Troubleshooting Mac OS X 10.5.2: Office, Mail, AirPort slowness

Somebody dumped molasses on this release.

CNET staff

Sept. 2, 2009 2:23 a.m. PT

4 min read

[Friday, February 22nd]

Fix for some AirPort disconnects Users continue to report problems with AirPort -- particularly random disconnects -- under Mac OS X 10.5.2. Now some users have found that changing their AirPort Extreme Base stations' radio mode to 802.11n 2.4GHz from another setting can result in elimination of disconnects. To change this setting, open AirPort Utility (located in /Applications/Utilities, select your Base station from the left-hand pane, then select "Manual Setup" from the "Base Station" menu. Click the "Wireless" tab then toggle the "Radio Mode" setting.

MacFixIt reader Bashar writes:

"The problem only happens when the airport extreme is set to 5 GHz n speed, Stepping down to 2.4Ghz with N speed seems to fix the problem for good."

Microsoft Office 2008 apps slow to launch A number of users are reporting incredibly slow launch times (up to several minutes) for Office 2008 applications under Mac OS X 10.5.2. Some MacFixIt readers report that Apple and Microsoft have both identified this as a known issue.

For some users, the following fixe has proven mildly successful: In Word, turn off WYSIWYG fonts and "Show Project Gallery at Startup" in (go the "Word" menu, then Preferences > General). Quit any Office apps. Next delete the files:

~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/Normal.dotm
~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Word.plist
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office 2008

and restart.

For others the slowness persists.

One MacFixIt reader writes:

"I was on the phone with Microsoft yesterday for about one hour... They are aware it is a known problem. They said a few things have worked for some people, but there is a bigger issue still at hand... I then called Apple, they said they are aware of the issue and are working with Microsoft. They said it only affects 10.5.2 users. They said it isn't a bug, it is a conflict."

Note that an update to Office 2008 -- version 12.0.1 -- is forthcoming.

Mail.app IMAP and To Do issues Several users have reported a variety of issues with Mail.app after the update to Mac OS X 10.5.2, including persistent hangs when attempting to download mail, the failure to retrieve some mail and more. Most of the problems are present with IMAP accounts.

The single most effective fix for this issue is to force Mail.app to recreate your IMAP mailbox as follows: Quit Mail.app then delete the problematic IMAP inbox from:

~/Library/Mail (the ~ refers to your home user directory)

Meanwhile, some users are reporting issues with the "To Do" functionality in Mail.app under Mac OS X 10.5.2. The aforementioned fix might work for this issue. If not, try the following: Quit Mail, then launch iCal, add a To Do. Re-launch Mail and check for persistence of the issue.

Overall poor performance A number of users are reporting generally poor performance under Mac OS X 10.5.2. MacFixIt reader Johnny writes:

"After installing Leopard 10.5.2 both my G5 desktop and 12" Powerbook are very sluggish. Also can't run disk repair in utilities. It hangs up."

Some users have found success with workarounds suggested in our tutorial "Avoiding unresponsiveness/slow-downs in Mac OS X."

Wake-from-sleep issues continued We've covered a range of wake-from-sleep issues under Mac OS X 10.5.2 -- most notoriously a probem where an attempted wake results in a restart. Users are also reporting other problems, including a blank screen on wake-from-sleep.

As suggested in our tutorial, some of these issues may be Bluetooth related. Try turning off the option (located in the Keyboard/Mouse pane of System Preferences) to allow Bluetooth devices to wake your Mac.

Other readers found they needed to disable Bluetooth entirely:

"I've also had severe wakeup-from-sleep issues. Completely black screen (no backlight) - and no way to get back except a hard reset - much like reader Joe Lorek. I've at last traced it to bluetooth. If I switch bluetooth off, then restart, then all is well (I can wakeup as I please when I please). After switching it on, if I sleep the machine, the wakeup issue restarts."

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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