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SR mbp still won't shut down properly

F

fongyuen

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 9, 2007
390
2
17" SR mbp running 10.5.2, installed latest efi firmware update and mbp still refuses to shut down properly. now it's gotten to the point where more often than not when i try to shut down or restart, it would start to go through the process, then the screen would just go blank but machine won't shut down or restart, forcing me to hit the power button for hard reset.

did not have this problem before when running Tiger, but it started ever since Leopard, hoped 10.5.2 would solve it but it didn't. read somewhere that it might be some processes hanging up the process but shutting down growl, itunes helper, google updater, coversutra, quicksilver, etc. still doesn't guarantee that it'll shut down properly. tried resetting the pram, repairing permissions, etc. but nothing's worked. any ideas?
 
How far is it getting? Is it logging you off, shutting down desktop, and just freezing right before it would normally just turn itself off?

Try logging off first, then shutting down from the login prompt. Does that make a difference? Did it freeze before or after you reached the login prompt?


First, try Verify Disk / Repair Permissions.


If your computer is successfully closing out the OS X desktop but is freezing as it finishes the shutdown, we can switch your Mac to "Verbose" mode, and hopefully it will give us an error message that can point us to your problem.

Next, download and install OnyX:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/onyx.html

Open it up, go to Parameters, click on the Login tab, go to Startup Mode, and change it to Verbose. Restart your computer.
Now instead of showing a gray screen at startup and shutdown, it will be a black background with scrolling text. Ignore the stuff at startup. Login and shutdown. Getting any errors here? Stopping at a particular line? Anything repeating itself forever?
 
thanks for the response. i tried verify disk and it said the vol was fine. so i dl'd onyx, turned on verbose mode, then proceeded to shutdown, got stuck, hard reset, turned on verbose again, restart, stuck again. after getting stuck another time, it finally restarted properly and verbose mode finally kicked in after the restart.

then i proceeded to restart and shutdown several times and each time it worked properly. then i turned verbose mode off and went to restart and it got hung up again, the screen would just turn off but the hdd would still be spinning. hard reset again, checked to see if verbose mode was still active, it was cause it didn't restart properly, so i restarted again and with verbose on, it worked just fine.

for some reason, with verbose mode on, it shuts down/restarts just fine, but when i try to turn it off, then the hdd won't shutdown properly for some reason. any ideas?
 
hmm, still not consistent, after trying a few more times, it would still not restart properly sometimes while other times it would be fine. with verbose on, it'll go through some lines and then the screen would go dark but the hdd would not stop spinning.

well, i'm gonna leave verbose on for now, it seems to shutdown/restart properly more often than before. no one else is having this problem??
 
In OnyX, try clicking on the Automation tab, check everything, then click Execute. Does that make a difference?
 
ok, did that but still no good. restarted 3 times after automation, 1st time got stuck, 2nd time restarted fine, 3rd time stuck again. :/
 
fongyuen said:
ok, did that but still no good. restarted 3 times after automation, 1st time got stuck, 2nd time restarted fine, 3rd time stuck again. :/
Click to expand...

what kind of 3rd party apps do you run? I see you shut them off, and it did nothing? Onyx did nothing, it might be time for a clean install minus languages and all the foreign languages? What if you go back in time machine to a place where your Lappy was in good running order.
 
hmm, sometimes to get it to shut down properly i try to quit a bunch of processes like itunes helper, growl, coversutra, gimmesometunes, google updater, and sometimes it'll work, sometimes it won't so it's not consistent at all.

i'm thinking i might have to do a clean install but it's such a pain. would archive and install be easier or safer to do a clean install? as for time machine, i think i've had this problem ever since i upgraded to leopard. :/ (that was a clean install too, not upgrade from Tiger).
 
fongyuen said:
i'm thinking i might have to do a clean install but it's such a pain. would archive and install be easier or safer to do a clean install? as for time machine, i think i've had this problem ever since i upgraded to leopard. :/ (that was a clean install too, not upgrade from Tiger).
Click to expand...
Try an archive and install first. Clean installs are usually a last resort.

Make sure you have good backups.
 
I'm having this same exact problem. I shut down but hear the fans still on. When I push the power button to turn it on it doesn't do anything. I realize the computer isn't fully shut down. I hold the power button to force the shut down and turn it on again and get an error message telling me that it restarted after Mac OS X crashed and allows me to send an error report.

I was wondering if the OP solved this problem yet. I've already clean installed Leopard twice on my mac (though not since having this problem) and don't want to do it again if this problem can be fixed without it. If the OP solved it by clean installing, I'd like to hear it and I'll consider it myself.

BTW, mine is an iMac G4.
 
Mac OS X Ocelot said:
I'm having this same exact problem. I shut down but hear the fans still on. When I push the power button to turn it on it doesn't do anything. I realize the computer isn't fully shut down. I hold the power button to force the shut down and turn it on again and get an error message telling me that it restarted after Mac OS X crashed and allows me to send an error report.

I was wondering if the OP solved this problem yet. I've already clean installed Leopard twice on my mac (though not since having this problem) and don't want to do it again if this problem can be fixed without it. If the OP solved it by clean installing, I'd like to hear it and I'll consider it myself.

BTW, mine is an iMac G4.
Click to expand...

hi Ocelot, not sure if you ever solved your problem. i was hoping that 10.5.4 would do the trick since it specifically addressed this shut down issue but alas it did not do it for me. after frustration with no help from 10.5.4, i did a completely new install, and i have to say that while the problem is not as severe as it used to be (would not shut down properly >50% of the time), it still does happen on occassion. sometimes i think its my Tunnelblick vpn program that gets stuck on shut down but it's happened at least one time since i removed it from the login start up. sigh, what about you, any luck?
 
Is this issue where it will not shut down/restart unless you log out, mine does that If I shutdown while I'm logged in it just hangs indefinitely on a blue or black screen.
 
Mattjeff said:
Is this issue where it will not shut down/restart unless you log out, mine does that If I shutdown while I'm logged in it just hangs indefinitely on a blue or black screen.
Click to expand...

hmm, logout? i haven't tried that yet. i've never hung on a blue screen before, but my mbp has the appearance of shutting down, screen goes dark & everything, but if you lean in, you can hear the hdd still spinning, then it's a hard reset from there. the % of this happening has gone down since i've reinstalled osx but it still probably happens once every 5 or 6 restarts. meanwhile, under boot camp, i never have problems shutting down under windows...go figure...
 
I've recently started having this problem as well on my 15" Penryn MBP. Any resolution yet? Have you tried calling Applecare?
 
odinsride said:
I've recently started having this problem as well on my 15" Penryn MBP. Any resolution yet? Have you tried calling Applecare?
Click to expand...

Sent mine in for GPU problems, logic board replacement x2 and came back still doing the same thing. I'm going to wait for the new ones to come out and request a replacement as I've had several other problems as well.
 
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