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ph0ust · Jul 10, 2007, 01:25 PM

hi all. i have a 12" pb that seems to be having serious trouble. basically, the machine seems to just freeze, pretty regularly. for example, while in use, after anywhere from a few minutes to a day or so, it will just freeze the screen and nothing works. the screen is still displayed (showing whatever was there prior to the freeze) and the fan seems to run constantly. all i can do is use a hard shut down (hold the power button down) until it is off, then try and restart. often, the restart will freeze at the gray apple logo screen with the spinning wheel thingy (not a beachball, but the little spinner before os x/login starts.

sometimes it feels hot, but not so hot that it should shutdown or anything. ever heard of this? i performed a disk check and it came out fine. just a moment ago, i restarted my machine and it no longer sees my email or ichat accounts (both those apps load at start up and they prompt me to create accounts now).

this sucks! i am replacing the machine with another... but i don't want this thing to be bricked

any help is really appreciated! thanks.

ibook_steve · Jul 10, 2007, 03:51 PM

Has the machine been opened at all in the past? This sounds like overheating to me due to somebody not reinstalling the heat sink and thermal pads correctly. Get a temperature monitoring program and report back with temperatures before it crashes.

Steve

ph0ust · Jul 10, 2007, 04:33 PM

it has never been opened before other than ram that was added at purchase about 2 years ago.

also, the last reboot apparently nuked my dock preferences?!?! all of a sudden it shows the default dock from install (i.e. all the default apps in the dock when you get a mac).

temps are peaked at:
cpu bottom: 119
battery: 88
gpu: 131
hard drive: 113

but laptop hasn't shut down.

here is a list of screwed up issues:
> email accounts aren't found by mail.app (they are in my account library, but mail keeps prompting me to create them upon boot)
> ichat account seems gone as well, similar to mail it prompts me to create one on boot
> ical calendars are gone
> address book groups are gone. seems the contacts are all there, but the groups i had them in are not.
> dock reset itself to the normal configuration of apps from a fresh install

i think that is it... but will keep looking around until it freezes.

Biest · Jul 10, 2007, 04:37 PM

How full is the HDD? Sounds like that causes the problem because of the missing preferences

ph0ust · Jul 10, 2007, 04:45 PM

60gb hdd; 19gb used; 37gb free.

seanc · Jul 10, 2007, 05:04 PM

Well then I reckon the HDD could just be dying.

fisherKing · Jul 10, 2007, 05:08 PM

check your users folder, bet your stuff is there, and you're getting a 'default' account...
also think it sounds like hard drive failing; similar thing happened to me about 2 years ago, on a 1.33g 12" pb...

ph0ust · Jul 10, 2007, 05:24 PM

the user's account folder has the same 3 it always had (me, another and shared).

i am creating an archive of data right now and it has the temps at:
cpu bottom: 137
battery: 90
gpu: 131
hard drive: 117

machine is slow as heck while it is creating an archive of 7.6gb of data.

a dying hdd would surprise me, but these issues don't seem to be related to the hdd. what happened to all my email/ichat/ical/etc stuff? a dying hdd would affect those would it?

ph0ust · Jul 10, 2007, 05:35 PM

btw, should note that within my user account, the library seems to have all the information for my email at a minimum (don't know where to find it for other things like ichat, ical, etc.) anyway, under mail i can see my accounts, downloads, account preferences, etc. mail just isn't using them apparently????

seanc · Jul 10, 2007, 06:22 PM

You have a current backup right?

The HDD could be failing in such a way that data is being corrupted or put onto corrupted sectors of the platter.

sweatervest · Jul 11, 2007, 12:14 PM

It sounds like a dying hard drive to me too. Check if it is verified in Disk Utility. This happened to me a year ago, and I out of my Apple Care, so I just gave my machine to a friend and he replaced the hard drive. Your best bet is to check if the drive is verified and back it up completely as soon as possible.

OreoCookie · Jul 11, 2007, 12:23 PM

Even if the SMART status says verified, your harddrive could still be dying. In any case, do a backup now and run the Apple Hardware Test just in case. See if that turns up something.
Then have the machine checked out by a professional and the drive replaced.

amazing · Jul 11, 2007, 04:16 PM

Have you tried an archive and install? It sounds more like software or system problems to me...you know, email groups disappearing but contacts are still there, ical calendars disappearing but presumably still there, ichat can't remember its accounts, dock resets itself, etc.

romeosc · Jul 12, 2007, 10:06 PM

Originally Posted by amazing

Have you tried an archive and install? It sounds more like software or system problems to me...you know, email groups disappearing but contacts are still there, ical calendars disappearing but presumably still there, ichat can't remember its accounts, dock resets itself, etc.

I also had similar problems, disappeared after a archive and install of OS X! It happened after computer froze while writing to HD (I guess)

ph0ust · Jul 13, 2007, 11:58 AM

interesting. thanks for all the help. as soon as this started to happen i did a complete backup. then ran the install disk to do a disk verify, which surprisingly came out fine. strangely, i created a junk email account to get mail to open and as soon as i did it showed my existing email accounts. really weird. calendar and ichat are still lost somewhere. fortunately, i have a newer mbp that i can use. i think i will do a full re-install this weekend and transition over to the mbp.

hopefully, this is something that isn't too big a deal. i plan on keeping this older pb in the living room for convenient access to the internet or something. don't really want it bricked.... thanks again.