imac (27 inch, 5k retina, late 2015) start up problem

I'm not sure if you are aware or not, but you have 90 days of complimentary AppleCare telephone support. You should be in touch with Apple immediately. You can learn more about this by clicking Complimentary AppleCare Support

Hi DJkhoo,

You are not alone in this, and I don't think that it is the mouse. I am experiencing the same issue on the same machine. Also, here is a link to a thread at Macrumors that indicates others are also having issues, seemingly related to El Capitan:

I spent a lot of $$$ on this machine after having software issues on my old Mac, so I am feeling extremely frustrated right now, and I really don't want to spend my day on the phone with AppleCare.

<Link Edited by Host>

Before you put ANYTHING on the iMac does it work ok? Set it up the way it came from Apple, with the Apple mouse and keyboard. If it works fine that way then something you're adding or installing is causing the problem.

DJkhoo wrote:

I have been contacting apple support for all the sets that I have received. The only solutions that they offered were 1) Repair 2) Return/Exchange 3) Refund.

So which one are you going to use, Apple is quite generous on brand new machines.

Hi DJkhoo,

Thanks for the update.

I am unsure what I am going to do (and I am not enough of an expert to make a recommendation about what I think others should do). I am disappointed, though, because I did a clean install on all of my apps and am surprised to have a startup problem with (what I assume) is the software. I do know enough about Macs that I've found that when I can't solve the problem, Apple Care techs often can't either. I have to believe that a Mac engineer can figure it out, but any time I've had a problem forwarded from a Senior Technician at Apple Care to an engineer I've never gotten any feedback or additional help past that point in the process. While the Techs have been helpful and responsive, when my problems haven't been solved, I am left with a faulty computer and have spent an additional few hours solving this 'extra' work of troubleshooting.

Right now, I am in the process of uninstalling any applications on my computer that I've added that look at all suspect. Mike Sombrio raises a valid question and yes, it is true that everything seemed to work OK for the first week or so. Then, I added a few more applications, which seemed to be when the trouble started. Hopefully, uninstalling one of those applications will work, but I don't know what I'll do if it doesn't, and if Apple Care can't help. I am pretty invested in the Apple ecosystem by now. If any of my efforts solve the problem, I'll post here again, OK?

In trying to fix the problem, I've stumbled across a couple of sites that seem helpful, and that I wasn't aware of before. I will repost them here, in case they might help anyone else. I can't entirely vouch for these sites, but they helped me to narrow down the likely problems.

• This site lists known conflicts or issues with El Capitan. The site doesn't have data about many conflicts at this point, but there are some known issues that are listed and the site is very easy to use: https://roaringapps.com/apps?os=el-capitan&status=%E2%81%87&platform=osx
• This page lists ideas to try first before seeking additional help: http://appletoolbox.com/2015/10/mac-os-x-el-capitan-will-not-start-up-after-upda te-fix/. The article focuses on a specific issue that completely stops El Capitan from starting up -- we have a different issue, it seems. However, a lot of these steps still apply as possible solutions.
  

Best of luck, I will let you know what happens on my end!

Mark

Mark, would you consider running and posting an EtreCheck report? http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

Hi Mike,

Sure, I would do that. Thanks for the suggestion -- any help is welcome!

A brief update — since my last post, I tried everything listed in the appletoolbox.com article (other than resetting the SMC or reinstalling the OS X -- haven't tried SMC yet, and don't want to reinstall the OS unless I really have to). What seemed to have the most impact was resetting the NVRAM (that's the 'new' version of resetting the PRAM, for other people reading this). After doing that, my computer went from intermittently starting up (never getting past the Apple logo screen, but succeeding in starting up every other restart) to not starting up (never getting past the Apple logo screen, and repeatedly failing to start up). However, I kept trying to start up, and after one failed safe mode reboot, a regular reboot got me started again. And since then, a normal reboot has started my computer every time -- though I don't think that the problem is entirely solved, because the Apple logo screen is still flickering in and out a bit during startup, which was a minor early symptom of the problem the computer has been having.

My son is just getting up from his nap, so I may not be able to post the EtreCheck until later or tomorrow afternoon -- will give that a shot soon, though.

Thanks,

Mark

Hi Mike,

Here is the EtreCheck report. A couple of brief comments and questions for you and DJkhoo. First, DJkhoo, are you running any video-related software by Aimersoft or LifeFlix? The problem I had may not be related to those products, but those are the ones that I installed just before I started having issues with startup. They are also among the few pieces of software I have on my Mac that are either (1) not from the Apple App Store or (2) seem less likely to cause an issue because they widely used/tested (e.g., software from Apple, Microsoft, Adobe, etc.). Second, Mike, please let me know if anything in the report looks suspect to you. The only surprise in here for me is the Adobe .plist issue -- am going to see if I can drag that out of its folder so that it is regenerated next startup. FYI, in case you are wondering, I am not using Time Machine right now because I don't want to copy everything until the problems cease (and I have all vital files backed up elsewhere).

Thanks, Mark

Chrome is a huge resource hog as evidenced by it's memory usage. See here for some help with that "google chrome helper" using too much CPU?

I wld uninstall the Aimersoft video software per the developers instructions and test.

A couple of other new, brief observations:

• When I restart from my iMac's user login screen right after startup (instead of logging in as a user), the Apple logo screen freezes when the line has filled nearly half of the 'thermometer'.
• When I restart normally, the Apple logo screen always pauses briefly when the line has filled 1/3 of the 'thermometer', then goes black for a couple of seconds, then quickly flickers 2-3 times between the Apple logo screen and all black or all white screens, then finishes filling the thermometer and goes to the normal user login screen.
• I removed the launch items / Adobe plist mentioned above -- that file and the others I removed were actually related to the application Text Wrangler, not Adobe. Had no effect.
  

Mark

Thanks for the Chrome advice. Once I hear back from the developers about how to remove the software completely, I am going to test that theory and see what happens. Will let you know.