Anyone else having performance problems after 10.6.4 upgrade?

[Les Wilson]

Thankfully I'm not in the middle of a production.

Even after several reboots and DIsk permissions repair, it takes 5 minutes to boot, random beach balls, and FCP takes 2 minutes before showing it's splash page. It can't play a simple two track timeline without stuttering and stopping altogether.

Anyone gotten past this kind of thing in the past? I'm on a 7 month old MacPro.

[Ron Wilk]

Sounds like an OSX issue ... Snow Leopard?

Had a similar issue several weeks ago (slow boot) with a brand new Quad Core running Snow Leopard. I called AppleCare and spoke to a supervisor who had me trash the preference files from several library locations that resolved the issue. If you purchased the AppleCare package then you should give them a call, if not, I would try anyway. I have found them to be quite generous in the past when it comes to the warranty.

My editing machine, however, is an 8 core and it runs just fine with the latest version of Final Cut Studio but I have refrained from upgrading that machine to Snow Leopard and see no reason to upgrade right now.

Oops! Seems I overlooked the title of your post. Oddly enough, I just performed the latest OSX upgrade on the aforementioned Quad Core and have not observed any performance issues ... yet. But allowing the OS to recreate the preferences files may still be an option.

[Nigel Barker]

Quite the contrary in fact. After I did the upgrade to 10.6.4 earlier today I thought that FCP was very quick starting up & it seems generally snappy & responsive with all other applications. This is on an 8-core 2008 Mac Pro.

I suggest that you download Onyx & run through the housekeeping operations Apple - Downloads - System/Disk Utilities - OnyX

[Robert Lane]

Les,

Although it may not seem like it should, OS updates have a way of immediately showcasing a weak OS directory. If your OS hasn't ever had it's directory "fixed" or optimized by DiskWarrior then often what happens is that after the OS update the weaknesses in the directory become front-and-center because the update has forced a refresh of base code. And if that code is wonky at all those previously underlying issues come to the surface in the form of slow response, spinning color-wheels of death and even full-on lock ups.

As I always advise those who make OS updates of any kind *always* make a backup of your OS, either with Carbon Copy Cloner or the manual method described in my sticky about saving your OS.

Also, DiskWarrior is a *must-have* for any Mac user; consider it as important as the keys to your house. Download and run DW (if you don't already own a copy) and I'm sure your slow-running system will be right as rain after.

Nigels advice about Onyx is spot-on, but run that utility AFTER you get your directory fixed-up.

[Les Wilson]

I booted the MacPro install disk and ran the Disk Utility to Verify/repair the volume. It found an error and fixed it. Permissions were also fixed.

The problem persists. The system beach balls for 10-15 seconds every few minutes and then comes back.

I have to update my DW to 4.2 for Snow Leopard. Are you saying I should run DW as well as Disk Utility?

[Robert Lane]

As I metioned earlier, run DW *before* making any further changes to the OS which includes maintenance utilities like Onyx.

The built-in Disk Utility in the OS is a very surface-level fix only, it does not address directory issues at all.

Get DW updated, run it and see where you're at. You can download a new version now instead of waiting for a DVD.

[Reed Gidez]

Even prior to 10.6.4, my system has been behaving oddly. I posted a query yesterday about issues I am having with a multicam edit (just two angles in this case) where the timeline pauses each time I switch angles and I get the "Dropped Frames" warning. I am running an 8 core 2.8 GHz system with 16GB of ram and a G-Tech raid drive so hardware capability should be fine.

I trashed my FCP prefs, ran Disk Warrior and a few other utilities and even spent time on the phone with Apple tech support. They suggested that I wipe my drive and reinstall the OS and start from scratch. As I write this (on my laptop) I am putting SL back on my machine. Tomorrow will be a Snow (Leopard) day where I will be spending the day reinstalling apps and migrating files.

I did NOT know about ONYX and will make sure that is in my utility kit moving forward.

BTW, while FCP did not take too long to load, it seemed a bit sluggish when executing commands like "save". It got to the point where I think my MacBook pro was running FCP faster.

[Robert Lane]

Reed,

If you have SL installed you DO NOT need to wipe your drive and reinstall everything.

Read my post about how Snow Leopard is "self-healing", a first for any single-user OS platform:

Mac OS X Update: Self-healing Snow Leopard ! | Go-Go-Godzilla.com

[Reed Gidez]

Hello Robert

Despite Apple suggesting I erase and reinstall first, I DID take my SL disc and reinstalled the the OS over the existing setup as you suggest in the post on your site. There was no change in behavior (where's Super Nanny when you need her!). FCP timeline still hesitated each time I selected a new camera angle (and there are only TWO!)

Last night I took the new HD drive I with a clone of the existing OS and wiped it and then reinstalled SL. I wasn't paying too close attention to the time but I think it took about 45 minutes±. When it rebooted, it asked about migrating my info from the original drive (in bay 2 of my MacPro). Since migrating settings AND apps was an option, I went for that. System reported that the process would take about 2 1/2 hours so I went to bed. This morning, I updated the OS to 10.6.1 and after posting this, I will open my saved project and see if things are better. If things are the same, I will have to a clean install of the OS and all of my apps, plug-ins, etc.

I will report back here on the results later this morning.

Reed

[Robert Lane]

If FCP is stil wonky after your reinstall then the FCP install itself - or the project you're working on - has become corrupted. Fixing the base code in the OS won't fix this.

Try FCP Maintenance Pack from Digital Rebellion; if that can't fix it then you'll have to totally erase your HDD, OS and apps and start fresh as you'd then have deep corruption that no utility can fix. It happens even on Macs, not often but it happens.

Let us know where you end up.

[Reed Gidez]

The hesitation is still a bit of an issue but I no longer get the dropped frames message (I didn't turn it off).

I am finishing up the project today, regardless but after all is sent to DVD and archived to tape, I am going to open a new project, bring in the same footage and see if I get the same results. If I do, then a clean install of everything will be in order.

I have DR's maintenance pack and will run that again before throwing everything else out.

Thanks for the tips.

rg

[Les Wilson]

In my case, the slowdown was a system wide problem. Boot, login and launching apps showed the problem. FCP was a concrete example that launched in 20 seconds or 2 minutes with the same project. I can't say what cleared the problem. It was happening but I kept working in spite of it and then overnight, while only sleeping the system (no restart or anything), the pinwheeling stopped occurring.


I've since added my startup items back in and reinstalled various applications that I'd removed to eliminate variables but the problem has not reappeared. The only thing I did was buy Applecare. :-)

I have yet to add my Caldigit eSata card back in but the system was misbehaving with that card and driver pulled ... anyway, as the old adage goes, "Problems that mysteriously disappear will reappear in the same fashion".

I'll post here if anything comes to light.

[Mitch Chapman]

From Les's description, this sounds like a big Spotlight re-indexing. (Search Wikipedia for 'mdimport'.)

No doubt the number of files modified by the OS update was large.