Trixology

General Category => General Computing/Macintosh => Topic started by: HantaYo on October 10, 2016, 03:02:11 AM

Title: Any ideas why Sierra upgrade would fail due to memory?
Post by: HantaYo on October 10, 2016, 03:02:11 AM: Hi all,

Tried to upgrade to Sierra and it failed due to a hardware memory error. Apple support not very helpful on the memory issue - just bring it by the store (unfortunately the store is 3 hrs away). They did get me up and running with Mtn Lion though. Memory error has not reappeared as of yet.

Makes me suspicious there are issues with Sierra. I am too afraid to run hardware check again. Perhaps I'll open the box and reseat the memory.

Any ideas why a software Sierra upgrade would fail on a memory error but Mtn Lion would be fine?
Title: Re: Any ideas why Sierra upgrade would fail due to memory?
Post by: xairbusdriver on October 10, 2016, 04:17:05 AM: Just about every OS upgrade puts more "pressure" or work on memory. One of the first things the computer does is testing of the memory. These tests may be more critical for Sierra than Mt Lion. With the current problems with Siera and WC, I have even less incentive to put that OS on the machine that runs WC 24/7/365. Nor will I be installing it on any of our other Macs before at least the .1 update. What's the rush?!
Title: Re: Any ideas why Sierra upgrade would fail due to memory?
Post by: Weatheraardvark on October 10, 2016, 03:22:23 PM: Quote from: xairbusdriver on October 10, 2016, 04:17:05 AM
Just about every OS upgrade puts more "pressure" or work on memory. One of the first things the computer does is testing of the memory. These tests may be more critical for Sierra than Mt Lion. With the current problems with Siera and WC, I have even less incentive to put that OS on the machine that runs WC 24/7/365. Nor will I be installing it on any of our other Macs before at least the .1 update. What's the rush?!

My dad used to say " If it ain't broke, don't fix it." I do have Sierra on board and was very apprehensive when I upgraded. the computer is new so I figured WTF? If I had an older model, I would hesitate on doing that. Apple lists somewhere what computers that can take the update and it is worth looking for and consulting.

What I do like about it is how it deals with clutter and files. Storing stuff in the cloud and on the machine and other things. It doesn't play nice with some external things and some software.

Waiting is a good thing as well as making sure what you are upgrading is on the approved list.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201475 (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201475)
Title: Re: Any ideas why Sierra upgrade would fail due to memory?
Post by: xairbusdriver on October 10, 2016, 05:10:32 PM: I would also suggest you take the time to install all the free upgrades between Mt. Lion and Sierra, if you can find them. That's a pretty big jump and there will be many more 'surprises' when you start using 10.12 that you would be familiar with if you'd made the step by step move. You may find out that one of those steps will fail for the same reason as Sierra did, thus the newest OS may not be the problem at all. [computer]

Certainly, check the link Ardvark provided to make sure your machine is suitable. ThU32:-)
Title: Re: Any ideas why Sierra upgrade would fail due to memory?
Post by: Blicj11 on October 10, 2016, 07:16:02 PM: Quote from: xairbusdriver on October 10, 2016, 05:10:32 PM
I would also suggest you take the time to install all the free upgrades between Mt. Lion and Sierra, if you can find them.

Not to disagree, but ...

Apple says you can go from Lion to Sierra, which I am going to attempt at my son's house in the coming week. If you haven't downloaded each OS along the way, it ain't gonna happen now because you can't find them short of divine intervention.
Title: Re: Any ideas why Sierra upgrade would fail due to memory?
Post by: xairbusdriver on October 10, 2016, 07:37:55 PM: There are places that archived them. It would be better to have downloaded and archived the final versions, of course. My point is that we should not jump to conclusions about what any particular OS might be causing a problem if we haven't used each of hem a they (eventually) matured. ;) I also try to use a "combo" installer than than the delta updaters once they start arriving. There is also a lot of grief to be saved by making sure one has at least two bootable backups before even downloading any upgrade. Many people get away with doing a lot less cleaning, fixing, backing up. However, if you don't have a plan, you are planing to fail. [rolleyes2]

Jumping from ML to Sierra will be a huge change in the UI, alone! Not to mention the need to update many apps to work with it. The longer you wait, the bigger the differences and the more changes and work that will be required.

I'm not arguing either. Just do things like I say and we'll be fine! :P cmu:-)
Title: Apple makes it hard to get old versions (Re: Sierra upgrade)
Post by: elagache on October 11, 2016, 12:03:27 AM: Dear HantaYo, X-Air, Blick, and WeatherCat cautious sys-admins,

Quote from: xairbusdriver on October 10, 2016, 05:10:32 PM
I would also suggest you take the time to install all the free upgrades between Mt. Lion and Sierra, if you can find them.

That's the sort of advice I wish I could take to heart, but Apple is making this sort of prudent action next to impossible. Every time there has been an OS X update I have made myself a bootable installer thumb-drive for emergencies. Recently my Time machine backup drive died and I keep a bootable rescue partition on the same drive. When I tried to install Yosemite, I got an error message insisting that I need to download Yosemite from the App store account were I purchased it. Okay that's a serious waste of time when I created the thumb drive precisely for emergencies like this.

However wait . . . . Apple is nastier than that. Every time I try to download a fresh copy of Yosemite it fails about 5 minutes before completion with some sort of a mysterious error. It suggests I try again - which I have several times. I haven't had time to get on the Apple support forums to complain but this looks like the sort of really nasty behavior to force people to upgrade no matter what.

I know I've been something of a grouch when it comes to Apple but no kiddin' Apple is really stooping to some outrageous dirty pool.

Oh well, . . . . . . Edouard (http://www.canebas.org/WeatherCat/Forum_support_documents/Custom_emoticons/pout.gif)
Title: Re: Any ideas why Sierra upgrade would fail due to memory?
Post by: Weatheraardvark on October 11, 2016, 12:40:14 AM: Is your computer on the list of computers that the update will work. I think you have to look there first.
Then update your present software with your current oS as well as any other software.
Waiting until the next set of updates to Sierra isn't a bad suggestion either.

Regardless if it is Apple or WIndows they have been one of those that seem to let you know that you need to upgrade your computer if you want to run the latest system. Granted I have done that with no real issues. Some software is a tad wonky and needed to be adjusted a bit. But I do have the late 2015 4k unit. Something I read is that you want to have as much disk space as possible before you do the upgrade. Hence I have two external drives full of stuff.

OR you can keep what you have. I am not noticing that much of an improvment. Siri is Siri, the system uses cloud based storage more and a very few perks.

If I could do everything over again is to get a 16 Gig RAM, and a honking big HD. Maybe the next life.
Title: Re: Any ideas why Sierra upgrade would fail due to memory?
Post by: Weatheraardvark on October 11, 2016, 12:51:30 AM: I know this doesn't answer your question, but I am looking out on the net;

http://www.gottabemobile.com/2016/09/29/12-common-macos-sierra-problems-fixes/ (http://www.gottabemobile.com/2016/09/29/12-common-macos-sierra-problems-fixes/)

http://osxdaily.com/2016/09/24/troubleshooting-macos-sierra-problems (http://osxdaily.com/2016/09/24/troubleshooting-macos-sierra-problems)
Title: Re: Any ideas why Sierra upgrade would fail due to memory?
Post by: HantaYo on October 13, 2016, 03:32:55 AM: All, on my phone, so I'll be brief.

Tied another update to Sierra due to Mtn lion not being compatible to a lot lot of my programs. Failed again, memory. Fortunately had a Dr appointment in the big city so I made an appointment at the Apple store. They said not a memory error but likely OS kernel panics. They installed Sierra after format of drive, took baby home and, this time I have fresh time machine backup. Installing programs and personal files. Just 6 hours to go, then see if baby is functional again.

Thanks,
Title: Re: Any ideas why Sierra upgrade would fail due to memory?
Post by: BartonCamberley on October 13, 2016, 09:57:26 AM: May not be related but when I upgraded my iMac to Sierra, when accessing WeatherCat screen I got the dreaded spinning beach ball and backdated data.
At the same time I started getting emails from Wunderground saying I was offline.
Eventually traced the problem to the energy saving settings. The upgrade to Sierra had untucked the box 'Prevent computer from sleeping automatically...' So WeatherCat was not able to run 24/7/365 as I had set before the upgrade.
Hope this helps anyone with a similar problem

Cheers,

Ron
Title: Re: Any ideas why Sierra upgrade would fail due to memory?
Post by: Blicj11 on October 21, 2016, 04:15:55 AM: A couple of days ago I upgraded a Mac from Lion to Sierra (not the Mac running WeatherCat). Everything went off without a hitch.
Title: Memory use? (Re: Sierra upgrade)
Post by: elagache on October 21, 2016, 10:55:49 PM: Dear Blick and WeatherCat memory dieters,

Quote from: Blicj11 on October 21, 2016, 04:15:55 AM
A couple of days ago I upgraded a Mac from Lion to Sierra (not the Mac running WeatherCat). Everything went off without a hitch.

Now that you have a machine running Sierra how does it compare on memory use? Does it seem to be better at managing memory use or worse?

A curious mind would like to know!

Cheers, Edouard
Title: Re: Any ideas why Sierra upgrade would fail due to memory?
Post by: Blicj11 on October 22, 2016, 02:39:17 AM: Great question. Unfortunately, we didn't have a baseline on that machine. I did put an additional 8 GB of RAM into it, which made a noticeable improvement on the speed of opening intensive programs like Photos.
Title: Re: Any ideas why Sierra upgrade would fail due to memory?
Post by: Blicj11 on November 08, 2016, 06:18:01 PM: This morning I upgraded all three of our macs to Sierra (two iMacs and a MacBook Air). Everything went off without any problem whatsoever. I had to download an updated System Preferences widget from Logitech. Otherwise, I had no issues at all.
Title: Re: Any ideas why Sierra upgrade would fail due to memory?
Post by: rexross on January 20, 2017, 01:52:48 PM: I am successfully running WeatherCat 2.41 and Sierra on a MacBook with 8GM of Ram.

No problems.
Title: Re: Any ideas why Sierra upgrade would fail due to memory?
Post by: xairbusdriver on January 20, 2017, 03:13:37 PM: Still waiting to find one of those "round" 'to-itz' and make the upgrade! [blush] [computer] I guess I need to look harder! [rockon]
Title: Re: Any ideas why Sierra upgrade would fail due to memory?
Post by: xairbusdriver on January 31, 2017, 10:29:02 PM: I finally found the right sized and color "round to-it" yesterday and updated my iMac to macOS 10.12 Sierra. Unlike the mini, funning WC, it shuts down each night and restarts the next morning requiring a password. Today, when I finally got to sit down in front of the iMac, I found a huge list of "Disk ejected improperly, don't do that!" notifications. The login prompt was still there, of course. I then learned the obvious; you can't remove Notifications unless you are logged in. The good thing is that one need not click/Close every single Notification. Apparently, maybe since they were all the same message, a couple of Close clicks got rid of all of them.

My next, un-exciting task was to figure out which of the two external drives was the problem and why it/they were ejecting themselves. After several swaps with the four possible drives, switching cables, etc. I finally remembered the "sleeping" computer problems in this thread. [banghead] Sure enough, upon opening the Energy Saver System Pref, there was the "Put computer to sleep" setting at 10 minutes. [computer] I changed that to "Never" and have had no more erroneous disk ejects, even though the Display has gone to sleep several times. [cheer]

What is confusing to me (along with much of "life") is that I still have "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" checked! Apparently it is the computer going to sleep rather than the disks that causes the "Disk ejected improperly" Notification. Seems backwards/counter-intuitive to me... [rolleyes2]
Title: Effect of sleep on drive life? (Re: Sierra upgrade would fail)
Post by: elagache on January 31, 2017, 11:56:58 PM: Dear X-Air and WeatherCat Mac hardware caregivers,

Quote from: xairbusdriver on January 31, 2017, 10:29:02 PM
What is confusing to me (along with much of "life") is that I still have "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" checked! Apparently it is the computer going to sleep rather than the disks that causes the "Disk ejected improperly" Notification. Seems backwards/counter-intuitive to me... [rolleyes2]

Sounds to me like this isn't a confusion, but another OS bug. The computer shouldn't go to sleep before the hard drives are parked.

Not to hijack this thread, but out of curiosity. What is the conventional wisdom about powering a drive on and off? Many years ago, there was a belief that powering a drive off increased its risk of failing. As long as the drive was spinning, the bearings were in equilibrium. It is in starting or stopping that the parts are put under stress. I have observed that drives often die when started. Has hard drive design improved so that you don't have to worry about starting and stopping them causing the the life of the drive to shorten?

Anybody know? (http://www.canebas.org/WeatherCat/Forum_support_documents/Custom_emoticons/anyone_sign.gif)

Edouard
Title: Re: Effect of sleep on drive life? (Re: Sierra upgrade would fail)
Post by: Blicj11 on February 01, 2017, 12:16:20 AM: Quote from: elagache on January 31, 2017, 11:56:58 PM
Not to hijack this thread, but out of curiosity. What is the conventional wisdom about powering a drive on and off? Many years ago, there was a belief that powering a drive off increased its risk of failing. As long as the drive was spinning, the bearings were in equilibrium. It is in starting or stopping that the parts are put under stress. I have observed that drives often die when started. Has hard drive design improved so that you don't have to worry about starting and stopping them causing the the life of the drive to shorten?

Anybody know? (http://www.canebas.org/WeatherCat/Forum_support_documents/Custom_emoticons/anyone_sign.gif)
This point has been argued for decades and each side has about 50% of the user base in its corner.
Title: Re: Any ideas why Sierra upgrade would fail due to memory?
Post by: xairbusdriver on February 01, 2017, 02:11:12 AM: Quote
...each side has about 50% of the user base in its corner.
Whenever I have a 50/50 choice, 90% of the time I get it wrong!
lol(1)
Actually, I'm hedging my bets! I let the TM drive run as long as the iMac is on. I turn the CCC drive on, let it make the daily back up and turn it off. It usually runs only 30 minutes a day, often less than 10!

The mini, running WC, has both drives on 24/7, just like the computer. It's behind some clutter and out-of-sight, out-of-mind!

But as far as I know, these WD drives shut themselves down until they 'see' an I/O request.
Title: Re: Effect of sleep on drive life? (Re: Sierra upgrade would fail)
Post by: elagache on February 01, 2017, 10:29:49 PM: Dear Blick, X-Air and WeatherCat old school IT types,

Quote from: Blicj11 on February 01, 2017, 12:16:20 AM
This point has been argued for decades and each side has about 50% of the user base in its corner.

Good! So I'll stick to my point of view on account of I'm lazy! lol(1)

Cheers, Edouard [cheers1]