My Mac Pro is crashing every time it goes to sleep - but I don't know why, and I can't find out why because crashreporter seems to be disabled. The message below was the last message before one of these crashes.
Mind you, this is a very unstable Mac since the upgrade to Yosemite. All sorts of things fall over all the time and I am constantly rebooting.
It just doesn't work at the moment!
Mac Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10), Final Cut Pro X, Motion, iWork
If the image is hard to read, this is the text: Connection error while checking Apple Internalness. Error: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4099 "Couldn’t communicate with a helper application." (The connection to service named com.apple.CrashReporterSupportHelper was invalidated.) UserInfo=0x7fb98bf01870 {NSDebugDescription=The connection to service named com.apple.CrashReporterSupportHelper was invalidated.}
Have you looked for crash or panic reports in the Console app?
Yes I have - that message was extracted via Console. It would seem that whatever app is trying to report the crash cannot connect to crash reporter. The result is that there are no entries in the system crash log.
I notice that there are quite a few errors where apps are trying to use some or other connection that has been deprecated in Yosemite. Perhaps this is the case here.
It would be nice to know what is causing the problem - this Mac is very unstable now, in lots of areas - both at a system level and at an application level. I did a permissions repair this morning so perhaps that will improve things...
Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a test, not a solution. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
Step 1
The purpose of this step is to determine whether the problem is localized to your user account.
Enable guest logins* and log in as Guest. Don't use the Safari-only “Guest User” login created by “Find My Mac.”
While logged in as Guest, you won’t have access to any of your documents or settings. Applications will behave as if you were running them for the first time. Don’t be alarmed by this behavior; it’s normal. If you need any passwords or other personal data in order to complete the test, memorize, print, or write them down before you begin.
Test while logged in as Guest. Same problem?
After testing, log out of the guest account and, in your own account, disable it if you wish. Any files you created in the guest account will be deleted automatically when you log out of it.
*Note: If you’ve activated “Find My Mac” or FileVault, then you can’t enable the Guest account. The “Guest User” login created by “Find My Mac” is not the same. Create a new account in which to test, and delete it, including its home folder, after testing.
Step 2
The purpose of this step is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party system modifications that load automatically at startup or login, by a peripheral device, by a font conflict, or by corruption of the file system or of certain system caches.
Please take this step regardless of the results of Step 1.
Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards, if applicable. Start up in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. You must hold down the shift key twice: once when you turn on the computer, and again when you log in.
Note: If FileVault is enabled in OS X 10.9 or earlier, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to start up and run than normal, with limited graphics performance, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and Wi-Fi on certain models. The next normal startup may also be somewhat slow.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
Test while in safe mode. Same problem?
After testing, restart as usual (not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of Steps 1 and 2.
Hi, thanks for this. However I am pursuing another lead at the moment. For some time I have been getting a message every time I log in saying that I shut down my Mac because of a problem - even though I was not aware of any problem. In another posting on here I saw that I needed to log in with my admin account (my user account does not have admin privileges for security reasons) and I was then able to explore the problem. It turned out to be something to do with Retrospect (backup). Again, however, there was no crash report but there was a reference to retrospect and a kernel panic.
Yesterday when the Mac was crashing every 5 minutes I was waiting for a backup to run so retrospect was running and the tape drive was online. After I logged in as admin and forwarded the crash report to Apple I was able to log back in and the backup executed okay. I have been running this config for many weeks without problems so I am not sure why it would suddenly cause kernel panics. If it actually is.
I have to reboot this Mac at least once a day now when things stop working. Mail stops working sometimes. Apps crash. Final Cut Pro X crashes when trying to open a library. Drives disconnect. Wifi won't connect. I haven't been taking a log - just trying to get some work done. My Macbook Air has similar problems but doesn't crash - things just stop working and I have to reboot.
Having repaired permissions I am going to wait and see if the problem recurs and whether that fixes the problem with the crash reporter. In the meantime I will email retrospect and see if they have updated the software properly for yosemite - I have saved the log for them.
This Mac Pro does a lot of things - it runs Mamp, Mail, Onedrive, 1Password, Dropbox, Office365, Final Cut Pro X, Davinci Resolve, Adobe CS4 Suite, Billings Pro, Retrospect, quite a few drives, wireless printer... Most of these apps would not be available to me in Guest mode - so not sure what I would be really testing...
my user account does not have admin privileges
That's why you can't see the panic reports or the system log.
Most of these apps would not be available to me in Guest mode
They all would be.
Yes, well, the apps will be there - but none of my user preferences or data... So not much use - and definitely not conducive to getting work done...
Looking through the log using the admin login there are a mountain of odd messages - issues with sandboxing, missing parameters, all sorts of things - and this seems to be just Apple OS stuff, not apps. Lots of errors in the boot process.
I will follow this up tomorrow with retrospect. it only happens when the tape drive and sanlink are powered up so perhaps it is something thats happening at a networking level.
Thanks for your suggestions
System crashes but crashreporter not working
