Programs crashing all over the place, everything is very slow...

[wilx]

Since a restart earlier this evening, my mac's gone insane.

Apogee Maestro software was bouncing in the dock, then settled - but nothing happened. Same with skype. I could only force-quit both applications. Quicktime does the same, although if I leave it for 5 minutes, quicktime does launch - but all the controls are very laggy and playback is very stuttery (as in 4/5 frames every 30 seconds.


I ran disk utility, and some permissions needed repairing. I then checked the boot disk and a 'significant/serious (whatever the nomenclature is) error' was found, so I ran the boot disk for Leopard and repaired the disk, which Disk Utility seemed happy enough with.

The problems are all still present though. Clicking through folders on all three of my drives is very slow, and luck alone seems to determine the success of attempting to launch any application.


Does anyone know what may be happening - or is there any diagnostic software which may help? I've suffered hard disk failure before, and this doesn't seem like it (although I am backed up).

It was completely fine yesterday...

 

[MacDawg]

Have you run the hardware diagnostics on Disc 2 that came with your computer?

Sounds like it could be RAM to me, but there isn't enough information

 

[wilx]

Have you run the hardware diagnostics on Disc 2 that came with your computer?

Sounds like it could be RAM to me, but there isn't enough information

Good point:

Mac Pro early '09 Nehalem, 8-core 2.66

12GB RAM

Latest version of Snow Leopard.


I'll see if I still have the old factory CDs.

 

[wilx]

Passed Hardware diagnostics.

I'm typing this in Safari, since it took Firefox 3minutes to open, and then it froze with the spinning beachball for 5mins, so I force-quit it. Now when I try to reopen firefox I get:

"Close firefox

a copy of firefox is already open. only one copy of firefox can be open at a time"

activity monitor (when it eventually loads) shows no firefox running, and neither does force-quit.

All applications are now painfully slow, many do not work at all. 'About this mac' took 6 minutes to display.

 

[wilx]

OK - I might have isolated the problem.

In frustration, I removed the firewire cable from my Apogee Duet - since the last Apple Audio Update, the Duet emits a quiet but piercingly uncomfortable constant shriek. I took the cable out to stop this noise, and everything seems to work absolutely fine now. Clicking around in the finder is responsive, 1gb-plus quicktime files are playing no problem, etc.


So it may be some sort of firewire issue...

 

[seisend]

OK - I might have isolated the problem.

In frustration, I removed the firewire cable from my Apogee Duet - since the last Apple Audio Update, the Duet emits a quiet but piercingly uncomfortable constant shriek. I took the cable out to stop this noise, and everything seems to work absolutely fine now. Clicking around in the finder is responsive, 1gb-plus quicktime files are playing no problem, etc.


So it may be some sort of firewire issue...

So you say your Mac Pro works fine without your Duet connected?

About the constant shriek, does it come from your Duet or your Mac Pro? It might be a problem related to this thread too:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/866341/

If you want to check if your Audio Update 1.0 is causing the problems, you can undo it. Download this and follow the instructions (containing in the folder).

http://rapidshare.com/files/354706662/UNDO_Audio_Fix_1.0_Update_by_Apple.zip

If you want to reinstall the Audio Update, just use the Apple Software Updater or replace the files (as in the instructions).