10.10.3 major instability on two 5,1 Mac Pros

[ZZ Bottom]

I've got two 5,1 Mac Pros that both are suffering from daily issues with Finder locking up and locking up on shut down (even when shutting down during stable period). One machine connects to a server using AFP for most work, and the other only uses internal drives. For the most part they share little similarities in use patterns, and yet both are suffering same problems.

One is a 12-core with 16GB OEM memory & dual 5770s. The other is a 6-core with 12gb and 5870. Both have all available updates installed.

Have others with 5,1 and lower Mac Pros been experiencing these 10.10.3 stability issues? Any resolution aside from down grading? Our two nMP models seem to be operating fine, so I'm biased to think the stability affects the older models more.

 

[ActionableMango]

You can check the log file for kernel panics (lock ups) and hopefully it will tell you what is causing the problem. If it's not obvious then you'll have to try more difficult troubleshooting.

If you have a spare hard drive, it's nice to try a fresh install of Yosemite. This will rule out hardware problems or anything strange you've done with third party kernel extensions and whatnot. If even a fresh install of Yosemite locks up on shutdown, then I'd suspect a hardware problem and I'd run the hardware test and memtest. If it does not lock up on shutdown, then I'd suspect software.

If you can't do a fresh install of Yosemite, but you can work without sound, wi-fi, third party drivers, etc., you can boot into safe mode and try that. If it doesn't lock up on shutdown as usual, then you'll know the problem is related to one of the kernel extensions that isn't loaded in safe mode.

 

[ZZ Bottom]

You can check the log file for kernel panics (lock ups) and hopefully it will tell you what is causing the problem. If it's not obvious then you'll have to try more difficult troubleshooting.

If you have a spare hard drive, it's nice to try a fresh install of Yosemite. This will rule out hardware problems or anything strange you've done with third party kernel extensions and whatnot. If even a fresh install of Yosemite locks up on shutdown, then I'd suspect a hardware problem and I'd run the hardware test and memtest. If it does not lock up on shutdown, then I'd suspect software.

If you can't do a fresh install of Yosemite, but you can work without sound, wi-fi, third party drivers, etc., you can boot into safe mode and try that. If it doesn't lock up on shutdown as usual, then you'll know the problem is related to one of the kernel extensions that isn't loaded in safe mode.

I will definitely start with the safe mode test. Aside from that I think a fresh 10.9 install will have to work until 10.10 matures. Thanks for your input!

 

[scottsjack]

I've got two 5,1 Mac Pros that both are suffering from daily issues with Finder locking up and locking up on shut down (even when shutting down during stable period). One machine connects to a server using AFP for most work, and the other only uses internal drives. For the most part they share little similarities in use patterns, and yet both are suffering same problems.

One is a 12-core with 16GB OEM memory & dual 5770s. The other is a 6-core with 12gb and 5870. Both have all available updates installed.

Have others with 5,1 and lower Mac Pros been experiencing these 10.10.3 stability issues? Any resolution aside from down grading? Our two nMP models seem to be operating fine, so I'm biased to think the stability affects the older models more.

Don't feel bad. When shutting down my 5,1 either 1) it goes to a dark screen and the gear runs for quite a while, 2) the Dock drops to where it is almost hidden behind the lower bezel of the display for awhile or 3) the bar along the top disappears and the Dock just sits there until I right-click the Dock icon. It offers me a restart the Dock option. As soon as I click it the MP shuts down. Very annoying.

 

[Tucom]

Interesting - I'm running 10.10.3 on my Mid 2010 5,1 Mac Pro and it's been supremely stable. Quad 3.2 Xeon with 5770 on a Crucial MX100 SSD. No issues, at all.

 

[crjackson2134]

I'm running the 6-core listed in my sig. that's loaded with mix/match hardware. I'm not crazy about the OS GUI, but it's solid as a rock with Yosemite. It's never had a lockup, kernel panic or crash of any kind that I can remember. Finder is quick and shutdown takes 5-10 seconds at most. I have exactly 0 stability issues.

I know this doesn't help OP, but you did ask about the experience of others.

Mine does take a long time to boot from the SSUBX Apple PCIe SSD however.

 

[Schismz]

Mac Pro 5,1 12-core, 48GB RAM, optical pulled, every drive sled and slot filled with cards, eSATA, USB3, RAID, etc, boot from RAID0 Samsung 850 pros mounted on Sonnet Tempo Pro, blah this, tweaked that, adjusted/swapped those, running w/ GTX 680 video card, what I'm saying is- non-standard system with many parts from different vendors. Rock solid 10.10.3, no kernel panics, no problems.

I'm not sure I understand why you have 2 boxes with exactly the same weird problems, unless they're both mounting the same shared [something], or you pulled the same whacked out .plist from a clone/time machine backup, that's causing Finder to freak out on both systems. As @ActionableMango mentioned, you can look at the log files and the system will usually tell you why it's freaking out.

I'd try a clean install and boot off that with a fresh account to see if the problem persists. If the problem goes away, try importing your system back into the clean install with migration assistant. This takes a while, but it's mostly painless and automagic. If this works, then you have everything back on a clean install. If it stops working when you use migration assistant, then you have something hosed in your .plists or some app or kext you've installed on both boxes which makes Finder unhappy.

 

[ZZ Bottom]

I'm not sure I understand why you have 2 boxes with exactly the same weird problems, unless they're both mounting the same shared [something], or you pulled the same whacked out .plist from a clone/time machine backup, that's causing Finder to freak out on both systems. As @ActionableMango mentioned, you can look at the log files and the system will usually tell you why it's freaking out.

I'd try a clean install and boot off that with a fresh account to see if the problem persists. If the problem goes away, try importing your system back into the clean install with migration assistant. This takes a while, but it's mostly painless and automagic. If this works, then you have everything back on a clean install. If it stops working when you use migration assistant, then you have something hosed in your .plists or some app or kext you've installed on both boxes which makes Finder unhappy.

Thanks for your input. To clarify, one machine is used by one of my employees at work, connected to a SmallTree storage system just as 5 other work Mac Pros do. The other system I've been having the same issues with is my personal Mac Pro, which is not used in the same environment.

Neither had similar upgrade experience. Home Mac had fresh install of 10.9, while the work Mac came with 10.7 and had been upgraded from 10.8 directly to 10.10.

I did try deleting the com.apple.finder.plist, but that didn't solve anything. Ultimately I rolled back to a fresh install of 10.8.5 on the work Mac and it has been stable since. My personal Mac is still wonky, but I'm dealing with it until 10.10.4 releases to see if that solves it.