[CrazedVW]

Mods: I hope you'll let my post remain up. I know there are a ton of other Leopard issue threads out there but I've researched this quite a bit and can't seem to find anyone with an overall similar issue. They all seem to either be about problems with the original install or one of the two updates but not all three.

I don't know if this is a Leopard itself issue, hardware issue, or a software issue. I'll try to be as detailed as I can.

Hardware utilized:
-MacBook Pro - 15"/2.16GHz,/3GB/120GB/Superdrive, purcharsed middle of May 2008. The RAM in it is the Samsung 1GB memory chip that came with it along with a 2GB Corsair ValueSelect memory chip that I bought in November 2007. Before that it had a 1GB Corsair ValueSelect memory chip in it.

-Iomega 120GB Firewire 400 external harddrive


The night Leopard was released back in October I picked it up from CompUSA. Having upgraded to Panther and Tiger before it without any problems whatsoever I thought nothing of upgrading to Leopard as soon as it was released. I ended up having the issue with my MBP's drive not reading the DVD. (Although it would read fine on my fiance's G4 Mini.) I returned the dvd, got a new one, and still had the issue but was eventually able to get it to work. I installed it that weekend and everything seemed fine. While I was at work that Monday however it crashed. I enabled the screensaver and I could not get it to go back to the desktop. On reboot it got stuck at the boot screen with the spinner. Wouldn't boot in safe mode either. Left work early, took it to the Apple Store and spent about four hours there. They backed up all my files, did an archive and install, and reinstalled the OS. It crashed after that so they ended up doing a clean install of it and that seemed to work. The following day it crashed again, same symptoms as before; the screensaver was enabled and it wouldn't return to the desktop. At that point I said to heck with it, backed up all my files to the FW drive, did a full system restore and returned to Tiger. The only thing I could think of at the time was that compatibility issues with Filemaker Pro 8 or Chariot Micrograde (gradebook software I use for work) were causing problems as other than Safari and the mail program those were the only other programs I had open at the time of the crashes.

In mid-November after the 10.5.1 update was released I decided to try again. I loaded Leopard onto the firewire drive to keep it from screwing up my system. It installed fine but when I went to install the update it hung on reboot at the spinner. Again I said to heck with it and let it go.

Fast forward to this week with the 10.5.2 update. Again I decided to try again. it rebooted once like it's supposed to but on the second reboot it got stuck again at the spinner. A friend suggested it might have something to do with the memory. I downloaded and ran the memory checker program <i>Rember</i>. It came back with errors on the 1GB Corsair chip but no errors on the other two. (When installed in different combinations.) I reinstalled and ran the 5.2 update multiple times using different combinations of ram, finally trying it with just the original Samsung chip installed by itself, and not importing any of my other programs. And I got the update off of Apple's website instead of through the Software Update. Each time it gets stuck and I restart it (going back to October and November too) it will not boot in Safe Mode but it will boot in Single User Mode.

Ideas? I'd really like to run Leopard but this is getting very frustrating. Is it possible Leopard is having some sort of issue with hardware on my MBP other than the memory? Perhaps an issue with the firewire drive? I think I've mentioned everything but feel free to ask questions as it might jog my memory to something I forgot.

[Peabo]

Your MBP must have some kind of hardware fault. I'd suggest taking it to an Apple Store and ask about a repair or replacement.

[Big Mac]

That's most likely a hardware problem. I'd send that SOB back to Apple ASAP. Btw, none of the software you mention (Filemaker or that grading app) could ever, ever, ever cause any of the problems you're describing. If you've removed all non-Apple hardware (including non-factory RAM) and you can't get a reliable installation of Leopard, your computer is defective and requires repair or replacement. Whichever person at the Apple Store who just reinstalled Tiger instead of scheduling AppleCare service was being a terrible employee and was doing you a disservice.

[seanc]

If you remove the old Samsung chip and just use the 2GB chip, how do things work? With the 2GB stick removed, does the 1GB chip still bring up errors?
If it's bringing up errors, take it out, it's knackered. If it's stopped brining up errors, either it's temperamental (still take it out) or you have an issue with the memory slot or logic board.

[CrazedVW]

Originally Posted by seanc 

If you remove the old Samsung chip and just use the 2GB chip, how do things work?

It still gets stuck on the spinner.

Originally Posted by seanc 

With the 2GB stick removed, does the 1GB chip still bring up errors?

Yes.

Originally Posted by seanc 

If it's bringing up errors, take it out, it's knackered. If it's stopped brining up errors, either it's temperamental (still take it out) or you have an issue with the memory slot or logic board.

Right now I've got the Samsung 1GB chip and the Corsair 2GB chip in there. Any use of the 1GB Corsair chip causes the errors.

I'd like to point out too to one of the other commenters that I remember the Apple Genius suggesting back in October that it might conceivably be a hardware issue with the logic board. I'm really hoping it's not as I use my laptop on a daily basis in my classroom for all sorts of things and I'd have to wait for either spring break or summer vacation to get it fixed unless they could order the part and I could drop it off once it comes in. (But I'm guessing they would want to take a couple days or more to test various things on it.) I fail to see however how Leopard could run on other identical MBP's and not work on mine though. But I'm going to take it up to the Apple Store Monday to see what they say.

[seanc]

Ahhh I got confused.

You have two 1GB sticks, a Samsung and a Corsair and a 2GB Corsair stick.

Might be time to return it to Apple or run the Apple Hardware Test to see if it brings up any errors.

[CrazedVW]

Just wanted to say thanks to those of you that offered suggestions. I took it up to the Apple Store this morning and the genius looked at it for me. It would appear that it was two separate problems. The issue back in October was due to a bad ram module. The incident of this past week was apparently due to a bad sector on the external harddrive I had loaded Leopard onto. Now that I've erased the drive and it's isolated that bad sector everything works fine.