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Getting a little sick of OSX

0098386

0098386

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Original poster
Jan 18, 2005
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infact i'd say this machine is more problematic than my windows machine. at least a single App will wipe all the spyware probs...

Just now my Translate Widget has stopped working all together. re-opening it says Japanese in both language selections, only you cant change the lower box. it always says Undefined or English if you select English in the top box.

OS X will not shut down. its had hard-shut downs for months now. It just hangs with only the mouse and desktop image. no fading out to blue or anything.

Automatic waking up, only at night though. Fans spin like crazy. have to do a hard reset.

Any solutions to these problems? or should i cut my loses and do a format. i thought i gave up on formatting when i left windows :( I've posted these probs before but now they're really getting on my nerves. :mad:
 
raggedjimmi said:
infact i'd say this machine is more problematic than my windows machine. at least a single App will wipe all the spyware probs...

Just now my Translate Widget has stopped working all together. re-opening it says Japanese in both language selections, only you cant change the lower box. it always says Undefined or English if you select English in the top box.

OS X will not shut down. its had hard-shut downs for months now. It just hangs with only the mouse and desktop image. no fading out to blue or anything.

Automatic waking up, only at night though. Fans spin like crazy. have to do a hard reset.

Any solutions to these problems? or should i cut my loses and do a format. i thought i gave up on formatting when i left windows :( I've posted these probs before but now they're really getting on my nerves. :mad:
Click to expand...

format, and if that doesnt help, bring it to the apple store
 
Well I would stop doing hard resets as that not going to do nothing good for you system. Sounds like you could benefit from a fresh install, to start a new.
 
Try an archive install first, you might get lucky with it and everything will be fine, and it will save you having to reinstall everything. Failing that, clean install.

OS X is good, but it's still an OS. OS's get ****** sometimes, what can you do.

Before you do anything, BACK UP!
 
The trick is, when you notice a problem, fix it at that point before it snowballs into 10 other problems. Whether on Windows or Mac, people who constantly ignore warnings and error messages and then act surprised later when their computer doesn't work, well there's a chain of logic here. I mean, it's not like you have a whole forum of Mac users here to help you :)
 
Ouch, jimmi, sounds nasty!

How many system mods have you got installed? Any chance of things like Onyx, Shapeshifter etc that might be causing problems.

I'd agree with the back up and then try and Archive & Install. That should take less than an hour and won't mean lots of application re-installing. If that doesn't work, then you've got the clean install route available.
 
Applespider said:
Ouch, jimmi, sounds nasty!

How many system mods have you got installed? Any chance of things like Onyx, Shapeshifter etc that might be causing problems.

I'd agree with the back up and then try and Archive & Install. That should take less than an hour and won't mean lots of application re-installing. If that doesn't work, then you've got the clean install route available.
Click to expand...


The key point here is that it really doesn't take long at all to archive and install. Just make sure you go to the options button on the installer window to select archive and install before proceeding. It will not be likely that this will take longer than an hour, as Applespider said.
 
i wonder if possibly this means that your HD is failing, with that fans going full and everything, weird...

i feel for you
 
Applespider said:
Ouch, jimmi, sounds nasty!

How many system mods have you got installed? Any chance of things like Onyx, Shapeshifter etc that might be causing problems.

I'd agree with the back up and then try and Archive & Install. That should take less than an hour and won't mean lots of application re-installing. If that doesn't work, then you've got the clean install route available.
Click to expand...

nope :( nothing like that installed.

im going to format. im clearing off my somehow full external HDD now. but i wont be doing any formatting until i finish one of my university projects. last time something went horribly wrong with OSX i though i'd lost my 20-odd page essay. NOT FUN! i suppose its nothing too serious just yet.
 
eva01 said:
i wonder if possibly this means that your HD is failing, with that fans going full and everything, weird...

i feel for you
Click to expand...

dont you DARE say that! i'll bite you if you do :eek: my HDD is just fine. aren't you? *hugs PB and sheds a tear*
 
raggedjimmi said:
dont you DARE say that! i'll bite you if you do :eek: my HDD is just fine. aren't you? *hugs PB and sheds a tear*
Click to expand...

i would boot from the OS X CD and verify disk and repair it, i would try that before formatting.
 
another wee problem is that (only recently too) Messenger 5 keeps asking me if i want to save my conversations, and my avatar pic keeps getting reset too. infact its like its just not saving my settings, barring the font I've been using since 2002. which is semi-amazing to say I've had around 5 computers in that time.
 
One quick note about Dashboard, when you have problems with widgets, don't forget to use cmd R to reload / refresh them. You will see a nifty little annimation and the widget should reset itself and begin working again.

Also, as for your mac not shutting down, have you let it shut down and given it a long long time to do that, maybe even hours. Also, make sure you have repaied permissions on your drive.

If all of these fail you can try re-installing, although that is really something most Mac users should never have to do.

Otherwise, if you are under waranty get it to an apple store or call on the phone, one of the great things about apple is the support, your system shouldn't make you angry or work incorrectly, if it does, they can help you.
 
My only two cents is this: after you start from scratch install one thing at a time and run them for a reasonable amount of time until you install the next. Obviously this is not as much of a problem with basic programs that are tested well, but will all these widgets and other smaller programs they can really cause problems and if you do multiple installs at one time you can't isolate the issue widget or program.

Good luck,

Don't fear- the dard side is far darker than OSX even at its worst! :D
 
is your HD full?

Sounds very similar to problems I used to have when I ran my HD with only about 2GB free. I'd use programs like photoshop and suddenly everything went to sh%t and all my preferences started to disappear and programs would hang, and I felt like I was using a PC at the 6 month mark when they generally need a reinstall.

I always felt it was a shame that I needed to reinstall osx. I felt it was a shame that upgrading osx instead of clean install seems to plant problem seeds that appear months down the track. I guess at the end of the day OS's are very complicated and whilst your basic OSX is still probably working fine you might have a corrupted pref file or something that makes the problem seem greater than it is.

Good Luck and keep us all informed :)
 
Wait a minute: widgets are a serious memory drain. Fully deactivate the widgets you don't want. Don't just click on the little x. Click on the "manage widgets" box and uncheck all of the widgets you don't use. Get rid of the icon in the dock and go into system prefs: expose etc. and set the widgets to activate with an f-key stroke.

The hard reboot problem: are you using iDisk mirror agent? If so, get rid of the local copy of your iDisk. Just have iDisk in your finder window sidebar. If you need something from iDisk, click there and wait patiently.

Another possibility is a program you've quit that might still be open, such as iTunes, iPhoto, etc. iTunes in particular has the propensity to cancel logouts. You can even force quit iTunes and sometimes it won't fully quit. Make sure you disconnect any connected iPod before quitting iTunes.

Before you shut down, are there any programs still open, ie, black arrows under the icon in the dock?

You could back-up, format, and reinstall, but it seems like a pretty laborious process, and if you don't find/fix problematic symptoms, the problem will likely return.

If you do decide to do a clean install/archive and install, make sure to disconnect any firewire devices. Also, make sure to do this when updating software. Just my two cents.
 
Frisco said:
How do you Archive and Install with Tiger? I never saw the option.
Click to expand...

Right after you boot into the install sequence there is a fairly hidden option to select which type of install you want to run. I believe the default one is set to "upgrade", in any case you have to click to get a full list of all the types of installs.
 
Start off the OS X CD, test the computer (Apple Hardware Test)

Also do a Repair of the hard drive. With all those hard shutdowns, you've caused more harm then good. If you have AppleCare, call and talk with them.

Sorry, but it sounds like you let your problems merge into each other until they started to kill ya. That sucks... :(
 
wait for 10.4.3!

I'd wait also for the next Tiger update - the biggy that keeps being mentioned but never released.

In my experience with OSX there is always a solution so it is worth persevering if only to prove that OSX is worthy of the thoughts we all attribute to it.
 
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