Hi Neil, You could try downloading OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 Combo Update and install it over top of your 10.11.6 system to see if it helps. Download OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 Combo Update at this link
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1885?viewlocale=en_US Cheers, Ronni Ronni Brown’s iPad Pro 12.9-inch 256GB > On 12 Mar 2019, at 4:47 pm, Peter Crisp <[email protected]> wrote: > > HI Neil, is there a way to do an OSX refresh but leave your data untouched? I > am sure other will know what this is called. I presume OSX 10.11.6 is the > latest version your iMac can support - so a clean reinstall of this OSX if it > is possible may be a way to clear the baggage from within. > > I had a quick browse and found this one. > > https://mashable.com/2015/10/01/clean-install-os-x-el-capitan/#weC4Mn0eDOq2 > > As always making sure you have at least one backup is essential so you can > recover in the event of fatal flaws. > > Regards > > > Pete > >> On 12 Mar 2019, at 4:19 pm, Severin Crisp <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Congratulations on an extended and finely documented description of a >> problem. Sadly I have no solution to offer. I wonder if you are running >> as a fusion drive with the SSD and partition on drive 2. Apple have never >> released the fusion bit built into the system, despite many years of >> promises. Having said that, I have not any worries with my iMac non Apple >> fusion drive. >> Hope you get this cleared up fast! >> Best wishes >> Severin >> >>> On 12 Mar 2019, at 4:02 pm, Neil Houghton <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> Writing this from the laptop as my iMac has started playing up with strange >>> ‘freezes’ the likes of which I’ve never seen before – and I’ve had my share >>> of crashes, freezes & hangs over the years!! >>> >>> First my setup/hardware – which has been “enhanced” since purchase: >>> 27” iMac 2.8GHz i7 - late 2009 - running OSX 10.11.6 >>> 24GB RAM - 2x8GB + 2x4GB >>> Internal Drive 1 - Mercury Electra 250GB SSD - boot drive containing OSX, >>> applications and a bare “admin” user account >>> Internal Drive 2 - 3TB Toshiba partitioned as: >>> · 1.5TB volume - containing main user folder plus other data folders >>> · 1.0TB volume - currently empty (earmarked for media files) >>> · 500GB volume - containing my previous SL boot volume >>> >>> This has all been working fine since the rebuild to replace the HDs and >>> boost the RAM. >>> >>> I have been out of town for a couple of weeks but shut down the compute and >>> UPS and removed the plugs from the wall - so no chance of “power glitches” >>> while we were away. >>> >>> On return everything fired up OK (from memory) but pretty soon I had a >>> freeze - I don’t remember the exact sequence but, pretty soon I ended up >>> with just a black screen with a cursor. The cursor continued to respond to >>> the mouse but I could not “wake up” anything else. Command option escape >>> would not open a force quit window and I had no means of knowing if any >>> apps were still running. All I could do was power down using the power >>> button on the back of the iMac. >>> >>> All booted up OK but fairly soon I ran into problems - again I don’t >>> remember the exact sequence but I do remember the desktop going black >>> whilst some open window remained visible but soon I was back at the black >>> screen & cursor. Again, all I could do was power down using the power >>> button on the back of the iMac. At this point, I was worried that I might >>> have some drive problem so I rebooted from my backup clone and used disk >>> utility to run first aid on all drives/partitions. I ran top level on both >>> internal drives and then volume level on all four volumes - in all cases >>> the repair went fine with no issues noted. >>> >>> Back to booting normally and again all seemed fine - for awhile - until >>> another freeze - I just remember I was using Outlook this time. >>> >>> Sometime (I don’t remember when) during all this I remember Acrobat reader >>> opening - unprompted - a couple of times. The first time barely registered >>> - I just quit it - the second time made me think “why did it do that?” I >>> was also trying to research OSX black screen problems - I found plenty of >>> references to this problem but generally associated with incomplete system >>> updates and none with similar circumstances to mine. One common thread on a >>> numbers of these threads seemed to be down to some login problem which made >>> me go the user preference pane where I noticed two new Adobe items in the >>> login items list - which, I guess could explain the unexpected opening of >>> Adobe reader. I have now removed the Adobe items from the login items list >>> but my freeze problems persist and so this was probably non-related. >>> >>> >>> The latest freeze is now ongoing – around 1 hour and I know that only a >>> switch-off at the power button will get me out of it. >>> In this case the only app open was Firefox with two multi-tab windows on >>> screen and one multi-tab window minimised in the dock. It froze with the >>> spinning beach ball cursor – which still tracks the mouse movements. >>> Command-tab would not cycle me back to Finder. >>> Option-Command-Escape would not bring up the force-quit menu. >>> Mousing the cursor over the menu bar showed the spinning ball over all the >>> Firefox menu items but the normal pointer over the right-hand Apple & 3rd >>> party menu items. >>> I have the “fast user switching” menu item on so I clicked my user name to >>> open the drop-down switching menu (I wanted to check if this looked >>> “normal”) however, at that point most of the Apple menu items disappeared >>> from the menu-bar. The Spotlight icon was still showing but clicking that >>> turned the pointer to the beachball and, after a moment, the Spotlight icon >>> also disappeared. >>> At present, both Firefox windows are still showing and I can switch between >>> windows by clicking each window – but not between tabs within the window. >>> The menu bar still shows the left-hand Apple icon but the beachball cursor >>> when over it. The full Firefox menu also shows – but again with the >>> beachball. >>> The Dropbox, 1Password, Malwarebytes and Onedrive menu icons are still >>> showing – but now with the beachball (although originally the shoed the >>> normal pointer cursor). >>> Screen sleep initiated normally and the screen awoke from sleep normally >>> with a keyboard input. >>> UPDATE: I have just shut down using the power button and rebooted and quit >>> the only reopened app (Firefox) and, for the moment, all looks fine. For >>> the moment, I will leave it running while I have lunch and see if runs into >>> any problems just sitting quietly doing nothing (from a user perspective!) >>> >>> UPDATE: Well, it has been running fine for a couple of hours now (but >>> doing nothing) including screen sleep and rewake and system sleep and >>> rewake/login - so I guess I will go back to using it and see if I can find >>> any sort off pattern to the problem. >>> >>> Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions gratefully received. >>> >>> >>> Cheers >>> >>> >>> Neil >>> >>> -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- >>> Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> >>> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> >>> Settings & Unsubscribe - >>> <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug> >> >> ________________________________ >> Assoc Prof Severin Crisp, FIP, FAIP >> Clarence Estate, 55 Hardie Rd, >> Albany, Western Australia, 6330 >> (Home: 15 Thomas St, Mount Clarence, >> Albany, Western Australia, 6330) >> Ph 0484 624 741 >> Email: [email protected] >> ________________________________ >> >> >> >> >> >> >> -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- >> Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> >> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> >> Settings & Unsubscribe - >> <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug>
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