Misery looking for company (any company but Apple)

[MIDI Life Crisis]

For all that my computer is fast, some things it does makes it crawl. Simple things, like playing video online or just viewing a Facebook page.

Today, it didn't recognize my Logitech solar kbd. Then it wouldn't finish booting and I got a black screen. After four forced restarts with the power button and a good ol' PRAM zapping, it appeared normal, but I don't trust it.

I downloaded the latest combo updater from Apple and I'm reinstalling the OS over the old one. If it's still wonky I'll do a clean install from scratch.

So who's up for a few brewskies while I watch the progress bar slowly move toward the completion bell? And do not ask for whom the bells tolls. It is for thee!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Update: Wow! Unless I'm just being wishful, the update seems to have really changed things. The sluggishness is gone (for now) and the update itself only took about 15 minutes to complete. All I've had to reset was my screen backgrounds. Testing DP now (it was working fine).

Interesting. Maybe applying the combo updater did the trick?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Facebook still sucks on Safari. Oh wait, Safari SUCKS!

[cuttime]

Not the combo. It was the brewskies.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

<hiccup>

[mikehalloran]

Facebook has a new bug as of a couple days ago. If I expand the view on my screen and scroll down, it will not reload. Sometimes, I have to reload the page to see anything. It appears to be browser independent.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I don't think their servers can handle the load.

[nk_e]

For all that my computer is fast, some things it does makes it crawl. Simple things, like playing video online or just viewing a Facebook page.

Today, it didn't recognize my Logitech solar kbd. Then it wouldn't finish booting and I got a black screen. After four forced restarts with the power button and a good ol' PRAM zapping, it appeared normal, but I don't trust it.

I downloaded the latest combo updater from Apple and I'm reinstalling the OS over the old one. If it's still wonky I'll do a clean install from scratch.

So who's up for a few brewskies while I watch the progress bar slowly move toward the completion bell? And do not ask for whom the bells tolls. It is for thee!

I hear ya. A couple of years ago, I had loads of similar weirdness. It was driving me batty. After about year, I reluctantly did a fresh install of the OS and reinstalled everything. (Say what you will of dongles, but in that situation elicenser and iLok were a godsend. Reauthorizing the other plugins - I have a lot - was THE SINGLE BIGGEST PIA in the whole thing.) I cursed Apple over the many days I worked on this.

The results were astounding. My system ran like...like something I had not seen in years. Gone were the weird random driver issues. Gone was the ubiquitous spinning beach ball. No longer needed were the weird little work a rounds that crept into my workflow over the years that I had stopped noticing.

Then it occurred to me: My system had been created over the years through a series of updates. I had not had a fresh system since Tiger or Panther, hell maybe even Jaguar. I had simply updated to each new system. Tons of crap had accreted and settled into my system like rubbish that sinks to form a layer of sediment in a polluted waterway. In avoiding the dreaded reinstall and reauthorization of things, I had unwittingly created a problem that ate up my time in other ways.

Good luck with things.

[Shooshie]

Then it occurred to me: My system had been created over the years through a series of updates. I had not had a fresh system since Tiger or Panther, hell maybe even Jaguar. I had simply updated to each new system. Tons of crap had accreted and settled into my system like rubbish that sinks to form a layer of sediment in a polluted waterway. In avoiding the dreaded reinstall and reauthorization of things, I had unwittingly created a problem that ate up my time in other ways.

Good luck with things.

That's what I need to do. I just can't get the time & motivation at the SAME time!
I really wish it were done. Just curious... where did you get the OS X installation file? It seems that it's much harder to find that than it used to be. (again... could be my time/motivation)

Shooshie

[mikehalloran]

Every version of OS X after 10.6 is available if you have downloaded and installed from the App Store. Go to Purchased, log in and look at the list. You can download the full installer and, when done, either run it or not. If not, the download will be in your Applications folder.

Note that this only downloads the last version (latest in the case of 10.11). For example, you can only get Yosemite 10.10.5, .0–.4 are not available. I see 10.11.4 in your signature—when you download the complete installer, it will be 10.11.5.

If you have never downloaded El Cap, you can do that from the App Store. 10.11.5 is the only version of the OS available there. Anyone running 10.6.8 or later can do this. Again, quitting the installer instead of running it after download leaves the file in your Aplications folder.

If you never installed an older OS, it won't be on the list of available downloads. In that case, you can sneaker net it from someone who has had it in the past. Make sure that you compress the file before you load it onto a USB stick, SDHC card or upload to DropBox. Unzipping the file grants the new Mac permissions and privileges required to run the installer.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

What Mike said. App store download. HOWEVER... First startup today resulted in a kernel panic! Report sent to Apple. It's beginning to look a lot like a complete wipe and install is in my future and I'm thinking my Yosemite installer might be a better way to go...

[nk_e]

One time when I was getting a lot of kernel panics, it turned out to be something really odd like my graphics card overheating from all of the built up dust ....or a corrupted font. I don't remember, but it was something not very intuitive or obvious.

I know: Big help. Sorry.

[cuttime]

Have you run any hardware tests?

[mikehalloran]

What Mike said. App store download. HOWEVER... First startup today resulted in a kernel panic! Report sent to Apple. It's beginning to look a lot like a complete wipe and install is in my future and I'm thinking my Yosemite installer might be a better way to go...

You can call Apple on that—I would. They can tell you what the offending item is and whether or not it is they. If you have AppleCare, you're entitled. If not, just click on Recent OS Install to be eligible to talk with Support.
https://support.apple.com/contact

When it happened to me, the tech didn't know who wrote the offending files but, knowing the names of culprits (Bresink and something in CD Spin Doctor X), a quick Google search let me figure out what had to be gone. This happened after 10.8.2. Another was identified as a conflict between MOTU Audio Setup.app and a firmware bug in my graphics card. The firmware issue was never resolved but MOTU, Micromat (TechTool) and others wrote workarounds and it doesn't bother anyone anymore.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I have Applecare and will call. Thanks for the remInder. I did mean to do that but got "distracted."