MacBook Keeps Freezing

By beekay_
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beekay_

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Thanks sn00pie. I'm upgrading to 4GB soon anyway so maybe that will fix the problem. No crashes today so far. Things seem to be fine so I haven't done a fresh install of Snow Leopard yet.

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beekay_

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Reinstalling OS X. Been crashing again. Very annoying. Hope this somehow fixes it.

Chris, thanks for that. I'll keep an eye out on the temperatures. Is there a certain number that I should know that will tell me the component is overheating?

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presence06

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Reinstalling OS X. Been crashing again. Very annoying. Hope this somehow fixes it.

Chris, thanks for that. I'll keep an eye out on the temperatures. Is there a certain number that I should know that will tell me the component is overheating?

Not sure for a Mac, (I'm assuming it's the same) but a PC will shutdown after 80+ Degrees Celsius. So If it's over that there's a problem.

I'm burning a DVD right now on my White MB, and the CPU temp is about 75C, but doesn't go above that.

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Xtreme $niper

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What exactly happens when it "crashes"? I think we would need a little more detail if we're going to know what's going on. Does everything freeze completely, or is it just really slow? Does the mouse still move around? If it still moves around, does anything (like the dock) react to it? Are you able to see via the Activity Monitor or other tool if the CPU is being taxed heavily?

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beekay_

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The mouse moves, but I can't access anything else. Dock freezes. Can't even open Finder or Spotlight. Can't Force Quit an app.

I've done a fresh install of Snow Leopard. But man, I forgot about iLife package. I had the 08 installed, mainly used iPhoto. Is there a way I could install that version again? I have the CD's the came when I bought my MacBook. Could those be used?

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presence06

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It's ont he APPLICATIONS disk. or mine was anyways. Just install iLife and restart. Install the updates though afterwords or iPhoto might yell at you.

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The mouse moves, but I can't access anything else. Dock freezes. Can't even open Finder or Spotlight. Can't Force Quit an app.

I've done a fresh install of Snow Leopard. But man, I forgot about iLife package. I had the 08 installed, mainly used iPhoto. Is there a way I could install that version again? I have the CD's the came when I bought my MacBook. Could those be used?

Yes, there is an option when you insert the disk called "Optional Installs".

Like this:

090108-reinstallapps-screen1.jpg

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beekay_

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What a waste. Reinstall hasn't fixed it. This time, I tried replying to an email from the Mail app and it froze. Cursor spinning, tried to Force Quit Mail app but the Mail app icon greys out and gets stuck there. Opened Firefox but the icon kept bouncing. Finder or Spotlight don't open either.

I don't know what to do now...

I've noticed this is happening after the Mac is turned on after a long period of time. Like I'll wake up in the morning and turn it on, at least one crash is guaranteed. Just went out, came back after 5-6 hours, turned it on and bam first thing is I try to reply to an email and it crashes. Sigh.

Looks like I might need to take it to the Apple store after all.

Do you guys think the processor is dieing or something? The test results for all hardware components is fine though. Argh.

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Corris Veteran

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Don't want to try what fixed it for me do you, lol.

Go to the System Preferences > Spotlight > Untick everything there > Privacy Tab, click plus button and go to the top level and add whatever your hard drive is called (or just select it from the side bar), mine being "Macintosh HD"

This stopped me using Spotlight, which I rarely used but you might, and it stopped the freezing issue I was having, who knows why.

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beekay_

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Dahr, should I try doing that then? I mean, resetting the SMC.

Corris, done. Maybe it'll work for me too lol.

I'm thinking of taking this to Apple store asap. Sooner I can get it fixed, the better.

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Xtreme $niper

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I'd recommend the Genius Bar, though Macs have a habit of always working 100% fine when trying to show someone else a problem...

I think it's a hardware issue one way or another... Given that you reinstalled the OS and the issue persists, the only thing left is to determine what part of the hardware is flaking out. My best guess would be either the RAM or the HDD. If you're covered by Apple Care, you got nothing to lose... except your laptop for a day or two.

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beekay_

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Sadly, I'm not covered with the AppleCare, so we'll have to see how much (if there's a problem) will it cost to get fixed. I already did the RAM and HDD tests and everything seemed fine, unless a problem went undetected. So yeah, will try to take this to the Apple store soon. If it's a RAM problem then okay, fine. I was going to upgrade the RAM anyways.

Going to try the SMC method because one of the symptoms is this:

Fans

The computer's fans speed up quickly and remain at high speed.

The computer's fans run at high speed although the computer is not experiencing heavy usage and is properly ventilated.

And you know, lately, like two weeks-ish now, even browsing a simple website (mainly deviantART) will make the fans speed up. And it didn't happen before.

Thanks again for all your help guys. Really appreciate this.

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presence06

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I agree with the taking it into Apple.

See how the SMC goes and if nothing else see what a Genius says.

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Xtreme $niper

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The fans will rev up when you're on a site with flash. Flash on a mac is very CPU intensive (at least until the new API is made use of by Adobe). So if Deviant Art has any flash ads then there's your answer to that.

I'd say your fans are just doing what they should be doing... which is to rev up when the CPU temp gets too hot.. and the CPU temp would get too hot if something is constantly using around 40% or more of the resources... (I'm just guessing that number out of experience) and if something is stuck in some sort of infinite loop that is using your CPU cycles, then...

When you reinstalled Snow Leopard, did you re-install all your apps along with it?

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beekay_

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In terms of apps, I've only installed the ones I needed for now like: Cloud, Adium, Cyberduck, Tweetie. That's about it. I've decided to hold on for the other apps till this problem is fixed.

And yeah it's gonna suck if the problem isn't experienced by Apple. Coz it's so unexpected when it crashes. But since I've started this thread, it has crashed at least once a day.

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Does your MacBook have the compartments at the bottom that allow easy access to the RAM? If so, try opening that and ensuring the RAM sticks are seated correctly.

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Xtreme $niper

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In terms of apps, I've only installed the ones I needed for now like: Cloud, Adium, Cyberduck, Tweetie. That's about it. I've decided to hold on for the other apps till this problem is fixed.

And yeah it's gonna suck if the problem isn't experienced by Apple. Coz it's so unexpected when it crashes. But since I've started this thread, it has crashed at least once a day.

I would say if you can manage it, reinstall the OS again and this time don't install any applications. Just use the ones pre-installed and see if it ever occurs. This probably won't work but it's pretty important for troubleshooting purposes. However, the only app listed there that I don't personally use (or have used... I don't use Cyberduck anymore) is Cloud. And just by looking up a quick description of it, it doesn't look like a simple program. It's possible it could be the source of your troubles.

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beekay_

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No crashing today so far. Thank God. Hope the resetting of SMC fixed it.

Chris, I'll look into it.

Xtreme $niper, but Cloud (file sharing app) came out on April 1 and I've been using it ever since then. But I've temporarily uninstalled it.

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beekay_

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Guess I spoke too soon. Have had enough. Will be taking it to the Apple Store on the weekend.

Just crashed at the grey start up screen. And again, same thing -- I turned it on after 4-5 hours and first thing that happens is a crash.

Edit: Crashed again while using Firefox. Sigh.

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presence06

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Guess I spoke too soon. Have had enough. Will be taking it to the Apple Store on the weekend.

Just crashed at the grey start up screen. And again, same thing -- I turned it on after 4-5 hours and first thing that happens is a crash.

Edit: Crashed again while using Firefox. Sigh.

That's too bad man. Hopefully Apple finds something wrong with it and fixes it, hopefully fast :) Let us know what happens.

Cheers.

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