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Leopard - Serious Issues...

L

LERsince1991

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 24, 2008
1,245
37
UK
Well my 5 month old 13" unibody 2.4 macbook is playing up seriously...

I don't know what is causing it and it started a couple of days ago on the same day I decided to clean out my mac (virtually) and organize things. I also used Onyx to tune it up a bit.

The problem is that sometimes it just freezes and goes incredibly slow and unresponsive like something is hogging the cpu or something but even with nothing else open on startup it it does it. When it freezes it goes really slow with the spiny wheel as a cursor.

I've painfully worked out that so far I've found one app thats broken - Mail. It just takes ages to open then freezes for 30 mins?

Things I've done to try and fix the issue:
1 - Verified + repaired permissions
2 - Verified + repaired disk (used OS X disk on startup)
3 - Reinstalled the apps with the application disk that came with my mac
4 - Gone into Onyx and restored defaults for everything and check the disk with Onyx too.
5 - Checked and installed all the latest updates via software update
6 - Emptied out just about every cache

I just don't know what to do now...
I've got apple care but I don't want to take my macbook in as I'm moving to uni around wednesday next week...
This renders my macbook pretty useless... I'm unsure as to what apps don't work and unsure of the actual problem...
HELP?! :((((

Edit: Maybe Snow leopard would sort it out as it will be a fresh upgraded operating system install but I cant afford it atm...

Edit 2: THIS IS DOING MY HEAD IN...

Edit 3: Narrowed the mail problem down further. I've gone into Mac HD -> Users -> Luke -> Library -> Mail and moved all the files and folders to a folder on the desktop (to see if mail is working or if its the files). Mail took a bit of time to load up but appeared to work properly. I then put everything back and everything works unless I click on the notes section and I believe thats whats causing the crashing. I took out all the contents of the notes (I need the notes) and then deleted the notes.mbox (folder?) but the problem still persists...
The mail app seems to display the first 2 words of the first note when I force quit it so it seems to be trying to load the notes?
Is there a file somewhere that I can delete or reset so that it doesn't try and find the notes?
 
Just noticed my spotlight icon isn't in the top right...
Think this could be related?
Is there a way to get my spotlight back :(
 
LERsince1991 said:
Just noticed my spotlight icon isn't in the top right...
Think this could be related?
Is there a way to get my spotlight back :(
Click to expand...


I suppose that could be a symptom or cause of the problems you are experiencing - however maybe someone else with greater expertise than I could give their opinion?

FWIW: A friend of mine had around 3 months of issues like this until he pretty much gave up on the computer. He eventually discovered that one of his sticks of ram was bad.

Do you have some other ram which you could put in your MB for test purposes?
 
Hmm interesting about the RAM...
It has 2x 1GB sticks of RAM but I'd prefer not to remove one.
Is there any way to test the RAM virtually?

I've fixed the spotlight with a terminal command I found on google, but I certainly didn't change it. (could have been onyx when I was resetting the parameters).

What would the best way to reinstall OS X?
Would I loose anything with this?
 
I had a similar behavior when my iMac hard drive was failing. The whole system froze for about 30 seconds and then went on like nothing happend.
For a quick check, open the Console (found in Applications->Utilities) klick "Show Log List" (if not already open) and select "All Messages" under "Log Database Queries". Now search for "i/o error". If any log entries from the kernel come up, then it is probably a dying hard drive.
For further tests, install Tech Tool Deluxe that comes with your AppleCare. Make sure "Surface Scan" is activated. Depending on the size of your hard drive and possible bad blocks, this will take a few hours. Tech Tool will also check your RAM and other Components of your Mac. While a passed test does not necessarily mean your hardware is fine, a failed test will definitely indicate a problem.
If any bad blocks come up in Tech Tool, report it to Apple. They will most likely replace it.

For a quick fix of your Mail problem, try to copy (not move) your Library/Mail folder to some other folder. Now move Library/Mail out of the Library folder and replace it with your copy. This will make sure your Mail folder will be rewritten to your hard drive. If your hard drive is failing you will most likely encounter freezes while copying and you will loose some data, but Mail should stop freezing afterwards.
 
tried the copying method, no errors but no change.
I'm just installing tech tool deluxe... never realized I had it ;)
I guess if that doesn't show anything I will wait and install snow leopard and see what happens if not, obviously I will be going to apple...

thanks btw!

Edit: Running the techtool deluxe now. everything has passed so far (RAM, CPU, GPU etc..) and its now on the surface scan :(
 
The scan passed everything so I will wait until I get snow leopard but I just wont use notes :p
 
Well, at least you can now rule out faulty hardware :)
One thing you might want to try is moving the "com.apple.mail" folder in Library/Caches aside and see if it does the trick.
If you are using an IMAP account you can also start from scretch and set up a new one. Since IMAP stores everything on the server, you will not lose any data.
 
This is ******* ****...
It's not just mail, iwork and other apps have stopped working....
********
I can't do anything till I re-install the OS and I'm gonna start from scratch when I get SL on monday. Install all my apps again....
what really bugs me is none of this should have happened and I have no clue why this headache problem is doing this...

Never the less thanks for all your helps. It's just not recoverable...
 
LERsince1991 said:
This is ******* ****...
It's not just mail, iwork and other apps have stopped working....
********
I can't do anything till I re-install the OS and I'm gonna start from scratch when I get SL on monday. Install all my apps again....
what really bugs me is none of this should have happened and I have no clue why this headache problem is doing this...

Never the less thanks for all your helps. It's just not recoverable...
Click to expand...

You might want to also take into account that you may have a failing hard drive. You should bootup to the install screen, go into Disk Utility and do "Repair Disk" and see if any errors show up.
 
HLdan said:
You might want to also take into account that you may have a failing hard drive. You should bootup to the install screen, go into Disk Utility and do "Repair Disk" and see if any errors show up.
Click to expand...

Thanks, but I tried that last night. No errors. I don't think it's a hardware problem... Just somehow OS X has gone wrong somewhere.
 
Ok so it was ****** so the only way to fix it was a archive and install so I backed up most things then got the os x leopard out and now everything is working perfect. With a few tweaks to the programs.
Flawless and fast again :)
Never the less I will get SL when I can, thanks for the help!
 
Morod said:
Good to hear the A&I fixed it. It's a major task, but sometimes it's the best way.
Click to expand...

Thing is it wasn't a big task because it archives everything and recovers just about everything. I'm used to reformatting the 5 (4 now :( ) PC laptops in the house and its a much more time consuming task... so simple :)
Just need to get SL now :)

edit: but the updates are annoying...
 
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