strange laggy OS/upgrade a mac mini
Jason Davies
Hi smuggers,
I've never seen a problem like this. My old Mac Pro, with an upgraded graphics card that supports Metal in Mojave has suddenly started failing to launch apps but only some apps. It started on Friday when I was in the middle of doing stuff, and it was behaving normally, then suddenly it wasn't.
Eg it starts up normally but then apps that normally take a few seconds take about 20 minutes to launch (no exaggeration). Once launched, they might or might not work normally. Virtually every app does this but not all - eg Activity Monitor behaves completely normally, starts up in a few seconds. Safari, which launches after about 3 or 4 minutes, quits in a second when I tell it to, but other apps get stuck and never quit. The Finder is meanwhile normally responsive, eg copying a 6 gig file to a USB drive in a couple of minutes.
I've run an ancient copy of Rember (RAM checker), and done the Crucial 'garbage disposal' thing by starting up in Target Disk Mode and leaving it for 8 hours.
What makes it difficult is that because of the new graphics card, that let it run Mojave, does not display the usual 'hold down a key at start-up' options such as hardware test or selecting start-up disk. Holding down Shift for Safe Mode seemed to just make it hang indefinitely forcing a hard shutdown.
The start up is an SSD connected via PCIE card. So tomorrow I'm going to try removing each of the 8 gig RAM sticks and seeing if that eliminates it, then connecting the SSD into one of the internal bays (it was a bit slow generally doing this but would point at the PCIE card). I'll also try to create a Mojave start-up but annoyingly, despite the upgraded graphics card, trying to run the Mojave combo refuses to launch as it thinks my graphics card doesn't support Mojave.
All of which makes me think maybe it's time to replace it if I can't work this out. I can only afford a Mac Mini but the entry level has a puny 256 internal start-up. How hard is it to swap that out for my existing 2.5" SSD (if possible at all?)
If anyone can think of anything else to try, please let me know. I've run Disk Utility and am considering if I can erase and restore the SDD as HFS+ so that diskwarrior will play nice with it. I've also removed and re-seated the RAM after carefully vacuuming out the internals.
Cheers,
Jason
Sam - MacAmbulance
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Regards 
MacAmbulance Ltd.Providing Affordable Mac/PC Support and Web Development |
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MacAmbulance Ltd. is a registered company in England & Wales, registration number 8466597 |
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Jason Davies
Yeah, I have the old graphics card so could replace the new one and run the test (it's just very fiddly to connect the cables with my eyesight being a bit old, and I've been trying to avoid it!). Annoyingly it won't do anything at all on any OS with both left installed.
And I had the same thought after looking at the Mac mini spec- I could get a thunderbolt 3 enclosure. My main need is not the power (having five disk bays is nice though!) it's multiple monitors and I was surprised to see a mac mini can drive three with the right attachments. It can also get really expensive if you max it out!
But I didn't want to buy anything until the apple chip versions came out...
Thanks Sam. I did think the new ones were locked down, as it were but wanted to double-check.
cheers,
Jason
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/smug/10820EF8-EE0C-4DA7-B2B1-2F3EB02D48DF%40macambulance.com.
Jason Davies
One more thought (because these case studies occasionally turn out to be useful to people) is that the SSD start-up had complained it was full not that long before all this (day before, I think) and it was full of temp files so I restarted and deleted a few bits and pieces. The directory may have got muddled at that point, I'm thinking....
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/smug/68BA77E5-DD8B-4402-B8F9-43D78D53122B%40me.com.
Sam - MacAmbulance
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Regards MacAmbulance Ltd.Providing Affordable Mac/PC Support and Web Development |
MacAmbulance Ltd. is a registered company in England & Wales, registration number 8466597 |
Jason P. Davies
This is getting very odd. I managed to put the old Radeon card back - the one it shipped with. I held down D but got a completely blank screen so released D.
It then booted into Mojave and works fine so far. Given the card is supposed to be completely incompatible with Mojave I have no idea what to make of it!
So I now have an obsolete MSI graphics card...
I can also get Revivery (good typo, I’m leaving it, Recovery) and start up disk selection which is very handy.
Going to keep exploring as IIRC this only supports two monitors and I use three nowadays;)
Thanks,
-Jason
----------------------------------
Sent from my iPhone
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On 16 Aug 2020 at 12:41:47 BST, Sam - MacAmbulance <in...@macambulance.com> wrote:
The old graphics card may not boot the Mac if it’s on Mojave and isn’t compatible (hence having to replace it in the first place)
Can you boot successfully into internet recovery?
_
Regards
Sam Mullen
+44 (0)7747778022
in...@macambulance.com
www.macambulance.com
Providing Affordable Mac/PC Support and Web Development
MacAmbulance Ltd. is a registered company in England & Wales, registration number 8466597
This email is intended solely for the addressed recipients and may contain privileged or confidential information.
If you have received this email in error please notify the sender and delete the email immediately.
On 16 Aug 2020, at 09:59, 'Jason Davies' via Sussex Mac User Group <sm...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
Yeah, I have the old graphics card so could replace the new one and run the test (it's just very fiddly to connect the cables with my eyesight being a bit old, and I've been trying to avoid it!). Annoyingly it won't do anything at all on any OS with both left installed.
And I had the same thought after looking at the Mac mini spec- I could get a thunderbolt 3 enclosure. My main need is not the power (having five disk bays is nice though!) it's multiple monitors and I was surprised to see a mac mini can drive three with the right attachments. It can also get really expensive if you max it out!
But I didn't want to buy anything until the apple chip versions came out...
Thanks Sam. I did think the new ones were locked down, as it were but wanted to double-check.
cheers,
Jason
> On 15 Aug 2020, at 22:56, Sam - MacAmbulance wrote:
>
> Can you try with a different graphics card to test? You can buy a replacement then send it back if it doesn’t resolve the issue.
>
> I believe the new MacMinis are all soldered PCIe storage these days, they don’t have a SATA port anymore. You could connect your SSD via a USB3 enclosure and it would be almost the same speed as in your MacPro.
> _
> Regards
> Sam Mullen
>
> +44 (0)7747778022
> in...@macambulance.com
> www.macambulance.com
>
>
Jason P. Davies
Thanks,
-Jason
----------------------------------
Sent from my iPhone
----------------------------------
On 16 Aug 2020 at 12:41:47 BST, Sam - MacAmbulance <in...@macambulance.com> wrote:
Can you boot successfully into internet recovery?
_
Regards
Sam Mullen
+44 (0)7747778022
in...@macambulance.com
www.macambulance.com
Providing Affordable Mac/PC Support and Web Development
MacAmbulance Ltd. is a registered company in England & Wales, registration number 8466597
This email is intended solely for the addressed recipients and may contain privileged or confidential information.
If you have received this email in error please notify the sender and delete the email immediately.
On 16 Aug 2020, at 09:59, 'Jason Davies' via Sussex Mac User Group <sm...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
Yeah, I have the old graphics card so could replace the new one and run the test (it's just very fiddly to connect the cables with my eyesight being a bit old, and I've been trying to avoid it!). Annoyingly it won't do anything at all on any OS with both left installed.
And I had the same thought after looking at the Mac mini spec- I could get a thunderbolt 3 enclosure. My main need is not the power (having five disk bays is nice though!) it's multiple monitors and I was surprised to see a mac mini can drive three with the right attachments. It can also get really expensive if you max it out!
But I didn't want to buy anything until the apple chip versions came out...
Thanks Sam. I did think the new ones were locked down, as it were but wanted to double-check.
cheers,
Jason
> On 15 Aug 2020, at 22:56, Sam - MacAmbulance wrote:
>
> Can you try with a different graphics card to test? You can buy a replacement then send it back if it doesn’t resolve the issue.
>
> I believe the new MacMinis are all soldered PCIe storage these days, they don’t have a SATA port anymore. You could connect your SSD via a USB3 enclosure and it would be almost the same speed as in your MacPro.
> _
> Regards
> Sam Mullen
>
> +44 (0)7747778022
> in...@macambulance.com
> www.macambulance.com
>
>
Jason Davies
Ok, so this is probably more to raise eyebrows of the techies here than anything else.
Mac Pro 2010, had a Metal-compatible MSI graphics card added a year or two ago to upgrade to Mojave. Working fine until Friday when machine became very drunk (for want of a better word).
Restoring the original ATI Radeon card today has restored normal working but this should absolutely not work;) Additionally, it now only supports one monitor whereas in Yosemite it still supports two, and that monitor has far fewer options for scaling than usual. But it works...
Machine is actually snappier than before and I found an old USB-based DisplayLink-compatible monitor output and have restored one of the lost screens.
The drawers full of cables and adaptors have all been put to good use testing different combinations and it definitely only supports one monitor now - but that'll see me through until I get a new machine when the Apple chip Macs come out within the next two years.
Thanks for the suggestion Sam; I had been putting it off as i have massive fingers and fiddling around inside the Mac is really frustrating, but it was the logical next step.
The only thing to learn from this is to try even things that should not work when the obvious ones don't;)
(Now wondering if it will work with Catalina...)
Cheers,
Jason
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/smug/45A1EFC6-DAB0-40B1-828E-8874160C6AB5%40me.com.
Cheers,
Jason