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Computer slowly dying? freezing/clicking noises/wont startup

whostillasnooze

whostillasnooze

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 13, 2004
5
0
Long Island , NY
I've been on tech support w/ my insurance company for the past few days, not really sure what's happening to my computer... already backed everything up....My computer was making abnormal and loud clicking noises and accompanied w/ freezing... then it woudlnt start up at all...on the tech support line we ran disk utility and it found a ton of errors on the harddrive...we then erased the harddrive and reinstalled OSX ...now the computer will start up, but as of last night it started freezing again...occasionally making the clicking noise, alot how it started out before it h ad completley stopped working last time...i ran the hardware testing CD and all my hardware passes....????? not really sure whats going on..any help would be greatly appreciated seeing that im leaving for college in a month and i really need to get this fixed before i leave ... (Ibook G3 700mhz)
 
broken_keyboard

broken_keyboard

macrumors 65816
Apr 19, 2004
1,144
0
Secret Moon base
Initially, based on what you said about it making funny noises, I thought you probably need a new hard drive. But since you were able to reinstall the whole OS and it made it through the process, I'm not sure.

I would try doing a fresh install of the OS (not an upgrade or archive) and then just use it for a few days with no other apps installed. Just use the basic system apps like Safari and see if the hard drive starts playing up again. If it does, you will know for sure it is hardware.
 
kettle

kettle

macrumors 65816
May 12, 2002
1,319
59
England, Great Britain (Airstrip One)
oh dear.

Time for a new hard drive.

I'd recommend you go for as big as you can afford and try to get as fast a speed as you can balance against battery life, you'll see good disk access improvements over the standard iBook.

With the added speed you could enable journalling to the hard drive, this usually slows data down a bit but helps to prevent data errors. Unfortunately a laptop disk does a lot more starting and stopping so it'll have a harder life. Journalling will not stop a physical disk failure so it's a good job you were backed up.

If you loose a lot of work, it's the worst way to learn about back up. You have come through a disk failure much more easily than most, so you have alot to be cheerful about. :)
 
whostillasnooze

whostillasnooze

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 13, 2004
5
0
Long Island , NY
<b>broken_keyboard:</b> It was a clean install...erased everything on the harddrive and did it from an OSX install disk...(the initial errors showing up on disk utility said something about nodes, i don't remember what exactly b/c i didnt write it down, kind of stupid) even though the tests had errors before, i ran them now and they show no errors.. but it still froze twice since i did the install last night/ also made a few loud clicks.. but then i did a hardware check and it said all is okay.. so im not so sure whats wrong
 
broken_keyboard

broken_keyboard

macrumors 65816
Apr 19, 2004
1,144
0
Secret Moon base
whostillasnooze said:
<b>broken_keyboard:</b> It was a clean install...erased everything on the harddrive and did it from an OSX install disk...(the initial errors showing up on disk utility said something about nodes, i don't remember what exactly b/c i didnt write it down, kind of stupid) even though the tests had errors before, i ran them now and they show no errors.. but it still froze twice since i did the install last night/ also made a few loud clicks.. but then i did a hardware check and it said all is okay.. so im not so sure whats wrong
Click to expand...

OK - if you didn't install any others apps but the OS, sounds like a bad HD for sure. The message was probably about iNodes - these are a data structure the comp uses to store data on the HD. I would say ignore the hardware check - the evidence of your own eyes is telling you otherwise.

p.s. you can use HTML style markup but just use square brackets instead of angle brackets
 
whostillasnooze

whostillasnooze

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 13, 2004
5
0
Long Island , NY
broken_keyboard said:
\
p.s. you can use HTML style markup but just use square brackets instead of angle brackets
Click to expand...
Thanks a ton -- now the hard part is getting the insurance company to believe that the harddrive is shot so i can get it covered seeing that it takes a few hours or so to get it to click and or/freeze and since the reinstall the computer was able start up again, would have been easier to convince them if the thing just wouldnt turn on at all
 
wdlove

wdlove

macrumors P6
Oct 20, 2002
16,568
0
whostillasnooze said:
Thanks a ton -- now the hard part is getting the insurance company to believe that the harddrive is shot so i can get it covered seeing that it takes a few hours or so to get it to click and or/freeze and since the reinstall the computer was able start up again, would have been easier to convince them if the thing just wouldn't turn on at all
Click to expand...

You should take your iBook into an Apple Store. Let them diagnose the problem. They might be able to give your insurance company the needed documentation.

I agree with Horrortaxi sometimes with deductibles and price your are better off to pay the cost yourself.
 
whostillasnooze

whostillasnooze

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 13, 2004
5
0
Long Island , NY
frustration

It's definately cheaper getting the company to do it for me...We've already looked into that.......aaand well i got my wish :p my computer froze and stopped starting up again...now i have a flashing question mark at start up--- Called the insurance company and they said something about some kind of board meeting to examine my claim.. blah blah. tehn they'll decide what they're doing w/ it.. and call me back by tuesday....and if they dont then i can call back badgering them again as to what happens next...I just really hope its repaired by time im leaving for college
 
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