For those running Time Machine on a portable, it is important to note one thing: always do your initial backup connected to your Time Capsule if you are using your wireless for Time Machine, and do not use your system while making this initial backup, let it run over night. Apple retail needs to properly inform clients that any initial backups to a Time Capsule (or any initial backups to Time Machine, whether it is WiFi or direct) must be done with a direct ethernet connection and the system should never be used while backing up initially. If you are utilizing your OS while making a backup, the backup record will not be properly implemented as using your system will inevitably change the files Time Machine is attempting to store. This may result in conflicts, but will always result in a much slower initial backup.
My best advice when making an initial Time Machine backup is it plug it in directly to your Time Capsule (if wireless), or connect whatever drive you will be utilizing, and let it run over night. Most initial backups take hours to complete. I've had a few clients with MacBook Pro's that have taken almost days. Once your initial backup is complete, it is not always necessary (unless you wish) to have Time Machine running automatically. You may turn it off and on when you wish to backup your system. I wish Apple would allow for varying automatic time intervals with Time Machine, as the only options currently are every hour automatically or manual implementation. Once a day, or week, etc. would be a nice option.
Excellent write-up -- I did this with my L8 08 MBP (overnight initial backup via Ethernet cable to Airport Extreme Base Station to attached 1TB USB external drive) and TimeMachine has worked wirelessly perfectly for me ever since.
I find it very helpful to show the offending computer my phaser and that it is set to kill. Works like a charm.
Regarding time machine I was having an interesting problem. I had a relatively fresh instal of leopard and a new USB hdd and started having problems where the backups were failing after only two days. It turns out that I had to exclude the program transmission and the download file and it's been working like a champ ever since.
Well, I have become so frustrated with the airport problems under Leopard (out of the box installations) that I have stopped recommending that people by Apple laptops. I can not in good conscience tell people that they should buy Apple notebooks if the wireless is not reliable. It's a pity because Leopard is a really nice OS, but it is not suitable for laptops if airport fails to recognize half of the wireless networks that I try to connect to.
I had the wireless problem from 10.5.3-10.5.5. I finally got rid of it by downloading the 10.5.5 Combo Update and reinstalling it over 10.5.5. I still get disconnected maybe once every few weeks, but no where the several times a day I had prior.
Well, I have become so frustrated with the airport problems under Leopard (out of the box installations) that I have stopped recommending that people by Apple laptops. I can not in good conscience tell people that they should buy Apple notebooks if the wireless is not reliable. It's a pity because Leopard is a really nice OS, but it is not suitable for laptops if airport fails to recognize half of the wireless networks that I try to connect to.
Surely you must accept the fact that in the grand scheme of things, your problem afflicts only a small minority of users, most of which seem to post in forums such as AI. If it was truly as widespread an issue as the grousing on these forums suggest, AAPL would have 'dealt' with it long ago.
While I accept [and believe] the fact that you are having issues, telling everyone else not to buy AAPL will not get your issue(s) solved either.
You can find all my posts about it on apple's discussion boards. We basically narrowed it down to running iTunes. We used spincontrol to narrow down where the issues came from but iTunes never came up on it. I came to the point where I installed a fresh OS (zero'd data too), installed my work environment which is CS3, BBEdit, XCode, OmniGraffle, and Firefox. Started running iTunes ALONE and it started beachballing on me. There are numerous other people that witness the 1-5 minute beachballs on 10.5.5 on the discussion boards. Once I stopped using iTunes, it seemed to go away. But I have had some random freezes since. Computer passes hardware checks and don't have any issues with 10.5.4.
And what exactly are you doing with iTunes? Is your library roughly comparable in size to the Library of Congress? I can understand why iTunes would crash in that scenario.
To be fair, no OS is 100% issue free. The best judge of a stable OS is the percentage of errors comparatively, to either another OS or a past revision of the same OS. The "bugs" that are listed as focus issues are isolated incidents. I highly doubt users experience all listed bugs as each one is dependent upon numerous factors. That being stated, it does not mean listed focus "bugs" are not an issue that needs addressing. However, stating that Apple is 100% at fault is improper. Windows is an excellent example. The Windows OS isn't by nature a faulty OS. The problem is coding the OS to deal with numerous hardware (and third party software) drivers and conflicts. Apple supplies both the hardware and software, allowing for lesser conflicts and producing a tighter environment for debugging, resulting in a better user experience. Certainly nothing is 100%, if that were the case there would no room for improvement and no reason for progress. Ultimately, users are more apt to complain than praise, so it is reasonable to expect more online gripes than applause. As an aside, how many of the listed issues are causing the OS to be completely inoperable? Coming full circle, compared to the numerous "bugs" and conflicts in the average Windows OS, I'll happily take a Mac (and if I need to run Windows, which I do, I'll simply boot my Pro unit into Windows mode, two machines in one, can't complain).
I agree. I was just getting annoyed at the guy trying to pass off all problems as user error and was pointing out that even Apple sees room for improvment and bugs that needed to be fixed.
Surely you must accept the fact that in the grand scheme of things, your problem afflicts only a small minority of users, most of which seem to post in forums such as AI. If it was truly as widespread an issue as the grousing on these forums suggest, AAPL would have 'dealt' with it long ago.
While I accept [and believe] the fact that you are having issues, telling everyone else not to buy AAPL will not get your issue(s) solved either.
The problem is that I have recommended buying MacBooks to people, and then they have found that the wireless is highly unreliable. Naturally, they think tha tI gave them bad advice. The sad reality is that I have had fewer wireless problems with machines running Vista than I have had with machines running Leopard. It it were just me having then I would think that I was just doing something subtly dumb, but it is not just me. I have friends and clients who are having the same problems, even with notebooks that are straight out of the box and have never been touched by me. This problem may not be wide-spread but it is very real.
What really annoys me, though, is that Apple refuses to acknowledge it as a problem. The folk at Apple simply say that the problem is with the wireless router and that I need to update its firmware. When I ask them how I am supposed to do this on a wireless router that I do not control, like the one in the Starbucks down the street, they do not have an answer. So, if Apple is not going to solve the problem the only thing that I can do is use a Windows machine when I absolutely need to be able to connect to a wireless network outside of home or work. I would rather use my MacBook Pro, but I can not trust Leopard's wireless to work.
What really annoys me, though, is that Apple refuses to acknowledge it as a problem. The folk at Apple simply say that the problem is with the wireless router and that I need to update its firmware. When I ask them how I am supposed to do this on a wireless router that I do not control, like the one in the Starbucks down the street, they do not have an answer. So, if Apple is not going to solve the problem the only thing that I can do is use a Windows machine when I absolutely need to be able to connect to a wireless network outside of home or work. I would rather use my MacBook Pro, but I can not trust Leopard's wireless to work.
AAPL, or any other vendor for that matter, can only fix a problem that they can reproduce. Did they ever take possession of your machine to diagnose what the issue really could be?
No, there are always going to be faults - but the number who blame Apple for stupid things they themselves do - it is ridiculous.
Look at the number of people who complain about things going wrong whilst never disclosing to this forum the fact that they're using a third party hack that uses undocumented parts of the operating system?
I'd suggest that you take complaints with a large grain of salt - because there are a lot of idiots out there.
Ah. Gotcha. It may be that readers on this list are more adventurous or sophisticated than most of the mac users I know. Our shop has 15 or so and I know people with at least another 10 macs and they use it out of the box with off the shelf software like adobe. I am typing this on a jailbroken iPhone but am not aware that there was a lot of hacked 3rd party OS hacks out there - what kind of stuff are people up to (curious minds want to know).
AAPL, or any other vendor for that matter, can only fix a problem that they can reproduce. Did they ever take possession of your machine to diagnose what the issue really could be?
Apple never asked, but they can borrow one of my MacBooks if they want. However, I do not really think that they need to do that. The problem is present in MacBooks that are right out of the box, with factory installations of Leopard and no user modifications.
Comments
For those running Time Machine on a portable, it is important to note one thing: always do your initial backup connected to your Time Capsule if you are using your wireless for Time Machine, and do not use your system while making this initial backup, let it run over night. Apple retail needs to properly inform clients that any initial backups to a Time Capsule (or any initial backups to Time Machine, whether it is WiFi or direct) must be done with a direct ethernet connection and the system should never be used while backing up initially. If you are utilizing your OS while making a backup, the backup record will not be properly implemented as using your system will inevitably change the files Time Machine is attempting to store. This may result in conflicts, but will always result in a much slower initial backup.
My best advice when making an initial Time Machine backup is it plug it in directly to your Time Capsule (if wireless), or connect whatever drive you will be utilizing, and let it run over night. Most initial backups take hours to complete. I've had a few clients with MacBook Pro's that have taken almost days. Once your initial backup is complete, it is not always necessary (unless you wish) to have Time Machine running automatically. You may turn it off and on when you wish to backup your system. I wish Apple would allow for varying automatic time intervals with Time Machine, as the only options currently are every hour automatically or manual implementation. Once a day, or week, etc. would be a nice option.
Excellent write-up -- I did this with my L8 08 MBP (overnight initial backup via Ethernet cable to Airport Extreme Base Station to attached 1TB USB external drive) and TimeMachine has worked wirelessly perfectly for me ever since.
But the sonic screwdriver fixes everything!
I find it very helpful to show the offending computer my phaser and that it is set to kill. Works like a charm.
Regarding time machine I was having an interesting problem. I had a relatively fresh instal of leopard and a new USB hdd and started having problems where the backups were failing after only two days. It turns out that I had to exclude the program transmission and the download file and it's been working like a champ ever since.
So if they don't, what will you swear to do then?
Well, I have become so frustrated with the airport problems under Leopard (out of the box installations) that I have stopped recommending that people by Apple laptops. I can not in good conscience tell people that they should buy Apple notebooks if the wireless is not reliable. It's a pity because Leopard is a really nice OS, but it is not suitable for laptops if airport fails to recognize half of the wireless networks that I try to connect to.
10.5.6 builds have been floating around since November 17th with no issues...
I believe there are tons of issues still... or it would have been released by now...
unless Apple has finally found beta testers and now we are no longer the beta testers hehe
Well, I have become so frustrated with the airport problems under Leopard (out of the box installations) that I have stopped recommending that people by Apple laptops. I can not in good conscience tell people that they should buy Apple notebooks if the wireless is not reliable. It's a pity because Leopard is a really nice OS, but it is not suitable for laptops if airport fails to recognize half of the wireless networks that I try to connect to.
Surely you must accept the fact that in the grand scheme of things, your problem afflicts only a small minority of users, most of which seem to post in forums such as AI. If it was truly as widespread an issue as the grousing on these forums suggest, AAPL would have 'dealt' with it long ago.
While I accept [and believe] the fact that you are having issues, telling everyone else not to buy AAPL will not get your issue(s) solved either.
You can find all my posts about it on apple's discussion boards. We basically narrowed it down to running iTunes. We used spincontrol to narrow down where the issues came from but iTunes never came up on it. I came to the point where I installed a fresh OS (zero'd data too), installed my work environment which is CS3, BBEdit, XCode, OmniGraffle, and Firefox. Started running iTunes ALONE and it started beachballing on me. There are numerous other people that witness the 1-5 minute beachballs on 10.5.5 on the discussion boards. Once I stopped using iTunes, it seemed to go away. But I have had some random freezes since. Computer passes hardware checks and don't have any issues with 10.5.4.
And what exactly are you doing with iTunes? Is your library roughly comparable in size to the Library of Congress? I can understand why iTunes would crash in that scenario.
You hear about them, but you never see them.
To be fair, no OS is 100% issue free. The best judge of a stable OS is the percentage of errors comparatively, to either another OS or a past revision of the same OS. The "bugs" that are listed as focus issues are isolated incidents. I highly doubt users experience all listed bugs as each one is dependent upon numerous factors. That being stated, it does not mean listed focus "bugs" are not an issue that needs addressing. However, stating that Apple is 100% at fault is improper. Windows is an excellent example. The Windows OS isn't by nature a faulty OS. The problem is coding the OS to deal with numerous hardware (and third party software) drivers and conflicts. Apple supplies both the hardware and software, allowing for lesser conflicts and producing a tighter environment for debugging, resulting in a better user experience. Certainly nothing is 100%, if that were the case there would no room for improvement and no reason for progress. Ultimately, users are more apt to complain than praise, so it is reasonable to expect more online gripes than applause. As an aside, how many of the listed issues are causing the OS to be completely inoperable? Coming full circle, compared to the numerous "bugs" and conflicts in the average Windows OS, I'll happily take a Mac (and if I need to run Windows, which I do, I'll simply boot my Pro unit into Windows mode, two machines in one, can't complain).
I agree. I was just getting annoyed at the guy trying to pass off all problems as user error and was pointing out that even Apple sees room for improvment and bugs that needed to be fixed.
Surely you must accept the fact that in the grand scheme of things, your problem afflicts only a small minority of users, most of which seem to post in forums such as AI. If it was truly as widespread an issue as the grousing on these forums suggest, AAPL would have 'dealt' with it long ago.
While I accept [and believe] the fact that you are having issues, telling everyone else not to buy AAPL will not get your issue(s) solved either.
The problem is that I have recommended buying MacBooks to people, and then they have found that the wireless is highly unreliable. Naturally, they think tha tI gave them bad advice. The sad reality is that I have had fewer wireless problems with machines running Vista than I have had with machines running Leopard. It it were just me having then I would think that I was just doing something subtly dumb, but it is not just me. I have friends and clients who are having the same problems, even with notebooks that are straight out of the box and have never been touched by me. This problem may not be wide-spread but it is very real.
What really annoys me, though, is that Apple refuses to acknowledge it as a problem. The folk at Apple simply say that the problem is with the wireless router and that I need to update its firmware. When I ask them how I am supposed to do this on a wireless router that I do not control, like the one in the Starbucks down the street, they do not have an answer. So, if Apple is not going to solve the problem the only thing that I can do is use a Windows machine when I absolutely need to be able to connect to a wireless network outside of home or work. I would rather use my MacBook Pro, but I can not trust Leopard's wireless to work.
What really annoys me, though, is that Apple refuses to acknowledge it as a problem. The folk at Apple simply say that the problem is with the wireless router and that I need to update its firmware. When I ask them how I am supposed to do this on a wireless router that I do not control, like the one in the Starbucks down the street, they do not have an answer. So, if Apple is not going to solve the problem the only thing that I can do is use a Windows machine when I absolutely need to be able to connect to a wireless network outside of home or work. I would rather use my MacBook Pro, but I can not trust Leopard's wireless to work.
AAPL, or any other vendor for that matter, can only fix a problem that they can reproduce. Did they ever take possession of your machine to diagnose what the issue really could be?
No, there are always going to be faults - but the number who blame Apple for stupid things they themselves do - it is ridiculous.
Look at the number of people who complain about things going wrong whilst never disclosing to this forum the fact that they're using a third party hack that uses undocumented parts of the operating system?
I'd suggest that you take complaints with a large grain of salt - because there are a lot of idiots out there.
Ah. Gotcha. It may be that readers on this list are more adventurous or sophisticated than most of the mac users I know. Our shop has 15 or so and I know people with at least another 10 macs and they use it out of the box with off the shelf software like adobe. I am typing this on a jailbroken iPhone but am not aware that there was a lot of hacked 3rd party OS hacks out there - what kind of stuff are people up to (curious minds want to know).
AAPL, or any other vendor for that matter, can only fix a problem that they can reproduce. Did they ever take possession of your machine to diagnose what the issue really could be?
Apple never asked, but they can borrow one of my MacBooks if they want. However, I do not really think that they need to do that. The problem is present in MacBooks that are right out of the box, with factory installations of Leopard and no user modifications.