Customer Query

[Highlander]

We got an email today asking us.

"We have a MacPro that was upgraded to OXS Snow Leopard as we needed put on some new software on. After upgrading the MacPro is slow and awkward to use. Some programs have trouble loading, main one being Extensis Suitcase for managing fonts. Do you think it would be something you would be able to help us with?"

Of course we want to help every customer we can. Before I reply to the email is there any obvious questions I should be asking?

So far I have:

How old is the MacPro?

Upgraded from what to OXS Snow Leopard?

How old is the Extensis Suitcase program and is it compatible with OSX Snow Leopard?

Any more would be appreciated.

 

[newton]

Yup, all sensible stuff, check the model of the Mac Pro, or get a serial number so you can look up the details.

If they're using Suitcase then they're likely also using Creative Suite and/or Quark XPress, so I'd check which versions of those they're running, if any. Suitcase is one of these programs that can be funny with OS upgrades if it isn't also updated IIRC, same goes for CS and Quark in some cases, so if you can find out versions then you should be able to Google for any incompatibilities with SL.

I'd guess that it's one of the early Mac Pros if they've only upgraded TO Snow Leopard - they probably would have shipped with 10.5 and if it's the first model or so, 10.7 (Lion) is the latest version that will run (convoluted issue to do with CPU being 64bit but EFI being 32bit or something).

OSX typically doesn't need regular reinstalls, but occasionally a 'clean' install can sort problems that have occurred after an upgrade. There can be issues specific to user accounts too, so try a test user or make sure you have a 10.6 boot drive prepared to rule out any hardware or account issues.

Also, if they were running 10.5 until recently there's a good chance that the boot drive (and possibly other HDDs) are long in the tooth, so Disk Utility verify/repair and maybe something like SMARTreporter would be good to run just in case. If it is the original drive, a pre-emptive replacement/upgrade might be an idea.

 

[Highlander]

I've collected the brute It is this model http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_pro/specs/mac-pro-quad-core-2.8-2008-specs.html

The research I have done so far would indicate that the Extensis Suitcase program does not run too well with Mac OS X Snow Leopard v10.6.3.

I will do a little more searching over the weekend and make a start on Monday.

Edit - My customer "thinks" it was v10.5.8 before they upgraded to v10.6.3. Would there be any significance in this?

 

[newton]

If it's the MacPro3,1 (think that is), then it will run Mavericks, though obviously if they're running older versions of Suitcase, CS etc, that might not be feasible without other upgrades, plus SL was very solid, so there's no harm in sticking with it if they don't need the features in more up to date versions of OSX.

10.5.8 was the last version of Leopard, but 10.6.3 isn't the latest release of SL - check for Software Updates to 10.6.8. If it was a particular version of SL that Suitcase had trouble with, that may help (along with any available updates patches for Suitcase of course - have dealt with it but not often).

Good luck!

 

[Dee]

I would make sure you have plenty of RAM installed, Id say 4GB min, any software requiring some sort of graphics is going to take up lots of ram. Ive had costumers come to me only to find out they have less ram then what the machine originally came with, I can only assume some point a dodgy repair guy has taken and kept a ram module and returned machine to costumer, so i would check the specs on that machine itself rather then looking it up on the net.