Thinking about upgrading to Maverick X ? * update *

[playagibson]

This is a tale of frustration. The problem had nothing to do with Maverick.


just upgraded to Maverick X and nothing but problems.
Time machine doesn't work, Finder is slow and crashes. Instead of going to screensaver it now restarts.
I have to save every other second to not waste the day.
Everyone on the Apple forum is saying the same thing.
Lesson of the day, wait and go on the forums before upgrading.

ps; Since my time machine isn't working I can't even go back a day and restore my old system.

[kclements]

Hmmm. I have been running Mavericks for quite a while now without any issues. Works better for me than any other OS so far.

Can you tell me a bit about your system? Maybe I can help you troubleshoot.

Cheers
kc

[playagibson]

Hey KC,
My computer literally crashed / restarted while I was replying.
I have a dual core 10.6.8. with 20 gigs ram. I added the Mushkin ram which is supposed to be apple certified.
I upgraded yesterday to Maverick and nothing but problems.
I've gone throughout the disk utility check permissions etc...
I've done the updates and Ive checked my plugins for updates.
My external hard drive is a WD and now it shows nothing.
I tried to reload Maverick and it crash during the upload .
It won't go to screensaver mode. it just crashes / restarts.
Rich.

[kclements]

Hey Rich -

So sorry to hear about your issues - computer crashes are the worst. I haven't had any of these problems. Have you tried:

1) unplugging everything external from the Mac: no external Hard drives, printers, audio interfaces, dongles... Just the video monitor and keyboard/mouse? See if it works ok. If so, slowly add things back one at a time.

2) Try running Cocktail or Onyx. I use them both, although I am using Cocktail more now than Onyx. Both have free versions, and can sometimes find things that Apple Disc Utility can't.

3) zap the PRAM? This shouldn't matter, but it might help. Start the Mac and hold down the "r", "p", "Option" and "Command" keys until it restarts. I usually do this about 2 times in a row.

3) Try taking out all the 3rd party RAM and see if that helps.

4) Is the startup drive ok - do you have an extra drive you can try as a startup and see if that works ? Here is an article about making a startup drive - If you start the mac and hold down the option key, it will give you an selection box to choose your startup drive.

How about the audio drives for your interface - did you check for updates?

Is this a MacPro (what year) or a iMac (what year), or...? What audio interface are you using? Which DAW?

Hope this helps.

kc

[michael11]

Hi Rich.

Sorry to hear about your dilemma.

I have been thinking about Mavericks but decided to hold off for a while.

I'm glad I did now.

Thanks for letting us know.

Michael.

[kclements]

I don't want to hijack the thread - but here is a solution to doing these kind of upgrades. It's always somewhat of a gamble to mess with a working system. I waited a long time to upgrade. I skipped OS 10.8 entirely because my system and Logic 9 was working great. when Logic X came out I decided to make the jump.

Before hand, get SuperDuper and create a sandbox. I think Carbon Copy Cloaner will do this too, but I use SuperDuper.

What you do is partition your hard drive into 2 partitions. Using SuperDuper, you clone your working system (let's say 10.6.8) so it is on both partitions. At this point, both partitions are identical. Again, using SuperDuper, you designate one of the partitions as a "safe" partition and the other as "sandbox" and start up from that drive. Now, install the new system updates( let's say 10.9.1), DAW updates all the changes you want. If things go bad, simply restart using the other, "safe" partition, which hasn't been touched and works as it did before you upgraded. You can then erase the updated on the other partition and start again if you want - or wait until 10.9.4, as an example....

If things are going well, and after a long while, you are happy with the way things are working, you can tell SuperDuper to clone the "sandbox" partition back to the "safe" partition. now, when OS 10.9.8 (or what ever) comes along, you can repeat the same process, always having a safe, working partition to go back to.

I started doing this last upgrade,and it has saved me a lot of head aches.

Sorry, this doesn't really help you at this point, Rich. Hopefully you can get this straightened out soon and get back to a happy mac.

Cheers
kc

[playagibson]

Thanks KC,

You can hijack this thread as much as you want.
I'll go through everything you mentioned till it works.
I think it could be the WD time machine.
It was mentioned in the apple forums that WD is aware of issues with Maverick and recommends you disconnect it.
I'll also check my start up driver and get cocktail.
I plan on getting a new Mac in the near future.
Personally I think they released Maverick too early or they should not recommend it to users of older Mac's.
The crashing is killing me.

[kclements]

I hear you Rich.

When you get a new Mac, that is the perfect time to do the Sandbox thing. It has really saved me at least once. I did an update to Logic - I think from 9.1 to 9.2 or something, and one of my plugs didn't work. Something like that.

I simply restarted from the other partition and was back to work.

Let us know if the WD drive is the issue.

cheers -
kc

[Bothsidesmusic]

Thanks so much KC for the suggestions. I, too have been pondering whether or not to install Mavericks. Cloning the drive is the perfect solution and can prevent so much headache! When I got my new iMac it took me a couple of weeks to find and install all the drivers and programs I used for my rig and numerable conversations with tech support with a lot of companies but I finally got up an running. I'd hate to take a step backwards now because I downloaded the new OS!

Kelly

Bothsidesmusic

[Kolstad]

Sorry to hear about your problems, Rich, but thanks for posting this.
I've been stalling on Mavericks too, and still will be for a while after reading this!