MacBook Pro :: 15" Early 2008 Periodic Lockup, EFI Update?
May 17, 2012
I have a 2008 MacBook Pro 4,1 (15-inch, Early 2008, OS X 10.6.8), that has started locking up periodically. Initially the lockups occurred every couple of days, now they are becoming more frequent, yesterday it happened twice. I am able to move the mouse, change applications via the Dock, but can't close applications. I can't trigger reboot, I have to manually hold down the power button. I've disabled Intego, and run a full memtest scan to see if the RAM is crapping out. ...however there is no EFI update for the 4,1 series.
For about two weeks I've noticed green vertical stripes appearing on my early 2008 MacBook Pro. As you can see the photo below, it doesn't completely obscure content on the screen. The problem is also transient. It appears, sometimes as a flash, then disappears. In the picture below, the issue continued for longer than ever before (about 1 min). Is my video card about to die? Could this be a bad connection?
I tried to update my Early 2008 white MacBook from OS X 10.5.8 to OS X 10.6. It seemed to be running well. It restarted and went to the white apple screen with the spinning wheel. I let it go for about two hours and nothing happened.
Is there really a "Late 2008" model? If so, what is the difference.I ask because I recently got a MacPro and according to Apple's hardware test, it is an Early 2008.
Running a 2.4ghz Intel Core 2 Duo and currently 2gb 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM. It has 2 slots, whats the max I can put in? What type of RAM do I purchase and who has the best Price on same.
i need to buy a new battery for my MacBook Pro, just wondering if anyone has any experiences of longer lasting batteries?also anyone know any trusted places to buy from that are cheaper than the 99 charge by apple?
My 2008 aluminum MBP 15" is not letting the express card stay in. It won't stay and after search for answers to questions, want to open it and check out the express slot for myself. Done quite a bit of my own work before(Like replacing memory slots), but like to know what something is going to look like before going in.
My superdrive does not burn DVD's regardless of media or application. It fails every time. It reads but doesn't write. Firmware is up to date. I've used Toast, iDVD and Disk Utility. No luck. My AppleCare has expired so looking for an external DVD drive. Will the MacBook Air Superdrive work on my old MacBook Pro running 10.7.3?
Info: MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3), iPhone 4, Adobe Suite, Epson
I have a 15 inch early 2008 MBP that the screen will not turn on. When i power on, the hard drive makes a sound that its turning on, but then nothing happens, there is just a black screen. The indication light is on, but again, nothing on the screen. I have tried pulling out the battery, resetting everything i can reset, but still nothing.
My gf is using a white macbook 13'' early 2008 with the following specs:
2.4ghz intel core 2 duo 4gb ddr2 ram (667mhz) WD 500GB 5400rpm Mac OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard
switched on her macbook and then typed in her password (no caps and caps are not switched on either) and then hit login and then screen turn light blue for a few seconds and then i'm back at the login box again. Typed in password again, the same thing happened i tried resetting the passowrd through the installation disk of snow leopard(she only has 1 hardisk with her account, no partitions).And then it gave me a dialog box saying:Password Saved?The password you entered has been saved for the user xxxx. Resetting a user's password does not change the password for the user's login keychain so it will not be unlocked automatically.
Use Keychain Access to reset the password for the user's login keychain I have no idea what's the Keychain Access since i can't even get pass the login box. So i just click ok, restart the macbook and then entered the new password. And the same thing happened. Should i restore frm my TimeMachine or do a Repair Disk?
A few months back, my old reliable MacBook Pro (early 2008) started behaving oddly. Have no idea why, but went to start it up one day, and it took forever to start up and get me to the login screen. Been like that ever since. Occassionally, when I finally get to the login screen, the keyboard will not function. After a few minutes though, it always works. This only happens about 5% of the time. Once I log in, everything about the computer from a performance perspective seems to be pretty normal In addition to the slow start up, however, system gets extremely hot at the top of the keyboard, near the monitor. Fans run fast almost all the time when the system is powered on, and often when it is 'asleep'. CPU Temp goes to about 170, and the fans are always between 2400 and 3500.
I took it to Apple a while back, and based on the incredibly slow start up time they believed it was a disk issue. I went ahead and purchased a 500GB internal drive and this past weekend used SuperDuper to copy the original boot disk. All went well and I now have a new internal disk. At the same time, I upgrade the RAM from 2GB to 4GB.
After all that, the system is still very slow at startup and runs as hot as it did before. I will say, it does seem to be slightly faster on the startup, but not what I had become accustomed to for the first 4 years of use. I looked at the activity monitor and don't see any processes hogging resources. No anti-virus software running.Currently running Mac OSX 10.6.8 My battery is pretty muc shot, but I never really use the system unplugged.
Info: MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), Upgraded disk and memory
I left my laptop on in my room while I went to the bathroom, and when I came out, I saw the message that told me I must restart the computer. The message froze the computer, so I shut it off by holding the power button and tried to turn it back on again, but it only boots to a black screen. I don't hear the loud hard drive noise, but I hear the fans. Without AC power but with the charged battery, the computer shuts down after a few seconds. The light on the button that opens the lid is dim-to-none when the lid is open and bright when the lid is closed.
I tried many troubleshooting methods discussed on this site, like removing and reseating the RAM and draining the battery, along with the things that the Apple website suggested, like resetting the SMC and PRAM, but nothing works.
I brought the computer into an Apple Store, and after the NVIDIA test was negative, the technician told me that the problem is most likely the logic board. I also took the computer into an Apple Authorized Service Provider, and the technician there said it could be the logic board, hard drive, or boot connector. He also said that there is a very slight chance that the graphics card could have caused the logic board to fail. He tried my computer with another battery and concluded that it's not the battery's fault.
The Apple Store is charging me about $330 for a flat-rate repair. Should I troubleshoot further using suggestions you may have or pay Apple for repairs? If I decide to have Apple repair my laptop, do I need to take it back into the store to pay the repair charges, or can I do it over the phone and mail the computer to Apple?
I tried restarting my MacBook (2.4GHz, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, early 2008 model) today. But when it turned back on it would just shut off and automatically try restarting. It did this over and over again until I just pulled the battery so it would stop. It wouldn't even let me do a force turn off. It would just start up, shut down, start up, shut down over and over again.
My trackpad/computer sometimes just freezes out of the blue.. I move my cursor around click.. and sometimes just freezes and i either have to put it to sleep by putting down the lid.. and reopen it or hold the power to reset. or just start pressing random buttons and after about a few minutes or so.. it'll start working again..
open the kext (Show Package Contents), then go to Contents, then open Info.plist (I usually open it in Property List Editor that comes with Xcode Tools (comes on the OS X Install discs). If it opens in Property List Editor, then do the following: Go to IOKitPersonalities and open it On all the sections begining with WSTrackpad*3 (like WSTrackpadISO3) scroll down until you get "TrackpadThreeFingerDrag". Copy that line (it should have a tick next to it).
Does Apple provide replacement batteries for out of warranty early 2008 Macbooks? Just wondering as my old MacBook is giving a "replace soon" or similar message under the battery status also would it be worth the cost to replace it considering its age?
Info: MacBook, Mac OS X (10.7.3), White plastic early 2008 model
I was using Pages while transferring documents to my thumb drive in the background. The display and keyboard went dark. I pressed power, pressed and help power, no result. I disconnected the magsafe and battery, waited, pressed power, still no result. My MacBook was sitting on a wood tabletop and not unusually warm. At first, I thought it was the power supply module, but after googling there are reports of CPUs failing. Some were under warranty and others were not despite the age.
Remember, this only works for early 2008 MBP's [edit: and early 2008 MBA's]. These are the ones that already support "multi-touch" (three finger swipe, pinch zoom, rotate). Step 1 - Update to 10.5.6 Step 2 - Download and unzip the modified kext file attached to this post Step 3 - Delete the AppleUSBMultitouch.kext file in System/Library/Extensions (this should require the administrators password)Step 4 - Put the modified kext file you downloaded at Step 2 in System/Library/Extensions (this should also require the administrators password)
I have a problem: when I restart my Early 2008 MacBook Pro there is no "chime" and the screen remains black. The keyboard doesn't light up or respond to any input, and worse still, the "lid button" light on the front of the notebook remains illuminated, it doesn't blink, it just stays on, shining in my face. I loaded a CD into the optical drive to see if I could use the keyboard to eject it, but this test failed. Now, when I turn on my MBP, I hear the optical drive spinning and the quiet whirr of the fan inside.
I looked on Apple's support website about what to do when a Mac refuses to boot. I tried all of the methods they listed, but since my Mac doesn't respond to keyboard input, all of the techniques failed. Having exhausted everything I could think of, I decided to post here hoping someone could suggest something. I was just on the verge of completing my portfolio website and I would like to salvage my data at least.
OSX Lion 10.7.4 Time Machine recently started randomly failing, so I swapped out the external hard drive and failures continue. I'm wondering if its software or maybe the USB ports failing at this point.
Logs look like below (when it works):
5/22/2012 2:57:54.360 PM com.apple.backupd: Starting standard backup 5/22/2012 2:57:54.943 PM com.apple.backupd: Backing up to: /Volumes/MBBackup/Backups.backupdb 5/22/2012 2:57:58.000 PM kernel: disk2s1: device is not ready.
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Info: MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2008), Mac OS X (10.7.3)
Though the Apple website says its incompatible, can it be installed in some way? If not, then will there be an update for Notification Centre and other new features for Lion?
I've noticed that when I try clicking on the trackpad's button, most of the time it will register the press and other times it doesn't. The button, physically, doesn't feel any different whether it registers the click or not. The button "clicks" down like normal and doesn't feel loose. Also, when I click and hold on the button and try to move my finger around the trackpad to highlight text or drag a folder, most of the time, the computer acts like I let go of the button and pressed it down again multiple times. While it does this, my finger remains on the trackpad button without being lifted. I recently upgraded my Mac to Snow Leopard but the problem occurred even with Leopard installed. I'm unsure as to whether or not this is a software or hardware issue. Could it be that there's something lodged under the trackpad button to cause this? If so, how would I be able to check under the button?
I am having an issue installing Snow Leopard on my computer. Every time I start the installation process, the process makes it to the first restart, and then crashes. I am running Mac OS X 10.5.8 and using a early 2008 Macbook. I have tried verifying the disk, but Disk Utility says the disk is fine with no issues. The hard drive was recently replaced so I doubt that their is a problem there...does anyone have any advice on how I should install Snow Leopard?
I was on the computer when it froze on me then the lines popped up and the computer asked me to restart. When I did that, it just freezes on the start up screen now with the lines across it and will do nothing else.
