Finder turned evil. Eating system files.

[yoyo5280]

Hey,

My moms macbook, to me, has been a disappointment to mac. It has a never ending list of little habits that it does that closely resemble one of a toddler or bad teenager. For example before we upgraded to leopard, it refused to wake from sleep. All it would do is a black screen. Just a pet peeve, easily fixed.

When I bought leopard, on the release date may I ad, we did upgrade instal to it. After, it was so slow. We then did erase and install. It seemed to work fine afterward until it started to act a lil funny. Preferences that had previously been set had not been saved. Alright, we click on System Preferences to fix it but what happened! It wasnt there. Just a question mark. System preferences got eaten up! I go searching around the system everywhere I can imagine but its gone. I archive and instal.

Today (ages after the above) I came home from school and my dad asked me "Yesterday did you play with your mothers computer". Honestly, I answer no. Then he describes THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM! but worse. All settings for everything had been reset with system preferences gone!:eek: Also my mom then said Finder would not quit. I told her that you can not quit finder and she said
"No I mean when I try to log off it would just give me a blue screen. And when I pulled out the battery and restarted it would beach-ball when logging in."

My dad archived and installed again.

With my mac mini PPC I have had so little problems. This macbook is not 1 year old and its had more then my mini in many years. Whats up?


My dad is reluctant to take it to the genius bar. I said we should have returned the second it acted like a...^controlling language^. you get the point.

Thanks for the help

Arigatz
Omi

[Jiddick ExRex]

Thanks for what help?

You never did ask any questions? :o

[dsl4c]

try a clean install.

[yoyo5280]

Oh yea... sorry about that. Here is my question:

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THAT MACHINE AND WHAT CAN I DO TO FIX IT. ITS DRIVING US INSANE!!!!!!!


deeply sorry.

[brand]

try a clean install.

In addition to that, install all software and firmware updates. Also make sure that any software that you install and use is fully updated.

[Consultant]

Perhaps it's a failing harddrive or just people who keep shutting down improperly?

HAVE YOU REPAIRED PERMISSION?

Someone needs to bring it to the genius bar.

[yoyo5280]

OH god!? A failing harddrive sounds expensive to repair. I will check the S.M.A.R.T drive thing and repair permissions later today.

My dad is reluctant to bring it to the genius bar. How do I convince him this is serious?

[GFLPraxis]

OH god!? A failing harddrive sounds expensive to repair. I will check the S.M.A.R.T drive thing and repair permissions later today.

My dad is reluctant to bring it to the genius bar. How do I convince him this is serious?

Don't panic, really. A failing hard drive will be repaired by Apple in a flash if it's still under warranty, not a dime spent on your part.

Actually, I have the same issue recently with my MacBook not always waking from sleep, plus I have a failing backlight. I'm going to call it in to Apple next week, I fully expect them to cover it as I have AppleCare and not charge me a dime.

[yoyo5280]

Aite, cool. Will apple replace the computer or replace the drive? If the replace what will be the cosmetic side effects?

[LightDemon69]

Aite, cool. Will apple replace the computer or replace the drive? If the replace what will be the cosmetic side effects?

Most likely they will replace the hard drive and copy the contents of the old drive tot he new one. There shouldn't be any cosmetic blemishes, but i have heard stories about them scratching computers and such, but if they do, just tell them and they will fix it for free. So there are no worries, and if it is still under warranty or you have AppleCare, it will be 100% free.

So tell your dad that you have nothing at all to lose, and everything to gain. The only thing that could come out of taking the MacBook to the Apple Store is that it will be in better shape than before.

[Consultant]

Repair is free under warranty.

No there won't be blemishes. The stories are just stories or exceptions, not the norm.

Do you parents know how to shut down computer properly? Somehow I think they are not doing that.

Also, you might want to find a copy of Consumer Reports (your library has one) and make a copy to show your dad:

"Apple recently topped Consumer Reports' list of hardware manufacturers technical support services in a recent study. Consumer Reports says that while the industry standard solve-rate for technical issues sits at around 60-percent, while Apple's phone support yielded an 80-percent solve-rate, and the company's Genius bars accounted for a 90-percent solve-rate. The statistics were discovered through a survey of over 10,000 desktop and laptop computers."

[yoyo5280]

Both my parents do know how to use computers so yes they do shut it down properly majority of the time, HOWEVER

a) We hardly shut it down. We leave it running almost always
b) When it won't wake from sleep sometimes the only way to fix it is cold boot it.

[nick9191]

Yeah my backlight is a little strange, but once booted up after a few mins its not noticeable, still I will call it in. I hope I can get them to replace the front chassis bit as well (palmrest bit).

Back to the OP, are you sure the Leopard disk isn't scratched? Did you verify the disk when installing.

[solvs]

Most likely they will replace the hard drive and copy the contents of the old drive tot he new one.

Actually they are under no obligation to do so, and often don't. If you go this route, back it up yourself. If it's still under warranty, I would definitely bring it in because that doesn't sound right.