OSX Mavericks not responding

[Hantke]

Does anybody know of any fixes for OSX mavericks? currently it freezes about every 10-15 seconds for up to 2-3 minutes at a time, every time i restart it indexes the hard drive (after it's finished indexing completely between restarts. everything stops responding regularly, and my last startup was my quickest at 3 minutes, 36 seconds. This is a fresh / clean install of mavericks, no programs have been installed yet.

250 GB partitions, one is OSX 10.6.8 (6 second start up, 8 second shut down) the other is mavericks.

Any help would be great! thanks!

mid 2010 macbook pro 13" 500gb HD, 4gb ram.

 

[pigoo3]

Does anybody know of any fixes for OSX mavericks?

This is a fresh / clean install of mavericks, no programs have been installed yet.

No fixes are necessary…because there isn't a problem. Many many folks have been running Mavericks for almost a year without trouble.

Since this hard drive only has the OS installed on it (fresh install)…and there are problems…you very well could have a dying hard drive on your hands. Which of course would have nothing to do with Mavericks (and why no "Mavericks Fix" is necessary).

- Nick

 

[McBie]

I am with Nick on this one .... most likely your Hard Disc is going south.

Cheers ... McBie

 

[Hantke]

That was my original assumption as well, but why would OSX 10.6.8 still be just as fast as when it was new when mavericks isn't?
I've previously run mavericks with no issue until a month ago (with little to no issues) when i reverted to 10.6.8 then partitioned for mavericks.
I was planning on buying a 500 GB SSD, but i'm waiting to see if yosemite will be compatible on my laptop.

and thank you, i may well have an excuse to buy some new hardware!

 

[pigoo3]

That was my original assumption as well, but why would OSX 10.6.8 still be just as fast as when it was new when mavericks isn't?
I've previously run mavericks with no issue until a month ago (with little to no issues) when i reverted to 10.6.8 then partitioned for mavericks.
I was planning on buying a 500 GB SSD, but i'm waiting to see if yosemite will be compatible on my laptop.

and thank you, i may well have an excuse to buy some new hardware!

Ok…this is interesting…I may have missed the part about 2 partitions…and the 10.6.8 partition seems fine.

My first question is…is this storage device a traditional spinning HD or an SSD? Because there is no way you're getting 10.6.8 to boot up in 6 seconds with anything other than an SSD! And 6 seconds is even fast for an SSD.

- Nick

p.s. Actually I just saw that you mentioned that this is a 500gig HD. If this is a "regular" HD…I don't believe 10.6.8 is booting up in 6 seconds.

 

[Hantke]

Ok…this is interesting…I may have missed the part about 2 partitions…and the 10.6.8 partition seems fine.

My first question is…is this storage device a traditional spinning HD or an SSD? Because there is no way you're getting 10.6.8 to boot up in 6 seconds with anything other than an SSD! And 6 seconds is even fast for an SSD.

- Nick

p.s. Actually I just saw that you mentioned that this is a 500gig HD. If this is a "regular" HD…I don't believe 10.6.8 is booting up in 6 seconds.

from the time i selected the partition to when it showed the desktop background i counted 6, but I'll re-start and give you a number from a stop watch, the stop watch did say 3:36.8XXX on the mavericks restart

-edit-
that's what I get for not drinking coffee in the morning.

5.9 second shut down
16 second start-up

It also helps i have only used a whopping 30gb of HD space including the OS for speed, i remember when it was at <5 GB free (out of 500GB at that time) it took more like 30 seconds (probably more) to start.

-edit #2-
Yes, traditional (5200 RPM? i think that was standard in 2010) Edit #3 - settings says 5400 rotation rate

 

[pigoo3]

16 second start-up

Are you saying that you can get 10.6.8 to boot up in 16 seconds (from the time you hear the startup chime to desktop? Usually folks experience more like 45+ seconds.

It also helps i have only used a whopping 30gb of space including the OS for speed, i remember when it was at <5 GB free (out of 500GB at that time) it took more like 30 seconds (probably more) to start.

This is an important detail. How full is your hard drive…or better yet…how full is each partition (gigs used & gigs free) for each partition?

- Nick

 

[Hantke]

Are you saying that you can get 10.6.8 to boot up in 16 seconds (from the time you hear the startup chime to desktop? Usually folks experience more like 45+ seconds.



This is an important detail. How full is your hard drive…or better yet…how full is each partition (gigs used & gigs free) for each partition?

- Nick

I started from when I hit enter on the 10.6.8 partition, I didn't start at the chime because it takes a couple seconds for me to hit the arrow keys then enter, including that, it's more like 26 seconds.

Partitions

OSX Mavericks+
249.35 GB Total
224.58 GB Available
24.77 GB Available

OSX 10.6.8
249 Total
154 available
95 used

(just installed autodesk AutoCad, Alias, AliasAutomotive, Maya, and Mudbox. apparently they took up alot of HD space)

 

[pigoo3]

Partitions

OSX Mavericks+
249.35 GB Total
224.58 GB Available
24.77 GB Available

OSX 10.6.8
249 Total
154 available
95 used

It looks like you have enough free space on the drive (each partition) for that not to be the problem. It is possible for just a portion of the HD to be failing…and that portion is on the Mavericks partition. Or maybe some of the HD controlling files on the HD are corrupted.

How about this (before we lean more towards the HD dying). Have you run the maintenance program called "Onyx" on your HD? If not…I would recommend downloading it, installing it, and running it…and see if it helps:

Titanium's Software • Index page

Of course run it on the Mavericks partition (the partition with the problems)…and probably run it on the Snow Leopard partition as well.

You just click on the auto/automation button…and let it do its thing.

- Nick

 

[Hantke]

It looks like you have enough free space on the drive (each partition) for that not to be the problem. It is possible for just a portion of the HD to be failing…and that portion is on the Mavericks partition. Or maybe some of the HD controlling files on the HD are corrupted.

How about this (before we lean more towards the HD dying). Have you run the maintenance program called "Onyx" on your HD? If not…I would recommend downloading it, installing it, and running it…and see if it helps:

Titanium's Software • Index page

Of course run it on the Mavericks partition (the partition with the problems)…and probably run it on the Snow Leopard partition as well.

You just click on the auto/automation button…and let it do its thing.

- Nick

Awesome, thanks!

and you got my curiosity going, so i set it to restart into 10.6.8, and i see the desktop at 26 seconds, and steam (my startup program) is on at 28 seconds and connected by 30 seconds im sure it'll slow down immensly as i fill up the HD though.

 

[pm-r]

Isn't one supposed to run different versions of Onyx with different versions of OS X??

 

[pigoo3]

Isn't one supposed to run different versions of Onyx with different versions of OS X??

Yes great reminder! One download for the 10.6 partition…and a different download for the 10.9 partition.

Thanks,

- Nick

 

[pigoo3]

im sure it'll slow down immensly as i fill up the HD though.

We usually recommend that folks try not to let their HD's get more than around 80% full. As the HD gets more full than this…things tend to get less efficient. If the HD is allowed to get completely full (which has happened)…the computer completely locks up (can't do anything with it). Then computer needs to be booted from another source…so free space can be created on the problem HD.

- Nick

 

[pm-r]

Just a suggestion for the OP, but I'd suggest booting up from SL 10.6.8 and clone the Mavericks volume somewhere like a backup drive or even make a new partition for it, then Nuke & Pave the old Mavericks volume but don't skip doing the optional one pass security erase or zero-out step and then clone Mavericks back with CCC etc., or maybe even just do a new clean install onto the wiped volume.

PS: Putting the Mavericks OS X into the top or fist partition will be the fastest for it to operate in. SL can then run in the second partition.

 

[pigoo3]

Just a suggestion for the OP, but I'd suggest booting up from SL 10.6.8 and clone the Mavericks volume somewhere like a backup drive or even make a new partition for it, then Nuke & Pave the old Mavericks volume but don't skip doing the optional one pass security erase or zero-out step and then clone Mavericks back with CCC etc., or maybe even just do a new clean install onto the wiped volume.

This was a suggestion I was going to make next as well. I was sort of taking "baby steps" with the Onyx test.

- Nick

 

[Hantke]

Sorry for the late response, I've bee swamped the last couple days. Onyx claims there are 0 issues with startup disc and the hard drive is perfectly fine, should I use disc utility and just wipe the mavericks partition then come back and start over? I have no important files as i backed up before wiping the first time.

 

[pm-r]

Sorry for the late response, I've bee swamped the last couple days. Onyx claims there are 0 issues with startup disc and the hard drive is perfectly fine, should I use disc utility and just wipe the mavericks partition then come back and start over? I have no important files as i backed up before wiping the first time.

If you're going to re-install from your cloned CCC etc. backup doing a Nuke & Pave, I'd definitely wipe the old partition and do not skip using the Disk Utility's optional secure one-pass erase (zero-out) step before cloning back from your clone, or even re-insalling and then using migration assistant, but I've often had problems doing the latter - if the backup isn't corrupted.

Good luck.

 

[Hantke]

If you're going to re-install from your cloned CCC etc. backup doing a Nuke & Pave, I'd definitely wipe the old partition and do not skip using the Disk Utility's optional secure one-pass erase (zero-out) step before cloning back from your clone, or even re-insalling and then using migration assistant, but I've often had problems doing the latter - if the backup isn't corrupted.

Good luck.

The backup isn't corrupted, this was a fresh / clean install of mavericks with no restoring the original. I'll try wiping it and starting over from scratch again. I'm not worried about anything on it because I already have it all on a 3TB external HD, I'm waiting until i have it working before i transfer even a single file over.

Thank you all again