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Is my 13" MacBook Pro finished?

N

ncfcstar

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 25, 2006
61
0
Near Ipswich, UK
OK, I'm just about to book a Genius Bar appointment so hopefully something will be fixed soon...but here is my problem.

I've got a mid 2010 MacBook Pro 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 4GB ram and the NVIDIA GeForce 320M.

I installed Lion on launch, and haven't had any problems until Friday night. At that time I was playing a game whilst surfing the net, never having any problem before I thought this would be OK. My MacBook crashed, and I thought nothing of it, perhaps it was the way I was sitting blocking the fans or something of the sort.

This whole weekend has been nothing but crash upon crash upon crash. I'm surprised I've managed to get this far through a post. Any ideas what could be the problem? I work from home so this is a major issue for me.

I've read a few threads about other GPUs but no one mentions the card I have, so I don't know if that's relevant. I'm assuming it must be something to do with overheating, but it seems to be crashing even when I'm doing simple tasks now.

It would be great if you could give me some pointers before I take it in. It crashes whilst doing tasks, but also on startup (at a screen where it states my MacBook stopped working due to an error)...

Thanks for any help!
 
miniConvert said:
What else have you installed more recently? Any new games/apps/updates that went on before these crashes started?
Click to expand...

Nothing as far as I'm aware. Definitely nothing that is running when the system decided to crash. The only things I have installed recently are Steam (for my game) but this was installed around 2 months ago, and any updates that have been released by Apple.

My WiFi has also suddenly become very intermittent (it's not the router because I'm using other WiFi connected items at the same time).

I haven't checked the temp yet at crash, but I will download something and see what it says.

----------

As another issue, as soon as I open the Mac App Store the MacBook crashes.
 
It seems to be running at around 60c when it crashes. Which is about average for temperature I'd assume?

I'm wondering if this WiFi issue could be the problem? My work is internet based, and it has been crashing either on start up or whilst browsing the net/using the WiFi connection. Could this cause an issue which crashes the computer?

The WiFi connection seems to drop, and then if I turn the WiFi off it won't let me turn it back on. I wonder if that has more to play in the whole situation than I thought?
 
I had problems after an upgrade install of lion and it got worse over time. I did a SMC and triple PRAM reset and then did a clean install of Lion and its worked great since. Before this my 2010 MBP same as OP would run hot, fans going crazy, spinning beach-balls and kernel panics. Now all is better. Good Luck.
 
Could I be right with my WiFi diagnosis? I've ran the AHT but it doesn't pick any errors up.

I've just been running the MBP with CPU intensive programs all running fine, the temp is up to about 80c and the fans are on, but the WiFi is off...no crashes.

Could some kind of corruption/hardware failure with the WiFi hardware cause crashes?
 
miniConvert said:
Before you make that Genius appointment, back up what you need and do a clean install of Lion. That's likely to sort out your issues. If it doesn't, off to Apple you go. :)
Click to expand...

Lol, I would have thought this would be obvious.

Honestly, that's my solution to most problems. I almost always already have backups of important files and I keep the setup files and licenses of my most used programs.

It just takes an hour to get the whole thing done, much less time than trying to figure out what is wrong and doing the whole trial and error thing.
 
miniConvert said:
Before you make that Genius appointment, back up what you need and do a clean install of Lion. That's likely to sort out your issues. If it doesn't, off to Apple you go. :)
Click to expand...

Yeah that was going to be my next step. It just crashed on start up, and when I tried again it then loaded to the desktop and the screen suddenly went black and I had to power it down manually again.

I guess it could be a software issue, but it just seems a bit more serious than that. Thank the lord for time machine.
 
I just went to clean install Lion.

I assume if you run Lion Installation off a DVD then it the process is running from this, without interruption from the installed version of the software? Because it crashed/became unresponsive after loading the disk utility page.

Am I now to assume that this means a clean install wont affect anything?
 
blueroom said:
Clean install = format, install, restore (Time Machine is very good for this), update
Click to expand...

Hi, yes I clean installed Lion when it first came out, I know what I am doing, but the MBP stopped responding before I could format the drive (I was at Disk Utility). This was after restarting the MBP with a Lion DVD I had created previously.

As it crashed at this point of the process, does it mean it's more likely to be a hardware issue, I don't want to go halfway through formatting my hard drive only for the MBP to stop responding.
 
I just had a Kernel Panic whilst running the Lion Install Disc - can someone confirm to me that when start your Mac using the install disc that it is not the installed software that you are running?

Hence, surely this would point to a hardware issue not a software issue?
 
miker2209 said:
I think your HDD is dying.
Click to expand...

Thanks Mike, would this be the case even if the AHT didn't pick anything up, and Disk Utility reports no errors? Saves a lot of worrying if this is the case because everything is backed up and I've got a 3 year warranty, so I know it's an easy job.
 
ncfcstar said:
Thanks Mike, would this be the case even if the AHT didn't pick anything up, and Disk Utility reports no errors? Saves a lot of worrying if this is the case because everything is backed up and I've got a 3 year warranty, so I know it's an easy job.
Click to expand...
I don't think Disk Utility will pick it up, since it's more of a hardware problem. Macs aren't like PC, they don't tend to crash or having any serious problems because of a software. But your symptoms sounds familiar to me, if you do have everything backed up best way to know now is to take a plunge and format your HDD and re-install Lion or SL and see what happens. Clean installs usually solve unexplained issues for me :D
 
Thanks for the advice. I don't think I'll be able to do a clean install without the MBP freezing unfortunately.

As an aside, I just ran the AHT again and got this error message:

4SNS/1/40000001: TN1D--1.000

So looks like I'm going to have to take it in, unless someone knows exactly what the problem is? I've looked on Google, seems to be an issue that happens from time to time.
 
ncfcstar said:
Thanks for the advice. I don't think I'll be able to do a clean install without the MBP freezing unfortunately.

As an aside, I just ran the AHT again and got this error message:

4SNS/1/40000001: TN1D--1.000

So looks like I'm going to have to take it in, unless someone knows exactly what the problem is? I've looked on Google, seems to be an issue that happens from time to time.
Click to expand...

OP, I did some research on the Apple Support Forums, and that error code indicates a faulty capacitor on the motherboard.

Backup all your data immediately, and get your MacBook Pro into the Genius Bar, stat. Do NOT use the computer at all. Just back up your data, and get it into repair. The repair should be covered under warranty since it's a faulty part from the factory.

Source: [URL="https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2609815?threadID=2609815&tstart=330#12405199"]Thread on Apple Support Communities[/URL]
 
Steve.P.JobsFan said:
OP, I did some research on the Apple Support Forums, and that error code indicates a faulty capacitor on the motherboard.

Backup all your data immediately, and get your MacBook Pro into the Genius Bar, stat. Do NOT use the computer at all. Just back up your data, and get it into repair. The repair should be covered under warranty since it's a faulty part from the factory.

Source: [URL="https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2609815?threadID=2609815&tstart=330#12405199"]Thread on Apple Support Communities[/URL]
Click to expand...

Yeah thanks for that, I did have a look over those forums last night. I took it to my local Apple Store this morning, and they are replacing the logic board and doing some more tests. Hopefully I get it back soon!
 
ncfcstar said:
Yeah thanks for that, I did have a look over those forums last night. I took it to my local Apple Store this morning, and they are replacing the logic board and doing some more tests. Hopefully I get it back soon!
Click to expand...

I'm glad to help you out, and I'm glad to see that your local Apple Store is replacing the logic board, and taking care of your problems. :D
 
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