OS X 10.9.5 Yesterday’s Update Deactivated Many Safari Extensions

Tags

apple, mac, os x, Safari

For Apple OS X users only:

Yesterday I got 3 OS X updates, they were labeled as Thunderbolt updates/fixes as I recall. Along the way I think Safari (OS X default browser for any non-apple folks reading this far) got an update. I found that many of my Safari extensions “magically” got deactivated with no warning. Not Good! AdBlock, Ghostery (a great anti-spyware/tracking extension, recommended!), Readability, Google Disconnect, Facebook Disconnect, Twitter Disconnect (the last 3 block much of the spying/tracking activities of these companies) were deactivated without my consent. And my default search engine was switched from GoDuckGo (a non-tracking search engine, works well most of the time) to Google.

If you recently got some OS X updates, check your Safari extensions.

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Safari Plug-In Consumed 395% of CPU

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mac, os x, plug-in using all cpu, safari plug-in

I was browsing the internet this afternoon, when my cpu menu meters all maxed out, turning red. WTF?, I’m not doing much, only the Safari browser, apple mail, and calendar applications are running. No Photoshop, no Lightroom.

Here’s how to hunt down the cpu hog:

Run activity monitor, sort by % cpu.  This showed that a Safari plug-in was consuming 395% of the system’s cpu. How can this be more than 100%? My iMac has 4 cores, each of which is 100%.  Activity monitor showed the runaway plug-in is npgtpo3dautoplugin.plugin.

I killed this process. CPU use dropped to a few percent.

Now to prevent it from happening again, I looked in /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/  I found the offender and moved it to the trash. Since this is a system folder, I had to provide an admin password to do this.

To see the plug-ins in your Safari, on the Safari menu click Help and then Installed Plug-ins.

Now you know how to trouble shoot and fix this problem!

My Mac Was Sick, Now It’s Not

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apple, mac, macbook pro

My Macbook Pro, aged around 4 years, decided on 7/4/2011 that it would not like to active its screen.  Black.  It chimed as is started, but that was it.  I did the usual Mac things, like resetting the system controller. Didn’t work.

I took it to Argosy West in Prescott where Tony did some tests and found that the logic board (mother board to you PC folks) was toast.  The good news was this mac had one of the defective Nvidia video chips that were known to be in some macs of this vintage. And the Nvidia chip in my mac failed a diagnostic test Tony performed.  So Apple, to their credit, agreed to replace the logic board for free. Yes, free. On a 4-year-old machine. Wow. I’m happy and am even more of an Apple fan than I was yesterday.

MacBook Pro Battery Woe

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battery, laptop, mac, macbook pro

My just over 2 years old MacBook Pro battery had to be replaced. The computer was raising the “Service Battery” alert. I tried removing and replacing it, but no, this didn’t fix the problem. It ran fine on a/c power, and also on the battery as long as there was over 1 hour remaining. Under that, it would shut off unexpectedly at random intervals.

So I took it to Argosy West in Prescott, where they ran a test on the battery and it needed to be replaced. They ordered one for me and replaced the bad one the next day. I had purchased the 3 year warranty when I bought the computer, but Apple only warranties batteries for 1 year. The new battery cost $130. And Apple won’t sell you a new battery unless you turn in your old one. There must be something of value that they recycle in the old battery. I thought about getting a third party battery (I saw several on the internet) but since I have almost a year left in my warranty I decided to get the Apple battery.

Apple, I’m a bit disappointed. Two years seems too soon to have to replace the battery. And I would have been happy if the 3 year warranty covered it.

Updated my Mac to Snow Leopard

Tags

apple, mac, os x

I just updated the my MacBook Pro to OS X 10.6.2

The only problem I had was with the menu meters I added to my menu that show cpu, memory, and network usage. I downloaded a new version and this was resolved.