Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Yosemite 10.10.3 - Working the Problem with Apple

Abstract:  Yosemite 10.10.3 fails on a late-2013 iMac even after a clean install and no additional software installed.  The iMac had previously run Yosemite 10.10.2 on the same system with no trouble.  Multiple rounds of diagnostic hardware tests have been performed on the machine, all of which showed no deficiencies.  Software diagnostics were sent to Apple Engineering on Friday for review and analysis.


Status: Today was the first possible opportunity to re-connect and Apple was right there.  The response from Engineering was the problem appears to relate to Internet connectivity.  Every time the system has crashed, there has been an Internet event prior to it.


Action: The task list yesterday was to try to home in on any Internet problem.  The system crashed immediately on trying to come up with a hard-wired connection to the router, always my preference as it is always the fastest.  On seeing that, Chuck asked me to disconnect the hard-wire and try to connect via WiFi.  The iMac did not have WiFi started and it crashed as soon as I tried to start it.

All of the above is evidence but is not proof so the next approach was to bring up the system with no Internet access.  It is now about six hours or so later and the system still has not crashed even though I started every application which does not use Internet services.  Observation will continue but the relationship of the Internet to the crashing is becoming more clear.


Next Test: The next experiment is to take the hard-wire cable from the router and plug it directly to the modem with the purpose of trying to determine if there is something specific to the Netgear router which causes the problem.  If the system crashes even after bypassing the router then something more insidious exists but that situation can be managed as more information is discovered.


Summary: Apple's response to this has been highly-satisfactory.  I was not pleased with the first level management of it but that changed altogether on escalating to AppleCare and the steps being taken are logical and effective.  This may yet go back to Engineering for a software fix to OS X as the problem did not manifest under 10.10.2.  However, in my current dealing with Apple, it's not for me to predict anything but rather listen to the suggested steps and follow them.  Those steps have not yet revealed the source of the problem but I am satisfied they will.

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