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BASIC TROUBLESHOOTING FOR MACINTOSH COMPUTERS

Last revised 06 November 1999

Warning! Do everything you are about to do in the order prescribed, and as described. Failure to properly perform or skipping a step may result in disaster.

You should print this article and the contained instructions for ease of use and to be sure you do things in order so it won't cause further damage.

Welcome Mac User!

Well, if you're here, it's likely that you're not a happy camper. But, Gentle Reader, take heart, you've come to the right place. Here, we hope to not only solve some issues that are driving you nuts, but to also help teach you why, and how to prevent them from occurring again.

First, this article revision will make some basic assumptions, namely, that you are running at least OS8.x, but much of it is still applicable to older System revisions (we'll try to republish the older System pages soon).

Second, the authors hope that you are able to purchase some powerful utilities to faster assess your problems, but, wherever possible, we try to offer some free, or low-cost alternatives. Anything is better than a trip to your local AASP, right?

Third, this list may seem long and intimidating on the surface. It is, in reality, typically only a twenty to thirty minute routine, and only is long in text because it addresses multiple common issues, Macs, and OS's, as well as available tools. Forty percent or more of it will not apply to you, so just read and do carefully, and it will help any Mac plenty. It is far from being a complete, end-all, be-all list of things you can try, but it covers most of the common issues experienced by the average user, and should give you enough information to seek additional help, if required.

If you reach failure at any step, make careful notes and post them, along with a description of your detailed, continuing problems, to any help forum, or you may contact us privately for advice (but we cannot promise a response).

If, after reviewing these articles, you feel this procedure excessive, please note there is nothing in the least harmful prescribed (unless expressly noted), and is all really at the heart basic prevention you should do every 20-200 hours of actual run-time anyway.

Not convinced? Compare the length of time required to try this versus a complete, low-level reformat of your drives (you did do a low-level format the last time your reinstalled you initialized your drives, yes?) and a complete System and applications installation, and I think you'll find it worth trying.

Finally, please read our DISCLAIMER before you proceed. While we want only to help, we simply cannot guarantee the results, nor can we control the effects of these prescriptions without being present. It is up to YOU to follow all the instructions carefully, and to use YOUR best judgment as to the level of RISK.

Good Luck!

INDEX

Preparation

*URGENT UPDATE FOR OS 9 Users!

Part One: Directory and File Structure Routines

Part Two: Deleting and Rebuilding Commonly Corrupted Files and Resources

Part Three: Disk Drivers and Media Integrity

Part Four: Updating Your System Software and Firmware

*Urgent Update for OS 8.6 Users!

Part Five: Testing For Basic Finder Stability

Part Six: Testing For Application Stability

Part Seven: Resolving Extension Conflicts

Part Eight: Checking For Viruses

Part Nine: Corrupted Fonts

Part Ten: Resolving Corruption in PRAM

Part Eleven: Hardware Related Issues

Part Twelve: Taking Out The Shotgun

Preparation

First, be sure you have plenty of free space on your volume(s). Apple advises 5%, we say 10%. To check, select (highlight) each mounted volume, and do a 'Get Info' (Command-I) and make sure the 'Available' amount is at least 10% of the 'Capacity'. If less than 5%, you need to clean house, delete or remove as many files as you can until you have plenty of free space on each mounted volume.

URGENT UPDATE FOR OS 9 Users!

There appears to be a bug in OS 9.0 that prevents invisible temporary files from being deleted properly after an application crash and subsequent Restart of the Mac. You can read about it here, and learn how to remove these unused files.

Utilities Preparations:

If you are using Symantec/Norton stuff, be sure you are using the very latest version(s) appropriate to your OS.

OS7.x-8.0 use 3.5.3
OS8.1-8.6.1 use 4.0.4
OS9.0 use 5.x
(if you are using Norton 3.x and have a System later than OS8.0, or if you are using version 4.0.2 or earlier with OS8.5.x or newer, that's where your problems are emanating from)

Personally, I would avoid using Symantec/Norton products altogether, after all the data loss it caused in '98, and in years past, but that's your call. Right now Speed Disk is still the only true optimiser shipping that works on HFS+ formatted volumes. The rest are (currently) just defragmenters. (See also: Optimising Versus Defragmentation)

If using Virex™, AntiVirus™, CrashGuard™, TrashBack™, TrashCache™, TechTool Protection™ extents, or other such "protection" utility, disable or remove completely until you resolve conflicts and crashes, and then make sure you have the latest versions installed.

If you are using Conflict Catcher™, make sure it is the very latest version, and that it is specifically approved for your OS version.

Next, back up your critical, irreplaceable documents immediately. If you are having problems just copying documents, files or folders, continue with the steps below, and hope for the best.

** Note: At each stage of this routine you find a major problem, return to Part One and repeat the process to be certain your foundation is rebuilt and assured.

^ Index ^

Part One: Directory and File Structure Routines

Warning! Do everything you are about to do in the order prescribed, and as described. Failure to properly perform or skipping a step may result in disaster.

** Note: At each stage of this routine you find a major problem, return to Part One and repeat the process to be certain your foundation is rebuilt and assured.

1) Proper care and upkeep of the Macintosh OS File Directory Structure and Desktop Database Files is crucial to any user. Failure to maintain this structure can lead to serious damage and catastrophic loss of data. Before you try ANY repairs on your Macintosh, always run a quality disk repair utility as a first step.

2a) While running from CD:

** Note: A better choice is to use DiskWarrior™ 1.1 or newer. If you don't own this yet, get it, it's the best utility to hit the Mac in years.

2b) While running from the DiskWarrior™ CD:

Only use Norton Disk Doctor™, TechToolPro™, MacMedic™, etc. at your own risk. We do not recommend these tools for Directory care.

See also: Caring for Your Directory and Directory Tools

3) While running from CD:

The article Rebuilding Your Desktop: The Right Way! discusses both methods, which is better and why.

Only use Norton™, TechToolPro™ and MacMedic™ for this purpose at your own risk. Our experience shows frequent crashes, inability to rebuild, and corrupted rebuilds with these tools.

NOTE: NEVER rebuild the Desktop DB/DF files without FIRST verifying the Directory Structure (See Step 2)

4) Restart again from CD:

^ Index ^

Part Two: Deleting and Rebuilding Commonly Corrupted Files and Resources

A corrupt preference file is probably the top source of most non-memory-related crashes, and standard disk utilities like Disk First Aid, Norton Disk Doctor™, TechToolPro™, DiskWarrior™, et al, will not repair, let alone even likely detect corrupt preferences, which can lead to more crashes each time they are used.

If an application crashes while using the preference file, the file can easily become corrupted. Each time that one application crashes, you run the risk of crashing other programs, too, and those programs corrupt their own preference files, etcetera, etcetera, until your System is unstable throughout.

Remember, the Finder itself, along with many control panels and background applications (such as the Launcher) are applications that also use preferences files, so corrupt Finder and System-used preferences could lead to crashes anywhere in any application. This is frequently why the oft-used, seemingly last resort of a Clean Installation of the OS kills the underlying, relatively simple problem.

5) While running from CD:

** Note: You may also use TomeViewer to extract these items fresh from an identical-version OS installer (CD or downloaded .SMI file). See: Using TomeViewer for more information

^ Index ^

Part Three: Disk Drivers and Media Integrity

6) While running from CD, use Drive Setup 1.7.3 or later from a floppy, RAM Disk, or other alternate volume

Note: If you are using third party disk drivers, you may not use Apple's Drive Setup unless you first initialize (erase) the drive, and then the drive must be supported by Apple Drive Setup. You may simply wish to verify that your installed third-party drivers are compatible with your OS version, software and hardware.

Note: you may run Drive Setup on its host volume for a driver update, but you must run it from another disk for a test.

Note: A better, more-complete, more-reliable utility for testing physical media is FWB Hard Disk Toolkit™

Only use Norton™, TechToolPro™, MacMedic™, etc., at your own risk. We do not recommend these tools for physical media care. While we do not anticipate any actual damage to be caused by these tools for this particular purpose, our experience shows them to be insufficient at this task, and may overlook critical errors.

See: Third Party Disk Drivers and Utilities for more information

^ Index ^

Part Four: Updating Your System Software and Firmware

7) You should always check for software and firmware updates required for your Operating System and installed hardware.

Mac OS 9 users may use the Software Updates Control Panel to check automatically for Operating System updates, but please note it will not update your Apple-installed firmware, or third party hardware and applications.

All Mac OS users should:

The following are certain:

^ Index ^

Part Five: Testing For Basic Finder Stability

8) Now it's time to see how well the Finder itself operates, and if any errors occur while using basic applications and operations. Be patient with this section, and spend as much time as you need to feel comfortable that the Mac feels stable and peppy.

If you are still crashing, proceed to Part Eight: Step 12

^ Index ^

Part Six: Testing For Application Stability

9) Now attempt to run your major application(s). If extensions are required to run a particular application:

10) If the application fails under either circumstance, or seems slow to open, sluggish in opening files, etc., examine the need for optimisation and defragmentation and execute if greater than 3%.

Note: If the crashes occur after long periods or runtime, or happen after you open and close several applications, you may be experiencing RAM fragmentation. Use better RAM management by using proper reverse-quits, purging unreleased memory fragments, and safe Finder-quits.

See also: Managing your RAM

^ Index ^

Part Seven: Resolving Extension Conflicts

11) If your application continues to have problems, you may still have extension conflicts.

^ Index ^

Part Eight: Checking For Viruses

12) You may have a virus, especially if you trade disks frequently with other users, download files from unknown sources, or have recently installed new software. Even when it is from a trusted source, oversights can happen, and there are many known incidents of viruses being spread via major software providers, e.g., UMAX and AGFa scanner software, Epson printer software, etc.

Use an updated virus scanner to inspect ALL your volumes and disks.

^ Index ^

Part Nine: Corrupted Fonts

13) You may have corrupt Fonts.

This is one of the most-often overlooked crash-sources, and standard disk utilities like Disk First Aid, Norton Disk Doctor™, TechToolPro™, DiskWarrior™, et al, will not repair, or likely even detect corrupt fonts, which can lead to crashes each time they are used. Like other open files, if an application crashes while using the font, the font itself can become corrupted.

Remember, the Finder is an application that also uses fonts, so, shared, Finder-corrupted fonts could lead to crashes anywhere in any application, and vice versa. This is frequently why the oft-used, seemingly last resort of a Clean Installation of the OS or reinstalling a troublesome application kills the underlying, relatively simple problem.

IMPORTANT: There is a bug in OS 8.6 that requires the Font Manager 1.0 Update extension to be installed at all times, and both installed fonts and fonts embedded within certain applications (e.g., Pagemaker, GoLive, FWB HDT, more) are prone to corruption anytime the System is run without the extension in place. You can use both the included Apple Font First Aid Utility and Alsoft Corrupt FOND Fixer to repair the most-common damage from this bug. See: OS 8.6 Corrupt FOND Bug for more information.

However, many fonts can become damaged or corrupted in other areas, and neither of the above utilities are qualified to repair, or even detect them.

** Note: If you use a font management utility like ATM, Suitcase, Master Juggler, etc., you likely store most of your fonts outside the System Folder: Fonts Folder. You must use a utility like Font Agent to inspect and repair these fonts, or you should simply replace them from the original, known-good copies.

^ Index ^

Part Ten: Resolving Corruption in PRAM and NVRAM

14) Some Macs develop problems related to settings stored in PRAM.

Sometimes you can tell when this is happening, because your System clock will lose the proper time, your Startup Disk selections won't hold (flashing '?' on Startup), your TCP/IP and AppleTalk settings go wonky, certain System-related fonts display incorrectly, etc. Other times, none of these symptoms occur, yet the PRAM settings might still be corrupt.

*Be aware that zapping the PRAM on the PowerBook 190, 1400, 2400, 3400, 5300, and original G3 also resets the Power Manager.

Try zapping the PRAM to clear the settings contained there, and stored by the PRAM battery noted in Step (15)

Not all settings are cleared via the Restart method. If problems persist:

AppleVision Monitors may also need to clear AVRAM:

15) If your computer is more than two years old, or a B&W G3, you may have a dead or weak PRAM battery.

You may have one anyway. It never hurts to check. They only cost $4-$12

^ Index ^

Part Eleven: Hardware Related Issues

16) You may also have installed hardware problems.

Many internal and external components, including network connections, cable connections, etc, can cause intermittent and hard to detect conflicts with your software.

17) Have you added any internal hardware recently?

Try removing it.

18) You may have a bad power source.

Does your house go through light bulbs quickly? While one may not relate to the other, A surprising amount of crashes can be caused by simply having "dirty" power or even a reversed-polarity in your electrical outlet. What is good for the toaster is not always good for the computer, which is very sensitive to power issues

^ Index ^

Part Twelve: Taking Out The Shotgun

19) Well, here we are, you should be OK by now, but if you're still having problems, you may have too many concurrent issues to try and resolve.

You may also be in a position that does not allow you to use the high-end diagnostic tools required to diagnose your problems. If this is where you think you've ended up:

^ Index ^

Related Articles:

Preventative Maintenance
Desktop Rebuilding -- The Right Way!
Caring for Your Directory
Directory Tools
Using Apple Drive Setup
Third Party Disk Drivers and Utilities
Partitioning Your Hard Drives
Printer Spooling
Modern Virtual Memory: This is not your father's old, slow-feel
Optimising Versus Defragmentation
Top Tool Picks

Article created on: 12 February 1995
Article last revised on: 24 January 2000
Author: Frederico, Robert, Patrick and Staff
Editor: WebClub '99, '00

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