GunnyFitz
Level 1 (9 points)
iTunes

Q: Is It Worth Keeping Mountain Lion Instead?

Members,


Ever since purchasing the now "unavailable" 17" MacBook Pro I absolutely love so much, I have retained the Mountain Lion OSX ever since.

I did not upgrade to Mavericks after seeing all the issues my wife had on her 15" MBP.

And I have been reading all these El Capitan issues members here have noted which seem to be the same as Mavericks.


Other than Apple soon to shut down updates and support of my Mountain Lion, is there ANY benefit whatsoever to keeping it over making the

"Upgrade" to this brand new OSX that may still need to have its own bugs and issues worked out.


We have all heard the saying "If it's not broken, don't fix it" correct? So, should I stay or should I go my friends?

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), Primary Unit

Posted on Oct 2, 2015 5:45 PM

by John Galt,Solvedanswer
John Galt John Galt
Level 9 (50,424 points)
Mac OS X
A:

GunnyFitz like you I still use a 17" MBP while waiting in vain for Apple to build them again. I wish I had bought more of them.

 

I can attest to the fact it runs El Capitan perfectly well on that Mac, better in fact than any OS version yet. The 17" MBP is Mrs. Galt's primary computer since she's the iMovie guru and likes a big screen. If she's happy everyone's happy... and everyone's happy. It was upgraded to 8 GB RAM though, shortly after I bought it. That does not necessarily imply more RAM will help in your situation. To determine if your Mac's performance is being limited by available memory use the Memory tab in Activity Monitor. If the "Memory Pressure" graph is "red" then you would benefit by installing more. If it isn't, you would just be wasting your time and money.

 

Running completely useless garbage won't help though:

 

I'm running Kaspersky ...

 

Don't. It can't possibly help, will only cause problems, and will leave your Mac more vulnerable to malicious attacks. Uninstall it ASAP. To do that, follow its instructions, whatever they may be. Do not install "anti-virus" or "anti-malware" garbage on Macs.

 

Whatever is causing your spam problem, it's not El Capitan. Fix the problem.

Posted on Jan 31, 2016 4:03 PM

Close
GunnyFitz

Q: Is It Worth Keeping Mountain Lion Instead?

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by BobHarris,

    BobHarris BobHarris Oct 2, 2015 5:58 PM in response to GunnyFitz
    Level 6 (19,682 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 2, 2015 5:58 PM in response to GunnyFitz

    If you like Mountain Lion and it does what you want, then just be careful when accessing things on the web and enjoy.

     

    NOTE: Going to the hospital emergency room is not a way to figure out if everyone in a city is healthy.  People come to the forums for 2 reasons.  Because they have problems, or because they like to help others with problems.  Happy people to not post anything to the forums (or very rarely).  People with problems are motivated to post, people without problems are busy using their Macs.

     

    When you are shipping millions of anything, and installing it onto millions of uniquely different setups, there are going to be issues, and this forum is one place people come to post their problems.

  • by kahjot,

    kahjot kahjot Oct 2, 2015 6:40 PM in response to GunnyFitz
    Level 4 (1,416 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 2, 2015 6:40 PM in response to GunnyFitz

    Nothing compels you to jump right in and upgrade your current system drive. You can install El Capitan on a spare HD. It's the safest way to try out a major OS upgrade. If you want to see how it will work as an upgrade of your current system drive, you can get SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner and clone your current system to the external HD, then run the El Capitan installer on the clone.

     

    FWIW I have not run into major problems with El Cap, but I am running it on a spare hard drive, where it was installed "clean". I didn't upgrade an earlier OS. I am slowly adding in apps and not depending on it for anything critical.

  • by babowa,

    babowa babowa Oct 2, 2015 6:53 PM in response to GunnyFitz
    Level 7 (32,357 points)
    iPad
    Oct 2, 2015 6:53 PM in response to GunnyFitz

    Whatever you will decide to do, keep in mind that it would be helpful to make and keep a fully bootable clone of your Mountain Lion system on an external drive. That way you have a super easy way to revert just in case. I don't do any upgrades without having an up to date clone.

  • by GunnyFitz,

    GunnyFitz GunnyFitz Jan 30, 2016 5:36 PM in response to GunnyFitz
    Level 1 (9 points)
    iTunes
    Jan 30, 2016 5:36 PM in response to GunnyFitz

    Cannot believe I'm replying to my own thread here. Lol

     

    AFter listening to my wife cry n moan about how slow and all the spam her MBP is after installing El Capitan I just used to tell her it was because she keeps 100 things running at once, and because she opens everything in the world - even those emails that actually look like replies to you and use your name with "Re" etc on subject line. Always thinking it was in her head or something else.

     

    Well guys, I created this thread when I was hesitant about moving from Mavericks to El Capitan remember? (Pretty rhetorical I guess)

    I don't know if it was accidental or I knowingly clicked it - but I upgraded to the newest OS in El Capitan and guess what???

     

    NOW I HAVE MILLIONS OF SPAM POURING IN FROM EVERY CRAZY SOURCE IMAGINABLE! Also, I experience so much slowness and the most wild actions that make my head spin. On MANY sites which require me to log on using typical Username and Password the system goes berserk and starts filling in these fields over and over, deleting by itself and filling the fields in over and over without permitting me to stop it long enough to put in my own characters ! Heck, I cannot even get the device to shut off or restart since it takes over command of itself and kicks me out of that Selection.

    TO me it sure feels like it's infected with something and I've NEVER in my life experienced more spam in my entire life using computers!

     

    Guys what in the world can be happening to me with all of this and does any of it sound familiar to anyone?

    Obviously, my first reaction is to blame it on the OS upgrade as I never had such issues with any other OS prior to this point in Mac ownership. I'm running Kapersky and it never displays anything picked up as a virus. How weird is that? Or is Kapersky a waste and I should try something else?

     

    PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE post your thoughts and advice on all of this and I'll be forever in your debt as its driving me up a wall.

  • by BobHarris,Helpful

    BobHarris BobHarris Jan 31, 2016 4:01 PM in response to GunnyFitz
    Level 6 (19,682 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 31, 2016 4:01 PM in response to GunnyFitz

    Start by running MalwareBytes (the free stuff)

    MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (formally AdwareMedic)

    <https://www.malwarebytes.org/>

     

    Then post the output from EtreCheck

    <https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6174>

    <http://etrecheck.com>

    EtreCheck is going to tell us your configuration and the 3rd party apps that are installed (a common source of performance issues when upgrading to a new OS X release).

     

    Startup Applications -> Utilities -> Activity Monitor and let it run to collect some history, but you are looking for processes consuming excessive Memory, CPU, Disk I/O, Network I/O.

     

    Look in Applications -> Utilities -> Console for log entries that are having very frequently, like non-stop, such as start process, process dies, starts, dies, starts, dies, etc...  This kind of failing process will not show up easily in other places.

     

    OS X El Capitan should not have any effect on email spam.

     

    I'm running Kapersky

    We do not recommend running any anti-virus on OS X, as OS X includes it own protections, plus 3rd party anti-virus are frequently responsible for performance slow downs, and OS X kernel panics.  Please read the following before installing any anti-virus

    How does Mac OS X protect me?

    <http://www.thesafemac.com/mmg-builtin/>

    NOTE: MalwareBytes just does a scan when you run it, and will clean up adware.  It was originally called AdwareMedic and written by a long term forum contributor.

  • by John Galt,Solvedanswer

    John Galt John Galt Jan 31, 2016 4:03 PM in response to GunnyFitz
    Level 9 (50,424 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 31, 2016 4:03 PM in response to GunnyFitz

    GunnyFitz like you I still use a 17" MBP while waiting in vain for Apple to build them again. I wish I had bought more of them.

     

    I can attest to the fact it runs El Capitan perfectly well on that Mac, better in fact than any OS version yet. The 17" MBP is Mrs. Galt's primary computer since she's the iMovie guru and likes a big screen. If she's happy everyone's happy... and everyone's happy. It was upgraded to 8 GB RAM though, shortly after I bought it. That does not necessarily imply more RAM will help in your situation. To determine if your Mac's performance is being limited by available memory use the Memory tab in Activity Monitor. If the "Memory Pressure" graph is "red" then you would benefit by installing more. If it isn't, you would just be wasting your time and money.

     

    Running completely useless garbage won't help though:

     

    I'm running Kaspersky ...

     

    Don't. It can't possibly help, will only cause problems, and will leave your Mac more vulnerable to malicious attacks. Uninstall it ASAP. To do that, follow its instructions, whatever they may be. Do not install "anti-virus" or "anti-malware" garbage on Macs.

     

    Whatever is causing your spam problem, it's not El Capitan. Fix the problem.

  • by GunnyFitz,

    GunnyFitz GunnyFitz Feb 2, 2016 5:50 PM in response to BobHarris
    Level 1 (9 points)
    iTunes
    Feb 2, 2016 5:50 PM in response to BobHarris

    Hey Bob-

     

    This is absolutely fantastic material right here and I am going to go step by step and do each and every one of these things either tonight or tomorrow for sure! I already used the Kaspersky Uninstall tool they recommend on their website- which stated that it was totally removed. However, based on what I read within other threads some folks seemed to always find traces of it here and there in extensions or something. Im sure that these steps above will pull up whatever (if anything) is left of it anywhere, umm right? Lol.

     

    Bob when you say

    " " Then post the output from EtreCheck <https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6174> <http://etrecheck.com>  EtreCheck is going to tell us your configuration and the 3rd party apps that are installed (a common source of performance issues when upgrading to a new OS X release).""

     

    Do you mean that you would like me to "Post" it back into this thread for you to observe and make some sort of recommendations on sir?

    If so, I seriously appreciate that and if you dont mind reach out to you with anything I get stuck on? Not sure you ever saw this before, or know about my background and "Medical Issues" but I have Traumatic Brain Injury, severe Cervical Spine Damage, PTSD and a number of other issues sustained by a massive IED blast while serving with the Marine Corps in Iraq - therefore I often have some difficulty processing written words into actual action when the rubber meets the road per se. So the way you wrote things out like this in "Steps" is extremely helpful to me Bob. Thanks!

     

    Off to cleanse my dear 17" MBP & as John Galt said below, I sure wish they would bring these big screen models back since I LOVE IT !!!

     

    **Mods - If you MUST delete this link to an article about myself I understand, I just wanted these kind members to know something about myself and my personal disabilities since it has a direct impact upon how much difficulty I have processing technical info related to utilizing my Mac's.

    Please view it yourselves before making a decision on whether to retain it or not ok? Many thanks!

     

    http://www.brocksperformance.com/brocknm/templates/bpp1.aspx?articleid=577&zonei d=22

  • by BobHarris,

    BobHarris BobHarris Feb 4, 2016 10:23 AM in response to GunnyFitz
    Level 6 (19,682 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 4, 2016 10:23 AM in response to GunnyFitz

    Bob when you say

    " " Then post the output from EtreCheck <https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6174> <http://etrecheck.com>  EtreCheck is going to tell us your configuration and the 3rd party apps that are installed (a common source of performance issues when upgrading to a new OS X release).""

     

    Do you mean that you would like me to "Post" it back into this thread for you to observe and make some sort of recommendations on sir?

    Yup.  Someone will look at it.  That value of the forums is that multiple people with different skills can all participate.

  • by GunnyFitz,

    GunnyFitz GunnyFitz Feb 18, 2016 5:19 PM in response to BobHarris
    Level 1 (9 points)
    iTunes
    Feb 18, 2016 5:19 PM in response to BobHarris

    Hello Bob

    Well, I know its taken me awhile but Ive had 12 surgeries in the last 3 months and not been able to really sit down here and go thru your instructions until now. I hope that I have done everything correctly and below is the LONG list created from doing the EtreCheck process. I was not positive on how to post it here and read your section about not sending it directly to you for review.

    I believe I have removed Kaspersky in its entirety (Though I see it listed in the report below??) using the tools provided by you and others here (THANK YOU!) Since I have absolutely no idea at all what any of this means below, I shall leave it up to you pro's to tell me what I should do from here based off what is seen within these results. I look fwd to hearing back from you or anyone sir!

     

     

    EtreCheck version: 2.9.4 (254)

    Report generated 2016-02-18 19:45:50

    Download EtreCheck from http://etrecheck.com

    Runtime 2:19

    Performance: Excellent

     

    Click the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.

    Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.

     

    Problem: Computer is too slow

     

    Hardware Information: ⓘ

        iMac (27-inch, Late 2012)

        [Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]

        iMac - model: iMac13,2

        1 2.9 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 4-core

        8 GB RAM Upgradeable - [Instructions]

    BANK 0/DIMM0

    4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

    BANK 1/DIMM0

    4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

    BANK 0/DIMM1

    Empty  

    BANK 1/DIMM1

    Empty  

    Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported

    Wireless:  en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n

     

    Video Information: ⓘ

        NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M - VRAM: 512 MB

            iMac 2560 x 1440

     

    System Software: ⓘ

        OS X El Capitan 10.11.3 (15D21) - Time since boot: less than an hour

     

    Disk Information: ⓘ

        APPLE HDD WDC WD10EALX-408EA0 disk0 : (1 TB) (Rotational)

            EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

            Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / : 999.35 GB (953.66 GB free)

            Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>  [Recovery]: 650 MB

     

    USB Information: ⓘ

        Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

        Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

            Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

        Sunplus Innovation Technology  USB to Serial-ATA bridge

     

    Thunderbolt Information: ⓘ

        Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

     

    Gatekeeper: ⓘ

        Mac App Store and identified developers

     

    Kernel Extensions: ⓘ

            /Library/Application Support/Kaspersky Lab/KAV/Bases/Cache

        [loaded] com.kaspersky.kext.kimul.45 (45 - 2016-02-18) [Support]

        [loaded] com.kaspersky.kext.mark.1.0.6 (1.0.6 - 2016-02-18) [Support]

     

            /Library/Extensions

        [loaded] com.kaspersky.kext.klif (3.3.0a1 - 2016-01-26) [Support]

        [loaded] com.kaspersky.nke (2.2.0a2 - 2016-01-26) [Support]

     

    System Launch Agents: ⓘ

        [loaded] 161 Apple tasks

        [running] 75 Apple tasks

     

    System Launch Daemons: ⓘ

        [loaded] 196 Apple tasks

        [running] 91 Apple tasks

     

    Launch Agents: ⓘ

        [loaded] com.citrix.AuthManager_Mac.plist (2012-12-17) [Support]

        [running] com.citrix.ReceiverHelper.plist (2012-12-17) [Support]

        [running] com.citrix.ServiceRecords.plist (2012-12-17) [Support]

        [running] com.gopro.stereomodestatus.plist (2012-10-14) [Support]

        [running] com.hp.devicemonitor.plist (2012-05-26) [Support]

        [loaded] com.hp.messagecenter.launcher.plist (2010-01-19) [Support]

        [running] com.kaspersky.kav.gui.plist (2016-02-18) [Support]

        [loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist (2013-07-30) [Support]

     

    Launch Daemons: ⓘ

        [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (2016-01-29) [Support]

        [running] com.kaspersky.kav.plist (2016-02-18) [Support]

        [loaded] com.malwarebytes.MBAMHelperTool.plist (2016-02-18) [Support]

        [loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist (2012-04-02) [Support]

        [loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist (2013-07-30) [Support]

     

    User Launch Agents: ⓘ

        [loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (2015-12-15) [Support]

     

    User Login Items: ⓘ

        iTunesHelper    Application (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app) (2015-12-12)

        CitrixFMDPrefPlugin    Application (/Applications/Citrix/FollowMeData/CitrixFMDPrefPlugin.app) (2013-06-04)

     

    Other Apps: ⓘ

        [running] com.apple.xpc.launchd.oneshot.0x10000006.EtreCheck (2016-02-14)

        [running] com.citrix.FMDAgent.73952.40D42172-A134-4955-BDF7-EB163A108090 (2013-06-04)

        [running] com.citrix.FMDPlugin.71072 (2013-06-04)

        [running] com.citrix.SyncEngine.73312 (2013-06-04)

     

    Internet Plug-ins: ⓘ

        FlashPlayer-10.6: 20.0.0.306 - SDK 10.6 (2016-02-09) [Support]

        QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (2016-01-26)

        Flash Player: 20.0.0.306 - SDK 10.6 (2016-02-09) [Support]

        EPPEX Plugin: 10.0 (2012-05-24) [Support]

        Default Browser: 601 - SDK 10.11 (2016-01-26)

        CitrixICAClientPlugIn: 11.7.0 - SDK 10.7 (2012-12-17) [Support]

        SharePointBrowserPlugin: 14.6.0 - SDK 10.6 (2016-01-13) [Support]

        JavaAppletPlugin: Java 8 Update 66 build 17 (2015-12-12) Check version

     

    Safari Extensions: ⓘ

        Virtual Keyboard (2015-12-12)

        Kaspersky URL Advisor (2015-12-12)

     

    3rd Party Preference Panes: ⓘ

        Cineform (2012-12-03) [Support]

        Citrix ShareFile Sync (2012-11-14) [Support]

        Flash Player (2016-01-29) [Support]

        Java (2015-10-06) [Support]

     

    Time Machine: ⓘ

        Skip System Files: NO

        Mobile backups: OFF

        Auto backup: NO - Auto backup turned off

        Volumes being backed up:

            Macintosh HD: Disk size: 999.35 GB Disk used: 45.68 GB

        Destinations:

            Backup [Local]

            Total size: 999.86 GB

            Total number of backups: 4

            Oldest backup: 6/14/13, 5:31 PM

            Last backup: 9/26/15, 10:04 PM

            Size of backup disk: Adequate

                Backup size 999.86 GB > (Disk used 45.68 GB X 3)

     

    Top Processes by CPU: ⓘ

            11% mdworker(24)

             4% kernel_task

             1% fontd

             1% WindowServer

             0% kav

     

    Top Processes by Memory: ⓘ

        752 MB kernel_task

        647 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent(3)

        459 MB softwareupdated

        311 MB mdworker(24)

        197 MB kav

     

    Virtual Memory Information: ⓘ

        3.42 GB Free RAM

        4.58 GB Used RAM (1.39 GB Cached)

        0 B Swap Used

     

    Diagnostics Information: ⓘ

        Feb 18, 2016, 07:33:31 PM    Self test - passed

  • by BobHarris,

    BobHarris BobHarris Feb 18, 2016 6:08 PM in response to GunnyFitz
    Level 6 (19,682 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 18, 2016 6:08 PM in response to GunnyFitz

        [loaded] com.kaspersky.kext.kimul.45 (45 - 2016-02-18) [Support]

        [loaded] com.kaspersky.kext.mark.1.0.6 (1.0.6 - 2016-02-18) [Support]

        [loaded] com.kaspersky.kext.klif (3.3.0a1 - 2016-01-26) [Support]

        [loaded] com.kaspersky.nke (2.2.0a2 - 2016-01-26) [Support]

        [running] com.kaspersky.kav.gui.plist (2016-02-18) [Support]

        [running] com.kaspersky.kav.plist (2016-02-18) [Support]

        Kaspersky URL Advisor (2015-12-12)

    Yup, Kaspersky is still there and active.  The long term participants do not really like 3rd party anti-virus, as OS X has it is own.  Kaspersky has it is own uninstall procedure to get all those bits deep in various library folders.

    <https://support.kaspersky.com/us/11531>

     

    How is your performance?

     

    You seem to have a lot of Spotlight worker threads

            11% mdworker(24)  (the 24 is the number of mdworker processes active)

    You might consider re-indexing Spotlight

    <Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes - Apple Support>


    Your kernel task memory usage is a little high for an 8GB system (not much), and this may be due the the kernel address space taken up by the Kaspersky kernel extensions

     

        752 MB kernel_task

     

    Otherwise, the system does not look too bad at all.

     

    So how is your performance (well maybe answer that after removing Kaspersky).