ever since upgrading to 10.5.6, my friend and i have been experiencing much more frequent application crashes. and mostly on simple things like system preferences, safari, and mail. anyone else experiencing this?
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10.5.6 made my computer LESS stable...
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The update trashed my system. I'm sure the Genius Bar is booked for the foreseeable future. This should really help their stock price.
For me, I am going back to 5.5 until they fix this. It never should have been released, but I guess they wanted to create a buzz for the holiday or something like that. Maybe this is why they're is skipping Mac World.
It's always humorous to me that if something related to an update doesn't work as planned, there are always a few who are quick to blame the update, which works fine for millions of Mac users, rather than think that it might have something to do with their own particular system. 
I'm confused by this, what do you mean? How does releasing a minor update for the OS create a buzz for the holiday and how does that relate to 'skipping' Mac World? Even though they are not 'skipping' Mac World they're just pulling back on their presence there for this year then no longer going to be involved in it.
It's always humorous to me that if something related to an update doesn't work as planned, there are always a few who are quick to blame the update, which works fine for millions of Mac users, rather than think that it might have something to do with their own particular system.
I'm sure it worked fine for you and millions of others. It actually works fine for me now that I installed it on a "clean machine". However it has equally not worked for maybe millions of others too. Search the Nets and news outlets. It isn't just a hiccup on a few systems. This was a bad release that wasn't 'thunk' through. They at Apple know it too.
This update should have been further beta tested. Who knows, maybe some of the security patches are in response to some threat they know is coming down the pike. They have altered their stance on virus protection in the last few months as well.
All is fine and dandy until it happens to you. Then you'd be in the other camp on this and there would be no way of knowing it would happen to you until it does. The uncertainty in updating shouldn't exist. I'm not claiming it should be 100%. It may be that this update is less than 90% efficient in working properly on established systems with 3rd party software, which everyone runs, and with modified systems, which many also run. That is well under the acceptability levels I would expect.
I have to say, I left Windows because of it's buggyness, the security risks and the constant maintenance it required to keep the system running well and not bogging down. This wasn't something I expected with a Mac. I have to give credit to MS as I never experienced something like I did with the 5.6 update and with XP you can roll the system back if configuration changes don't work out too well. I'm not aware that this is possible with OS X.
It's always humorous to me that if something related to an update doesn't work as planned, there are always a few who are quick to blame the update, which works fine for millions of Mac users, rather than think that it might have something to do with their own particular system.
I'm not sure which post you're referring to, but it's humorous to me that even though many people also have the same problem, some people still take the fanboy "EVERYTHING APPLE DOES IS PERFECT AND IF IT DOESNT WORK GET A NEW ONE BECAUSE YOURS IS BROKEN PEASANT!" stance on it. the fact that system preferences never ever crashed on me until right after i updated the system kind of automatically makes you blame the update. and im sure you wouldn't blame your brand new mac for it, my own "particular" system has no hardware issues, it works fine. the only problem is this update.
So far I haven't had any issues with Apple's native software, but MS Word and Powerpoint have been acting strangely... specifically they are not playing nice with spaces. Just today I was working on a document and when I would try to click on a line to retype it I would suddenly get sent to a different space. Weird!
Didn't work for me, but...
This update crashed my system, causing it too not boot up past the blue screen after the Apple logo. But I can't say that means Apple shouldn't have released it. I don't think anything concerning computers can be trouble and error free. There will always be problems with every application, every program, and every aspect of a computer for some users on some computers. The aim should simply be to minimize it as close to 0 as possible, and I think Apple generally has and does do that. Much better than Microsoft too, of course.
This update crashed my system, causing it too not boot up past the blue screen after the Apple logo. But I can't say that means Apple shouldn't have released it. I don't think anything concerning computers can be trouble and error free. There will always be problems with every application, every program, and every aspect of a computer for some users on some computers. The aim should simply be to minimize it as close to 0 as possible, and I think Apple generally has and does do that. Much better than Microsoft too, of course.
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/macosx_updates/macosx1056comboupdate.html
Download this and install it. If it's still screwy after, take it to the Genius Bar or an authorised service centre and get it straightened out. I've applied the combo update to five machines so far, and none of them have a hint of a problem.
Download this and install it. If it's still screwy after, take it to the Genius Bar or an authorised service centre and get it straightened out. I've applied the combo update to five machines so far, and none of them have a hint of a problem.
This is the first time I've ever had an update issue with Mac OS X and to be honest, everything has been working fine with all my machines and I didn't want to update at all. But I saw that this update came with security updates and had some fixes for Adobe Photoshop so I went for it. Now my Macbook Pro is doing something very weird, I guess you would call it a lock-up. About once or twice a day I lose the ability to click into folders, dock bar, etc. Meaning I can move my cursor around but it won't allow me to click into anything. No spinning wheel of death, just lose the ability to click through anything.
I have to hard re-boot my machine and things seem to be fine for a few hours. I've also started to experience WiFi drop outs especially when waking my MBP from sleep. And I know of two other MBP owners who are experiencing the WiFi dropouts again but not my clicking problem. I havent' experienced WiFi dropouts since a few updates ago. Any others have this issue?
I have to hard re-boot my machine and things seem to be fine for a few hours. I've also started to experience WiFi drop outs especially when waking my MBP from sleep. And I know of two other MBP owners who are experiencing the WiFi dropouts again but not my clicking problem. I havent' experienced WiFi dropouts since a few updates ago. Any others have this issue?
First of all, mine is not a "fanboy" stance. I'm not a "fanboy" or "boy" of any kind! I'm well aware that every company, including Apple, has flaws and problems and sells products that are imperfect. I'm also aware that updates occasionally are released that are flawed. However, in the case of an update which installs without problems on millions of Macs, common sense and basic troubleshooting tells you that the update most likely is NOT the problem. It's more likely incompatibility with some software a user installed, something that's been modified on their system, or something else unique to their Mac. For example:
My point is, if millions are using the update without incident, it's Computing 101 to look at your own system first and ask "what is it about my system that's not working with the update" rather than "what is it about the update that's screwed up". If the update were the problem, everyone would be having the same problem.
Yep
Yep - I have been having the same thing. It only happens on my Intel Mac though, and none of my PPC Macs. It happens anywhere from 1 - 10 hours in to the boot. If I do nothing, it crashes later, but whenever I am processor intensive that seems to bring about a crash as well.
I have removed all third party software, reinstalled both with TM and without as a clean install, and I am using the clean install now to write this. I have tken apart the machine and excluded all kinds of hardware and or software related problems to these symptoms, but am left with the conclusion that it is either 10.5.6, or a bad hard drive controller.
Most often, it happens after the hard drive had been sleeping due to idle time and then upon returning to the machine, it will not wake properly and beach balls itself to the inevitable force shut down with the power button ...
Furthermore, there is a thread about this at Apple and elsewhere. So, even though you are right that it could be my system or my software, it might also be this update. In the day and age where it takes 3 months to warranty out my desktop system if it is a controller and weeks of complaining to Apple if it is in fact their OS, then I will verify all sides first.
Yep - I have been having the same thing. It only happens on my Intel Mac though, and none of my PPC Macs. It happens anywhere from 1 - 10 hours in to the boot. If I do nothing, it crashes later, but whenever I am processor intensive that seems to bring about a crash as well.
I have removed all third party software, reinstalled both with TM and without as a clean install, and I am using the clean install now to write this. I have tken apart the machine and excluded all kinds of hardware and or software related problems to these symptoms, but am left with the conclusion that it is either 10.5.6, or a bad hard drive controller.
Most often, it happens after the hard drive had been sleeping due to idle time and then upon returning to the machine, it will not wake properly and beach balls itself to the inevitable force shut down with the power button ...
Furthermore, there is a thread about this at Apple and elsewhere. So, even though you are right that it could be my system or my software, it might also be this update. In the day and age where it takes 3 months to warranty out my desktop system if it is a controller and weeks of complaining to Apple if it is in fact their OS, then I will verify all sides first.
My Macbook was not made less stable by 10.5.6. What differences do you think might have caused 10.5.6 to make your computer less stable, but not mine?
10.5.6 Less Stable?
I also did the update and so far have had a couple of problems but nothing very terrible as to need a reboot. I came from a twenty five year history of PCees of all types. Apple so far has been real nice to me and very impressive as to stability. Now I realize that operating systems probably have millions of lines of code and a mishap is bound to happen for a small percentage of machines. Could this be software from third parties? I would think so because Apple programmers cannot possibly be at our side to oversee everyone's installation processes and third party hardware additions. Lets give Apple a little more time to see if there really is a problem before we start bashing them for the new update. In the meantime, do what we have been told for years if not decades, backup, backup, backup.
Off my soapbox and on my MP.
I also did the update and so far have had a couple of problems but nothing very terrible as to need a reboot. I came from a twenty five year history of PCees of all types. Apple so far has been real nice to me and very impressive as to stability. Now I realize that operating systems probably have millions of lines of code and a mishap is bound to happen for a small percentage of machines. Could this be software from third parties? I would think so because Apple programmers cannot possibly be at our side to oversee everyone's installation processes and third party hardware additions. Lets give Apple a little more time to see if there really is a problem before we start bashing them for the new update. In the meantime, do what we have been told for years if not decades, backup, backup, backup.
Off my soapbox and on my MP.
I've always had various problems with using Software Update to get a 10.5.x release. Even when formatting my HDD, installing Mac OS X and then instantly installing the 10.5.x update using Software Update. Massive amounts of SUID errors when repairing permissions and the like.
Combo updates fix everything, and quite frankly I will never use Software Update for a 10.5.x release ever again since it's been the buggiest load of tripe even seen for an OS.
Yes, it probably works for a lot of people, but if Apple can't patch a "virgin" install correctly it's CLEARLY a problem with their update. The delta updates just seem to work so unreliably for quite a lot of people. Hence buggy, not broken
I downloaded the combo update from the website and haven't had any problems with 10.5.6
Combo updates fix everything, and quite frankly I will never use Software Update for a 10.5.x release ever again since it's been the buggiest load of tripe even seen for an OS.
Yes, it probably works for a lot of people, but if Apple can't patch a "virgin" install correctly it's CLEARLY a problem with their update. The delta updates just seem to work so unreliably for quite a lot of people. Hence buggy, not broken
I downloaded the combo update from the website and haven't had any problems with 10.5.6
Mail won't stick in the dock
Since updating, the Mail app won't stay docked. If I move it into the Dock, it disappears after a few seconds. Happens on 2 different machines. Apple's advice was run the updater. Didn't fix it.
Since updating, the Mail app won't stay docked. If I move it into the Dock, it disappears after a few seconds. Happens on 2 different machines. Apple's advice was run the updater. Didn't fix it.
MS Office is known not to work well with spaces.
And since my last post in this thread, still no crashes whatsoever. So, still can't really say much about stability, since it still doesn't crash. Well....at least I can say that it didn't become unstable like described above by others. It does seem to be a bit more snappy however. Especially 'Spaces' and opening the 'Applications' from the dock is more fluently where it was a bit jittery before. I'm quite content with this update so far.