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Snow Leopard not so good for everyone

leekohler

leekohler

macrumors G5
Original poster
Dec 22, 2004
14,164
26
Chicago, Illinois
Guys- a friend of mine is continuing to have a lot of problems with Snow Leopard. His battery isn't charging again on his MBP even after resetting the SMC, along with other glitches. Is it just a reinstall issue? If we can't figure it out, he wants to go back to Leopard. He's very frustrated.

And if he does want to go back to Leopard, is there a simple way to do that without a clean install?
 
I couldn't tell you if it's an reinstall issue or not, it wouldn't hurt to try.

And there is no way to install an older OS over a new one without erasing everything on the harddrive.
 
Are you sure this is a software problem? Sounds to me more like the hardware is not working. Faulty battery???
 
Agree, his computer likely has additional issues. Try it again AFTER
repairing all permissions and a pram reset.
 
Have they got a back-up from before they installed Snow Leopard, preferably a clone from SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner? If they have then boot off the clone and clone the back-up to the internal drive.

If not they will have to do a fresh install of Leopard and pull their settings and data from Time Machine.
 
yeah ive been noticing this too on a late 08 2.4ghz 15" MBP
its kind of disappointing actually.
the battery life tends to not even fluctuate properly under SL.
it routinely got 4.5 ~ 5.5 hours under Leopard using wifi, half brightness, running pages, firefox and itunes and then misc combinations of apps; now its averaging a shorter lifespan, decreased performance and other performance issues...both after a clean install and migration install.

id make a clone if he hasnt already and just migrate the data back over...but ive also heard of complications of downgrading from 10.6 to 10.5


im not too pleased with the SL OS myself, its unfortunate, was looking forward to it.

FSMBP said:
I couldn't tell you if it's an reinstall issue or not, it wouldn't hurt to try.

And there is no way to install an older OS over a new one without erasing everything on the harddrive.
Click to expand...

archive & install, restore from back up, time machine back up etc
 
skye12 said:
Agree, his computer likely has additional issues. Try it again AFTER
repairing all permissions and a pram reset.
Click to expand...

Done all that. An additional issue is disks freezing his screen when trying to eject.

And none of this happened before the install. It all started happening right after.
 
leekohler said:
Done all that. An additional issue is disks freezing his screen when trying to eject.

And none of this happened before the install. It all started happening right after.
Click to expand...

Sounds like all he did was went the "upgrade" route with Snow Leopard instead of a clean install which involves a full erase and install which is honestly what should be done with a major system upgrade. Haven't you read any of the other threads about people having SL issues, most due to them choosing the upgrade route?
Now, if he did in fact do a clean install and manually installed all of his apps back and is not using any funny little haxies to change the dock and such then he's having hardware issues, not related to SL.
 
AppleNewton said:
yeah ive been noticing this too on a late 08 2.4ghz 15" MBP
its kind of disappointing actually.
the battery life tends to not even fluctuate properly under SL.
it routinely got 4.5 ~ 5.5 hours under Leopard using wifi, half brightness, running pages, firefox and itunes and then misc combinations of apps; now its averaging a shorter lifespan, decreased performance and other performance issues...both after a clean install and migration install.

id make a clone if he hasnt already and just migrate the data back over...but ive also heard of complications of downgrading from 10.6 to 10.5


im not too pleased with the SL OS myself, its unfortunate, was looking forward to it.



archive & install, restore from back up, time machine back up etc
Click to expand...


A. You cannot archive and install from a downgrade in OS
B. No matter what, you will have to erase your harddrive in a downgrade
C. I never said you would not be able to keep your data, of course you can back it up, EITHER way, your harddrive will not contain the data once the OS is installed. That's what the OP was asking - there was never a question in if if he will lose his data forever.
 
HLdan said:
Sounds like all he did was went the "upgrade" route with Snow Leopard instead of a clean install which involves a full erase and install which is honestly what should be done with a major system upgrade. Haven't you read any of the other threads about people having SL issues, most due to them choosing the upgrade route?
Now, if he did in fact do a clean install and manually installed all of his apps back and is not using any funny little haxies to change the dock and such then he's having hardware issues, not related to SL.
Click to expand...

I did ask about the "upgrade route" before, and everyone said it should be fine. That indeed is what he did. I was under the impression that SL just "cleaned up" Leopard and it was necessary to have Leopard installed before installing SL. Is that not the case?
 
Completely off topic but:

1) How does one become a demi-God? and
2) Shouldn't demi-Gods be answering these type of questions rather than asking them? <No personal insult intended.>
 
Scott6666 said:
Completely off topic but:

1) How does one become a demi-God? and

From the FAQ

Demi-Goddess, Demi-God or Contributor => Member who has contributed to the site and has chosen to use one of those three titles.
Click to expand...

2) Shouldn't demi-Gods be answering these type of questions rather than asking them? <No personal insult intended.>
Click to expand...
As indicated, it has no bearing on their level of technical knowledge, just that they donated to the website.
 
Scott6666 said:
Completely off topic but:

1) How does one become a demi-God? and
2) Shouldn't demi-Gods be answering these type of questions rather than asking them? <No personal insult intended.>
Click to expand...

All "demi-god" means is that I contribute money to MacRumors. It doesn't mean I know everything. ;)
 
Scott6666 said:
Completely off topic but:

1) How does one become a demi-God?
Click to expand...

Contribute $25, details here

Scott6666 said:
and
2) Shouldn't demi-Gods be answering these type of questions rather than asking them? <No personal insult intended.>
Click to expand...

Being a demi-god means you have contributed to the running of MacRumors and just like the rest of the members on here we sometimes need a bit of help with our Macs. :D
 
leekohler said:
I did ask about the "upgrade route" before, and everyone said it should be fine. That indeed is what he did. I was under the impression that SL just "cleaned up" Leopard and it was necessary to have Leopard installed before installing SL. Is that not the case?
Click to expand...

Some people have reported problems with an upgrade install that were fixed after a subsequent erase and install... I would try that before going back to Leopard. But if he doesn't have the patience to try that, just go straight back to Leopard for now.

I did an upgrade install and didn't have any issues except for the duplicate font thing - which was pretty easy to fix.
 
leekohler said:
All "demi-god" means is that I contribute money to MacRumors. It doesn't mean I know everything. ;)
Click to expand...

Ohhhh.

A purchased title. Kind of like English Royalty.

Well, that's a nice thing that you donated money. I should do the same. I read the site every day.

I certainly don't know everything. I will be a very confused demi-God.
 
Heb1228 said:
Some people have reported problems with an upgrade install that were fixed after a subsequent erase and install... I would try that before going back to Leopard. But if he doesn't have the patience to try that, just go straight back to Leopard for now.

I did an upgrade install and didn't have any issues except for the duplicate font thing - which was pretty easy to fix.
Click to expand...

Ok then. So can we just use the SL disc to do this? Or do we have to install Leopard first?
 
leekohler said:
You'll be in good company. ;)
Click to expand...

Ok, I'm $25 poorer but infinitely happier. It automatically demi-God-ed me. I wasn't sure I was going to use the title but it doesn't seem to have given me a choice.

Now that I'm a deity I have been hit with an epiphany and the answer to your question is:

If you are going to go to the trouble to do a clean install, go back to Leopard. He just wants a usable Mac. Let SL settle down a bit before he upgrades. I'm personally waiting at least until 10.6.2. Now I don't feel so bad about hijacking the thread.​
 
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