After a year, OSX is running like a dog!

T

themacko

Barking at the moon.
My Mac has been doing very well until recently. In the past few weeks it has started to slow down and hang more often. Often times, the Finder hangs on boot-up so I have trouble even starting OSX.

I tried doing fsck -y and it doesn't seem to have helped much. What other options do I have to 'fix' my Mac other than re-install everything, which I really don't want to?

Just FYI, it's Mac OS 10.2.6 and I have an eMac with 640 MB.
 
What happens when you log in as another user?
Or in Safe Boot mode (Hold Shift after the little spinner thingy shows and you should see "Safe Boot" on the boot panel) That will disable any Login Items and extra kernel extensions etc.)?
 
I've got a Guest user account and tried to log into that while it was having it's tantrum and the computer stuck at "logging in" with the little candy-bar spinning thing .. didnt even make it to the desktop.

I didn't know about Safe Boot but I'll try that next time I have the problem.
 
'sudo update_prebinding -root /' in Terminal often solves problems, too. Although the windows-tech help-approach, reinstalling the system, is the most effective one :p
 
fix your permissions - load the disk utility from utilities click your startup volume click first aid, click repair disk permissions
 
also, make sure your housekeeping is set to run when the computer is on, not sleeping.

do it in the crontab file, search for it in the archive.

This may not help right away, but it keeps log files under control.
 
Originally posted by pds
also, make sure your housekeeping is set to run when the computer is on, not sleeping.
Click to expand...

Either that or just run MacJanitor manually, that clears out all the old logs and does other housekeeping.

Have you tried looking at your Console log to see if it's complaining about anything obvious?
 
My OS X installs have always worked great.

Then a few weeks ago, I started getting spinning beachballs of death in the Finder. It was very frustrating.

I'll shorten the long story and just say that I eventually traced it down to an external Firewire drive. Apparantly the controller chip had gone bad. I replaced the drive enclosure, and that solved my problems.

Wade
 
I repaired my permissions and used MacJanitor, it seems like everything is running fine again. Thanks for the tips! I was almost about to purchase a utility like Drive 10 but I think I've been saved. :D
 
Originally posted by wadesworld
I eventually traced it down to an external Firewire drive. Apparantly the controller chip had gone bad.
Click to expand...

Just curious - what kind of firewire drive was it? I've been having some weirdness lately, and suspect my firewire drive might be to blame.

I have a VST (red) enclosure that I installed a 60GB drive in...
 
Gia, you reinstalled the system for *minor* stuff? :rolleyes:

I wouldn't reinstall the system on my computer unless it totally refused to boot. :D
 
I got my TiBook at January if I remember correctly and from back then I NEVER formatted it! Updates, plugged/unplugged MANY hardware devices, connected to too many networks/computers, installed/uninstalled too many apps/games, did LOADS of things and my TiBook reign as a true Titan(ium)!!! :p :D
 
I warn you, there is a story to this so if you don't want to read and just hear my tech problem, jump ahead.

Okay, I had a crisis yesterday. I get up in the morning and need to print out a Keynote presentation for class in 4 hours. I turn on the computer and walk away. 10 minutes later I come back and I can see the desktop but the Finder hasn't loaded. Jump ahead 30 minutes: The finder is not working! I have restarted 6 times and I can't get my Mac to boot up!

Luckily I have my Keynote presentation on a Zip disk, but it's a KEYNOTE presentation! No one else in the world I know uses a Mac. The school has Macs but they're obviously using OS 9.2 and obviously don't have Keynote.

I wait until 10:00 and go to the Apple Store on the other side of town, they let me hook up my zip drive, convert my presentation to Power Point. What cool guys they are, saved my arse.

To make a long story short, I finally got this thing printed about 10 minutes before class. It was a nightmare.

Problem: So if I can't get my computer to boot (and holding shift doesn't help), what can I do to avoid such a catastrophe again? Is there a way to make a boot cd? Do I have to buy an app that will let me boot up my computer? I don't care, I just can't have this happen to me ever again or I may (gasp) need to start doing things on my roommate's PC.
 
Originally posted by themacko
Problem: So if I can't get my computer to boot (and holding shift doesn't help), what can I do to avoid such a catastrophe again? Is there a way to make a boot cd? Do I have to buy an app that will let me boot up my computer? I don't care, I just can't have this happen to me ever again or I may (gasp) need to start doing things on my roommate's PC.
Click to expand...

You can just install OS 9. Takes 10 minutes ;)
Unless you need to print something in a Mac OS X-specific app, of course :rolleyes:
 
Originally posted by themacko
I warn you, there is a story to this so if you don't want to read and just hear my tech problem, jump ahead.

Okay, I had a crisis yesterday. I get up in the morning and need to print out a Keynote presentation for class in 4 hours. I turn on the computer and walk away. 10 minutes later I come back and I can see the desktop but the Finder hasn't loaded. Jump ahead 30 minutes: The finder is not working! I have restarted 6 times and I can't get my Mac to boot up!

Luckily I have my Keynote presentation on a Zip disk, but it's a KEYNOTE presentation! No one else in the world I know uses a Mac. The school has Macs but they're obviously using OS 9.2 and obviously don't have Keynote.

I wait until 10:00 and go to the Apple Store on the other side of town, they let me hook up my zip drive, convert my presentation to Power Point. What cool guys they are, saved my arse.

To make a long story short, I finally got this thing printed about 10 minutes before class. It was a nightmare.

Problem: So if I can't get my computer to boot (and holding shift doesn't help), what can I do to avoid such a catastrophe again? Is there a way to make a boot cd? Do I have to buy an app that will let me boot up my computer? I don't care, I just can't have this happen to me ever again or I may (gasp) need to start doing things on my roommate's PC.
Click to expand...

...to have an external Firewire hard disk with a clone installation of your OS X, apps, EVERYTHING or at worst a CD/DVD with your must have data!

For cloning fully your OS X system you need a tool similar to CopyCatX or CarbonCopyCloner. You can find those at http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/ and http://www.macupdate.com/index.php?os=macosx

As for a boot cd you can create one with BootCD application which also you can find at the above links...

Still, within that window time frame of 2-4 hours you could have easily installed Jaguar using the Archive and Install option and do anything you like...

Anyways, I know for a fact that the best thing is to have at least a 2nd OS X system installed into another partition, internal/external hard disk mirrored if possible... :rolleyes:

PS. How did you finally fix your system?
 
Thanks Hulk and ksv, I think I've found what the problem is. My school has this thing called "AFS File Space" which is basically an iDisk for students at the university. I ran these scripts that I downloaded from the school site which mount my AFS Space everytime the computer turns on. Apparantly, when the internet is out (which it was) OSX just sits there trying to mount this disk, which is why it wouldn't finish booting.

Now the internet is back up (for the time being) I'm okay, but I don't know how to uninstall the scripts I ran so I'll be hosed next time. :D
 
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