tearing hair out…

T

tonym911

Registered
MacBook Tiger 10.4.11, Safari 4.0, spent two days trying to get the internet working properly. After restart, it will bring up the home page and one or maybe two subsequent pages but after that it takes an absolute age for any new pages to come up. Have updated Adobe Flash, made sure I've got the most recent Safari, cleaned up caches etc using Applejack, now tearing hair out but that doesn't seem to help. All suggestions gratefully received. PS Can't do Disk Repair from installation disk as there is something dodgy with the CD drive.
 
What kind of internet connection do you have (DSL, cable, fibre, etc.) and what does your network look like (got a router? wireless? wired? DHCP? Static IP?)?
 
Hi there. It's a wireless setup with a Belkin router. Switched it on and off again yesterday as part of the battle, but there was no improvement. My own MacBook Pro is working fine off the same network.
 
One thing I've noticed with some people is that when they disable IPv6 support, things start to work properly (assuming it's not another problem like DNS or whatnot). Try disabling IPv6 in System Preferences. You have to select the Network pane and then select your Airport connection. Once in the Network pane, select to show Airport settings and then click on the TCP/IP tab. Once there, click on the "Configure IPv6" button and select "Off". OK everything and then test your internet connection and see if the issue is resolved.
 
Hi, very sorry for slow reply, that must have seemed rude. I thought the ipv tip had worked for a minute as it seemed to allow me to switch quickly between 4-5 web pages, but then on the fifth one (ebay) it went back to its usual sluggish self –*the beachball is spinning again! Not sure how to do the ethernet cable thing I'm afraid, don't think I have one of those here at home. As ever, a thousand thanks for the helpful advice.
 
I'm about to restart the MacBook now to see if the ipv thing needs a restart to work and have just noticed something odd. I don't know if this is significant, but I thought I'd mention it as I remember it used to be problematic in the old Mac days: the clock in the menu bar is wrong. It's reading 14:46 when it's actually 18:09 as I type this. I am trying to click on the clock on the top menu bar but it starts beachballing whenever I get onto that right hand end of the bar. I can move folders etc around on the blue part of the Desktop no worries, and the Finder menu items on the left of the bar are OK. Is there still a separate battery for the clock, and could this be a clue as to the problem? Here's hoping!!
 
More weirdness: on the Apple menu, only certain functions are working. The only functioning commands are Sleep, Software Update, and Mac OSX. System Preferences comes up quickly, but the Network button within that is slow to respond (about 15 seconds). Dock and Location and Recent Items also seem OK. Items that are NOT working (after a few seconds thought by the Apple logo) include About This Mac, Restart, Force Quit, Shut Down, and Log Out.

As I say, I can move items around on the Desktop OK, but the clock still reads 14:46 and all the items on the right hand end of the top menu bar initiate instant beachballing and will not be accessed.
 
In case anyone's wondering, all the restarts I've been doing since this problem first arose have been via the on-off button.
 
If you are force-shutting off your Mac (or any computer for that matter), you are asking for your system to get corrupted. The hard shutoff should only be done when there is no other way to shut down the system gracefully. If you search in the forum here, you will find a how-to on how to run a disk repair via Single-User Mode. See about running those tasks and report back on the results.
 
Also, with some Mac laptops, the main battery also doubles as the PRAM battery (the clock battery you mentioned in your other thread). If your battery isn't holding a charge anymore, then this might be the cause of that particular problem.
 
Thanks for the advice about the hard shutdown. I didn't realise that was a potential source of damage. I would say however that I have only been doing this to escape from a hung computer which has been pretty much our default situation here since this problem began on Saturday. Nobody would have been using that emergency shutdown procedure before the problem arose.
If that Disk Repair fix you're referring to is the one which requires me to insert the System Disk, I am a bit concerned about that. The padding in the CD drive slot is misshapen and brown and the disk-engage noise only starts when the disk is practically all the way in. I'm worried I'll not be able to get the disk out if I let go of it. I'll have a hunt through the forum as you suggest though in case it's another method which doesn't require disk insertion.
 
Thanks for the battery info. The main battery is holding a good charge and will run for a good couple of hours so I guess we can discount that one.
 
tonym911 said:
Thanks for the advice about the hard shutdown. I didn't realise that was a potential source of damage. I would say however that I have only been doing this to escape from a hung computer which has been pretty much our default situation here since this problem began on Saturday. Nobody would have been using that emergency shutdown procedure before the problem arose.
If that Disk Repair fix you're referring to is the one which requires me to insert the System Disk, I am a bit concerned about that. The padding in the CD drive slot is misshapen and brown and the disk-engage noise only starts when the disk is practically all the way in. I'm worried I'll not be able to get the disk out if I let go of it. I'll have a hunt through the forum as you suggest though in case it's another method which doesn't require disk insertion.
Click to expand...

I was already aware of your failing optical drive, hence why I recommended doing it via Single User Mode which doesn't require the disc. I do recommend checking out the HOW-TO on it because it means you'll be in a command line.
 
Sorry to have been so stupid, but without realising it I have in fact already used this Single User Mode, it's the command-s restart isn't it, which gives you white programming text on a black screen? That's the mode Applejack uses. Have been through the Applejack program a couple of times in this way. Disk repair is one of the five functions Applejack carries out, along permissions repair, cache tidying etc. So I guess my problem is unfixable.
I want to say thanks to everyone who tried to help, especially Nixgeek, thanks very much for all your help and time.
 
I think its time to back up your important data and perform an archive and install. But that would be difficult with a flaky optical drive.
 
djackmac said:
I think its time to back up your important data and perform an archive and install. But that would be difficult with a flaky optical drive.
Click to expand...

I would have to agree with you, djackmac. It looks like it might be time for tonym911 to backup and reinstall OS X. Maybe with an external optical drive through USB or Firewire.
 
Thanks again, both, I really am most grateful for your support. Funnily enough I recently got a Toshiba HDD to back up both the MacBook and my own MacBook Pro (problems with MacBook began a couple of weeks after this – don't suppose there could be a connection there??). The MacBook backup is a simple copy of the Mac HD content + Desktop, whereas my Pro backup is Time Machine. Anyway, what I'm saying is that I do have an external HDD, but I'm not clear from your descriptions on what exactly I should do next ('using an external optical drive through USB or Firewire'). Sorry to be so hopeless, I'm a bit old for all this! Is there a simple 'how to' on the forum somewhere? Thanks again Tony
 
Get a copy of SuperDuper from http://shirtpocket.com .

You can run it in trial mode to back-up the hard drive. Then you can boot from the back-up and run Disk Utility on the internal drive.

Some machines can boot from USB and some can't, I've not paid enough attention to this thread to know if yours can boot from USB or not but the capability goes back some years now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top