HI Neil, is there a way to do an OSX refresh but leave your data untouched? I am sure other will know what this is called. I presume OSX 10.11.6 is the latest version your iMac can support - so a clean reinstall of this OSX if it is possible may be a way to clear the baggage from within.
I had a quick browse and found this one. https://mashable.com/2015/10/01/clean-install-os-x-el-capitan/#weC4Mn0eDOq2 As always making sure you have at least one backup is essential so you can recover in the event of fatal flaws. Regards Pete > On 12 Mar 2019, at 4:19 pm, Severin Crisp <sevcr...@westnet.com.au> wrote: > > Congratulations on an extended and finely documented description of a > problem. Sadly I have no solution to offer. I wonder if you are running as > a fusion drive with the SSD and partition on drive 2. Apple have never > released the fusion bit built into the system, despite many years of > promises. Having said that, I have not any worries with my iMac non Apple > fusion drive. > Hope you get this cleared up fast! > Best wishes > Severin > >> On 12 Mar 2019, at 4:02 pm, Neil Houghton <n...@possumology.com> wrote: >> >> Writing this from the laptop as my iMac has started playing up with strange >> ‘freezes’ the likes of which I’ve never seen before – and I’ve had my share >> of crashes, freezes & hangs over the years!! >> >> First my setup/hardware – which has been “enhanced” since purchase: >> 27” iMac 2.8GHz i7 - late 2009 - running OSX 10.11.6 >> 24GB RAM - 2x8GB + 2x4GB >> Internal Drive 1 - Mercury Electra 250GB SSD - boot drive containing OSX, >> applications and a bare “admin” user account >> Internal Drive 2 - 3TB Toshiba partitioned as: >> · 1.5TB volume - containing main user folder plus other data folders >> · 1.0TB volume - currently empty (earmarked for media files) >> · 500GB volume - containing my previous SL boot volume >> >> This has all been working fine since the rebuild to replace the HDs and >> boost the RAM. >> >> I have been out of town for a couple of weeks but shut down the compute and >> UPS and removed the plugs from the wall - so no chance of “power glitches” >> while we were away. >> >> On return everything fired up OK (from memory) but pretty soon I had a >> freeze - I don’t remember the exact sequence but, pretty soon I ended up >> with just a black screen with a cursor. The cursor continued to respond to >> the mouse but I could not “wake up” anything else. Command option escape >> would not open a force quit window and I had no means of knowing if any apps >> were still running. All I could do was power down using the power button on >> the back of the iMac. >> >> All booted up OK but fairly soon I ran into problems - again I don’t >> remember the exact sequence but I do remember the desktop going black whilst >> some open window remained visible but soon I was back at the black screen & >> cursor. Again, all I could do was power down using the power button on the >> back of the iMac. At this point, I was worried that I might have some drive >> problem so I rebooted from my backup clone and used disk utility to run >> first aid on all drives/partitions. I ran top level on both internal drives >> and then volume level on all four volumes - in all cases the repair went >> fine with no issues noted. >> >> Back to booting normally and again all seemed fine - for awhile - until >> another freeze - I just remember I was using Outlook this time. >> >> Sometime (I don’t remember when) during all this I remember Acrobat reader >> opening - unprompted - a couple of times. The first time barely registered - >> I just quit it - the second time made me think “why did it do that?” I was >> also trying to research OSX black screen problems - I found plenty of >> references to this problem but generally associated with incomplete system >> updates and none with similar circumstances to mine. One common thread on a >> numbers of these threads seemed to be down to some login problem which made >> me go the user preference pane where I noticed two new Adobe items in the >> login items list - which, I guess could explain the unexpected opening of >> Adobe reader. I have now removed the Adobe items from the login items list >> but my freeze problems persist and so this was probably non-related. >> >> >> The latest freeze is now ongoing – around 1 hour and I know that only a >> switch-off at the power button will get me out of it. >> In this case the only app open was Firefox with two multi-tab windows on >> screen and one multi-tab window minimised in the dock. It froze with the >> spinning beach ball cursor – which still tracks the mouse movements. >> Command-tab would not cycle me back to Finder. >> Option-Command-Escape would not bring up the force-quit menu. >> Mousing the cursor over the menu bar showed the spinning ball over all the >> Firefox menu items but the normal pointer over the right-hand Apple & 3rd >> party menu items. >> I have the “fast user switching” menu item on so I clicked my user name to >> open the drop-down switching menu (I wanted to check if this looked >> “normal”) however, at that point most of the Apple menu items disappeared >> from the menu-bar. The Spotlight icon was still showing but clicking that >> turned the pointer to the beachball and, after a moment, the Spotlight icon >> also disappeared. >> At present, both Firefox windows are still showing and I can switch between >> windows by clicking each window – but not between tabs within the window. >> The menu bar still shows the left-hand Apple icon but the beachball cursor >> when over it. The full Firefox menu also shows – but again with the >> beachball. >> The Dropbox, 1Password, Malwarebytes and Onedrive menu icons are still >> showing – but now with the beachball (although originally the shoed the >> normal pointer cursor). >> Screen sleep initiated normally and the screen awoke from sleep normally >> with a keyboard input. >> UPDATE: I have just shut down using the power button and rebooted and quit >> the only reopened app (Firefox) and, for the moment, all looks fine. For the >> moment, I will leave it running while I have lunch and see if runs into any >> problems just sitting quietly doing nothing (from a user perspective!) >> >> UPDATE: Well, it has been running fine for a couple of hours now (but doing >> nothing) including screen sleep and rewake and system sleep and rewake/login >> - so I guess I will go back to using it and see if I can find any sort off >> pattern to the problem. >> >> Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions gratefully received. >> >> >> Cheers >> >> >> Neil >> >> -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- >> Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> >> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> >> Settings & Unsubscribe - >> <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug> > > ________________________________ > Assoc Prof Severin Crisp, FIP, FAIP > Clarence Estate, 55 Hardie Rd, > Albany, Western Australia, 6330 > (Home: 15 Thomas St, Mount Clarence, > Albany, Western Australia, 6330) > Ph 0484 624 741 > Email: sevcr...@westnet.com.au > ________________________________ > > > > > > > -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- > Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> > Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> > Settings & Unsubscribe - > <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug>
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