OH MY GOD!!!!!! SERIOUSLY???????
It happened again. One of my programs crashed (MenuTab Pro) which was usually a sign that my disk drive had disconnected. So I opened an MS Word Document, and … I couldn't save it. Neither Disk Utility, not Scannerz would start properly.
Will restart the computer and see if Scannerz finds anything.
I seriously want to destroy my computer right now.
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Edit: Ran Scannerz again, and there were no errors.
Mount Command
Running the "mount" command in terminal, I get:
Last login: Sun Mar 24 12:10:16 on ttys000
FirstName-LastName:~ FirstNameLastName$ mount
/dev/disk0s2 on / (hfs, local, journaled, noatime)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse)
map -hosts on /net (autofs, nosuid, automounted, nobrowse)
map auto_home on /home (autofs, automounted, nobrowse)
localhost:/RANDOMLETTERSANDNUMBERS on /Volumes/MobileBackups (mtmfs, nosuid, read-only, nobrowse)
/dev/disk2 on /Volumes/Time Machine Backups (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled)
/dev/disk3 on /Volumes/Parallels Backup (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled, noowners)
FirstName-LastName:~ FirstNameLastName$
I have no idea if any of that is interesting. ("Parallels Backup" is a partition on my Time Machine drive that keeps a copy of my Parallels VM.)
Glimmerblocker
I did not mention this before. The last time I fully reinstalled OSX, OSX randomly placed some files from Glimmerblocker into the "Incompatible Software" folder without notifying me. (It had previously notified me when I first installed 10.8.3 the day before that the random Parallels 7 files had been placed there.) Yesterday, I reinstalled Glimmerblocker, which is a very tiny program. After doing this, Time Machine made a huge backup file of 19GB, which apparently included all of my Applications, my Library, and my System/Library files. This seemed very strange to me.
If Glimmerblocker is the source of the problem (and I cannot think of a reason why it would be), I'm thinking I should disable it for two weeks and see if the problem stops. But according to Time Machine, I installed Glimmerblocker in early September, while the problem started in early/mid October.
Parallels?
Another thing I have noticed: I have a shortcut to my main Parallels VM in my Doc. By default, it's icon is a red Parallels logo, but after these crashes, or after a SafeBoot, it shows up as the default document icon (blank page with a dog ear) until I click on it again. I'm assuming this simply means that the document icons in the Dock are part of a cache that is cleared upon hard restarts, but I wanted to make sure. Time Machine says that my Dock from October 17, 2012 did not have this shortcut, fyi.
Console/ New Problem?
Since updating to 10.8.3, I have had several problems with my application windows not responding when I clicked on the icon for the active program in the Dock. Closing the program and restarting fixes it. Possibly related, my Console is repeatedly becoming clogged with *LOTS* of:
talagent[205]: CoreAnimation: rendering error 506
with the occasional
talagent[205]: CGSSetWindowShadowAndRimParametersWithStretch: Invalid window 0x34
scattered throughout. And as my computer reindexes (Scannerz causes this), I am receiving lots of:
mdworker[1637]: CoreData: error: (264) attempt to write a readonly database
mixed with lots of other mdworker and sandboxd-related errors. If this is all completely unrelated, I might have to start a new topic for it. :sigh:
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Review
Problem: Computer randomly disconnects from the hard drive so that I am unable to save to disk, though the system otherwise appears functional. There is no consistent interval between these crashes, but it probably averages about once every 2-3 days. Has lasted up to 8 days before. If I can make it 14 days, I will consider the problem solved.
Symptoms: Inconsistent, but I usually know that my drive will fail to save after -ONE- of the following occurs:
1) Certain Applications (usually BetterTouchTool or MenuTab Pro) randomly crash. Word has done it too.
2) Most Applications (excluding Console) are unable to launch, and are left paralyzed in the Dock.
3) Unable to access keychain.
4) Unable to load extensions when starting Safari. (And possibly, extensions failing when Safari opens.)
5) Unable to access wifi: sometimes this is related to keychain problems (#3), but sometimes it happens when wifi simply won't work, possibly correlated with bad wifi for other Macs in the area.
When wifi fails to connect, it is the least likely of the above to be a symptom. When any of the first four occur, it almost certainly means my drive has disconnected.
Cause: Unknown. Seems to happen more when I am moving my computer between locations, but not always. (Today, I did not move my computer before this happened.) It is most likely caused by Either:
1) SSD: At first, I had no reason to believe the SSD was the problem, but later found that Scannerz was reporting some errors, that were not present when I started this thread. I reinstalled my entire system from Time Machine to the SSD, and now Scannerz reports no errors. The i/o problem persists.
*Sidenote* My SSD has a 3-year warranty, so I have plenty of time to trade it out if the SSD is still the most likely suspect.
2) Cable/Logic Board: This is still a possibility. It would explain the inconsistency, as well as the proneness to happening after moving my computer. While I was on vacation, it would happen 2-3 times a day, especially when I had my computer in my lap. It can still happen when I am sitting at a table, but it is much less frequent. But of course, correlation is not causation. (Cable is connected properly.)
3) Bad wifi/ Bad Disk Connections: I would sometimes have this problem in class, right after all the other students with Macs had wifi drop as well. It has also happened at school, shortly after I had ejected my Time Machine disk too quickly.
4) OSX 10.8.2: The problem first showed up on October 10, 2012, only a few days after the last build of 10.8.2 (October 4), which makes sense from a timing standpoint. On the other hand, very few people have reported this problem, and it has just happened again, with 10.8.3 installed. If it is a bug introduced in the October build (which I was initially hoping for) I will be waiting for a *very* long time.
5) TRIM enabled/Sudden Motion Sensor disabled: These settings are recommended for users of SSD's on a Mac. I disabled TRIM at the behest of many users here, but the problem persisted. I left TRIM disabled, however, due to the plausibility that TRIM had somehow caused data corruption on my SSD. With a full reinstall from Time Machine, plus a full reinstall of OSX (thus restoring all system files), I'm thinking it is safe to reenable TRIM (unless someone here disagrees). After trying SMS enabled/disabled, I believe this has nothing to do with it.
6) Software: So far, I have considerred BetterTouchTool, TotalFinder, SideEffects, Time Machine, and Parallels as possible suspects. I not uninstalled all of these long term, but so far, disabling some of SideEffects does not solve the problem, nor does refraining from launching Parallels, nor does reinstalling TotalFinder, BetterTouchTool, or Parallels. Disabling Time Machine does not prevent the problem either. I might be investigating Glimmerblocker soon. (see above)
7) Permissions/Disk Utility/PRAM/SMC/Safe Mode/Resetpassword Utility (for Permissions): none of these have fixed the problem.