Some quirky behavior since upgrading to 10.5.3
I've been experiencing some quirky behavior on my Mac Pro since upgrading to 10.5.3. First there was the Time Machine error, which I had never seen prior to 10.5.3 but has now occurred on both of my Macs. It was easily fixed but a bit disconcerting.For the last few days I have been watching my system logs using console and noticed a series of failures where the backup seems to get stuck on a single file and then the entire backup fails. When this happens I get the Time Machine Error dialog as well—something I never saw prior to the 10.5.3 update. Subsequent Time Machine runs are clean though so it appears to be failing on single files. Again looking through the logs it appears to be different files each time.
When I examine the backup volume I do not see an entry for the backup that failed - there is just a gap of one hour in there. Seems odd to fail an entire backup because of a single file though.
Mouse Droppings
I also have experienced a problem with my Logitech mouse. Clicks were not always registering and sometimes while dragging something it would just let go of what I was dragging prior to my intended drop target. It got so bad that I basically gave up dragging and dropping, a key user interface feature.
As I mentioned before I switched to USB Overdrive a week before the 10.5.3 update since I was having some problems with the Logitech drivers—the problem being they are really crappy. USB Overdrive worked great for the week leading up to the 10.5.3 update. I decided to start eliminating things and pulled USB Overdrive out to see if it would make a difference. Sure enough the mouse performed correctly and I didn't seem to get the drops any longer.
I decided to try out SteerMouse instead because I still need control over the additional mouse buttons. I'm only a few hours into SteerMouse but it does seem to be working fine and I do have the full use of my buttons.
Neither of these problems were critical, mostly just really annoying—especially the mouse issue. Since I plan on keeping the Logitech mouse I'm hoping that Steermouse ends up being a keeper.
Unless Apple adds that functionality into Snow Leopoard of course (hint, hint).
Comments
As you have said, these are mere inconveniences, and no serious problems have yet been encountered, but they do seem strange. Random glitch in reading files? Hmmm.
Had my own issues with the craptastic Logitech driver which also led me to Steermouse; the tale can be read here:
Steermouse
Steermouse has been completely solid for me; I expect it'll be a keeper for you as well.
-k
Not related to this post, but you're a celebrity over at switchstories.com
MV
Apparently Apple is looking at a 10.5.4 release in a couple of weeks. Hopefully this little Time Machine issue will get addressed in there.
However, one thing I've discovered is that for some reason there's a bug in the USB drivers that occasionally causes interesting effects. In my own case, I use a bluetooth keyboard for texting and a WolfKing Warrior gaming keyboard for... gaming. The Warrior is plugged in all the time. The bug is that occasionally the Warrior just stops working, even though the pilot light shows it has power. Unplugging the keyboard and plugging it back in seems to fix it for a few days.
Another issue is my wife's iMac, where she uses both firewire and USB external drives (I'm firewire only.) On occasion, her system acts like it can't find the drive even though the drive icon is still on the desktop. Unplugging and replugging seems to fix it, again for a few days.
What we have taken to doing now is shutting our machines down overnight for both energy savings and to help reduce the temperature in our home office (4 working computers in a 12x15 room make for a toasty environment.)
Next time your mouse acts up, try reseating the plug and see if it works. My guess is that if your Time Machine drive is USB (or did you go wireless?) then you may be seeing the same issues.
I too experienced the time machine error one time on my Mac Pro after upgrading to 10.5.3, on the 1st day of the upgrade. It has not returned since.
At least you know you are not alone...
The entire GUI not responding to mouse input as the main big problem. I keep thinking at Leo as the worse OS update in terms of efficiency. Update after update something is always wrong (keyboards not responding, fans at the speed of light and so on). My mate's iBook Tiger powered is still alive and kicking.
Here's what fixed my "the volume could not mount" error...
http://www.jeffmccord.org/?p=207
Hopefully this may help you!
As an aside, there's a hidden preference in Steermouse to set the scroll wheel behaviour on the MX Revolution.
The Logitech driver causes other problems as well, I've found, which has been documented elsewhere regarding the Input Manager implementation.
Lots of sites like stirring up rumor news to try and gain traffic to their pages. Nothing more. If I really believed the rumor sites, I'd be typing this on my dual processor (not dual core) PowerPC laptop with my choice of 5 colors, and a full multi-touch keyboard.
Monday's WWDC event will likely bring Leopard relevant info and iPhone relevant info. Any info about 10.6 will simply be as general "We recommend this or that" for depreciated APIs that might go away. All the "Snow Leopard" rumors are just too far fetched to be true. Who would pay $129 for an OS that adds little to no actual new features, and instead just tweaks the core? If 10.6 is going to make those changes, it will be made with accompanying new features as well.
Did you have any problems with kernel panics on your MacBook? I was having them frequently on the MB ever since I moved to Leopard. My dual G5 was rock solid under Leopard. Thankfully 10.5.3 has seemed to fix my KP's on the MB. None yet in the last week or so since the upgrade,
I also had a couple of errors with Timemachine, but subsequent backups seems to work fine. I always to full weekly backups of my iMac with Superduper anyway... just in case :-)