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All the problems of Leopard = Gone with Clean Install

D

DrKeys

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 27, 2007
23
1
Just want to let those who are currently having issues with Leopard a possible solution.


I upgraded to leopard on my (santa rosa) macbook pro. Tiger was running pretty smoothly with a little quirks and bumps here and there.....when I upgraded to leopard all sorts of problems started.

I've been reading this forum and trying out various fixes and they all worked... however, one thing was the jittery graphics/choppy performance that just wouldn't go away.

Finally this last week, i had some time during thanks giving.. backed up my HOME folder...on a partitioned external drive (one for files) (one for time machine mapped at 120GB). Then I boot leopard from the install CD, and formated/clean install a fresh copy of leopard (no archiving either, I've read having a previous systems folder will generate issues with preferences and permission confusion)

now.. i've been using the clean installed leopard for a week now.. reinstall everything I even setup the new bootcamp 2.0 and parallel, even got rosetta stone to work plus app zapper.

WOW i have to say.. everything is smooth, choppy/jittery graphics and performance = ALLL GONE....this is what leopard should be.

I guess the saying that, always clean install the OS give you the best performance. I wish I should of done this at the beginning to avoid all the issues.

So for those who is still having issues.. maybe consider this as an option.. since it has done wonders for me. now is running so good.. i going to upgrade the ram to 4GB tomorrow :) that's how much i love it.

-:D:eek:
 
i am glad that you like it alot
i love my clean install leopard and havent had any issues that have plagued others

btw how much noticable difference can be seen between 2gb ram and 4?
:confused:
 
I had too much data on my iMac and no way of backing any of it up to do a clean install of my system. So I created a new administrator account, transferred all my files from my old account to my new one and haven't had one single issue with Leopard since. iDVD works again, programs don't crash like they did, I can deleted a song in iTunes without it crashing, so on and so forth. Plus 10.5.1 made my boot up time a lot faster than before so I have no complaints whatsoever with Leopard now. :)
 
phillipjfry said:
i am glad that you like it alot
i love my clean install leopard and havent had any issues that have plagued others

btw how much noticable difference can be seen between 2gb ram and 4?
:confused:
Click to expand...

On my average daily use, the applications/systems/parallels takes up about 1.7 to 1.9 GB of ram. So once the system uses more than 1.5 GB of ram.. the performance start to suffer you can tell when the virtual memory started to kick in. This is the same for all machines. When you reboot fresh.. the machine flies.. then as time goes on with applications open close, multiple application open.. the ram usage starts to creep up.

Once you installed the 4GB in the laptop.. you won't see that decrease in performance.. so the machine feels like you just rebooted fresh with plenty of rams to go around, even though you have been using multiple applications all day.


Kind of driving a Porsche where you can floor the gas and see the steady power curve hitting the top speed.. versus a ford.. where you floor the gas it delays then jumps forward, very boggy not a steady power curve to hit the top speed.
 
You people need to realise that even though memory is cheap, your work may not necessarily require that much. Agreed, there cannot be "too much" memory, but how much is plenty?

Let's put this into perspective for a moment. Think 10 years back. Average workstation had 64MB ram back then, which is 1/16 GB by the way. OS back then was distributed on a single CD-ROM and most (if not all) applications fit into single CD.

Now today's MBP has 2GB stock memory, which is 32 times more than average workstation ten years ago. OS is now distributed on a single (dual-layer) DVD-ROM, which is roughly 10 times more than ten years ago, and while many applications today are distributed on DVD most still fit into a single CD.

So one could say that requirements have been tenfolded in ten years, which would mean that "640 megabytes should be enough for normal use", which by the way in my opinion is true. If I'm not mistaken, it only means that today one can run a gigabyte worth of extra applications, compared to ten years ago. That would also mean that for most situations 2GB is overkill and definetely upgrading to 4GB only gives you bragging rights.

But if you have the money, just spend it. No matter what you gain or think of gaining, just spend it. That's how we've been taught ;)
 
JFreak said:
You people need to realise that even though memory is cheap, your work may not necessarily require that much. Agreed, there cannot be "too much" memory, but how much is plenty?

Let's put this into perspective for a moment. Think 10 years back. Average workstation had 64MB ram back then, which is 1/16 GB by the way. OS back then was distributed on a single CD-ROM and most (if not all) applications fit into single CD.

Now today's MBP has 2GB stock memory, which is 32 times more than average workstation ten years ago. OS is now distributed on a single (dual-layer) DVD-ROM, which is roughly 10 times more than ten years ago, and while many applications today are distributed on DVD most still fit into a single CD.

So one could say that requirements have been tenfolded in ten years, which would mean that "640 megabytes should be enough for normal use", which by the way in my opinion is true. If I'm not mistaken, it only means that today one can run a gigabyte worth of extra applications, compared to ten years ago. That would also mean that for most situations 2GB is overkill and definetely upgrading to 4GB only gives you bragging rights.

But if you have the money, just spend it. No matter what you gain or think of gaining, just spend it. That's how we've been taught ;)
Click to expand...

Oh boy, who but you would rationalize reasons for not maxing out ram especially how cheap it is these days.:rolleyes:
 
Crucial ram for the Mac pro may now be half the price it was when the Pro launched .... but it still isn't what I call cheap .. :eek:

Sorry meant to say, A clean install sorted out my problems with leopard.
 
Father Jack said:
Crucial ram for the Mac pro may now be half the price it was when the Pro launched .... but it still isn't what I call cheap .. :eek:

Sorry meant to say, A clean install sorted out my problems with leopard.
Click to expand...

just purchased from newegg.com 2GB DDR2 PC5300 SoDiMM are as low as 34.99 after rebate...and some have deals that goes 49.99 without rebate.

so you buy 2 x 2 GB you run about 70 to 100 bucks.... i just sold my ram from the factory MBP 2 x 1GB on ebay for 47.00 dollars. so if you ask me to pay extra 50 something dollars for 4GB in my laptop.. i say HELL YEAH.
 
I had no problems upgrading on my Macbook pro (no clean install)

It runs noticeably faster, and I have had no issues whatsoever.

Im sure a clean install would be nice though
 
Xavier said:
I had no problems upgrading on my Macbook pro (no clean install)

It runs noticeably faster, and I have had no issues whatsoever.

Im sure a clean install would be nice though
Click to expand...


Do you have the non-santa rosa Macbook Pro? if yes i actually have read quite a few comments regarding the non-santa rosa macbook pro = has no leopard issues (due to the ATI graphics versus Nvidia)

My main issue mentioned in my original post is the choppy/jittery graphics/performance. and most of the non-santa rosa macbook pros don't observe the choppy/jittery graphics when they upgrade to leopard.

i bet the mix up is probably the old nvidia driver (for optimized for tiger) did not get updated during the upgrade process.. but when i clean installed it, the nvidia drivers comes with the leopard disks gets installed.. so therefore the choppy/jittery graphics performance went away.
 
You could have tried trashing all the Apple preferences.

I had jittery graphics on the iMac upgrade -- but for me some App was screwing with the Universal Access preference. Don't know why it would enable a 1-3 pixel zoom every time it was run, and it didn't even remotely have anything to do with Universal Access.

It would be nice to see the font cache cleaner for Leopard, and that nagging problem that some have with Spotlight never finishing the index.
 
DrKeys said:
Do you have the non-santa rosa Macbook Pro? if yes i actually have read quite a few comments regarding the non-santa rosa macbook pro = has no leopard issues (due to the ATI graphics versus Nvidia)
Click to expand...

Nope, I have a santa rosa macbook pro. Guess leopard was kind to me :)
 
I'm glad that we see feedbacks from leopard installation as

either:

1) upgraded and didn't have a problem
2) upgraded with some glitch.. but clean install took care of it.
3) Archived and install with no issues

hopefully there won't be a (4) type where upgrading to leopard = complete failure regardless what the user did.

Good job guys... more feedback is appreciated
 
I wished that i had waited to install leopard after my thesis defense but i couldnt resist...anyways, i did an archive and install, and now inkscape and gimpshop won't load or crashes despite me trying what's been said on the web and getting the latest releases...and office mac suite crashes every so often for no reason, which is killing me cause of my thesis and presentation.

So here i sit at the computer lab partly using my mbp and partly using the school's imac...sucks.

can't wait to try a clean install...
 
A member "in the know" sugguested that people perform a clean install... so I did.

And now the only issue I have is sometimes expose is choppy.. but right now I'm using XP on my MBP just because I got bored with OS X. Blasphemy.. but I'll probably switch back with 10.5.2 to see if they fixed expose.
 
DrKeys said:
just purchased from newegg.com 2GB DDR2 PC5300 SoDiMM are as low as 34.99 after rebate...and some have deals that goes 49.99 without rebate.

so you buy 2 x 2 GB you run about 70 to 100 bucks.... i just sold my ram from the factory MBP 2 x 1GB on ebay for 47.00 dollars. so if you ask me to pay extra 50 something dollars for 4GB in my laptop.. i say HELL YEAH.
Click to expand...
You're lucky to have access to cheap and (good?) ram. Here in the UK / Ireland we aren't so lucky. I bought 4 Gb (2 x 2 Gb) of ram for my Mac Pro from Crucial .... It cost me £160 GBP not sure how much that is in dollars but quite a lot I think .... :eek:

Laptop ram I know is cheaper than ram for the Mac Pro, but the price difference between here and the USA is way too much.

FJ
 
I clean installed (hadn't meant to but got forced into it) and have had no problems at all with Leopard
 
DrKeys said:
So for those who is still having issues.. maybe consider this as an option.. since it has done wonders for me. now is running so good.. i going to upgrade the ram to 4GB tomorrow :) that's how much i love it.
Click to expand...

I did a clean install on my MBP, and I've still got the following problems :

- choppy trackpad when coming out of sleep mode
- no airport reconnection when coming out of sleep mode
- complete keyboard/trackpad freeze when coming out of deep sleep
- steermouse (3.8, Leopard-compatible) occasionnaly stops working (it may be that it only happens when coming out of sleep mode, can't say whether it is Leopard-related or not)

A clean install might solve a number of third-party software-related problems, but it doesn't automagically make Leopard bug-free :(
 
I've done all three types of install to try and stop the bleeding. First I did an upgrade. Problems. Then Archive and Install. Problems persisted. Last night I decided to empty my second internal hard drive and do a fresh install to that (rather than erase and install on the first drive). Much to my surprise, there was an option when done to migrate all files and settings from my Time Machine backup. It was a beautiful thing. So far, no more quirks. Fingers crossed.

For future upgrades, I would say that a fresh install/restore from Time Machine would be a better alternative to Archive and Install.
 
JFreak said:
You people need to realise that even though memory is cheap, your work may not necessarily require that much. Agreed, there cannot be "too much" memory, but how much is plenty?

Let's put this into perspective for a moment. Think 10 years back. Average workstation had 64MB ram back then, which is 1/16 GB by the way. OS back then was distributed on a single CD-ROM and most (if not all) applications fit into single CD.

Now today's MBP has 2GB stock memory, which is 32 times more than average workstation ten years ago. OS is now distributed on a single (dual-layer) DVD-ROM, which is roughly 10 times more than ten years ago, and while many applications today are distributed on DVD most still fit into a single CD.

So one could say that requirements have been tenfolded in ten years, which would mean that "640 megabytes should be enough for normal use", which by the way in my opinion is true. If I'm not mistaken, it only means that today one can run a gigabyte worth of extra applications, compared to ten years ago. That would also mean that for most situations 2GB is overkill and definetely upgrading to 4GB only gives you bragging rights.

But if you have the money, just spend it. No matter what you gain or think of gaining, just spend it. That's how we've been taught ;)
Click to expand...

This is bad logic.
 
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