Froze twice, then wireless wouldn't work... what's going on here?

[ryannazaretian]

Well here I am, just minding my own business talking with my girlfriend on Facebook when my laptop completely locks up... So I force turn it off.

Well it comes back on, boots up, and I start up Firefox again. I start typing, and low and behold, it happens again! At this point, I'm really worried. I again, force turn it off.

When it comes on the next time, I load Firefox, and it says it didn't shut down properly. I just said to start a new session. Well, it comes up, I go back on Facebook. I start typing to my gf again, but she doesn't reply. While waiting for her to reply, I open up another tab. The website doesn't load.

Well... I'm really confused at this point. I look at the modem and all the lights are on, and the activity light is blinking. I go to the wireless options menu, which has 5 bars on it. When I click it, it says "No Networks"

I cycle the power on it, and I couldn't get it to turn back on. ******!

I restart once again. This time, it boots and everything seems to be back to normal. I'm repaired the disk permissions, and all it found was the normal Java stuff that's always in there.

So... what has recently changed...

Well last week, I put in an OCZ Vertex LE drive. It's been great so far.

Today I installed the multitouch trackpad update. <-I think this may be my problem.

Anybody else experiencing this with the new update? Any advice? If it happens again, I'll hit it with a PRAM reset and a SMC reset.

It was just so random; it really caught me off guard.

 

[ryannazaretian]

Some more information:

Temperature is just warm... not scorching or anything.
Running off of battery. Had maybe 65% left.
Running off of integrated 9400m graphics.
Firefox 3.6.8 was the only application in memory.
Running 10.6.4 with all the latest updates.
OCZ Vertex LE 50GB with latest 1.10 firmware.

No software changes since last Friday when I installed OSX on the SSD except for the software updates today, and I think Firefox may have had an update this weekend sometime.

 

[ryannazaretian]

Well it has been fine since the incident last night. I used it for maybe an hour afterward, and maybe for 20 minutes before work this morning. No problems.

Weird!

 

[ryannazaretian]

Well, no freezing tonight, but WiFi crapped out again. I decided to do a screen recording.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVrMHQ-smMo

 

[alphaod]

Attempt a PRAM and SMC reset. See if your issue still occurs or not.

If after it still occurs a few times, it's likely your network card has gone berserk. At this point you would need to take your computer to a shop to have the wireless card replaced.

 

[ryannazaretian]

Attempt a PRAM and SMC reset. See if your issue still occurs or not.

If after it still occurs a few times, it's likely your network card has gone berserk. At this point you would need to take your computer to a shop to have the wireless card replaced.

I sure hope it's not the wireless card. This one is only 2 months old after the other one had trouble staying connected.

I've only had it happen on OSX so far. Windows 7 with Bootcamp seems fine.

It used to be the other way around. OSX never froze, but Windows always did. I always used to have WiFi troubles on Windows, but not OSX.

Looks like the tables have turned.

I'll try the PRAM and SMC, although I recently did this when I installed my new SSD just for precautionary measures.

If the machine does go back in, this will be the 4th time in 1.5 years. 1st time was due to a defective keyboard right from the get-go. 2nd time was the WiFi problem, audio red light problem that wouldn't go away, and SuperDrive problems. 3rd time, the trackpad stopped working.

Oh, and this is a replacement MacBook Pro for an early 2008 that broke 4 times within a few months... hard drive, 2 logic boards, 3 trackpads, a new fan, top case warping... all sorts of problems...

I need to get a Lenovo, ASUS, or a Toshiba. The Apple Experience has not been a good one.

Also, I noticed that after every repair, something comes back a little off. They broke the tab off of one of the fans, and put in too short of a screw on the bottom plate when replacing the WiFi stuff. This last time, the black plastic henge piece is falling off, and the metal foam conductor ground things are falling off. This scares me. What if they fall off and touch the logic board? Yea... magic smoke will happen.

I'm installing OSX on a new SSD tonight since the other one wasn't big enough. I'll be sure to reset PRAM and SMC before and after the install. We'll see how it goes from there.

You might think I'm rough with my MacBook Pro, but the thing is... I'm not.

Everything except for the bottom plate is still perfect. No dents, no scratches. I blow my machine out with canned air about once a month by pulling off the back cover, removing the fans, and blowing out the fans and heatsinks. My machine runs cool for a MacBook Pro. GPU only gets to about 160F. CPU around 140. The rest stays in the high 90's.