Sometimes I wonder if Apple really knows what they're doing...
...with OS X.
With 9.x and before I never once had a major problem with ANY Mac (and I've been using Macs since ~1986). After installing OS X I have had major problems left and right. I will document my OS X experiences below:
September 2000 - Mac OS X Public Beta
I installed this on a 400 MHz PowerBook G4 (Pismo) with 384 MB of RAM and a 6 GB IBM Travelstar.
At first everything worked perfectly, until about a month after installation.
When I wanted to restarted into OS 9, it would work the first time, but any time after that it would have a flashing system folder and I was completely unable to get back into 9 or X without using the OS 9 CD. Even then, sometimes the hard drive would not mount at all until I shut it down and waited a while, then turned it back on.
After messing with it for a while to no avail, I decided to take it to my Apple reseller to have it checked. He kept it for three weeks and said everything was fine and even demonstrated to me that it worked perfectly. That evening as soon as I restarted into OS 9, it had the exact same problem again.
So, I took it back and said it still did it. He kept it for a week, it never did it. I get it back...and...flashing startup folder.
Soooo, I was so sick of this that I decided to take the computer apart myself (I was unsure if it was a hardware or software problem) and see if I could fix it.
I took everything out, got down to the hard drive...and the connection was loose. So I pushed it in tighter, put everything back in, and turned it on. It started up and I could hear it mounting, but the screen wouldn't turn on.
I took it back apart again and pushed the connectors a little tighter this time, and then everything worked.
After that, I never had the problem again on the PowerBook. I upgraded to 10.0, then 10.1 and it still works perfectly.
November 2001 - Mac OS 10.1)
This summer I bought a new DVD iBook which had 10.0.3 preinstalled (though 10.0.4 came out months before. I never figured that one out). I never bothered using 10.0.3 because I had been using 9.x on my PowerBook before for a while as 10.0.4 was bloody slow!
After 10.1 came out, I updated my iBook to that and switched over almost completely with no problems...until about a month ago.
I restarted into OS 9 to install Myst and play it for a while, when OS 9 freezes and I restarted...only to have the flashing startup folder. I couldn't do ANYTHING and I didn't have my CDs with me, so I had to wait until I got home.
After I restarted with the CD, everything worked and I went back into X. (Notice that this never happens when I restart OS X, only 9, and only after OS X is installed on the machine)
That never happened for a while (maybe because I wasn't in 9 for about a month, and when I went back I never restarted from a crash in 9)...until today. I had to reinstall OS X after a bad experience with themes last week and I backed up some stuff that OS X wasn't letting me delete, so I went into 9 to delete it. I first noticed some strange things when 9 was acting horribly slow to open a folder - 20 minutes for a backup of the OS X system folder - so I restarted. Big mistake.
I couldn't get back in, even with the iBook CD, 9.1 CD, 9.2.1 CD, or OS X CD. The hard drive just wouldn't mount and it said it was unreadable. I ran Disk First Aid in OS 9 and it found about 100,000 errors, but couldn't fix them so I ran the OS X DFA and it found no errors and said it was perfectly fine.
Sooo, I just kept trying and FINALLY it mounted the hard drive. I chose OS X in the startup disk and it restarted...except it had a kernel panic on startup. After restarting again, it started up fine.
I have yet to restart since then as everything works fine. But I wonder, if I do restart...will I ever be able to get back in? <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
10.1 Updater CD Problems
Another thing I have noticed is that the Mac OS X updater CDs only install a good system about 1/4 of the time. After updating on my iBook the first time, I noticed the following:
I want my computer to work as well as it did in Mac OS 9 and earlier. If this is the world's most advanced operating system, I'm sure glad I'm not using something else.
That said, I like where OS X is going and I will continue to use it unless my computer suddenly bursts into flames and explodes. I just hope Apple can fix these problems and improve it.
[ 11-17-2001: Message edited by: MacAgent ]</p>
With 9.x and before I never once had a major problem with ANY Mac (and I've been using Macs since ~1986). After installing OS X I have had major problems left and right. I will document my OS X experiences below:
September 2000 - Mac OS X Public Beta
I installed this on a 400 MHz PowerBook G4 (Pismo) with 384 MB of RAM and a 6 GB IBM Travelstar.
At first everything worked perfectly, until about a month after installation.
When I wanted to restarted into OS 9, it would work the first time, but any time after that it would have a flashing system folder and I was completely unable to get back into 9 or X without using the OS 9 CD. Even then, sometimes the hard drive would not mount at all until I shut it down and waited a while, then turned it back on.
After messing with it for a while to no avail, I decided to take it to my Apple reseller to have it checked. He kept it for three weeks and said everything was fine and even demonstrated to me that it worked perfectly. That evening as soon as I restarted into OS 9, it had the exact same problem again.
So, I took it back and said it still did it. He kept it for a week, it never did it. I get it back...and...flashing startup folder.
Soooo, I was so sick of this that I decided to take the computer apart myself (I was unsure if it was a hardware or software problem) and see if I could fix it.
I took everything out, got down to the hard drive...and the connection was loose. So I pushed it in tighter, put everything back in, and turned it on. It started up and I could hear it mounting, but the screen wouldn't turn on.
I took it back apart again and pushed the connectors a little tighter this time, and then everything worked.
After that, I never had the problem again on the PowerBook. I upgraded to 10.0, then 10.1 and it still works perfectly.
November 2001 - Mac OS 10.1)
This summer I bought a new DVD iBook which had 10.0.3 preinstalled (though 10.0.4 came out months before. I never figured that one out). I never bothered using 10.0.3 because I had been using 9.x on my PowerBook before for a while as 10.0.4 was bloody slow!
After 10.1 came out, I updated my iBook to that and switched over almost completely with no problems...until about a month ago.
I restarted into OS 9 to install Myst and play it for a while, when OS 9 freezes and I restarted...only to have the flashing startup folder. I couldn't do ANYTHING and I didn't have my CDs with me, so I had to wait until I got home.
After I restarted with the CD, everything worked and I went back into X. (Notice that this never happens when I restart OS X, only 9, and only after OS X is installed on the machine)
That never happened for a while (maybe because I wasn't in 9 for about a month, and when I went back I never restarted from a crash in 9)...until today. I had to reinstall OS X after a bad experience with themes last week and I backed up some stuff that OS X wasn't letting me delete, so I went into 9 to delete it. I first noticed some strange things when 9 was acting horribly slow to open a folder - 20 minutes for a backup of the OS X system folder - so I restarted. Big mistake.
I couldn't get back in, even with the iBook CD, 9.1 CD, 9.2.1 CD, or OS X CD. The hard drive just wouldn't mount and it said it was unreadable. I ran Disk First Aid in OS 9 and it found about 100,000 errors, but couldn't fix them so I ran the OS X DFA and it found no errors and said it was perfectly fine.
Sooo, I just kept trying and FINALLY it mounted the hard drive. I chose OS X in the startup disk and it restarted...except it had a kernel panic on startup. After restarting again, it started up fine.
I have yet to restart since then as everything works fine. But I wonder, if I do restart...will I ever be able to get back in? <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
10.1 Updater CD Problems
Another thing I have noticed is that the Mac OS X updater CDs only install a good system about 1/4 of the time. After updating on my iBook the first time, I noticed the following:
- Entire computer would freeze for five minutes when dialing onto internet.
- On wakeup, sometimes everything would go black and I would have to restart.
- All applications would unexpectedly crash at times.
- 867 MHz Power Macintosh G4
- 640 MB RAM
- 60 GB Hard Drive
- Mac OS 9.2.1/Mac OS 10.1
I want my computer to work as well as it did in Mac OS 9 and earlier. If this is the world's most advanced operating system, I'm sure glad I'm not using something else.
That said, I like where OS X is going and I will continue to use it unless my computer suddenly bursts into flames and explodes. I just hope Apple can fix these problems and improve it.
[ 11-17-2001: Message edited by: MacAgent ]</p>
Comments
<strong>I installed this on a 400 MHz PowerBook G4 (Pismo) with 384 MB of RAM and a 6 GB IBM Travelstar.
At first everything worked perfectly, until about a month after installation.
When I wanted to restarted into OS 9, it would work the first time, but any time after that it would have a flashing system folder and I was completely unable to get back into 9 or X without using the OS 9 CD. Even then, sometimes the hard drive would not mount at all until I shut it down and waited a while, then turned it back on.
After messing with it for a while to no avail, I decided to take it to my Apple reseller to have it checked. He kept it for three weeks and said everything was fine and even demonstrated to me that it worked perfectly. That evening as soon as I restarted into OS 9, it had the exact same problem again.
So, I took it back and said it still did it. He kept it for a week, it never did it. I get it back...and...flashing startup folder.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
Sound like a BTKAC error
<strong> [quote]
Soooo, I was so sick of this that I decided to take the computer apart myself (I was unsure if it was a hardware or software problem) and see if I could fix it.
I took everything out, got down to the hard drive...and the connection was loose. So I pushed it in tighter, put everything back in, and turned it on. It started up and I could hear it mounting, but the screen wouldn't turn on.
I took it back apart again and pushed the connectors a little tighter this time, and then everything worked.
After that, I never had the problem again on the PowerBook. I upgraded to 10.0, then 10.1 and it still works perfectly.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
Good job!
<strong> [quote]
November 2001 - Mac OS 10.1)
This summer I bought a new DVD iBook which had 10.0.3 preinstalled (though 10.0.4 came out months before. I never figured that one out). I never bothered using 10.0.3 because I had been using 9.x on my PowerBook before for a while as 10.0.4 was bloody slow!</strong><hr></blockquote>
The reason is when that was shipped 10.0.4 wasn't out yet.
<strong> [quote]
After 10.1 came out, I updated my iBook to that and switched over almost completely with no problems...until about a month ago.
I restarted into OS 9 to install Myst and play it for a while, when OS 9 freezes and I restarted...only to have the flashing startup folder. I couldn't do ANYTHING and I didn't have my CDs with me, so I had to wait until I got home.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
This doesn't sound like a OS X problem
<strong> [quote]
After I restarted with the CD, everything worked and I went back into X. (Notice that this never happens when I restart OS X, only 9, and only after OS X is installed on the machine)
That never happened for a while (maybe because I wasn't in 9 for about a month, and when I went back I never restarted from a crash in 9)...until today. I had to reinstall OS X after a bad experience with themes last week and I backed up some stuff that OS X wasn't letting me delete, so I went into 9 to delete it. I first noticed some strange things when 9 was acting horribly slow to open a folder - 20 minutes for a backup of the OS X system folder - so I restarted. Big mistake.
I couldn't get back in, even with the iBook CD, 9.1 CD, 9.2.1 CD, or OS X CD. The hard drive just wouldn't mount and it said it was unreadable. I ran Disk First Aid in OS 9 and it found about 100,000 errors, but couldn't fix them so I ran the OS X DFA and it found no errors and said it was perfectly fine.
Sooo, I just kept trying and FINALLY it mounted the hard drive. I chose OS X in the startup disk and it restarted...except it had a kernel panic on startup. After restarting again, it started up fine.
I have yet to restart since then as everything works fine. But I wonder, if I do restart...will I ever be able to get back in? <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
</strong><hr></blockquote>
You ever run any hard disk repair programs?
<strong> [quote]
10.1 Updater CD Problems
Another thing I have noticed is that the Mac OS X updater CDs only install a good system about 1/4 of the time. After updating on my iBook the first time, I noticed the following:
- Entire computer would freeze for five minutes when dialing onto internet.
- On wakeup, sometimes everything would go black and I would have to restart.
- All applications would unexpectedly crash at times.
After I reinstalled last Wednesday, all these problems have been fixed. So, I decided to do an experiment on a computer where I work.- 867 MHz Power Macintosh G4
- 640 MB RAM
- 60 GB Hard Drive
- Mac OS 9.2.1/Mac OS 10.1
Out of 10 installations and reformats, only 4 worked fully. All others had some major problem or feature missing. One time I had no System Preferences at all show up, even though they were on the disk.I want my computer to work as well as it did in Mac OS 9 and earlier. If this is the world's most advanced operating system, I'm sure glad I'm not using something else.
That said, I like where OS X is going and I will continue to use it unless my computer suddenly bursts into flames and explodes. I just hope Apple can fix these problems and improve it.
[ 11-17-2001: Message edited by: MacAgent ]</strong><hr></blockquote>I've installed OS X on I'd say 30 odd computers since it has came out. Not once did I run into any problems. Odd