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Mac Upgrades/Mods | Storage | Video | Audio/Home Theater | macOS Updates/Tips/WiFi
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Some Early OS X 10.8.5 Problem Posts/Notes/Tips:
[Update: On Oct. 3rd, Apple posted a "Supplemental Update" listing fixes for several common issues w/10.8.5 including 2013 MacBook Air FaceTime HD camera issues, external drives ejected during sleep, loss of HDMI audio after wake from sleep and problems with some USB Bluetooth adapters. What follows is info from BEFORE the Supplemental update was released.]

(Follow-up to Thursday's Updates & General Troubleshooting Tips - including a Backup and Clone of the drive as noted there.)

Nvidia Quadro/GeForce Drivers for OS X 10.8.5 (12F37): ("Suppl. Update" Breaks these)
An early post from a Mac Pro owner said his Nvidia Quadro 4000 was 'not supported' after the OS X 10.8.5 Update. (At that time the latest Quadro/Geforce OS X driver at their site search was v313.01.02f01.) But they posted an update for OS X 10.8.5 (12F37) - v313.01.03f01. See notes and Supported Products tab on that page for details and the "Additional information" Tab has an installation guide and details about the new NVIDIA Driver Manager preference pane. The Graphics Driver Tab allows you to switch between the newer ('web') nvidia driver or the driver included with OS X 10.8.5. This 'web' driver pref setting is stored in nvram apparently as they note clearing the nvram will revert back to using the original 10.8.5 driver. (I try to post later Nvidia OS X driver updates on the Video topics page.)

OS X 10.8.5 Bluetooth Adapter Problems/Tips: (fix listed in "Supplemental Update")
There's also a few reports of USB Bluetooth adapters not working after 10.8.5 update that includes some tips. A later post said removing vodafone USB modem software restored BT function but not sure everyone affected had it installed. (Deja-Vu: our 10.8.4 update post had a FYI on reports uninstalling vodafone mobile broadband software fixed upgrade problems.)
Here's another tip from a reader sent on Monday:

"10.8.5 Bluetooth problems (a fix for IOGear GBU521 and Mac Pro)
I had the 10.8.5 bluetooth problem, using an IOGear GBU521 dongle, which worked flawlessly for me from OS X 10.8.1 onwards on my early 2009 Mac Pro (which had the usual extremely poor BT performance from the native board/antenna). Upgrading to 10.8.5 resulted in my machine defaulting to the onboard BT, and refusing to recognise the IOGear dongle. I had used the combo updater btw.
   Anyway, I fixed the problem by downloading the complete 10.8.5 distribution via the Mac App Store, and installing the complete 10.8.5 distribution from USB. Apart from a few minor tweaks (re-enabling TRIM, etc.) everything worked as before. (Trim enabled using Chameleon or Groth enabler I assume.)
   I made a point of keeping the dongle plugged in while installed, in the hope that the installer recognized. I don't know if that really had an effect, or was just installer voodoo, but my BT is working perfectly again.
   I presume that the 10.8.5 updater is corrupting some preference files somewhere, but (for me at least) doing the reinstall was a lot faster than trying to troubleshoot a bunch of plists...
   YMMV, but this might be helpful to your readers who have similar issues.
Regards, Hugh"

It was mentioned earlier (above) but if anyone has vodaphone software installed (usb modem/broadband, etc) it has been reported removing it resolved problems like this. (Happened with 10.8.4 also per reports. Not sure what updates if any are available for it.)

   Also several threads on WiFi problems but no issues with that on a mini here. (WiFi actually seems faster to connect at boot on the mini here but maybe just a placebo effect.)

  I updated a Late 2012 Mac mini (USB kbd/mouse, DIY SSD upgrade, no 3rd party addons) to OS X 10.8.5 via SU and no wifi or apple apps issues seen so far. (Not used it much yet, work machine is 10.6.8.) I was hoping the repeating coreaudio console messages (automatic stack shots disabled/enabled with every sound played) seen after the OS X 10.8.4 update would be fixed, but it appears not. (As I said when seeing this in 10.8.4, it seems like a debug mode was left enabled.)

External Drives Eject During Sleep Problems: (fix listed in "Supplemental Update")
I'd seen some posts about this before (mentioned Sept. 9th) but many more cases reported after OS X 10.8.5 was released on external drive ejects at sleep (some Thunderbolt, some USB). I don't own any thunderbolt drives, but ran simple sleep/wake tests with the mac mini/OS X 10.8.5 using 3 external drives I had on hand. All used USB 3.0 ports (no Thunderbolt) and only one was bus powered (2.5in) - none had any problems (so far) with sleep/wake (no disconnects/improper eject warnings, etc). Drives I had/checked were ministack Max (bought 0GB/BDW kit, installed 3.5in HDD), a USB 3.0 HGST Touro (bought the ($1 on sale) Touro Case-only w/AC adapter & USB 3 cable and installed old 2TB WD green) and a (bus powered) 2.5in "NexStar3" case kit (USB 3.0 + eSATA) with an early Crucial M225 SSD installed. (I didn't sleep them for hours, only about 5 min each.)
   External Drive Firmware Updates:
I'm curious if anyone with this problem tries a drive firmware update later (or had recently updated firmware before OS X 10.8.5) - as some USB3 bridge firmware updates were supposed to address disconnect problems or enable/fix sleep support. (I mentioned a couple firmware updates for Macs (Seagate and Western Digital external drives) in Sept. 9th post on this subject.)

  BTW: the PMSET mods to avoid hibernate/shutdown after hours of sleep on the 2012 mini still being used. If you missed that Tip (and if your Mac model supports Standby - See Apple doc Mac Computers: About Standby Mode. PMSET -G from terminal will show if you have these options), from the Terminal enter (without quotes):
   "sudo pmset autopoweroff 0" and "sudo pmset standby 0".
   (you can enter "pmset -g" to verify/list your current options/settings.)

I primarly use AC powered Macs and stopped using parameters like "-a" (all, default) years ago, as it didn't seem required. (i.e. pmset -a <setting>  <value>) (IIRC -b was for battery.)
Before Disabling BOTH autopoweroff and standby, I'd tried setting both autopoweroffdelay and standbydelay from the default 4200 (seconds) to 86400 (24 Hours).

(As of a few days after the 10.8.5 release, I've noticed many more threads on external drives being "ejected" during sleep (improper eject warning on wake) after updating to OS X 10.8.5. (This behavior could also lead to drive corruption.) I'm not seeing this so perhaps it's a bug that my setup is not affected by. If you don't have an issue with 3rd party addons/drivers, external drives have any firmware updates applied and you've done the usual tips (combo reinstalls, safe boot, repairs, etc) maybe try the PMSET settings (if your mac supports them) and perhaps reset the SMC. One other note - some have suggested toggling your Energy Saver settings (reset them/uncheck options and then open again and set them back to your preferred settings) - to cause a rewrite of the preference file (in case it was corrupted). I try to avoid using 3rd party addons, but here's a post in one of the (many) apple threads on the improper eject on sleep issue that comments on using "Jettison" (from St. Clair Software) as a workaround.
Several users have reported this problem to apple for investigation. (Apple's Mac OS X Feedback Form now has OS X 10.8.5 listed in the OS menu as of early October.)

External Drives Sleep Despite Settings: (some say "Supplemental Update" fixed it)
Drives going into sleep despite OS X Energy Saver settings has been seen before in some cases, but saw a thread titled OS X 10.8.5 puts drives to sleep... forever, where some said internal and external drives sleep/spin down despite Energy Saver settings, with some (not all) saying they didn't spin back up. As done in the past, some use an script/applet to periodically access drives to prevent them from sleeping/spinning down. Scripts like that also used to be popular with some brands/models of optical drives years ago that would go to sleep/disconnect regardless of ES settings. (I didn't include any links to these scripts because many sources are old and I've not used them personally. Some 10.8.5 users tried Jon Stovell's "Keep Drive Spinning" applet. I've not used it (no need to) but it has been listed/reviewed at MU in the past.)
   I used the mac mini for about 1/2 hour with the ministack Max connected (via USB 3.0) without any use/access to the Max's mounted volumes (2 partitions on an early 1TB WD Black HDD) and then left the mini completely idle for about 1.5 hours. (WiFi was connected to net but no user activity, no downloads happening, no apps open, etc.) When I returned the display was asleep as expected (ES set for display sleep), so tapped on the keyboard to wake it and a click on the ministack max's mounted volumes opened them quickly. (I always set Energy Saver to not allow system/drive sleep - only display sleep. I've not changed my settings since day 1 but some have suggested toggling settings to rewrite the prefs file.) This weekend I'll try the same tests with the Touro USB3 drive that has an old (early model) 2TB WD "Green" HDD inside which is more likely IMO to exhibit spindown as it has a more agressive 'energy saving' drive firmware.

I've not tested in OS X 10.8.5 to see if the sleepimage file is still being recreated, despite hibernate disabled. (As it did previously with the 2012 mini/OS X 10.8.4/SSD upgrade, even without being put to sleep - see notes below the PMSET tip in the Feb 28th, 2013 news archive)

Some reporting No Audio after Wake from Sleep (HDMI): (fix listed in "Supplemental Update")
While on the subject of OS X 10.8.5 sleep/wake problems, several 10.8.5 users with various mac models (including notebooks, some using TB/MDP to HDMI adapters) have reported no audio after waking from sleep requiring a restart/reboot to restore sound. I don't have an HDMI monitor/TV connected to the mini w/10.8.5 but had no problems with audio from the MDP display (connected to Thunderbolt port on mini) after waking from sleep.
(FYI: Some tried the usual tips noted earlier like reinstalling using the Combo Updater. (My gut says this issue sounds like it's related to an addon/extension.) Not sure why it would have affected this but one mini owner said Repairing Permissions (in Disk Utility) seems to have helped. I'm not one that religiously does this (without a reason) before updates but I do sometimes verify permissions after OS X updates - my mini with OS X 10.8.5 showed no permissions problems (before the iTunes 11.1.1 update) and I've not seen that problem (nor any others so far). The 2012 mini is one of the few macs I've had that doesn't have at least a few of the permissions messages you can ignore per Apple's doc. (Updating from iTunes 11.1 to 11.1.1 blew my clean permissions check - now have dozens of them related to itunes (pkg contents, languages, etc.) As expected/seen many times before, permission repairs doesn't really affect the reported errors.)
BTW: Saw one user say OS X 10.8.5 helped with his Audio over USB 3 issues.

(More notes on OS X 10.8.5 problems, from reader mails on Sept. 14th and 15th)

"OS X 10.8.5 MacBook Air 2013 FaceTime HD camera issues
(Update: Apple says a Fix is in Oct 3rd's "Supplemental Update" for OS X 10.8.5)
10.8.5 seems to break use of the FaceTime HD camera for non-Apple apps on the MacBook Air 2013.
[On Sept. 23rd, Apple posted a doc on MacBook Air (Mid 2013): FaceTime HD Camera might not work after OS X 10.8.5 update saying they are investigating this problem with 32bit apps (such as Skype, iMovie, Final Cut Pro, and QuickTime Player).-Mike]

There are a lot of discussions on Apple's discussion boards, but this is the best one I've found on Skype's community board: OS X 10.8.5 Broke Skype Video (http://community.skype.com/t5/Mac/OS-X-10-8-5-Broke-Skype-Video/td-p/1891729)

Temporary fix seems to be using the CoreMedia AppleCamera.plugin from 10.8.4, which is also detailed in the thread. That works for me, to at least get back to having the camera work without downgrading to 10.8.4.
(FYI: If you replaced the CoreMedia AppleCamera.plugin in OS X 10.8.5, the Supplemental update won't fix the problem but reinstalling the (Oct. 3rd) OS X v10.8.5 Combo Updater reportedly does.)

There were already issues with the new MacBook Air 2013 FaceTime HD camera with third party apps, as mine for example doesn't work with GoToMeeting in 10.8.4 or 10.8.5. Apple had a support note on it https://support.apple.com/kb/TS4552 (MacBook Air (Mid 2013): FaceTime HD Camera may not work with some applications, from June 11th) but this is worse in that every third-party app I've tried doesn't work with my camera in 10.8.5 unless I downgrade the CoreMedia AppleCamera.plugin.

External cameras work fine in any case, such as the one built-into my Apple Cinema Display.
-Darius V."


(Updated with later posts/info on Sept. 16th, added below including Info from OWC.)

"Kernel panics on wake from sleep after 10.8.5 update on MacPro w/Accelsior PCIe SSD
Since upgrading to 10.8.5 on my MacPro4,1 with an OWC Mercury Accelsior PCIe Express SSD card my computer wakes from sleep with a kernel panic notice requiring computer restart. My troubleshooting has narrowed down the problem to the .kext file installed by the Accelsior software. At least one other user is reporting the same issue at Apple Discussions forum. Problem is temporarily avoided by setting Mac to never sleep. Larry at OWC is aware of problem and working on a fix. He says that this is apparently not affecting most Accelsior/MacPro users.
-John B.

[Update: Here's a later follow-up post from John (from page 3 of the thread)]

Well, I don't know if this advances the state of knowledge about this issue or not. But this is what I've done and what I've found. I cloned my Accelsior SSD to an external hard drive. I left the Accelsior .kext file in place and I did not remove the Accelsior PCIe card.

After restarting with my external drive as start up, I've had absolutely no problems at all with the sleep/wake issue. This seems to indicate that the Accelsior kext is not directly causing the problem, at least when the Accelsior SSD is not the startup drive. And the mere presence of the Accelsior SSD (when not used as start up) does not seem to cause problems either.
-John"

Here's the start of the thread in Apple's Mountain Lion forum on Saturday - Kernel panics after upgrading to OS X 10.8.5. I sent Larry at OWC a question/FYI on this issue Saturday and he posted there shortly thereafter. (Someone asked if any reports were on the later Accelsior_E2 card (with two eSATA ports), although both use the same driver (for proper power down/sleep, etc. Per the driver page, it's not required if the card is used in a Thunderbolt PCIe expansion chassis) - however per this post by Larry at OWC - it's related to a firmware version and the Accelsior E2 cards are not affected:

Updated Info from OWC on Affected Cards/Firmware:

"OWC Larry
Re: Kernel panics after upgrading to OS 10.8.5
Sep 16, 2013 10:39 AM

Alright - some good news here. We believe we have identified the common denominator. Shortly after we begin shipping the Accelsior, we updated to a different Marvell controller firmware rev along which with included proper name identification of the Accelsior. Although these changes were not/should not have had functional field impact, all reports of issue with 10.8.5 and Accelsior with which we have received are indicating this original naming/firmware.

In Apple System Profiler under SATA Devices - if you have an Accelsior installed and this volume listed:

    MARVELL Raid VD 0

Please email owc @ macsales.com with your preferred contact information. At the moment the options are as follows:

OWC will issue you a Return Authorization. Within 24 hours of receipt, card will be updated to current firmware revision and returned without charge.
or
Continue using as is with sleep disabled.
or
Purchase upgrade to new Accelsior E2 model (adds 2 x eSATA Ports).
$125 after existing card trade-in.

Further - We are working on an option to support field update of the firmware and also reporting this issue to Apple. If nothing else, we do hope to have a solution that does resolve this without requiring the card to be sent in.
  

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