Mode to get his Address Book info (didn't back that up either), and saved it onto my computer.

We just installed Jaguar from the discs (Archive & Update), repaired permissions, and am in process of installing Panther.

Many thanks again for the helpful advice!

~C

[ibookin']

Oy, this is what I get for being an early update adopter.

I'm worried about my PowerBook now, especially with the reported laptop hard drive problems. At least my machine is under warranty...

I guess will back it up tonight to make sure I don't lose my data.

[wrldwzrd89]

Oy, this is what I get for being an early update adopter.

I'm worried about my PowerBook now, especially with the reported laptop hard drive problems. At least my machine is under warranty...

I guess will back it up tonight to make sure I don't lose my data.
All I have to say is...wow. This update has caused more problems for more people than even the "legendary" first 10.2.8 update. It seems that I've been one of the lucky ones and have experienced no trouble at all with the update.

[RonJ83]

the update works fine with me, it even fixed the wireless connection problem i was previously having. so far so good.

[coumerelli]

I'm not so sure I'm happy with the Safari update - though I don't know if it's an old problem. After installing the upgrade I noticed my 12" 1.33 GHz PB spending a lot of time with the CPU fan on. Lo and behold, Activity Monitor tells me that, even though the program is sitting idle as far as I'm concerned, Safari is maxing out the available processor time. Certain websites do it. Though I haven't figured it out completely, it may be related to the animated GIF problem mentioned earlier - for instance the main page and the forums page for MacRumors max out the CPU, but this compose page does not. Seems the only way to solve the problem is to close the offending Safari tab/window. I never noticed the problem until the CPU fan prompted me to check Activity Monitor, so I can't say it didn't happen before Safari 1.2.4.

Anybody else have this problem?

I have an 15"FW800 running 10.2 when I bought it and have updated withing a week or two each time one was made available. Not exactly cutting edge, but wanting to keep current. I noticed, prolly after about 10.3.5, maybe 10.3.4, that Safari turns my AlBook into an electric blanket. Thank the Lord I live in Wisconsin! But that's not how it should be. I know that quitting Safari draws immediate results. I imagined the many hacks into files I wasn't granted permission to alter was the culprit, so a clean install and update to 10.3.6 was something I was looking forward to. Alas, I still have my electric blanket. Though, just as you mention, it only occurs with certain pages and I can see no pattern. Furthermore, sometimes it only uses most of my processor, not the remaining. So, that's where we rest. No answer; only issues. :eek:

[Bern]

I lost firewire after this update. Luckily the day before I had done a complete backup.

Today I spent a couple of hours on the phone with Apple Support. They tried every trick they could and in desperation even an Archive and Install. Nothing worked. Returning to 10.3.5 did not fix the firewire issue either.

My iBook is only 2 weeks old (4 days outside of the returnable "DOA" option). Neither my external HD or iPod will mount.

Apple (in the US) emailed a small program called "Capture Data" which I had to run and then return email them the resulting dmg file for further analysis. I haven't heard back yet as this was only this morning.

There is definetly an issue with this update. When I suggested I should take my iBook in for repair the Tech on the phone asked me to first wait for the result of the "Capture Data" report analysis.

I don't understand what might have happened. Surely this update hasn't hosed the firewire port? I suspect that it is somehow blocking the port.

[JJTiger1]

All I have to say is...wow. This update has caused more problems for more people than even the "legendary" first 10.2.8 update. It seems that I've been one of the lucky ones and have experienced no trouble at all with the update.

No. You are not a "lucky one". Most people have not had problems with the 10.3.6 updater.

Most people leave well enough alone. If it's not broken, don't fix it. They don't deliberately scramble the default file locations, nor do they change the default file names. They keep the OS language and their paid-for applications language the same. For these people, it's just another update.

To err on the side of caution, these people REPAIR PERMISSIONS before and after applying the updaters.
=-=
I am amazed by the number of whiners who have deliberately screwed up their computers.

Some very loud whiners who fail to accept responsibility for screwing up their computers, and who were hoping that the 10.3.6 update would fix their old mistakes, need something to blame. So they are blaming the updater.

The worst offenders are: hackers who think that they are "Software Developers".
... hackers.
=-=
I didn't have any problems with the first 10.2.8 updater, nor have I had problems with any of the 10.3.x updaters.
... disappointments yes, problems no.
=-=
A successful update requires that the files that will be updatered are located where the updater is expecting to find the files, and that the files still retain their original names.
... Defaults.

Manually scattering the files across partitions, manually re-naming files, manually mixing old with new or new with old OS files, manually mixing multiple foreign language OS files and app's,...
... because you can, not because it's required: is shear folly.

The only files I mess with are my personal Documents, in the Documents folder.

I figure that some smart engineers at Apple wanted the OS files and the Applications files in certain locations for a reason.

Updaters might have been one of those reasons.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
=-=
.. and now back to whining about when Apple will release a G5 laptop :rolleyes:

[Ruslan]

1) we have install 10.3.6 on our current 10.3.5
restart -> OPS -> long start, corrupted desktop...
I see that other guys also have THE SAME problem.

2) ok, we have decide make CLEAN INSTALL (!!!) read this (!!!)
CLEAN INSTALL of 10.3 and we have re-format HDD.
After this we have install 10.3.6 COMBO and :mad: :mad: :mad:
after restart we get grey monitor which says on all languages
we need to restart computer.

RESUME: 10.3.6 is DANGER DANGER DANGER !!!!!!!!!!!!
it is not polished.

G4 DUAL/867. There is no any third party hardware.
all native from Apple Inc.

What are you doing guys ?????????????!!!!!!!!

[Bern]

No. You are not a "lucky one". Most people have not had problems with the 10.3.6 updater.

I am amazed by the number of whiners who have deliberately screwed up their computers.

Some very loud whiners who fail to accept responsibility for screwing up their computers, and who were hoping that the 10.3.6 update would fix their old mistakes, need something to blame. So they are blaming the updater.


What the heck are you talking about?

Take a look over in the Apple forum and you will see there are many people having problems because of this update. Are you suggesting they are all hackers?

I have no hacks on my iBook and lost firewire. There are quite a few others with the exact same issue as mine.

Some of my posts on the Apple Forum were removed. Why?

[uv23]

To make matters worse, Safari is still a POS, just crashed on me for no reason whatsoever in much the same manner as it has hundreds of times previous. This update improved nothing.

[phmar]

Using it from the first version, on a day by day mode, I'm still waiting for the first crash to happen! Well, not really waiting for, I have IE if I ever needed to ;)

[Bern]

I've had three Apple laptops in 6 months. This latest Apple screw up (and their silence) is tempting me to sell the damn thing and get myself a windows laptop.

I use to be a loud advocate of anything Mac, but it seems Apple are leaving their reputation to the wayside. No longer, it seems, we can tout them as being reliable, efficient machines. They are simply laptops and trying to look as windows as possible to tempt the other side over.

I am very disappointed in Apple. IMO the choice is becoming slimmer when deciding which system to buy, they're both as reliable as each other. The difference is one is cheaper to purchase software and peripherals for so when there is a problem you don't feel quite so financially devastated.

[uv23]

Using it from the first version, on a day by day mode, I'm still waiting for the first crash to happen! Well, not really waiting for, I have IE if I ever needed to ;)
I bought my powerbook about a year ago, I don't have any custom software or weird hacks or anything. Running stock, so to speak. And safari has probably crashed on me several hundred times total. So on average, once a day. Might be time to switch oveer to firefox now that it's at 1.0.

[JJTiger1]

To make matters worse, Safari is still a POS, just crashed on me for no reason whatsoever in much the same manner as it has hundreds of times previous. This update improved nothing.

Safari unexpected quits:

trash: com.apple.quicktime.plugin.preferences.plist

and then Safari will be stable for a while.

[JJTiger1]

What the heck are you talking about?

Take a look over in the Apple forum and you will see there are many people having problems because of this update. Are you suggesting they are all hackers?

I have no hacks on my iBook and lost firewire. There are quite a few others with the exact same issue as mine.

Some of my posts on the Apple Forum were removed. Why?

1. Yes. They all hacked/messed around with the default filnames and default file locations.

2. Firewire must be done exactly to specifically sequenced procedures. Skip a step and it doesn't work, mix the steps and it doesn't work.

3. You are posting your question to the wrong forum. Again? :confused:

[wdlove]

1) we have install 10.3.6 on our current 10.3.5
restart -> OPS -> long start, corrupted desktop...
I see that other guys also have THE SAME problem.

2) ok, we have decide make CLEAN INSTALL (!!!) read this (!!!)
CLEAN INSTALL of 10.3 and we have re-format HDD.
After this we have install 10.3.6 COMBO and :mad: :mad: :mad:
after restart we get grey monitor which says on all languages
we need to restart computer.

RESUME: 10.3.6 is DANGER DANGER DANGER !!!!!!!!!!!!
it is not polished.

G4 DUAL/867. There is no any third party hardware.
all native from Apple Inc.

What are you doing guys ?????????????!!!!!!!!

I'm sorry to hear about your problem. My G4 dual 450 is working like a charm after 10.3.6. Are you able to boot-up the machine from a CD?

[wrldwzrd89]

No. You are not a "lucky one". Most people have not had problems with the 10.3.6 updater.

Most people leave well enough alone. If it's not broken, don't fix it. They don't deliberately scramble the default file locations, nor do they change the default file names. They keep the OS language and their paid-for applications language the same. For these people, it's just another update.

To err on the side of caution, these people REPAIR PERMISSIONS before and after applying the updaters.
=-=
I am amazed by the number of whiners who have deliberately screwed up their computers.

Some very loud whiners who fail to accept responsibility for screwing up their computers, and who were hoping that the 10.3.6 update would fix their old mistakes, need something to blame. So they are blaming the updater.

The worst offenders are: hackers who think that they are "Software Developers".
... hackers.
=-=
I didn't have any problems with the first 10.2.8 updater, nor have I had problems with any of the 10.3.x updaters.
... disappointments yes, problems no.
=-=
A successful update requires that the files that will be updatered are located where the updater is expecting to find the files, and that the files still retain their original names.
... Defaults.

Manually scattering the files across partitions, manually re-naming files, manually mixing old with new or new with old OS files, manually mixing multiple foreign language OS files and app's,...
... because you can, not because it's required: is shear folly.

The only files I mess with are my personal Documents, in the Documents folder.

I figure that some smart engineers at Apple wanted the OS files and the Applications files in certain locations for a reason.

Updaters might have been one of those reasons.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
=-=
.. and now back to whining about when Apple will release a G5 laptop :rolleyes:
Thanks for that JJTiger1. I was not aware that I had no problems simply because I haven't tinkered with my system, and those that did have problems probably did. The only change I've made is turned my iTunes folder into a symbolic link to a folder on an external FAT32 drive.

[lalcan]

For the record, my iBook G3 800 has worked flawlessly since the update, the way it has worked since i purchased she. :-)

[jackieonasses]

I've had three Apple laptops in 6 months. This latest Apple screw up (and their silence) is tempting me to sell the damn thing and get myself a windows laptop.

I use to be a loud advocate of anything Mac, but it seems Apple are leaving their reputation to the wayside. No longer, it seems, we can tout them as being reliable, efficient machines. They are simply laptops and trying to look as windows as possible to tempt the other side over.

I am very disappointed in Apple. IMO the choice is becoming slimmer when deciding which system to buy, they're both as reliable as each other. The difference is one is cheaper to purchase software and peripherals for so when there is a problem you don't feel quite so financially devastated.

<angry person> If you are that easily swayed into switching to a Windows-based laptop just because you are in the 7% <-- (made that up) of people. I have 2 apples myself. I work with about 15....ALL of which are running flawlessly. And what about viruses/virri? You are talking about reliable, efficient machines.... but on my windows lappy, i am scared to even use it around my parents (because of the porn pop-ups) That computer doesn't even touch the internet anymore. Really, sir. if it is a problem, Apple will fix it. </angry person>

[Bern]

For the record I took my iBook into my local Applecentre Tech and when I told him I had lost firewire after the 10.3.6 he told me that I was the 15th this week to come in with the same issue.

He said he knows how to fix it and that indeed there is nothing wrong with my hardware. He said he could get it back to me today, but I decided to upgrade the hard dive to 60gig so they'll have it for a few days.

Clearly there is an issue with this update (like a previous one).

[Bern]

1. Yes. They all hacked/messed around with the default filnames and default file locations.

2. Firewire must be done exactly to specifically sequenced procedures. Skip a step and it doesn't work, mix the steps and it doesn't work.

3. You are posting your question to the wrong forum. Again? :confused:

What do you mean again? I've just joined this forum.

You obviously must be referring to yourself I guess :confused:

[acrobat]

okay... so i installed the update last week... and it was fine for like two days. no problems at all. then, i woke up one morning and immediately noticed that my hard drive sounded weird. (that buzzing noise people were talking about.) everything was running WAY slow. i shut down and rebooted... that took about an hour. so i went to the Genius Bar at my local Apple Store and was told that i needed to zero out my hard drive and completely reinstall. (luckily, i'd backed up.) so i did all of that and, not realizing that it had anything to do with the update, ran all the software updates again (stupid!). again... two days of fine workin'... then this morning... the buzzing again... the spinning beach ball... the incredible freezes... the horror. yeah... it's back. someone help me!!!!!!!!

-the acrobat

[Bern]

okay... so i installed the update last week... and it was fine for like two days. no problems at all. then, i woke up one morning and immediately noticed that my hard drive sounded weird. (that buzzing noise people were talking about.) everything was running WAY slow. i shut down and rebooted... that took about an hour. so i went to the Genius Bar at my local Apple Store and was told that i needed to zero out my hard drive and completely reinstall. (luckily, i'd backed up.) so i did all of that and, not realizing that it had anything to do with the update, ran all the software updates again (stupid!). again... two days of fine workin'... then this morning... the buzzing again... the spinning beach ball... the incredible freezes... the horror. yeah... it's back. someone help me!!!!!!!!

-the acrobat

What ever you do don't post anything over at the Apple Forums. The moderator has been very busy heavily editing or removing negative posts concerning this update, which is raising the shackles of a lot of people.

I contacted Apple and they sent me a program to capture my machine's data. At this point they tell me they haven't analysed the results yet, but when I receive their feedback I will post here (as everytime I post over at the Apple Forum it is either edited or removed like many other people's. So much for freedom of speech).

As an extra measure I took my machine to my local Apple Tech who seems to be familiar with this problem (he has had 15 of the same this week). I will also post his findings here.

[aswitcher]

What ever you do don't post anything over at the Apple Forums. The moderator has been very busy heavily editing or removing negative posts concerning this update, which is raising the shackles of a lot of people.

I contacted Apple and they sent me a program to capture my machine's data. At this point they tell me they haven't analysed the results yet, but when I receive their feedback I will post here (as everytime I post over at the Apple Forum it is either edited or removed like many other people's. So much for freedom of speech).

As an extra measure I took my machine to my local Apple Tech who seems to be familiar with this problem (he has had 15 of the same this week). I will also post his findings here.

Bern, is this problem related to the specs of the hardware?

[Bern]

Bern, is this problem related to the specs of the hardware?


I am yet to find out, but judging by the posts on the Apple Forum it seems to be fairly wide spread.

I have a G3 here as well which has not suffered from the update, however a friend has an old G4 desktop which has.

It seems that Bluetooth is also being knowcked out as posts to this issue have started to emerge.

[aswitcher]

I am yet to find out, but judging by the posts on the Apple Forum it seems to be fairly wide spread.

I have a G3 here as well which has not suffered from the update, however a friend has an old G4 desktop which has.

It seems that Bluetooth is also being knowcked out as posts to this issue have started to emerge.

I can personally attest to BT problems. My Palm will no longer reliably synch with my PB since the update. It always crashes...

[cb911]

wow, i'm surprised to hear of all the problems...

but i just noticed something yesterday... the Log-in Panel. does it seem different to anyone in the way that i behaves?

for instance, when you click on a User name, or icon, the way that it moves to show the password field. seems different than before, alot smoother in it's movement.

just a small thing that i think i noticed. looks good, nice improvement. :D

[syntrophy]

i'm on the ibook g4 933 and updated with absolutely no problem at all =) safari is indeed zippier

what could be the problem? quite unlike apple

[syntrophy]

Don't worry - you're fully updated. You're just not "prebound", which is what "optimizing" does. Prebinding is defined as follows:

prebinding: defining the path to external files an application needs to start before starting the application; used to decrease starting time for an application.

Run the following command in Terminal to fix your prebindings:

update_prebinding -root /

EDIT: Your Safari version is normal for a proper 10.3.6 installation. Mine is also 1.2.4 (v125.11).

hey i did the prebinding think and i was told 5 files was successfully prebound, and 63 unsuccessfully prebound, is there anything i can do or i can jus leave it alone?

[wrldwzrd89]

hey i did the prebinding think and i was told 5 files was successfully prebound, and 63 unsuccessfully prebound, is there anything i can do or i can jus leave it alone?
You need not worry about the ones that couldn't be prebound - in most cases there's nothing you can do about it.

For the programs that failed because "larger load commands would not fit", unless you have access to the source code, you can't fix it - this I know.

[Stinkysteve]

This thread was an interesting read.

I think I may just sit this update out for a while.

I have an iBook G4 12" 800
G4 400 Sawtooth and a Pismo running 9.2 only....

The iBook has the Monitor sapnning hack and an external FW HD.

[wdlove]

This thread was an interesting read.

I think I may just sit this update out for a while.

I have an iBook G4 12" 800
G4 400 Sawtooth and a Pismo running 9.2 only....

The iBook has the Monitor sapnning hack and an external FW HD.

I have similar Mac's to yours. When I changed to X this past January, thought that I was among the last. May I ask your reasoning for still only running 9.2.2. After I changed to X and got my programs over to X then I never looked back.

[Dogfood1]

This is more a reply to "Rusian" and those who's systems were killed by 10.3.6 and a little help (hopefully)!

I have a FP iMac 800. As of last week, it had 10.3.5 and was working fine. No kernel panics, no spontaneous application crashes - rock solid as expected. Then I updated to 10.3.6. I did all my due diligence prior to the upgrade - repaired permissions and such, disconnected all externals - the update went fine - no timeout or crashes as has been reported. No problems with my LaCie FW drive.

After a reboot, things got wierd, apps stopped opening, apps would randomly crash, and documents were getting corrupted. I made the tough decision to do a clean install, and update back to 10.3.5. I backed everything up on my LaCie and proceded to erase/wipe my drive and do the clean install.

Almost instantly after installation I had the same types of problems. While installing applications (like iLife) the installers would just quit with errors. I wiped and tested the drive and found all kinds of errors. Fixed the errors and reinstalled 10.3 - more kernel panics and crashes. I then ran Disk Warrior, Drive 10, etc...nothing would fix it.

I then found a hardware test disk that came with the computer - it identified "bad memory"!

I yanked the 512mb user-installed RAM (that Apple put in there) and it was like the sky opened up and Steve Jobs himself decended to anoint my iMac healed. Disk Warrior fixed everything it wouldn't fix before. I did a fresh install, and everthing has been perfect for 48hours.

Did 10.3.6 kill my RAM? Can't tell for sure, I'll get it tested and by some new RAM. But it seems the problems "Rusian" was explaining sounded pretty similar, and I've heard some other horror stories about 10.3.6 so I thought I would share.

Hopefully somewhere in the ether, an angry Mac user will pull some bad RAM out and get their system back and running (on 10.3.5 of course!)

Good-Luck,

Dogfood1

[AidenShaw]

Hopefully somewhere in the ether, an angry Mac user will pull some bad RAM out and get their system back and running (on 10.3.5 of course!)

ECC

It's sad that companies build systems without it...

[harperska]

Good update fro me, no probs so far and samba client picks up the windows machine instantly now, where as b4 it took about a minute after opening the network in finder to see them. very handy in the world of windowz.
:)


I too seem to be one of the few that was actually quite happy with this update, and for the same reasons as jabbawok. Before I updated, I made sure that any hacks I might have running were turned off and repaired permissions like a good mac user. And after update I was just satisfied that things seemed to be pretty much the same as they were before. I only just noticed an improvement that I wanted to shout 'hurray' about when I discovered that samba networking suddenly started working the way it should have since OSX was originally released! When I discovered this monumental improvement to the samba client, I felt compelled to come down here to the forums to shout my praise. Let me tell you, I was quite shocked to see all of the problems people were having. I hope that all of you who have had problems with this update can solve them soon. Here's to 10.3.6.1!

~Harperska

p.s. I'll try to track down a firewire device and see if I have any problems with it.

[MacinDoc]

Installed 10.3.6, repaired permissions before and after, no crashes since update, faster opening of apps, faster eye candy in Finder (maybe due to permission repair?).

[Stinkysteve]

I have similar Mac's to yours. When I changed to X this past January, thought that I was among the last. May I ask your reasoning for still only running 9.2.2. After I changed to X and got my programs over to X then I never looked back.

The G4 iBook is strictly OS X
The G4 Sawtooth has OS X and 9.2 (not just classic)
The Pismo has 9.2

I need OS 9 because I can't afford a new printer, (Photoshop in X does not print nicely to this ancient Epson 740i), software, (some Macromedia stuff from 2 or 3 releases ago), and the scanner is not the same in X.

Buying a new computer is one thing, it's all the other crap that runs the bills up fast.

[Ant-honey]

How does one revert back to 10.3.5 or earlier for that matter?

I suspect the update 10.3.6 to be the source of my printing troubles via PhotoShop CS to an Epson 2200. My prints are surrounded by a large, red border on the non printed on area.

[edalzell]

How does one revert back to 10.3.5 or earlier for that matter?

I suspect the update 10.3.6 to be the source of my printing troubles via PhotoShop CS to an Epson 2200. My prints are surrounded by a large, red border on the non printed on area.

I think the only way is to do an Archive & Install with 10.3 and then install the 10.3.5 update.

[gopher]

The G4 iBook is strictly OS X
The G4 Sawtooth has OS X and 9.2 (not just classic)
The Pismo has 9.2

I need OS 9 because I can't afford a new printer, (Photoshop in X does not print nicely to this ancient Epson 740i), software, (some Macromedia stuff from 2 or 3 releases ago), and the scanner is not the same in X.

Buying a new computer is one thing, it's all the other crap that runs the bills up fast.

Printers only cost $50 to $100.

And a nice HP Scanjet 3970 only costs $99 and the scanning software really works.

You can always sell your old equipment if you have a good reason to upgrade to X.

[wrldwzrd89]

I think the only way is to do an Archive & Install with 10.3 and then install the 10.3.5 update.
There's two other methods:

1. edalzell's method followed by deleting the archive
2. Erase & Install 10.3, followed by 10.3.5 update

I wouldn't recommend either of those unless you know what you're doing.

[MacinDoc]

I know there are some reported issues with this update (FireWire & Bluetooth devices, sound levels on MDD models), but I find it curious that by my count, 58% of newbies' posts on this forum could be considered negative (eliminating those I considered neutral), compared to 39% negative non-newbie posts. Are there a few trolls out there, too, trying to make this update look worse than it really is?

[~Shard~]

I know there are some reported issues with this update (FireWire & Bluetooth devices, sound levels on MDD models), but I find it curious that by my count, 58% of newbies' posts on this forum could be considered negative (eliminating those I considered neutral), compared to 39% negative non-newbie posts. Are there a few trolls out there, too, trying to make this update look worse than it really is?

Although quite a few of the complaints are 100% legitimate and I appreciate that, I think there are also quite a significant number of people who don't know enough about what they're doing and don't know about simple things such as verify/repair permissions...

[Les Kern]

Although quite a few of the complaints are 100% legitimate and I appreciate that, I think there are also quite a significant number of people who don't know enough about what they're doing and don't know about simple things such as verify/repair permissions...

I'd have to agree. To take ABSOLUTELY nothing away from the fine folks who use their Macs daily, I have 18 years of experience to fall back on, so those pesky problems tend not to show up, if ever. Puters are complercated beasts, and having a expreience helps. I have to make directives on occasion, and the new one for next year, for instance, is that OS9 support will end completely, and that under no circumstances will I ever allow admin access to my 200+ wireless laptop users. I (or rather my assistant) spends too much time looking for "lost" files or un-doing click-itis attacks.

[~Shard~]

Hmm, if the update to this article is correct, then we might be seeing 10.3.7 much sooner than I had anticipated. I wonder if Apple addressed some of these issues people have been having with 10.3.6 and wanted to get the next update out as fast as possible to rectify them. Which makes me think, should this update be called 10.3.7, or more accurately, 10.3.6.2? ;) Seriously, there does seem to be quite a few improvements listed as well for 10.3.7, so it should be all good. Let's just hope Apple isn't rushing it's release too much, or else we might find a number of other problems surfacing which they may have overlooked in their haste. Of course, that's never been Apple's style - sounds like more of a Microsoft thing... :cool:

[~Shard~]

I'd have to agree. To take ABSOLUTELY nothing away from the fine folks who use their Macs daily, I have 18 years of experience to fall back on, so those pesky problems tend not to show up, if ever. Puters are complercated beasts, and having a expreience helps. I have to make directives on occasion, and the new one for next year, for instance, is that OS9 support will end completely, and that under no circumstances will I ever allow admin access to my 200+ wireless laptop users. I (or rather my assistant) spends too much time looking for "lost" files or un-doing click-itis attacks.

And I agree with that. Having experience is important, and I pride myself on keeping up my knowledge when it comes to my Mac, computers, and technology in general. (I have to due to the industry I'm in as well, I have no choice I suppose.) I think it's crucial for people to be educated about things, and not just blindly go along with whatever, and use things without knowing the how and why - or maybe that's just the Engineer in me speaking - I always need to know how something works and why, I'm never satisfied with being ignorant about something, being uneducated about something, and taking things for granted - it's just not in my nature. :cool:

[MacinDoc]

Although quite a few of the complaints are 100% legitimate and I appreciate that, I think there are also quite a significant number of people who don't know enough about what they're doing and don't know about simple things such as verify/repair permissions...
I'm sure most of them are, I just found it to be an interesting trend...

[wrldwzrd89]

And I agree with that. Having experience is important, and I pride myself on keeping up my knowledge when it comes to my Mac, computers, and technology in general. (I have to due to the industry I'm in as well, I have no choice I suppose.) I think it's crucial for people to be educated about things, and not just blindly go along with whatever, and use things without knowing the how and why - or maybe that's just the Engineer in me speaking - I always need to know how something works and why, I'm never satisfied with being ignorant about something, being uneducated about something, and taking things for granted - it's just not in my nature. :cool:
Me too ~Shard~! In that respect I'm very similar to you. I am proud of the fact that I am familiar with all the typical Mac maintenance tasks, and I make sure all tasks are done on a regular basis.

[~Shard~]

Me too ~Shard~! In that respect I'm very similar to you. I am proud of the fact that I am familiar with all the typical Mac maintenance tasks, and I make sure all tasks are done on a regular basis.

Well, you know what they say, great minds think alike... hmm, now how does the rest of that go? ;) :cool:

[inktomite]

Well.. just wanted to chime in. I'm the umpteenth person complaining about this, but after installing 10.3.6 I can not access my firewire drive.

External Drive Case: Beyond Micro External FW/USB2.0 case: http://tinyurl.com/5odws
Drive in case is 200G Maxtor

Computer: Powerbook Aluminum 15"/60G/1.33Ghz

Problem: My photo library got so big I had to put it on this external drive. I can not access it now and it has all my 5 month old's photos on it. My computer can not see the drive now when I mount. Disk Utility can not see it either.

I am sad. I checked the Beyond Micro support page and see nothing for 10.3+ in terms of firmware.

Apple, I trusted you. Please help me.

[aswitcher]

Well.. just wanted to chime in. I'm the umpteenth person complaining about this, but after installing 10.3.6 I can not access my firewire drive.

External Drive Case: Beyond Micro External FW/USB2.0 case: http://tinyurl.com/5odws
Drive in case is 200G Maxtor



My Lacie has my 30+ gig iTunes library on it, and its working fine right now playing music through my 17"PB to my JS USB speakers...

[Video_Producer]

I've been checking along and haven't found any answers, so if they have been answered forgive me.

I upgraded a new iMac g5 from 10.3.4 to 10.3.6 just after it was purchased and now there have been some issues that I hope someone knows the answers.

1. Both IE and Safari randomly quit, it seems like when you are on pages using the Flash plug-in. or have multiple pages open and click between them.

2. No clock in menu bar, no volume in menu bar either; no matter what I try to do I can only get the clock to float on the desktop, it never shows in the menu. When I turn show volume in menu it won't activate.

3. Random quitting of other applications too, Photoshop, Illustrator mostly.

I've tried to repair permissions, seemed to work fine, but as soon as the I launch apps the problems start.

Can anyone shed some light,

Thanks
Rich

[wrldwzrd89]

I've been checking along and haven't found any answers, so if they have been answered forgive me.

I upgraded a new iMac g5 from 10.3.4 to 10.3.6 just after it was purchased and now there have been some issues that I hope someone knows the answers.

1. Both IE and Safari randomly quit, it seems like when you are on pages using the Flash plug-in. or have multiple pages open and click between them.

2. No clock in menu bar, no volume in menu bar either; no matter what I try to do I can only get the clock to float on the desktop, it never shows in the menu. When I turn show volume in menu it won't activate.

3. Random quitting of other applications too, Photoshop, Illustrator mostly.

I've tried to repair permissions, seemed to work fine, but as soon as the I launch apps the problems start.

Can anyone shed some light,

Thanks
Rich
Your symptoms suggest one or more corrupt preference files as the cause. Which one(s) are causing the problem is still unclear.

[Video_Producer]

Your symptoms suggest one or more corrupt preference files as the cause. Which one(s) are causing the problem is still unclear.

Is there a more than likely canidate or application could try ? I'm wondering if it's within a system preference since some of the problems seem to involve system functionality like the clock and volume.

If anyone has a suggestion on what to try it would be greatly appreciated.

Rich

[wrldwzrd89]

Is there a more than likely canidate or application could try ? I'm wondering if it's within a system preference since some of the problems seem to involve system functionality like the clock and volume.

If anyone has a suggestion on what to try it would be greatly appreciated.

Rich
Hmm... I did some searching, and I've come to a different conclusion than before. If your clock and volume are affected, maybe you've got a PRAM problem. To reset the PRAM, reboot your Mac, and hold down Command+Option+P+R until the Mac chimes three times.

[Video_Producer]

Hmm... I did some searching, and I've come to a different conclusion than before. If your clock and volume are affected, maybe you've got a PRAM problem. To reset the PRAM, reboot your Mac, and hold down Command+Option+P+R until the Mac chimes three times.

Thanks, thinking it was a new machine I never would have thought to even try it, I'll be at the machine on Monday night, I'll give it a shot and post a reply.

Thanks again,

Rich

[ant_s]

My PowerBook G4 15" 1.25 SuperDrive has started making any app disappear (ie, "This application has unexpectedly quit.") whenever the app throws up an error or question dialog box. Which, obviously - is quite often!

Apps include Safari, iTunes, Software Updater and I even tried reloading 10.3.6 update, but can't because it asks if it's okay to run a program to determine if it's okay to install...

I tried repairing disk permissions from the startup DVD (as recommended by several people) to no avail. I also tried to isolate the problem by trashing Safari prefs files, again - to no avail.

Oddly, this has only started happening since Friday, and before then I had no problems at all with 10.3.6. I haven't installed anything or changed any major preferences that could have obviously caused this.




edit: it only happens on my own user profile - is there a way of clearing prefs or otherwise that might clear this fault? I'd rather do this than re-build my profile from scratch...

Any suggestions?

Any help greatly appreciated!!

[aigology]

After updating to 10.3.6 on my powerbook G4, 1.33Ghz, 1GB ram, here my list of problems... and I have never seen so many in 10 years using mac... so I hope to find a solution to at least one of the problem.

1. Start-up takes ages!!!! I need to wait 5 minutes with my beach ball turning before the desktop load

2. The most important problem!!! The audio and video jerk a 1/4 of a second everytime I do a small movement with my mouse, load a window or search on my bottom screen menu or for whatever reason. This is true for absolutely everything, hearing an audio CD, an mp3, a quicktime movie, etc. I really want to resolve this problem.

3. 2nd most important problem. I can not mount a disk image. It seems I am not alone on that one and it seems apple.com recognise the issue but does not address a specific solution.

4. When loading Safari, it takes ages to get the first page... after that everything seems to run well. Some issue with safari, can not run properly on secure sites such as banking sites, obliged to use explorer.

So here we go...

anyone in my situation?
Does someone have a solution to at least one of these problems?

Make me want to come back to 10.3.5 and I haven't found any improvement from the previous version beside the problems above.

Greg

[Les Kern]

1. Start-up takes ages!!!! I need to wait 5 minutes with my beach ball turning before the desktop load

G5 2.0 1GB RAM startup 35 seconds
G4 AlBook startup 40 sec
G3 iMac 30 sec
G4 eMac 25 sec

2. The most important problem!!! The audio and video jerk a 1/4 of a second everytime I do a small movement with my mouse, load a window or search on my bottom screen menu or for whatever reason. This is true for absolutely everything, hearing an audio CD, an mp3, a quicktime movie, etc. I really want to resolve this problem.

I can't reproduce that at all. On my eMac I run iTunes all day with 8-10 other apps open and multiple mounted servers. Same on the laptop.

3. 2nd most important problem. I can not mount a disk image. It seems I am not alone on that one and it seems apple.com recognise the issue but does not address a specific solution.

I can't reproduce this either. I do disk images all day since I use netboot, CCC and make dupes of all master CD install disks. (And we have a LOT)

4. When loading Safari, it takes ages to get the first page... after that everything seems to run well. Some issue with safari, can not run properly on secure sites such as banking sites, obliged to use explorer.

Nor this, though I don't use secure sites on Safari, but rather Firefox....

I'm running better than ever, and we once again prove that all Macs are not created equal. I'd LOVE to have your box in front of me now... I love a good mystery! Try killing it and starting over. A good install takes me 8 minutes (clone). When a Mac is running perfect, make an incremental bootable image using Carbon Copy Cloner. Make a netboot server if you can to restore over the network. No more tedious installs! My Apple SE turned me on to this wicked-cool stuff, and my life hasn't been the same.

[larryb56]

I do a little gaming from time to time, and the loss of performance with the video in this upgrade has prompted me to revert to OS X.3.5, where things are fine.
My personal Macs are G4, Dual Processors running at 867 MHz, with 1 GB of PC 2100.
The Video Card installed is a GeForce4 MX.
I am responsible for a host of G5's, mostly 1.8GHz DP versions, and they are Not for Gaming, consequently I have kept them all at the OS X.3.6 version, with no problems.

Thanks;

[wdlove]

Well just reading the two posts above makes me feel a little better. I thought that something was wrong with my Mac, maybe showing it age of four plus years. Some of my programs do seem to take a little longer to bootup. The thing that is annoying at times is when I scroll through a page in Safari. At times it seems hesitant ot will move in a slightly jerky fashion.

[wrldwzrd89]

Well just reading the two posts above makes me feel a little better. I thought that something was wrong with my Mac, maybe showing it age of four plus years. Some of my programs do seem to take a little longer to bootup. The thing that is annoying at times is when I scroll through a page in Safari. At times it seems hesitant ot will move in a slightly jerky fashion.
The new Safari in Mac OS X 10.3.6 is slow to load, jerky when scrolling, and unresponsive. It dearly needs a fix.

[weezer160]

no problems at the moment for me

[Noiseboy]

Much as I hate the idea, I'm still not installing this update. There are simply too many people reporting grief. I'll wait until 10.3.7 and see if that's just as problematic.
My ProTools software isn't even qualified for 10.3.5 yet though my system appears to be working perfectly well with it but I can't risk it deciding not to run under 10.3.6 with so many people reporting problems with external drives.

[Stinkysteve]

Much as I hate the idea, I'm still not installing this update. There are simply too many people reporting grief. I'll wait until 10.3.7 and see if that's just as problematic.
My ProTools software isn't even qualified for 10.3.5 yet though my system appears to be working perfectly well with it but I can't risk it deciding not to run under 10.3.6 with so many people reporting problems with external drives.

I'm glad I read this forum before I installed this update. I usually just install any update, but for now I'll wait until I read about the next one.

Thank you!

[HydroMan]

I have had no problem what so ever since updating everything, I've noticed no changes in response either, Firewire HD, Bluetooth and printing no change

[uv23]

The new Safari in Mac OS X 10.3.6 is slow to load, jerky when scrolling, and unresponsive. It dearly needs a fix.
I concur. I've never seen the beachball so much in my life.

[zync]

Sorry guys, I've had no problems other than that pesky Safari problem where Safari acts like the server doesn't exist but a simple reload fixes it. What a pain that is! But there's no extra beach ball.

[DavidCar]

My safari, 125.12, was working fine this morning until I launched Mail concurrently, then both stalled. I can't reproduce that, but Safari has had problems since 10.3.6, inconsistent beachballs that are hard to reproduce. The whole Dartagnan website is secure, and it was giving me problems last night but not today. Are there internet traffic problems because of the Christmas season, or would that not be a possible source of my problems?

[gopher]

My safari, 125.12, was working fine this morning until I launched Mail concurrently, then both stalled. I can't reproduce that, but Safari has had problems since 10.3.6, inconsistent beachballs that are hard to reproduce. The whole Dartagnan website is secure, and it was giving me problems last night but not today. Are there internet traffic problems because of the Christmas season, or would that not be a possible source of my problems?

Yes, some websites can't handle the traffic.

Secondly, I would not use Safari for connecting to secure websites. Mozilla or Firebird is a better choice. Safari may say a website is secure, but never tell you what bit encryption is being used. Mozilla, Firebird and even I.E. tell you that info.

[DavidCar]

Interesting. I just checked the sites (with I.E.) I plan to order from, two say RC4-128, and the other says RC4-40. Should I order over the phone for the RC4-40 site, even though it says Verisign? I take it the only problem your suggesting Safari has with secure sites is that it doesn't give you this number.

[gopher]

Interesting. I just checked the sites (with I.E.) I plan to order from, two say RC4-128, and the other says RC4-40. Should I order over the phone for the RC4-40 site, even though it says Verisign? I take it the only problem your suggesting Safari has with secure sites is that it doesn't give you this number.

Any site that still doesn't use 128 bit or better encryption on their website would not get my business even by phone. Frequently companies use their own website to place your order when you call by phone. And that's correct about Safari. You do have to be careful.

[FoxyKaye]

Thank goodness I have Retrospect.

I've been waiting on doing the 10.3.6 update, mainly because of all the problems folks have reported with it. Yesterday, I blithly thought, "well, the next security update is out, maybe if I apply the 10.3.6 updater along with it, there will be no problems."

Boy, was I wrong.

10.3.6 installed without a hitch, then came the eternal reboot. Then came the Safari kernel panics, then came the Disk Utility crashes, and finally the freeze-on-boot "you're not getting past the grey apple" experience.

Don't install this update. I spent the rest of Sunday doing a clean re-install of 10.3.5.

[gopher]

Thank goodness I have Retrospect.

I've been waiting on doing the 10.3.6 update, mainly because of all the problems folks have reported with it. Yesterday, I blithly thought, "well, the next security update is out, maybe if I apply the 10.3.6 updater along with it, there will be no problems."

Boy, was I wrong.

10.3.6 installed without a hitch, then came the eternal reboot. Then came the Safari kernel panics, then came the Disk Utility crashes, and finally the freeze-on-boot "you're not getting past the grey apple" experience.

Don't install this update. I spent the rest of Sunday doing a clean re-install of 10.3.5.

No problems with 10.3.6 as long as you follow these tips:

http://www.macmaps.com/upgradefaq.html

I might add, there is no such thing as a clean reinstall. This FAQ explains the kinds of installation available to Mac OS X:

http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?14@80.pzl5aj8sDC0.177750@.599b7ba4

Perhaps your misunderstanding of how to properly install Mac OS X was part of the reason your installation failed.

[Sped]

I have reverted to 10.3.5 on my Powerbook because I thought I was having hardware problems (slow apps, force quit unavailable, extremely loud fan). Things are much better with 10.3.5. I normally scoff at folks who are terrified to update the OS, but I have to say that this one has scared me. I don't depend on my Mac for my livelihood, but I do use it for several important tasks including banking and investing. I don't think I will be as ready to install an update in the future. Let's hope that 10.3.7 fixes these problems or Tiger is released in January!

[Sped]

Perhaps your misunderstanding of how to properly install Mac OS X was part of the reason your installation failed.

I think that's a little arrogant considering many of the folks reading this forum are pretty geeky, myself included. Most of us I imagine are very protective of our Macs and keep them in top working order.

Instead of misunderstanding how to install updates, perhaps Apple just screwed the pooch on this one, ya think?

[gopher]

I have reverted to 10.3.5 on my Powerbook because I thought I was having hardware problems (slow apps, force quit unavailable, extremely loud fan). Things are much better with 10.3.5. I normally scoff at folks who are terrified to update the OS, but I have to say that this one has scared me. I don't depend on my Mac for my livelihood, but I do use it for several important tasks including banking and investing. I don't think I will be as ready to install an update in the future. Let's hope that 10.3.7 fixes these problems or Tiger is released in January!

If you are having fan problems, that's a hardware issue which needs to be addressed with AppleCare directly. No software update will fix your fan problems. Many have had power management units replaced, and/or fans replaced under AppleCare. Slow applications can be due to a number of factors as this FAQ covers:

http://www.macmaps.com/Macosxspeed.html

As for the arrogance, I don't think so. Many have had no problems with 10.3.6. There are individual lemon stories which exist, and those need to be dealt with on a case by case basis with Apple.

[cmvsm]

1. Start-up takes ages!!!! I need to wait 5 minutes with my beach ball turning before the desktop load

G5 2.0 1GB RAM startup 35 seconds
G4 AlBook startup 40 sec
G3 iMac 30 sec
G4 eMac 25 sec

2. The most important problem!!! The audio and video jerk a 1/4 of a second everytime I do a small movement with my mouse, load a window or search on my bottom screen menu or for whatever reason. This is true for absolutely everything, hearing an audio CD, an mp3, a quicktime movie, etc. I really want to resolve this problem.

I can't reproduce that at all. On my eMac I run iTunes all day with 8-10 other apps open and multiple mounted servers. Same on the laptop.

3. 2nd most important problem. I can not mount a disk image. It seems I am not alone on that one and it seems apple.com recognise the issue but does not address a specific solution.

I can't reproduce this either. I do disk images all day since I use netboot, CCC and make dupes of all master CD install disks. (And we have a LOT)

4. When loading Safari, it takes ages to get the first page... after that everything seems to run well. Some issue with safari, can not run properly on secure sites such as banking sites, obliged to use explorer.

Nor this, though I don't use secure sites on Safari, but rather Firefox....

I'm running better than ever, and we once again prove that all Macs are not created equal. I'd LOVE to have your box in front of me now... I love a good mystery! Try killing it and starting over. A good install takes me 8 minutes (clone). When a Mac is running perfect, make an incremental bootable image using Carbon Copy Cloner. Make a netboot server if you can to restore over the network. No more tedious installs! My Apple SE turned me on to this wicked-cool stuff, and my life hasn't been the same.


Same here Les. I've had NO PROBLEMS at all with the latest and greatest 10.3.6. I guess its a good thing that all computers are not created equal... :D One question for you. When you do the carbon cloning, I'm assuming that you need an additional drive to do this correctly? I've downloaded CCC, but wanted to make sure I'm using it correctly. Thanks!

[DavidCar]

For what it is worth, part of the Safari problems I blamed on 10.3.6 were due to a dirty ethernet connector.

[rogerw]

everything i use seems ok. no apparent faults. starts up/restarts quick


i book g3
imac g4 800mhz

[Doctor Q]

Suppose Apple issued a Mac OS X update that did absolutely nothing - changed no programs, touched no files or settings. A placebo software patch.

I have the feeling that we'd still see dozens of complaints that "my system died during reboot", "it made my network fail", "Safari no longer works on this website", "it slowed my system down", "I now have permissions problems", and who knows what else.

Problems happen routinely. If something breaks, you might not discover the problem until you reboot, whether or not you installed new software. If you happen to have installed a Mac OS X update when a problem first shows up, you are likely to blame the update. It's certainly a suspect in such a case, but so are random glitches we all encounter now and then.

Until a report about a bug in a Software Update is repeated many times by many users, I will continue to be suspicious about the many so-called bugs in Mac OS X updates.

[zync]

Suppose Apple issued a Mac OS X update that did absolutely nothing - changed no programs, touched no files or settings. A placebo software patch.

I have the feeling that we'd still see dozens of complaints that "my system died during reboot", "it made my network fail", "Safari no longer works on this website", "it slowed my system down", "I now have permissions problems", and who knows what else.

Problems happen routinely. If something breaks, you might not discover the problem until you reboot, whether or not you installed new software. If you happen to have installed a Mac OS X update when a problem first shows up, you are likely to blame the update. It's certainly a suspect in such a case, but so are random glitches we all encounter now and then.

Until a report about a bug in a Software Update is repeated many times by many users, I will continue to be suspicious about the many so-called bugs in Mac OS X updates.

I strongly and wholeheartedly agree.

[cb911]

well said Doctor Q. :)

i agree as well... all OS X updates have presented no problems for me - they've all been good in one way or another. faster boot times, fixed small issues etc.

i also suspect that some of these reported problems are not caused by the actaul Software Update but perhaps a badly maintained system? i don't store any of my documents on my OS X boot partition - maybe that's got something to do with why i've never had any problems.

i'm actually quite amazed that i've had no problems... with the amount of litttle 'haxies' and other useless app i've got installed. :p

[wdlove]

well said Doctor Q. :)

i agree as well... all OS X updates have presented no problems for me - they've all been good in one way or another. faster boot times, fixed small issues etc.

i also suspect that some of these reported problems are not caused by the actual Software Update but perhaps a badly maintained system? i don't store any of my documents on my OS X boot partition - maybe that's got something to do with why i've never had any problems.

I'm actually quite amazed that i've had no problems... with the amount of little 'haxies' and other useless app i've got installed. :p

I do try my best to keep my Mac maintained. Don't have a partition on my hard drive. The recommendations from most said not to, unless there was special need. Even so, I'm another one of those that haven't incurred any big problems with the updates from Apple. Pretty much the status quo.

[zync]

I do try my best to keep my Mac maintained. Don't have a partition on my hard drive. The recommendations from most said not to, unless there was special need. Even so, I'm another one of those that haven't incurred any big problems with the updates from Apple. Pretty much the status quo.

As I said before I'm doing fine too. A year's worth of updates and no big issues. The only problem I've had/am having is that annoying Safari issue where you have to reload a page every once in a while. It is becoming more frequent though :( And sometimes it takes a while to happen. I'd be interested to know what the bug is once it's found. Hyatt has been pretty silent on this issue on his blog.

[FoxyKaye]

Perhaps your misunderstanding of how to properly install Mac OS X was part of the reason your installation failed.

Um, no offense, but the tips to which you've linked are all like "duh" stuff that I do fairly regulary and pre/post update. I've been working on Macs as a user or sysadmin since 1996. I think I know how to apply OS updates.

Also FYI, by "clean installation" I mean that I've repartitioned, wiped and reinstalled using the 10.3.5 combined updater and my Retrospect files.

Look folks, Apple is not infallable, not every OS update is going to be gold (or need I remind folks of the System 7 debacle). It's quite conceivable that there's problems with this update. There's a laundry list on this thread, the longest I've seen in a while, and implying that folks having problems don't know what they're doing is neither productive nor supportive.

[FoxyKaye]

In other words, Disk Utility is just making extra sure that cd9660.util has the correct permissions by forcing the issue rather than doing it conditionally.

Way late on this, but that was a really cool explanation of the issue. I'd always assumed it had something to do with making sure this worked, but never put that much more thought into it. Nicely done!

[Doctor Q]

i don't store any of my documents on my OS X boot partition - maybe that's got something to do with why i've never had any problems.That's verrrrrrrrrry cautious and therefore very safe, but I doubt it's necessary. Storing files on the boot partition, as long as they are outside the System and Library folders, should be quite safe. I use partitions, and I have plenty of my own documents and applications on the boot partition, but I limit my interference in the folders that belong to Mac OS X itself. Yes, certain items do belong there, such as fonts you add for all users, screensavers, etc., but the less you tinker in there, the more likely it is that Mac OS X will be able to upgrade without incident.

[FoxyKaye]

That's verrrrrrrrrry cautious and therefore very safe, but I doubt it's necessary. Storing files on the boot partition, as long as they are outside the System and Library folders, should be quite safe. I use partitions, and I have plenty of my own documents and applications on the boot partition, but I limit my interference in the folders that belong to Mac OS X itself. Yes, certain items do belong there, such as fonts you add for all users, screensavers, etc., but the less you tinker in there, the more likely it is that Mac OS X will be able to upgrade without incident.

All true - Before I "upgraded" to a B/W, I had a Beige G3 running 10.2. Since the boot partition on this machine had to be less than 8GB, I wound up moving a lot of stuff to other partitions and hard drives because of space constraints. Updating the OS was seldom a smooth process, especially after I added a Radeon 7000 and hacked it to run Panther. It was fun though, seeing how far one of those old Beige systems could be pushed. Anyhow, the long-winded point being that if you have the HDD space and backup capability, I agree it's best to let the OS put stuff where it wants.

[ottonian]

I, like most of you, am a bit of a 'geek' when it comes to my machines.

BUT...I have parents and in-laws who I convinced to buy an iMac last year and they are far from literate beyond the interface. They both upgraded to 10.3.6 and now both machines are having mouse problems where there were none before[sticking, freezing, slow movements etc.]. What were they to do when the auto-update appeared but trust it, click and restart?
Remember, these machines are supposed to be user friendly. There is no automatic repair of permissions for these users and no automatic disabling of 3rd party programs.

We must hold on to the idea of having the technology evolve to the point where it runs in the background of the tasks it was designed to perform.

To those who 'doubt' the problems reported...stop patting yourselves on the back for 'doing everything right'. Power users will always be ahead of the game. But our platform of choice can only be as strong as the weakest users among us...the consumers who don't want an IT degree just to perform everyday tasks. Let's stick together as a community, trust and believe each others claims, and help each other to overcome these 'glitches' so we can stand behind and grow the Mac community. The problems are REAL.

I for one will wait and see what happens with the next release.


my 2 cents.

[Video_Producer]

Hmm... I did some searching, and I've come to a different conclusion than before. If your clock and volume are affected, maybe you've got a PRAM problem. To reset the PRAM, reboot your Mac, and hold down Command+Option+P+R until the Mac chimes three times.

The culprit, bad ram. I was finally was able to pull the ram out last night, hasn't had a crash since. Not something I thought of, I saw it on another post and AppleCare confirmed that bad ram would cause some issues like crashes, freezes and the like, so now it's a fight for new ram.

Rich

[wrldwzrd89]

The culprit, bad ram. I was finally was able to pull the ram out last night, hasn't had a crash since. Not something I thought of, I saw it on another post and AppleCare confirmed that bad ram would cause some issues like crashes, freezes and the like, so now it's a fight for new ram.

Rich
Bad RAM will do that too - maybe you had intermittently bad RAM that worked fine when you tested it with Apple Hardware Test, but failed to work at other times.

[JJTiger1]

I, like most of you, am a bit of a 'geek' when it comes to my machines.
{snippage}
We must hold on to the idea of having the technology evolve to the point where it runs in the background of the tasks it was designed to perform.
{snippage}
Let's stick together as a community, trust and believe each others claims, and help each other to overcome these 'glitches' so we can stand behind and grow the Mac community. The problems are REAL.

I for one will wait and see what happens with the next release.


my 2 cents.

... You will see that the people who forgot to REPAIR PERMISSIONS BEFORE INSTALLING THE UPDATE will have problems with the update.

I am trying to help the Mac community by spreading the word:
REPAIR PERMISSIONS BEFORE INSTALLING THE UPDATE.

I do not doubt that people are having the problems that they are reporting.
I do not doubt that hardware issues are cropping up with the update.

However, I doubt that the software installers will ever evolve to the point where the installer will REPAIR PERMISSIONS BEFORE INSTALLING THE UPDATE.

... If the installer was to REPAIR PERMISSIONS BEFORE INSTALLING THE UPDATE, the same whinners who won't do the REPAIR PERMISSIONS BEFORE INSTALLING THE UPDATE for themselves now, will whine that the new-fangeled Installer's automatic REPAIR PERMISSIONS BEFORE INSTALLING THE UPDATE takes too long.

I have not had problems with the 10.3.6 Updaters.
I learned long ago to do it myself:

REPAIR PERMISSIONS BEFORE INSTALLING THE UPDATE

[bousozoku]

...
Look folks, Apple is not infallable, not every OS update is going to be gold (or need I remind folks of the System 7 debacle). It's quite conceivable that there's problems with this update. There's a laundry list on this thread, the longest I've seen in a while, and implying that folks having problems don't know what they're doing is neither productive nor supportive.

That's for certain.

I've been running on two very different machines and have the same memory issues since updating to 10.3.6 but no others. When 1.5 GB is suddenly not enough RAM with a couple of applications running, I know there is something wrong, even if I'm not as smart as gopher. ;)

[Rower_CPU]

...REPAIR PERMISSIONS BEFORE INSTALLING THE UPDATE...

Quit yelling.

I've never repaired permissions pre-update and never had an issue. Can you point us to a study or something more objective than you shouting the same thing over and over?

[JJTiger1]

Quit yelling.

I've never repaired permissions pre-update and never had an issue. Can you point us to a study or something more objective than you shouting the same thing over and over?

You never repaired permissions pre-update and never had an issue? You are not alone, but you seem to be in a minority.

A case study of problems: ... how about these 18+ pages?

I truly believe that most of the software issues would have been avoided if the user had Repaired Permissions BEFORE installing the updater.

I truly believe that some application installers change permissions as part of the install.
I truly believe that simply using some applications will change permissions.
... how else can you explain that permissions get changed somehow without doing a Get Info and deliberately changing permissions?

Along comes an Apple Updater, and everything goes ka-flooie.

"Repair Permissions BEFORE installing the updater" has shielded me from any software issues.

"Repair Permissions BEFORE installing the updater" has been working for me on many machines, not just my own.
=-=
Hardware Issues: .. well that's another story.
So far, just one. A Rev 1 Blue & White G3 just would not work when updatered from 10.3.2 to 10.3.6 Combo. Everything software related that everyone has noted here, and then some. Repairing Permissions had no affect one way or another. After a dozen attempts, including reformatting the hard drive and starting from scratch, we gave up on that unit. Finally we reformatted that unit's hard drive and reinstalled 10.3.2 and left it there.

... The updatering beyond 10.3.2 problems may be unique to that particular unit. I won't jump to any conclusions about saying that the problem exists on "ALL" Rev1 B&W's. I think it's just that particular unit.

... I have yet to try updatering another Rev 1 B&W.
... the owner of that Rev 1 B&W has walked away from that unit.

No problems noted on Rev 2 B&W's.

[Rower_CPU]

You never repaired permissions pre-update and never had an issue? You are not alone, but you seem to be in a minority.

A case study of problems: ... how about these 18+ pages?

<chomp>

I manage about 50 Macs at work in addition to my personal ones - models ranging from eMacs to PowerMac G3/4/5s to PowerBook G4s to Xserves - all have had no issues with security/OS updates regardless of permissions repair schedules. I may be in the minority according to you, but I've got a pretty decent sample size to back up my opinion.

Until every person in this thread that's had problems states exactly how and when they've repaired permissions in concert with this update AND everyone who hasn't had problems says what they did this is all anecdotal and not a case study upon which to build any unequivocal statements.

I'm not looking to pick a fight. I just want to make sure that we're not spreading FUD or snake oil when it comes to preventing tech issues with OS X.

[zync]

I manage about 50 Macs at work in addition to my personal ones - models ranging from eMacs to PowerMac G3/4/5s to PowerBook G4s to Xserves - all have had no issues with security/OS updates regardless of permissions repair schedules. I may be in the minority according to you, but I've got a pretty decent sample size to back up my opinion.

Until every person in this thread that's had problems states exactly how and when they've repaired permissions in concert with this update AND everyone who hasn't had problems says what they did this is all anecdotal and not a case study upon which to build any unequivocal statements.

I'm not looking to pick a fight. I just want to make sure that we're not spreading FUD or snake oil when it comes to preventing tech issues with OS X.

I'll be the first. Other than the Safari reload issue, I've had no problems with the update and on a whim I decided to repair permissions yesterday. I did NOT repair before the update. I never repair before the update. That's useless. There is no reason I can see to repair prior to updating since in most cases the updates need to be repaired anyway. I repaired permissions once before and after and update and it still needed to be repaired. It might be a placebo. I'd almost be willing to bet that you can repair one right after the other and still have things that need to be repaired.

[JJTiger1]

I manage about 50 Macs
{snippage}
I just want to make sure that we're not spreading FUD or snake oil when it comes to preventing tech issues with OS X.

I am not at liberty to disclose my customers, let's say that there are vast quantities and models at my customers' facilities which include the models that you are familiar with.

FUD. Nope. Snake Oil? Definitely not.
... VooDoo certainly. It works for me. I have heard and seen other forms of VooDoo. My VooDoo: A simple, but time consuming, Repair Permissions before and after installing the update. Harmless, yet seems to do some good.

Repair Permissions needs to be done on a regular basis anyway.
For instance: User complains that the computer is acting up.

Why not kill two birds with one stone? You are there to install the updater, why not repair permissions while you are at it? Happy customer.

Another VooDoo trick: disconnect the external devices before applying a major updater such as 10.3.6. Might not need to be done, but done none the less. Re-attaching the external devices gives the tech the opportunity to inspect the devices for general condition, and make a clean firm socket connection. Sometimes untangling the wires helps make the customer happy.

The only recent FireWire issues: (neither related to any software)
One had a loose connection at the port. Push the plug all of the way in. (me bad: D'oh !!)
One had a bad/loose port on the drive itself. One of those car-brand named units. Faulty assembly. Sent in for waranty claim.
... the owner thought that the car MFG made the hard drive, so it had to be good. ;)

[Rower_CPU]

*sigh*

I have no doubt that your method works for you - you certainly shouted loud enough about it. ;)

I just want to be clear that until Apple themselves or a 3rd party tech support vendor shows a statistically valid study stating what you have, it's just more "voodoo", as you put it, and should be taken with a grain of salt.