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I can't handle Tiger anymore

alangyssler

alangyssler

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 5, 2005
74
0
Buffalo Grove, IL
Just seeing if anyone else feels my pain here...

I feel like I should have waited to purchase Tiger. I have had nothing but troubles with it on TWO computers (see sig.). I'm a college student, and with little better to do over my summer break, I've spent way to much time trying to get Tiger to function properly on both computers. I've reinstalled the OS, and all subsequent software at least (no exaggeration, here) 10 times total in the last three months, mostly on my 1.2 gHz iBook. What gives? Why am I having such troubles with Tiger? My Finder crashes all the time. Spotlight responds, but usually very slowly. I can repair permissions until the end of time, and am still left with Widget preferences that need changing, but never do change. I frequently get a trouble with my Finder loading the "Open with" menu with duplicates (or even triplicates) of an application (often times, with only my one hard drive running, and only one copy installed. And when applying the fix I was given in the terminal (see thread entitled "My finder went bonkers"), it fixes it until my next reboot. My 5 button mouse used to be configured to have the right-most button go to my desktop in Exposé, but now it doesn't do anything, and reassigning other buttons doesn't work either.

Knowing that I'd probably be in a situation where I'd have to reinstall everything again (and probably relatively soon), I made a disc image of the fresh install (just the OS with updates applied), and a fully loaded image (all the apps I need, with all updates) for both computers from Disc Image, and followed the instructions provided by Disc Image to the T. Upon trying to restore, I was left with a non-bootable HD on my iBook, so I had to scrub it again from the Tiger DVD, and start over. Restore took about 5 hours!!! Useless! Those four disc images I made were all useless! How can I made a usefull disc image for quicker restoration purposes? I want to reimage the HD about every two weeks, and need something I can rely on.

I've given up. So long Tiger. You've taken up too much of my time this summer. You're too needy. I'm leaving you until you can grow up a little bit. I'm going back to 10.3.9, and getting my computers back.

Anyone else out there really honked off by Tiger? When is Apple going to do something about this shoddy release? Or am I just doing something totally wrong.
 
What's your secret? I realize this isn't a short answered-question, but how did you get it installed, updated, and running reliably? Erase and install? Multi-pass erasure? Anything different than just running the installer, and then all the apps that you needed? I assume you repaired permissions several times in the process, too..

I guess I'm looking for a way to make my systems run reliably, and for more than a short amount of time. Also, are you familiar with the "right" was to make a restorable disc image?

Thanks for your quick response.
 
I'm sorry to hear you're having so much trouble alangyssler. I've had nothing go wrong with any of my machines at all after the migration to tiger. I actually think it's fantastic - I use spotlight, automator, and dashboard all the time and I've never ever had a crash or anything go wrong. I don't know what to suggest as you seem to have tried everything ad nauseum. Also having two computers with problems seems to suggest it isn't something simple like a corrupt RAM stick or something. I hope your troubles go away when you go back to Panther :).
 
Wow, that really sucks. I upgraded both my 1.33 PowerBook and 800 iMac G4 to Tiger via archive and install. The only problem I had was having to fix Photoshop on my PB because dragging files onto the dock icon didn't open them up.
 
I've upgraded 150+ Macs from OS 10.3.9 to 10.4.2 and each one has been flawless. I did notice that you need to have at least 386 mb or above of ram to run succesfully and my slot loading purple iMac's didnt like Tiger (low processor speed) but my eMac 700 mhz's seemed to get alone just nicely with there newly equiped buddy. Whats your ram status on those machines? Also did u clean install or upgrade?

Edit: I've upgraded and archived and clean installed. The whole deal!
 
Maybe you don't have eough RAM or you have bad RAM and Tiger exposed this problem in all it's gory? Maybe there's some other hardware problem on the laptop?
 
grr... I'm glad others are having good fortune with Tiger. What did you do? Or more importantly, what can I do, or what did I do wrong? I reinstall after erasing, and immediately repair permissions, and do so in between every step practically. Then, apply updates. The install graphics software. Repair permissions. Restart. Install recording applications, repair permissions, restart. Install other applications (office, etc), repair permissions, restart. Then put on my personal documents, repair permissions, restart. Then run Mac Janitor, and repair permissions until I think I'm going to wear the darn button out in Disk Utility. Then restart. Then, about three weeks later, something goes awry, and everything starts moving like molasses in January, and I get the beachball of death all over. Start ups get slower, and my Finder starts acting up. Spotlight gets less and less usable. I have to Force Quit more and more frequently.

Is it possible there's something wrong with my Installer DVD? I can't imagine so, but that's one of the things that I've wondered. All this makes me want to go out and buy a mini, and try installing the same way on there, to see if I can repeat the problem. Perhaps some of my other installers aren't working properly.

<mutter under breath>stupid Tiger</mutter>
 
Read my previous post, and it kind of sounds like your harddrive gets fragmented. How big of an HD and how much software you installing?

Does your harddrive get pretty much close to full?
 
I should also note that I've moved a variety of desktops and laptops of various ages from Jaguar/Panther to Tiger and I've had minimal problems with them. So far I've moved about 50.
 
Yah all the way back to 10.2 i have upgraded 150+ Mac's ranging from iMac 300 mhz to Dual G5's. Everything usually runs beutifully with an exseption of the occasional scratched disc.... OOPS :)
 
I have 1.25 gig ram in the iBook, and 768 mg Ram on the desktop. The HD on the laptop is a 60 gig, Tiger uses about 4 gig, and all the applications take up (with Tiger) a total of about 12 gig. I'm left with about 42 gig (I know, it doesn't seem to add up, except that a gig isn't really 1000mb, so I guessed that had something to do with it). I don't know of a way to defragment, and why would a clean install fragment? On two machines? Anything else I can answer that might help?

Thanks again to anyone contributing. I'm hoping to be convinced to give Tiger another try.... I'd like to get my money's worth, at least, and I know if it ran well, it would be awesome. I just haven't had the pleasure of experiencing it. yet.
 
My father was having loads of trouble with tiger no matter what we did stuff would crash when the computer woke from sleep. We finally figured out what problem was a 3rd party non apple bluetooth mouse waking the computer from sleep caused it to freeze up every time, and general erratic behavior. I noticed in your profile that both of your systems are using 5 button microsoft mice. Is this mouse bluetooth?


On a side note is there anything other then the mice that these two machines have in common? Maybe you could try taking the added memory out of the ibook and see how it runs. Same thing with the other machine
 
A clean install would not fragment, u said after a while it started slowing down which usually infers fragmentation. A clean install should have your running perfect. The only things i could infer would be funky harddrive or bad ram. Maybe bad install disc to... did u try borrowing a friends?
 
alangyssler said:
What's your secret? I realize this isn't a short answered-question, but how did you get it installed, updated, and running reliably? Erase and install? Multi-pass erasure? Anything different than just running the installer, and then all the apps that you needed? I assume you repaired permissions several times in the process, too..

I guess I'm looking for a way to make my systems run reliably, and for more than a short amount of time. Also, are you familiar with the "right" was to make a restorable disc image?

Thanks for your quick response.
Click to expand...
My powerbook came with Tiger installed, and i rarely repair permissions, mainly because i always forget to, lol

However, on my iMac i installed Tiger, and all i did was to do an erase and install from the Tiger DVD, let it get on with it, copy most of my apps across from another machine (used for backup) and install a few that needed it, i don't think i ran any maintenance on it for a few weeks after that, i just don't have problems with it :eek:


Basicly, i format the HDD, install Tiger, copy across my backups and install any programs that have to be installed, then get using it. A few days later i may remember to repair permissions etc. but it never really seems to bother it if i leave it for a long time
 
The mice in questions are both wired. I don't have the BlueTooth usb dongle attached most of the time - I just use it to swap stuff with my T610 phone, which isn't very often. I guess I should just install one application at a time, and use it for a little while, and see if I notice it going bonkers after a certain point. The ram that I added to the iBook is brand new. Taking it out, I can do. Running at 256 is mighty slow, but if it helps diagnose the problem, then good. I can't think of anything else the two comps have in common. I just put a Belkin wireless card in the desktop, and the iBook as AE.... nothing's the same, that I can think of. I use my iPod on both... but I'd hate to think my iPod would wreak havoc on my computer.

Any ideas on how to defrag my HD?

As per borrowing a friends installer DVD... I (sadly) don't have any friends with Macs that have upgraded. I only have a handful of friends with Macs, and they've become a bit shy of Tiger, after hearing what my system has been through. I know it's highly frowned upon, but just for testing purposes, a friend did install Tiger from my DVD, and he hasn't had problems to speak of, which leads me to believe that it's not the DVD.

Anyone have any info on making disc images accurately that can be restored from?
 
I would say to try the ram it's fairly easy to take out and could help diagnose the problem. If you got your ram from Apple or Crucial or any reputable company they should exchange it for you if you find that is the problem after all.
 
This may seem like a very dumb question, but did you wait for Spotlight to finish indexing before you tried to use your computer? If you didn't and just turned it off, it will run again each time you use your computer and will slow it down.

Stupid comment, I know, but just wanted to throw it out there.
 
Heres a good idea, kind of time consuming but it might work.

1) Clean install - run for a while
2) Step by step install additional software testing after each for new problems etc...
3) Hopefully you'll determine the cause
4) Rub the little Apple sign on the outside of the case... keeps em happy
5) If u can't determine whats causeing the issue try a differnt install DVD somtimes they have bad sectors if scratched or what not.


If its happening on both machines its probably something your installing and not the computer itself.
If the comp runs great with just Tiger no additonal apps its deffinitly something you are adding.

If your clean installing you dont have to worry about defragmentation. Its possible for it to get fragmented as u install the software and the only defragmenter that i use is Norton System Works 3.0. We defrag all machines once a year and it works pretty dandy. We use to use NSW 2 but it killed every OS X box in the school. That was a bad week! :)

Good luck!
 
Why don't you reinstall panther. It couldn't really hurt to do that, and run it for a week.

If you have no problems what so ever with your computer then I would to a clean install of Tiger and add programs back. One at a time. good luck!
 
Sounds like a case of bad RAM.

I had something like that happen to me. I thought my HD was failing, because I would never get past the gray boot screen, or sometimes I could but everything was sluggish and stalling.

Sometimes its plain coincidence your RAM goes bad at the same time you upgrade OSes.
 
Bad ram

yikes. I'll try taking the gig stick out today, then. I would hate to think it's bad, as it's only about a month and half old. That'd suck. I'll try it through. Thanks for your help! I'm going to reinstall apps one at a time in Tiger, and see where it goes wrong, then reinstall in Panther, if need be. This is going be a long, lllooonnnnng process, but (hopefully) well worth it. Bleh. I hate reinstalling.
 
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