Pace to install new apps

[Kwyjibo]

So lately i've been having some trouble with my powerbook.It has been freezing/crashing. I called applecare and they recommended a total reinstall. I told applecare how I had my drive partitioned and they suggested I erase it all and start again. They then suggested that I only install the essentials slowly to try and test is hardware is causing the random crashes I was having or software.

So I assume that I should be installing fresh copies of software from the CDs but slowly. Right now in about 20 hours of using it I've had no crashes. I have only basically set up safari and ichat to use. They said I should slowly add applications as I feel comfrotable. I have to add back microsoft office, dreamweaver, and VLC and a few other apps but I'm gonna keep it minimal at what I use the most. How big do you guys think the intervals should be? a day and a half? I'm just trying to figure out the best range for testing purposes. Any advice would be great.

 

[jelloshotsrule]

i'd say it all depends how much you use the computer. if you're on it all day everyday, then probably a day or two is plenty. also depends what you happen to use it for. for me, i do lots of graphics stuff. so a day of purely web surfing/email isn't a good test of what i'll throw at the computer, not truly testing possible incompatibilities, so i'd either run the apps i usually use, just to test for errors, or i'd wait til i have a project to use the apps for and see if anything happens (though i would save often! hah)..

i'd say apple was being a little overdramatic and careful.. just add things as you need them, and take careful note of any problems that may occur. i had problems with my g5 in the past, and almost always a reformat fixed it (even freezing and fan weirdness, ie, possible hardware issues)...

my 2 cents.

 

[Kwyjibo]

yeah, this feels really old school, i got out a notebook and i'm gonna write down when it crashes and a few details to see if i can correlate a pattern, IF it crashes at all (crosses fingers) This week i'm at home and I start school up again next week. So this week i'm just surfing and watching movies / recording dvds and things like that, so those will be my tests. Today I installed my eyetv so I can record the first episode of 24. Tomorrow i'll install toast and see how that goes. Dreamweaver later on this week probably.

so I used to have 3 partitions, Jaguar, Panther, and Junk. Junk had all my documents, downloads and music. Jaguar had the old OS and some old apps. Panther had newer apps and panther. So I delted all of it. and i'm thinking that now that the operating system is on the primary partition, not the second one like it was in the older config and maybe there was just a bad file or setting that corrupted my whole system. do these sound like reaosnable theories ... ?

 

[Littleodie914]

I may be wrong, but I don't think there's an interval at which you should install new apps. If they're gonna crash, it's inevitable whether you install them now or over a period of a few days or a week. I'd say just install them at the rate you need them, but try and keep track of the order you install them, so that if something does go wrong, you'll have a good idea as to which app is the culprit.

 

[Kwyjibo]

well thats the idea of the interval. so that I know hopefulyl which one causes a crash, i was just looking for a good time inwhich it would act up. I have my computer running most of the day, and its usually doing something but it even used to freeze wup just sitting on my desk .... what abotu software like adium, thats sort of in ongoing development.

 

[jelloshotsrule]

well i certainly don't know much about hard drive corruption, etc... so i don't know what could've happened in your case, or mine...

but as for installing, things like adium. if it's an app you use, install it. personally i think in the era of osx it's less of an app problem and more of a drive issue (not to say that it's a hardware issue, but rather than it may not have been an app's installation or use, but rather just a random corruption somewhere on the drive)... as opposed to os 9 and before when you had to make sure extensions didn't conflict, etc... a huge pain.

wow, i'm wordy

to make a long story short, install as you need, i wouldn't worry about specifically testing unless you have any crazy freeware (most free/shareware is so simple and uninvasive that it shouldn't really cause problems, even if poorly written), or any very complicated apps (maya, shake, etc). if you install as you use, and something is really causing a problem, it should be apparent pretty much right as soon as you use it

ahh, sorry i ramble. hope that helps!

 

[Kwyjibo]

1 kernel panic and 5 freezes. I don't think its a software issue anymore .... bahh really frustrated.

 

[Mechcozmo]

1 kernel panic and 5 freezes. I don't think its a software issue anymore .... bahh really frustrated.

That can't be good. Tried the Apple Hardware Test CD?

 

[Kwyjibo]

make that 6, and we talked about the hardware test CD yesterday. My only option is to call back applecare and tell them I tried they're thing and it didn't help. Its amazing, i'm pumped about the expo but pissed about my computer.

before this one I had one ofthe iBook G3's with the motherboard issue, before there was a repair program. took me forever to get that computer finally fixed for good and now this one has different but stil ldestructive issues, I cant' believe i'm still so loyal to apple.

 

[jelloshotsrule]

ahh, sorry to hear about the misfortune. when i first had my g5, i had freeze problems and kernel panics... reformatting seemed to fix that. recently i reinstalled the system (with an entire reformat) and i've gotten the freeze on startup (which causes the fans to run at high blast til i force a power down) a few times. weird.

anyhoo, good luck!