Fixing a Macbook Pro that crashes

My computer crashed many times the past month and I was attributing this to the new El Capitan Mac Operating system.

After reading the crash log report I kept noticing similar crashes no matter what programs I had open. One thing in common was the programs that were crashing were using a lot of memory like Lightroom and Final Cut Pro X.

After reading around on different forums I discovered this cool APP to test your MacBook Pro's memory. Rember is free and is a great way to just test your RAM to see if this is the culprit. Rember says on their website:

Defective memory can cause computers to malfunction, crash, and behave in a variety of ways which can sometimes baffle end users and computer technicians alike. Apple provides hardware test CDs with most of their products, and there are some third-party utilties for Mac OS X which perform memory testing. In my experience, these tools have not always been able to quickly and efficiently diagnose memory problems. Rember has been designed to simplify the testing, and diagnosis of these problems.

I downloaded the APP and ran it and it alerted me to the fact that this was indeed what was crashing my computer.

Ran to my Fry's store and bought replacement memory and put it in myself in about 5 minutes.

How to replace the memory is super simple. Here are the directions for my Macbook Pro 15" Midyear 2012 laptop.

Now not only is my computer not crashing like it was doing the computer is a lot faster. Bad memory can do more than just crash your computer.

Software can get corrupted as did my Microsoft Outlook yesterday. I had to rebuild the database. Microsoft Outlook message popped up and I followed the directions and it was fixed. This is just one of many other things that bad RAM can do to your computer.

CONCLUSION: Too many times people will blame software when sometimes you computer is just wearing out. It is similar to an automobile. Some of the parts just break down over time. You don't need to go and buy a new computer every time the computer starts to have problems. If you don't want to self diagnose the computer then just take your computer to the store. If it is a Mac they will diagnose it in the store and if under warranty fix it for free.

Disaster strikes due to a mistake

I was really tired working at my computer when I was helping a friend who asked me to help fix their jump drive. It needed to be formatted.

Well it just wasn’t working at first. After a few tries I finally formatted it and since I was use to just clicking the drive and clicking go in a moment I accidently formatted my external hard drive instead.

Panic struck as realized what I had done and what I potentially had lost. The only good news was I had just put this new 2TB hard drive into service a few weeks ago.

The worst case scenario was I lost images that I had not posted to my cloud servers, which was all the camera RAW files. I just post JPEGs once I finish running them through Lightroom and keep the RAW files in a couple places.

Everything was gone and I hadn’t had a chance to create a backup on some of the files.

Frantically I tried to use my PhotoRescue software, but due to the newer Mac 10.10.1 operating system it wouldn’t work.

I then found Data Rescue 4. I had to run a deep scan and it took a good 24+ hours to scan the 2 TB hard drive. 95%+ of the hard drive was recovered. The only thing is the folder and organization wasn’t as I hoped, but all the RAW files and JPEGs were there.

Couple of points that you need to know to recover the most. First, if you make a similar mistake I made stop and immediately do not use the hard drive until you have recovered your files. Formating is bad, but even worse is shooting more images and writing those to the hard drive. 

On the Mac open system preferences and then click on Energy Saver.

Change the Computer Sleep to never when running the program. Put it back when you are done. I made the mistake of not doing this so when I set it to run over night after about 15 minutes the computer stopped running and had gone to sleep.

While I would love to say the moral of the story is to never do this, there are times you too may be so tired and not thinking straight and make a mistake as bad as I just did. There are solutions and this is one that worked for me.

Found my solution to sync Macbook Pro, iPad and Android phone on Maverick OS

I need all of these to sync in addition to another backup Macbook Pro [Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 2000, ƒ/4, 1/500]

Having my email, contacts and calendar on my Macbook Pro, iPad and Android phone was at one time working, then Apple introduced Mavericks OS.

What I had learned through one of my clients is Microsoft Exchange works great doing this. I had an account with the client and no matter which device I was on everything synced great.

When Apple stopped supporting syncing of their iCalendar and Contacts with Outlook 2011 with their Mavericks OS I had to find something.

The solution was simple, find a exchange hosting solution. Since I was already using Godaddy I checked out their Office 365.

Watch the video here and you will get the basic idea of what is does for you.

One more thing I am now doing that I could not do before using my backup Macbook Pro running Outlook. Now I can use my backup Macbook Pro without fear of screwing up my email, contacts or calendar.

Since I already had an account with Godaddy the additional cost was only $3.99 a month. I went ahead and paid for two years for $95.

I use Outlook as my assistant. It keeps me organized.

Tips for photographers who use Macs

Computers and cars have one thing in common—every so often you need to do some routine maintenance to get the best performance.

With cars about every 5,000 miles you need to take the car in for routine maintenance. I would say that once a month you need to also do some basic maintenance for your computer.

For the Mac owner I recommend just a couple of things that will improve your computer’s performance.

Disk Utility

Performing disk maintenance using Disk Utility that is included in the Mac OS X.

You can also use this even when your computer starts just fine but you want to check the disk for possible file system issues.

1. To launch Disk Utility go to your Applications Folder>Utilities>Disk Utility.
2. Click the First Aid tab.
3. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
4. Select your OS X volume.
5. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk.

You should see improved performance when this is done.


NVRAM

Your Mac stores certain settings in a special memory area even if it is turned off.  On Intel-based Macs, this is stored in memory known as NVRAM.

Information stored in NVRAM includes:

1. Speaker volume
2. Screen resolution
3. Startup disk selection
4. Recent kernel panic information, if any

How to reset your NVRAM

1. Shut down your Mac.
2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
3. Turn on the computer.
4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen appears.
5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
6. Release the keys.

After resetting NVRAM, you may need to reconfigure your settings for speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, and time zone information. If issues persist, your Mac's logic board battery (not a portable Mac's rechargeable battery) may need to be replaced. The logic board battery helps retain NVRAM settings when your computer is shut down. You can take your Mac to a Mac Genius or Apple Authorized Service Provider to replace the battery on the logic board.

If you have never done this you will notice major improvement in your computer.  The Disk Utility may take some time to run that first time. Running Disk Utility once a month takes less than five minutes unless something unusual has happened.

Parting Comment

I still recommend buying DiskWarrior and using this utility. It does more than just the Disk Utility.  However, just using the Repair Permissions in Disk Utility when it makes changes does improve your performance.