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Troubleshooting Mac OS X 10.2.4: DVD player problems; Shorter battery life in portables; Fix for constant re-dial; more

Troubleshooting Mac OS X 10.2.4: DVD player problems; Shorter battery life in portables; Fix for constant re-dial; more

CNET staff
3 min read

DVD player problems Several readers have reported problems with the Apple DVD player after upgrading to Mac OS X 10.2.4. Recent research leads us to believe that some of the problems (in particular, high processor usage and choppy playback) are caused by a change in the way Apple's DVD player handles shadows in interface control elements, and possibly some other video processing modifications.

On some systems, Mac OS X 10.2.4 causes the shadows over DVD content to not display transparency anymore. This can cause screen artifacts, and also may be related to the widely reported performance issues, described by MacFixIt reader Shawn Lebbon:

"Since upgrading to Mac OS X 10.2.4 I've tried playing a few different DVDs and they all play slightly slowly--they will stutter between chapters, the sound will occasionally cut out, and they will take a few seconds to respond to commands.

"I have LoadInDock running, measuring CPU usage. In OSX 10.1.5, I could play DVDs with little else running, and I'd see CPU usage around 70-80 percent consistently. When I upgraded to Jaguar (going straight to 10.2.3 from 10.1.5), DVDs still played with acceptable performance. But recently (and the only thing I think that has changed is 10.2.4), I have been unable to play a number of DVDs with acceptable performance. CPU usage is at 100 percent the entire time a movie is playing, setting the monitor resolution to 800x600x16bit helps some, (makes them barely watchable), but still CPU usage is at 100 percent."

The DVD Player problems seem to occur mostly on systems that do not have Quartz Extreme capabilities. In some cases, re-applying the Mac OS X 10.2.4 combination updater can resolve this issue, but replacing the DVD Player application and repairing disk permissions seem to have no effect.

UPDATE:Some users suggest that creating and logging in as a new user improves DVD playback performance and clarity. We're not sure exactly how this could resolve the issue, unless Mac OS X 10.2.4 causes corruption or other problems with files relegated to the user directory. Let us know if the fix works for you.

Shorter battery life in portables Several readers have corroborated that after upgrading to Mac OS X 10.2.4, the battery life on their Macintosh portable is drastically diminished.

Some readers report that their battery life has fallen to about half of its previously effective time, while others report remaining battery indications as low as 5 minutes.

Resetting the power management unit does not seem to help.

Fix for constant re-dial Several readers report (among other dial-up issues) that their modems continue to attempt connections after sessions are ended under Mac OS X 10.2.4. Adrian Fry offers a potential workaround:

"The culprit seems to be two processes - lookupd and mDNSResponder, which appear to be part of Rendezvous - mDNSResponder is a Rendezvous component for discovering services on the network. Having disabled all file sharing, Network Time, used Directory Access to turn of all services including Appletalk, Rendezvous etc, it still tries to connect. In the end I installed a program called Little Snitch which can be set to block certain IP request."

SanDisk: Mac OS X 10.2.4 testing not done After numerous reports of problems with SanDisk's Firewire Compact Flash Reader under Mac OS X 10.2.4, the company has begun telling customers that testing with the new incremental update has not yet been completed. A technical support representative told one MacFixIt reader:

"Unfortunately, the (FireWire) readers have not yet been tested on 10.2.4 but we hope to have that testing done shortly. Please continue to check our web site for any further information or updates at http://www.sandisk.com. If you have any questions please feel free to contact our technical support department at 866-726-3475."

General problems include inability to mount flash media. Some readers have reported that leaving the media in the reader, then disconnecting the unit and re-plugging it allows access.

Feedback on any of these issues? Drop us a line at late-breakers@macfixit.com.

Resources

  • Let us know
  • dial-up issues
  • Little Snitch
  • http://www.sandisk.com
  • late-breakers@macfixit.com
  • More from Late-Breakers