macbook pro freezes daily

J

johnniep

Registered
I have a problem which is baffling the mac helpline people. My Macbook pro freezes once a day, usually about mid day and will not soft reboot. the mouse continues to be able to be moved around but nothing else will function. The problem appears to have started after I updated with auto updates about three weeks ago. Since then one of our techy blokes had downloaded the patch to avoid over heating but I still have my daily ritual of the mid day freeze. I am running Photoshop mainly with Quark and Freehand occasionally.

The Mac people now say i should archive everything and delete the OS and start again, something that I don't want to do as this is my work station and I don't have the time to reload everything.

Anyone any bright ideas?
 
I've just been lucky enough to take a shipment of 5 MacBooks (base model). I have begun to set 3 of these up and they were working perfectly, however I was working on them today when they stopped responding (was using ARD). They had all frozen with exactly the same symptoms: the mouse pointer could be freely moved, but nothing responded to either mouse or keyboard input. Googling it revealed a few people having the same problem with MacBook Pros, as well as MacBooks. Interestingly, it happened around midday, and all at same time. Tonight I am leaving three on with Sleep set to never, one with 10.4.7 (inc all updates) and automatically updating time (noticed someone else mentioned this), one with 10.4.7 (inc all updates) and with time setting on manual, and one 10.4.6 fresh out of the box with no updates installed automatically updating time. We'll see...
 
our IT fellow deleted the OS and then re-installed it. I have avoided any Mac updates like the plague and it has been working like a dream for a fortnight.

avoid the automatic updates, they've cocked up somewhere along the line.
 
Well, the three MacBooks are still sitting there with no problems, so I can't fault it for time of day or for Auto-time setting. Will be interesting to see if the fresh outta the box one keeps going if the others do stop.
 
OK, doesn't appear to be the Automatic time setting, as I've just had one freeze on me and the others keep working. Strangely, it doesn't freeze when you are using it, but rather when you stop using it. This makes me think its something to do with the energy saver settings. These MacBooks are set to never sleep, though the display sleeps in 10 mins. Another possibility is that its something to do with Apple Remote Desktop; does anyone else use that with the freezing MacBooks?
 
my problem sounds pretty similar to these posted above--although my freezes were not happening at a set time. mine usually happened when i would do something simple, like google something in safari--or while writing an email in apple's mail program...so, while doing simple tasks in native apple programs. in fact, the freezes always happened whenever the computer would pause 1.) to 'think' when googling something--which was annoyingly pretty often. it wouldn't freeze everytime it stopped to think, but it would always pause to respond to simple words i'd type. 2.) whenever the mail program auto-saved/checked for new mails.

in the very beginning, the problem totally degraded to the point where i was stuck at just a plain blue screen when starting up, and the only way to fix that situation was to wipe the drive and reinstall after starting up from disk

The freezes would hmy freezes were the same: the spinning lollipop appears, doesn't go away, can still move mouse around, move windows around, but their was no response to the keys. (i am using past tense bc i just got my MBP back from apple repair.) but, it didn't freeze everytime the spinning lollipop appeared...there was always just the chance, which was highly anxiety-inducing. the only way to get the computer back up and running was to hard restart. also, everytime the computer paused and spinning lollipop came on, it was always accompanied by a 'sweeping' noise in the upper left-hand corner, near top of the keys. all the tech people said this was most likely the fan.

my history: bought MBP back in early april. i added an add'l 1GB of ram from a 3rd party. had so many freezing issues, called tech support several times, went to apple store 1x...they did every kind of diagnostic test, hardware test, battery test, ram test...couldn't pinpoint problem. and no one would take seriously when i said the 'sweeping' sound would accompany the spinning lollipop.

after taking it to apple store the 1st time, the tech guy wiped my cache and prefs, and this helped--for 2 weeks. then, the freeze problem came back, but it would freeze 'only' 1 or 2x per week, rather than several times a day.

so, after a few months, i took the computer back to the apple store--of course, i couldn't get my computer to 'perform' its problem (usually happens after 3-4 days of being on, but i sleep it at nights.) they looked at my history, and just decided to send it in to have the logic board replaced. the battery was also replaced. seems totally fine now. sweeping sound is gone.

the end, i hope.
 
I'll add my experience to the above random MacBook Pro shutdown issue. First let me say that I've LOVED Apple for the past 20 years, and this faith is unshaken by this annoying glitch which I'm sure they are as eager to remedy as we all are.

I upgraded my old PowerBook G4 to a loaded MacBook Pro with 2gigs of Apple RAM in 8/06, and I'm delighted with it (fast, FAST) except that the screen occasionally goes black and freezes.

BUT here's some additional info for everyone: I have external Mac monitors both at home and at work; and these, while frozen, continue to display whatever was on them when the main laptop screen went black. The cursor still moves in response to the touchpad or USB TurboBall, but clicking anywhere on the external screen does nothing. The only way out has been to hold down the Power button and restart.

BTW, the sudden blackout has also occurred when I was using the laptop without the external monitor; so without that monitor it looked like a shutdown when it was actually a freeze - two entirely different phenomena.

I've call Apple support several times, and this is what we've tried so far:
1. First we checked all the Sleep settings (which were fine)
2. Then we reset the PROM.

The next day the blackout recurred; so I called AppleCare again. (I ought to mention that everone I've spoken to there had been GREAT and eager to help).

3. The next thing we tried was resetting the PMU (Power Management Unit)

The blackout problem recurred several times over the next few days. The blackouts have nothing to do with computer activity or inactivity - they have occurred while typing in a Word document, rendering a long video with Final Cut, or even when the MacPro is sitting all by itself doing nothing (I come back to find the main screen black and the external monitor frozen except for the cursor)

4. AppleCare then had me reinstall the whole System from the DVD which I did yesterday (THAT took half a day to get all the updates and get all programs up and running right again), but the effort was obviously necessary to rule out a software glitch.

I've got my fingers crossed that this will do it; but if not, I'm absolutely certain that Apple will treat me right. As I said, I'm a devoted Mac man to the bone. :)
 
My MacBook Pro 17" freezes occationally. It runs fine for 2-3 days, then it starts to hit on the disk (clonk-swish-clonk-swish-...) for maybe 30 seconds, and the spinning ball shows up. Sometimes, everything goes back to normal, but mostly the Mac freezes. It does so gradually. In the first seconds, I can sometimes change to another application, but mostly not. Often I end up with the dock in a frozen state, with an application icon halfway up from the dock.

I called Apple support, the sent me some recipe to reset the energy savings settings, which I followed. This has not helped (maybe, but just maybe, it helped for two weeks or so).

Apart from this problem, it is a wonderful toy!

Any ideas?
 
Apple made it very easy to send my MBP in for service under the AppleCare Protection Plan - they sent me a box and paid the shipping both ways which took only took four days total.
They replaced the VRAM, and the computer has worked flawlessly for more than a week now. I even let it loop the Apple hardware test continuously for 24 hours, and it didn't freeze once. Ta-DAH!! :)
I love Apple. :)
 
I have kinda had the same problem as others, but mine seems almost more extreme. To start things off, I would have to say that as of right now I am starting to hate apple 100%. When I first bought my Macbook, it came with a messed up hard drive that had to be replaced. In addition to this, the who keyboard was replaced twice, both because of the discoloration issue. But all that was almost two years ago. My macbook sits on a desk 24/7 with out being moved around at all, unless I go on vacation or something. But recently, about two days ago, my macbook froze for the first time in about 4 months. But what is strange about it is that it froze multiple times that first day, and has continued to do so since. On average, it has froze about 3 times a day for three days now. I am thinking about going down to the Genius bar and having them take a look at it, but I already ran Disk Utility and it says everything is fine, and the problems on my macbook can never be replayed when I am at the Apple Sore for some reason. Any ideas?
 
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