OS X update crashed my MacBook Pro
Sheesh. Just when I got my MacBook Pro fixed and running well with a brand new logic board along comes Apple and the OS X update released today that bricked the MBP. Yep, I was running fine and dandy and feeling good about everything on the MacBook Pro and the software update trashed it. It downloaded and installed fine, indicated it was "patching files", and then never would boot up again. Every time it tried to boot up I'd get the desktop background and the Dock and then error boxes. One indicated that "SystemUIServer" stopped unexpectedly, followed by one that said the Dock stopped and then finally one that said Spotlight stopped. The system was totally unusable each time and even Safe Boot failed the same way. This indicated to me that the software update patched system files improperly since it wouldn't even safe boot.
Right now I am doing a clean reinstall of Leopard and once I'm sure that is running fine I'll restore my new Time Machine backup. With a bit of luck I'll be right back where I was prior to the software update this afternoon. Then I will be wondering if I should try updating it again...
UPDATE: In just 30 minutes I had installed Leopard and restored my Time Machine backup and my system is now back like it was just prior to the software update. I think I'll wait a few days for that to see if others start chiming in with problems. :)
I'm amazed you jumped the first day it came out. A lot of apple fans jump as soon as an update is out. I've never had a problem with any mac updates, but I still wait a few days to install just to see if problems arise. Live and learn.
Posted by: Kyle | May 28, 2008 at 03:22 PM
James, did you wait long enough? My MacBook took not less than 10 minutes to start up again but now it's working fine
Posted by: Jose | May 28, 2008 at 03:43 PM
Seems like someone around here made a post a few days ago about how it was only the hardware that you were having a problem with as far as the mac goes. Never the software.
Looks like you jinxed yourself. ;-)
Posted by: Cary | May 28, 2008 at 03:44 PM
But... but... what about "it just works"?
;-)
Posted by: cr0ft | May 28, 2008 at 03:50 PM
You'd think Microsoft could get this right, I mean, do they push out these things untested!!!! Hang on, let me read that post again....
Actually I miss 'Guru Meditation'.
Posted by: Gavin Miller | May 28, 2008 at 03:55 PM
Jose, I let the update reboot itself and it never came back up working. To Apple's credit, it did a clean install and restore from my Time Machine backup and in about 30 minutes I was back exactly where I was when the update was made.
Posted by: James Kendrick | May 28, 2008 at 03:58 PM
Lots of tough luck with Mac, James. Hope the time machine works well. (Maybe creating an image file of your hard drive would be a better option.)
Posted by: ignar | May 28, 2008 at 04:00 PM
James!
Some advice to consider: When the clean install of Leopard is finished, apply the 10.5.3 update right away.
That is, use Software Update to update your Mac completely to 10.5.3 before restoring anything from your Time Machine backup or installing any other software - while you have a clean new install with as few variables as possible at play.
This way, you'll clearly establish whether or not your Mac has issues with the 10.5.3 update.
If you have problems updating to 10.5.3 from the clean install, then you won't have gone thru your restore from the Time machine backup for nothing; if you do not have trouble, then clearly there was something about your install of 10.5.2 that contributed to the failed 10.5.3 update.
This is the way I would proceed - simply because I like to keep things, well, simple! Ha! Doing a clean install of Leopard, restoring from Time Machine's backup and then applying the 10.5.3 update will put too many variables into play when attempting to diagnose why the 10.5.3 update is failing.
Otherwise you could be at this all night. And well...night-time is for sleeping!
All the best!
peter
Posted by: Peter Norman | May 28, 2008 at 04:01 PM
James, you are "snake bit" with your MBP!
For a system/hardware known for it's ease of use, yours has not been of late.
Posted by: Will Ginn | May 28, 2008 at 04:03 PM
My MacBook Air is working fine post update... I have not tried it on my Mac mini yet!
Posted by: tnkgrl | May 28, 2008 at 04:26 PM
Ouch. Glad you got it back.
What to know: If this had happened with a Vista update, would you have been able to do the same kind of restore?
(Hey, what do I know! I'm cursing the hell out of the XP SP3 for slowing my system to just about brain-dead speed at times!!! In that respect, it's been worse than SP2 was for me.)
Posted by: Mike Cane | May 28, 2008 at 04:34 PM
@mikecane: With Windows Home Server, you would have been able to do the same kind of restore. Its already saved me a couple of times...
Posted by: Rick Huizinga | May 28, 2008 at 05:00 PM
Just got online for the first time today and pulled the update. Installed without a hitch for me.
Posted by: Kevin C. Tofel | May 28, 2008 at 05:02 PM
Update went smoothly on my MacPro 2.8 (Early 2008)...can't tell any difference, really...
Posted by: orbitalcomp | May 28, 2008 at 05:28 PM
@Mike Cane. One good feature of Vista over XP is its backup centre. It's very good indeed and I have turned off system restore and just use this.
Posted by: Gavin Miller | May 28, 2008 at 05:34 PM
Don't worry, May has been a bad month for me too.
Posted by: Bryan | May 28, 2008 at 05:40 PM
Could have tried PRAM and SMC resets before complete wipe. 30 minutes is quick - is that a USB drive or Firewire? Do you not have much on the Mac? My restore yesterday took well over an hour - though I have plenty of tunes, videos, and a few virtual machines.
Posted by: Dave Zatz | May 28, 2008 at 06:01 PM
situations like these are why i keep my personal files on a separate partition from the system files.
that and backups are good ways to avoid data loss from experiences like these.
Posted by: turn.self.off | May 28, 2008 at 06:14 PM
I just updated my MacBook... no problemo! My laptop though is a secondary machine with only limited apps loaded. My wifes ne iMac is next.
Posted by: LLoryck | May 28, 2008 at 06:18 PM
"it just works" != "it always works"
The first phrase is about usability; the second about stability.
The first phrase is speaking of past experience; the second about future expectation.
The first phrase is an achievable goal; the second an impossible one.
Mac users speak the first one, Windows users hear the second - and scoff.
Posted by: Gerald | May 28, 2008 at 06:48 PM
Updated my MacBook Pro and Intel MacMini without a problems.
Both computers went through the same process: Start update, Ask for Restart, regular Re-Boot activity up to blue screen, Beep, Automatic second Re-Boot, and all was fine.
Posted by: Georges Pelpel | May 28, 2008 at 06:52 PM
I have updated a Macbook 2.4, MBP 2.16.
I downloaded the Combo Installer; 537 meg.
Installed over 1.6 gig; or took over 1.6 gig.
No problems. Reboots twice and up and running.
My wives IMac; 20"; is next as soon as solitaire is finished.
I would really recommend using the Combo updater. It has always been solid for me.
Posted by: Russ | May 28, 2008 at 07:16 PM
Do visit Macfixit.com and read their common sense suggestions for preparing for Mac major updates such as this one. They have evolved the rather complex procedure based on the past seven years of Mac OSX updates and know of what they speak.
Posted by: bmhome1 | May 28, 2008 at 07:26 PM
Waiting for friends' reports to come in before installing on my machine. :)
Posted by: Partners in Grime | May 28, 2008 at 07:46 PM
Upgraded by 10.5.2 MBP the moment the update hit the streets. Two restarts and everything is just fine.
Posted by: Big_Man | May 28, 2008 at 08:38 PM
No problems installing on either the MBP or the wife's MB. An aside, when you mentioned you installed Leopard and restored from time machine, did you do that in two steps? You can forego the first step and just restore from time machine.
Posted by: Brian Lewis | May 28, 2008 at 08:55 PM
jk, using "bricking" is misleading. To brick an electronic device is to ruin the firmware or other part of the device disabling it to boot up properly at all. What you did is damamged your operating system infrastructure.
Its bloody hard to brick a mac unless you upgrade the firmware with hacked firmware.
Posted by: Vlad | May 28, 2008 at 09:13 PM
You really fight to keep this apple crap running...
Posted by: Allan Pedersen | May 28, 2008 at 10:45 PM
I just installed it and was wondering what was going on. The system restarted twice then the screen and keyboard kept dimming... I'd raise them up and they'd dim again... and the hard drive kept spinning and spinning. All seems ok now though. But can I say YIKES!!!
Posted by: Gregory Jordan | May 28, 2008 at 11:05 PM
James- I think you've caught the same Apple curse as me...
This update went just fine with me, but my Apple gear has given me a lot of headaches lately.
Posted by: Xavier | May 29, 2008 at 01:15 AM
Just updated my Vista machine and everything went fine.
Posted by: John in Norway | May 29, 2008 at 05:41 AM
I had the EXACT same problem, updated my iMac to 10.5.3 and SysUIS crashed every time i got to the desktop. I'm currently reinstalling OS X, and I have my backup ready. Thank Steve for Time Machine!
BTW, I've owned this iMac (my first mac) for just under year now and this has been my very first complaint ever, while things like this constantly happened to me with xp (vista not so much). When you get to the point that explorer.exe crashes every two minutes or so I'll gladly deal with a little update bugginess once a year ^^
Posted by: Fabian | May 29, 2008 at 08:42 AM
Considering the fact that Jobs must have some sort of Eye of Sauron system I'm surprised someone didn't secretly switch your MBP for a new one when it went for repair.
You seem to be exiting the reality distortion field so I'm expecting something strange to happen and you getting a replacement.
Posted by: vm-01 | May 29, 2008 at 11:26 AM
Gerald, I like the way you tried to justify that. When you try to start your computer and it won't turn on I think it's fair to say that "it doesn't just work"...end of story.
Posted by: Jake | May 29, 2008 at 05:55 PM
Looks like I have the same problem as the original post... says "Installing 1 Item" and "Patching files" and is waiting for ever and ever :(
Posted by: Konstanty | June 05, 2008 at 06:09 AM
Well I guess I am really lucky... after waiting for 2hrs (maybe more) I decided it wasn't going to get any further - and so I pressed ctrl+apple+power.
It shut down.....
Then power again to boot up - it rebooted once (by itself) and then on the second boot up my background came up.
About this Mac says "Version 10.5.3" so.. I wonder what happened.
So weird...
Posted by: Konstanty | June 05, 2008 at 06:12 AM