Yosemite Causing Havoc on my iMac

[drgrafix]

My iMac is a 7,1 era machine, 500GB HDD, 151GB free, its got 6 Gigs of RAM, running Yosemite 10.10.1 and having issues on a couple of fronts... not technological enough to figure it out myself, but willing to try to do some debugging with someone's guidance. Comcast is my ISP, and I have their modem connected to my new Airport Extreme AC. Network is running fine, my wife's iMac (less than a year old) running great with Yosemite 10.10.1, as is my MBP which is running Leopard. WiFi is fine too, iPads and iPhones have no problem.

My Problems are kinda mixed:

Mail - Almost every time I open an email and/or try to respond to an email the Beach Ball shows up and in Activity Monitor I get "Mail Not Responding" on and off, mostly off. As I do a lot of design work, many emails have attached images incoming and outgoing but I always send drafts and use Dropbox for really big files. So mail is hit or miss.

Safari - Strange as it seems, I can open a new window and/or tab and my home page of Google pops right up. I can type a query and Google will list answers, but when I try to go to the linked page, Safari stalls, and sometimes I get a message saying either I'm not connected to the internet (GF?) or Server Not Responding. When I see that, I jump on my PC or the MBP and confirm that the network is working and the server isn't down. After a few minutes, sometimes as long as 5-10 minutes... it finally goes to the page.

Finder - Finder is showing that there's more than one computer using this IP address and next to my computer's name there's a (2) but that number changes, sometimes goes higher.

Time Machine - I have a 1 TB Firewire800 drive dedicated to the time machine and I guess its finally full so its working from a closer date, and I've seen a message saying that there's not enough space to do a backup.

Where do I start LOL? I should note that I started having issues with Mavericks, but Yosemite has basically made me revert back to my Shuttle PC which thankfully has some older versions of Photoshop that I can use in a pinch. But I want my speedy mac back.

Thanks in advance for any help thats forthcoming.

Mike

 

[MacInWin]

Finder - Finder is showing that there's more than one computer using this IP address and next to my computer's name there's a (2) but that number changes, sometimes goes higher.

There is the problem, dupe IPs. But how is Finder showing that? The number in the name is a problem in Yosemite where if you lose network connectivity and then reconnect the machine's name gets duped, so the number appears. You can reset it in System Prefs, under Networks. But if you DO have duped IP numbers, then your router will get confused and mix packets, leading to your symptoms. But Finder won't show that, so how do you know?

 

[Rod]

Just to satisfy my curiosity can you tell me how many MHz your RAM chips are running. It sounds like you have enough RAM, you say 6 Gb but as it's an older machine the RAM you have may simply not be fast enough to handle Mavericks or Yosemite.
Have a look under the Apple Menu > About this Mac > Memory and note RAM chip details eg. Mine are
2 X 2Gb 1600 MHz DDR3 memory modules.
I wont tackle the IP numbers issue until I hear back.

 

[MacsWork]

For Mail I'd try to rebuild your mailboxes. Select the mailbox, then from the mailboxes menu select rebuild.

Never hurts.

As for Network, I'd delete the WIFI interface from the Network System preferences, I'd also delete any passwords retained for that network in the Keychain Access utility.
Create a new WIFI interface and reconnect to your network.

To confirm that your iMac name is not really appended you can check in terminal with the hostname command.

 

[drgrafix]

Just to satisfy my curiosity can you tell me how many MHz your RAM chips are running. It sounds like you have enough RAM, you say 6 Gb but as it's an older machine the RAM you have may simply not be fast enough to handle Mavericks or Yosemite.
Have a look under the Apple Menu > About this Mac > Memory and note RAM chip details eg. Mine are
2 X 2Gb 1600 MHz DDR3 memory modules.
I wont tackle the IP numbers issue until I hear back.

The iMac specs are as follows:

iMac (24 Inch Mid 2007)
Processor 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 6GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Startup Disk Macintosh HD 500 GB
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256 MB

I have to say that when the machine is "running" I'm not having any issues with speed or processing power. I have Adobe CS4 Full Suite and no issues running the Apps. For the record, here's a Etrecheck report:

Problem description:
Spinning Beach Ball in Mail, fast to open Google but slow sometimes to open a Google link web page or forums. Multiple instances of computer using this IP Address.

EtreCheck version: 2.1.1 (104)
Report generated December 9, 2014 at 10:27:52 AM EST

Hardware Information:
iMac (24-inch Mid 2007) (Verified)
iMac - model: iMac7,1
1 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2-core
6 GB RAM Upgradeable
BANK 0/DIMM0
4 GB DDR2 SDRAM 667 MHz ok
BANK 1/DIMM1
2 GB DDR2 SDRAM 667 MHz ok
Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported
Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n

Video Information:
ATI,RadeonHD2600 - VRAM: 256 MB
iMac 1920 x 1200

System Software:
OS X 10.10.1 (14B25) - Uptime: 3 days 19:56:15

Disk Information:
ST3500630AS Q disk0 : (500.11 GB)
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / : 499.25 GB (149.69 GB free)
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB

USB Information:
YAMAHA composite_device
Logitech USB Receiver
Apple Inc. Built-in iSight
MICRONET FANTOM DRIVE 2 TB
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
EFI (disk1s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Grafix-2TB (disk1s2) /Volumes/Grafix-2TB : 2.00 TB (1.92 TB free)
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Firewire Information:
LaCie d2 quadra (button) 800mbit - 800mbit max
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
EFI (disk3s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
1TB TimeMachine (disk3s2) /Volumes/1TB TimeMachine : 999.86 GB (6.54 GB free)

Configuration files:
/etc/hosts - Count: 2

Gatekeeper:
Mac App Store and identified developers

Kernel Extensions:
/Library/Application Support/Roxio
[not loaded] com.roxio.TDIXController (1.7) [Support]

/Library/Extensions
[not loaded] com.Logitech.Unifying.HID Driver (1.3.1 - SDK 10.8) [Support]

/System/Library/Extensions
[not loaded] com.FTDI.driver.FTDIUSBSerialDriver (2.2.14) [Support]
[not loaded] com.elgato.driver.DontMatchAfaTech (1.1) [Support]
[not loaded] com.elgato.driver.DontMatchCinergy450 (1.1) [Support]
[not loaded] com.elgato.driver.DontMatchCinergyXS (1.1) [Support]
[not loaded] com.elgato.driver.DontMatchEmpia (1.1) [Support]
[not loaded] com.elgato.driver.DontMatchVoyager (1.1) [Support]
[not loaded] com.keyspan.iokit.usb.KeyspanUSAdriver (2.5) [Support]
[not loaded] com.prolific.driver.PL2303 (1.2.1) [Support]
[not loaded] nl.bjaelectronics.driver.PL2303 (1.0.0d1) [Support]

/Users/[redacted]/Downloads/LCC Installer-1.app
[not loaded] com.Logitech.Control Center.HID Driver (2.6.0) [Support]

Startup Items:
EyeConnect: Path: /Library/StartupItems/EyeConnect
HP IO: Path: /Library/StartupItems/HP IO
ProTec6b: Path: /Library/StartupItems/ProTec6b
Startup items are obsolete in OS X Yosemite

Launch Agents:
[loaded] com.adobe.CS4ServiceManager.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist [Support]
[not loaded] com.thinkyhead.TabletMagic.plist [Support]
[loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist [Support]

Launch Daemons:
[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.adobe.versioncueCS4.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.oracle.java.JavaUpdateHelper.plist [Support]
[loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist [Support]
[running] org.samba.nmbd.plist [Support]
[failed] org.samba.smbd.plist [Support] [Details]

User Launch Agents:
[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist [Support]
[loaded] com.divx.agent.postinstall.plist [Support]

User Login Items:
iTunesHelper UNKNOWN (missing value)
AdobeResourceSynchronizer UNKNOWN (missing value)
Logitech Registration UNKNOWN (missing value)
Logitech Control Center Daemon ApplicationHidden (/Library/Application Support/Logitech.localized/Logitech Control Center.localized/LCCDaemon.app)
ConnectService Application (/Library/Application Support/ArcSoft/Connect Service/ConnectService.app)
WDQuickView Application (/Incompatible Software/WDQuickView.app)

Internet Plug-ins:
DirectorShockwave: Version: 11.0.3r472 [Support]
OVSHelper: Version: 1.1 [Support]
Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10
Google Earth Web Plug-in: Version: 6.1 [Support]
Silverlight: Version: 4.0.60831.0 [Support]
FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 15.0.0.239 - SDK 10.6 [Support]
DivXBrowserPlugin: Version: 2.2 [Support]
Flash Player: Version: 15.0.0.239 - SDK 10.6 Mismatch! Adobe recommends 16.0.0.235
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0 - SDK 10.8
AdobePDFViewer: Version: 9.5.5 [Support]
O3D: Version: 0.1.42.3 [Support]
JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 7 Update 71 Check version

Safari Extensions:
Ultimate
Wondershare Player-1
ClickToFlash
DivX Plus Web Player HTML5 <video>

3rd Party Preference Panes:
Adobe Version Cue CS4 [Support]
DivX [Support]
Flash Player [Support]
Java [Support]
Logitech Control Center [Support]
Perian [Support]
TabletMagic [Support]

Time Machine:
Skip System Files: NO
Auto backup: YES
Volumes being backed up:
Macintosh HD: Disk size: 499.25 GB Disk used: 349.56 GB
Destinations:
1TB TimeMachine [Local]
Total size: 999.86 GB
Total number of backups: 156
Oldest backup: 2012-03-30 18:06:15 +0000
Last backup: 2014-12-09 15:18:09 +0000
Size of backup disk: Too small
Backup size 999.86 GB < (Disk used 349.56 GB X 3)

Top Processes by CPU:
99% Mail
3% WindowServer
1% sysmond
1% Adobe Photoshop CS4
0% AppleSpell

Top Processes by Memory:
367 MB Adobe Photoshop CS4
251 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent
213 MB firefox
206 MB Finder
168 MB mds_stores

Virtual Memory Information:
418 MB Free RAM
2.66 GB Active RAM
2.44 GB Inactive RAM
729 MB Wired RAM
24.12 GB Page-ins
1.07 GB Page-outs

Diagnostics Information:
Dec 7, 2014, 10:11:59 AM Pref Setter_2014-12-07-101159_Mikes-iMac-9.cpu_resource.diag [Details]
Nov 19, 2014, 02:53:27 PM Kernel_2014-11-19-145327_Mikes-iMac-9.panic [Details]

Note that I no longer have the Elgato EyeTV on this machine but I'm seeing stuff related to it. I tried using easy find to grab it all and delete it since there was no Uninstall. I'm seriously thinking that I may have to do a clean install and get everything off my root HDD and then reinstall what I need. Wish there was a way to upgrade this machine's motherboard/cpu so I could use more and faster ram.

Mike

 

[kathill]

I am having same Yosemite problem on a MBP

Ever since I downloaded Yosemite, Safari has been giving me "unable to find the server" responses constantly... or intermittently. Everything was working fine with Mavericks.

OSX Yosemite 10.10.1
MBP 13-inch mid 2010
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256 MB

1 - Problem is bad in Safari, worse with Chrome, better with Firefox.
2 - Sometimes everything works fine... for a while.
3 - Sometimes if I reload a page over and over - 50, 60, 100 times! it will load.
4 - These are popular URLs like The New York Times, likely to have reliable servers.
5 - Sometimes, pages load, but without graphics, or with only some graphics.
6 - I have deleted cookies, cleared caches, run Disk Utility, etc. etc. etc. - it's Yosemite that is killing me.
7 - I have plenty of available memory - over 93 GB.
8 - I know when I have a strong wifi signal because I am using my iPad to listen to the radio, and when the radio quits my internet connection is down.

 

[MacInWin]

drgraphix, nothing in that report shows anything wrong, but it also doesn't show any network information. Open System Preferences/Network, then make sure the interface you are using is highlighted on the left, then click Advanced. On the TCP/IP tab, the Configure IPv4 box should read Using DHCP and the rest of the entries should show what IP address you are actually using and the router from which you got the address. That is kind of the default for home networks. If yours shows something else, please let us know what it says.

Also, log into your router (you didn't say what kind it was) and look at the list of attached devices to see what devices have the same IP address. None should, so if you find two that are, particularly if one is sharing with your iMac, you'll need to change one or the other to some other number or let it be assigned by the router.

 

[kathill]

Yosemite can't find the servers

Thank you for your kind reply. Nothing else is sharing my router. Same IP address I have always had. Yes, using DHCP.

There is a second Yosemite issue but I doubt it is related... Ever since I got Yosemite, my Numbers spreadsheets have a ~ten-second keystroke lag. Usually. Occasional lags in Pages as well.

I have seen both the lag and the URL failure noted on other support sites and have tried all fixes (short of entering code) to no avail.

Maybe I can get back to Mavericks with Time Machine.

I appreciate your help. I am in Maharashtra, thus the delay in answering you.
Kathy
My first Mac was a 512K

 

[johnodd4]

I can fix this.

And your not going to like it..

Comcast went to a new modem and i take it you have it installed correct???

if so your in trouble see the new comcast modem also works as a wireless hotspot without your knowledge the modem starts broadcasting a free wifi access point off of the internet you pay for so basically someone else is accessing your wifi and you have to many devices accessing the wifi at once which is causing your beach ball issues and the connection lost issues as well.

what to do.

well right now there is a class action lawsuit being brought against comcast for this little dirty trick the new modem not only broadcasts a hidden channel it gives comcast employees free internet from any house with comcast internet sounds unfair considering you pay for it it should be yours and yours only.

if you want to know more theres a news story on it from this link:

Comcast sued for using home routers in hotspot network - AfterDawn

basically the illegal wifi access limits your connection speed by decreasing bandwidth by 5 mb per second so if you think your getting 11mb pre sec your not

 

[kathill]

I don't have a Comcast router or modem, and nobody else uses my signal. Thanks anyway.

 

[johnodd4]

no problem but i was referring to the original post before users started hijacking the thread again

 

[kathill]

Server Not Responding with Yosemite and Safari

I think the Server not Responding issue with Yosemite puts me in the right thread.

 

[drgrafix]

drgraphix, nothing in that report shows anything wrong, but it also doesn't show any network information. Open System Preferences/Network, then make sure the interface you are using is highlighted on the left, then click Advanced. On the TCP/IP tab, the Configure IPv4 box should read Using DHCP and the rest of the entries should show what IP address you are actually using and the router from which you got the address. That is kind of the default for home networks. If yours shows something else, please let us know what it says.

Also, log into your router (you didn't say what kind it was) and look at the list of attached devices to see what devices have the same IP address. None should, so if you find two that are, particularly if one is sharing with your iMac, you'll need to change one or the other to some other number or let it be assigned by the router.

OK... Trying to follow your lead.

Went to system/preferences/ highlighted ethernet as my iMac is hard-wired.

Clicked on Advanced/TCP/IP

Its showing Configure IPv4 as "Using DHCP" and an IPv4 Address 10.0.1.X and same for the Router but the last digit is different.

Configure IPv6 shows "Automatically" and There's a bunch of numbers, letters, colons next to the word Router.

Under that, the window with the IPv6 Address shows two (2) huge number/letter/colon combos.

The Router itself is a relatively new Apple Airport Extreme 802.11AC (the small tower). How do you "log into" the router? It seems overtime I walk away from the mac and it goes to sleep another computer instance of using the IP address appears.

One other thing... I don't use this mac in wireless mode, so when I open up the preferences/network window, I see that wifi is on. We use iPads and occasionally a MBP via wifi in the house plus our iPhones. If I shut off wireless on this page, is that for a wifi connection for this machine or am I shutting down all wifi access in the house? Also in that Left-hand column I'm seeing two (2) instances of "USB...troller2 not configured" where the 2nd instance is "troller3" so what is that all about? They have a telephone handset next to them.

I do have a 1TB USB HDD connected to the Airport, and another 2TB USB HDD connected to the iMac itself. The one connected to the Airport shows up in Finder correctly, but the 2TB connected to the iMac does not... but there is an icon for it on my desktop.

Thanks for hanging in there with me.

Mike

 

[MacInWin]

The Router itself is a relatively new Apple Airport Extreme 802.11AC (the small tower). How do you "log into" the router? It seems overtime I walk away from the mac and it goes to sleep another computer instance of using the IP address appears.

Ah, I missed in your first post that you have two routers! Now we have something to investigate! I have Comcast as well, and their default router (at least in our area) is both Ethernet and WiFi. And it supports DHCP as a default. But your Apple AE also is Ethernet and WiFi, and is a DHCP host as well. So you probably have two devices trying to assign IP numbers to your iMac. And one of those is coming over Ethernet (probably from the AE, if that is where your cable goes) and another over WiFi (could be from either router). And having two IPs on one machine is not a good thing! So, the quickest way to fix it is to turn off WiFi on the iMac. That will disconnect you from the WiFi portion of the router(s) and leave ONLY the Ethernet. To do that in System Preferences just click wifi interface and and click Turn WiFi OFF button.

One other thing... I don't use this mac in wireless mode, so when I open up the preferences/network window, I see that wifi is on. We use iPads and occasionally a MBP via wifi in the house plus our iPhones. If I shut off wireless on this page, is that for a wifi connection for this machine or am I shutting down all wifi access in the house? Also in that Left-hand column I'm seeing two (2) instances of "USB...troller2 not configured" where the 2nd instance is "troller3" so what is that all about? They have a telephone handset next to them.

Turning off WiFi on the System preferences page is ONLY for your iMac, not for anything else. If you are curious about the "troller" entries, just click on one of them, then on the Advanced tab and the name will be expanded to let you see the full interface name. I have several, including a couple of FireWire and Thunderbolt controller interfaces that aren't connected. You can ignore them, they don't matter.

However, there is something that you need to do. You should only have ONE router issuing IP numbers as a DHCP Host and only one WiFi router in that mode. Right now you probably have two, the one from Comcast and the Apple AE. You have two options: get Comcast to turn off the DHCP on the Comcast router and turn it into just a modem to interface from their network to your network, leaving the AE to provide IPs for everything; or do the opposite and have the Comcast router provide all IPs, disabling the DHCP server on the AE. I think the default IP range from the Comcast is in the 10.0.1.X range and the default on the AE is in the 192.168.1.X range, but I'm not totally confident on that. I've seen it vary as both of those ranges are designated for private networks. To turn off the DHCP on the AE if you do a search on "Airport Extreme Bridge Mode" on the internet, you may find a simple set of instructions. I did that search, but didn't have the time to read all the responses. Also, this thread has more information on what another comcast user did, and mirrors sort of what I did. I called Comcast and had them turn off the DHCP function and the WiFi function, which basically turned it into just a dumb modem. All my network now comes from my AE. I had to be patient with the Comcast techs as they are not Apple-proficient and it took a while to get to a tech who spoke Apple.

I do have a 1TB USB HDD connected to the Airport, and another 2TB USB HDD connected to the iMac itself. The one connected to the Airport shows up in Finder correctly, but the 2TB connected to the iMac does not... but there is an icon for it on my desktop.

That is confusing. If the icon shows on the desktop, it should show in Finder. What happens when you click on the icon? Does Finder open to the drive? Does it appear in Disk Utility?

 

[drgrafix]

The Comcast Unit... you're saying its a router or a cable modem? I thought it was the latter. Its the ARRIS TM722G model with battery backup as we have a Comcast Triple Play setup with ISP, CableTV, and VOIP. The single ethernet-OUT CAT6 shielded cable connects to my Apple Airport Extreme AC Router which distributes ethernet connectivity (hard wire) and wifi... I had no idea that the Comcast Modem is also sending out wifi and IP addresses. If you are correct, then I'll call Comcast and have them shut off those un-needed functions.

I did shut off the wifi on my iMac... thanks for clearing that up. Us old seniors are sometimes too cautious LOL.

On the 2TB USB drive... the icon shows on my desktop... it used to be in Finder, but all of a sudden its only on the desktop. I thought I read someplace that having _NO_ icons, apps or folders on your desktop will make your mac run smoother. You agree with that notion?

So yes, clicking on the USB drive icon on the desktop opens Finder and the folders/contents of the drive are displayed. I much prefer having _ALL_ the drives in Finder but I don't know how to force that and somehow save that as a locked preference.

BTW, I did "rebuild" my three mailboxes, haven't noticed any changes. Beach ball comes up in mail no matter what I do.

Mike

 

[MacInWin]

Try Finder/Preferences/Sidebar/and make sure that External Disks is checked. As for the empty Desktop, it doesn't need to be a desert, just uncluttered. I have 7 total drive/partitions and show them all on the desktop, plus there is usually a file or two and a alias for where I put things if they don't fit anywhere else and I just need them temporarily. So you don't need to have it totally empty. Make it work for you!

 

[MacInWin]

I checked and I have the Arris TC8305C model cable modem. It has both the Ethernet out and a WiFi connection internally. That's why I had Comcast turn off the WiFi connections on it. You might check with them on your interface. I tried searching the net for your model, found a couple of spec sheets that seem to show that it does NOT have a WiFi interface, but then I found references that it does. It's worth the hassle of calling Comcast to see and make sure you only have one router being the DHCP server!

 

[drgrafix]

Jake...

I'll call Comcast later this afternoon, but just wondering whether having a dual-band Router 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz has anything to do with this? I had asked about wifi range a while back bc I seemed to be having issues with my iPad sitting on my deck perhaps 50 feet or less from the AE and someone told me that one or the other had better range, the other having faster throughput. Then I was also told that I should try switching channels.

Mike

 

[MacInWin]

Throughput is not directly related to the band, but the 2.4 Ghz band typically has a lot more competition for the 11 channels available, while the 5 Ghz band is wider and has more room to move around to avoid competition. 2.4 does penetrate walls, etc, with less signal loss, so that is also a factor. You may want to consider putting the AE into bridge mode and use it as a repeater on the other side of your house if you aren't getting good coverage from the location it is in now. What happens then is that the Comcast router takes over all WiFi and DHCP and the AE acts as a receiver/transmitter repeater for the signals it receives. Assuming you can move the AE to a location where the signal it receives is consistently strong, that could significantly enlarge your footprint.

 

[Hedgehog49]

Kathill:

About two months ago I installed Yosemite and instantly got into a whole fiasco of problems. I tried for 10 days to two weeks to sort things out with no real progress.

In desperation I used Time machine to get Mavericks back. It was a breeze! So simple and so effective.

I am at the far end of the spectrum from being a computer geek, fatalistic and so on, so I didn't bother to back up work that I had done while using Yosemite. I didn't do an inventory but I did have to redo some if not all my not-backed-up work.

Be not afraid of using the Time Machine for this purpose. If I were to do it again, I would try to understand how to do a backup before trashing Yosemite. By the way I do not know how to do a backup.

Best o' Luck
Irwin