Mac OSX has loads of issues after upgrade

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Mac OSX has loads of issues after upgrade

I upgraded my OSX to mountain lion 10.8.3, and after 2 days it is completely crippled. I will try to describe my problem as there are loads of symptoms.

My Activity monitor shows UserEventAgent, SystemUIServer, and loginwindow eating 2GB of memory each. Plus I installed a new App called Onyx to try to resolve issue, and even that app is not working eating 3gb of RAM. My mac is crippled, every app just crashes, I can't even successfully shut it down because it so overloaded. Oh, and the worst part, the Upgrade ruined my Time Machine Backup, because after upgrade it started backing up and crashed in the middle of it showing black screen of death.

The best (or worst) part of this horror story is, is that I tried reinstalling my OSX by doing Cmd-R. Everything went smoothly to a point where I choose the HD to install to, and it only listed a recovery drive, the main drive wasn't even on the list. What this means, is that I'm deep in the water, and I have no idea how to bring my mac back to healthy state.

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on Apr 8, 2013 10:56 PM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

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239,069 points

Apr 8, 2013 11:29 PM in response to bgbs

Bootup holding CMD+r, or the Option/alt key to boot from the Restore partition & use Disk Utility from there to Repair the Disk, then Repair Permissions.

Did that work?

Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.

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

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Answer 2

MichelPM

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80,958 points

Apr 8, 2013 11:29 PM in response to bgbs

Year, screen size, CPU speed and amount of RAM installed in your iMac, please?

How full is your iMac's hard drive?

If there is less than 15 GBs of RAM left on to drive, this maybe causing some of the issues you are having.

Without knowing your iMac's specs, did you check the hardware requirements of installing OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion before doing so?

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Answer 3

bgbs Author

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Apr 8, 2013 11:34 PM in response to MichelPM

600GB of free space, 8GB of Ram, 3.06Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 27" mac, late 2010 model I think

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Answer 4

bgbs Author

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Apr 8, 2013 11:36 PM in response to BDAqua

I tried Repair permissions and Verify Disk from the Disk utilities, the permission keeps finding errors to repair. First time it found a ton, second time maybe like 3 errors. I have not tried to do repair disk stuff from Cmd-R yet. Should I try?

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Answer 5

bgbs Author

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Apr 8, 2013 11:41 PM in response to bgbs

Oh, I forgot to mention that there is another little issue that maybe related maybe not. The applications folder in the dock does not display the applications icon. It displays it when the OS boots, but after completing booting it switches to normal folder. I removed the Applications folder and tried to move a new one from finder, but then after 2 seconds it replaces the iconned folder with a regular one. Just thought I'd throw this in to the collection of issues.

Thanks

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Answer 6

seventy one

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27,424 points

Apr 9, 2013 12:07 AM in response to bgbs

Repairing permissions will constantly regurgitate previous repairs. It just happens that way. Providing you get the message at the end (usually in green) 'permissions repair complete' ... all is well.

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Answer 7

bgbs Author

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Apr 9, 2013 12:14 AM in response to seventy one

I just done the repair permissions again and it keeps finding same three ACL in apache2/users, keychains folder and hostconfig. Don't know if that helps.

Basically what is happening is that my computer keeps getting overloaded on memory even faster if I launch an application. For example, on top of the three processes that keep slowly climbing up to 2-3gbs, I just launched Chrome and it too is eating memory up there at 2gb. Same with FF, and other applications. So basically every program wants to gobble as much RAM as possible. If any of the programs eat too much Ram, I can only force quit them, they don't stop going.

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Answer 8

seventy one

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27,424 points

Apr 9, 2013 12:32 AM in response to bgbs

As I do not have Lion I cannot help too much on some of the problems you mention but what I said about the 'Permissions repair complete' message stands. If you have that when the process is complete, the rest can be ignored.

As far as Chrome is concerned, I would suggest you delete it entirely. From what I read in the forums it is a known source of problems, particularly in relation to the extentions available, some of which have suspect links. Your Firefox and Safari are enough. I hope you have no anti-virus installed.

I think you should concentrate on getting back to basics; look at the necessary rather than what may appeal as a fun item. Your RAM should be at least 4GB for Mountain Lion and available disk space some 15 to 20% of the original.

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Answer 9

BDAqua

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Apr 9, 2013 2:07 AM in response to bgbs

I just done the repair permissions again and it keeps finding same three ACL in apache2/users, keychains folder and hostconfig.

Ignore that.

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,IPmyriadLogin 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

Open Console in Utilities & see if there are any clues or repeating messages when this happens.

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Answer 10

Linc Davis

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Apr 9, 2013 7:41 AM in response to bgbs

What backups do you have?

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Answer 11

bgbs Author

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Apr 9, 2013 8:38 AM in response to BDAqua

I did do some of the manual cleaning you mentioned already because I have scoured different forums for answers before posting my question. For example I cleared thrirdpary preference panes, deleted stuff from Launch Daemons and cleared up Startup Items, however I have not done so for /private/var/run/StartupItems because I don't know how to get there.

I will try the safemode and see what I come up with.

Thanks

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Answer 12

bgbs Author

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Apr 9, 2013 8:44 AM in response to Linc Davis

I had a backup from previous OS, but it got ruined when the mountain lion started backing up to it and crashed the computer and corrupted everything in the backup. Then I tried rebuilding the backup in Mountain Lion but the back up would crash every time after about an hour, and that is because the RAM would get socked up by the processes and paralyze the computer, showing black screen of death. I could only do cold restart by pushing and holding the button.

The worst part, is that I tried to reinstall mountain lion from the Cmd-R, but it listed only the Recovery Drive, but the regular drive was missing from the option to install to. So the problem I have is chronic, because I cant reinstall anything, and I can't use my computer, and whatever files I have in the drive, I'm afraid I'm going to lose those too.

Thanks

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Answer 13

Linc Davis

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Apr 9, 2013 9:02 AM in response to bgbs

I have not done so for /private/var/run/StartupItems because I don't know how to get there.

You can't get there, because no such folder exists or ever has existed on any computer.

If you want to preserve the data on the boot drive, you must try to back up now, before you do anything else. It may or may not be possible. If you don't care about the data, you can skip this step.

There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to fully boot. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.

1. Boot into Recovery (command-R at startup) or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) Launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in the support article linked below, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”

How to back up and restore your files

2. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, boot the non-working Mac in target disk mode by holding down the key combination command-T at the startup chime. Connect the two Macs with a FireWire or Thunderbolt cable. The internal drive of the machine running in target mode will mount as an external drive on the other machine. Copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.

How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode

3. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.

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Answer 14

bgbs Author

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Apr 9, 2013 9:31 AM in response to Linc Davis

I think that is what I will. I will use the time machine backup drive to manuallly backup all the necessary files on the drive and do a clean install.

I have one more question. I've heard that after a clean install I can migrate over all the settings and programs from another Mac. I also have a macbok that runs Mountain Lion cause it came with it. And it runs pretty much the same programs that I have on my 27" Mac. Can I migrate all that stuff from macbook to my mac after a clean install so that I don't have to install each program manually?

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Answer 15

Linc Davis

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Apr 9, 2013 9:41 AM in response to bgbs

Yes, but do it by installing OS X first and then transferring the data during the setup procedure that starts when you boot after a clean installation.

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