[waluigi]

Hi.
Finally got my iMac 24"/2.8GHz/2GB/500GB/BT Keyboard & Mouse, running 10.5.3, all from Apple Store.
I also have LaCie Porsche 320GB HD plugged through FireWire 400.

I'm disappointed and shocked how unstable this OSX is. In fact, applications crashes 4-5 times a week (I have this iMac for 2 weeks), usually Safari and iTunes.
I'm using only Textmate, Transmit, Adium, QuickSilver, and nothing special (but I plan to but Photoshop CS3, and hope this computer CAN work stable)

Two years ago, I used old PowerMac G4 400MHz with 1GB of ram and OSX Tiger, and It was stable as stone, crashed maybe 4-5 times in a year, and always It was my fault. But Leopard or this hardware, gosh, that's a big problem for me.

Thats a typical crash on my system looks like that. Yeasterday, I watched movie. When I finished, I chat a few minutes by Adium, and than launch Safari. When enter the website adress, I saw this rainbow circle, so I waited a few minutes but It was too much. I opened Force Quit, and try to Force Quit Safari.
It closed the Safari window, and I saw typical information about sending this bug report to Apple.
I saw, that Safari is still opened at the Dock. So I clicked on the icon, and nothing happend. I can't opened
Terminal.app, and there wasn't Safari process at all. The same in activity monitor.
I logged out, and try to restart computer. I was waiting ~5minutes, and nothing happend.
So I must push the power off button at the back of my iMac, and restart It this, hard way.
It's worse then on Windows boxes!

The same happend with Installer (huh), and iTunes.

I reinstalled OS two times (!), and did the Hardware Test two times. Everything seems to be ok. I didn't install any hacks or something, my system is pretty default.

I read yeasterday a little bit about problems in Leopard, and many people reported problems with their FW/USB drives... Maybe that's the problem?


So, please, give me advice... And sorry for my English.

[Cold Warrior]

How have you been reinstalling the OS -- clean install, archive? Do you transfer anything afterwards, such as using the Migration Assistant from your old Mac to this one?

Boot from the DVD and run Disk Utility's Verify Disk function. See if it detects any hard drive problems. I don't recall whether the hardware test checks the hard drive.

[waluigi]

I verified disk and repaired privilages, nothing helped.
I did only clean install. All data I transfer, was from my PC on external drive (some music, and a few document, nothing more), and I copied It.
All of my software is up to date.
I really think, the problem is with external drive. I thought, Lacie Porsche will be completly Mac compatible, but when I unplug It, I have no problems. I'm waiting now for crash safari or something, and checked what will happen when I'll unplug disk.

Computer is new, passes all Apple Hardware Test, and Disk Verify, so where the problem can be?

Cheers.

[64stang06]

Well if the computer is fine once the external drive is unplugged, it could either be the external drive, or the port to which it's attached. Is it a USB or Firewire drive?

[waluigi]

Originally Posted by 64stang06 

Well if the computer is fine once the external drive is unplugged, it could either be the external drive, or the port to which it's attached. Is it a USB or Firewire drive?

Firewire 400.

I noticed, that I've got crashes at the same time, so maybe spotlight is indexing files on external hd when some apps crashes. I read, that unpluging harddrive when application crashes do the job, so I'm waiting and check this.

But tell me... Leopard is stable enough? Cause now, with this problems, I feel worse than on Windows box...

[Chuckit]

Leopard is very stable everywhere I've used it. Is the hard drive new? It's possible for slightly defective hardware to do something like this.

[waluigi]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

Leopard is very stable everywhere I've used it. Is the hard drive new? It's possible for slightly defective hardware to do something like this.

I bought as used (on service like ebay, in Poland), but It looks really like new, even had a sticker on the front. And it pass all disk utility tests.
I will wait and watch, I really hope thats not iMac hardware problem cause sending It to service in my country will be really hard.

I thought, that OSX will be heaven for me, and now, there is so many problems... I hope It will be solved.

[Chuckit]

It seems most likely to me that it's an external hard drive hardware problem. I've had drives pass superficial tests the seller ran that turned out actually to have major problems before. If you have any others, you might try substituting them for a while to see if the problem goes away. If so, then it definitely sounds like the problem is with the drive rather than with anything in your iMac.

[waluigi]

I don't have any other drives, so I will wait with this for a next crash. When something will crash, I'll unplug this disk, without Force Quiting Application or without ejecting disk, and see what happend. I hope, everything will work fine.

Big thanks for help Chuckit. If anything will clear up, I'll write a post there.

[waluigi]

Hi.
I had crash of xcode yesterday, I ejected disk in OSX and xcode 'uncrashed', everything works fine. So that is a disk problem, now we can be sure .
But today, I have plugged my disk all the time, and there is no problems, so I will wait.

I read about problems with force quit and external drives in Leopard. any body have it too?

Cheers and thanks, especially for Chuckit and his good words

[adamfishercox]

no problems here..

[waluigi]

Hi.
Everything is okay now, even with plugged in HDD.
I formated the external drive, and made it time machine - now it works fine for a week. I don't know what it was...