Apple’s Mac OS X 10.5.7 update has been released, none of my Macs are on fire and I consider this a good thing.
Still, there’s bound to be problems and the hep cats at MacFixIt have begun to collect reports on a couple of outstanding issues:
Blue Screen
This update may automatically restart your computer up to three times during the update process, and for some people this has not happened but instead has hung on the first restart at the blue screen. Several people have reported waiting for the hang to resolve itself, but that has so far not been successful. When this happens, the fix so far has been to manually reset the computer:
-Listen to the computer and be sure the hard drive is not being accessed.
-Press and hold the power button until the computer shuts off.
-Power on and hold the shift key to boot into safe mode.
This procedure has apparently helped a few people, and while some did not need to boot into safe mode, for others the computer would continually hang until they tried safe mode.
Blue screens have occurred via past Mac OS X updates and are generally due to permission and accessibility problems during the update. The likelihood of these can be reduced via the following steps:
-Don’t use Software Update. Instead, download the standalone “Combo” updater.
-Reboot into Safe Mode.
-Run Disk Utility and perform a Permissions fix and hard drive repair.
-Run the updater.
-Immediately repair permissions again.
Other users have reported that their new display resolutions are disappearing, resulting in the computer outputting non-native display resolutions to the monitor. In most cases, instead of being able to choose 1920×1200 as the resolution (the native resolution for many widescreen displays), the computer will only output 1920×1080 (the maximum for HDMI connections). This seems to be a conflict in the drivers, since 1920×1080 is the maximum display resolution for HDMI connections.
Fixes to this problem include zapping the PRAM (which can be done by holding the options-command-P-R keys all at once at reboot, and holding them down until the computer resets a few times, then releasing them and allowing the computer to boot normally) as well as using a program called SwitchResX, which allows for fine-tuned customization of monitor outputs. The program is a demo, but installing it, setting the screen resolution, and then optionally uninstalling it seems to clear the resolution problem the OS X update.
Other general troubleshooting tips include the following:
-Boot into Safe Mode and run a permissions fix with Disk Utility.
-Reset the PRAM.
-Reinstall the update using the downloadable “combo” update (not any other), and following the “safe” method of installation mentioned above.