Q: iMovie, iPhoto, and Photo Booth ALL crashing my MacBook Pro...

OK, I'm doing that now. But all virus' aren't "imaginary." I actually had one. Avast didn't remove it, though, and that led me to do a format last month. Ever hear of the audio from one particular youtube video playing without even having a browser or email open?

The latest in this strange trip...

Re-installing and un-installing Avast almost worked. I was able to open iPhoto, iMovie, and Pixelmator (because I need to use Pixelmator. It should not be a problem) and actually use them. Until I switched to Safari and crashed. Before that, I also deleted every single instance of RIM, Blackberry, Avast, and FIPLABS I could find using mdfind, rm, and rm -r. I also repaired disk permissions again.

Anyway, long story short (it's been a long day), I erased the OS X partition and re-installed Snow Leopard. Funny thing is that last time when I did this, I kept getting an error when I tried to install the apps ("iLife?" yeah, right) DVD. What I didn't do last time (and maybe a big part of the problem) was I didn't update before going to Mountain Lion. After it failed the last time, I just tried the upgrade to ML and it installed all the apps too. Mistake? I don't freakin know anymore. Upgrades shouldn't be allowed until the right updates are made incremetially. Whatever.

So this time I updated until there wasn't any more updates (three times) and then tried the apps disk and it worked!

I messed around with some stuff and it seemed OK. iPhoto works. I was importing into iMovie while importing bookmarks into Safari but then I hit an incompatable bookmark to an extension and it crashed. My bad.

Then I opened up Time Machine. It seemed to be working but then it crashed. Yuck. Why would it do that? Too many backups? I have them since I first got this Mac in early 2011. Can I just delete the oldest ones or is there a special way to do that? I need to make room on my external RAID (where the TM files are).

Oh, I was wondering why no one mentioned the built-in hardware test that you get by holding the "D" key when booting up? I ran the normal one (not "in depth") and it came up OK. Should I run the deep one?

I forgot to mention that I have a Bootcamp partition. I was using Parallels before I upgraded to Mountain Lion but never re-installed it. Just sayin.

How should I proceed from here? I got it backed up with TM but I want to make sure TM is stable before I upgrade to Mountain Lion. Thanks.

I just finished upgrading to Mountain Lion and things seem to be running smoothly. I can open iPhoto at least. I can open the Time Machine without crashing BUT... all of my backups past yesterday are grayed out. My TM disk (external RAID) is in good shape. All the backups are there from 04/11 until today are on it. I haven't had a chance to search yet so just askin...

I don't want to say everything is alright forever exactly just yet until I have more time to use. But it is looking a lot better.

Thanks for that info, Thomas. I'm going to get a Time Capsule soon. Right now, I only have the TM backups and Finder copies of my files. But they're all on the same RAID. Not good, I know. The RAID is only good as it's last crashed disk. I have one extra but... well, you know. I'm going to mimic your BU strategy in ASAP.

Nevermind. It's because I changed the name of the HD. Changed it back and OK.

BTW, THAT is why I like Mac. All the link stuff is done in background.

STILL not OK. I was just working normally last night when I needed to open iMovie. It crashed. I only had one single non-Apple program open; a password app that I've been using for years. The others were all Apple; Safari, Mail, Stickies, iTunes, Dictionary... that's it! I haven't installed any programs that run in the background.

Here are the most recent results from the commands that Linc gave me...

1. [empty]

2. com.adobe.fpsaud

3. [empty]

4.

/Library/Components:

/Library/Extensions:

/Library/Frameworks:

AEProfiling.framework

AERegistration.framework

Adobe AIR.framework

AudioMixEngine.framework

NyxAudioAnalysis.framework

PluginManager.framework

iLifeFaceRecognition.framework

iLifeKit.framework

iLifePageLayout.framework

iLifeSQLAccess.framework

iLifeSlideshow.framework

iTunesLibrary.framework

/Library/Input Methods:

/Library/Internet Plug-Ins:

AmazonMP3DownloaderPlugin101750.plugin

Flash Player.plugin

JavaAppletPlugin.plugin

Quartz Composer.webplugin

QuickTime Plugin.plugin

flashplayer.xpt

iPhotoPhotocast.plugin

nsIQTScriptablePlugin.xpt

/Library/Keyboard Layouts:

/Library/LaunchAgents:

/Library/LaunchDaemons:

com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

/Library/PreferencePanes:

Flash Player.prefPane

/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools:

/Library/QuickLook:

iBooksAuthor.qlgenerator

iWork.qlgenerator

/Library/QuickTime:

AppleIntermediateCodec.component

AppleMPEG2Codec.component

/Library/ScriptingAdditions:

/Library/Spotlight:

Microsoft Office.mdimporter

iBooksAuthor.mdimporter

iWork.mdimporter

/Library/StartupItems:

/etc/mach_init.d:

/etc/mach_init_per_login_session.d:

/etc/mach_init_per_user.d:

Library/Address Book Plug-Ins:

Library/Fonts:

Library/Input Methods:

.localized

Library/Internet Plug-Ins:

Library/Keyboard Layouts:

Library/LaunchAgents:

com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-xxx@me.com-SharedServices.Agent.plist

Library/PreferencePanes:

Library/Services:

AppDelete.workflow

5. iTunesHelper

I repaired disk permissions again and iMovie works now. But WHY should I have to keep doing that? Why? When I run it, I get stuff like...

Repaired “Library/Printers/Canon/BJPrinter/Utilities/CanonIJPrinterUtility.app/Contents/ Resources/Question.tif”

Permissions differ on “Library/Printers/Canon/IJScanner/Plugins/cnq2413_09.plugin/Contents/Resources/ English.lproj/InfoPlist.strings”; should be -rw-r--r-- ; they are -rw-rw-r-- .

Repaired “Library/Printers/Canon/IJScanner/Resources/Parameters/CNQ4808/CNQ4808W.DAT”

Permissions differ on “Library/Printers/Canon/IJScanner/Resources/Parameters/CNQ4809/CNQ4809.SG5”; should be -rw-r--r-- ; they are -rw-rw-r-- .

I don't even own a scanner. The only periphs I have are a Brother laser printer, a firewire RAID, and a Native Instruments USB sound card.

Last night, I ran the long hardware diagnostic test from the Internet (Option + D) and it came up OK. I couldn't get the built in diag test to run by just holding D for some reason. Just a gray screen. It ran before. Also, sometimes when I restart, it takes over a minute for the Apple logo to show. Sometimes it shows and the wheel is spinning, then it just goes away and I have to hold down the power key again.

I guess y'all bailed on me. Time to look for a non-Apple Mac forum.

We're not 24-7 tech support, we're just volunteers participating here because we enjoy it. I know I, at least, don't have time to monitor this forum constantly.

And I don't expect you to be. I haven't gotton a response since the 10th, last Saturday. I guess what you mean is you're not 96 hour tech support.

As for solutions, I'm still very unclear as to what's going on and what you have done. I posted the following several days ago, but didn't get any answers:

To which I responded...

I just finished upgrading to Mountain Lion and things seem to be running smoothly. I can open iPhoto at least. I can open the Time Machine without crashing...

and

I haven't installed any programs that run in the background.

So, to reiterate, I've installed nothing but good, time-tested software. Nothing that resides in the menu bar. Nothing that should run in the background. I just crashed again with only Pixalmator and Safari open. It's always some graphics program that is open when crashing.

Also, like I said, I ran the long Apple Diagnostic Hardware Test and it passed. It only took 37 minutes. I'm thinking that it doesn't test the graphics hardware conclusively.

Not to be argumentative, but after your posts on the night of the 10th, you posted the following only about 6 hours later:

 

Nevermind. It's because I changed the name of the HD. Changed it back and OK.

I was responding to my own post about the Time Machine crashing. When I erased the HD the last time, I chose to rename it. So that doesn't work with the TM. I wasn't saying that everything was OK. Just the sub-problem with the TM was fixed. Too bad that one can't EDIT one's own posts in this forum.

It's not really fair to criticize us for not acting faster to solve a problem you said was solved.

I never said all my problems were solved, Thomas. If you re-read my posts, you will see that I said quite the opposite. I believe I said something like, "I'm not saying everything is alright forever just yet." Yes, I made it pink with the smilies just like that. I would post it for you here, but I'm really tired of having to copy/paste what I just wrote in order to go back to get something from a previous comment.

This forum is lacking MANY features that I've come to take for granted...

• Not being able to edit my comments after a very short window of time.

• Not being able to multi-quote previous comments.

• Not being able to see more than one previous comment while replying.

• Having to sign in constantly.

• Having to enable the Advanced Editor for every reply...

There are several things in the output you posted that say differently. You have some Adobe software running in the background, a Microsoft Office Spotlight plug-in, an Amazon MP3 downloader browser plug-in and an AppDelete service that begs the question of what might have been deleted with that kind of unreliable tool. To solve the issue, assuming it's not hardware, you have to go back to the beginning and start from scratch, so you can associate the problems with the last thing you installed.

Can I RESTORE to the point right after I upgraded to Mountain Lion using the Time Machine?

Is it possible to to do that and then use the TM to restore my iTunes to the SAME STATE I have it in right now? I just spent a lot of time rebuilding iTunes.

Could my BootCamp partition possibly be an issue? Like I said before, I have it sitting there without the Parallels software that I was using to run it. Would it be worthwhile erasing/rebuilding it?

Thanks, Thomas, for your help.

So, I went back to Snow Leopard and the problems are gone. So, it wasn't my hardware, it wasn't any third party apps or extensions, it was Mountain Lion itself. Bye.