[begud4me]

Hi there, i am running mac osx tiger on my imac. I have been having an issue with updating. When i go to update the software the updater opens up and shows me all the needed updates, there are quite a few, anyway it shows them but then the little colored wheel just sits there and spins. I have let this thing run for two days in the past waiting for it to install them and still had no luck. I also cannot install updates for quicktime etc. I also just installed the newest version of firefox and now that doesnt work either, nor does safari which is why i was using firefox...any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[macfan777]

Try the Combo Updater from the Apple Support site for your version of OS X - that helps fix a LOT of issues. Also do a Repair Permissions as that usually helps with system issues.

[begud4me]

alright so i downloaded the combo updater but, when i tried to use it the installer just sat there with the little colored wheel spinning. So i then went to try and repair the permissions, it got about half way through with that when it popped up an error message. the error said Disk Utility has lost its connection with the Disk Management Tool...fortunately something happened and safari now works again, which it hasn't for quite some time...any ideas on why this is happening?

[macfan777]

Try running Disk Utility a few more times and see if it completes the Repair Permissions, then if that still doesn't help follow the steps detailed on http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/repairprocess.html (only instead of the 3 recommendations they give for cache cleaners, OnyX is the best one, and it's free.)

[TD912]

Repairing Permissions rarely does anything useful. What you should be doing is booting from the Mac OS X Repair Disk, and running the "Repair Disk" (not permission!) function and see if it reports any errors. Most slow downs are related to bad third-party drivers, directory corruption, or hard drive failure. "Repair Disk" will try and fix the last two.

Boot from the Mac OS X install disk, and run "Repair Disk". Tell us whatever it reports to you.

[Adrianking99]

...and if you don't have or can't find the repair disk or the Mac OS install disk, try starting up in single-user mode (HOLD down Command-S at the startup bong until the torrent of text appears), then type
/sbin/fsck -fy
(Note the space before the minus sign). Then press the return key. After the process is complete (repeat if any errors found), type
shutdown -r now
(Note the 2 spaces) Then press the return key to restart.
A brilliant piece of (free!) software that automates much of this is AppleJack - really worth getting. (From http://applejack.sourceforge.net/ )