OS X :: Mac Forcing Reboots After Almost Every Software Update?
Jan 19, 2010
Do you guys recall when one of the advantages of Mac OS X over Windows was that it required fewer reboots after software updates and installs?
I recall it being one of the selling points in maybe a few of their commercials and advertisements, way back when, along with "quicker boot times".
It seems that -- nowadays -- I'm required to reboot OS X almost every time their is a software update for the OS or value-added software, while my Windows box seems like it goes months between required reboots after Microsoft software/OS updates.
For the past month or so, I've started to have some really weird problems with my Mac Pro. Applications will suddenly stall out or freeze up (endless rainbow wheel), and Force Quit won't work to quit them. It happens most often with iTunes and Finder, but it's also happened with Firefox once or twice. The whole system doesn't freeze or stall - I can generally still use another application (i.e. if iTunes stalls and won't quit, I can still continue to use Firefox, etc.), but generally if I leave it this way too long another application with eventually freeze, forcing me to shut down by holding down the power button (Shut Down won't work in these cases).
Occasionally when this happens, I have left my computer alone, and sometimes it unfreezes or unstalls by itself, but this is usually hours later, and sometimes it doesn't do this even after hours of waiting. I ran a hardware test thinking that faulty RAM might be the issue, but the hardware test said everything was OK. I don't know if I should believe that or not. I've tried repairing permissions and verifying all disks, internal and external, and everything checked out OK. What is going on here? Why do things keep freezing/stalling and forcing reboots?
Here is what I've got: 2x2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 2GB 800MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM Running Mac OS X 10.5.8 I have really normal stuff installed - MS Office, Photoshop, Ableton, etc. No really weird third-party applications other than some really simple stuff. I'm not the type to overwhelm my computer with a bunch of crap.
iPhoto, for example, takes about 30secs to open. If I'm using Safari and decide I want to upload a photo, opening iPhoto and then going back to Safari simply means that iPhoto will jump to the front with it's big, blank screen and spinning beachball five or six times. It's like fighting with my Mac. It's like I'm constantly clicking back to Safari and then a few seconds later my Mac will pop it to the front as if to say "You wanted iPhoto, so here's iPhoto - watch it open."
It's very annoying. Can I set something to allow applications to load in the background?
this is driving me insane. On Tiger I was always able to select the default application to open a given file type, but I can't do this in SL. I want the XLD app to always open my .flac files. So, I click on a .flack file, select "get info" and select "Open with - XLD", and then I click CHANGE ALL. Fine. Next time, I just click "open" on a .flac and it's back to some other application being the default for opening the file, and not XLD! It keeps doing that, no matter how I keep trying to get XLD to be the default... what am I doing wrong, and what can I do to get it to work?
My MacBook Pro early 2011 13" freezes, requiring a hard restart when the CPU temperature stays in the 195 F (as measured by iStat nano) range for more than a few minutes. The fans run appropriately. I am running 16 GB of RAM, most of which is not being used during these 'hot' episodes (according to Activity Monitor). Typically they happen when Mail is trying to connect to iCloud and can't seem to do it. Then the spinning beach ball. Can't force quit or restart from the Apple menu. I'm using 10.7.4 on a dual core i7, 2.7 GHz unit.
Info:MacBook Pro (13-inch Early 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.4), Speck clam shell translucent case
Macbook Air was purchased in June. Worked fine the first few months, but has been freezing progressively more often, forcing a shut down. Cursor active but clicking does nothing. Today it has allowed not functionality and froze upon booting up. It isn't used much beyond checking email and surfing the internet. Also, is it true that MacBooks have a one year warranty?
I've been testing this method for awhile to determine if it was possible to boot the x86_64 kernel on the Macbook Air via any process. It looks like it is. References here and here show it is possible to force boot the x86_64 kernel if you have a 64bit EFI firmware. To test your EFI firmware you can use the following: (Source).
Type the following into Terminal:
ioreg -l -p IODeviceTree | grep firmware-abi
If your Mac shows "firmware-abi" = EFI64 then you can proceed. If you see EFI32 then you're out of luck for this particular method.
The rest of the process is detailed at the links included above. I will rewrite this part when I have the method fully working, but for now I haven't been successful.
There are several relevant parts such as:
Quote:
Model (with 64-bit EFI) Byte Position in boot64.efi Old Value New Value Mac mini(Eary 2009)　0�266DB 0�00 0�80 MacBook Air(Late 2008)　0�266FB 0�00 0�80 iMac(early 2008) 0�2671B 0�08 0�80
included in the comments at this page, but so far I'm stuck.
Update 1:
As an alternate method I attempted to use lipo to modify the mach_kernel to only contain the x86_64 kernel information. A reboot confirms this didn't work so well.
Interesting notes so far from the EFI modification tests:
1) bless --info works fine on 10.6.0, but gives a Can't access "efi-boot-device" NVRAM variable on 10.6.2.
2) You can still modify which efi file is used for boot in 10.6.2 (I fouled one up in a hex editor and rebooted to see if it would fail just to test it), but the bless binary will not show the information the system is configured with.
3) The information at both links above for modifying the boot.efi doesn't seem to work in 10.6.0. It already wasn't working in 10.6.2, but there were some comments about it working in previous versions of Snow Leopard so I went back to an unpatched vanilla install from my install media (used Disk Utility to format the drive before installation) to test it.
Thread Notes:
1) Yes, I am aware that Leopard and Snow Leopard are fully capable of running 64bit programs using the i386 kernel. This is just an experiment for fun.
2) No, I do not have any reason to do this and I know the Macbook Air runs fine with the i386 kernel including every feature of the x86_64 kernel.
3) Yes, I know the Macbook Air only contains 2GB of ram so there is no reason to run the x86_64 kernel.
I have a MACbook PRO, 2.6Ghz Intel Core Duo, 4GB SDRAM, with aproximately 4.38GB HD storage space left. Operating Sytem: MAC OS X version 10.5.8
My FINDER is behaving erratically - in that, when I create new folders (which I can do with the mouse and right button) it will not allow me to name the file, as if the computer would not recognise the keyboard. What is weird, is that I then click on a web browser, or any other application and I can type as usual.
I assume it is then a problem with FINDER - which after forcing to relaunch, works fine for a little while, but shortly, the problem comes up again
Having to relaunch finder every 5mins is not my idea of a smoothe operating system.
I'm trying to liberate more space - but it is proving difficult as my main tool in order to back up files is finder.
Forcing preview to see downloaded pdf's automatically. Safari downloads these but preview doesn't open it unless forced. My other MB air downloads them and automatically opens them in th media viewer of Safari.Â
In the last few weeks my Macbook has started be begin freezing at seemingly random intervals. It is a 2008 Macbook, not a Macbook Pro or Macbook Air. At first this was only once a day, or once every other day, but it has gotten progressively worse. By today, I can't go more than 2 or 3 hours without it freezing, forcing me to manually restart the computer. The freezing is not application specific; once it freezes with one application, if I try to pull up anything on the menu bar, the menu bar proceeds to freeze. I haven't made any recent major changes to the computer, and it had been working perfectly fine before now. I'm working on scanning it in case it is a virus, but this is seeming increasingly unlikely.
Not sure if this is a Hotmail thing or a browser thing, but if someone attaches a jpeg to an email I recieve in Hotmail, when I click it in Firefox I get a dialogue box asking: What should Firefox do with this file? Open With [choose...] or Save file?In Safari, it just automatically downloads the picture to the default download location and then auto opens it with Preview.This is so annoying! How do I set my browsers to just open jpegs within the browser?
I accidentally deleted my entire exchange calendar. I use entourage to manage my exchange account. I have a back-up of the main identity file from just before the delete. Great, right? Sure, except that when I swap out the current (without calendar data) main identity with the back-up main identity (with calendar data), the data populates the calendar, but then gets wiped when entourage syncs with the exchange server. Specifically, the data disappears when syncing is at the "Updating sync issues" stage (as noted in the lower right hand corner of entourage during sync).
Neither I or my IT girl can sort out how to force entourage to use the local calendar data instead of the blank server calendar data.
Starting up from any boot disk will give me a kernel panic forcing me to hard restart.
Background:
After many freezes I ran disk utility and I get:
Checking Catalog file. Invalid index key The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked Volume needs repair
So I use my wife's Imac startup disk to boot it in order to repair but I get the dreadfull death screen (I know how to press the C) I'm thinking maybe it's because her disk if for her Intel proc so I go and buy a copy of disk warrior 4, and same problem.
Since installing Safari 5, everything seems to be slow. I have also 'lost' the "Glims" facility of forcing the completion of reluctant web-sites. Is it simply an impression, or is the new Safari slower? It seems to get so far with the address-bar and then think about it.
I have an old black MB 2.16 ghz C2D. At times, it locks up and randomly reboots. Sometimes, it gets crazy and reboots again after its done booting up. Sometimes, I get this gray screen that says I have to hold the power button as well. I don't really notice the laptop getting warm at all or the fans turning on that much. I just reinstalled the entire OS and Snow Leopard. I just got a new MBP, so I haven't really been using that one as much (or at all). So, it's hard to say if that fixed it. My applecare runs out on 5/29/2010. And if it's a hardware problem, I'd like to get it fixed prior to my warranty expiring.
I recently updated to snow and since then have had problems turning off mac. I've reset pram, tried unplugging externals, tried logging out, then shutting down, but every time I hit apple-shutdown it goes black, and reboots. I can put it the screen to sleep with hot corners, but never turns off unless I manually hold down power.
Once upon a time, when I pressed "empty trash" My Imac 24" hung up...It happens periodically when Paragon is installed (for working with NTFS drives),but now it can't load the system at all, it reboots after 30 secs of showing the bright screen with rolling progress indicator...I tried to load in safe mode...the same...it reboots.I managed to take a picture in verbose mode right before it reboots...look at the attached file.
Is there an event log or something? I leave it on all the time, good airflow around it and it's on a ups. It didn't crash for the first year but now it's almost daily. I use this one for the house itunes server so it's extra frustrating. Any ideas on what to look for? I've made no mods at all, even the RAM was from apple (when I bought it).
I've been digging around for a couple weeks now for information on what may be happening to my MBP. I've tried numerous solutions, but don't seem to be able to get the computer to STAY ON. Here's my story:
A couple weeks ago, my room mate was using the computer. She closed it to put it to sleep, and left it on my bed. When I went to turn it on, the screen was completely black and the indicator light on the open button was a steady grey. The computer was so hot it was painful to the touch. I unplugged it, hard powered it off, and let it sit, thinking it was an overheating issue.
Since then, the damn thing won't stay on. Initially, it would intermittently just shut off. When that happened, sometimes I could boot it back up, and other times it would sound like something was whirring in the background, but the screen stayed black and the indicator light stayed solid grey. I installed SMCFan and istat to monitor/control the temp and fans.
I noticed somewhere along the way that there seemed to be some connection between episodes of shutting down and the power cord (as in, if it was jostled, the computer shut off)(I should note that my battery is at about 15% health with a full charge). Then, that power cord died (no green/amber indicator light and no connection detected). So I bought a new cable, and set about trying to fix the problem again.
Next phase, it seemed that if I moved the computer, it shut down. So I did some of the recommended fixes. I deleted the power management plist, I changed the settings to never put the computer or the display to sleep, and I turned off the quick-motion sensor that stops the hard drive. I also reset the SMC settings.
This seemed to improve the situation a little bit, insofar as now instead of getting a shut down, I am now getting complete reboots that only *sometimes* lead to the blank screen and steady grey indicator light. This does happen more frequently if I move the computer, but it can also happen if I simply leave it to run. In fact, if I send the computer into sleep-mode, and close the lid, I'm practically guaranteed a reboot.
So, then I reset the PRAM and did the hard-reboot (ctrl+opt+power) and reset the PRAM again. I am currently running Rember to test the RAM, but I'm not sure what to look out for when it finishes, or what I should do about it.
Mac Mini was running really slow. So we reformatted the hard drive and restored the computer using our restore disk and our Time Machine backup. After restoring our system, when it reboots, it reboots to a blue screen. It sits there and sits there.
First couple of times this has taken place I thought I was making a mistake or possible a power setting somewhere but finally yesterday I realised after checking all settings that my MacBook is actually rebooting and closing all apps for some reason.
Typically occurs when left alone for a hour - not every time - but at least 5 times so far this month. Has anyone else experienced this or do I just have a defect problem with the hardware? What can I do to troubleshoot this? Are there any system logs in this OS that would give me some clues if this is applicaton or hardware related?
I am having an issue with using bootcamp to install Windows onto a 25GB on my 2010 2.4GHZ MBP.
At the stage of installation when windows setup reboots the laptop, installation does not continue, instead a black screen appears for a while then the message press any key to boot from CD/DVD. Doing this then starts the setup again from the start.
I have partially remedied this problem by sitting at the laptop during installation and at the point of restart holding down the option key and selecting to boot the windows drive which then recommences installation.
However after a minute or so of 'finalising installation' (or something along those lines) the system completely freezes, the mouse does not move etc and it will sit there happily for 30 mins without doing anything until I turn it off.
This has been tried with 2 copies of Windows; a genuine copy of Windows Vista 32 bit and a perhaps not so legitimate (OEM edition) of Windows 7.
Both have the same problem of restarting to reload the disc from the start, although I have only tried my partial fix with the Windows 7 installation (will try on the Vista disc tomorrow).
The apple support on the issue is very vague and their guide essentially skips the whole installation of windows - goes from booting the setup disc to after installation install your macbook drivers >.>
Any suggestion on what the issue may be? All help appreciated as I really want Windows on my system in the next few days before I go to university so I can use Microsoft Office on it (do not feel like buying a new version for mac).
Are there any other potential solutions for me to use my Windows Office on my mac? (I'm a complete newbie to mac, have only had the machine 3 weeks or so, I've heard about virtual drives and so on but don't know fully how they work and don't see them as the better option unless absolutely necessary)
I do not have AppleCare on this machine. I've got a 27" iMac that will randomly shut down, be it in the middle of playing music on iTunes, while I'm typing a document or while the machine is simply in screensaver mode doing nothing. Usually the machine tries to instantly reboot itself. All too often, it cannot be rebooted and I have to let sit for quite sometime before it will even power back on. Lately the problem has gotten worse, almost never reboots by itself.
Finally, in the last few days, it just won't turn back on. Nothing. My biggest concern is that I have an unreleased music album from an instantly recognizable major client on the iMac's hard drive, not due out for many more months and still unannounced. I can't simply take the computer into an Apple store for troubleshooting as those files are worth and could cost me exponentially more than even a new iMac outright ever would.
I had this issue before and posted about it here, but no one seemed to really have an answer for me.
I'm asking again because maybe something new has come up?
I've been having an issue running games in Windows for some time now. They run fine, but then sometimes it will freeze up, then my whole computer reboots. I don't really know why it does this, and it happens randomly. I could be playing for hours or minutes before it does this.
Does anyone know why this happens and how to fix it?
My machine: first generation intel iMac, 2 ghz processor, upgraded to 2 gigs of ram, circal summer of 2006. Using OS 10.5.6 and Windows XP pro, corporate edition.
The problem: Every time I try to log into windows, the machine reboots as soon as it reaches the desktop
When I first installed bootcamp/windows, I had some trouble but once I figured out the mistakes I was making during installation, it ran normally. That was a few months back. The other day, I go to use windows for the first time in a month or two ( I really only use it to play Fallout 3, and I've been too busy for it until now ). I try to log in, but my keyboard and mouse don't work. After multiple restarts it's clear that there's a problem, so I go online, research it, and find only two solutions: a repair install of windows, or a complete format and reinstall. After repeated attempts at the first, I ditched my scratched up windows disk and got a new one, and started with a fresh reinstall after I managed to back up my files by accessing the partition through OSX.
The reinstall went normally, and everything was fine until I went to restart the machine after installing the bootcamp drivers from my OSX dvd in Windows. Reboot, log in, and then about one full second after reaching the desktop, the machine reboots. It will automatically start in windows, unless I go back into OSX via holding option and selecting it, then reset my start up disk to OSX. Every time I try to get into XP, the same thing happens. I google it but find nothing, save the one point that disabling the automatic restart in case of error during startup function does not help. After multiple reinstalls from my own new copy of XP and a friend's different version, I get no changes.
Today, I downloaded an updated driver set from apple.com: I install XP again, install the drivers from my OSX dvd again, and then use the downloaded driver updater to update the drivers. Then I reboot, this time using F8 to disable the auto restart, just for kicks: surprisingly, the computer starts up and logs in normally, and I use windows for a few minutes to make sure it's not going to restart. I reboot into OSX, copy over the files I backed up, then attempt to go back into XP. And of course, the problem's back again. I wipe out the hard drive, and start over, thinking that maybe if I permanently disable the auto restart, it'll solve the problem. It doesn't: this time, it's back to how it was before, and I have yet to get another successful session out of it besides the one mentioned just above.
