10.6.5 has hosed my system

[sammich]

The machine in post: 17" MBP 2.33

So, in the last few hours I've had with 10.6.5, I'm all ready to throw my computer against the wall. First, I played Portal to test if there was anything improved graphics wise. I played around for a few minutes and with the settings that I played with prior to this update. And for the first time (ever, I have never experienced this before) my computer overheated and switched off.

The second problem is much more serious. It's like my computer cannot multitask anymore. Tasks before which would run with less than say 20-30% (like iPhone syncing, Plex Media Server scanning, Time Machine backups, watching HD movie in VLC, even opening a tab or two in Chrome) now either hog the CPU until the seconds in my menu bar clock stop ticking correctly, or now use up a whole core each.

I'm only taking a stab here, but it seems to me that the scheduler (kernel) has been changed and instead of smooth multitasking, all I get (on my machine) is a whole lot of CPU thrashing.

Anyway, rant aside, I'm not yet prepared to reinstall as I've exams coming up. I repaired permissions, checked the disk before the update. I just wanted to see if anyone is seeing anything remotely similar to this.

TL;DR
I have music playing in iTunes, nothing else happening. If I open a new tab in Chrome, the music will stutter as if the CPU is all used up. Multitasking on my machine is broken.

Thanks for reading

 

[Cromulent]

Hmm not sure I know the answer to that one. Can't say I can help unfortunately.

TL;DR

Dunno.

 

[riscy]

That is a bummer, having read this I will wait to update

 

[sammich]

Ahem...well I feel a little like a tool but...a restart seems to have resolved my problem. But it was certainly an interesting problem I had for a moment there.

 

[wilsonlaidlaw]

Ahem...well I feel a little like a tool but...a restart seems to have resolved my problem. But it was certainly an interesting problem I had for a moment there.

After problems just like these in the past with updates I now have a routine.

1) Run permissions repair
2) Verify disc
3) Back up (I use Chronosync)
4) Do update preferably from Combo update if it is not too huge - 10.6.5 Combo is too big given that I only have a 1.9 mb/s connection.
5) Re-run disk verify and repair permissions
6) Vacuum caches with ONYX and do a restart.

If I am a good boy and do all these and what a pain on 5 Macs, I have had no issues since. Hopefully, 10.6.5 and 10.5 security update which are downloading at the moment, will go equally well.

Wilson

 

[rich1383]

FWIW: No problems here for me - MBP (2009 Ed) - or the other three MBPs in our office. All running smoothly, after finding a nice quick fix to the PGP WDE nonboot problem.

 

[wilsonlaidlaw]

Nearly all gone smoothly

Now having done all 3 Intel Macs with 10.6.5 and 2 Power PC Macs with security update all has gone nearly perfectly. My Intel iMac, which sits beside my bed, when I am in the UK, is going to need an SMC reset, as it woke up twice during the course of the night - not funny.

This iMac has a history since new in 2007, of waking up at wrong times. If you leave an external disc connected, it will always wake up at least twice a night. I have spent hours going though syslogs trying to track down a root cause without success. My local Mac repairer thinks it may have a logic board very sensitive to voltage changes, which would then trigger a wake up. He suggests that a stabilised UPS might be the only cure but that is an expensive option, especially if it does not solve the issue.

Wilson