Refurbished iMac Mid 2011 continues to crash after clean install of Mac OS 10.8 .2 on cleaned HD

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Level 1

19 points

Refurbished iMac Mid 2011 continues to crash after clean install of Mac OS 10.8 .2 on cleaned HD

I purchase a refurbished 27 inch iMac 3.1 GHz Intel Core i5 with Mac OS 10.7.3 installed in September 2012. I got the free upgrade to Mountain Lion OS 10.8.2 shortly afterwards. In December 2012, the computer started crashing occasionally while watching videos on the web. It deteriorated to the point that the iMac would crash while it was on, but not being used at the moment of the crash. After calling Apple support, they suggested I take the machine into an Apple store to the Genius bar to have the hardware checked and tested.

I took it into the Apple store, and several diagnostic tests were run on the hardware of the computer. The technician told me the good new was nothing was wrong with the hardware. The bad news was the technician believed it was a software issue. He asked how I got all my data and applications on the computer. I told him I had used migration assistant with the back-up drive of my Mac Book Pro with Mac OS 10.5.8. He told me to never use Migration Assisitant or Transfer to get data or applications from an old computer to a new computer.

Why is this even suggested in the set up process by Apple if it can cause issues? I have owned various Apple computers since my first Mac SE in 1984. I have always used Migration Assistant to upgrade from an old computer, and never had any problems. Thanks for the heads up, Apple!

AS suggested, I cleaned my iMac hard drive completely with Disk utilities. I originally had partitioned my 1 TB drive to have a boot up for the existing OS 10.7 Lion, and another partition for the new Mac OS 10.8 Mountain Lion. This was suggested by Apple Support. I wanted to be sure I liked the new Mountain Lion, and that all my applications would continue to work. I was unable to erase the partitions before reinstalling the OS software from the Recoverry disk. I wanted to reinstall the OS and my data on the Imac the way it was delivered (1 single TB partition) when purchased. With the help of Apple Support, I was able to erase the partions, but had to reinstall the OS from internet recovery. The internet recovery process installed the original OS 10 .7. I decided to install Mountain Lion 10.8.2 before getting all my data and applications copied to the iMac. I used my Mountain Lion Flash drive install disk to do the upgrade.

Than as suggested by the Genius bar Technician, I created 2 new folders on my desktop. One folder was to copy applications from my back up drive, and the other was to copy all my data (music, pictures, doccuments etc.). The technician told me this could eliminate problems by moving everything by hand not any application to empty desktop folders first before putting items in their correct folder on the iMac hard drive.

After finishing copying all the items from back up, I moved the applications from the desktop folder (named applications from BU) into the hard drive application folder. I tested all the applications to be sure thay would open. Some had multiple user issues, and Photoshop cs4 wouldn't open or reinstall from the original downloaded .dmg. I contacted Adobe support to see what to do about Photoshop.

I was getting ready to follow Adobe's fix instructions, and the iMac crashed again just as before. The Genius Bar technician said a "kernal" message was what the error display was called. After starting the computer, I took a "picture" of the crash report before sending it to Apple. All my data (music, pictures, doccuments etc.) I copied from my back up drive remains in a folder (Doccuments From BU) on my desktop. I have not even bothered to boot up the iMac the last few days. I'm hoping it doesn't crash before I post this message.

Below is a list of the applications from my back up drive that I have moved from the desktop folder to the Application folder:

Adobe Bridge CS4 (Version 3.0.0.464)

Adobe CS 4 (No Version, won't open, reinstall of software failed.)

Disk Warrior (Version 4.4)

Jawbone Updater (No Version, need to plug in Bluetooth speaker to get update for speaker software)

Microsoft Office 2011 (Can't open,need to update multple users permission)

Quicken 2007_Lion Version (Version 16.1.2)

Turbo Tax (for 2006 - 2011)

To say I am tired of investing all my time and energy doing all of the above work on a computer that I bought only 4 months ago is an understatement!!! I do not enjoy spending what little free time I have trouble shooting an expensive recently puchased item that is supposed to make my life easier.

As I stated earlier, I have only owned Apple Computers since 1984. I supported all their products based on their innovative, trouble free operating systems, and the reliability and stability of their hardware. This frustrating experience is changing my opinion. I'm wondering if the company should consider changing their name to another fruit ... Lemon. Maybe, the operating system should be called Lemon and Mountain Lemon.

Any help or suggestions to fix this "crash" problem would be greatly appreciated!

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Jan 20, 2013 5:24 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

BDAqua

Level 10

239,111 points

Jan 20, 2013 6:35 PM in response to Varoop13

Hi, one question & one suggestion...

What possible things are connected at home but not at the store, inlude every cable, etc.

One way to test is to Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, Test for problem in Safe Mode...

PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive

Reboot, test again.

If it only does it in Regular Boot, then it could be some hardware problem like Video card, (Quartz is turned off in Safe Mode), or Airport, or some USB or Firewire device, or 3rd party add-on, Check System Preferences>Accounts>Login Items window to see if it or something relevant is listed.

Check the System Preferences>Other Row, for 3rd party Pref Panes.

Also look in these if they exist, some are invisible...

/private/var/run/StartupItems

/Library/StartupItems

/System/Library/StartupItems

/System/Library/LaunchDaemons

/Library/LaunchDaemons

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Answer 2

Varoop13 Author

Level 1

19 points

Jan 21, 2013 12:40 AM in response to BDAqua

Hi BD Aqua,

There are only 2 external device pluuged into the iMac at all times. Kensington Turbo Mouse is plugged into a USB port, and a Dell 2407 WFP Monitor is plugged into one of the Thunderbolt ports. I plug in external hard drives into the Firewire 800 port only when backing up or retrieving data from different drives.

I did the Safe Boot as you suggested and ran Disk Utility. I have the results save in a Mac created picture file, but can't copy and paste the entire results from Preview. I no longer have Adobe Reader on my iMac, but I know you can copy and paste text from that app. Below is just the repais made.

Repaired "Library/Java"

Repaired "Library/Preference/com.apple.alf.plist"

Repaired "System/Library/Frameworks/CoreGraphics.framework/CoreGraphics"

Repaired "System/Library/Frameworks/CoreGraphics.framework/Resources"

Repaired "System/Library/Frameworks/CoreGraphics.framework/Versions/Current"

There were also these note:

Warning SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices/Remote management/ARDAgent.app/COntent/MacOS/ARDAgent" has been modified and will not be repaired"

Permission repair complete

When I ran the same test on a Regular Boot, only the items in "There were also these notes" above, were displayed.

I have not had any crashes at all today. I only used the iMac to type the two support comments above.

Does any of the Disk Utility information tell you anything. This information is not in my realm of expertise. Any further direction based on this information would be appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time and trouble to respond to my inquiry.

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

239,111 points

Jan 21, 2013 6:01 PM in response to Varoop13

You can ignore those repairs & repeated repairs, as long as it ends wth... Permission repair complete, then no problem.

I guess were waiting to see if the Safe Boot clearing Caches & suvch helped or not. 🙂

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Answer 4

Varoop13 Author

Level 1

19 points

Jan 21, 2013 10:27 PM in response to BDAqua

BD Aqua, thanks again for your input on my problem. I really hope your suggestion has resolved my crash issues. I apologize for all the misspellings in my previous post. It was late and I was tired.

For me. there is nothing more frustrating than trouble shooting intermittent problems. That's why I have used Apple products for so many years. As I said before, innovative, stable, reliable and trouble free is why I have supported Apple for so many years. I hope Mountain Lion doesn’t become another unproven product like "Maps" turned out to be for ios 6! I have read a lot of posts with other users having similar crash issues with Mountain Lion on this Support Community.

I will run the iMac for at least a week before moving my data files in my desktop folder into their normal folders (i.e. music, pictures, documents etc.) on my hard drive. I want to be sure the crash problem is stable with just the applications I have copied from my back up drive.

I will post any results or problems I may encounter during this "test" period. If everything remains unchanged, I will post those results as well.

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Answer 5

BDAqua

Level 10

239,111 points

Jan 21, 2013 10:59 PM in response to Varoop13

I apologize for all the misspellings in my previous post. It was late and I was tired.

Hey, no problem, I'm far worse being next to blind, a one finger typist, & this board trying to guess what/where I'm not typing! 😝

have supported Apple for so many years. I hope Mountain Lion doesn’t become another unproven product like...

Me too, but between me, you, & the wodwork, OSX has never been finished, never really wen't beyond the polish of 10.4.11, & breaks far to many things with every new verson. 😠

That being said, 10.7 was/is an abomination compared to 10.8, which for me is still not as useful as 10.6.8, which isn't as useful as 10.5.8, which still isn't as useful as 10.4.11, 10.3.8,10.2.8, or even OS9.2!

Still looking for your report & to be of assistance if possible. 🙂

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Answer 6

Varoop13 Author

Level 1

19 points

Jan 24, 2013 10:01 AM in response to BDAqua

Tuesday night the iMac crashed again while I was trying to troubleshoot my Photoshops CS4 install from the original download. I'm thinking of using Carbon Copy Cloner to just install it from my back up drive. I have been spending too much time trying to reinstall. I miss the good old days when you would get a disc for the original software. Lion and Mountain Lion are other good examples. What if the super highway suddenly closed for repairs? We'd be hosed without the internet.

I agree with your comments on the OS. The E-Mac I retired for this new iMac was running 10.4.11 never had any problems. My Mac Book Pro was running 10.5.8 and I never had any problems. I upgraded the Mac Book to Mountain Lion 10.8.2 after it was installed in the iMac. The Mac Book hasn't had any issues except being slower to boot up than with the old OS. I upgraded my RAM to 8GB (the maximum for the Mac Book). I'd hate to see how slow it would be with only the original 4GB.

I will try to call Apple Support ... again, on this iMac Crash problem on the weekend when I can be in front of the computer. If you have any other suggestions. Please let me know.

I was entertaining reinstalling Lion OS 10.7.5 and see how that goes. I never had any crashes for the few months I used that. I upgraded to Mountail Lion because I had a free upgrade from when I bought the computer. There was a time limit to get the Mountain Lion.

In case it has any bearing on my crash problems, I also upgraded my iMac to 20GB of RAM from the original 4GB. The Genius bar at the Apple store didn't see any hardware issues, including the RAM.

Some day I'll use my computer again ... I hope.

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