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deliriousXD · Sep 22, 2008, 03:19 PM

Hey guys, I'm a new member here and I was wondering if I could get help with a problem that I'm encountering on my Macbook. I just got it last year, and it's been just fine until now. The other night, I left it on to download some music when I went to bed, and I've done this many times before. And because I was going to bed I turned the brightness all the way so it wouldn't keep me up, and same with the volume. The next morning, I tried to turn up both, but neither reacted. I let it sit for a few minutes and nothing happened, so I decided to restart it. So I turned off and back on, and it started loading just fine, seeing the apple and the loading wheel, but then when it switched to the blue screen, it stayed there. No OSX loader came up, nothing, just the blue screen. I didn't notice anything strange other than that, so I tried it again, and the same thing happened. I decided to let it sit for a few minutes to see if that helped, and it did... kinda. I was able to get logged on and start running programs, but after being logged on for about 2 minutes, it decided to freeze. So every time I start it now it goes through one of these situations, though the latter could last from minutes to hours. And I also happened to notice that whenever it gets stuck at the blue screen, there is a faint clicking sound. So would anyone happen to know what might be wrong with my Macbook? I think it could be an over-heating issue/hardware error, but I'm really not sure...

seanc · Sep 22, 2008, 03:45 PM

It sounds like the hard drive is failing, so I hope you keep regular backups.

Boot from the installer DVD and go into System Profiler. Go to Serial-ATA and select your hard drive. What model is it? If it's a Seagate with 7.01 firmware then these have a known issue where they will fail due to a design flaw. Apple should happily replace it.

seanc · Sep 22, 2008, 03:45 PM

It sounds like the hard drive is failing, so I hope you keep regular backups.

Boot from the installer DVD and go into System Profiler. Go to Serial-ATA and select your hard drive. What model is it? If it's a Seagate with 7.01 firmware then these have a known issue where they will fail due to a design flaw. Apple should happily replace it.

tinkered · Sep 22, 2008, 04:49 PM

Failing drives fail faster with use. If your data is not backed up, do not use your computer until you do.

caleach · Sep 25, 2008, 08:29 PM

I have a black MacBook that's about 2 years old and have been having that problem for a while now. The other day I went out to lunch, leaving a bunch of apps open, as usual. When I returned the desktop looked the same but none of the apps would respond. The cursor would move but couldn't even force quit anything. I unplugged everything, took out the battery and restarted it. The flashing folder icon came up so I inserted the install DVD. Opening Disk Utility was a waste since the HD didn't show up at all. Took it in for service and found that the controller on the HD was fried. I had been using Time Machine so I think I have just about everything but when I plug that drive into another computer just to look at some files there seem to be some missing. I hope that when I get my laptop back tomorrow and go to restore from time machine that I will find the missing files. It's a hard lesson to learn but at least I was part way there on the back ups. If you use Time Machine make sure to check the settings and guarantee that everything you need to have backed up, is being backed up.