Troubleshooting more common Tiger Upgrade Problems

by Joe Kissell

Editor's Note: The following article is an excerpt from Take Control of Upgrading to Tiger, a $5 electronic book available for download from TidBITS Electronic Publishing. As with any major system upgrade, make sure you have a current backup before proceeding. Take Control of Upgrading to Tiger contains additional advice on preparing for the upgrade and performing a successful installation.

Even if you diligently followed all the instructions in Take Control of Upgrading to Panther, you might encounter problems while upgrading. I can't anticipate every difficulty you may have (or provide solutions in every case), but here are some of the most likely issues and how to deal with them.

Computer Won't Start Up from the DVD...

After launching the installer and restarting, if your computer will not boot from the installation DVD, do this:

1. Shut down your computer and wait for a few seconds. If the DVD was ejected, make sure it is free of smudges, scratches, and finger¬prints, and reinsert it.
2. Press the Power button, and immediately hold down the C key to force the computer to boot from the DVD. If this doesn't work?
3. Restart your computer, this time holding the Option key. Icons representing each valid startup volume will appear on the screen. Click the icon for the installation DVD, and then click the right arrow. If this doesn't work?
4. Shut down your computer, and then remove all peripherals, net¬work cables, and anything else attached to your computer except the Apple-supplied keyboard, mouse, and display. (You may also need to remove any third-party video and PCI card(s) and even, in rare cases, extra RAM modules.) Then go back to Step 2 (and Step 3 if necessary). If this doesn't work?
5. Zap your PRAM. To do this, restart, and immediately hold down the Command, Option, P, and R keys. When you hear the second startup chime, release the keys and immediately press the C key as in Step 2. If this doesn't work?
6. Contact Apple. Start with the Support section of the Apple Web site; if that does not contain the help you need, contact AppleCare (if applicable) or visit your local Apple Store for assistance.

You should be able to restart from the Tiger Install DVD by the time you finish these steps

Installer Refuses to Install...

After restarting from the installation DVD, the Tiger installer might display an error message stating that your hardware is incompatible. If this happens, review the earlier section Check Your Hardware for Compatibility to be sure your computer meets all the requirements. Assuming it does, remove all peripherals (as in Step 4 in the previous section) and zap your PRAM (as in Step 5), and then run the installer again. If that doesn't work, contact Apple (as in Step 6).

Tip: If, after booting from the installation DVD, you cannot use your USB keyboard or mouse, unplug it and then plug it back in. If that doesn't work, try plugging it into a different USB port.

Can't Select Installation Volume...

On a rare occasion, you may arrive at the installer's Select a Destina¬tion screen and find that your existing Mac OS X volume is flagged with a red exclamation point and can't be selected?even if it already has a valid installation of Mac OS X. If this happens, use a second vol¬ume (another internal or external drive, or a separate partition) to work around the problem. Follow these steps:

1. Use a utility such as Retrospect or Carbon Copy Cloner to make a bootable backup of your startup volume onto another volume. (See Make a Duplicate.)
2. Insert the Tiger Install DVD, run the installer, and restart when prompted.
3. On the installer's Select a Destination screen, select the volume on which you just created the backup copy of your system, and then proceed with the installation.
4. After completing the installation, including any necessary software updates (see Run Software Update) and setup steps (see Set Up Your Tiger Environment and Restore Missing Files), verify that all the files you need from your original startup volume are avail¬able on your Tiger volume.
5. Once again, use Retrospect or Carbon Copy Cloner to create a boot¬¬able duplicate, this time using your Tiger volume as the source and your original startup volume as the destination.
6. Using the Startup Disk preference pane, select your original startup volume, and restart.

You should now be running Tiger from the drive you originally used as a startup volume. After confirming that your system functions properly when running from the newly restored volume, you can erase the Tiger installation from the secondary volume.

Installation Does Not Complete...

During installation, you might see an error message stating that the installation could not complete for one reason or another. The most likely causes of a message like this are disk errors (perhaps ones not caught by Disk Utility) or hardware failures (such as bad RAM or a malfunctioning DVD drive), though something as simple as a scratch on the installation DVD or a power fluctuation could also be at fault.

If this happens to you, remove the DVD and make sure it's clean and scratch-free. Then try the installation a second time. If it fails again, try Erase and Install, which should overcome most disk errors. If even that does not work, contact Apple.

Note: As I mentioned in a warning in the RAM section of "Check Your Hard¬ware for Compatibility," some third-party RAM modules, if not designed to Apple's specifications, can cause the installer to freeze. You can remove extra RAM to install Tiger, and then contact your RAM's manufacturer for a replacement.

Computer Won't Start Up Under Tiger...

Following installation?either on the first restart or a subsequent restart?if your machine will not start up under Tiger, try these steps in order until you are able to start up normally:

1. Perform a Safe Boot: Restart your Mac, and as soon as you hear the startup chime, press Shift. Release the key when "Safe Boot" appears on the screen. If Tiger starts normally in Safe Mode, a third-party extension or startup item is most likely to blame. Check /Library/StartupItems, /System/Library/Extensions, and /System/Library/StartupItems for non-Apple software you added recently, move it to another location, and restart again.
2. Disable login items: Login items still open even when you do a Safe Boot. To keep them from opening, you must press and hold the Shift key immediately after your Mac begins logging you in:

3. If you log in by entering your password, press Shift immediately after entering your password and clicking Log In.
   If you have configured your account to log you in automatically, press the Shift key as soon as the startup progress bar appears. (If you're also doing a Safe Boot, note that you must release and re-press the Shift key at the proper time to disable login items.)
   Release the Shift key when your Desktop appears. Then remove the items in your Login Items list, log out, and log back in.

4. Run Disk Utility: Restart from another volume (or even your Tiger install DVD), run Disk Utility, and use the Repair Disk func¬tion on the First Aid tab to repair any problems that may have appeared on your Tiger volume.
5. Remove any nonessential hardware: Try restarting with only your Apple-supplied keyboard, mouse, and display attached, and without any third-party PCI or video cards. You may even need to remove extra RAM. If this works, check for driver updates, and then reattach the devices one at a time, restarting after each one.
6. Reinstall Tiger: If you still can't start your computer, consider reinstalling Tiger. Back up your data and perform an Erase and Install to eliminate any possibility of software conflicts.
7. Use your Hardware Test CD: By restarting from a Hardware Test CD, if one was included with your Mac, you can run a diag¬nostic utility that checks for bad RAM, a faulty logic board, and other hardware problems that are beyond the purview of Disk Utility. Unfortunately, this CD cannot repair such errors, but it should recommend a course of action.

In most cases, one or more of the above steps will lead to a happy Tiger installation.

Printer Won't Print... Some users, after upgrading, find that their printers work just as they did before, with no further configuration. Whether you're one of these lucky people depends on your printer model, how your printer con¬nects to your computer, which choices you made during installation, and, apparently, the phase of the moon. In almost all cases, if printing doesn't work, you can restore printer operation fairly easily.

Printer not listed

If you find that your printer does not appear in the Printer pop-up menu in Print dialogs, follow these steps:

Check that your printer is turned on and connected properly.

1. Be sure you have the necessary drivers installed. If you accepted the default selections during installation, you'll have drivers avail¬able for most printers from Apple, Brother, Canon, Electron¬ics for Imaging (EFI), Epson, HP, Lexmark, Ricoh, and Xerox/Tektronix. If you did not install a driver for your printer when you performed the Tiger upgrade, run the OptionalInstalls.mpkg installer on the DVD and choose printer drivers you need. While you're at it, I recommend installing the Gimp Printer Driv¬ers package if you did not do so while installing Tiger. It supports numerous additional models not covered by Apple's standard printer driver packages.
2. Open Printer Setup Utility (in /Applications/Utilities). If your printer appears in the list, select it and click the Add button. If not, click More Printers and select your printer's type and (if relevant) zone from the pop-up menus. When your printer appears in the list, select it and click Add. (For further details on setting up printers, choose Help > Printer Setup Utility Help.)
3. If your printer still does not appear in the Printer List, or if the words "Driver not installed" appear next to it, you must obtain a Tiger-compatible driver from your printer's manufacturer.

Your printer should now appear correctly in Print dialogs.

Printer is listed, but it won't print

If your printer appears in the Printer pop-up menu in Print dialogs but nothing prints, if some print options previously available under Panther fail to appear, or if printing errors occur, try this:

1. Open Printer Setup Utility (in /Applications/Utilities). Select your printer in the list and click the Delete button in the toolbar.
2. Click Add to replace your printer; if you require more detailed instructions, choose Help > Printer Setup Utility Help.
3. Turn off your printer, wait a few seconds, and turn it back on.
4. Restart your computer.

These steps should enable you to print properly in the vast majority of cases.

However, if you still cannot print, try these steps:

1. Locate the file com.apple.print.PrintCenter.plist in ~/Library/Preferences and drag it to the Trash.
2. Open Printer Setup Utility and add your printer again as detailed in Steps 2?4 just previously. If you still can't print correctly?
3. Check your printer manufacturer's Web site to see if updated drivers are available; if so, download and install them. Then restart, open Printer Setup Utility, and try to add your printer again. If you still can't print correctly?
4. Zap your PRAM. To do this, choose Restart from the Apple menu, then press and hold Command-Option-P-R until you hear the sec¬ond startup chime. After your computer has restarted, return to Printer Setup Utility, add your printer, and try to print. If you still can't print correctly?
5. Look on the Apple Service and Support Web site for help (http://www.info.apple.com/) or contact your printer's manufacturer.

In all but the rarest cases, you will have succeeded in getting your printer set up long before you arrive at the last step.

If All Else Fails...

If you can't solve an upgrade problem, your best recourse, sadly, is to downgrade to your old version of Mac OS X and wait until Apple (or the manufacturer of the incompatible product) releases an update.

Resources

Take Control of Upgrading ...

TidBITS Electronic Publish...

http://www.info.apple.com/

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