[hatim]

I was logged into my admin account and using safari. Suddenly, the beachball of death appeared and safari hanged. I waited 5 mins and nothing. Then I opened activity monitor to force quit the "non-responding" application. Before I could do that however, activity monitor itself hanged. Later, mail hanged, and the whole OS hanged. I could only move my mouse.

So I hard rebooted. I have 2 accounts (One admin). Whenver I try to log into the admin account, nothing happens. I just see the mouse and the default wallpaper. Nothing happens...not even after 15 minutes. What should I do? I must recover my documents, mail etc.

My macbook and MAC OSx have been giving me far more problems than any of my previous PCs and windows.



Any solutions?



It might be shapeshifter beta that I had installed 5 days ago. It does not appear in my second account in the system preferences.

edit: Apparently I can't find shapeshifter.

[wpd7]

If the issue does not happen in the other account, here's an easy way to recover.

First thing to try- go to the Library folder on the admin account and rename the folder or move it elsewhere. A lot of freezing in one acct but the other accounts are fine are caused by a corrupt file in the Library. You can then recreate your prefs or move the prefs/data you want one by one back to the newly created Library folder.

If that doesn't work, create another admin account and use it to grab your info to an external drive. The reason I say external drive is that it will wipe all permission based access privs and so you wont have to go through the files and remove the specific user access.

Create a new account and rebuild your profile.

Now if this happens across all accounts, its possibly bad memory more than anything.

If you want to do an OS rebuild- pop in your disk and do an archive and reinstall option- this will rebuild your OSX load without killing your accounts or apps, etc.

[CharlesS]

Try these things:

1. Unplug all third-party USB and FireWire devices.

2. Disable all startup items by holding down the Shift key when you log in.

3. Remove Application Enhancer.framework in /Library/Frameworks - this should disable ShapeShifter.

[OreoCookie]

You can also just log into your regular account and create a new admin user (go to the System Preferences > Users and authenticate). If you don't plan to really use the admin user other than for certain maintenance tasks, this should be fine.

Then after creating your new user, you can delete the old user (either with or without deleting the old admin's home directory). I think this is the quickest way.

[hatim]

Well Mac OSX has gone mad. I created 2 new accounts trying to move the files around. Now, while every other account boots in, everything crashes after like 2 mins. Everything hangs. Safari, user preferences. Its getting ridiculous. I had a few important bookmarks and a couple of mails of importance but I guess I would not be seing them ever again ...Now only if I could get MAC OSX to work again.

Ive lost the install CDs ...I have to take it to apple store.

Windows is working perfectly without hitches. Its probably not a hardware problem. Windows feels so much more comfortable even though its so ugly

[Chuckit]

Well, I imagine Windows feels more comfortable. There's clearly something really odd with your OS X install. I'd probably not like it much either. I'd try doing an archive-and-install of the system unless anybody else has any better ideas.

[hatim]

Originally Posted by Chuckit

Well, I imagine Windows feels more comfortable. There's clearly something really odd with your OS X install. I'd probably not like it much either. I'd try doing an archive-and-install of the system unless anybody else has any better ideas.

Ive not had a very good time with my macbook. Ive had problems like OSX stopping to respond and fans coming on at full speed. However that has stopped since I installed new RAM. And now, new problems

Now the major question is that will The apple store provide me with a spare install CD or make me buy the OS again which Im not doing. Ill use Windows until leapord is introduced or just download a copy (Is it illegal? I already own the OS!)

[hatim]

I left it on overnight and still the beachball rotates! WTF?

[CharlesS]

I agree with Chuckit - if that's happening in more than one account, something's wrong with your installation. Fortunately, if you go to your Apple store, you may be able to convince them to give you some replacement install discs. I would not buy a stock copy of Tiger since you'd probably get the PowerPC version of Tiger where you need the Intel version. You absolutely must use the MacBook install discs and no others. The stock Leopard discs will work when they come out, but you still want to have a copy of the MacBook install discs as they will contain all the bundled software rather than just the OS.

By the same token, I wouldn't try downloading the OS, especially since you can never really trust a downloaded OS 100% (you never know what kind of little "surprises" the rather shady people who run those sites may have stuck in).

[Chuckit]

Apple Store is usually pretty good about helping with discs, by all accounts I've heard.

[hatim]

I visisted the applestore today. The confirmed it was a software (OSX issue) and I will probably have to reinstall the OS.

They agreed to provide an extra copy of the install discs as long as I give them blank DVD-Rs. I bought 2 and left. Later they called saying that the install discs were larger than the 4.7GB DVDs I had bought and that they maybe dual layer discs. Can anybody confirm this?

[CharlesS]

Yeah, if it's a recent Mac, you probably need dual-layer DVD-Rs. I'm surprised they didn't tell you that the first time around, actually.

[hatim]

Its a macbook. Pity Dual Layered DVDs cost $10 each almost. Now I don't know whether to ask them to reinstall for $15 or get the DVDs for the $15 + $20 for the DVDs.

They are willing to not charge me the $15 if I buy applecare protection plan from them. Is it worth the $250? Its probably not though. I also showed them the discoloration and they said they had emailed Apple Asia about it and had not gotten a reply after a week. And now I can't find a way to directly contact Apple and complain. However the macbook has already given me SOO many problems that its probably worth it. Can't decide. I have the money which I can also spend on a new LCD or gaming system or donate it.

[CharlesS]

I'd get the DVDs. It's a lot nicer having the install discs around in case you end up needing them again.

[hatim]

Just when I though it was the OS, windows hangs aswell. The mouse cursor was artifacting and it hanged all of a sudden. ...I can still move the mouse which shows the busy icon (same as osx). Its probably not the RAM becuase Ive tried changing RAMs and Ive been getting different problems. ADATA RAM gave me artifacts all over the screen. Now Im using DDR 533 RAM which came with my Dad's sony vaio which was working perfectly on my mac until all of a sudden.

Now that I'm having a multitude of problems.

Hanging, artifacting, whining, discoloring - Should I ask for a new macbook? (They will have to change most of it anyways if the logic board is also at fault) I bought it on may the 25th.

[OreoCookie]

You should run the Apple Hardware Test and see if that turns up something. Then run memtest on it if AHT sees no problem. Then go to the Apple Store/call Apple to have them fix your problem.

[hatim]

Ive run memtest 15 test on the same memory both on mac and PC!

[hatim]

I took my notebook to apple and they tested the RAM and concluded that it is not the RAM. They will now try and do a clean format or change the logic board if it fails.