10.5.7 Update: Video driver, bluetooth, and external drive problems

We've been reporting on problems with the 10.5.7 update that have affected a number of people, and since yesterday more problems have come to light that have affected smaller groups of people. These include incompatibility with Buffalo external hard drives, various driver-related malfunctions, and small problems with printing, bluetooth, and languages.

It should be noted that many of these problems may be situation-specific and are not wide-spread, but may be something to look out for and test for after you've updated your system software:

Buffalo Drives not working:

A number of owners of Buffalo external hard drives have found they're not being recognized after the 10.5.7 update. This problem appears to be a firmware incompatibility with the drives, and hopefully Buffalo will come out with a fix soon; however, until then if you use and especially if you depend on the functionality of your Buffalo drive, we recommend you avoid updating until this problem has been addressed.

Various Video Driver Issues:

The video drivers in OS X have been significantly reworked, and some people are experiencing subtle problems while others are getting more frustrating problems. One user noticed "tearing" during swift scrolling in some aspects of the Finder. We will be on the lookout for these kinds of glitches, but keep in mind they may crop up in certain situations for some people and not for others. Overall, however, this is more of an annoyance than anything serious.

Other video problems experienced are screens on MacBooks going black. A couple of users (1, 2) have not been able to get video to display on their MacBook Pro computers. One user owns a version 2.1 (late 2006 to mid 2007) MacBook Pro, but not enough reports are in for any model-specific problems to be apparent.

For now there aren't any known fixes for black screens with the 10.5.7 update; however, there are a couple of things you can do to ensure you can access your computer and files after updating. The first is to back up!!! We cannot stress this enough; however, in addition to backing up you can also enable functions on your computer that will allow you to log in to it and either access files or be able to run commands and hopefully troubleshoot and fix problems such as this. Before updating, go to the "Sharing" system preferences and enable "File Sharing", "Screen Sharing", and "Remote Login", which will allow you to access your mac from another one in the event an update results in a black screen.

Language-based problems:

In past updates some international users had problems with languages reverting to english, which has cropped up here and there for the current update. This problem can easily be fixed by running the language chooser again, which is done by running the following command in the Terminal:

Select your language, close the language chooser and restart your system to invoke the changes.

In addition to system languages reverting, some applications may experience problems with languages as well. One user noted Address Book crashing after running the 10.5.7 update, and found that disabling all but his default language for Address Book (Get info on the program and uncheck the unused languages) cleared the problem. Problems with languages may benefit from running a permissions fix on the drive after updating, or also may be cleared by reapplying the "combo" updater.

Printing Problems:

One or two users have noted some programs crashing upon trying to print, or noted missing features of the print system such as not being able to print to PDF. These problems may be with the old configuration not agreeing with the new software, and the first thing to try would be to remove your printers, reset the print system, and set your printers back up. To do this, go to the "Print and Fax" system preferences, right-click your printer and choose "Reset Printing System...", which will remove the printer and set all settings to defaults. From here, click the " " sign and add your printer again. For PDF printing, if you cannot get the PDF menu to work, one workaround would be to install Adobe Reader, which will install an "Adobe PDF" printer device that will serve the same function.

Bluetooth Glitches:

A couple of people (1, 2) using bluetooth have found it doesnt work upon initial reboot after updating to 10.5.7. This problem seems to be cleared by rebooting the system, though you might try booting into safe mode first, and then rebooting normally. This will ensure the core system loads without third-party drivers that may be interfering with core system function. When the system has loaded this way, booting normally may allow for a more compatible loading of third-party drivers and software.

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