CUI CUI CUI error 10.7.3 all apps crashes

" Well, it looks like everyone who's recently posted here has had eventual success with their 10.7.3 Update in one of about 4 ways to update! "

Indeed, I finally updated most of my machines right through softwareupdate, after Apple had switched softwareupdate to work based on the combo updater.

"It just worked"™.

It's just too bad that we'll probably never learn what went wrong when Apple prepared the original delta update.

Carsten Bormann wrote:

It's just too bad that we'll probably never learn what went wrong when Apple prepared the original delta update.

I think you're right about Apple not describing what went wrong with the Delta Update. It's not Apple's style. I wouldn't be surprised if in the coming days or weeks, a developer, or other expert will pin down the culprit, describe the file that wasn't replaced in the Delta Update that shoulld have been as in the Combo Update. That'll make a little news.

Yes, the combo update is what I tried, but it did not work. I also was going to try the app store approach, but I couldn't get there before the system would freeze up. I have got it working now though. I was able to boot into the OSX Utilities and reinstall the OS. It took quite a few tries until it was able to download the files before freezing. After that it was all good. Thanks for the help!

jhuber222 wrote:

Yes, the combo update is what I tried, but it did not work. I also was going to try the app store approach, but I couldn't get there before the system would freeze up. I have got it working now though. I was able to boot into the OSX Utilities and reinstall the OS. It took quite a few tries until it was able to download the files before freezing. After that it was all good. Thanks for the help!

Glad you got it working! I was wondering though, did you have it started up in Recovery Disk? (with the Recovery Partition) If so, I don't see why you would have any trouble downloading either the Combo File with Safari, or a new copy of "Install Mac OS X Lion". If you were in fact using the Recovery Disk, and it kept freezing during down load, then the update must have modified the Recovery Partition, something that I know of only one update doing, and it wasn't this one (10.7.3). If that's the case, then either I'm wrong, and 10.7.3 does update the Recovery Partition, or you have a problem with your Recovery Partition, either software or a bad hard drive, or you have another hardware problem with your Mac.

If everything appears to be working fine now, I would double check your hardware, and hard drive, start by running "Verify Disk" from Disk Utilities, (or "Repair Disk" if you can on other partitions, or from another start up disk or DVD). Might as well Repair Permissions too. I'm curious if they are perfect after a re-install of Mac OS X. (If no problems, I know most Mac users don't, but perhaps you have some special hard drive software to check for Hard disk errors or bad sectors?)

Again, this is only if you were running from the Recovery Partition, and having freezing problems while downloading new copies of either the Combo update or a new copy of Mac OS X Lion. If you were having problems downloading and your Mac was freezing while you were using your bad update of 10.7.3 (on your main partition) then I wouldn't worry about anything, as long as you reinstalled Mac OS X from any partition or Disc (DVD). Or, I suppose, there could have been a rare problem with the servers while you were downloading your software, or a problem with your Internet connection (didn't think of that till now).

Just to add...

I called apple to ask about this problem, the guy on the phone was very edgy, refused to acknowledge the issue until I told him it was all over the forums.

I understand that this is a bit of a messup on apples behalf, but for them to make their staff clam up on it isn't fair, it's like sticking your fingers in your ears and shouting LA LA LA NOT LISTENING.

Really unimpressed.

Yes, I tried using the recovery partition. I am not entirely sure what was going on. I tried repairing permissions a few times, and it seemed to get better whenever I did that. Some of the problems might have come from having to do hard shutdowns a bunch of times when the system was in the middle of something. Either way, its working perfectly now!

Marco1313 wrote:

I have a MacBook Pro, and since the update, almost everything is crashing...

I tried downloading the combo version, and after a very slow installation, the same apps are still crashing.

What's next?

I had the exact same thing happen. Everything was crashing and the combo version didnt work. Boot your mac and right after you hear it make the startup noise hold cmd & R. then click reinstall Mac OS. then follow the steps. It wont touch your data or settings, just download and reinstall the OS fresh. When it is downloading give it plenty of time.. it takes a while. After doing this everything worked fine for me! (I got this from Chad2's respone on the previous page.)

Marco1313 wrote:

After 2 hours and more.... No luck with the reinstall.

Going to the Genius Bar tomorrow at 9:30 am.

Thanks

Did you do what Chad2, jhuber222, and I have suggested? Did you "Reinstall Mac OS X" (the second option in Mac OS X Utilities) on the Recovery Partition? Or did you reinstall the Combo Update? I described how you can do this on page 21 and 24 with the Recovery Partition– Safari to download the Combo Update, Disk Utilities to mount the Combo Update, and the Terminal to execute the Installer command.

Either option should have given you a stable working copy of Mac OS X 10.7.3. If not, especially, if you did the more time comsuming but surefire way, Reinstall Mac OS X, then I would suspect you have a hardware problem, or a firmware update that hadn't been done yet, when Mac OS X 10.7.3 was expecting it. I've noticed lot of newer Macs (in the past year) have been getting lot of Firmware Updates.

Firmware Updates are good when needed, but they also allow a company to release a product before full testing is done, thinking if there is a problem down the road, they can just fix the bug with a Firmware Update. I find this happening a lot with TVs and BluRay Players. It's very annoying, espcially when the the Firmware Update crashes and bricks the device. I had to send a BluRay Player back to the company with a BlockBuster Disc in it, because I couldn't eject and I didn't want to void the warranty by removing it. (I got a Netflix Disc and gave it to BlockBuster so I wouldn't have to buy the Movie, then returned the identical BlockBuster disc to Netflix when I finally got it back a month later. Never again will I do a Firmware Update with a Disc in the player!)

Anyhow, if you did exactly what we have suggested with a proper reinstallation, then good luck with the Genius Bar tomorrow! (Good thing you can make appointments, I wonder if they've been extra busy since February 1st!)

Well.. Everything was working perfectly. Then Safari froze and I had to shut down. It wouldn't boot right so I tried to repair permissions and there were a bunch of open errors it would freeze when it got to. So then I reinstalled the OS without a hitch using the recovery partition, which fixed it last time. Now I can't boot at all, no safe mode, no recovery, nothing. Could this possibly be a firmware issue?

All 3 PowerBooks got corrupted disks upon getting 10.7.3. The 15 in Core 2 Duo Early 2008 with 4GB RAM crashed head on, damaged a set of Time Machine (I keep 2 separate disks for each one) and had to be reinstalled completely twice. The newer 15, summer 2009, with 8 GB RAM and the newest 17 BTO with an SSD, 8 GB RAM were lucky to have the disk repaired by the Recovery Disk but not without quite a headache. I did my 17 first and then worked my son's via LogMein, he is studying in Spain, having to coach him with the Recovery HD via Skype and his iPhone. All 3 had been sync'ed last months during my son's vacations to 10.7.2 and all the goodies available until the 24th, when he left back to Spain. The problems came afterwards, and got worse when backups got inaccesible upon being corrupted as well once connected, Time Machine would crash and leave the backup file unrecognizable. I only lost Feb 9th and 10th on my daughter's but have being on top of this for the last 9 days. HINT: Do a LION USB yourself http://www.macstories.net/mac/os-x-lion-installation-guide-boot-discs-and-qa/ It saved me time for my daughter's second installation. ALSO: Run Disk Utility frequently, daily if possible, and defragment (I had become lazy on those two) LASTLY: have TWO separate HDs for Time Machine and keep two separate backup sets, it saved my daughter's. Those portable Passports and Seagates are fantastic and faster than the 1TB Time Capsule I have (fisrt generation), which I have linked to a desk 2TB Seagate so, each one holds a set for each Mac.

I'm a Mac user since the 128K BACK IN 1984 and this won't change me a bit. My son's has Parallels with Windows XP and 7 since his lab is running WIndows and stayed with the academic iMac (white) and has exceedingly poor IT response to students but, I HATE Winblows. Nevertheless, I guess Apple owes us an explanation. We've lost time, its my 10th day on this, and many people may have lost valuable data. My son's doctoral thesis data was at stake, compounded by my inability to work his Mac directly. I did keep a full backup of his at home when he left but the stress this put me thru has no match in my 55 years of life. I have been scanning and shreeding files for months, and all taht would have disappeared, My daughter emailed an essay 8 minutes before midnight's due date due to this without allowing me time to proofread it.

iDisk is gone, I used to do everything there and never used my Documents folder now, I'll have to go for other alternatives. I've learned to mistrust luck and computers with my G3 PowerBook, it corrupted the HD and the backup as well and I lost nearly everything, what I recovered cost me a couple thousand bucks. SOmehow, get your life sustaining data on the cloud, it can be emailing it to yourself, Google, iCLoud, Dropbox (works almost identical to iDisk) BUT, never trust just your computer and your backups. Even SSDs HDs, I was swearing they would not go thru this kind of problem. You bet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let's see how the Combo thing goes on.

CARTOLFAMMACS wrote:

All 3 PowerBooks got corrupted disks upon getting 10.7.3. The 15 in Core 2 Duo Early 2008 with 4GB RAM crashed head on, damaged a set of Time Machine (I keep 2 separate disks for each one) and had to be reinstalled completely twice. The newer 15, summer 2009, with 8 GB RAM and the newest 17 BTO with an SSD, 8 GB RAM were lucky to have the disk repaired by the Recovery Disk but not without quite a headache. I did my 17 first and then worked my son's via LogMein, he is studying in Spain, having to coach him with the Recovery HD via Skype and his iPhone. All 3 had been sync'ed last months during my son's vacations to 10.7.2 and all the goodies available until the 24th, when he left back to Spain. The problems came afterwards, and got worse when backups got inaccesible upon being corrupted as well once connected, Time Machine would crash and leave the backup file unrecognizable. I only lost Feb 9th and 10th on my daughter's but have being on top of this for the last 9 days. HINT: Do a LION USB yourself http://www.macstories.net/mac/os-x-lion-installation-guide-boot-discs-and-qa/ It saved me time for my daughter's second installation. ALSO: Run Disk Utility frequently, daily if possible, and defragment (I had become lazy on those two) LASTLY: have TWO separate HDs for Time Machine and keep two separate backup sets, it saved my daughter's. Those portable Passports and Seagates are fantastic and faster than the 1TB Time Capsule I have (fisrt generation), which I have linked to a desk 2TB Seagate so, each one holds a set for each Mac.

I'm a Mac user since the 128K BACK IN 1984 and this won't change me a bit. My son's has Parallels with Windows XP and 7 since his lab is running WIndows and stayed with the academic iMac (white) and has exceedingly poor IT response to students but, I HATE Winblows. Nevertheless, I guess Apple owes us an explanation. We've lost time, its my 10th day on this, and many people may have lost valuable data. My son's doctoral thesis data was at stake, compounded by my inability to work his Mac directly. I did keep a full backup of his at home when he left but the stress this put me thru has no match in my 55 years of life. I have been scanning and shreeding files for months, and all taht would have disappeared, My daughter emailed an essay 8 minutes before midnight's due date due to this without allowing me time to proofread it.

iDisk is gone, I used to do everything there and never used my Documents folder now, I'll have to go for other alternatives. I've learned to mistrust luck and computers with my G3 PowerBook, it corrupted the HD and the backup as well and I lost nearly everything, what I recovered cost me a couple thousand bucks. SOmehow, get your life sustaining data on the cloud, it can be emailing it to yourself, Google, iCLoud, Dropbox (works almost identical to iDisk) BUT, never trust just your computer and your backups. Even SSDs HDs, I was swearing they would not go thru this kind of problem. You bet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let's see how the Combo thing goes on.

Wow, sounds like quite an ordeal! Have you been reading this post? I've (and others) have posted many working solutions, especially on page 21 and 24. A reinstall of Mac OS Lion from the Recovery Partition works perfectly every time, that I've heard of.

Also, the Combo Update almost always worked too, if Apple had included that in the Software update from the beginning instead of two days later then this post may have never started!

Apple did change the way Time Machine works between 10.7.2 and 10.7.3. Nothing noticeable, but changes underneath. I did a Time Machine restore on my first iMac, but then on the second iMac, I realized that the Combo Update worked fine. So I wasted a 10 hour Time Machine restore to 10.7.2 before doing the Combo Update. You can do the Combo Update right on top of the bad Delta Update to Mac OS X 10.7.3. If your Finder isn't working, then try the steps I described on page 21 and 24. Either that, or do the 45 minute complete re-installation of Mac OS X (from the restore partition). Re-installing doesn't erase or even change your settings and preferences! (I'm still not used to that, I remember the "Clean Install" from the Leopard and earlier times.) There is no "Clean Install" anymore, unless you actually tell it do erase your Volume! (Don't do that!)

I have a friend who has re-downloaded Lion and reinstalled it twice because his WiFi wasn't working, but he's using it as a router through Internet sharing and he's had problems with it before.

Hope you have better luck!

I did have a problem with the Recovery HD and the computer connected directly to Internet Recovery showing a world globe turning around, it failed the first time but succeeded the second time and I got my Recovery HD back again, that was one of my 3 PowerBooks. I even had to start on HD mode to copy the user's folder to the other Mac just in case, and that Mac had to be reinstalled twice. What it did while connected to iinternet recovery, I don't know.

Unfortunately, no.

I just found this post now that I'm relaxed with all 3 Macs running so, I started to look around and found 2 articles addresing the problem but, I've tried every possible option juggling user folders back and forth when I found out backups were affected as well by Time Machine crashing. But I did do a reinstall thru the Recovery Disk and it went fine, allowing for DSL speed, until it started all over again. Now I have downloaded the Combo, already copied it to an external drive, but I think I'd better wait for my daughter to finish her college essays for tomorrow before putting a finger anywhere. I'll have the whole day tomorrow to crack my head but she only has a couple of hours left for her homework. She has not been able to do lot of stuff, even though I do keep and old G4 working great and running right now. I never get rid of my oldest Mac, actually keep 4 just because of these events.

CARTOLFAMMACS wrote:

I did have a problem with the Recovery HD and the computer connected directly to Internet Recovery showing a world globe turning around, it failed the first time but succeeded the second time and I got my Recovery HD back again, that was one of my 3 PowerBooks. I even had to start on HD mode to copy the user's folder to the other Mac just in case, and that Mac had to be reinstalled twice. What it did while connected to iinternet recovery, I don't know.

You said "3 PowerBook's", you mean MacBook Pros? At first I was thinking you cant do internet recovery on a PowerBook, then seconds later, you can't run anything beyond Leopard anyway.

Anyhow, when you copied the user folder to another Mac just incase from Target mode, did you have trouble with that? It just seems like you had some hard drive problems. But if you say you had all these problems on several Intel Macs, then that pretty rules out hardware problems. The only other thing I can think of is that you're running a particularly rare piece of software on all the Macs and that caused the multiple problems. Something like Hard Drive recovery software or Hard disk monitoring software. Maybe something like that, that had it's own private API's that broke when Mac OS 10.7.3 update was installed.

What I don't understand is why your Time Machine Data was corrupted also? It's usually incredibly reliable. I've had trouble with Time Machine, like it wanting to do a complete backup, instead of a delta backup as usual, and that backing up two Mac OS X partitions running two versions of Mac OS X onto one TimeMachine partition. That didn't seem to work very well, and just kept building a ridiculously large 2+ TB ".inprogress" package.

I say that it's incredibly reliable because when ever I have done a restore, it has never failed! But making backups sometimes has hiccups.

CARTOLFAMMACS wrote:

Unfortunately, no.

I just found this post now that I'm relaxed with all 3 Macs running so, I started to look around and found 2 articles addresing the problem but, I've tried every possible option juggling user folders back and forth when I found out backups were affected as well by Time Machine crashing. But I did do a reinstall thru the Recovery Disk and it went fine, allowing for DSL speed, until it started all over again. Now I have downloaded the Combo, already copied it to an external drive, but I think I'd better wait for my daughter to finish her college essays for tomorrow before putting a finger anywhere. I'll have the whole day tomorrow to crack my head but she only has a couple of hours left for her homework. She has not been able to do lot of stuff, even though I do keep and old G4 working great and running right now. I never get rid of my oldest Mac, actually keep 4 just because of these events.

Well, I'm glad you've seemed to get most of the problems fixed. And yes, I have many Macs, 4 of them run 24 hours a day and all have Mac OS X 10.7.3, so non of them were immune to the Delta Update problems.

I lent out all my G4 Powerbooks, I just can't really use them anymore now having seen Snow Leopard and Lion.

It is pretty cool that Target Disk mode has been around since at least the G4 machines! I've used that many times.