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Salty · Feb 26, 2011, 05:49 AM

Hey all, running a MacBook Core Duo 2Ghz (yah I know it's old but I'm replacing it with a 2.7 i7 as soon as it gets shipped!) and ever since last week I've been having some really weird hang ups in OS X. The entire UI but the mouse will hang. Generally it'll start with an app like Safari, or iTunes, or Vuze and it'll quickly spread to every app becoming unresponsive. Then after about thirty seconds or so everything'll come back.
I've noticed it a fair bit when using NicePlayer (an app that normally behaves extremely well which is why I use it over QT player.) I'll be watching something and then it just stops for like two seconds before the video continues on two seconds later, but if I go back and play that section it doesn't happen again (so I don't think it's the AVI file.)

I'm wondering if maybe it's the HDD, I got a new Samsung 640 gig from newegg around Christmas, but up until now it's been perfect. Any suggestions?

(Oh I should also say my Vuze settings seem to have been reset, though the library was left untouched. I noticed because suddenly my downloads were all going to documents not my movies folder where I had them set to.)

Spheric Harlot · Feb 26, 2011, 06:51 AM

Macs are EXTREMELY sensitive to gear lust.

They know EXACTLY when you're contemplating replacing them, and go into full-out Diva Mode.

(My money's on Vuze. Keep Activity Viewer open in the background. It will eat cycles, but it will give you a chance to see what's going on.)

PhilCat · Feb 26, 2011, 07:03 AM

Last 2 days my MacPro was doing it, but no amount of waiting recovered.
Take a look

Salty · Feb 27, 2011, 05:01 PM

I've also noticed Spotlight seems to be permanently indexing.

seanc · Feb 27, 2011, 06:56 PM

Get SMART Utility, check attributes for re-allocated or pending sectors.
Any idea WHAT Spotlight is indexing?

AKcrab · Feb 27, 2011, 08:10 PM

Originally Posted by Salty

I've also noticed Spotlight seems to be permanently indexing.

This will always cause hangs.

Try going to system prefs > spotlight > privacy. Drag your entire hard drive into the list. Quit system prefs and give your system a minute, it should stop indexing hopefully. Go back into the spotlight prefs and remove your drive from privacy. This should make it start indexing all over again and hopefully finish this time. It might be best for your sanity if you just let the machine sit while it reindexes.

And what seanc said.

Salty · Feb 28, 2011, 05:56 AM

OK so for my new Samsung drive as of Christmas

Power on hours 1294
Temperature 41 C
Pending Bad Sectors 38
Removed Bad Sectors 0
Reallocated 0
CRC error count 0

Thoughts?

Salty · Feb 28, 2011, 06:20 AM

today I started to notice a really weird grinding sound.

OreoCookie · Feb 28, 2011, 06:28 AM

Does it come from the harddrive? If so, don't wait another second, do a complete backup and replace the harddrive!

Salty · Feb 28, 2011, 12:52 PM

Time machine backup is already fine

And I'm not sure where the grind is coming from

seanc · Feb 28, 2011, 12:59 PM

RMA HDD - it's screwed.
Sell replacement, buy Western Digital and don't buy Samsung again.

Keep Time Machine backup up to date.

Salty · Feb 28, 2011, 05:16 PM

RMA?

I actually like the drive. And the last Western Digital I bought died after a year. I just need to find out how to do the warranty for it.

seanc · Feb 28, 2011, 05:17 PM

Return Material Authorization.

Either way, it needs to be removed from service.

PhilCat · Mar 1, 2011, 04:07 AM

Originally Posted by Salty

I've also noticed Spotlight seems to be permanently indexing.

I'm not sure where to see indexing, but it did make me check
Spotlight preferences and uncheck everything but documents and PDF's.

Maybe that will speed things up.

P · Mar 1, 2011, 05:34 AM

Originally Posted by Salty

RMA?

I actually like the drive. And the last Western Digital I bought died after a year. I just need to find out how to do the warranty for it.

I think I've had every brand of drive fail on me at least once by now. Maybe not Seagate, but certainly the others. There are bad drives from everyone, and the only WD drive that failed on me seemed to be related to the firmware on the external chassis rather than the drive mechanics, and they were very professional about it, so WD is fairly good in my book still.

Salty · Mar 1, 2011, 06:29 AM

Hmmm. I had one fail in my mom's mini after about 8 months. It was a PATA drive. Normally I trust Samsung, so I figured at 50 bucks for a 7200rpm 640 gig drive I'd give it a go. Turns out they want me to ship it to them at my expense which I'm not happy about.

P · Mar 1, 2011, 09:25 AM

Originally Posted by Salty

Hmmm. I had one fail in my mom's mini after about 8 months. It was a PATA drive. Normally I trust Samsung, so I figured at 50 bucks for a 7200rpm 640 gig drive I'd give it a go. Turns out they want me to ship it to them at my expense which I'm not happy about.

I think they all do that, but WD at least sends you the replacement drive first.

seanc · Mar 1, 2011, 03:02 PM

Yeah you always ship at your expense. As P already mentioned, they will advance RMA so you have something to recover your data to and get things up and running quicker.

I will always pay slightly more for a brand if I know their RMA service is better.

Salty · Mar 9, 2011, 04:50 AM

I have no idea how I'd sell the Samsung HDDs that I'll get back. Ugh, I should get around to sending those away. Do you think they'll double check to make sure the drives they send me don't have bad sections?

seanc · Mar 9, 2011, 04:06 PM

They'll send you new or re-manufactured drives - they'll be fine.
Sell the old drives on eBay.

Salty · Mar 12, 2011, 01:52 AM

Hmmm, I'm seriously leaning towards getting one of the Seagate Momentus ones, the benchmarks look great! Though assuming the Samsung drives that come back are fine, I'll upgrade the RAM and put in an SSD before I do that.