Troubleshooting Mac OS X 10.3.2: Slow startup solution; Resolution switching issues; G5 audio issues, fix; more

Slow startup solution Steve Minnick has posted a fix apparently endorsed by Apple's support department to the Apple Discussions arena that is working to resolve slow startup issues under Mac OS X 10.3.2 for a number of users.

The fix is fairly straightforward. Simply enter the Terminal and execute:

• sudo ln -s /System/Library/Extensions/BootCache.kext/Contents/Resources/BootCacheControl /usr/sbin

and then restart twice.

The official Apple solution uses copy instead of a link:

• sudo cp -p /System/Library/Extensions/BootCache.kext/Contents/Resources/BootCacheControl /usr/sbin

Why does it work? Under Mac OS X 10.3.2 BootCacheControl is called from /etc/rc twice:

• BootCacheControl
• BootCacheControl tag

Both times its called using a shell variable set in /etc/rc which originally points to /System/Library/Extensions/BootCache.kext/Contents/Resources/BootCacheControl (and if this would not exist it would get changed to /usr/sbin/BootCacheControl.) But there is another call from the loginwindow process later:

• /usr/sbin/BootCacheControl autostop 15

It appears that Apple mistakenly left out /usr/sbin/BootCacheControl for some Mac OS X 10.3.2 installations. The copy Terminal command resolves the issue.

Also, readers continue to report that opening the Directory Access application and disabling Rendezvous delivers speedier startup times under Mac OS X 10.3.2.

Resolution switching issues MacFixIt reader Remy Leroy reports problems switching resolutions using his NVidia GeForce 4 MX 32 MB after upgrading to Mac OS X 10.3.2:

"Some applications (games such as Harry Potter II: the Secret's Chamber), are sometimes unable to switch from the 1440x900 screen resolution to their preferred resolution (say 1024x768). The display stay stuck on 1440x900 and the game is displayed in a 1024x768 zone on the lower left corner of the screen (some other games are displayed in the upper left corner).

"When this problem occurs, after having quit the game, the Mac OS X Monitor Prefpanel is also unable to switch between resolutions. The only way to regain this ability is to trash the com.apple.windowserver.plist and com.apple.windowserver.000393d79772.plist files and reboot."

Address Book and birthdays Ben Rosenthal points out that the Panther Address Book no longer shows the day of the week in front of a date of birth. All previous versions calculated the day based on the built-in perpetual calendar.

Energy Saver scheduling issues We continue to receive reports of Energy Saver settings not liking Monday mornings under Mac OS X 10.3.2. Jim Collymore writes "I have it set to start-up my PowerMac G4 (MDD), Dual 1.25GHz, every Weekday at 7:30 a.m.  It never starts up then.  It does on Tuesday, though. Also, I have Energy Saver set to shut down my Mac every weekday at 11:00 p.m.  The weird thing is that it shuts down on Sunday night (which of course, is NOT a weekday night)!"

Ken Rutherford adds "Not only does it not recognize Mondays (starting up or shutting down), when I turn the option off altogether (which I have only done 3 times since Oct.) the computer will still start up. I made sure I turned the schedule option off while I was away for the holidays. I unchecked the 'startup' option. In fact, I even changed all the times to 0:00. I also went as far as 'locking' the padlock just in case. Well, I return 3 days later to find my computer on. [...] When I went to check the Schedule options, it looked as if I never touched it. Even the padlock was un-locked.

Those of you who are experiencing this problem might want to look into the shareware utility IbeeZz 2.1, a startup/shutdown controller that can also open a document with its corresponding application, launch an application, or execute a compiled AppleScript at scheduled times.

G5 optical audio problems - the cause, temporary fix We previously reported significant issues with optical audio on some Power Mac G5s that have been upgraded to Mac OS X 10.3.2. As one reader writes: "The volume control, input menu and airport icons disappeared from my menu bar, and the clock froze, with a spinning disc. Several Apple menu items - logout, restart, force quit, about this Mac, and possibly others - stopped working entirely. System Preferences would launch but had a spinning disc immediately, and iChat wouldn't even put up UI windows. Response to the eject key was very slow, and it couldn't be used to make the SuperDrive go back in as usual."

After much investigation, some readers have narrowed the culprit down to the extension AppleOnboardAudio.kext in Mac OS X 10.3.2, Replacing the version of this file included with Mac OS X 10.3.2 with the version included with Mac OS X 10.3.1 (or 10.3.0) seems to resolve the problems on a number of systems.

The file is located in /System/Library/Extensions/AppleOnboardAudio.kext/, and an older version can be extracted from a Mac OS X 10.3.0 installer disc using a tool like Pacifist, or it can be copied from another Mac that is still running Mac OS X 10.3.0 or 10.3.1.

Zio smart card reader Don Coleman reports problems with his Zio smart card reader under Mac OS X 10.3.2: " I lost plug and play compatibility with my Zio SmartMedia card reader. Reader still displays on a Mac OS 9 computer and checked it on a friends operating on Jaguar - no difficulty. All other USB devices still appear normal. Haven't heard from Zio Corp technical support yet."

Having a similar issue? Drop us a line at late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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