Having upgraded to the new operating system, everything seems to have gone wrong. Problems with E-mail, system rebooting on a regular basis etc. What can I do?. My time machine backup seems to be non functional as I cannot recall anything this side of March 2015.
iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2011), OS X El Capitan (10.11)
Reinstall El Capitan Without Erasing the Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility and press the Continue button. After Disk Utility loads select the indented Macintosh HD entry from the the left side list. Click on the First Aid button in the toolbar. Wait until the operation completes, then quit Disk Utility and return to the main menu.
Reinstall OS X: Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless and more reliable.
Thank you for such a prompt reply. I will attempt this shortly and will get back onto the forum to let you know how I get on.
Unfortunately this has not worked. The Os X wants to reload itself and shuts down on regular basis. Time machine does not work. There is no clear pattern as to what is causing the shut down (E-mail, Safari etc)
I believe you may have a hardware problem. Please make an appointment at the Apple Retail Store - Genius Bar and take it in for service. If you are not in the USA or cannot set up an appointment this way, then contact your local Apple Store directly.
Highland Moi wrote:
The Os X wants to reload itself and shuts down on regular basis. Time machine does not work. There is no clear pattern as to what is causing the shut down (E-mail, Safari etc)
As Kappy said, you may have a hardware problem; however, there are a few things you can try yourself before taking it in for service.
One is Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac. I would try that first since one of the indicators that it may need to be reset is unexpected shutdowns. Per the article, to do this on an Intel-based iMac:
1. Shut down the computer.
2. Unplug the power cord.
3. Wait fifteen seconds.
4. Attach the power cord.
5. Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.
You can also try resetting NVRAM. This really isn't very likely to fix your symptoms but it is easy enough to do.
Finally, if you have installed any aftermarket RAM (memory modules) in your iMac, it is possible one or more of them is just far enough out of spec that while it may work fine with earlier OS X versions, it isn't quite able to handle the demands of El Capitan for things like memory compression. So if you have installed aftermarket modules, try testing for this by removing them & using just the modules that came with your iMac. If necessary, refer to the info in iMac: How to remove or install memory for more about how to do this.
I'm adding to this post with similar problem in hopes of bringing more attention to it as seems to be widespread.
I'm having random system crashes without explanation or connection with applications running (it will crash just idle on a desktop).
I've already tried the SMC reset process with no improvement.
Hardware Overview:
Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac8,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: IM81.00C1.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.29f1
Highland - sorry to butt in but someone at Apple ought to be ringing the alarm bells long and loud and your contribution is typical of thousands of people who have taken to this site to seek help. Hopefully there is someone at Apple who monitors this stuff and reports back to someone who cares!
I've been using Macs for 25 years now and have watched with frustration as the quality of its software has sunk after the iron hand of Steve Jobs let go. I installed Mavericks on top of Snow Leopard a year or so back and wish I had not. Its my last upgrade before I get a Chromebook; if that's not much good at least it'll have been cheap.
We are now at the situation that Windows users have been familiar with for years. You're blackmailed into upgrading to something that doesn't work properly so that the poor so-and-so's who do so can find out what's wrong with the product. This is not something that would have been tolerated a few years ago but now it seems to be fine.
Moral of the story: never upgrade unless you really have to and certainly not until the next one is announced.
Someone at Apple who's reading this - be ashamed at how low your business has sunk.
Thank you for helping me with this problem. Having received other replies which I need to try, I will wait before taking your advice re the potential Hardware problem. Thank you once again.
Your comments sound familiar having spoken to quite a few individuals recently.
I am somewhat disappointed with Apple to say the least. I took the plunge on loading the new operating system as my iMac had been running slow for a while and various posts were suggesting that this was linked to the operating system 'Maverick'. Whatever the reason, I would have expected Apple to make some announcement in support of end users and to give us hope of a repair. Thank you for taking the time to make contact.
Thank you for the helpful hint. I have done what you suggested and it looks ok so far. However, it may be prudent for me to have a service check at a local dealership as the nearest Apple store to my location is quite some distance away.
Highland Moi wrote:
Your comments sound familiar having spoken to quite a few individuals recently.
FWIW, there has not ever been any version of OS X that hasn't generated exactly the same sort of comments, including all those released when Steve Jobs was running Apple. Just visit the forums here devoted to each of those OS versions for proof of this -- there are always those who proclaim whatever the current version is at that time to be worst ever & some previous one to be the last good one.
I took the plunge on loading the new operating system as my iMac had been running slow for a while and various posts were suggesting that this was linked to the operating system 'Maverick'.
Just reinstalling the currently installed OS version will fix many problems, but upgrading a system that has certain kinds of problems to a later OS version is more likely to cause more problems than to fix the existing ones. For example, some user-installed software changes how the OS itself works, which can interfere with the installation of a new OS version or cause other problems once that version is installed. There isn't much Apple can do about this -- they have very little control over what other software users can install.
For this reason, it is always best to diagnose & repair any problems you have with your system before installing a new OS version.
Having problems with Os X El Capitan
