Host of Problems

[nelsonizer]

Well, I have an epic saga of problems on my Macbook for you all.

White 2007 Macbook running 10.6.8
2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2 GB RAM

Press power button, Grey screen with apple logo would come up, grey progress bar, 15 minutes would pass, login to the computer and everything would work fine. It was annoying but at least I could use the thing.

Actions I took:
- Zapped the PRAM
- Tried -fsck to correct the boot problem described above. -fsck told me
1) catalog file incorrect number of thread records (4,25639),
2) Invalid directory item count 36 instead of 35.
Ran the repair function and it corrected 2) but said "The volume Macintosh HD could not be repaired after 3 attempts" regarding 1).
- Ran in Safe Mode, same problem, couldn't fix after three attempts

Results:
Computer still did the 15 minute grey screen startup, but now instead of being usable it was barely functional. Spotlight and Finder kept freezing and crashing. I reindexed several times using the drag HD to Privacy folder method. Same problem. The volume control would sporadically not function. Anytime I tried to watch a video on the internet the whole machine would freeze. So I took more drastic measures.

- Performed a Clean Boot from my Snow Leopard DVD, erased and zero'd the hard drive, reinstalled OS. Computer functioned normally.

Then I performed a full round of Mac Autoupdates, installed the following programs: Firefox, Snapz pro X, Afloat, Unarchiver, Transmission, VLC, Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, Handbrake and deleted some Apple programs I never use Dashboard, Mail, Calendar, Safari. Mac functioned normally for about 15 minutes.

Well the problems are back.
Internet Videos freeze or stop and the sound continues, spotlight won't function normally, when I try to restart it closes out the bar where the Apple logo and Spotlight live but never shuts down the machine, and runs really slowly at random times.

Verified Macintosh HD disk permissions and it lets loose an unholy firestorm of broken disc permissions. Some notable examples below:

Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAgent" has been modified and will not be repaired.

Permissions differ on "System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Resources/JavaPluginCocoa.bundle/Contents/Resources/Java/deploy.jar", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .

Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Support/LockScreen.app/Contents/Resources/Japanese.lproj/MainMenu.nib", should be drwxr-xr-x , they are -rwxr-xr-x .

Permissions differ on "System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home/lib/dt.jar", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are -rwxr-xr-x .


Help! I'm at the end of my rope and really can't afford a new computer.

 

[seveej]

Hi, OP.

Thanks for the detailed description of your troubles.

As a rule of thumb: When doing a OS reinstall on a machine, go slow on installing applications. That way you can more easily identify if a specific software is the origin of your troubles.

Other possible avenues:
- do you have a copy of Apple Hardware Test? If you have the DVD's which came with the computer, it should be on one of them. If found, run the test and see what it finds.
- your hard drive could be cracking up. Do you have an external drive you could spare? If so, try installing SL on that external drive (See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCZu23C8a78 ) and see if that bypasses your problems. If this helps, you need a new internal hard drive.

RGDS,

 

[GGJstudios]

Verified Macintosh HD disk permissions and it lets loose an unholy firestorm of broken disc permissions. Some notable examples below:

I didn't read the whole post (I may later), but if repairing permissions results in error messages, some of these messages can be ignored and should be no cause for concern.

Mac OS X: Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions messages that you can safely ignore​

If you're having performance issues, this may help:

Performance Tips For Mac OS X​

 

[WildCard^]

OP, no worries. I don't think you will need to buy anything, possibly just a hard drive, but probably not.

I see one of two things possibly wrong:
1) HD is going bad and you are losing sectors. The long boots and errors are caused by the data loss.
2) Operating system corruption for one reason or another.

Resolution:
1) Backup any data you want immediately. To a USB thumb drive or an external drive. You likely have one, but if not, they are around $12 for a 16GB lately.
2) Scan your hard drive for errors. Do a thorough scan. If it is dying, you will get SMART errors right away.
3) If no HD errors, assuming you have backed up all your important data, wipe the HD and reinstall your OS and apps.

Post the results, curious if the HD scan shows problems or not.

 

[old-wiz]

This is a case where a bootable clone would help in diagnosis. I use SuperDuper for backup, and know that I can always boot from the clone if something gets messed up or if I suspect a HDD problem.

 

[nelsonizer]

Ran the Hardware Test

The Quick Test yielded: 4SNS/1/40000000: TCOD
The Extended test said no errors found.

I gather from other places this is a temperature error?
Installed iStat, and it gave me the following readings

Activity: Fan not on, doing nothing special, reading articles on the net
Overall 136
AP Proximity 150
Battery thermal diode 88
CPU die 131
CPU proximity 128
Heatpipe Heatsink 0 125
Heatpipe Heatsink 1 125
NB Proximity Topside 125
Underneath SODIMM 120
ST9120822AS 102
Exhaust 2200
GPU Core 1.08
PBUS Rail 12.6

I will test it soon under load.

Thoughts?

 

[nelsonizer]

Restarted the computer this morning and everything seems to be working fine.


hébergeur d image gratuit

this is the computer under load using instructions from here http://osxdaily.com/2012/10/02/stress-test-mac-cpu/
I only left it run like that for about a 30 seconds, should I let it go for a bit to really see if the temperatures climb or am I barking up the wrong tree here?

More Updates:
Read some more tutorials and found out that Resetting the SMC can cure the following symptoms:
- Erratic sleep mode performance, including not waking from or not entering sleep.
- Failure to respond to the power button being pressed.
- Sluggish performance, even though Activity Monitor shows little CPU usage.
- Fans running fast.
http://macs.about.com/od/usingyourm...-System-Management-Controller-On-Your-Mac.htm

Just reset the SMC, I guess we'll see how things go from here