Mac Pro troubles- Erase the disc, or...?

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Level 1

9 points

Mac Pro troubles- Erase the disc, or...?

Hey all,

First, some basics about the machine I'm using, and then I'll try to ask my question as coherently as possible.

2009 Mac Pro, 2.66 Quad core, 6 gigs RAM, OS X 10.9, latest versions of iLife, Logic and Aperture (and assuming all other Apple software on the machine are up to date from the App store)

I started having problems a few months back, and I thought it might be time for a new mouse, given the sort of problems I was having; inability to open/select/move folders and other odd quirks that seemed mouse related. I've been using a wireless USB Logitech mouse, so I went back to the Apple mouse, and things did not improve.

Anyhow, all sorts of weird things started happening, the most persistent being that the machine would not shut down, and would start back up again no matter what. Whether I chose restart or shutdown from the Apple icon, it always restarted with the error message "Your machine shut down because of a problem- press any key to continue" You can imagine how annoying it might be.

I took it into a very well-respected shop in Manhattan, and they ruled out hardware being the issue. They erased the disc, and re-installed everything from my Time Machine located on another 2 TB drive and.......... now I once again have all the same problems.

A friend of mine with much greater Mac knowledge than I suggests erasing the drive again, and starting from scratch. That makes sense, I guess, but it does sound intimidating, and I have no idea how to do it (for example, how can I reinstall the OS if the disc has been erased?). My wife, a Windows gal who knows her way around code and such things, suggests removing one application at a time and seeing which one might be the root of all this. Me, I have no idea what's best, and although buying a shiny and new machine is possible, I'd like to save this one, if I can.

Your thoughts?

TIA,

James

Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)

Posted on Feb 1, 2014 2:04 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Feb 1, 2014 2:07 PM in response to JamesInBklyn

Install or Reinstall Mavericks or Mountain Lion from Scratch

Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.

OS X Mavericks- Erase and reinstall OS X

OS X Mountain Lion- Erase and reinstall OS X

OS X Lion- Erase and reinstall Mac OS X

Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible

because it is three times faster than wireless.

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Answer 2

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Feb 2, 2014 8:27 AM in response to JamesInBklyn

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.

In the Console window, look under the heading DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION on the left for crash or panic reports. If you don't see that heading, select

View ▹ Show Log List

from the menu bar.

A crash report has a name that begins with the name of the crashed process and ends in ".crash". It may be under either of the two subcategories, "System" and "User." A panic report has a name that begins with "Kernel" and ends in ".panic".

Select the most recent of each and post the entire contents — the text, please, not a screenshot. In the interest of privacy, I suggest that, before posting, you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.)

Please don’t post any other kind of diagnostic report, such as a hang log — they're very long and not helpful.

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