(Note - for reports on 10.3.5, see this page.)
The 10.3.4 update became available appx 4PM Eastern Time on 5/26/2004. Here's the change listing from Software Update panel. (Reader reports on using 10.3.4 are down the page.)
"
The 10.3.4 Update delivers enhanced functionality and improved reliability for Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther" and is recommended for all users.
Key enhancements include:
improved file sharing and directory services for Mac (AFP), UNIX
(NFS), PPTP, and wireless networks
improved OpenGL technology and updated ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers
improved disc burning and recording functionality
iPods connected via USB 2.0 are now recognized by iTunes and
iSync
additional FireWire audio and USB device compatibility
updated Address Book, Mail, Safari, Stickies, and QuickTime
applications
improved compatibility for third party applications
previous standalone security updates
For detailed information on this Update, please visit this website:
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n25764
"
Here's some links to downloads of updaters/combo updates. (Just in case - a common tip for odd problems with updates is to reapply a "Combo" updater.)
I've updating several machines here and haven't seen any problems with them personally (so far), but if anyone finds 10.3.4 fixes, improves or breaks anything - let me know the details. Thanks
Summary of Specific Problem Reports/Tips and Improvements:
NOTE: As in the past, some have noted that odd problems were fixed by using the "Combo" updater. See download links above)
And if you're having a problem with a USB device (audio or Printer for instance) - try unplugging/reconnecting the device.
Reader Reports on 10.3.4: (most recent first except for replies to problem posts. Remember most that don't have problems are not going to send reports. See above for Summary of issues/tips/improvements w/links to reports below)
I welcome other reader reports on 10.3.4. If it fixes or breaks anything let me know the details.
(Note: Sections on game performance, Nvidia card loss of higher refresh rates, etc. farther down have updated reports - trying to keep those together. Otherwise new reports are listed first.)
Deep Sleep Fixed
(added 6/3/2004)
"
I just noticed that for the first time ever, my 2002 QS goes completely
to sleep and will wake up again. It has never been able to go into
deep sleep and wake up, not since the day I bought it.
I have always figured that it was due to the PCI cards, a Generic
USB/FW400 card and an Adaptec 2906 SCSI card. I would always put the monitors to sleep, but if I put the whole system to sleep I would have to pull the power cord and restart.
Not with 10.3.4. I forgot to shut it down last night and this morning
I find the computer silent, no drives spinning, nothing, dead silent
with the monitor power button glowing, the Griffin Powermate glowing
and the button on the CPU pulsing. I pressed the space bar and within seconds the log in window came up.
Quicksilver 2002 Factory dual 1ghz
Dual 1.33ghz Gigadesign Upgrade
1.5GB ram, Geforce4MX video card
Adaptec 2906 SCSI, FW/USB card (generic)
21" CRT and 17" Apple LCD attached
Various card readers, printers and external optical drives attached
Jon
"
I had one user of the 10.3.4 beta say it also had a component change that fixed a deep sleep problem he had in the past. (However some cards may still prevent deep sleep.)
(added 6/2/2004)
"Mike, You can add a digit to the "no problems" counter.
1GHz Tibook, 1 GB RAM, updated via Software Update, then ran Cocktail.
Xbench reported virtually no difference (1% improvement, not what I
would call significant!), though some apps seem to open quicker.
iPhoto opens with my 1839-photo library in 11 sec., which seems pretty
quick, though I didn't benchmark before the update. Photoshop also
seems quicker, but again I didn't benchmark before.
No apps have broken that I've seen so far.
Pete
"
Most of the reports are on problems or tips, but most are
having no problems. (impossible to list all OK reports here
the page would be huge - but good to include a few just to
note that many had no problems.)
Bluetooth
(added 6/1/2004)
"
After installing 10.3.4 I have a problem with bluetooth on a Dual 2.0
G5. The bluetooth devices are the D-Link bluetooth adapter, apple
bluetooth keyboard and mouse. After awaking from sleep the system
crashes (grey restart screen). I repaired the permissions, zapped the
PRAM and ran Diskwarrior, but no success in fixing the problem.
I rebuild the disk with a clean install and just installed the 10.3.4
update, but the problem continues. This is not a problem with 10.3.3,
so I've gone back to 10.3.3 and all is normal.
Sven"
Battery Comments:
(added 6/1/2004)
"The time remaining for battery clock now seems to work.
Previously, my PB AL 1.25 would shut down without warning with over 30
minutes remaining.
This fix seem to mostly be a readjustment of the previously over
optimistic time remaining as it use to show full battery as about 2
hours (on 4 hour rated system) but now shows 1:45.
I wonder if Apple should be delivering this model with two batteries -
so it can come close to meeting its advertized 4 hour life on battery
power... Thanks for great web site.
Tom W.
"
Another B&W G3/PCI IDE Card Problem Report:
I am having problems with 10.3.4 in that it doesn't seem to play nicely
with my Sonnet Tempo ATA-100 PCI card. Drives connected to it will not
mount. I have the card in the following set-up: BW G3 upgraded with OWC
G4 550 ZIF. 40GB HD as boot drive on the stock IDE bus and 120 GB
Maxtor on the Sonnet Card. Previously, the larger drive was the OS X
boot drive but after one restart, I could not even get it to boot at
all. Installing 10.3 on a partition of the smaller drive was the only
way I could boot.
Strangely, I have also lost the ability to boot from an OS 9 CD. No
idea what's going on there.
This set-up was pretty much trouble free under 10.3.3. I can see the
larger drive in Disk Utility but not the volume. It will not mount and
even Disk Warrior cannot do anything with it. If I do an "archive and
install" back to 10.3, I can access the drive.
I thought I had the problem isolated to the Quicktime 6.5.1 update last
night but booting up this morning, the problem is back.
Doug H."
B&W G3 w/SIIG (Acard) IDE Card Problems
(added 5/28/2004)
"My BW G3 640MB ATI 7000 with 650G4(PL 550) overclocked and running fine for a year has had no problems whatsoever in any apple system updates so far. But the 10.3.4 update had almost trashed my HD. A Maxtor 80g on a SIIG (aka Acard) ide card. It seemed that during the optimization process it stalled at 95%.
After sitting there for some time 45 min I rebooted and it but it would
crash Beachball at the Log in as soon as I selected my name after several attempts disconnecting all devices I made it to the desktop but the Icons would not come up then next boot a Black screen came up I have never seen before saying I had to hold the Power button down several seconds and reboot. (kernel panic?) This just repeated after every reboot.
Disconnected the drive and booted up off my other IBM GXP drive with My backup 10.3.2. ( My Maxtor had 10.3.3 ) Tried disk utility with no avail and after reading reports yesterday reapplied the 10.3.4 combined update from my other drive. Now All I get is the Crossed Circle at Boot. Drive utilites no longer works from my IBM Drive it does not even see any drives and and I have to exit.
Although I can see the drives on my desktop. I have since tried repairing the Drive with Tech Tool Pro (v4.x?) directories rebuild OK but no Go. Now I am looking at pulling my important stuff off the partition. The other 3 partitions work fine and I can boot off 9.2.2 on another partition no problem. It appears
that this update has also affected my IBM Drive with 10.3.2 as a new Icon at Reboot symbol comes up on reboot screen that I do not recognize and My Safari and diskutilites on 10.3.2 IBM partition do not work now.
although Explorer does.
I cannot even use disk utility to repair
permissions on my IBM Drive now. By the Way I am an IT professional
Programmer Analyst and have been loading every version of OS 10 on to
several macs including a 7300 with @ 900mz G3 & XLR8 Card which runs 10.3.3 well. But I Suspect that maybe other people will have trouble with this update.
John S.
(I asked what specific IDE card model/firmware he had (ASP info). )
The Card is a 6280M firmware 2.1
Well I got home and tried updating the firmware the newest being 2.15
I get the error message that this is no longer supported. The update would not complete. My 7300 has a slightly newer SIIG 6280 133 with Firmware ver 2.14 and it updated successfully. Although I had no problems with that machine.
Giving up on my boot partition on the BW G4 650 80 G Maxtor I wiped it. Then I updated my IBM Partition with OS 10.3.2 to 10.3.3 with the combo update. Tuned it a bit and used CCC to clone it to The Maxtor Boot Partition. Everything went OK and Then I applied the Combo 10.3.4 update. It Booted. OK and is now running . The Firmware on the SIIG is still at 2.1 The acard update would not work.
So Far I have had no trouble except getting my Wife user files working
On the new rebuilt partition. Permission hell I call it. The end result is the 10.3.4 Update toasted something in my boot
partition. But I recovered most of my files Lots work.
I put a new WD 160GB drive and formatted it with the SIIG 2.1 firmware
Partitioned it in 4 and installed a fresh 10.3 and updated it to 10.3.4
Works fine Just have to rebuild all the add ons. The Audio revolution works fine also with 10.2.4 (10.3.4?) and I am playing Halo now. It seems slightly improved. Not enough though can't wait to get that ATI 7000 out there and the new 9200 128MB in..
"
If any other IDE PCI card user has seen problems with the 10.3.4 update, let me know. (Include your specific card model and firmware version in reports. Acard.com has the latest firmware updates, drivers, etc. for their cards which are sold by SIIG, Miglia and Sonnet also. (Sonnet's RAID cards are Acard made, their non-RAID cards are promise chip based however.)
(added 5/28/2004)
"I installed 10.3.4 on 7 various Macs and had difficulty on one. After
the install, Safari would repeatably crash on some (but not all) web
pages; Mail and Keychain Access crashed repeatably just after launch.
Re-applying the incremental (non-combo) update seems to have solved the
problem.
Given the prevalence of problems reported by others solved by
re-installing (either the whole update, or just single apps like
Safari), I have a unproven hunch that occasionally something goes wrong
with the final optimization step in an install. In my case, I suspect
that the prebinding for the keychain framework was mangled and
rerunning the installer simply reran prebinding which worked the second
time. Even with a cleanly installed OS on the problematic machine, it
regularly has issues like this after applying an update. It makes me
wonder it has a hardware (memory, maybe) problem that is not normally
encountered except when doing something very resource intensive like
the optimizing.
-Steve W
"
(added 5/28/2004)
"After updating to 10.3.4 my 14" G4 iBook does not retain its display
calibration profile after Screen Saver is activated and deactivated.
The display looks very bright and washed out. I need to reselect the
profile in the Displays preferences nearly every time after the Screen
Saver is activated. There doesn't seem to be a solution to this other
than not using Screen Saver. Another iBook user also reported this
problem on the Apple Discussions forum.
Thomas S.
"
Firewire Drive Boot Problem
(added 5/28/2004)
"Won't let me start up from external firewire drive. One is 20 gig inside Mce enclosure and the other is 40 gig in a hotdrive enclosure.
It will see both as having valid systems and allow them to be selected as start-up disk but then just get to grey screen and lags forever never going anywhere, get only spinning ball.
Kent C.
"
(added 5/28/2004)
"The USB communication between my dual USB iBook G3 500 and my Logitech
optical Wheel Mouse keeps dropping since the 10.3.4 update. It works
for a while, fails and I need to reconnect the mouse for it to work
again. I don't use any special Logitech driver, just OS X's built in
mouse support. Is anyone else experiencing similar problems?
Thanks for your excellent service,
Lisa
"
Anyone else seeing this?
(added 5/28/2004)
"Installed on G4 (AGP), and a TiBook. Downloaded it to the desktop to install. The first thing I noticed was that several things improved in the speed department. Applications launch faster. The second thing was that USB print sharing started to work again, and Airport connection to D-Link wireless router was improved (after waking from sleep).
Now, I may be mistaken, but it seems that Safari works better/faster. I have no concrete evidence on this, but just my observation. My mail, through Entourage, has not been giving me send/receive errors, yet. iPhoto seems to load faster, too (I have an 1850 picture library).
OS X is a far more stable and trouble free OS than ever before, and it seems the update installers are getting much better. For the first time I felt good not using a Combo.
Later, SCB
"
(added 5/28/2004)
"re: existing responces:
mail.app - auto complete bug. i don't have this.
adaptec 2906 scsi cards have worked fine in two of the machines i use
(since 10.0 i think) but since 10.3 it hasn't shown anything in the
Apple System Profiler. (a previous report from a 2906 owner
said 10.3.4 was the first OS X version that reported the card
correctly.)
Airport Extreme in 12" Powerbook with >1gb ram. i still have problems
connecting to networks after sleep. :( i have an original 12pb with
1.12gb ram. (I had this problem in 10.3.3 after the Airport 3.4/3.4.1 update but for me, 10.3.4 seems to have fixed it.-Mike)
10.3.4 seems good. doesn't fix the security exploits which is
disappointing (the example at unsanity.org still works).
thanks for the great site.
-alex k. photography + code
http://www.low-fi.org.uk
http://www.photography.kiad.ac.uk
http://www.low-fi.org.uk/alex
"
Mail App
(added 5/27/2004)
"I notice that after updating to 10.3.4, the Mail application takes a
looonnng time auto-completing addresses that, in the past, would be
completed instantly. It's a serious slowdown as I e-mail certain people
dozens of times throughout the day, and it now takes about five seconds
each time to simply address the e-mail.
David B.
"
I use Entourage in OS X, so I don't know if this is common or not. (a later report above didn't note this problem.)
2940UW SCSI Card:
(added 5/27/2004)
"My Microtek ScanMaker 5 stopped being recognized in VueScan when 10.3
came out. At work, my Fuji Pictography 400 also stopped being
recognized. These are both SCSI. My Fuji rep said that Apple broke
something in SCSI in 10.3. As the Fuji was connected through an Adaptec
2940UW, which has no drivers for OS X, I figured that Apple removed
some support files that allowed it to work. I then connected it to the
2930U in the machine, which was working with my UMAX Powerlook 3000,
but no luck.
It's just funny though that my 2940UW's in two machines have always
worked fine, even though Adaptec has always said that they are
unsupported under OS X, and Apple had no Kext files for them, and I
couldn't find any other files that would explicitly be used for them.
I tried my scanner last night after updating to 10.3.4, and now it
works. When I get back to work on Friday, I will update the machine
with the Fuji, and let you know.
Mel G.
(he later wrote)
As I mentioned previously, at work I have a G4 (dual 533) with 2940UW
and 2930U cards. Before 10.3 my Fuji Pictography worked from the
2940UW, and my UMAX from the 2930U. After 10.3 (through 3.3) The Fuji
neither worked or was seen in Profiler, but the UMAX worked, though
Vuescan no longer had the name of the scanner, just 1000 TE.
With 10.3.4, the scanner is neither seen in Profiler nor Vuescan. The
Fuji is seen in Profiler with both cards, but the plug-in in both
Photoshop 7 and CS can't find it. So unlike at home, no joy here.
"
An earlier report from a 2906 Adaptec card owner also mentioned
it was recognized for the first time after the 10.3.4 update. (Adaptec
some years back listed several cards that would not have OS X support,
including cards like the 3940UW and I think the 2940UW.)
iDVD (assuming none of the past movies were already
encoded previously)
(added 5/27/2004)
"I updated last night and then started a new imovie project for a 1 hr
movie. I added 37 chapters then exported to idvd by clicking on the
button in imovie. idvd opened up and I selected my menus and settings
and clicked burn dvd. Well I waited for 45 minutes, not for it to finish
because I know it takes like 4 hrs with idvd 4. I was reading about how
it took 14 hrs on some people's computers on the web and then after 1hr
and 35 minutes it was completed. WOW! I was in a state of shock. I
figured it was a dud so I tried it in my dvd player and it worked
perfectly. Looks like quality was improved also. This is a HUGE
improvement. I can't believe it. I was even using 2x media so if I used
proper 4x media it would have finished 15 minutes faster.
No problems found with the update at all. One note though, I never
updated quicktime to 6.5.1, I am using the earlier version. Also, I
didn't update iTunes either.
Computer: Powermac G4 Dual 1.42ghz with 2gb ram and 2x250gb hard drives, Radeon 9000 64mg.
I modded my system with new fans and a fan speed controller to bring
temp down to 40C. Yep thats not a typo. I put a 120mm fan on the back,
replaced the 120mm fan inside, added 2x60mm fans in the front, removed
the front speaker and some plastic at the bottom to improve airflow and
added another 60 mm fan on the back of the power supply vent. Hooked
them all up to a vantec fan speed controller mounted in the extra drive
bay under the superdrive so all I need to do is pull the flap door down
to access the fan temps. Also removed all the plastic on the back of the
computer so that it is less restrictive. Was 59.5C and now at full plast
its 40C. WIth fans on quiet slow its 45C. Not bad.
OS: Latest Panther 10.3.4
Dave
"
(added 5/27/2004)
I've ran some XBench 1.1.3 comparisons between 10.3.3 and 10.3.4 on
my iMac DV 400 and came up with some interesting results. Namely,
the floating point basic test seem to be approximately 30% slower on
the new OS while all the other CPU benches are a little faster (5% or
so). Also, the random disk tests are down about 30% across the board
while sequential tests remain about the same. OpenGL seems to be
down a bit too but I'm not sure whether its significant or not. Ran
both tests twice on each OS to make sure that everything was cached
up. Other variables: Norton File Saver installed but not enabled,
journaling off, 576mb RAM, 7200 RPM 40 gig drive (not stock 10gig).
Best regards, Tim"
Sometimes I've seen larger than expected run/run variations with Xbench in the past. (Even when run repeatedly after a clean reboot each time.) Disk tests (in my experience) especially seem to vary more than normal at times even when there's been no change in the system/disk (no updates writing files, no added files/fragmentation, etc.).
(added 5/27/2004)
"just a pain but had to run patchburn2 again
g4/400 samsung-352b52x2452x16x
-machippy
"
(FYI: Patchburn II for panther (burn support util for unsupported drives) download is available here.)
USB Speaker Volume Control:
(added 6/1/2004)
"
iSub and sticks are hard to control voume wise. The slider in the
control panel and menu bar adjust balance and sometimes volume at the
same time.
Thanks, Stephen"
(added 5/27/2004)
"
Mike, Just a follow-up that 10.3.4 does not fix the issues that were introduced with 10.3.3 when using external USB speakers. I still have no volume control of the external speakers through software and the volume is basically "stuck" on high no matter where I adjust the volume controls. I've copied the original description below.
- Jeff
(copy of his past problem report from the 10.3.3 feedback page follows)
Just read your reports to see if anyone else is experiencing what I am, and sue enough there was at least one report (below). But basically after upgrading to 10.3.3 on my TiBook 667 I have lost the ability to control the volume of USB speakers. With the speakers plugged in I either have full volume or mute. None of the software or keyboard volume controls have any affect other than the mute.
Worst part is that if not muted the volume is at the max (they volume sliders graphics do not match the output as they seem to be functionless).
If I detach the USB speakers the internal speaker and volume controls work as expected. I'm not using any special drivers or sound software of any sort. I tried all the usual suspects such as the Audi/Midi Utility, unplugging, etc but everything is set just fine and should work as it did before the upgrade.
"
Anyone else seeing this problem?
(added 5/27/2004)
"Just wanted to let you know that I updated all of my mac's last night. Everything went very smoothly.
Updated were: Dual 2.0 Ghz G5, B&W (800Mhz, Rad 7000), iBook (original), iMac (rev b.400Mhz upgraded CPU)
Just thought I would let you know, since most people don't speak up when everything works fine, they only write when something goes wrong.
Gil B.
"
(added 5/27/2004)
"Installed on 2 macs (G4 733 and a G3 iBook/800). The G4 was fine, the
iBook had a kernel panic during the "optimization" phase. On reboot
everything was fine, except that Disk Utility (and image mounting) was
broken. Installing the combo updater fixed whatever the problem was.
-Manny V.
"
See above for links to the Combo updater (a common tip for odd
problems with OS X updates was to reapply a combo update).
OpenGL/Game Performance:
(added 6/1/2004)
"
I discovered a bug with opengl performance in general on the 10.3.4 update. My 12" 1Ghz powerbook performs 3D stuff in general (also expos and fast user switching) as expected after a restart, but if I put it to sleep and then wakeup, performance drops about half.
Installed 10.3.0 in an external disk and booted from it... no difference before & after sleep in OpenGL. But after applying the 10.3.4 combo update, the probles is there again.
take a look at this thread:
http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?128@10.1ecwaU5boB6.4@.6894105e
-Oriol"
Command & Conquer Generals (updated w/2nd report)
(added 6/18/2004)
"Mike, I will chime in with a 10.3.4 report.
I was able to play C&C Generals fine with my QuickSilver 2002 Dual 1Ghz (1GB ram w/ radeon 7500) when I had 10.3.3 installed. After installing 10.3.4, I have discovered that game performance has slowed to a crawl. Even the intro menu is jerky where it was decently smooth before. I have not tested any other games as of yet.
-Josh"
(added 6/1/2004)
"Hello Mike, I play Command & Conquer Generals on my iBook G3 800Mhz (with radeon mobility 7500). It's playable in multiplayer, if you love C&C enough. After the 10.3.4 update, Command & Conquer Generals became unplayable: too slow. I think it was about half as fast. The horror!
My advice: do not install 10.3.4, if you are playing C&CG, and have no
secondairy startupdisk you can rollback to.
Running with 640MB Ram, C&CG version 1.0.1
Cheers, Michiel
"
UT2004 reports
(added 5/28/2004)
I did some UT 2004 testing.
1GHz PowerBook Ti G4. 1GB RAM. 64MB ATI Radeon 9000 Mobility (System
Profiler lists as DeviceID 0x4c66 and ROM 113-xxxxx-106)
I used Santa Standard Bench to launch these tests:
All test were against the same install of Unreal Tournament 2004 3186.1.
Asbestos-Flyby
Mac OS X 10.3.3
Resolution Settings Min Ave Max
800x600 Max 35.7 79.1 253.2
1024x768 Max 26.4 65.0 222.3
1024x768 Min 32.2 101.1 282.8
Mac OS X 10.3.4
Resolution Settings Min Ave Max
800x600 Max 38.1 80.9 260.6
1024x768 Max 29.7 67.0 212.9
1024x768 Min 30.2 101.1 276.7
Asbestos-Botmatch
Mac OS X 10.3.3
Resolution Settings Min Ave Max
1024x768 Max 5.26 17.0 41.7
1024x768 Min 8.42 31.9 63.2
800x600 Max 9.02 18.2 41.6
800x600 Min 8.74 32.2 68.4
Mac OS X 10.3.4
Resolution Settings Min Ave Max
1024x768 Max 2.15 20.7 46.9
1024x768 Min 13.9 32.2 64.5
800x600 Max 10.1 21.3 45.6
800x600 Min 14.0 32.6 64.3
You can see, in my case, the differences are miniscule.
Aric F."
There's a Mac UT2004 v3204 update noted in Monday's news, but the
the main thing is that both 10.3.3/10.3.4 used the same version/settings. I asked those that reported lower rates
in 10.3.4 to try trashing the INI file (which fixed the problem
for one reader).
(added 5/28/2004)
Hi Mike, I installed 10.3.3 on a separate partition and did bunch of testing tonight. What I eventually figured out is that I had a corrupted
unreal2k4.ini file. So it looks like my framerates are basically no better or worse when in 10.3.3 or 10.3.4. I believe the actual problem came about when I upgraded to the v3204 Unreal2k4 patch, which apparently didn't like some setting in my ini file. I tossed it out and let 2k4 make a new one and all is well. (Be sure to rescue your Favorites out of your old unreal ini if you do this!)
Also, if you have this condition, it should be incredibly easy to spot.
Normally, I get about 120fps on the initial title screen for 2k4 (the one that has the Join Game, Settings, etc options). But when my ini was
corrupt, I was only getting 18fps! If you see that happening, it is
probably time to replace your unreal2k4.ini file!
- Eric."
I've asked other users that reported big performance hits in 10.3.4 to try trashing the INI file to see if it helps.
(added 5/28/2004)
"Mike, I'm running a stock Dual G5 with 512MB RAM, 160GB HD and ATI Radeon 9600 Pro video card with ROM Revision:113-A13601-126.
Here are the test results for UT2K4 CTF Standard Bench v3.1c. All test were ran as configured by the testing application.
10.3.3
640x480 = 15.718765 / 53.826775 / 109.072319 fps -- Score = 53.373997
800x600 = 15.668968 / 53.365639 / 108.432365 fps -- Score = 53.027493
1024x768 = 15.787296 / 51.631245 / 107.788132 fps -- Score = 51.396057
1280x960 = 15.742689 / 44.340046 / 108.636734 fps -- Score = 44.204556
1600x1200 = 12.598692 / 29.352417 / 98.911774 fps -- Score = 29.355211
10.3.4
640x480 = 9.905299 / 30.873119 / 90.470253 fps -- Score = 30.879436
800x600 = 8.366019 / 25.293066 / 80.880959 fps -- Score = 25.305532
1024x768 = 8.100374 / 24.430513 / 76.552979 fps -- Score = 24.445324
1280x960 = 8.633288 / 23.510847 / 64.795746 fps -- Score = 23.524370
1600x1200 = 8.760098 / 20.793888 / 59.315845 fps -- Score = 20.806585
One thing I noticed is that the 10.3.4 test doesn't get the end of testing fps performance boost that the 10.3.3 test does. On the 10.3.3 test, the fps shoot up quickly at the end of the test whereas with the 10.3.4 test, the fps stay about the same and don't increase rapidly
like the 10.3.3 test did.
WARNING: If you take playing UT2004 seriously do not install the 10.3.4 update until it is fixed. 10.3.4 is a serious performance hit and makes the game unusable with low fps. According to the on-screen fps counter, the middle of the test was getting around 14-fps and maxed
out at in the low 30's in most resolutions.
Todd
"
(added 5/28/2004)
"Hi, since I have update to 10.3.4 on my G4 QS 933 1MB Ram with a 9000Pro, UT2k4 is so laggy. I've lost about 10-15 fps on a game where I had 35 before....
Now UT2k4 is almost unplayable as it did not before
Bassman
"
It may not help but I asked if he tried trashing the UT2004 INI file. (that helped one reader with huge slowdowns in 10.3.4).
(added 5/27/2004)
"Re: 10.3.4 game performance:speculation
Mike, OpenGL driver updates were supposed to fix a bug that prevented a number of shaders from running, especially on nVidia hardware. If those shaders are now running instead of being passed over we are not seeing performance hits, but accuracy improvements. Shaders are expensive performance wise, it would not be surprising at all if running them slowed frame rates as opposed to them being disabled.
The only way to tell for sure would be to run with all shaders disabled in both 10.3.3. and 10.3.4 to see if there is a real decrease or if it is actually an accuracy increase. I don't have UT 2004 so I can't help there, but someone might be able to check if they haven't run the updater yet.
Loren
"
He may have a point (and there's been talk in the past about huge performance impacts with some shader implimentations w/some Nvidia chips) and of course they take a performance hit on any card that supports them. But the low UT2003 performance report below was using
low settings he said. (one reader said trashing his UT2004 prefs/ini file (it will be recreated on next run) helped with severe slow-downs he had. he thinks the last UT2004 update may have corrupted them, but not sure that's a factor in that iBook owner's low UT2003 performance in 10.3.4. (And the default INI file settings need to be checked for settings - can't remember what the default detail, etc. settings are.)
Apple's KBase doc
on 10.3.4 changes notes:
- Improves OpenGL by adding support for OpenGL Vertex Buffer and Replaceable OpenGL entry points.
But there may have been other driver/GL changes.
Halo Performance:
(added 5/27/2004, Updated 5/28/2004 with Tip))
"I'm seeing a 10-15% drop in frame rate in Halo after updating to
10.3.4. This is on a dual 2Ghz G5 with the stock ATI 9600 video card.
Everything besides Halo (the only OpenGL game I play) appears to be
running better, though.
-dale
(I asked what shader/detail settings he was using.)
Everything in Halo under video settings is set to the max. Now, I fixed
it tonight. I had the FPS setting set at 30 FPS. I changed this setting
to VSYNC. Now Halo is as smooth as silk, and I must say, even better
than before 10.3.4.
Again, this is on a 2x2Ghz, 2GB RAM, ATi 9600 and a 20" ACD.
-dale"
(added 5/28/2004)
With a dual 1.25GHz MDD tower and a GeForce 4 Ti, I
saw no significant change in benchmarks with
Halo--30.51fps in 10.3.3, 31.63fps in 10.3.4.
However two things are very noteworthy: FSAA is now
working in Halo with the GeForce 4 Ti, and best of all
causes no performance hit with 2x FSAA versus having
it off (same 31fps benchmark). On the down side, the
zoom bug the GeForce 4 Ti card had a few versions back
in Halo has returned.
Michael O."
(added 5/28/2004)
i have had a major decrease in performance in halo. i could run it with
maxed out settings before the update, and now it is unplayable!
i am running a 1 GHz 12" powerbook g4 with an FX-5200 go with 32 megs
of vram, and 768 megs of DDR SD ram
-Dillon"
I asked what detail/shader settings he was using and if he'd try the "VSYNC" tip above.
UT2003 reports:
(added 5/27/2004)
"This caught my eye on your web site so I decided to see for myself.
I quickly opened UT2K3 demo (I have 2K4 but that loads too slow for a
quick test) and noticed that my never dropping below 60 fps constant is
now at 30-tested in asbestos. (flyby test?)
Sad, for I was already getting bad performance in UT2K4
Dual 2Ghz G5 stock.
-Noah H.
(I asked what graphics card he had (Nvidia 5200, 9600 Pro, 9800 Pro) and what detail settings he was using.)
I'm using the 9600 pro
Graphics maxed (for the demo at least)
16x aniso (filtering)
I tested the botmatch and in game finding the nice drop in performance
Noah H"
May not help but one UT2004 (full version w/latest update) user said trashing the INI file helped fix the big drop in performance he saw (after the 10.3.4 update).
(added 5/27/2004)
"Hi Mike, I'd be very interested to know the results if anyone thinks to Benchtest their UT2k4 before and after upgrading to 10.3.4. It claims to have made OpenGL improvements and have updated ATI drivers, but oddly UT2k4 feels slightly slower to me after the upgrade. Anyone out there game? Bonus points if you're running a G5/2ghz with an OE 9600. :-)
Eric.
PS: Using the 3204 version of 2k4, my Antulus flyby average is approx.
94fps. This is with CacheSizeMegs set to 72mb which seems to provide a
1-2fps boost.
"
Another reader wrote regarding OpenGL game performance:
(added 5/27/2004)
"Hey Mike, I installed X.3.4 on an iBook G3 900 and my Beige G3 Tower @
917Mhz. The tower seems fine but the iBook has been slightly crippled
after running the update.
Since going from X.2.8 to X.3.3 recently I ran a lot of tests
performance wise on my machines. So far after updating to X.3.4 i've
seen a big problem with the iBook and UT2k3. Performance has been cut
in half.
Ok now my iBook is a G3 900 with its RAM maxed out @ 640MB. Processor
performance is on Highest. Heres benches using BenchUT2003 (Low
Setting), Flyby Asbestos, in X.2.8, X.3.3, and X.3.4:
X.2.8:
-28.381348 / 71.373962 / 196.961029 fps -- Score = 66.068672
X.3.3:
-32.995834 / 75.235809 / 202.416504 fps -- Score = 68.523285
X.3.4:
-13.290030 / 33.291866 / 194.109253 fps -- Score = 33.089359
As I said processor performance was on Highest for all of these. So
just incase I ran these a few more times:
-9.880127 / 33.503380 / 196.830200 fps -- Score = 33.287071
-13.927233 / 33.622860 / 198.675873 fps -- Score = 33.400688
-9.613430 / 33.685295 / 200.217300 fps -- Score = 33.461758
-13.904534 / 33.505875 / 198.367020 fps -- Score = 33.288864
Same basic results with exception of the minimal area. So I ran a test
of it with processor on reduced:
-7.793195 / 25.078791 / 143.102570 fps -- Score = 25.070337
So far UT2k3 is the only program really showing problems like this
after X.3.4. I ran Halo and tests came out the same as X.3.3 in it so
its not affected. Nothing was wrong on my Beige G3. All the tests were
fine there so it must be something affecting the iBook. Hopefully some
others will give you similar results who own similar machines. Maybe
someone can post results with UT2k4 after the X.3.4 update. Wish I had
gotten 2k4 for my Macs now.
Overall, worst OSX update i've ran since X.2.2 which crippled my Beige
and made me reinstall the entire OS. Nice updated drivers Apple...lol.
-NC
(he later wrote)
Yeah all low detail and 640x480 res. When I actually play it I run just bout the same. Maybe boosting a few details here and there but otherwise, I try to get as much of performance as possible on my iBook.
"
I asked him if moving his UT2003 ini file out to the desktop (to have a fresh one created at next run) helped.
If anyone else has run before/after tests in UT2003, UT2004 or other
OpenGL games - let me know. (I asked NC if he'd tried reapplying a combo update, repairing permissions, trashing prefs, etc.)
(added 5/27/2004)
"Prior to 10.3.4 my iSight webcam would not work when plugged into the front firewire port of my Dual G5/2g. This now seems to have been fixed :)
-Tony G.
"
VPN via PPTP:
(added 5/27/2004)
Hi Mike, One problem that appears to be fixed for me is VPN connections via PPTP. They hadn't been working since 10.3, and now appear to be
fixed. I had kept a Jaguar machine around for these types of
connections (Mac to Windows VPN), and that is no longer necessary.
Best Regards, Darryl S."
AFP/SSH Problem:
(added 5/27/2004)
"After applying the update to both by Dual 867 MDD and my crusty old
Lombard I no longer seem able to make an AFP connection from one to the
other by sending the password via SSH. I get a warning the the remote
machine doesn't support the security feature. Previous to the update
passwords were being passed via SSH.
Cheers, gurple
"
Anyone else seeing this problem?
Adaptec 2906 SCSI Card:
(added 5/27/2004)
"I updated to 10.3.4 this morning. One thing I noticed is that in the
Apple System Profiler, it shows my Adaptec 2906 SCSI card as a SCSI
card in the PCI slot. With 10.3.3 it just reported "unknown"
I have yet to attach anything to the card, but I will sometime in the
next week. I mainly use it for a Kodak 8670 printer, which uses a SCSI
connection. I also have Zip, Jaz and CDRW drives I can test with.
Jon"
Safari Problems (not common - I've had no safari problems on 2
machines here)
(added 6/1/2004)
Since updating my 12" 867Mhz G4 Powerbook to 10.3.4, I'm having trouble
with my second monitor (mirrored). When viewing websites on Safari, as
I scroll up or down, one of two things can happen. Either the screen
blurs a few lines together until I scroll back and forth a bit to clear
it up, or the screen flashes white very briefly (but distractingly!).
I'm in a rather unique situation, as the monitor has been broken in my
PB for almost 4 months, so there's no way for me to see if the blurring
or flashing is also happening on the built in LCD.
I'm writing in hope that someone (Apple?) will soon release a fix.
Joel"
(added 6/1/2004)
"iBook 12" 800Mhz (Late 2003)
640MB RAM/30GB HD/AirPort Extreme
Nothing of the unusal.
10.3.4 and the new(?) Safari gave me a HUGE problem, nothing like i've
ever experienced before. When i edit textboxes (ie. reply to a post) at
my favorite forum (64bits.se/forum) my precious iBook just hangs, 3 out
of 5 times roughly. Sleep-LED turns on and screen goes either black or
descrambled. I first suspected a bad installation, reinstalled. Sam
problem, then i tested the memory, nothing wrong there either. Then,
today i installed Firefox just to test, and, guess what... it worked
Safari is fine with EVERY textbox sans the ones on 64bits' phpBB-forum.
Now, this is wicked :D
i guess i'm stuck surfin' 64 with firefox until a new version of Safari
comes out... just wanted you to know.
-Christoffer"
(added 5/27/2004)
Hi Mike, I was having frequent Safari crashes and bad system behavior on my MDD Dual 1.2ghz Powermac, and was hoping this update would make it more stable. After installing it I suffered another sudden Safari crash.
I think I found a solution you might pass on to others. I started looking into plugins that affect Safari, and ran across duplicate Java plugins, evidently when I upgraded to java 1.4.2, the installer did not remove the file Java 1.3.1 plugin settings, located in Utilities/Java/Java 1.3.1 Plugin Settings. (I have no Safari problems in 10.3.3 or 10.3.4 so far - and my system also has
both a Java 1.4.2 plugin settings and Java 1.3.1 plugin settings file.-Mike)
Things have been very stable since yanking this file and
placing it on the desktop. I also removed all Macromedia file
(shockwave) files but don't think this has had as much detrimental
effect as the Java issues.
Take care, Fred"
An earlier report follows:
(added 5/27/2004)
I just installed 10.3.4. After reboot, Safari quits before it gets to a window. I have tried a number of times after shutdown and reboot and on a different user. The triangle below the icon flashes then goes solid for about 4 seconds, disappears, then I get the Safari has unexpectedly quit.
Rick L.
Power Mac G4/733, 896MB RAM, 10.3.4
(I asked if he was running any 3rd party Safari mods/addons, etc..)
I dumped the application and reinstalled the Safari 1.2 download from
apple and it cleared the problem. thanks for your reply, it keyed me into the solution."
DVD Player Blocky Playback w/9800 cards: (9700 Pro may be affected also considering past history.)
This reader said the original tip (for 10.3.3 before ATI released the fix) of using the 10.2.x DVD Player App solved the problem:
(added 5/28/2004)
"I just replaced DVD Player with ver. 3.2 as traditional now with Apple
updates, and it fixed the breakup problems as usual. I only extracted
the app to a folder in the Applications folder. I didn't install it
from Pacifist.
Mel Gross"
When I saw this originally in 10.3.3 w/9800 Pro retail card, I just
copied the 10.2.8 DVD player app over to my 10.3.3 volume (apps folder). That MDD system had a disk with 10.2.8 and one with 10.3.3 which made it easy. I renamed the 10.2.8 DVD player to add a "V3" before copying it over just to retain the later 10.3.x version awaiting a fix.
"Mike, I've updated my Quicksilver 2002 from 10.3.3 to 10.3.4, and again experiencing the same issue; blocky images appearing during DVD playback.
Thanks to the ATI update this issue was once addressed, yet again Apple has made it happen. I wonder if others who had this problem before are in the same state.
Regards, Taro
"
Several 9800 owners have written that the problem is back
and the past ATI hotfix for the problem in 10.3.3 won't install in 10. 3.4. (I asked one reader if he'd tried reinstalling the previous fix - no go). I wonder if (like before), the DVD player version from 10.2.8 would be immune to the problem. (After a reader tip on that when 10.3.3 was first released/before ATI posted the fix, I tried that and it had no blocks/artifacts.)
"On no, here we go again. The DVD blocking artifacts are back with the Radeon 9800 Pro Retail video card. I am using a Dual 1 GHz Power Mac with the 9800 Pro card. I also have a new 15 inch Powerbook that does not have the same problem. Like I said, here we go again. Nuts!
Thanks, Steve
"
"I just installed 10.3.4 and I have visual corruption using the Apple
DVD player with my Radeon pro 9800 retail card.
Best wishes, Willy
(I asked if he tried reinstalling the ATI hotfix for 10.3.3)
I did try to apply the hotfix but the installer will not let me
install it claiming any version after 10.3.3 will not need it...
This is a fresh install of Panther.
To play DVD's I am using right now VLC 0.7.2. and the picture is perfect...
"
Airport Improvements: (one later report dated 5/28 above
noted he still had the wake from sleep/reconnect problem - and note there's a later Airport Extreme update available via Software update that fixed the problems some PB owners with >1GB of ram had with AE connections.)
"One of the most important fixes (in my opinion): AirPort connections are stable now, even if you have got more than 1GB RAM in your Mac. (note - some later reported this issue was still not fixed, but
a later Airport Extreme update 3.4.2 seems to have solved that.) This has been a big issue within the last days, were several users reported unstable Airport connetions since they upgraded their Macs to 1GB+ of RAM.
Regards from Germany, Oliver
"
I never had the unstable Airport problem (w/3.4/3.4.1) on a 3.5GB RAM G5 system or a 1.5GB RAM MDD G4 - but did see a problem with reconnecting to the base after waking from sleep. That problem -seems- fixed so far. Checking ASP shows the Airport and Airport Extreme (Airport2) extensions have the same version number and date as before (3.4/3.4.1 resp.) - so something else fixed that.
M-Audio (USB Audio) Transit: (Updated with more reports)
Another Transit owner that reported problems in 10.3.3 wrote that 10.3.4 helped:
(added 5/28/2004)
Hi. I wrote a while ago with issues with my M-Audio Transit. DVD Player
would crash when loading the menu of a DVD, if the sound output was set
on digital out. This was 100% reproducible before, and would always
crash in the same spot. I just tested with several DVDs, after updating
to 10.3.4, and none of them crashed. Looks like I finally have a fix
after almost 5 months of pulling out my hair. :-)
(name withheld by request)
"hiya, i had same problems with transit and ibook;crashes on connecting after sleep etc etc
but osx ipdate 10.3.4 released today has fixed it so tell others !!
-alan
(I asked Alan if he was using the m-audio drivers or had removed them. )
yeah,latest drivers (which were useless - kernel panics etc etc) but as
soon as i installed osx revision it all works beautifully. i've plugged
and unplugged after putting ibook to sleep both sleep yesterday and
today and its all working fine, no more kernel panics!
i didn't remove the m-audio drivers cos to be honest i wouldn't know
how to get the transit woking without them
but they're working now with osx revision so i'm happy
alan
"
If anyone else is using a Transit with m-audio's drivers in 10.3.4, let me know and I'll update the previous page of Transit owner feedback.
Reminder on USB Device Tip:
"Hi Mike, Myself and others have been having problems with USB audio devices (Creative MP3+, iMic, etc) not showing their outputs, and some other USB devices not showing up at all directly after installing 10.3.4.
Seems that the usual unplugging them and plugging them back in, or
restarting the machine sorts things out.
Thought this may help a few
people from not pulling out too much hair ;)
Cheers, Ben B.
"
That tip has helped in the past with USB printer problems also (after an OS X update).
Norton Utils/SpeedDisk Reports
"Norton Utilities and Speed Disk are broken with the update. The disks aren't shown again which was supposed to be fixed. I have the latest versions of all the components from SystemWorks 3.0.
-Michael
(he later wrote)
Apparently the SystemWorks problem was only after the initial restart
from installing it because after subsequent restarts it works normally
again for me. I have noticed a huge slowdown in Call of Duty though
and my keyboard stopped working a couple of times during the game but
the mouse continued to work (mouse is plugged into keyboard). I had to
disconnect the keyboard from the USB extension cable and reconnect and
it would work for a few minutes and stop working again. After a
subsequent restart it stopped working again but it came back and worked
again the rest of the night. I'm not sure if my keyboard is going bad
or it was the update.
-Michael
"
Another reader replied to this saying 10.3.4 "Speeddisk 8.0.2 works on my G3 beige 10.3.4 (one reader says no, perhaps not 8.0.2)"
And another NU/SD owner also said no problems (I've asked what
versions he's using)
(added 5/27/2004)
"I downloaded and installed the OS 10.3.4 Combo Update on a G4 Dual
1.25MHz MDD . Seems a bit quicker that 10.3.3, especially on Safari.
No additional problems with Norton Disk Doctor or Speed Disk nor with
any other software, as yet.
(I asked what versions of NU/Speed Disk he's using)
I am using the current version, 8.0.2. When run from the startup disk, neither Speed Disk nor Disk Doctor run as well under OS X as they did under OS 9. Disk Doctor always reports a VHB error which doesn't exist. and Speed Disk leaves more files untouched that it did under OS 9. According to Symantec it is, to paraphrase, just the nature of the beast. When using the Norton CD to startup and run the utilities, it works much better.
After booting up I found that my VST portable Firewire Zip 100
(Orange and Red) failed to mount any Zip disks, although it would
work electrically - accept disks and eject them by way of the eject
button on the drive. I tried the unit on another computer, as well as
another Firewire buss, yet it failed to mount either with OS 9, OS
10.3.3 or OS 10.3.4. Several utilities would not recognize an
inserted disk although Apple System Profiler recognized the drive. I
substituted a similar drive which worked perfectly. Apparently a bad
drive, although the timing is a bit strange.
I would be interested to hear of any similar stories.
Thanks for a great site and for all the vital information you have
been providing on a regular basis.
Regards, Ken M.
"
Nvidia Card Owners losing Higher Refresh Rate Options:
Another Shareware utility for lost monitor modes:
(added 6/16/2004)
"With the stock Geforce2 MX and an Envision EN-910 19" monitor on a G4 867 Quicksilver, after the 10.3.4 upgrade I not only lost the higher refresh rates on high resolutions, but also the resolution I had been using, 1152X870, as one report already noted with the Geforce 4.
(I replied back that
http://voodoofx.all.de/displayconfigx/ had helped other
Nvidia card owners with lost modes/refresh rates after the 10.3.4
update and he wrote:)
Thanks, Mike for the reply. Since I sent my prior report, I discovered an alternate shareware program, SwitchRes, which restores the ability to use the resolutions that were available in 10.2 Jaguar (but only a few of the higher refresh rates). It does however, allow you to create custom settings and even assign them to specific applications. It has a handy icon in the menu bar to change resolutions quickly, and there is a ten day free trial before sending the $15 shareware fee. It's available at http://www.madrau.com/. (switchres was originally a utility for OS 9 noted in the FAQ here some years ago, but now has an OS X version called "SwitchResX".)
I also applied an Nvidia ROM update, which had no effect. (the last Nvidia card firmware update was to add support for the Cinema HD 23in LCD, noted in the FAQ here when it was released in Nov. 2002. The flasher was updated since then for 10.3.x compatibility.) The problem with jerky video in Classic applications remains, and I have discovered that SPSS (Statistics program) is now so slow as to be completely unusable after the update, but I assume that the SPSS problem is unrelated to the video problem.
Thanks, David
"
It may not matter (I don't use classic anymore), but I asked David what version of the Nvidia OS 9 extensions he had (he later wrote nvidia extensions 3.0 v1.1). Version 3.5.2 I think was the latest version apple shipped on some MDD systems that could boot to OS 9.x, but 3.5.2 was never (to date) publicly released, although the FAQ's video cards section has a download link. (v3.5.2 also fixed the hangs booting to OS 9.x with some OEM Nvidia cards in older G4 Towers.)
The displayconfigx utility ($12 to register) was used with success in the earlier report below .
This reader noted a fix for lost refresh rates (shareware util mentioned in the news page last year and still in the FAQ's Displays/Monitors section)
(added 6/1/2004)
"This is in response to the Nvidia Card owners losing higher screen
resolutions:
I have this problem too, my Trinitron now can only run 1280x1024@75Hz,
when it supports much higher than that. I purchased DisplayConfigX
($12) from
http://voodoofx.all.de/displayconfigx/, and that's
circumvented my problem.
Robert C.
"
Adding this FX5200 owner report here also (didn't mention loss of higher refresh rates but commented on sluggish performance in 10.3.4)
(added 5/28/2004)
"just updated to 10.3.4 on my dual 1.8 G5.
Attached is a pdf of my monitor set up. (Nvida FX5200 with dual CRTs running 1024x768/32bit mode) Not the best monitors in the
world, but before .4 i had no issues with the reaction time of moving
files, resizing windows, etc. Now, everything seems to have a delay on
it.
Jac C.
"
(added 5/28/2004)
"I have an OWC (sold) 32MB Nvida Geforce4MX card.
I used to have 1152x870@85hz on an MEA 1786FD (a .au mitsubishi).
Now this option is just gone.
Nils
"
(added 5/28/2004)
"i also experienced a loss of available refresh rates. i was running
1600x1024@85Hz then after installing the 10.3.4 update i was reduced
to 76Hz, and all the other refresh rates were grayed out for that
resolution.
I have a stock G-Force2 and a LaCie electron19blue III
Hope there is a solution soon - it feels like i can blink faster than
75Hz.. arrgh!!
-Adrian
"
(added 5/28/2004)
"Thanks for the essential site!
I lost several high scan rate display modes on my GeForce4 Ti 4600. It
bothered me enough to attempt the update again with the 79mb combo updater (as has sometimes been suggested elsewhere), but with no improvement. Annoying indeed.
J.B.C. Axelrod
"
(added 5/27/2004)
"Geforce2 MX, 21" CRT, loss of higher refresh rates with higher
resolutions due to 10.3.4 update.
Christian J.
"
A GF4MX owner also noted losing higher refresh rates:
"Mike, Before the update I was able to set my monitor to 1152x870 at 100Hz. Now it only gives me the option of 75 Hz. I am using the stock Nvidia Geoforce4MX on a dual gig G4 Quicksilver model. (Monitor is LaCie electron 19blue3.) If anyone knows a fix let me know.
Mike C.
(disconnect/reconnecting the monitor, etc. didn't help)
"
I didn't see any loss of refresh rates/modes with a 9800 Pro (using Sony FW900) but none of my current machines has an Nvidia card and CRT. If any other Nvidia (or ATI) card owner sees a loss of modes like this, or has a tip, let me know. Thanks.
Restart Problem (not common here)
"
I have a G4 15" Powerbook and used the Software Update panel to update to 10.3.4 and now I am stuck in restart hell. After the update installed it asked me to restart which I did, and up came a dark screen asking me to restart again, I did and the same screen came up again and again and again.
I was able to restart into safe mode by holding down the shift key when I restarted, but under safe mode I have no airport support or volume support. Tomorrow I will back up all my docs and see what Apple Support has to say.
Mark
"
I didn't have any problem like this updating a PB G4 17in (or a MDD G4 or eMac). I asked if he tried booting from a Panther install CD and running Disk utility (repairs). I also asked if he had any 3rd party haxies/OS mods, etc. installed prior to the update.
If the Boot CD/repair doesn't help, I'd try to get a copy of a Combo Updater and apply that.
Mark later wrote:
"I used my 12" Powerbook to download the (10.3.4 updater) from Apples website and transfered it to my VST Firewire drive, plugged the drive into the 15" Powerbook and restarted in safe mode, installed the update from the firewire drive and so far so good.
The update seems to have installed ok and I have turned the Powerbook
off and rebooted with no problem. My guess is that the first install
(from the software update panel) just did not install itself fully.
When I used the stand alone version of the update it corrected what
ever the update panel left out / did wrong.
Mark"
If any other readers have seen fixes (or problems) with 10.3.4, let me know the details. Thanks.
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