Ongoing Yosemite saga / just won't run on my machine.

[hempomatic]

This all began a month or so ago, rather than adding to an already lengthy thread, I thought a new one was justified.

ANYWAY ……..
Brought the REPAIRED computer home, new airport card, new control board, fresh clean OS install, whatever other magic wands they waved over this thing.

The apple store guys convinced me that Yosemite is the greatest thing since "sliced bread" were discovered and that the problems I had were do to mechanical issues with my computer which they repaired, along my apparent lack of ability with regard to anything even remotely technical. Their recommendation to me was run it for a week or 2, and if it runs well, upload the Yosemite upgrade. Their explanation was that Yosemite would actually run better on my machine because of improved memory management and graphics response or some such crap. I upgraded.

It ran …. OK…….. but not great for a few days. Then it ALL started again.
It began with nag screens saying that the computer hasn’t been backed up since nov 2012. Obviously not the case. OK, open up time machine. Nope, time machine doesn’t open. Not only does it not open, the current back ups are not listed. I DID back up using CCC before making any changes, to a remote drive, although I have no idea if I did it correctly. Also for the record, CCC is not compatible with Yosemite, so it WON’T back up my current configuration (not that I would want to) Here are the problems I'm now having.

1.) no time machine back up.
2.) no email (gmail works OK), Mac mail program is erratic
3.) system crashes after sleep mode requiring reboot, gives message that system shut down do to program failure. I changed power settings to no cpu or display shut down, but it still crashes.
4.) WiFi drops out intermittently. It does not drop out on any other devices.
5.) CPU activity is GENERALLY low, but machine gets very hot (not sure if TOO hot, but hotter than it ever did before)
6.) Overall performance is occasionally VERY slow. Opening iPhoto uses 100% CPU and takes anywhere between 10 seconds and 20 MINUTES to open with a spinning pinwheel. Screen refresh in Safari occasionally takes up to 2 minutes. When opening launchpad, it can take up to a minute for the icons to finish rendering.

I’ve been a service tech for 40 years. There are only TWO possibilities here. Either the unit was misdiagnosed, or the “repairs” were never done.

This is REALLY getting tedious. Honestly, with the exception of music and picture storage I have NO NEED for a computer. I can LITERALLY do EVERYTHING I need to do on my 1st generation kindle that still works flawlessly. Now that Amazon Prime has UNLIMITED free photo storage, as well as unlimited free storage for any music purchased ……….. Not a lot of incentive to use the computer. Obviously I’ll still need it for some stuff, but assuming I EVER actually get this thing operational, it will NOT be my daily go to machine.

 

[MacInWin]

Yeah, it's been a saga for you. Some things in your post I can address.

Yosemite is, for most folks, much faster than Mavericks and has better power and memory management, so it is good to run if your machine can do so.

CCC is compatible with Yosemite, but you need to upgrade to the latest version.

To see if TM has been backing up, go to your external drive where the backups are located, open the Backups.Backupdb folder and then the folder with your machine's name and see what dates have folders. Each of those folders is a backup, named by the date and time of the backup. Don't mess with them from Finder, but if they are there, TM is making backups.

How is Mail erratic? That's new.

Don't have the sleep problems here, but it could be something that is in your startup, or in your external drives. Sometimes external drives have "power saving" mode where they shut down when not accessed for a while. That shutdown looks to OS X like an unplugged drive and if you have an application that uses that drive running, coming out of sleep the app may crash because the drive disappeared. I've had problems like that, although not sleep related, so if you can, turn off the power saving on external devices.

WiFi is a known problem with no current fix. It's not happening to everyone and there doesn't seem to be any single work around.

Temp of the device may be related to Spotlight reindexing your drives. That process can take quite a while and drives up heat because of both disk access and CPU usage.

But, if you are happy with your Kindle, why not sell the Mac and just go with that? Store your music and pictures in the cloud and be done with it. Not everyone needs a computer.

 

[hempomatic]

Jake, thanks for your response.

I'm beginning to think that the back up issues may be a problem with time machine. Time machine shows no data in finder, but when I open the program, it shows current back ups, although nothing between 9/13/2012 and yesterday at 1:30 PM.

To my knowledge, there are no programs in start-up. The only external drive other than time machine, is the WD Passport I used to back up to before the upgrade, that is not attached to the machine.

Mail, every 2nd or 3rd time I open it, asks for all of my Verizon passwords, then says that they are no good. These passwords have worked fine for several months and there are no programs that require they be changed periodically. This did not occur until the upgrade. I can access the mail fine from the Verizon site, so, another extra hoop to jump through, but not that big a deal I suppose.

You are the the first person I've heard that admitted to a problem with wiFi, so that's reassuring I guess, at least as far as something I may have screwed up ;-)

Selling the Mac would be a logical (or at least viable) choice if it actually worked LOL. I can live with everything EXCEPT the hard reboot issue. Each time that happens, it seems to run progressively slower. I don't trust the cloud, the whole concept freaks me out a bit. I have 250 gig of pictures and music. Uploading that much from a machine who's wifi only runs for a short period of time seems problematic AND pretty time consuming. I'll keep the machine as a storage device. I backed up to CCC and I have my files on another remote drive as well.

I was on the forum from the Mac site and saw hundreds of 1 star reviews. AHA I said to myself, I'm not the only one. Funny, the single biggest complaint and the only one I saw after sifting through HUNDREDS of forum complaints ........... they thought it was ugly. Is that REALLY an issue? I was hoping they had the same issues as me and found work arounds. I couldn't care LESS that the icons are flat.

You are right, computers are NOT for everyone.

Back to the Apple store I guess. I have 90 days service after all, might as well make them earn their keep. ;-)

ken

 

[dtravis7]

[Yosemite 10.10.1 update to address Wi-Fi | Computerworld

The update will address wifi issues. Hang in there if you can.

 

[chscag]

Thanks Dennis. Apple needs to get off their duffs and get 10.10.1 released as soon as possible. Lots of folks are unhappy with Yosemite for various reasons but flaky WiFi is intolerable.

I don't know about you Dennis, but in my opinion, this has been the most contentious update of OS X that I have experienced.

 

[dtravis7]

Thanks Dennis. Apple needs to get off their duffs and get 10.10.1 released as soon as possible. Lots of folks are unhappy with Yosemite for various reasons but flaky WiFi is intolerable.

I don't know about you Dennis, but in my opinion, this has been the most contentious update of OS X that I have experienced.

The funny part about all this is for me, I have the oldest supported Mac, late 2007 iMac and have not had pretty much any of the issues others have! Strange as I felt my older hardware would be the one with the issues! Grin


The .1 beta is downloading now. I am sure the official should be out in a day or two. I HOPE it solves many of these issues so many are having.

 

[MacInWin]

Yosemite has been relatively unemotional for me, with the exception of a broken printer driver that was generated by the change in CUPS/Kext security in Yosemite. I've got a workaround, so I'm ok now. No WiFi problems, no other issues.

 

[chscag]

Yosemite has likewise been relatively stable for me also. However, I have never seen so many complaints and vocalized problems with an OS X update as I have with Yosemite. And it's not just our forums Jake. Check out Mac Rumors, the Apple Community Discussion Forums, and others. They're loaded.. and tons of complaints about flaky WiFi. There's always going to be someone who will complain about an update but this is way over the normal noise level.

 

[hempomatic]

I hope it addresses more than just the wifi issues.

 

[chscag]

I hope it addresses more than just the wifi issues.

I agree with you but Apple acts like they're protecting Atomic secrets in that they never really admit to problems or let us know what was fixed. Well, sometimes they do in a round about way...

 

[MacInWin]

chscag, that's because there really is a problem with WiFi! The rest of the complaining, and what you normally see in ANY release is basically of the form, "I don't like it" and not that it doesn't actually work. But WiFi failing is a real problem, not a preference issue, so it's generating a lot of heat and light.

 

[hempomatic]

chscag, that's because there really is a problem with WiFi! The rest of the complaining, and what you normally see in ANY release is basically of the form, "I don't like it" and not that it doesn't actually work. But WiFi failing is a real problem, not a preference issue, so it's generating a lot of heat and light.

Jake,

I agree that many complaints may just be of the "I don't like the way it looks variety", but I have to assume that there are at least SOME real issues.

I'm beginning to believe that I MAY still have hardware issues, and frankly, I wonder if any of the stuff they said was done, WAS actually done.

I used my cell phone to take pictures of the error codes and messages I'm getting, and they seem to be the exact SAME issues and messages I had BEFORE the MAJOR repair was performed. According to the Apple guys, the ONLY things left are the hard drive and the memory.

My confusion comes from the fact that these issues did NOT appear until the system was upgraded. This just seems all to familiar to me like a while back upgrading windoze and living through hundreds of crashes until the correct drivers were installed. My computer has never been modified in any way, I'm not a power user, I don't use CPU and memory intense programs or multi-task. It doesn't GET more simple than my configuration.

ken

 

[Techtype17]

Take a look at all the complaints with iPhoto. Many people are having a terrible time getting this thing downloaded and installed. Including myself. We can't even use the old iPhoto program while trying to figure this out. We are locked out of it. I posted on separate thread trying to help. This whole fiasco is something expected from Microsoft - NOT Apple. Where is Steve????

 

[pm-r]

As for the Yosemite wi-fi problems, a member at another forum suggests a possible cause and a solution:

Hey people,
Say no more. You know what has happened with the introduction of OS 10.10 Yosemite? IPv.6 has just become the system network default!
Everybody with Mavericks' or older migrated IPv.4 settings, as well as everybody with older, IPv.4 hardware (e.g: router) has been left in the dark.
As well as every end user dependent on an ISP not capable of IPv.6 (yet).
The solution is simple: go to your System>Preferences>Network>Advanced and simply manually copy or revert your IPv.4 settings from an older/migrated Mac or restore some kind of IPv.4 setting.
I' m quite confident this will work.
Thank you, nickfromromeoville, to bring me on track.
https://twitter.com/alexharries/status/494807019933945858
With this, I wouldn't wonder if this weren't the same with IOS8 also...
Edit

10.10 Yosemite - WIFI issues - Page 3 - ehMac.ca

Just maybe for those having wi-fi problems. I'm happily staying with Mavericks for now, and if and when it goes goofy, I just boot into SL 10.6.8.

 

[chscag]

Steve's not coming back and although I admit Yosemite is probably the most finicky update of OS X I've ever seen from Apple, it's not even close to the fiascos that I experienced all my years running Windows. Anyone here remember WinME or Vista and now Windows 8/8.1? Need I say more....

 

[dtravis7]

Steve's not coming back and although I admit Yosemite is probably the most finicky update of OS X I've ever seen from Apple, it's not even close to the fiascos that I experienced all my years running Windows. Anyone here remember WinME or Vista and now Windows 8/8.1? Need I say more....

ME was a disaster for many. I was one that had nothing but good luck with Vista though. It seemed to be dependent on the hardware.

Windows 8 just plain bugs me. The interface but it's getting better and Windows 10 looks like it might solve it all.

And yes, I would say Yosemite has the most issues I have seen since 10.2 when I first tried OSX! They do seem to be more with some hardware than others which is strange. What bugs me is with Yosemite besides the normal Devs all testing it they brought in 1 million beta testers and still have all these issues!

 

[chscag]

Growing pains Dennis. Yosemite should have never been labeled OS X 10.10; in my opinion it should have been OS X 11.0 or rather OS XI 1.0 or maybe just OS 11. It's a whole new ballgame but I'm betting that the next version of OS X (whatever it's called) will be a smoothy.

 

[ryeh20]

I like Yosemite so far

I just received my new 27' Retina display iMac and Yosemite seems to be working fine, (touch wood). With a little getting use to, I have no complaints. The phone feature is handy when I leave the iPhone on another table. The machine is super fast, much faster than my early2013 model. Complete cold start up in 12 seconds, with 3TB fusion drive.
I auto-update, so any fixes that I don't know I need, will install and keep me puttering along.
Just a noob observation.
Cheers!

 

[hempomatic]

The machine is super fast, much faster than my early2013 model. Complete cold start up in 12 seconds, with 3TB fusion drive.

Cheers!

Wow, cold start takes my MBP about 4 minutes, and another 2 or 3 minutes to render the desktop icons of 10 folders and 1/2 dozen picture icons. It crashes now every time it comes out of sleep mode, but when it DID open, it to 2 minutes to fill the desktop. After starting, it takes another 2 or 3 minutes to open any program. iPhoto takes twice as long.

Spent 3 hours on the phone today with a service tech. Nice guy, checked everything he could think of, but couldn't run a diagnostic (holding D while system reboots) because the network was unavailable. Checked and repaired permissions, all that stuff, reset a bunch of stuff, but no change.

Also, from the Mac site, there is no longer any way I can find to set up an appointment with a genius at the Apple store without talking (message or phone) to a service tech FIRST. That in and of itself was an hour long process.

k

 

[dtravis7]

hempomatic, My old iMac late 2007 with a Lowly 2.4Ghz C2D takes at the most 30 seconds for a desktop if that and it 100% useable in a few more seconds. Something is very wrong there.