Mac spoiled me silly until disaster struck..

[wout]

Hello all,

I've always been able to run my mac without the slightest of problems, so after a year of bug-freedom I was so spoiled, the revolt of my eMac (OS 10.3.9) hit me like a bolt of lightning. I couldn't install major apps all of a sudden because of lack of permissions and printing anything was out of the question because of RAM-shortage(yeah right) or unexpected errors...
also it wouldn't update my software because it couldn't write to protected files(temp/501 stuff)..
in root user mode everything still works like a charm though, but I was advised not to login to that as a default..

this is not so much a cry for help(but all help would be appreciated) as it is more of a warning for Mac-users that get too comfortable, like myself, to remember that Macs are manmade in the end so bugs will crawl into them eventually..
...still it beats the suffering and frustration a PC would have brought me (probably shortening my lifespan for a couple of years)..
greetings Compay

ps for anyone wanting to offer suggestions;
- I already ran System optimizer
- repaired permissions with disk utility
- created another admin account(same problems there)

 

[eva01]

i have never had problems like that with OS X and have been using it since 10.2.2.

Installing faulty programs can cause problems like that thou, one limewire version made users unable to write to the applications folder.

So watch whatever you install, and always take care of your system, if you don't random things like that will happen.

did you repair disk from the install CD

 

[mad jew]

So did reinstalling the OS work? How did you eventually get around the problems?

 

[CanadaRAM]

What machine?

If it is a powerbook, did you go into System Profiler and see if all your RAM is being registered? 10.3.9 may have disabled your lower RAM socket

 

[Gherkin]

What machine?

If it is a powerbook, did you go into System Profiler and see if all your RAM is being registered? 10.3.9 may have disabled your lower RAM socket

What? Explain this.

 

[mad jew]

What? Explain this.

The 10.3.9 update made some PowerBooks forget that they had two RAM slots. From memory it was only the 15 inch ones but I could be wrong.

 

[Bear]

The 10.3.9 update made some PowerBooks forget that they had two RAM slots. From memory it was only the 15 inch ones but I could be wrong.

Funny how people miss stuff. The original poster said he had an eMac.

Also, losing one RAM slot will not cause the issue that wout is seeing.

wout: WHat were the last two or three pieces of software that you installed?

 

[wout]

last things i installed before the great depression :
- cyberduck(ftp program)
- ffmpeg(video converter)
- vlc media player

also I ran system optimizer x right before things went sour..
don't know if this is related though..

 

[CanadaRAM]

Funny how people miss stuff. The original poster said he had an eMac.

Also, losing one RAM slot will not cause the issue that wout is seeing.

Right, see that now. Still don't know if it is an eMac USB 1.1 or an eMac USB 2.0 machine.

One of the problems reported was the machine complaining about being out of memory. That surely is relevant to RAM module or socket failure.

 

[ElectricSheep]

Now, you can log in as root but just out of curiosity, do you still have the ability to super-user to root from your normal admin account?

 

[wout]

I'm not sure if I understand your question completely,
but I can login as root super-user, but in my normal admin account, I lost several privileges that I used to have before..

 

[benpatient]

One of the problems reported was the machine complaining about being out of memory. That surely is relevant to RAM module or socket failure.

except that OS X (like modern versions of Windows) can't "run out of memory" unless you're out of RAM and hard drive space...because system memory is augmented (even in systems with 8 GB of physical RAM) with virtual memory.

Any error that says you're out of memory (not space, but memory) is indicative of a different problem.

A RAM module or socket failure would cause totally different problems, if it caused any obvious problems at all...