Mac OS X 10.4.10 (#2): Audio problems -- poor quality; Wireless issues; App launch failure; more

[Published Thursday, June 21st]

[For common post-update fixes and guidance on downgrading to Mac OS X 10.4.9, see initial coverage.]

Version number not displaying in Apple Remote Desktop It appears that systems that have been updated to Mac OS X 10.4.10 do not properly display the name "Mac OS X 10.4.10" in Apple Remote Desktop. Instead, the Mac OS X 10.4.10 systems are shown as Mac OS X 10.4.9, albeit with the correct build numbers for Mac OS X 10.4.10 (8R218 for PPC and 8R2218 for Intel).

MacFixIt reader Chris Rosa writes:

"Unfortunately creating a Smart List doesn't even work, because the interface limits you to selecting greater/less/equal to, rather than "contains". Filtering the list view by build number (8R218 for PPC and 8R2218 for Intel) works fine however."

RAM incorrectly recognized Some users are reporting that RAM modules are either not recognized or recognized with lower than true capacity after updating to Mac OS X 10.4.10.

MacFixIt reader Andy Bennett writes:

"So I just ran the updater this morning, and all of a sudden, my Quad-Xeon Intel MacPro is reading both of my 1GB RAM chips as 512's. I have 4 chips; 2-512's, and 2-1GB's. The Mac is showing all four them all as 512's now. I re-installed the update from a safe boot, and ran MemTest, but no changes and no apparent problems. I'm just stuck with 2GB of RAM instead of 3, for the time being."

In some cases, the RAM is simply seated improperly. Removing the module, and re-installing it, making sure the connection is tight, has resulted in the previously disabled module working again for several readers.

You can also try resetting PRAM/NVRAM as follows: Shut down your Mac, then start it back up while immediately holding the following keys: Command, Option, P and R. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the third time. NVRAM and PRAM can sometimes harbor problematic data that lingers after disconnecting the offending device.

[9:15 AM update]

1. Log in as an administrator
2. Open the Terminal (located in Applications/Utilities)
3. Type: sudo update_prebinding -root / -force and press Return.
4. When prompted for a password, enter your admin password, and press Return again. The process may take a few minutes, and you may see various messages flash by. The process is complete when the Terminal returns to a normal prompt.
5. Type exit and press Return.
6. Check for the capability to launch Microsoft Office applications.

Other potential fixes include:

Re-apply combo updater The tried and true method of re-applying the Mac OS X 10.4.9 combo updater has proven successful for some users experiencing this issue. Download links are as follows:

• Mac OS X 10.4.10 Combo Update (PPC) [165MB]
• Mac OS X 10.4.10 Combo Update (Intel) [293MB]
• Mac OS X Server 10.4.10 Combo Update (PPC) [218MB]
• Mac OS X Server 10.4.10 Combo Update (Universal) [391MB]

Delete Finder .plist In many cases, Finder crashes can be resolved by deleting the files: com.apple.finder.plist and com.apple.sidebarlists.plist from the following directory:

• ~/Library/Preferences

then restarting. [note, this is  the Library folder inside your home user folder].

Remove third-party contextual menu items Though it is usually useful only for a situation where the Finder crashes when control-clicking (or right-clicking) an item to access its contextual menu, it may also be applicable in cases of inexplicable Finder crashes.

Check the following folders:

• ~/Library/Contextual Menu Items/
• /Library/Contextual Menu Items/

for recently added third-party contextual that could be causing the crashes. Try temporarily removing all items, then logging out and back in (or restarting) and check for persistence of the freeze. If the problem is gone, add files back one-by-one to determine the culprit.

Notorious culprits for this issue include StuffItCM.plugin.

Check for corrupt/bad fonts, clear font caches Repeated Finder crashes can be caused by corrupt or otherwise problematic fonts or font caches.

First, try clearing font caches with a tool like Font Finagler. Failing that, inspect the following directories:

• ~/Library/Fonts (the tilde [~] represents the current home user directory)
• /Library/Fonts
• /System/Library/Fonts

for recently added fonts that may be causing the problem. Temporarily remove them and check for persistence of the issue. For a list of all the fonts installed by Mac OS X by default, see Knowledge Base article #301332.

Look for problematic login/startup items Look in the following folder:

• /Library/StartupItems

for any third-party startup items that could be causing the issue. You can also open System Preferences, then the "Accounts" pane and turn on or off specific startup items for each user. In some cases, processes that start here can interfere with normal Finder operation.

[8:30 AM update]

Audio problems -- poor quality, speaker pop Though Apple makes no direct reference in its release notes for Mac OS X 10.4.10, it appears that this update makes significant changes to audio output on some Macs. Unfortunately, these changes have resulted in user reports of compressed or distorted sound at higher volume levels.

Some readers have also reported that every 1-2 minutes or so, a "pop" comes through the speakers even if the sound is muted.

A MacFixIt reader did some digging on this subject with very interesting results and some graphs to back up his preliminary findings:

"I upgraded to OSX 10.4.10 and found that there were problems with audio playback in my MacBook Pro CoreDuo, 2.16GHz. I decided to measure this since we use these machines for quick measurement and demonstrations for students. I am including some graphs and explanations below. 

"Below is a Frequency response graph, input to output, for all settings of the volume control in the MacBook Pro (CoreDuo, 2.16GHz). The lower red curve is the setting just before turning off (15 clicks of the volume down button in the keyboard). The red curve at the top, that skirts differently at low frequencies, is the full scale, max volume, setting. 

"Graph zooming in to look at the -10 all the way to full scale settings. (From 10 clicks below full volume, to full volume, step by step). Notice how as you go up past 8 clicks below full volume (the green curve), the sound output is heavily compressed. Furthermore, high frequencies are attenuated above around 7kHz.

"A look at just three curves: Full volume (in red at top), 8 clicks below full volume (pink) and 9 clicks below full volume (green). Notice the difference in the output curves. Basically, anything above the -8 setting will sound compressed and even distorted. This is painfully obvious when using the internal speakers of the MacBook Pro, and the sound is also being colored and altered at the line out."

Meanwhile, some users are reporting no or little sound at all after applying the update. Yabo Obien writes:

"I upgraded last night, now I get NO sound from PDFtoMUSIC PRO and other sequencing and notational programs like Sibelius. What a disaster for me when I have a performance tonight. Upgrades up to this point never messed with output. My startup bong is barely audible and I have all volumes set to maximum."

Similar issue? Please let us know.

Wireless issues As has been the case with most incremental Mac OS X updates, some users are reporting problems with wireless connectivity through AirPort cards under Mac OS X 10.4.10.

MacFixIt reader Piers McDonald writes:

"Just wanted to report that my airport card is now functioning worse than ever. In previous releases of 10.4 I have had to manually enter in the name of my wireless network to connect (it is not broadcast), but that was all fixed with 10.4.8 I believe. Now manually entering the name no longer works and I just get the error stating that there was an error in connecting to that network. In order to connect every time I open my Macbook, I must disable the airport then re-enable it."

If you are experiencing similar problems, it's a good idea to peruse the solutions offered in our wireless troubleshooting tutorial. Let us know if you have success (or lack thereof) with fixes suggested there.

Applications will not launch Some users have reported problems launching applications after applying the Mac OS X 10.4.10 updater.

One reader writes:

"I didn't see this until this morning an did the combined update last night. Photoshop now quits before it loads all other parts of CS open. So far that seems to be the only issue, but a big one."

Check our tutorial "What to do when a Mac OS X application will not launch," for some fixes that are nearly always successful in these cases.

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

Previous coverage:

• Mac OS X 10.4.10 released: USB, third-party software, security improvements

Resources