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Ok, this is ticking me off now

C

CoolJuul

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 26, 2008
6
0
So, I bought the 2008 Mac Pro, standard configuration (except for a wireless mouse). I'm quite thrilled with it all and it's just an enjoyment to have it sit on my desk and having the honor to work with it.

Now the downside. Even as soon as on the first day my system crashes or locks-up completely. Only thing I can do is a hard reboot. I think iTunes is causing it, after playing some music for about 15 min it seems to crash every single time. When I don't have iTunes playing in the back I haven't experienced any single crash.

When crashing, the screens seems to freeze and some lines of pixels appear. I'm quite worried because it's a brand new system and I have just switched from Windows to Mac thinking things can only get better ... not? How can a brand new system with a first party, native application like iTunes crash when simply playing back some music?

I'm not sure it is iTunes, but it definately seems like it. Is iTunes 7.6 THAT buggy?
 
Firstly unplug everything that you don't need plugged in. If it still crashes >
Create a new account and use that for a while. If it still crashes >

Erase and install. :eek:
 
bamaworks said:
hmm, there was just a new itunes update last night/this morning. Perhaps there is a fix in there?
Click to expand...

I got it straight away today, but it already crashed another time ...

I tried calling Apple Support, but tbh they weren't that helpful. In short, the guy told me I had to find out what was causing it myself by nearing down the posibilities.

A hardware test didn't show anything.
 
CoolJuul said:
Erase and install as in complete OS?
Click to expand...

yea. you should have gotten a restore DVD with your machine, just boot from that and do a complete system restore. Just don't forget to backup whatever data you have moved to your new machine already.
 
CoolJuul said:
Erase and install as in complete OS?
Click to expand...

As a last resort, yes. Back up first, then start installing 3rd party apps one at a time until the crashing starts again (or not hopefully).

It's the only real way to rule out hardware failure. The Apple Hardware Test DVD may find the problem but it can take a long time. What RAM are you using?
 
Southernboy said:
As a last resort, yes. Back up first, then start installing 3rd party apps one at a time until the crashing starts again (or not hopefully).

It's the only real way to rule out hardware failure. The Apple Hardware Test DVD may find the problem but it can take a long time. What RAM are you using?
Click to expand...

I ran the Apple Hardware Test twice, that's what the Apple guy recommended. It took me about 15 minutes per run I think? Nothing came up though. Everything was fine, at least that is what it said.

I'm currently still running the 2GB RAM that came with it. So no hardware changes what so ever.

Currently working in a different account and things are still going well. Think I have it running for about 45 minutes with iTunes in the background and still no crash. Bit reluctant of installing any software or updates though :(

I really want to use iTunes, I use it for my iPhone and buy quite some stuff from the store. Anyone know btw whether or not you need to have iTunes running when using the CoverSutra app?
 
I would guess bad RAM. Download a tool called Rember and run it overnight, see if it comes up with any failures.

Rember is more exhaustive than HWT.
 
I'm 75% certain that it's a software problem, and fairly certain that iTunes isn't the culprit. Try reinstalling apps one by one, keep things as clean as possible (no haxies etc).

Good luck ;)

Edit: Live without CoverSutra for a while just in case.
 
I have iTunes 7.6 installed on a 10 year old Beige G3 on OS 10.4.9 and a Pentium M laptop on Windows XP Pro SP2... not buggy. Seems unlikely it's the real culprit ;x

I assume you've repaired permissions? Tried that sort of thing.

If you have something like TechTool Pro, or better yet, DiskWarrior, use that. If not, I'd actually just recommend getting DiskWarrior. I'm not sure if it supports Leopard yet (though I assume DW 4 for Tiger would work just fine), however. It can fix all sorts of problems standard tools Apple provides cannot.

Short of that, a reinstall seems like a good bet if you don't mind it.
 
CoolJuul said:
So, I bought the 2008 Mac Pro, standard configuration (except for a wireless mouse). I'm quite thrilled with it all and it's just an enjoyment to have it sit on my desk and having the honor to work with it.

Now the downside. Even as soon as on the first day my system crashes or locks-up completely. Only thing I can do is a hard reboot. I think iTunes is causing it, after playing some music for about 15 min it seems to crash every single time. When I don't have iTunes playing in the back I haven't experienced any single crash.

When crashing, the screens seems to freeze and some lines of pixels appear. I'm quite worried because it's a brand new system and I have just switched from Windows to Mac thinking things can only get better ... not? How can a brand new system with a first party, native application like iTunes crash when simply playing back some music?

I'm not sure it is iTunes, but it definately seems like it. Is iTunes 7.6 THAT buggy?
Click to expand...

Sounds a lot like what we've been going through. Then there's also these links, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

IMHO, it has nothing to do with the programs you run, it's a hardware/firmware problem with the ATI card. I'm on my second machine from Apple for 3 weeks now and the problem just started to come back.
 
Southernboy said:
DiskWarrior 4.1 supports Leopard. Don't on any account use the Tiger version on a 10.5 system.
Click to expand...

A-ha! Just as I suspected. Or, didn't. Funny, because Diskwarrior 2.1.1 on Mac OS 9 worked to fix my 10.3.9 installation when I was still running Panther, lol.

Anyway, I'd recommend using... DW 4.1! Is that a free upgrade for 4.0 users?
 
Thanks for all the help people. I will try some of the adviced procedures out. Currently the temporary account is running fine, but I'm just worried it will randomly f*ck up again anytime soon. I really am a bit scared for installing and updating things now.

Can you 'force' Apple to take the machine back and give a replacement?
 
CoolJuul said:
Currently the temporary account is running fine, but I'm just worried it will randomly f*ck up again anytime soon. I really am a bit scared for installing and updating things now.
Click to expand...

If the new account is "running fine" the chances of a hardware problem have been pretty well eliminated.

Take Southernboy's advice and start installing apps ONE AT A TIME, THEN TESTING to see if the issues return. When (if?) they do, you've found the culprit and can remove it.
 
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