Hey guys,
So shortly after I installed the new update for 10.6.8 my computer began to behave quite strangely. My Finder would crash when I switched views from list view to icon view, (or any other view for that matter). When I tried to install software, Finder would crash, the desktop would seem to refresh it self and the install would either fail or not execute at all. Over time I would get a panic screen (a small black pop-up that instructs you to do a hard boot in several different languages) and my computer would freeze. Applications that I had used for quite some time would suddenly start doing strange things like failing to save work I completed, or would crash all together. Needless to say this became very frustrating!!!! It was for these exact reasons that I switched to a Mac to begin with.
At first, I thought I had a virus, (I was actually convinced of this, and yes, there are virus' that can infect macs). So I downloaded the best, free, virus scanner I could find. (I recommend sophos,
http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-antivirus-for-mac-home-edition.aspx). After some playing around and 2 hours later I finally got it to install! But because of my phantom virus, the scan would fail after about 5 mins in. I REALLY didn't want to do a re-install of my OS, download and apply all the updates over the last two years, re-install all my software and recover all my data. That process would literally take me days, it would be quicker to try and find a fix over the next 24 hours. So I hit the net to do some research! (That's how I found this forum).
What I discovered, was that there are several other users having similar issues as I was having. However, they attributed their problems to the new 10.6.8 update. That made me think, (...'yeah, it was around that time I started to have problems too'...). This gave me some comfort. Maybe I don't have a virus after all! So I tried a whole new focus in fixing my problem.
I first tried the fix suggested by iLog.Genius above. I booted off my install disk and started the disk utility. Unfortunately, it would not run because the version was too old. So, I tried the same thing except in safe mode, (restart you machine and hold the shift key. You'll see the white screen with the
in the center, then a progress bar will appear below that. Only then do you release the shift key). I noticed right away that my finder would behave normally in this mode, (now I felt really good. This convinced me that the update WAS probably my problem). I then started up the disk utility that was installed on the system, and ran the 'Fix Permissions' option. This ran for about 20 mins and made quite a few changes! I restarted my machine only to find that nothing had changed.
I was aware that when apple releases their updates, they come in two forms. A smaller quick patch (~250MB) and a more detailed Combo patch found here (
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399) which is a little over 1GB. After download, I restarted my machine in safe mode, ran and installed the combo patch, restarted my machine and voila! Everything was back to normal. Whoohoo!!
So now I have a kick-ass virus scanner installed on my machine and I'm ready to receive the new Lion! So I guess even after some frustration I still came out with a better machine. I thought I'd share my trials with you seeing as I didn't find any solutions or fixes for this issue anywhere else.
Hope this helps!
