Mac OS X 10.3.7 (#3): Firewire warning; fixes; problem reports; more

We continue our coverage of the recent Mac OS X 10.3.7 Update. As with most updates, many people have installed it without incident. However, we have received reports of problems, some of them confirmed by multiple people independently. (How was your update? Please let us know by taking the poll to the right.)

FireWire warning includes iPods We previously noted that Apple's release notes for the 10.3.7 Update indicate that users should disconnect all FireWire drives from the computer being updated prior to installing the update. This includes iPods, as the iPod is indeed a FireWire hard drive. Reader Bill Kempthorne discovered the possible consequences of not heeding Apple's advice:

"I saw the note about 'third-party' firewire drives [but] it didn't really register that my [40GB 3G] iPod would be one of them...[After installing the update] I went to grab my iPod and found a CD with a checkmark on the screen. Upon restarting the iPod had no music. I plugged it back into my G5 and iTunes complained that it was unreadable. While the iPod mounted all the other data on the drive was also gone. I have run the restore from the iPod updater and I am now re-syncing my iPod."

Notable fixes We should note that Apple claims OS X 10.3.7 fixes two significant issues we've been covering on MacFixIt over the past few weeks (since the release of OS X 10.3.6): (1) a problem where long filenames are truncated when saving or copying files over File Sharing; and (2) an issue where Safari and other Internet clients would experience intermittent connectivity due to a DNS problem (the infamous Safari "connect on the second try" bug). You can see a list of all the fixes included in 10.3.7 here.

Update updates moved Apple apps Apple's OS X updates continue to flip-flop in their ability to update Apple applications that have been moved by the user from their original locations -- sometimes they do, but sometimes they don't. Readers noted that the 10.3.6 update did not, but C.S. Hander observes that the 10.3.7 update does:

"I wanted to pass on to you this interesting note -- I used the 10.3.7 Combo updater on my system and it actually went and updated the programs that had been moved from their default locations into subfolders. 10.3.6 did not do this -- I had to move them back into place."

Because Apple's updaters are so inconsistent, we recommend keeping all Apple applications in their original locations.

Problem reports We've received confirmations of a number of problems we previously covered, along with some first-time reports. We want to remind users that before they send us a report of a problem with the update, they should boot from the OS X Install disc and run Disk Utility's Disk First Aid and Repair Disk Permissions functions to ensure that the problem isn't being caused by a disk/directory/permissions issue.

Slow startups network related? Yesterday we covered a number of reports of slow startup after installing the update. Although some users are indeed experiencing such an issue, all users should be aware that the first startup after installing a major system update will likely take significantly longer than normal, as Mac OS X is loading all kernel extensions (kexts) rather than using the existing (and now obsolete) kext cache. If your first startup after installing an update seems abnormally long, restart your computer once or twice more -- you may find that subsequent restarts are much faster.

Unfortunately, a number of users are experiencing extremely slow startup times no matter how many times they restart their Macs. However, looking at these reports as a whole, it appears that in some cases these slow startup times may be related to network activity. For example, reader Michael Louey reports that turning his AirPort card off prior to shutdown/restart allows his Mac to start up normally. And Ken Marks notes that disabling his network connections in the Network Port Configurations screen of Network preferences eliminated all startup delays.

Similarly, Phillip Wong notes a DNS-related solution for slow login:

"I was getting the incomplete menu bar on login... [after] waiting a bit it was fully populating. It turns out that I had a DNS server specified, but the network wasn't connected to the outside. I've removed all DNS entries for that location and let the PPP take care of getting me a DNS server. Now, everything is normal and quite fast."

Slow startup RAM related? Reader Joe Redifer has also experienced slow startup -- since OS X 10.3.6 -- but notes that removing RAM solved the problem:

"I was having problems with a brand new Dual 2.5Ghz G5 with 8GB of RAM [running OS X 10.3.6] at work yesterday... This machine waited after the login screen for several minutes before granting access to the Desktop. But the computer also had lots of other problems as well like constant kernel panics. I figured that the hardware must be an issue since the kernel panics kept happening, so I removed a stick of RAM, leaving the machine with only 6 gigs. I turned it back on and it booted up fast. The machine now worked perfectly as well...Try removing a stick of RAM from a machine that boots slow just to see what it does."

Slow application launch times also network related? Yesterday we also noted problems with slow application launch times. Reader Ulf Cronenberg reports that he only experiences this issue when online:

"I read your comments about the problems with Mac OS X 10.3.7 regarding large opening times (Mail, OmniWeb, iChat) and tried your potential workarounds, but the problem is still there. I am not able to fix the problem. It has something to do with the network settings, because when I am offline all apps open within a few seconds."

Slow Internet speeds We've also received a few reports of slow performance with Internet clients (Web browsers, email clients, etc.); reader Ray Landsiedel notes that he fixed this issue by manually entering DNS server addresses (a fix that also worked for many readers experiencing the Safari "multiple-try" bug we covered a few weeks ago):

"I installed 10.3.7 on three different computers...all of them ran slow. What caught my eye was how slow Web pages loaded after upgrading. It was taking 2 to 3 minutes when it took a few seconds on 10.3.6. My mail program would not respond...I remembered a problem with a previous OS: The DHCP would not get stored correctly, [but] if you put in valid DNS numbers in the Network [preferences], Safari would work just fine. I put in the DNS numbers in all three computers and everything including Mail works just fine."

FireWire drive issues Although the release notes for the 10.3.7 Update mention fixes for FireWire drive mounting issues, some readers haven't had much luck with this "improvement." Rafael Gutierrez writes:

"Under 10.3.6, my external Fantom 60GB firewire drive would mount only intermittently, although I experienced no data loss. Since, according to Apple, 10.3.7 addressed this issue, I took the plunge and updated to 10.3.7. I was careful to follow Apple's recommendation to turn off and unplug the drive (although I forgot to repair permissions). The drive did mount upon restart. I then unmounted it and tried to remount it again (both after restart and shutdown) about 4 times. So far, I haven't been able to get the drive to mount again."

And Bud Jenschke suggests that the update doesn't restore functionality to non-Oxford FireWire drives, which stopped working for him under 10.3.6. (Interestingly, like Rafael Gutierrez's drive, Bud's drive mounted initially, but thereafter would not mount.):

"I have four Western Digital hard drives (250, 200, 160 and 80GB) for my 2001 [Power Mac G4] Quicksilver. Two drives are mounted internally via an ACARD 6280M PCI card and two are mounted via external firewire cases. I have been very happy with the reliability and performance of these drives. I was hoping OS 10.3.7 would solve the issue of a three-year old external FireWire drive not mounting under OS 10.3.6. (As you know, this issue was reported frequently in OS 10.3.6. I had no problems with this drive in any earlier OS versions.) The other external firewire drive, with an Oxford 911 bridge, has not had any problems. My problem drive does not have an Oxford 911 chipset. Following the OS 10.3.7 update, shutdown, startup and permissions repair, the problem drive appeared on the desktop and functioned normally. I typically shutdown my Quicksilver at night and upon startup this morning, the drive would not mount. Several shutdowns and startups have not changed the symptoms. Disk Utility sees it and the partitions on the drive, but they are all grayed out and Disk Utility cannot operate on them. DiskWarrior reports the partitions as 'Unknown Disk' for each partition. (I traded several emails about this with tech support at Alsoft after the OS 10.3.6 update and they have been very responsive, but it really isn't a DiskWarrior issue. Nevertheless, many thanks and praises to them!)

"Before the OS 10.3.7 update, I put the drive from the problem case into the Oxford 911 firewire case and it appeared on the desktop and functioned normally under OS 10.3.6. For this reason, I'm fairly confident it's not a hard drive problem but a bridge/OSX problem...It's a shame I'm out some money because of a Mac OS X update."

Preview not displaying fonts Gerald Van Kollenburg reports an issue where Preview -- which was updated by 10.3.7 -- no longer displays fonts in some PDF files:

"After updating to 10.3.7, the fonts in some of my PDF files do not display in Preview and, when attached to an email in Mail, do not display in the email. The graphics are there, but not the fonts. The fonts are embedded in the PDF so there should not be an issue. One file in particular uses two different trutype fonts if that matters. However, they look fine in Acrobat Professional and in Acrobat Reader, so I believe it is a problem with the new update."

PCI Extreme broken? Reader Corey Dickey notes that after installing the OS X 10.3.7 Update, PCI Extreme -- a hack that allows older, unsupported, Macs and graphics cards to support the Quartz Extreme graphics technology -- no longer works: "My display is no longer accelerated and reinstalling PCI Extreme doesn't fix it." Unfortunately, this is an unsupported hack, and it hasn't been updated in a couple years, so we don't expect an update.

Send us your experiences with and comments on the update at Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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