My MBP crashes like...3 times a day
Hello all.
I bought my 17 inch MBP last year. November to be exact.
The problem is, my MBP freezes a lot more often than I had expected. In fact, if I were to roughly give a statistic, it freezes like 3 times per day.
If I use the computer longer, it crashes more of course.
The cursor changes into that 4-color pinhwheel all of a sudden, and it spins forever. Nope, waiting for a couple hours didn't help. It keeps on spinning forcing me to press-hold the power button until it shuts off. Then I reboot. Of course, I'm doing that since my force quit didn't work either.
I couldn't dare to take it to the apple center since I really needed the computer all the time. Now that it's summer, I guess now's the time than ever. But I just wanted to share this with any of you who know a lot about macs.
Is this a not-too-uncommon trait?
I mean, I tried to find out the common pattern for freezing. But it didn't help. At first I thought it was the FireFox, but no. Safari froze too. MSN messenger, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, you name it. (at one point, InDesign crashed like every 5 minutes of use. And I had to reboot the computer every 5 minutes) I can be just surfing alone and after some time, at point, it'll freeze. The frustrating part is that it doesn't show any hint of what's causing it. It seems to work fine perfectly and then all of a sudden it fails me. English isn't my first language, so I do switch to my first language to type emails etc, and back to English. (I changed the apple+spacebar shortcut keys to switch languages instead of "spotlight" tool) I think that could be the case too but that's no excuse. These computers shouldn't be crashing on me like that.
So, what should I do?
Any of you had a similar experience? am I over-reacting here? I think it's safe to say that it crashes like once per 2 to 3 hours.
p.s.: This model is Core 2 Duo 17inch MBP model that came out on late October 2006. I specifically chose to get a 100GB 7200rpm hard-drive instead of the default 120GB 5400rpm hard drive just in case this info can give any clue...
I bought my 17 inch MBP last year. November to be exact.
The problem is, my MBP freezes a lot more often than I had expected. In fact, if I were to roughly give a statistic, it freezes like 3 times per day.
If I use the computer longer, it crashes more of course.
The cursor changes into that 4-color pinhwheel all of a sudden, and it spins forever. Nope, waiting for a couple hours didn't help. It keeps on spinning forcing me to press-hold the power button until it shuts off. Then I reboot. Of course, I'm doing that since my force quit didn't work either.
I couldn't dare to take it to the apple center since I really needed the computer all the time. Now that it's summer, I guess now's the time than ever. But I just wanted to share this with any of you who know a lot about macs.
Is this a not-too-uncommon trait?
I mean, I tried to find out the common pattern for freezing. But it didn't help. At first I thought it was the FireFox, but no. Safari froze too. MSN messenger, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, you name it. (at one point, InDesign crashed like every 5 minutes of use. And I had to reboot the computer every 5 minutes) I can be just surfing alone and after some time, at point, it'll freeze. The frustrating part is that it doesn't show any hint of what's causing it. It seems to work fine perfectly and then all of a sudden it fails me. English isn't my first language, so I do switch to my first language to type emails etc, and back to English. (I changed the apple+spacebar shortcut keys to switch languages instead of "spotlight" tool) I think that could be the case too but that's no excuse. These computers shouldn't be crashing on me like that.
So, what should I do?
Any of you had a similar experience? am I over-reacting here? I think it's safe to say that it crashes like once per 2 to 3 hours.
p.s.: This model is Core 2 Duo 17inch MBP model that came out on late October 2006. I specifically chose to get a 100GB 7200rpm hard-drive instead of the default 120GB 5400rpm hard drive just in case this info can give any clue...
Comments
Try the first three, report back. You shouldn't crash like that at all!
just curious b/c this causes my mbp to go bonkers
Normal? Uh, no.... It shouldn't crash at all. You have a bunch of options before you take it back to the Mother Ship. Start from the original install CD,
do I need to use this? the computer never crashes that hard. When I force it to turn off and turn on the computer, everything works fine. It's just that pinwheel keeps on spinning when it does crash. Nothing like the Windows blue screen comes up.
run Disk Utility, Repair Disk, then run Repair Disk Permissions,
So I went straight to Disk Utility, but couldn't do "repair disk" as that option wasn't accessible. But Repair Disk Permissions was. So I did that.
then boot in Safe Mode. Boot from the Hardware Test Disk, run the test. Of course, you should also figure out which shape shifting GUI modifier haxie you installed...
I'm not sure how I can do this. When I restart the computer, how do I do it so that I get "safe mode?" I also couldn't get your last advice(the GUI modifier haxie shape part).
Thanks for the advice though!
My guess is some bad RAM
RAM? could RAM be the culprit?
I hope it's that easy though. Switching the RAMs so that my mac doesn't crash? That'd be the day!
do u ever plug an ethernet cable and have wireless on at the same time?
just curious b/c this causes my mbp to go bonkers
Nope. I don't use ethernet cables nowadays and it still crashes. But even if I did have both on at the same time, that shouldn't be the problem I think.
Could be a thermal problem. Is the heat being exhausted (fans running)? Also, yes it could be RAM. Did the machine come with a diagnostic disk? I don't know if Apple sends them with current machines, but my old G4 came with one. It helped me isolate a bad ethernet port.
well, when the pinwheel refuses to stop spinning, yes sometimes the fan runs rampant. But then again, sometimes it crashes even when the fan is very quiet.
I opened the Applecare packet, and it had a CD in it that had a diagnostic program called TechTool Deluxe. I did that to check everything, and everything was marked "passed." Even the RAM category. But I know the problem is there.
It's been like that for a long long time. It pretty much goes all the way back to the month I first got this computer.
Your problems might very well be thermal related, but it should be up to Apple to find it and fix it.
It's been like that for a long long time. It pretty much goes all the way back to the month I first got this computer.
Why the heck would you put up with that? I gotta tell you, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Why the heck would you put up with that? I gotta tell you, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
I couldn't afford to turn in the computer to Applecare. I really needed the computer all the time. Now that's it's summer, I have some peace of mind.
Besides, it still is very very tough for me to tell the Apple guys as to what exactly is wrong.
I doubt they'll turn the computer on, surf on it a couple hours until the pinwheel starts spinning forever.
I'm afraid that they'll just turn it on, do some tests, try a couple applications, and then say nothing is wrong.
But I know something's wrong. They'll just have to try using it like they do it at home for some lengthy period of time.
If you think that heat may be a cause, get the isat pro widget and check the temps.
Did you install ram yourself?
I also couldn't get your last advice(the GUI modifier haxie shape part).
He meant if you've installed a program like ShapeShifter for adding themes to OS X. those programs can cause instability.
Other things you can check out are your fonts. You can clean your font caches out by booting into safe mode (hold shift key at boot) then reboot normally.
Also check your hard drive. You might not find any errors but I had similar behaviour from a hard drive once. I'd just be using the machine and then the beachball and everything was frozen. No matter how many times I checked for hard drive errors, the tests passed. What it would actually do is freeze during some of the tests and then come back and report that everything was ok. Testing externally would have been the best idea but it was trying to get the hard drive to screw up as I was running the test that was the problem. Eventually, it died and passed the tests all the way until then. If you have an external drive, try running your system from that for a while and see if you get the same issue. Don't access the internal drive though because that will still take down the whole system.
If you don't have a cloned backup, I would recommend it. External HDs are cheap and with the Intel machines you can go with USB or firewire. Then get Superduper and copy your system over. This makes an exact copy of your drive. So even if your HD isn't the problem, you will at least feel safe that if you send your machine back to Apple, you won't lose your data.
What's a kernel panic? I don't think I've ever had one.
That's when the screen scrolls down a grey panel and a box appears in the middle telling you to reboot in various languages. It looks something like this:
http://www.dashboardwidgets.com/show...Panic-1p0f.png
That's when the screen scrolls down a grey panel and a box appears in the middle telling you to reboot in various languages. It looks something like this:
http://www.dashboardwidgets.com/show...Panic-1p0f.png
Thanks, I can say I've never had that happen.
Thanks, I can say I've never had that happen.
If you REALLY want to get one (I wouldn't suggest it), take out the battery while it is unplugged and the next time you turn it on, You'll get that.
1. Turn your computer off.
2. Start your computer and immediately press and hold the Apple and S keys. Hold them until you see a black screen with white letters.
3. Don't press a button until you get a command prompt. Should take less than one minute.
4. Enter in this command, minus the quotes: "/sbin/fsck -fy"
5. It should check and repair your hard drive. DO NOT INTERRUPT! Don't shut it down, it won't take too long, and make sure you are plugged into a wall outlet.
6. When it's done and you are back at a prompt, enter this command to restart: "shutdown -r now"
That might improve your issue.