Late 2011 MBP infuriating pinwheel of death.

[Merlincat1999]

Hey everyone,
I have a big problem with my late 2011 MacBook Pro. The computer just locks up at every click and then reacts.
My bootcamp partition works fine, and I don't see any abnormal CPU consumption.
I already did a clean install of Yosemite. But the computer still has the same issue preventing me from upgrading to El Cap.

I am really running out of ideas, do you have any suggestions.

PS: I don't have another mac so I cannot create install media.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Hey everyone,
I have a big problem with my late 2011 MacBook Pro. The computer just locks up at every click and then reacts.
My bootcamp partition works fine, and I don't see any abnormal CPU consumption.
I already did a clean install of Yosemite. But the computer still has the same issue preventing me from upgrading to El Cap.

I am really running out of ideas, do you have any suggestions.

PS: I don't have another mac so I cannot create install media.

Check the HDD by downloading SMART Utility. Anything other than 'Passed' means the hard-drive is corrupted.

If this comes back clean, run a volume verification through Disk Utility. Could be volume corruptions causing the issue. You won't need to do this if the HDD is corrupted.

Either way, quote this to let me know what the news is and we'll go from there.

 

[Merlincat1999]

Check the HDD by downloading SMART Utility. Anything other than 'Passed' means the hard-drive is corrupted.

If this comes back clean, run a volume verification through Disk Utility. Could be volume corruptions causing the issue. You won't need to do this if the HDD is corrupted.

Either way, quote this to let me know what the news is and we'll go from there.

Thanks for the help. But SMART utility quit unexpectedly. Also I verified disk and it said that disk appears to be OK

 

[keysofanxiety]

Thanks for the help. But SMART utility quit unexpectedly. Also I verified disk and it said that disk appears to be OK

Which OS are you on? Different versions of SMART Utility will crash if on the wrong OS. The one I linked is for 10.9 upwards.

 

[Merlincat1999]

Which OS are you on? Different versions of SMART Utility will crash if on the wrong OS. The one I linked is for 10.9 upwards.

I have OS X Yosemite. (10.10.5). But now it's working fine. It works for the first 5 minutes and then it bugs. I don't know. Also I saw it said FAILING for 1 second and then the SMART Utility crashed. I don't know.

 

[keysofanxiety]

I have OS X Yosemite. (10.10.5). But now it's working fine. It works for the first 5 minutes and then it bugs. I don't know. Also I saw it said FAILING for 1 second and then the SMART Utility crashed. I don't know.

Ah right, definitely sounds like a corrupted HDD then. I'd try reopen it after restarting your computer.

 

[Merlincat1999]

Ah right, definitely sounds like a corrupted HDD then. I'd try reopen it after restarting your computer.

It still doesn't work. It says I have 0 launches left and I wasn't able to see the smart status before. Also it works sometimes and sometimes it's very slow with the pin wheel of death and all

 

[snaky69]

It still doesn't work. It says I have 0 launches left and I wasn't able to see the smart status before. Also it works sometimes and sometimes it's very slow with the pin wheel of death and all

The likely source of your problem is your hard drive dying. Your symptoms point to this. If you're on the original hard drive it isn't too surprising. I hope you keep a recent backup handy.

As far as your first post goes, you don't need another mac to create install media. You just need an internet connection and you're good to go.

 

[Merlincat1999]

The likely source of your problem is your hard drive dying. Your symptoms point to this. If you're on the original hard drive it isn't too surprising. I hope you keep a recent backup handy.

As far as your first post goes, you don't need another mac to create install media. You just need an internet connection and you're good to go.

So is that what I should do: install media? Or would it be better to buy an SSD drive and replace it altogether. Because, by the way, the Apple Store allready replaced my old hard drive because that failed. So this one is 3 months old.

 

[Weaselboy]

So is that what I should do: install media? Or would it be better to buy an SSD drive and replace it altogether. Because, by the way, the Apple Store allready replaced my old hard drive because that failed. So this one is 3 months old.

A lot of these models lately have had failing drive cables and that presents the same symptoms as a bad drive. So that may be something to try.

Do you have an external USB enclosure you can pop the drive in and option key boot to that to eliminate the internal cable from the picture? That would be the true test.

 

[Merlincat1999]

A lot of these models lately have had failing drive cables and that presents the same symptoms as a bad drive. So that may be something to try.

Do you have an external USB enclosure you can pop the drive in and option key boot to that to eliminate the internal cable from the picture? That would be the true test.

I am not sure what an option key boot thing is. Is it Alt? What is an external USB enclosure also? Thanks!

 

[snaky69]

I am not sure what an option key boot thing is. Is it Alt? What is an external USB enclosure also? Thanks!

From that comment, I'm guessing you are not very computer savy, at least not on the hardware side of things.

What the other poster is suggesting is removing your hard drive from your computer and putting it into an external enclosure (a box with a USB port and a SATA port which can let you use your internal hard drive as an external).

Something like this:

From there, you can power on the computer using the ALT (AKA Option) key, it will allow you to boot from your hard drive as an external drive by selecting it in the menu that will pop up.

If this is successful and works well, it would point to the cable going from your internal hard drive to the logicboard is bad. If the performance is still a problem, it would point to the hard drive being bad.

The hard drive being 3 months old has nothing to do with it, duds happen. All hard drives eventually fail. I've had one last me all of 2 weeks before crashing once.