Trixology
WeatherCat => WeatherCat General Discussion => Topic started by: michael252 on January 09, 2017, 08:09:27 PM
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I?m stumped.
Mac Mini, 1.4 GHz, i5, 4 GB mem, 500 GB drive (469 GB free)
OSX El Capitan 10.11.6
WeatherCat v2.40 Build 198
Sleep is turned off
?Prevent computer from sleeping?? is checked (I manually turn monitor on and off as needed)
Screensaver is turned off
Automatic login is turned on
Monitor and relaunch WeatherCat is checked
Computer is dedicated to WeatherCat, TimeMachine the only other thing running.
Occasionally, as often as twice a week or as little as once every two weeks, I?ll get an email from WU saying that my updates aren?t being received. Random time of day. I turn on the monitor and see a screensaver (supposed to be turned off) and then a user login screen (supposed to be auto log in). I type my password and WeatherCat begins its download from the station. (WeatherCat seems to still be running, but hasn?t gotten data) Often I?ll do a restart to be safe. I?m including a console file indicating a possible WC problem.
Any info would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Michael
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Hi Michael
I have mine set to:
Computer Sleep never
Display sleep 20 minutes
Put Hard Disk to sleep when possible
Wake for network access
Start up automatically after a power failure
And I have no problems with it
But sometimes it is on WU's end especially since The weather Channel bought them out thing have not been as smooth as before.
Hope this might help
cheers
[cheers1]
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Running the same OS and WC versions as you, on a Mac mini. My settings are similar to Randall's except I don't even bother sleeping the drives. I do require a password on all my machines, mainly because they are running as Admin. However, a power outage doesn't prevent the machine from Starting up and restarting WC, I just have to log in to check on things. BTW, I don't even have a monitor on the mini, but I still have Display sleep at the first mark before "15 minutes"/ ;)
There is one thing you didn't mention in your Energy Saver settings: "Power Nap". Be sure that is not enabled.
Your Auto Login and Screen Saver settings not 'sticking' sounds like a System Prefs corruption. Do you have any Utility apps?
Are you using an Uninterruptible Power Supply? If so, is it set to shut down the Mac?
I tend to agree that WU has problems, however, if your Mac shuts down for long enough, WU will send these types of messages to you. I'd suggest looking at Console for any kind of "shutdown" and/or "Restart" messages. Especially any that occur on the same day.
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Thanks guys.
Power nap is disabled. I attached a log file with my original post, but I'm no computer genius, so it doesn't mean much to me. It just happened to happen again a little while ago. I actually saw it this time. Screen blanks for just a second, then the user login screen appears. When I log back in, WC is still "running," although "semi-frozen." It grinds for a little while, then sometimes comes back to life. Definitely not a WU problem. But they do remind me when I'm not reporting.
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Dear Micheal, Randall, X-Air, and WeatherCat troubleshooters,
Occasionally, as often as twice a week or as little as once every two weeks, I?ll get an email from WU saying that my updates aren?t being received. Random time of day. I turn on the monitor and see a screensaver (supposed to be turned off) and then a user login screen (supposed to be auto log in).
Unfortunately, there is at least one other WeatherCat user who had a problem like this and basically OS X has some sort of bug that causes it to go to sleep even when you have set all the options to prevent this.
I believe that other WeatherCat user with this same problem tried a utility like this one called Amphetamine:
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/52683/amphetamine (https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/52683/amphetamine)
If you look at the bottom of the listing there are some alternative programs so you can see what fits your needs best.
That is probably the only way to be absolutely certain your computer will never go into some sort of energy saver mode.
Sorry but in the voice of Jimmy Durante . . . .
Such are da' conditions that prevail . . . .
Edouard
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I am the guy who had the same problem. I had the same settings as you except I did not check Put HD to sleep when possible. It was still doing exactly what you describe. I called AppleCare. They had me do a bunch of stuff that did not help. I downloaded Amphetamine as Edouard stated above. It is a free utility that prevents your Mac from sleeping. I have never had a problem since I installed it. I am now running on Sierra and it still works fine. I recommend you try it.
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Just installed Amphetamine. We'll see how it goes.
Thanks for all the help (especially if this works!)
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Let us know if this works, Michael.
Are you using version 3.02 from the App Store or did you get it from somewhere else?
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Two days, no trouble so far.
v3.02
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After I installed it I never had a problem since.
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Looks like Amphetamine didn't cure the problem. Died again today.
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Dang it.
So is WC actually going to sleep? You can tell because there will be a message in its log.
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No, I don't think WC is sleeping. In fact, nothing is sleeping. When it happens, screen goes blank for a couple of seconds, then a user login screen, and when no one logs in, it goes to screensaver. It's like the user logged out. When I enter the user password, WC is still there. Circular spinning thing for a minute, then everything is back to normal. But I have no idea why.
BTW, I just updated to WC v2.4.1
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Dear Michael, Blick, and WeatherCat troubleshooters,
No, I don't think WC is sleeping. In fact, nothing is sleeping. When it happens, screen goes blank for a couple of seconds, then a user login screen, and when no one logs in, it goes to screensaver. It's like the user logged out.
If your computer is "logging you out" automatically, something is wrong with the computer or the OS. Have you checked log files accessible by the Console application for errors at the time this happens? You should see something there that should point to the source of the problem.
Sorry you are still struggling with this.
Edouard
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There's a log file attached to the first post, but it means little to me.
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I agree that those crash logs are mostly greek to me. However, using Console, you can search for logs that may have mostly plain English text and clearly readable times that should be more helpful. ThU32:-) Console.app should be in your Utilities directory. [computer]
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We are not talking about a crash log. We are talking about the Console log.
Go to WeatherCat | Preferences | Advanced | Logging and check Copy Entries to Console Log
Then check the Console Log the next time you have one of these things and see what it says is happening.
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ok, will do.
Thanks!
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Dear Michael and WeatherCat troubleshooters,
There's a log file attached to the first post, but it means little to me.
That isn't the logs I was referring to. If you launch the Console application (in the Utilities folder,) it defaults to the messages going to the UNIX console. That's a snapshot of everything happening to your computer. If you scroll bad to the moment that your computer "logs you off" you should see some messages related to that process. I'm fairly certain that you have some sort of OS X system issue. Looking at those messages around the time this happens should shed some light on what is causing your problem.
Let us know if you find anything.
Cheers, Edouard
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Happened again overnight. Attached is a log file as it happened. Failed at 2:28am in the log, but I still don't know what caused it, but it does not seem to be WC. 7:57am is when I noticed it and got it running again.
Do I have a bad computer? It's only a month old.
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Michael:
This is just my opinion (I am not an expert on OS crashes), but I do not believe this has anything to do with WeatherCat. The Cat was functioning when the WindowServer crashed. WindowServer is a system service that acts as the liaison between MAcOS apps and your Mac's graphics hardware. Basically, if an app wants to draw something on your Mac's screen, WindowServer is the one telling the graphics card what and where to draw it.
According to the log, after the WindowServer crashes, other software stops responding.The Windowserver crashing results in a screen that looks very similar to the login screen. If you Google WindowServer event port death you may find something useful. However, you stated this is a new computer (only one month old). It is still under warranty, so I suggest you call AppleCare and/or get an appointment at the Genius Bar.
Also, just to clarify, your forum profile states you are running LWC 2.4 but I assume you are running WeatherCat 2.4.1. LWC never made it to 2.4.
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Thanks, Blick. Yes, I'm on WC 2.4.1. Just never updated my profile.
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Dear Michael, Blick, and WeatherCat troubleshooters,
I second Blick's opinion. Either your Mac has a hardware problem (most likely) or there is some sort of conflict with the operating system. It is time to ask Apple what is going on.
Sorry, but at least you have a path to seek resolution.
Edouard
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HI Michael
my iMac was doing something like that and Apple had a replace the video card and the logic board
I'm glad it was under warranty the bill was a like over $700.00
cheers
[cheers1]
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Before sending it off for repairs, try Onyx (http://www.titanium.free.fr/onyx.html (http://www.titanium.free.fr/onyx.html)) and verify the disk, clear caches, fix permissions etc. Not saying it will fix it but it's worth trying as it helped me resolve some spurious problems in the past. It's free and uses MacOS tools (so practically no risk), just in a more convenient manner.
Jos
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Just thought I'd give an update.
Googled windowserver event as Blick suggested and ran across a lot of info. I'm apparently not the first to have this problem. So I gave one of the easy fixes a try first. The one I tried is under system preferences/mission control, uncheck "displays have separate spaces." No windowserver event for 9 days so far!
[woohoo]
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Thanks for keeping us updated on this issue. Sooner or alter, it will help someone else with the same problem.
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Dear Michael, Blick, and WeatherCat system tamers,
The one I tried is under system preferences/mission control, uncheck "displays have separate spaces." No windowserver event for 9 days so far!
Well, I found it also checked by default. Since I have no idea what this is supposed to do on a computer with only one display, I decided to disable it as well. I don't need more complexity!
Thanks for the discovery!
Cheers, Edouard
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I think "Spaces" are separate screens that can have collections of windows/apps that might be used together. Apparently part of "Mission Control". I've never used either Spaces or Mission Control, but it's useful for some. Probably puts a huge load on windowserver! See Steve's next post as to how much. Still, as I also said, "it seems useful for some". Frankly, there are so many variables in our computer Systems and how we use them, it is often difficult to know what problem is caused by which piece and when. There may still be apps (extensions/daemons/etc.?) with memory leaks/bugs that may not show up in a relatively simple app like Activity Monitor. If a simple fix such as unchecking a pref solves ones problems, great! Life is uncertain, eat dessert first! cmu:-)
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I use Spaces having my main screen, one with five web cams, one with WeatherCat, one with Windows XP Pro running, and one with Dashboard.
I have "displays have separate spaces" unchecked, and I still have a WindowServer process running. It doesn't consume a lot of RAM (177 MB currently) and uses 15-20% of one of the CPUs.
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This what the Displays have separate Spaces setting does: If you use Spaces and have multiple displays, you can set up separate spaces for each display. It does not apply unless you have multiple displays.
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So, I can't use this if I have separate computers but only one display! [lol]
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So, I can't use this if I have separate computers but only one display! [lol]
No hypotheticals here. Stick to the facts. ;)