If it ain't broke..BREAK

I can't believe I've put the bloody awful (sorry but I'm angry) Play For Sure firmware etc on my zen Xtra. It brings not only my zen, but also my computer to a standstill whenever they're plugged together. I have tried everything; including jumping up and down and screaming (which never seems to work) so please no obvious suggestions... Yes I have I have tried installing all the firmware, software and drivers, I have turned it off and on again... so please any ideas? It takes 2-3 minutes before I can see my music files which are randomly seen in and out of their named folders. To find an artist/album I have to trawl through the whole list due to the fact that they've 'cleverly' removed the ability to see your tracks as artist/album/genre. I have tried useing third party software such as Notmad, Winamp etc. etc. etc. And guess what? About as fast a Creative reply. Has anyone else had this problem?

Didn't you just finish ranting similar misinformation in another thread?
Let's have a look
SHK_Design wrote:
We were forced to "upgrade" to Lion for mail.
No one was ever forced to upgrade for anything, except those wanting iCloud.
But since then the computer has been acting strange, not only did we lose iPhoto and Word for Mac but the mail icon dissapears from the dock and working with files that I've worked on before with ease is now harder to open.
If did not lose iPhoto. I owned a disk that I purchased. I did not lose Word as I was using a version which was up to date, and there are many other free options to open Office documents with. If Mail is missing from your dock then simply drag the Apps icon back into the Dock. Takes 2 seconds
Burning disks does not work 40% of the time.
Have hardly misburnt a disc in 2-3 years
Re starting the computer sometimes takes 10 min. I'm running a 2.8 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo With 6 Gigs of Ram so It's not my computer.
I would argue strongly with that. That is totally abnormal behavior for any computer. Chances are pretty good that you imported over problems from your last system and just made the computer worse.
All my problems started the day I installed LION. Apples new moyyo "If it ain't broke, break it and sell it to 'em again". If Apple no longer wants to make computers, OS, or Final Cut Pro, SELL those divisions off to someone who does. Go make your phones and music players.
So you obviously just want to rant. My advice, sell your Mac if you don't want to troubleshoot your problems (You have given no information to troubleshoot from or what 3rd party apps you are running) and maybe buy a nice little Windows notebook. I don't think Windows have ever had problems.
Good Luck
Pete

Similar Messages

I'm running OS 10.6.8 and wondering if I should upgrade. I'm also using safari 5, which is about 3 versions ago. Experience says if it ain't broke, don't fix it, but am I missing out?

I'm running OS 10.6.8 and wondering if I should upgrade. I'm also using safari 5, which is about 3 versions old. Experience says if it ain't broke, don't fix it, but am I missing out?

One option is to create a new partition (~30- 50 GB), install the new OS, and ‘test drive’ it. If you like/don’t like it it, you can then remove the partition. Do a backup before you do anything. By doing this, if you don’t like it you won’t have to go though the revert process.
Check to make sure your applications are compatible.
Application Compatibility
Applications Compatibility (2)

It ain't broke........

I'd like to upgrade on my Sprint Curve to ver 4.5 but the instructions have too many warnings that unsettle me.
I prescribe to the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" philosophy. Is it that much of an improvement? Am I too timid?
I really don't need any new pronlems.

eventually your carrier will be nagging you to upgrade, so its best to get it done with. Doesnt matter about the prob;ems as long as you do a backup. if the upgrade goes wrong, you can always revert back, or comepletly erase and reinstall fresh(rather than an upgrade) then your backup will restore your data. ALWAYS do a backup. the upgrade does a backup btu I always do a seperate one first just incase.
Also, pull out your media card if you have one, during the upgrade

I hate firefox 4 they took the good stuff out and put in crazy stuff. Like removing the tool bars and there are other bugs. why change a good thing. If it ain't broke don't fix it

I'm going to leave firefox if these issues aren't fixed

You can make Firefox 4.0.1 look like Firefox 3.6.17, see numbered items 1-10 in the following be sure to start at #fx4interface in the last 1/3 of the page, see [http://dmcritchie.mvps.org/firefox/firefox-problems.htm#fx4interface Fix Firefox 4.0 toolbar user interface, problems (Make Firefox 4.0 look like 3.6)]

Firmware fun - why fix what ain't broke? Who pays?

Recently my MacBook failed to recognise a portable Lacie firewire drive. My G5 PowerPC continues to recognise it. The drive is in excellent condition, has operated problem-free for many years and continue to work properly.
After much testing (and posting to another part of this discussion forum) the general consensus seemed to be that it was likely to be a firmware issue.
I wrote to the vendors: "The drive was purchased in 2002. That may sound 'old' to you, but it's in excellent condition, been well looked-after, and continues to perform perfectly. A pretty good ad for a product, no?"
The vendors said, "Having checked with your device unfortunately we no longer have any updates for it... It is possible that updates would have been the issue here as they would provide additional support for newer versions of Windows and Mac OS including more support for firewire and USB."
Does anyone know what the legal position is here? I have a perfectly good product that can no longer be used in the usual way. Do the vendors have a responsibility in storing firmware their clients may need in order to use their products? Or is it the responsibility of the computer vendors to ensure that their customers can continue to access the 3rd party devices they customarily use with the computer?
The drive I purchased has been made redundant through no fault of my own. Can I ask the drive vendors to replace it?
iHope

JoeyR, thanks for your comments.
JoeyR wrote:
If your drive is being recognized by another machine, I can't see the firmware being the cause for it not working with your MacBook.
The (Intel) MacBook doesn't recognise, the (PPC) G5 does.... Today the vendor wrote, saying there has never been a firmware update for this particular drive.
When you say "recently my MacBook failed to recognize..." do you mean that it did work at some point on your MacBook or it never did?
It's always been recognized by the MacBook until recently.
Does it just not mount the drive or does it not see it at all? Meaning if you go into Disk Utility, can you see the drive there?
Disk Utility doesn't see it.
If you have any data on that external drive that you don't have stored elsewhere, you'll want to be sure it is backed up before the drive fails.
The FW external drive is used in my workflow, but not for archiving.
The issue began after installing the latest Apple security update (for Intel computers only). As I asked at the start, who pays for the fact that this device is no longer fully available to me?
iHope
Message was edited by: iHope

If it ain't broke, don't fix it!! I want classic site back

I speak on behalf of most or for a large majority of paypal users with this complaint: The new paypal site is complete garbage and utterly disappointing. For starters, this is an insult to everyone using it because it is too "elementary" and it doesn't have half of the NEEDED details as the classic site. Now, this wouldn't be a problem if we were ABLE to switch over to the classic site. Now, Paypal has disabled that option, so now everyone is forced to use this simplified, poor excuse for a site that is causing more work for everybody. I understand that new things take time, but the classic site was perfect for our business needs. Why change it? Now, we can't even conduct proper business through your new site. If you don't believe me, just go to the community board and see how many thousands of angry, frustrated, and fed-up that your customers are. There was nothing wrong with the classic site and everything is wrong with the new one. For example: you can't see 1: Which items have been shipped or not, which items need to be shipped, we have to check our email to make sure we haven't missed anyone and as our volume has grown ,this is irritating. Multi-order shipping will pick up most people, but we can't ,with one glance, see what we need to do like we used to in the classic site. We are too high-volume for this. Ebay shipping is even worse, We might have to consider endicia or stamps.com as this has wasted hours of our time and staff time. 2. Multi- order shipping is now several clicks and horizontal scrolling. Whenever you start with horizontal scrolling you are on the wrong path! 3. I can't find my credit card balance, it's very tiny, I haven't even figured out how to pay my credit card balance; what used to be right up at the top is now missing. I don't know if this is an attempt to upsell or why you would treat your customers to this horrible interface. I want to swtich back to classic permanently. This should be called a failure. Paypal needs to leave it alone, fire the people who came up with this, and start over;better yet, go back to what worked.

I completely agree. I hate it. I now use stamps.com and pay anywhere every chance I can. Sick of lining the pockets of PayPal excutives that care less about their Customers!!!!!

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Oh, they did.

Having struggled with several TVs from the early days, each s/w update seemed to get closer to working how they ought. In particular, content should appear basically as it does in iTunes which is after all THE maintenance program to use to control all the content. I refer to sorting. iTunes introduces the 'Sort' tags, with which it is possible to have it display everything in your preferred order. I have all my artists sorting by last name and an artist's albums are shown in release date order. iTunes is fantastic and makes this trivial (apart from the sheer quantity which is hardly Apple's fault). Then you try and play it from an TV and it all goes to pieces.
Finally, during the v2 updates, they got this right and the TV would finally respect your carefully created sort tags and compilation artists were kept out of the main artist list, just like in iTunes. This can only get better I thought.
Oh dear.
v3.01 has BROKEN it all again. I am simply at a loss to understand how Apple can have screwed up so badly on this one. Many users seem to be suffering hangs and crashes (I myself have had a few) and overall it seems just so slow. But there's worse.
In the Artists list, I can see some artists for which I only have 1 or 2 tracks and they are both assuredly marked as 'Compilations'. THEY SHOULD NOT BE THERE. These should be all be listed elsewhere under Compilations. Bizarrely, most compilation artists are, but some have escaped into the main artist list. How crummy can you get.
And that's not all.
The artist list is again sorting by the Artist tag and NOT the Sort Artist tag. Likewise albums for an artist are sorting alphabetically again and not using the Sort Album tag. This was SORTED and now they've thrown it out and gone back to the nonsense they had before they fixed it.
This is truly depressing. The TV has such potential, but I'm not convinced it'll ever be right if they continue with this disastrous level of incompetence. Jeez, I'd expect a high school kid to make a better job of it.

I think many of you guys are missing the point which is nothing to do with the value or importance of correctly cataloguing your music collection. Personally I don't give 2 hoots about ratings, or beat (or other tags I consider utterly worthless), but if Apple implement it on one platform then it **** well ought to be the same on their other platforms that use the SAME data and THAT is the point.
Having said that, I cannot see how anyone can be so unconcerned about the sorting of the data since if the artists (or other primary data tags) are badly sorted when displayed in a list then it makes it kinda hard to find what you want and rather defeats the whole point of having all the music on the computer in the first place. But again, I am not arguing this point here.
What I am saying is that in iTunes, a list of Artists gets sorted by the Sort Artist tag (if empty it uses the Artist tag and drops A, The etc) - FACT. TV v1 ignores the Sort Artist tag and sorts any artist list by the Artist tag so e.g. Mark Knopfler is sorted under M which is quite clearly nonsense. During the v2 series of software (v2.4 IIRC), they finally get it right and the Aritsts list then sorts correctly by the Sort Artist tag. They also group compilation artists at this time (as per iTunes) so that the main artists list is less cluttered. Now we get v3 and they've forgotten all about getting v2 correct and not only are we stuck with sorting by the Artist tag again but also compilation artists are 'leaking' into the main artist list. Aarrgghh.
I have over 1,000 artists with over 20,000 tracks and if the sorting is not correctly done it makes using the TV (or whatever device) a misery.
The issue here is that Apple know what is required, that's why they put it into iTunes. They then take WAY too long to implement it on the TV (don't get me started on the iPods and Front Row) and just when we finally get a decent implementation, they bollox it up again in the next 'upgrade'. This is simply incompetence of the highest order.
As a database developer I understand about the care required when displaying data, but it's not hard to get it right. Just use the appropriate field when applying the sort - it's not rocket science and indeed they've done a great job with iTunes. But when it comes to the TV, they seem to have NO idea about what is and is not appropriate. When you want to play all the tracks for a selected artist, you get an alphabetical list. What stupidity is that. Why would ANYONE want them played alphabetically, you just wouldn't. I want them in album/track no. order as that makes sense to me (albums sorted by the Sort Album field of course) and for those who have no interest in the concept of 'Album' (I recognise that not everyone wants them ordered the same way as I do) they can simply select Shuffle - no other options make any sense. But what do we get - alphabloodybetical. This is just so stupid I am at a loss to comprehend how they could have sat around at a table and thought, "hmm, yes, let's sort the tracks alphabetically, that's a good idea". Aaaaarrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh!

How do I Know if it Ain't Broke or Not?

I updated to QT 7.0.4 on the first day of release throught Software Update. Then I updated to 10.4.4 using the Combo updater. Everything seems OK, but I have read so much about the problems with QT 7.0.4 and the fact that Apple temporarily pulled the freestanding QT 7.0.4 installer and then replaced it. I'm also familiar with the option to downgrade to 7.0.1 and then reupgrade.
I'm confused. Does anyone know if the version of QT available through Software Update was pulled and then replaced? Has there ever been any "definitive" word from Apple as to whether the original freestanding 7.0.4 had problems?
Is there a test to make sure my QT 7.0.4 is as it should be?
I'm not looking for problems where hopefully none exist, but I'm wondering what the best practice would be at this point. Keep what I've got or downgrade to 7.0.1 and then reupgrade?
Regards,
Steve M.

QuickTimeKirk, nice of you to try and help but I think we are missing the point here.
I have exactly the same questions as Steve M. but I don't see any suitable answers anywhere - least of all from Apple.
QT 7.0.4 created such a furor that Apple moved quickly (without comment) to provide a "downgrade" back to 7.0.1. It looks as if there is (still) a version of QT 7.0.4 available - Software Update finds it for me now that I am back on 7.0.1 but there is NO indication as to whether this is the "old" version or whether it is a later "improved" version. Hence the quandary.
To quote Steve M. "Does anyone know if the version of QT available through Software Update was pulled and then replaced?"
I would like to know the answer to that question myself but it proving very difficult. The silence from Apple is deafening.
Personally I think I'll stay with 7.0.1 for a while.
TiBook, 867 MHz, 40 GB, 512 MB, 120 GB LaCie Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Why is iTunes running slow

I'm using iTunes 10.7 (avoiding iTunes 11 because you can't have multiple playlists open at the same time with it) on my MacBook Pro. I have a large library on an external Thunderbolt drive. I'm finding iTunes running annoyingly slow quite. I've eliminated all but one or two smart playlists, but have more a couple of hundred regular playlists. Looking for suggestions on how to speed up iTunes.

No it's not your computer. The newest version of itunes is basically unusable. It will freeze, not only the program itself, but it will slow your whole computer to a crawl, or more usually, to a completely frozen state. I've done some time checks:
After clicking on a song, it took over 40 seconds before the song actually played.
After sliding the volume slider to the left to descrease volume, it took over 90 seconds for the change to actually be implemented.
I haven't listend to music for months on my computer because of this stupid memory hog of a program. Never had a problem until some of the more recent updates.
Apparently itunes philosophy is "If it ain't broke, break it."

Should I upgrade from Mavericks to Yosemite or go for a new install of Yosemite?

I just asked this, got an answer, but it shows as restricted. I can't access my question, so I'll repost. Dammit!
Macbook Pro 15.4” Retina, October 2012, 500g, 8g RAM.  In anticipation of the release of Yosemite, I have been ready to back everything up, screenshot all of my apps, print them so I can pick and choose after the install from where I have acquired everything. I am on a business scenario, not a typical home user. I use five external hard drives, so I can get it sussed.
  I am a Windows convert, I still Bootcamp Win 7 because of some Sony video software I need to use for business. Upper end Photoshop user. I will be installing Final Cut Pro X as a replacement for the video apps when everything settles. I have researched and see that my BluRay production will take a hit because I will have a learning curve and there seems to be a bug with Final Cut Pro X and BluRay production. I'm sure it will be resolved by the time I am ready to switch. No biggy. I will be cutting the Microsoft cord when that takes place. I'm just giddy over it. Seriously.  
What I want to know, and this is a very noob question, is, I want to erase and format my hard drive to accept Yosemite when it hits the release date. I want to go with a clean install rather than an update.
 To all of you seasoned and dyed in the wool Apple people, if you were two years into Apple as I am, would you install Yosemite, when it is released, as a stand-alone, fresh install instead an update install? I know it will wipe everything, but I want to build from the ground up as an OS install. Start over, as it sounds.
 Do you people think it an imprudent act to wipe everything and start over or a better idea to update with the Yosemite release over/on top of Mavericks?  I know there will be bugs. I dealt with the Mail bug in Mavericks, then they fixed it. I know there will be issues, there always are.  
Does it even matter?
 Thanks for your attention and for looking, 
Kelly J.

kellyjdrummer wrote:
I had thought the fall release of Yosemite would be a release candidate (baked.) Am I wrong? I know it's hard to know.
Through my years as a Windows user, I always waited at least a year after their OS releases before jumping on them.
There is no good answer anymore. All of the responses you have had in this thread are excellent. But Apple keeps changing the plan. I say wait until the 2nd minor release of Yosemite. The first 10.10.1 will be a bug fix release, probably within 3 weeks. The second will be a security update two weeks later. That is the point where it will probably be safe to install. You'll have a good 8 months of usage before having to worry about upgrading again. Also, this strategy applies to all releases, not just major ones. Apple doesn't do "bug fixes" like you may have been used to in the past. Builds 10.10.1, 10.10.2, etc. will be designed not to break any public interfaces, but that is as far as it goes. Otherwise, Apple is liable to change anything. The old adage "if it ain't broke don't fix it" simply doesn't apply anymore. Wait a week or two after each incremental update to see if there are big changes. Since you are a heavy Photoshop user, always check the Adobe forums before updating the OS.

Boot Camp, Vista Ultimate x64 SP1, 2009 Mac Pro Quad 2.93, ATI 4870 HD

Hello All,
I’ve run into a problem installing Boot Camp with Vista Ultimate x64 SP1 on my early 2009 Mac Pro Quad 2.93 with Apple’s ATI Radeon 4870 HD (the one with one DVI and one mini-display). I followed the instructions from the Boot Camp Installation and Setup Guide, and everything was going great until I hit page 12 of the Guide (Step 3). The Boot Camp drivers installed without error, and prompted me to reboot. Upon rebooting onto the newly installed Vista x64 partition, the screen went black after the chkdsk screen appeared. I can boot into Vista safe mode, but booting into Vista normally results in the black screen. On a hunch, while in safe mode, I uninstalled the ATI video drivers installed by Boot Camp. I was then able to boot Vista normally, but only with the standard VGA adapter. Then I tried installing the latest 9.4 ATI drivers from the chipset vendor, AMD, http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx. Booting normally after the ATI chipset drivers were installed left me with a mostly black screen, and a few swizzles of horizontal color, but not enough to make out any sort of image. Once again, I was able to boot normally by first booting into safe mode and then uninstalling the ATI driver, leaving me with the standard VGA driver.
The displays I have tried so far are 1) Apple Cinema HD 23”, and 2) Apple Cinema 20”. Also, I have tried all 6 permutations with the ports on the Apple version of the ATI Radeon 4870 HD with both displays (using the mini-display to DVI adapter), 2 permutations with both displays, and 4 permutations with single displays. All permutations result in the same black screen after installing Boot Camp drivers.
Am I missing something? It seems to me that there is a display driver that needs to come from Apple that will work with the Apple version of the ATI Radeon 4870 HD in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1 attached to an Apple display. I’ve installed Vista Ultimate x64 SP1 and many other operating systems in the past 27 years of working with computers, and typically with video cards I’ve had to get the drivers from the vendor that shipped the card, not the chipset vendor. Sure, occasionally the opposite is true, and I don’t mind spending a few days to figure out what works best for me as long as I believe I am making progress.
Has anyone else run into this problem with his or her early 2009 Mac Pro Quad 2.93 with Apple’s ATI Radeon 4870 HD? I’m posting this in the Boot Camp forum as I think this problem is rooted in the Boot Camp drivers, specifically for the Apple ATI Radeon 4870 HD. Please let me know if I should post elsewhere.

You are the second person I think I've seen with trouble using Mac Pro and ATI drivers (other was on Mac Pro forum).
When updating graphics, there are extra steps that insure you get the best working drivers.
I've always found Apple to be behind the curve on Windows support. Drivers that come with a card from the vendor ususally means ATI or Nvidia, and even then, you go to the web and download and install the latest tested / beta / qualified drivers. Some people try a variety of driver versions to find the one that works best.
Apple has not been updating Boot Camp drivers for Late 2008 and on Macs. Boot Camp 2.1 is now over a year old. What is on your OEM Leopard DVD is the only drivers I would use - if at all! try without is what some do, and then see if you can selectively install. Under Windows 7, I don't need or install, and now with the RC/7077 version of 7, Microsoft 'blocks' installing Apple Boot Camp drivers as known to cause problems.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Unistall the various Apple services, drivers, startup items that you can live without or until you narrow it down. iTunes 8.1+ in Windows can break and prevent ability to even use optical drives and devices for instance.
Some tips for upgrading drivers, one from eVGA forum but should translate.
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=396474
http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1655

How Do You Maintain OS X in a Pro Situation Environment?

This has come up - I want to see what others do to'maintain' their systems
I run this: http://www.maintain.se/cocktail once a week (pilot run the standard crons and cache cleaning... etc..)
Then once a month I run Disk Warrior and Tech Tool
I've been doing this for 'literally' years... well rephrase
after earlier faillings, went to tech tool after some of their early blunders (bugs) switched to disk warrior then added cocktail
SO...
In a professional audio situation of intensive hard drive use (I have over a terbyte in storage on four drives)
Looking for the definite answer:
How Do You Maintain OS X?

Yea. I'm not sure there's any one good way to maintain a Mac. I've been supporting Macs for a few years now, and have discovered nothing works better than a solid knowledge of OS X and your applications. Around here, most problems are app-specific. Problems with PDF or Postscript settings, corrupt preference files, stupid users, corrupt Entourage dbases, silly users, network issues, etc.
For the most part, our OS X systems are very solid, rarely having system-level issues. It's our old OS 9.2 systems with Quark that tend to break down daily.
Diskwarrior is a great tool. So it Cocktail and Onyx. Probably the best thing you can do to make sure a system keeps running is to keep the number of variables low. Install the apps you need, then don't mess with it. Don't install tons of third party software or extensions that screw with the internals of OS X. Don't upgrade software mid-project, and make sure you have a reliable backup system. If you're worried about hardware, you can run Hardware Tests, or just check the SMART status of your drives periodically.
Basically, good systems support is born from experience and paranoia. And remember, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Mouse not working in edit mode

I have version 4.0.1 on a Windows 95 machine, and I am having problems editing any VI. If I click on an item nothing happens, I cannot move it or delete it. I can add items but once they are placed, I cannot do anything to them using the mouse. For example, I can place an indicator on the front panel, but once it is down, I cannot move it or select with the mouse. If I right-click on it and hit 'Find Terminal' it will select the item in the diagram, and from there I can move it with the arrow keys or delete it with the backspace key, but once I click away from it, I am powerless again with the mouse. This makes it very difficult to move items and especially place wires.
This happens for VIs other people have written and VIs I create myself. If I double-click on a SubVI, it will open that SubVI, but single-clicking does nothing.
Thanks

cchriste wrote:
So the thinking here is that if it ain't broke don't fix it.
Guess what - it's broke.
For what it's worth, LV 8.x should be able to open VIs saved in LV 4 and run them without problems. You might get all kinds of notifications about changes that were made and if you're using some hardware stuff, it could potentially break, but it should basically work.
That said, you will need to test it after porting to see that everything still works the same.
Another point to consider is that the environment in LV 8 is somewhat different from that of the older versions. However, if you've only been doing this for a couple of months, you should probably be fine.
By the way, I suppose that you might be able to use LV 4 on a newer version of Windows (at least if you're not using any magic hardware and maybe even in that case). You might wish to talk to your local NI office about this.
Try to take over the world!

Beware if you plan to use Drive Genius with SL

After having SL installed now for nearly 2 weeks I decided to take a look at my HD and see if by defraging would speed thing up a bit. I already had Drive Genius (DG) installed when I upgraded to SL so all I had to do was update it to version 2.2.1. No problem. Last night I decided to defrag the drive because DG was reporting what looked like a messy HD. So I re-clone my drive then booted from it and started defragging. About 45 minutes into it I got a warning message in red lettering that said Warning your drive has crapped out on you....not literally but you get the gist of it. So I decided to run Disk Warrior 4.2, which repaired the drive..I thought. When I went to boot into the internal HD all I got was a ? mark at startup. So I then decided to put in the SL DVD and try a disk repair which failed. After several attempts with DW, DG, and DU I decided to erase and reinstall.
All is fine now but what an ordeal. I Don't think I'll try defragging again anytime in the near future.

No need to defra running Snow Leopard.
"If it's ain't broke, don't break it!"
Dave M.
MacOSG Founder/Ambassador  An Apple User Group  iTunes: MacOSG Podcast
Macsimum News Associate Editor  Creator of 'Mac611 - Mobile Mac Support'

Photoshop and Word Projects Stalling and or Freezing

Ironically, this problem I'm going tod escribe has happend twice since I started to submit it at 6:10 am and again at 7:09 am this morning. Luckily, I copied it befoe closing Safari and restarting:
Recently I've noticed that my Mac is not running as efficiently as usual. In particular, it has been stalling while I am working in Photoshop or MS Word (or as just happened again, inSafari). Although I usually can get it moving again without restarting — just by clicking on either the desktop or Safari, my guess is that it will only get worse with time unless I fix the problem. Since some incidents are immediately followed by a report from Safari, I've assumed that emptying its cache and trashing its preferences are the obvious places to start, but am embarrassed to admit that although I've searched everywhere (including inside the preference folder in the Library), I can't find either item.
Basic information about the MAC, Safari, MS Word and PS is as follows:
The MAC: The basic 21.5" desktop Mac . . . ( 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5 /OS 10.8.3) . . .just celebrated its first birthday last month. Although the desktop is filled with files and folders, "About This Mac" shows that 863.5 GBs of its 999.356 GBs are still unused.
Safari: Version 6.0.3 (8536.28.10)
Adobe Photoshop: CS6; version 13.0 x64
MS Word: Mac 2008; version 12.3.2
I realize there's at least one OS update for the Mac, but have opted to ignore it, because I believe in the old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" — and when it comes to the update, it fixes apps I don't use. MS Word also was re-released just after I bought my current Mac. Not knowing when it would reach the stores, I contacted MS to see if there were any other versions (newer than the one that came with Office 2008) that were compatible with Mac OS 10 and they recommended the downloadable upgrade (available when I called) for which I was still eligible . ..and which has worked perfectly until now.
One problem with these stalls and freezes is that on those occasions when just clicking on the desktop or Safari does not work, I have to restart PS or Word. Luckily, when I do, all open documents are recovered, whether previously saved or not. But if they weren't saved, when recovered, they are listed with document numbers but no names. Since I usually don't want to break my train of thought by stopping to stop resave them with names before returning to the project I was working on when everything stopped, the list of recovered files gets longer exponentially — probably slowing down the working speed of the apps even further.
I recognize the need for better "housekeeping," but need to know if anything else has to be corrected first — and if so, how to attack it.

Having a lot of files on a Mac desktop can slow it down, though I don't think it would cause it to lock up in just a few programs. I think you'd more likely see it no matter what program you have open.
Download & run Etrecheck: http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck
Post the results of its scan here - it just looks through your machine and reports back with details of the hardware and software that are on the machine.
~Lyssa

If it ain't broke..BREAK

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