Laptops :: MacBook Freezes On Startup / Can't Find Test For Hard Drive
Apr 11, 2010
My August 2007 MacBook runs OSX 10.4.10. It has performed flawlessly since my daughter bought it in 2007, and perfectly after I purchased it from her last september. The other night I was surfing the web while flying on a commercial airliner. (GoGoNet or something similar) Performance was kind of slow but I attributed that to the in-air wifi, which I had never used before. Then the browser started to hang with the spinning pinwheel. Option apple escape WOULD NOT force quit safari. After a few shutdowns using only the power button, the mac hung up on startup. I hear the chime, see the apple icon, the gear turns but it never goes past that point. It may be significant that the plane was flying through scary turbulence when my problems began.
When I boot up using the mac install disk 1, I can get it to start cleanly using the C key, the D key and NO keys. But when I run the hardware diagnostic, both short and long test, the mac comes up 100% clean. But i cannot see any test for the hard drive. When I try to run disk utility, the colored pinwheel arrives and it never goes away. When I go down the road of re-installing the system software, I cannot see the target drive.
When I put my ear on the deck, just to the right of the track-pad, I can hear the hard drive quietly spinning away with regular - not random - clicks.
I see that Apple is quietly replacing these hard-drives, but the affected computers seem to have a folder/question mark on the desktop on startup, not the apple/spinning gear.
I really would like to be able to recover my photos and some files if the hard drive is going to be swapped. But I am resigned to the situation that these un-backed-up files will be forever lost.
After my MaBook Pro2,1 - Intel Core 2 Duo - 2,33 GHz & 2 GB Memory - with 10.6.8. Freeze on startup every time, only running in "Save Boot" mode. I choose do perform a hardware test with the version 3A116 on a earlier Mac OS Install Disk. The test (3 times) shows an error code (after 1. test I switched memory cards), I am not able to interpret this: 4SNS / 1 / 400 000 00 : TBOT
Info: MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 17"Display Intel core 2 Duo 2.33GHz
I have tried booting it up from the startup disk and when it tries to find the harddrive to install on it takes a long time to find it then the icon disappears off the screen and I can't select anything
Info: MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2009), Mac OS X (10.5.7)
I have a 17" unibody MBP (early 2009, specs below). It was running hotter than usual the other day, so I F2 booted into AHT to run a diagnostic. The status box within AHT showed 1 second into the 1st pass, and never got beyond that. Several seconds after that status message was displayed, the cursor froze. The time counter never advanced after that, and although I waited a long time, nothing happened. The test froze.Â
I've tried it several times more. It once worked, but every other time has frozen. Checking the "extended test" box, or trying to run in loop mode has made no difference - still freezes at "1 second".Â
I've had this machine for 3 years, OS's Leopard through Lion, and this has never happened before. I last ran a test, successfully, in January. I've not changed any components or suffered any damage since then. Memtest (ver 4.22) says my RAM is fine. (I ran this because the first portion of the AHT is the RAM component.) Aside from the aforementioned overheating episode, which disappeared, my machine's been fine.Â
early 2009 MBP unibody 17" 2.93 Core 2 Duo 8 GB RAM 750 GB HD
Is there a way to copy Apple Hardware Test from the CD onto my hard drive?
I am looking for a solution that will allow me to run Apple Hardware Test without the need of my CDs -- I just dont want to take them with me all the time.
I have a Early 2008 White Macbook with a 160GB 5400RPM Fujitsu drive that is driving me mad. it is far too small and i have nowhere to store my RSS feeds and podcasts from iTunes anymore. also, it boots really slowly because of all the applications and HD podcasts on the drive. I am considering getting the Seagate Momentus ST9500420AS ( the one without G-Force Protection ) because it is a 7400RPM drive with a 500GB capacity. Has anybody had any problems with this drive in their macbooks or in general? Would the vibration/noise be an issue? I'm also considering the Scorpio Blue and Toshiba MK5055GSX because they're very power efficient, but at 5400RPM, they are slower. I'd love to see boot times in particular improve. There is already 2GB of RAM in the machine, so that isn't the problem.
I have a MacBook Pro 15 (2006) 2 ghz core duo, 2 gigs ram, & 100 gig 7200 RPM hard drive. I would like to change the the hard drive out to a larger one, but I'm seeing all kind of reviews & I'm not sure which ones to put more weight on. I have been looking at a 320 Gig or the 500 Gig. Looked at the Seagate, WD, & the Hitachi. I want to stay with the 7200 RPM. I also know there can be an issue with the, shock or drop sensor on the hard drives not being compatible with the laptops shock sensor, as well as heat & noise issues. I will state that this is my first Mac since the late 80s. But that I have a several very good friends that are long time Mac users and that have done this type of switch out, so while I know that the switch out is more complicated than some I have good tech support on that side of this switch out.
I have purchase a new hard drive for my MacBook Pro Intel 2 Core duo and know how to do it, but once it is installed in the machine, I want to know how to install the operating system. The computer now is almost empty (only a few photos I have backed up) so there is no need to transfer any data. Do I just use the discs that came with it? Please tell me how I restore the system with this new hard drive.
There has been an ongoing issue with new MacBook and MacBook Pro computers where the system will pause for a second or two and make a clicking sound, and then continue functioning normally. This problem has to do with models containing a 7200RPM 500GB hard drive from Seagate, where the drive randomly stalls and beeps, causing a pause in the active system processes that can last up to 10 seconds. As reported in this CNET article, Apple is looking into the problem and a fix should be out shortly.
Both brand-new and slightly older models of the Unibody MacBook computers may be affected, and currently there does not appear to be a fix; however, if you are experiencing this problem, the best course of action is to wait for a fix from Apple. Some people have recommended reinstalling the operating system and performing PRAM and SMC resets, but this issue appears to be a firmware incompatibility so changing the operating system setup or firmware settings will not help.
Keep in mind that this behavior is not the same as when a hard drive is dying, where regular clicks and pauses happen, followed by spinning beach balls when the system cannot access the storage media. This AppleInsider article links to a couple of YouTube videos that show how this behavior manifests itself, so check them out if you think your system has this problem. When the fix is released, it should be in the form of a firmware update so keep an eye out for one in the near future. Read this Apple Support Discussions forum thread about beeping, clicking, and freezing hard drives.
I'm sure all of you heard about the new mac book more specifically the 13 inch. I however have the original macbook 13 unibody laptop. I want to upgrade my hard drive but I want to make sure there isn't a max space which my laptop can handle. Does any one if there is a max and what the specifications of the hard drive size is like the size?
I'm fairly new to macs and am having some problems. Here's the situation:
I've got a 3 year old 13" Macbook - 2.1 Intel Core 2 Duo, 1.83 Ghz, 512MB memory, 60 GB hard drive - I bought it from Apple directly - it was a ""reconditioned"" one from the factory.
It has worked fine for 3 years, but lately has been getting slower and slower (most programs), and even the home screen has been acting weird, and loading up funny, if at all sometimes, and I get the "spinning beachball of death" much more often and/or for longer periods. I have all my files copied elsewhere, and I just figured I would start over and reinstall the 10.4 Tiger OS that came with it - I have the original grey install/restore DVDs.
In case it matters, the two install/restore DVDs read: mac os version 10.4.8 AHT version 3AA18 disc version 1.0 22691-5967-A
So here's what I've tried so far:
-I booted up with the install/restore DVDs and have run the hardware checker several times. It says everything is fine.
-Also through the Utilities on the restore disk, i checked/repaired the disks and the "permissions" which showed up in the Disk Utility as the "Mac hard drive" or something like that, about 5 or 10 GB, and the main part of the drive, the "55.9 GB Fujitsu MHV2060BHPL". That all seemed to check out fine as far as the computer could tell me.
-I tried installing Tiger from the restore DVDs, the first time with the "archive and install" option. It seems like everything is working with the installation, and it gets through the second DVD, but when its done, it states that there are "software errors" and to try to install it again. (And no it won't boot up at all on its own...) I tried it again with another of the install options, I think it was "Erase and Install" - same thing. I also tried the "first time install option" too - same thing.
Next, since I got all my info off the computer already, I tried reformatting. First I used the function that writes zeroes over everything, for both the "Mac HD" and the "55.9 GB Fujitsu" drive too. Then I tried all three different install options again, starting with the "initial install" one. I also went into Disk Utility and used the format (and/or partition?) function and the drive has been redone with the mac os "extended journal" format, always with the same result as before. The whole thing (including the DVD test that it runs) seems to go fine with the install, but at the end it always says there are software errors and to try the install again... Is this possibly a hard drive problem (even though it "tests" fine)?
What if I ordered one of these:
Would that work in my macbook? Could I just replace the drive and go for another "first install"? Or is it likely something else?
If I run the hardware test, they can check possible errors on my hd? I remember on pc a soft in the 90s for check bad clusters on the hd, on Mac I know disk warrior, but I never use. Its necessary use disk warrior or something. I hear people that say that its bad.
Recently I bought WD6400AAKS hard drive. I made to partitions (1st for OS and applications, 2nd one for photo files). I also did fresh OS install and loaded basic applications. Strangely I didn't notice any speed boost while booting and to be honest I feel like all applications (photoshop for example) are also starting much slower than on original hdd. Is there any way to test hard drive if it performs as it should be? I also have 2 more older drives installed. is it possible that one of them would slow the system down?
So I'm pretty good with the OS, but I am not so hot on the behind the scenes stuff, so advice involving Terminal, for example, would require very detailed instructions. I just put that out there because I searched MRoogle for this topic and there were many ideas involving commands like fsck (sp?) that went way over my head. But like I said, I'm good with the OS, been using Macs since my Dad brought home our first one in 1985 (it cost more than his car) never even owned a PC in my life, probably why I'm no good without a GUI. I just finished a series of projects at work (over the past 2 years) and have amassed about 10 external fire wire drives.
Most of them are G-Techs so we've invested a bit of coin into them. We have a break before our next project starts and I would like try to assess which ones are still healthy and which ones should be retired. I have tech tools (never used it) I also have Drive Genius 2. I ran an integrity test on one drive, it made a pretty graph but have no idea how to interpret it. Also, all of them can be reformatted at this point. Oh, and they were shuttled around town on these projects. They were pretty well taken care of, but handed over to be used and transported by others, so it's not like they've been sitting on a shelf in my care for two years.
I don't play comp. Games, don't store pictures on my comp., and I don't need a lot of software. So how much memory and hard drive do I really need for a Mac laptop?
I just put a Maxmedia 640 GB SATA HDD in my 2009 Macbook Pro and since then it's been acting wierd. From initial start-up it's really slow but gets faster over time, still there is a persistant lag that kicks in every now and then, mostly when Firefox is involved. I don't think the hard drive is acting up. I can hear the disk spinning and can hear it read and write. Like I said most of the lag is around Firefox but after a while of heavier use the whole system returns to normal.
recently I bought WD6400AAKS hard drive. I made to partitions (1st for OS and applications, 2nd one for photo files). I also did fresh OS install and loaded basic applications. Strangely I didn't notice any speed boost while booting and to be honest I feel like all applications (photoshop for example) are also starting much slower than on original hdd.
Is there any way to test hard drive if it performs as it should be? I also have 2 more older drives installed. is it possible that one of them would slow the system down?
I recently inherited a Pismo, 400 mhz and a 6gb hard drive. Other than the tiny hard drive, the computer is in great shape and has a lot of service left in it. I was able to load Tiger on it, and it's working fine. I replaced the hard drive with a 100gb Seagate, but when I tried to format the disk,the new hard drive didn't show up during installation attempts. However, the volume was visible in the system profiler and the disk utility...I reinstalled the original hard drive, and that booted successfully so I guess that means I didn't damage the hard drive cable, which I had feared. Does anyone have an idea about this? So odd that that I could locate the drive in the disk utility but not at the installation screen.
This has been a problem with my macbook for some time now, but It's never been enough to get in the way. Lately it's getting even worse.
When playing games, or doing anything remotely graphical (has happened while using iTunes visualizer), my macbook can just freeze. Very rarely I get the kernal panic grey window, but most of the time it just hangs, repeating the last half a second of audio. Using VMware (not playing games, just windows programs) can also freeze it.
I have the 2.3GhZ Model, while my friend has the 2.0GhZ model, and he does not have a problem. I don't think his has ever frozen. Yesterday mine froze twice within an hour, while his just happy kept running.
I've googled this problem and I can't find anything. I want to see if you forumers know something before I call Apple Support as I'd rather know whats going on before that.
I have:
2.33GhZ, 2GB RAM, NVidia 9400M, 250GB Hard Drive (Happened when it was barely full, and close to full). I'm running OSX Leopard 10.5.7, but this has happened on all version since I bought it (10.5.5)
I'm thinkimg of buying the samsung ln46c670 tv, and already have a free agent go flex hard drive, with a mac laptop. I want to play movies from my hard drive on the tv with out my computer being in the way. My question is how do I do that, and is it necessary to buy the freeagent go flex tv media device to play it through. Or should I invest in a bluray player that is wirless ready, or if I even need the c670 model tv with the internet apps. Which combo package would be the best?
I bought a new internal hard drive for my late 2009 MBP and have completely cloned my existing hard drive to the new one. When I use the new hard drive through an enclosure I am able to boot from this hard drive perfectly, but when I install it into my MBP it won't read properly or something. It loads to my home screen with my dock, but when I try to click something, it just freezes up and I have to restart to the same thing every time. Anyone have any ideas on how this can be fixed?
Lately I've been using my external hard drive as the main drive of my imac I5 and every day it freezes when I open 3 or 4 apps or more or while doing several stuff at the same time. This, obviously, doesnt happen when using the internal hard drive of the imac, so I suppose is due to using firewire 800 or usb 2.0. Is it normal for every external hard drive to freeze when using it as the main drive or maybe is it that my external hard drive is bad?
I'm planning on buying a more quieter external hard drive to use as the main drive of my imac, but I wont do so if it also keeps freezing every day. Any suggestions? Is it normal even when using firewire 800? When using the external hard drive I umount the internal drive of the imac. Maybe this is the reason? Its a Lacie Big Disk 500GB. Would an external SSD make a difference or would it still freeze?
I was using my Mac (Macbook Pro 15" screen) and tried opening a file in GarageBand, at which point a warning message came up saying something about a midi file and something not being allowed, and then froze, resulting in me having to switch the computer off from the power button and restarting (Sadly I didnt realise that this would be the start of a whole host of problems and didnt make a note of the warning message). After rebooting I got the 'stuck on the blue screen with the Apple logo and infinitly spinning wheel' problem that i've seen in a few posts. having tried numerous suggestions posted with no change I ended up taking it to the genius section of an Apple store. When i got it back they said that it may have been a corrupted file, and that they re-installed and reset the starting programs (Something along those lines, I cant quite remember). I can now get onto the computer and use it, though some new problems have arisen.......
i noticed there was no hard drive icon on the desktop. so i opened up the finder, and made the mistake by dragging the hard drive icon that is on the left side of the finder out of the finder and tried to put it on the desktop.
Eventually but not immediately whenever my Western Digital 1TB drive is plugged into my mac mini, any program accessing the external hard drive will freeze with related spinning beach ball. If I open the external drive it will not show that there are any files on it. If I manually unplug the drive, everything that was frozen magically unfreezes.
