[MrForgetable]

Well, I am running on a 1 month old 1.33GHz 15" Powerbook, and a couple of minutes ago I had the biggest scare of my life.

Ok, I was on Safari, iTunes, Word, and Adium when when I picked a song on iTunes, the whole computer froze. The mouse wouldn't move, and everything else was frozen solid. Except sometimes the song would come on, then go back off. Since I was working on a document and it wasn't saved, I decided to close the monitor, obviously that didn't work, so I opened it back up, still wasn't moving.

So I close it one more time, and then all of a sudden the song starts to play again. So quickly I open it up, and it freezes again. This time I sense something bad.

I was right. The whole thing just shut down completely. The screen still had burns of the screen I was using I guess so when it turned off, I thought just the monitor had dimmed. But then I heard how quiet the room was, and it was off. I pressed the Power button and the burn went away. But then, it wouldn't start. The whole time I was going "oh darn it, I've got a problem, I'm going to have to go to the Apple Store." It didn't start. So I unplugged the power and I heard a faint sound. I move my ear to the bottom and I hear a sizzling cackling sound, like something was burning. Now, I was really like "****, don't tell me I fried my logic board or something." so I flip it over, set it down, and wait for a minute. I open the screen and press Power one more time, and this time I hear the HD click and the start up chime, and boy, what a relief. I spend 2000 dollars on this computer, and this is what I get in return!?!? I hope it didn't break anything though. Maybe I should go to the Apple Store and just double check. Kind of scary. THe sizzle is stuck in my head.

The good thing, however, is that my problem with apps and windows opening to the back of running windows is gone now. :sigh:

what was this and is there any way i can prevent it?

[MrForgetable]

the funny thing is i don't think it was a kernel panic. maybe it was over heating or something. :shrug:

[El Magnificante]

You're living a good life if this was the "biggest scare."

[MrForgetable]

Originally posted by El Magnificante:
You're living a good life if this was the "biggest scare."

Of course I was exaggerating.

but yeah, it just happened again. on itunes, in the middle of a song, and it freezes. this time I just pressed the power button until it turned off, then waited a few seconds before turning it back on.


But here's something interesting. I went to Terminal and typed uptime and I got this:
21:47 up 3 mins, 1 user, load averages: 0.87 0.59 0.25

.87 load average off of Safari, iTunes, and Adium? Whoa.

[moodymonster]

Its probably a good idea to take it to the Apple store, or a least call Apple about it. The PBs do sometimes 'sizzle'/buzz but in my experience a crash like you describe is very rare - I've had 3 crashes that required a restart since I got my PB 17 nearly a year ago.

If iTunes (or anything) crashes, it shouldn't bring down the whole computer - maybe you have done some system mod? just a suggestion

You also mention you heard how quiet the room was - unless I'm doing something like AAC'ing (new verb!) tracks, the PB is virtually silent. Sounds like something is putting a load on your processor causing the fans to ramp up. iTunes on mine normally runs 2-10% processor while playing.

Being as your machine is brand new, it would be prudent to at least call Apple so there is a record if you have trouble in the future.

hope you get to the bottom of it

[MrForgetable]

Originally posted by moodymonster:
Its probably a good idea to take it to the Apple store, or a least call Apple about it. The PBs do sometimes 'sizzle'/buzz but in my experience a crash like you describe is very rare - I've had 3 crashes that required a restart since I got my PB 17 nearly a year ago.

If iTunes (or anything) crashes, it shouldn't bring down the whole computer - maybe you have done some system mod? just a suggestion

You also mention you heard how quiet the room was - unless I'm doing something like AAC'ing (new verb!) tracks, the PB is virtually silent. Sounds like something is putting a load on your processor causing the fans to ramp up. iTunes on mine normally runs 2-10% processor while playing.

Being as your machine is brand new, it would be prudent to at least call Apple so there is a record if you have trouble in the future.

hope you get to the bottom of it

all I've done to the machine is put a new icon for the macintosh HD and run a theme for Adium.

it does run pretty silent, but there is a slight (very slight), but consistent whirring of whatever's in there. so i wouldn't call it virtually silent. when you lean closer it sounds like a tiny tiny tiny fan, but it could be the harddrive spinning. but the only time it gets any louder than that is when I pop in a CD. then the fans and optical drive go on full blast. i'm guessing that's the "real" fan so it never really bothered me.

18:39 up 43 mins, 2 users, load averages: 0.15 0.28 0.29 is my load average running Finder, one Safari window, iTunes, and Adium (and Terminal). Is that consistent with everyone elses?

i suppose i could bring it to the apple store. but i haven't had any problems since the 2nd freeze of the day, but of course, i haven't been using it. but i'll look into it.

[moodymonster]

Well it seems as though you've got three possibilities

1) fluke

2) software problem

3) hardware

it sounds more like 1 or 2. If you take it to Apple they'll just tell you to reinstall the OS etc. You best bet is probably just to wait and see what happens with it in the future.

Your load averages are lower than mine, but I think mine are up 'cause the macNN entry box pushed safari's processor usage higher than normal. I'd say what you've posted is what I get normally.

If you listen really hard you can hear the hd, that sounds more like what you're hearing.