Macbook pro very buggy since 10.5.3 upgrade

Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
PLEASE HELP

Hello, I am pretty new to mac, and right now my Macbook pro is so buggy it makes my windows machine look smooth. Most of the problems started after upgrade OS to 10.5.3 (although I think it was slowing down prior to this). Here is the list of problems.

-Extremely slow startup (5-10 minutes). When I startup I get the little spinning gear that lasts for about 1 minute(as it normally does) and then the screen goes dark grey and stays there for 5-10 minutes before the desktop finally appears.

-When the desktop finally does appear it has lost the normal desktop background (only shows blue background (I can fix this by changing resolution and then going back to original resolution)

-computer runs slow

-Will not boot from CD - if I try to change to boot from CD from system preferences computer will not restart. If I choose cd by holding down C at startup or choose CD from options after pressing option at startup - computer hangs - never gets past spinning gear.

-different Mac programs in the Utilities folder - if I try to run them get a never ending beachball, I have to shutdown the computer to get control again (this is random doesn't always happen with same program). When I run boot camp assistant I get error that I must upgrade firmware (firmware is up to date and worked fine prior to upgrade to 10.5.3)

-windows xp runs normally from boot camp

- I have tried reinstalling 10.5.3, I have repaired disk permissions, have verified disk - no problems (unable to repair disk as can't boot from CD)



Any other suggestions - I am getting frustrated - I thought this was supposed to happen when I upgraded my windows machine not Mac OS

Thanks,

Sean

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    bclapperbclapper Posts: 237member
    Hmm, I'd back up your files, wipe the hard drive and try a clean install.



    Do you have AppleCare & how old is the machine?
  • Reply 2 of 3
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bclapper View Post


    Hmm, I'd back up your files, wipe the hard drive and try a clean install.



    Do you have AppleCare & how old is the machine?



    My machine is about 4 months old - no I didn't get AppleCare but I think I got it fixed - resetting PRAM seems to have done the trick (why is this trick so hard to find on the apple support site - not something that is obvious to a new Mac user).



    Thanks
  • Reply 3 of 3
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SeanLarsen View Post


    My machine is about 4 months old - no I didn't get AppleCare but I think I got it fixed - resetting PRAM seems to have done the trick (why is this trick so hard to find on the apple support site - not something that is obvious to a new Mac user).



    Thanks



    OK, two reboots later and I am back to the same problem, once again resetting PRAM does fix it. What can be happening to the PRAM to make the computer act like this and how can I stop it from continually happening. I am booting into Windows via Boot camp - can something be happening here that is causing the problem? What is stored in the PRAM that can cause my Mac to act like this (very long startup, slow computer, programs hanging etc)



    Thanks for your help,

    Sean Larsen
Sign In or Register to comment.