Q: Do I need to bring my monitor and Mac to my Genius Bar appointment or just my mac?
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Jun 4, 2015 7:47 AMby The hatter,How about starting with WHY and whether or what you are taking it in for??
2009 4,1 = 6 years and most of the hardware can be upgraded and parts swapped or even for $499 buy a used base model.- and you are of course out of warranty.
But you really haven't said what hardware is installed or even how and what is installed other than it now has 10.10
Also what has been done to troubleshoot already?
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Jun 4, 2015 8:04 AMby swift_user,Hi and thanks in advance for your help.
The problem is that the machine is very slow and things like running updates or even shutting down happen slowly or never.
So far I have erased the drive and done a clean install. I have zapped the P-RAM
The machine is old but very capable and it serves well as a node in our render farm (for 3D animation) so I thought it was worth a shot. Funny once it is up and running – it works fine as a render node.
It has a second hard drive and one thought was to install the OS on the second drive ... think that is worth a try?
Andrew
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Jun 4, 2015 8:01 AMby The hatter,Install the OS on PCIe-SSD or SATA III controller.
Post output from Etrecheck.
Invest in drives! system / system backup clone / data & media drive(s) / backups for all that.
Between cpu upgrades, more RAM, some new SSD devices and drives, you will be fine.
But first the output so can see what is happening there with hardware and software.
And ZERO need to take it anywhere! Zilch. Nada. None. Not going to help...
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Jun 4, 2015 8:13 AMby swift_user,Hey thank you so much for the help. Unfortunately I had to look up most of those acronyms and am not exactly sure how to proceed.
I have an extra lap top running Yosemite– would that work? Would I start the problem computer in Target disc and go from there?
Also the computer is maxed out on RAM
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Jun 4, 2015 8:27 AMby The hatter,run this http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck
I doubt the RAM is maxed out (48GB or more depending)
http://www.macsales.com/memory/macpro/
Recovery Mode to repair the drive
OS X: About OS X Recovery - Apple Support
http://osxdaily.com/2012/02/03/how-to-boot-into-os-x-lions-recovery-hd-partition /
Carbon Copy Cloner to make a bootable backup copy
Safe Boot should be one of the first things.
Try safe mode if your Mac doesn't finish starting up - Apple Support
Even if it does 'start' it should be done - bypass loading 3rd party items, to check the directory
You need the mini "Mac OS X Missing Manual" reference book
I've hardly gone down the geek rabbit hole, and basics for operating and maintaining "car" properly.
System drive SSD
http://smile.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E250B-AM/dp/B00OAJ412U/
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Jun 4, 2015 8:36 AMby The hatter,I'll look for it!
I left out link to 2TB HGST data drive and some backup drive(s).
There is a user FAQ on keeping media data and system on separate drives.
Lugging 100lbs? nah. Save your back and a trip or two.
Keeping a system in well tuned top shape does not require "Genius" just time and tools.
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Jun 4, 2015 10:07 AMby Linc Davis,When you see a beachball cursor or the slowness is especially bad, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.
These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
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 and start typing the name.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Scroll back to the time you noted above.
Select the messages entered from then until the end of the episode, or until they start to repeat, whichever comes first.
Copy the messages to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of it useless for solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.
When you post the log extract, you might see an error message on the web page: "You have included content in your post that is not permitted," or "The message contains invalid characters." That's a bug in the forum software. Please post the text on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.
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Jun 4, 2015 12:36 PMby swift_user,OK I decided to do a clean erase and install of the OS on the problem machine (fine because I didn't need anything that was on it.)
So using another computer I reformatted an external drive and installed Yosemite as per:
OS X: Installing OS X on an external volume - Apple SupportThen I started up the problem machine using the newly formatted external drive. I erased the problem hard drive and I then downloaded and installed Yosemite (installing it on the problem computer)... but it is now stuck on the screen which says "Setting Up Your Mac..." (the one with the image of a computer) with the spinning gear next to the small letters which say "Setting up..." it has been this way for half an hour
Any ideas?
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Jun 4, 2015 1:26 PMby swift_user,OK so pressing the power button moved it along. I was able to log in. Now everything seems fine but when I run EtreCheck I see a few things in red (see below)
Thanks in advance for any help.
Andrew
EtreCheck version: 2.2 (132)
Report generated 6/4/15, 1:22 PM
Download EtreCheck from http://etresoft.com/etrecheck
Click the [Click for support] links for help with non-Apple products.
Click the [Click for details] links for more information about that line.
Mac Pro (Early 2009) (Technical Specifications)
Mac Pro - model: MacPro4,1
2 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon CPU: 8-core
16 GB RAM Upgradeable
DIMM 1
2 GB DDR3 ECC 1066 MHz ok
DIMM 2
2 GB DDR3 ECC 1066 MHz ok
DIMM 3
2 GB DDR3 ECC 1066 MHz ok
DIMM 4
2 GB DDR3 ECC 1066 MHz ok
DIMM 5
2 GB DDR3 ECC 1066 MHz ok
DIMM 6
2 GB DDR3 ECC 1066 MHz ok
DIMM 7
2 GB DDR3 ECC 1066 MHz ok
DIMM 8
2 GB DDR3 ECC 1066 MHz ok
Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported
Wireless: en2: 802.11 a/b/g/n
ATI Radeon HD 4870 - VRAM: 512 MB
Cinema HD 1920 x 1200
OS X 10.10.3 (14D136) - Time since boot: 0:4:32
HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GH41N
WDC WD1001FALS-41K1B0 disk0 : (1 TB)
EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / : 999.35 GB (989.39 GB free)
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB
WDC WD6400AAKS-41H2B0 disk1 : (640.14 GB)
EFI (disk1s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Untitled (disk1s2) /Volumes/Untitled : 639.79 GB (639.17 GB free)
Apple Inc. Keyboard Hub
Mitsumi Electric Apple Optical USB Mouse
Apple Inc. Apple Keyboard
Apple Inc. MacBook Air SuperDrive
Apple Computer, Inc. Apple Cinema HD Display
Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Mac App Store and identified developers
Problem System Launch Daemons: ℹ️
[failed] com.apple.mtrecorder.plist
[failed] com.apple.spirecorder.plist
None
Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️
None
Time Machine not configured!
2% WindowServer
2% fontd
0% taskgated
0% notifyd
0% SpotlightNetHelper
649 MB kernel_task
66 MB Finder
66 MB mdworker(5)
66 MB Safari
49 MB softwareupdated
Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️
14.00 GB Free RAM
2.22 GB Used RAM
0 B Swap Used
Jun 4, 2015, 01:17:12 PM Self test - passed
