Anyone having freezing issues?

[glitchu1]

I've recently been having a LOT of problems with my MBP freezing. I was wondering if anyone else has had similar problems? I'm running a early 2008 MBP with OSX 10.5.7. I use time machine and have bootcamp installed too.

I've been looking around for similar problems but the things I've tried haven't worked and it's getting REALLY frustrating. It happens probably 55% of the time I use the computer now and it feels like when it's doing something like loading a webpage and asked to start say, msn, it will just give up and stop responding. I cannot for quit either, the shortcut won't work and when I try to do it from the dock, it freezes too.

So any tips would be greatly appreciated. My PC crashed so often I knew what to try to fix it, but my mac has always been so good, now that it's giving me grief I have no clue how to track down the problem.

Thanks a lot,
Chris

Edit: Safari is an example - my MBP seems to freeze at random times in any program or sometimes even just after start up and I click an app in the dock.

 

[thegoldenmackid]

Try a different browser. 55% <- that's a normal number.

 

[MacDawg]

You can start by clearing all your browser caches

But you might want to do an Archive and Install... or even a clean install of the system

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[glitchu1]

You can start by clearing all your browser caches

But you might want to do an Archive and Install... or even a clean install of the system

Woof, Woof - Dawg

Thanks for the reply. Sorry I wasn't clear. Safari was just an example - it also happens in firefox and finder (other programs too but Safari is the program I use the most so it happens most commonly in safari)

 

[sabdal]

Yes, freezing issues with my wife's MBP. It's a unibody. I've read a LOT about this but haven't found a solution.

1. It freezes whether or not she is using her external monitor
2. It freezes either on battery or plugged in
3. It used to freeze a lot when it was going to sleep, but I turned all sleeping off and it still freezes up.
4. It freezes more frequently now when she's using, but I think that's because I turned sleep off, so it's not freezing then.
5. I took it to the Genius Bar and they did a FULL hardware test. All passed.
6. They did an ARCHIVE and INSTALL and that did not help.
7. I just installed smc Fan Control tonight to see if it is a temperature issue..apparently others had this problem late in 2008 and into 2009. I haven't seen that on the board so much since then.
8. I saw a LOT of posts about NVIDIA graphics cards. It has a GeForce 9600M GT. I'm not sure how to tell if this is related or not - the card or the drivers. I saw that mentioned a lot on message boards, but it seemed to be the 8000 series not the 9600 so much, but I"m not sure.

I'm going to wait and see if the smc Fan Control software helps monitor and keep the temp low and that helps. If it's overheating, than that would explain why it happened a lot with the external monitor - clamshell closed, lots of intensive editing in Photoshop. Possibility but not proven yet.

Next stop if that doesn't work is back to the Genius Bar to get them to perhaps consider replacing hardware....?

 

[t0mat0]

Getting freezing on mid 09 MBP, and it's replacement. Not sure quite to put it down to - if it's happening regularly enough, i'd recommend putting activity monitor, unobscured in corner of screen, and then watching what's happening when the freeze occurs. Could also note the time of freeze, and check the logs. CPU spike was something mentioned as a possibility to me, but when it's happened, it's not been overloaded at all.

 

[sabdal]

Getting freezing on mid 09 MBP, and it's replacement. Not sure quite to put it down to - if it's happening regularly enough, i'd recommend putting activity monitor, unobscured in corner of screen, and then watching what's happening when the freeze occurs. Could also note the time of freeze, and check the logs. CPU spike was something mentioned as a possibility to me, but when it's happened, it's not been overloaded at all.

I've tried checking the logs each time it freezes on my wife and I've noticed no consistent markers. However, it's also in a language in which I am NOT fluent, so there could be something there. I did show the logs to the Genius Bar and nothing jumped out at him, they went right to hardware testing and archive-install, both which did nothing.

Since last night when I installed smc Fan Control, she has yet to lockup. Keep fingers crossed.

 

[sabdal]

I've tried checking the logs each time it freezes on my wife and I've noticed no consistent markers. However, it's also in a language in which I am NOT fluent, so there could be something there. I did show the logs to the Genius Bar and nothing jumped out at him, they went right to hardware testing and archive-install, both which did nothing.

Since last night when I installed smc Fan Control, she has yet to lockup. Keep fingers crossed.

OK. She used it ALL day and it locked up only once. When it happened, she was not using it; it was sitting on the table and she was doing something else. Screen went blank (screensaver) so she couldn't see the temperature when it locked. I think it was running on battery, so that perhaps means the battery got hot on discharge and temperature is the factory that causes lockup? Still just a theory, no hard proof.

 

[ryanwarsaw]

I also have had this issue but only in the past month or so. Mine freezes and nothing responds the only solution is to do a hard reset. I am wondering if some software update is the cause because it only started doing this recently. Ugh it is like using windows or something.

 

[jlgrandam]

I recently bought a late 2008 unibody refurb. It would freeze at least once a day and would require a hard reset. The screen would just freeze but no kernel panic message would be displayed. The console logs clearly showed that it was related to the graphics card with messages about NVDA (OpenGL) errors. The mac genius thought it was a software issue so I did an archive and reinstall. However I did not update it back to 10.5.7 but stayed at 10.5.6. So far that has cured my freezing problem! I don't trust 10.5.7 and will wait at 10.5.6 until either the next update or snow leopard comes out.