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solidshane

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 17, 2005
15
0
Hey guy,

I had my powerbook in for repairs recently for some bizarre crashes. Apple replaced the logic board, hard drive, and screen under warrenty. I got it back and everything seemed fine. All of a sudden now though, the hard drive will go crazy when I do even the simplest things. Opening and quitting programs takes forever. Changing tabs in Safari lags and sometimes brings up a beach ball. I thought maybe it was all in my head, but I opened up World Of Warcraft and it is now unplayable, as it starts chugging every few seconds, while the hard drive growls at me. I tried clearing the cache folders, repairing the disk and permissions, and something akin to rebuilding the desktop in OS 9 that I read about on another mac site. I hope I don't have one of those notoriously bum macs that will fight to the death not not work correctly... Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 

igucl

macrumors 6502a
Oct 11, 2003
569
17
I'm no expert, but if I were you I would download OnyX from Macupdate.com (make sure you get the right version for Panther or Tiger) and run all of its cleaning and maintenance commands.

It may be worth a try?
 

wongulous

macrumors 6502a
Dec 7, 2002
952
2
Well, it sounds like Apple has fixed some hardware defects... but the problems you're having now don't quite sound like hardware issues anymore. More software. Have you tried backing up your files, initializing (erasing) the HD, and reinstalling OS X (and all updates)?

The previous poster's suggestion of doing schedule maintenance/cleanup with any variety of OS X tools (onyx, cocktail, there's other free ones I forget) is also a great idea after any physical maintenance or hardware changes are done. Do that first, but also try wiping and reinstalling--just to completely rule out software as the cause. (And if it persists, Apple really needs their rear end CHEWED: you should INSIST on getting a new PowerBook, and they will give it to you after that many repairs. Apple has high standards of quality.)
 

yoda13

macrumors 65816
Sep 26, 2003
1,468
2
Texas
I have some issues of similar behaviour lately, and mine hasn't been to the shop. I am glad to hear that you guys think that it is probably software related. A restart always fixes it for me anyway. The only reason I was concerned was that my PowerMac has the same software on it, and it never does it... Oh well... :eek:
 

solidshane

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 17, 2005
15
0
When I got my powerbook back from apple, there was a .dmg on the hard drive of my original data. It had errors in it, so I was forced to pick and choose the files I wanted and do a clean install, and move them back over. So technically I have done a reinstall since I got it. At the moment I have nothing to backup to, so doing another reinstall is not really an option right now. Am I justified in asking for a replacement computer? I dread the idea of sending my computer in for repairs again in as little as a month... I'm at a loss.

edit:

onyx seemed to make a bit of difference in overall computing smoothness, but warcraft still exhibits the problems immensly, even after making it a private folder in spotlight.
 

Invizzible

macrumors regular
Feb 9, 2003
223
1
My friend's ibook slowed down quite a bit, and when he opened the cpu meter he saw that it was running like crazy even when he wasn't doing anything. It turned out to be some print jobs that were in the que, that his girlfriend had tried to do. For whatever reason she wasn't able to make them print so they just stayed there soaking up cpu resources. Once he deleted those print jobs, the ibook went back to normal.
 

solidshane

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 17, 2005
15
0
well, I am a fool at this point.

I did an archive and install of tiger, then a complete clean install of tiger and it wasn't fixed. In the back of my mind I kept hearing, "it looks like things arent loading into the ram fast enough..." but i ignored it.

I decided to install panther to see if that would help, and went to about this mac. 256 megs or ram show up, I have 768.... I have no idea what to do...
 

solidshane

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 17, 2005
15
0
In case this was keeping any of you up at night, my lower ram slot is faulty. Apple store here I come...
 

yenko

macrumors 6502a
Aug 29, 2005
522
0
SouthWest-USA
solidshane said:
Hey guy,

I had my powerbook in for repairs recently for some bizarre crashes. Apple replaced the logic board, hard drive, and screen under warrenty. I got it back and everything seemed fine. All of a sudden now though, the hard drive will go crazy when I do even the simplest things. Opening and quitting programs takes forever. Changing tabs in Safari lags and sometimes brings up a beach ball. I thought maybe it was all in my head, but I opened up World Of Warcraft and it is now unplayable, as it starts chugging every few seconds, while the hard drive growls at me. I tried clearing the cache folders, repairing the disk and permissions, and something akin to rebuilding the desktop in OS 9 that I read about on another mac site. I hope I don't have one of those notoriously bum macs that will fight to the death not not work correctly... Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Did your problems start after installing WoW. :eek:
 

solidshane

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 17, 2005
15
0
yenko said:
Did your problems start after installing WoW. :eek:


Nope, it used to run great, but i figured out the problem. Hopefully I dont have to pay to fix it...
 
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