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fisherKing · Apr 18, 2005, 12:42 PM

i think it's the HD.
this is a 1.33G 12".

twice in the last week, everything slowed to a crawl.
i heard a small, steady buzz coming from the hard drive area.
clicking on a folder, anything, almost useless.
folder would open minutes later.

did all the diagnostic stuff (disk uti thru diskwarrior).

2o minutes to boot...! backed up, and noticed that, when things stalled, i could get them going again by gently shaking the powerbook...!

hard drive, i think.

any thoughts?

drprat · Apr 18, 2005, 01:05 PM

i've had this exact same problem and have yet to find a real solution... i'm also not 100% sure if it's just the harddrive dying or if it's simply been way too overloaded (i've even read of a theory that it's the cpu).... it happens extremely randomly, maybe once a month.... typically occurs when i have way too many things open and then suddenly you i get this constant clicking noise, which at times has locked up the entire system.... the problem is, i can't exactly recreate the issue, so it's hard to prove that there's something wrong.... also, the turnaround at my local service centre is a couple days and as a uni student i can't afford the downtime...

osxisfun · Apr 18, 2005, 01:05 PM

backup again and call applecare immedidately. Your HD is going bad.

fisherKing · Apr 18, 2005, 01:24 PM

have an appointment at the applestore...and i backed up this morning
(btw, WENT to the applestore in soho at 1050am...& 305pm was the earliest i could get in there....aaargh!)

i really love this powerbook, and earn my living with it. a week without it?
hope i survive...

drprat · Apr 18, 2005, 01:28 PM

would appreciate it if you could us posted on what they say.... thanks..

fisherKing · Apr 18, 2005, 01:43 PM

will do (once the issue is "resolved", of course)

wish apple had a "loaner" program... *sigh*

osxisfun · Apr 18, 2005, 01:46 PM

apple pro care.

i am buying it when i get mine. you would have your machine back brtween 24-48 hrs later...

fisherKing · Apr 18, 2005, 04:25 PM

spent an hour&ahalf at applestore.
hardware tests passed.

since they couldn't see the problem, they wouldn't take it in.
so...
have a case #, and have to wait for it to occur again.
THEN i call apple & they'll ship a box for it...!

intermittent problems suck...

drprat · Apr 18, 2005, 04:32 PM

see, that's what i was expecting.... that's why i never gave in my laptop to my service centre.... it's hard to prove that the problem exists.... check out the apple support forums for pbs... i remember reading about some guy with a similar problem and how felt that it could be related to the cpu... personally, i try to ignore the problem, but whenever it does show up i freak out and hope that it isn't going to cause permanent damage...

what were you doing when this problem first happened? was your system heavily taxed? could you also post the specs of your 12"? i have a rev c, 768, 60gig

fisherKing · Apr 18, 2005, 05:22 PM

Originally Posted by drprat

see, that's what i was expecting.... that's why i never gave in my laptop to my service centre.... it's hard to prove that the problem exists.... check out the apple support forums for pbs... i remember reading about some guy with a similar problem and how felt that it could be related to the cpu... personally, i try to ignore the problem, but whenever it does show up i freak out and hope that it isn't going to cause permanent damage...

what were you doing when this problem first happened? was your system heavily taxed? could you also post the specs of your 12"? i have a rev c, 768, 60gig

i have a revC, 1.25g ram, 60G hd (toshiba).
maybe 6-7 hours of heavy use, then the slowdown started...
so, will watch for it again, and call apple asap, get this shipped out.

meanwhile, have to reinstall everything as i'd wiped my stuff in anticipation of giving this up this week...!

kcmac · Apr 20, 2005, 12:19 AM

I have a rev A 12" PB. It started to slow to a crawl and the drive sounded like it was bubbling, grinding or making popcorn. Like yours, it was taking forever to open anything or to boot. It was insanely ridiculous. It was also getting warmer than usual.

I was lucky to get a complete backup. It died almost immediately after that. I took it into the Apple store here in Kansas City and they confirmed it. That was last Thursday. Status is it is on hold. Think this means they are waiting for parts. (My latch was also broken, missing feet, etc).

Nearly a week without a PB is killing me. Good thing is I will have a new hard drive and Tiger soon.

Hope you get your issue resolved.

fisherKing · Apr 20, 2005, 08:17 AM

2 days later, and i am still working.
but dreading another slowdown...

until then, will work, backup, work some more.

and will report back when (& if) things go bad again...

fisherKing · Apr 26, 2005, 10:05 AM

update!
happened third time in 2 1/2 weeks...
i can get my powerbook to finish saving, copying, etc by tilting it, moving it a bit.
if that isn't the hard drive...!

so, apple has me bringing it to an authorized shop.
still, because it's intermittent, they are being a little difficult.

this happened during a logic recording session!
what good is a computer that i can't rely on?

will post back after alleged repair...

(writing this from roommie's vaio...not bad, actually...but not a powerbook)

bbales · Apr 27, 2005, 08:55 AM

Originally Posted by kcmac

I have a rev A 12" PB. It started to slow to a crawl and the drive sounded like it was bubbling, grinding or making popcorn. Like yours, it was taking forever to open anything or to boot. It was insanely ridiculous. It was also getting warmer than usual.

I was lucky to get a complete backup. It died almost immediately after that. I took it into the Apple store here in Kansas City and they confirmed it. That was last Thursday. Status is it is on hold. Think this means they are waiting for parts. (My latch was also broken, missing feet, etc).

Nearly a week without a PB is killing me. Good thing is I will have a new hard drive and Tiger soon.

Hope you get your issue resolved.

I have the same PB. I've had VERY intermittent slowdown problems, but not the hard drive noises. I guess I better keep watching and listening. Sometimes a restart helps the slowdown problem, but not always. It would be nice to be able to figure out what's causing it, though.

QuadG5Man · Apr 27, 2005, 07:34 PM

My 15" 1.25GHz powerbook's 80GB drive just went out. My one year warranty ran out a month ago. I captured and edited countless hours of video on the PB in that year, so I guess the 4200 RPM drive had been put to the test. It's the first stock Apple hard drive I've ever had to replace.

I bought a Seagate Momentus 100 GB 5400 RPM to replace it with. I hope it's a good drive. It has a five year warranty...

Qg5M

fisherKing · May 3, 2005, 06:35 PM

end of story...
got my powerbook back from the shop, one week and a day after bringing it in.
new harddrive installed...and tiger!
surprised (and i had bought it anyway)

but nice to be back in business (and we'll see if all remains well)