OS 10.4.7 may have issues.........

If you check my posts here : http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=544100&tstart=0

You'll see what I've been through.. I have ended up having to use my PB as a FireWire drive to get my important data off, then recreate the partition and install from my original Panther CDs that came with my PB... (I tried with my Tiger DVD, with aboslutely no luck, was forced to go back to Panther to get it to even boot correctly and recognise my HD)

I hope none of you have problems such as these. But I know I am not alone.

10.4.7's issues are like most any other update. If your system is unhealthy before it is updated, or has third party software or hardware that hasn't been tested with it, the specs of the software and hardware may not match that of the update. My recommendation is that everyone here who has problems, please start your own thread by clicking a Post New topic at the top of:

http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=752&start=0

with the specific issue that cropped up after the update. It will help you gain a larger audience who can solve your problem, and hopefully someone who can isolate a solution for you. Otherwise it becomes very hard to follow where one solution ends and another problem begins. The majority of these issues tend to be with some data corruption, driver, directory, font, cache or firmware issue that hasn't been addressed.

No offense intended, but your assumptions are questionable.

First, how well your system ran before the update is not necessarily indicative of its overall health. Updates modify & replace a lot of files, some of which you may never access during normal use. A cascading effect can occur when some corrupted component causes a effect on files you do use. Something similar can be observed on occasion with a permissions or disk repair: your system can have no symptoms, yet the repairs find something that is amiss. Put another way, updates can & frequently do cause insignificant problems to become significant ones.

Second, common effect does not necessarily mean common cause. This is a logical fallacy known as "correlation implies causation" that is easy to make because it sounds so reasonable, but (among other problems) doesn't exclude the possibility that cause & effect may be confused, as in "file system corruption causes update problems" vs. "file system corruption is caused by update problems." (If this isn't clear, please check the link for a better explanation & examples.)

Third, not everyone is reporting the same effects here: some of the posts contain the equivalent of "my problem is exactly the same ... except for <fill in the blank>." For example, your A&I problems are very unusual & I believe unique to the various 10.4.7 discussions. Things like this deserve special attention in topics of their own to avoid confusion among those looking for (or attempting to give) help with a specific issue.

Besides, it amounts to threadjacking, which is discouraged in the Forums Help glossary. The key is "any significant difference from a similar topic." Please use that as a guideline for what to post where, both as a courtesy to others & to get the most effective help for yourself.

When I tried to update from 10.4.6 to latest "Mac OS X Update (PowerPC) 10.4.7 it really messed up my iMac G5 (Non-iSight version). I cannot open Word, Appleworks, Software update, hardware test (the one on the disk works only), palm desktop and my external hard drive isn't being recognized now. I am going to try to Archive and install, but I have to get the 80 GB worth of files off somehow before I go and possible lose stuff. It quit in the middle of downloading and gives an error report window, which I keep filling out. Does apple respond to those? This is the first problem I have had on this G5 to date. I am calling Apple to see if I can get answers. At least I am not the only one having a problem.

Doc

I also had a lot of relative small "problems" after installing 10.4.7

- my mouse is reacting weird the moment after installing the update. The cursor doesn't change in the little hand when going over an internet link.
-my dock no longer shows the name of the programs, the icons don't change in size in the dock (yes..checked the settings)
-programs start up BEHIND an active window, all the time.
-buttoninformation doesn't show up when holding the cursus on top of a button.
-I no longer can't change the size of the dock.
-No more bouncing icons when starting up icons or when having new mail in Entourage (checked settings)
-scrolling in safari is half of the time very...very slow no matter what setting is using in Settings.

I decided to format my hard disk and install the whole set from scratch (to be sure there are no user errors) and gues what...the problems showed up the minute installation was finisched. Testing the mouse on another (not updated) Mac showed no problems at all.

I very..very sure those problems were NOT there with 10.4.6

Is there, on the site from Apple, a 10.4.6 combo file??? I want to know for sure what's causing these problems.

I forgot one: when starting up a program the topbar keeps showing the program options of the app I started before. Example: started up word...work with word....start up Safari....topbar keeps showing Word until I click the safari topbar. It's getting more and more annoying.

edit: found the 1.4.6 combo file

Additional to the same 10.4.7-problems, that C. Elferink has, I have the following troubles since updating (not the combo-update):

- Exposé does not work with setting the mouse-cursor into the active corners - only the "Fxx"-buttons of the keyboard do work
- the screensaver does not work with setting the mouse-cursor into the active corners either
- if the sreensaver starts (in order to the settings of the system) after x minutes, it starts, shuts down, starts, shuts down...and so on - only "klick off" screensaver does help - it cannot be used at this time
- the slide show-tool (from picturess, placed in the finder) cannot be used by the mouse - only the button "iPhoto" does work - the slide show can only be steered by the keyboard

I have checked the settings an the rights of the data on the HD.

This problems started right after having updated to 10.4.7 - and as I had been reading in this an other discussions boards, the same problems had been noticed by other PowerBook G4 1.0 GHz-users.

Another additional problems were seen with my 10.4.7:

- the bookmark-buttons (unter the URL-Line) do not react with the mouse-cursor
- in adress-book it is no longer possible to send "SMS" or start telephone-calls when connected to the mobile phone via bluetooth

After repairing the "rights" only exposé and the screensaver startet regulary to work again ("corner"-functions).

You can't downgrade. You can try an Archive and Install using the original software disks that came with your Mac, which would return you to the system version that shipped with your computer, but I tried that after the 10.4.7 update hosed my system, and it didn't work for me.

Some background: I used Software Update to update Quicktime, the iTunes Phone Driver, and to install the 10.4.7 update. Neither the 10.4.7 update nor the phone driver finished installing. Both errored out. Afterwards, I had many problems. For example, Safari wouldn't open, some Classic apps and docs lost their icons would not open using the Classic app that created them, I couldn't drag to the trash in my dock, and I could not change my doc prefs.

I tried the Archive and Install option, but it errored out, too. So I used Disk Utillity to verify the disk (which I also did before I attempted the 10.4.7 update, by the way - I always verify disks and permissions before attempting any updates.) No problems were found before 10.4.7, but after 10.4.7 and the attempted Archive and Install, it found serious problems it couldn't repair. I am certain that one or more of the updates caused the problems. I had to reformat my HD to fix it. Luckily I had all my important stuff backed up.

After reformatting, I ran Disk Utiltiy again. No problems were found this time, and my HD was verified. I reinstalled OS X, Classic support, and all of my apps one-by-one and applied the 10.4.6 Combo Update. I also updated iTunes, iPhoto, etc. using Software Update, but I avoided the latest Quicktime and iTunes Photo Driver, in case they were part of the prolem. Finally, I restored all my documents, music, photos, etc.

It took me a few hours. All is normal, now, and my hard drive is fine. Everything works as it did before I attempted the 10.4.7 update.

Although I am sure 10.4.7 has issues, I would also avoid the Quicktime and the iTunes Phone Driver updates for now. Those were the three things that I attempted at the same time, and then I had problems, so maybe one or all of them are problematic.

Until we know for sure, leave your system alone!

Help!! My mac is acting almost exactly like Wakko's after the 10.4.7.

The only difference is that I'm not getting the Archive and Install option when I tried using my Tiger disk to reinstall. I get an error message that the Tiger disk has an older version of the Mac OS. I don't want to erase all my data files and start over.

Follow-up: My situation is pretty much identical to Chris Meyers1. I'm at the point where I verified the disk with Disk Utility and eveything appeared fine, then I couldn't Archive and Install because it is older software.

I worked around it by doing a fresh install on my external drive and 'migrating' all my files from the internal drive to the external. However, I want to be sure I got everything, and now I'm getting lots of I/O errors when I try to read from the internal drive to the external.

Nuke and repave isn't an option unless I can preserve my data elsewhere.

When you get to the part of the installation where it
tells you that you have a newer operating system, you
need to click on the Options button. That should
bring up the screen with the Archive & Install option
& be sure to leave the box checked that is about
saving preferences, etc. That should get you going
again.

As noted previously, the Archive & Install option is not accessible. IIRC it is grayed out. When the attempt is made the installer presents an error message stating that it cannot be installed because the existing OS S/W is a newer version. It cannot be selected.

10.4.7's issues are like most any other update. If
your system is unhealthy before it is updated, or has
third party software or hardware that hasn't been
tested with it, the specs of the software and
hardware may not match that of the update.

True, but that is not the situation here. My system was running remarkably well before the update. So were several of the others here as described by the authors.

My recommendation is that everyone here who has
problems, please start your own thread...

It sounds like we are already collaborating on a solution for the same problem, i.e. a corruption of the file system that occurs when the 10.4.7 update is applied and the system hangs. Collaboration is a more useful process than starting multiple threads for analysis of the same problem. Better to help ourselves than wait for someone to come along and solve our problems for us.

Besides, it sounds like we may already be onto a working solution. Has anyone had any success with the archive and install process using their Tiger disk to reinstall? I don't want to lose all my data on the internal disk.

Tiger checks some system files on the disk to determine the version of the OS already installed. If those files are deleted I should be able to Archive & Install with my Tiger DVD and avoid a complete reformat. Any ideas which files those might be? Under OS 9 a person could just drag the System folder to the Trash and empty it, but this isn't OS 9.

Out of curiousity, on my machine I use an external drive for my iTunes collection. Does anyone else with (apparently) the same problem use an external disk?