As you recall from my last blog entry, my Mac had a few restart and hard drive problems. As a computer troubleshooter from way back, that causes me to sit up and take notice. Such a thing on any computer should always be of concern.
The problem has demonstrated itself twice in the past few months. The situation goes like this:
- A new software upgrade comes over the Internet.
- The upgrade requires that the computer be rebooted.
- The computer never restarts. The shutdown process goes on and on.
- I press and hold the power button until the Mac turns itself off.
- I start the computer again, and it comes up normally. Upgrade installed.
The upgrade process is not supposed to have a Step 3, above. It should progress smoothly from Step 2 to Step 5, skipping Steps 3 and 4. Some users might think, “Oh, this is normal.” Wrong! Any change in routine could indicate pending peril. And because I love my Macintosh, I want to ensure that I don’t experience the ultimate in high-tech let downs and find the thing not coming up at all one day.
To troubleshoot this problem, I preformed a manual restart: From the Apple menu, I chose the Shut Down command.
The computer turned itself off and . . . started up again just fine. So the problem isn’t with the Mac’s hardware — which is my guess. That leaves the update system, Software Upgrade. Because the problem happened twice with that program, and twice in the same way, that’s my best guess.
Confirming the problem is easy on the Mac. As a Unix operating system, OS X keeps extensive log files. By using the Console application, I was able to peruse the logs. They describe a few programs having difficulty restarting after they were updated. So it may just be a problem with the specific update. The next time I need to restart after an update, I’ll be able to confirm that. Until then, I’ll keep a close eye on the system Just In Case.
