mavericks not working for me

I have upgraded to Mavericks when it first appeared & after it's most recent update. reverting back to 10.8.5 each time.
here's the symptoms. after upgrading my desktop appears & when i execute an app(ie mail or safari). the app starts and appears in the top bar in grey w/black letters not white / black. however, no window of the app appears.when i goto a website in safari my desktop remains the same & nothing from the site appears. same in mail, the app begins but no mail on the desktop. same w/Firefox. i haven't found anyone describing anything that is similar. Any suggestions?

Im not going to be the one to solve your issue.. but others will need some clarification..

You attempted to update to Mavericks (10.9), and then a subsequent update.. 10.9.x?

After one of the above.. you open an app and it some how back tracks you to 10.8.5?

Is there a reboot, or you just see apps hanging in the process of opening them?

More helpful ppl will want to know make and model, and screen shots are helpful.

Did you try installing Mavericks clean? Make a Time Machine backup first, download Mavericks, boot to your recovery partition, erase the drive, format it, install Mavericks, and then restore your TM backup.

From your description above, I have no idea what's going on. That's why the suggestion to do a clean install. If you still have problems after the clean install, then it may be bad hardware that's causing it.

using MBP running 10.8.5. The software does not revert to 10.8.5 by itself, i revert to it after my update fails to work. Have not tried "clean install" yet.

I think in this case, a clean install is the way forward.
The issues you describe are too weird to have passed quality control without noticing it.

Cheers ... McBie

thanks

It appears to me the last three or four operating systems do much better with a clean install rather than a simple update. Particularly on laptops. Download the operating system, burn to a thumb drive, boot from that and then run the Installer. Running the Installer first deletes it from the Applications folder.


http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2013/10/how-to-create-an-os-x-mavericks-usb-installation-drive/

solution found

I have a 24" monitor attached to my MBP using thunderbolt connection. Did not turn it on for purposes of update. turned it on while talking to Apple Support. All my "missing" info was on the monitor. I had set displays to "mirror". this did not carry forward when i installed Mavericks. Mavericks assumed my monitor was the "main" screen. No actual problem with Mavericks.