Macbook freezes every once in a while (rendered useless!)

[MFKitten]

i seem to be asking questions in all the sections

anyways, my fiancé has a macbook that sometimes just decides to stop functioning. you might have just woken it up from sleep, you may have been using it doing something ordinary like surfing the web. it seems like it happens at random times.

what happens is, that basically the screen just freezes in place. cursor doesen´t move, no animations or movements, everything just stops entirely. if there´s any audio playing, it does a glitchy loop. the caps lock and num lock buttons won´t glow green when you click them either, so something is definitely not right (obviously).

the only option at that point is to hold the power button and do a hard reboot.

anyone know what could be causing this? anything i could check at all?

 

[Chandler Adaway]

If you go on the Apple support site, there are about 5 different things that you can reset with all the instructions on how to do so.
Following those steps should get it back to normal.

If not, bring it into Apple! If they can't fix it, they'll just hand you a new one. (Assuming you made a wise decision and purchased Apple Care.)

 

[Skeletal-dæmon]

It could, and I say could whilst screwing up my brow trying to remember something I half heard at an Apple technicians shop, be a RAM fault. I know my old iMac G3 (the original Bondi Blue ... ahh *reminisces*) had a RAM issue and that would cause it to lock up every so often.

It eventually got sorted after somebody suggested a Parameter RAM reset, which on modern Macs I believe to be command+option+P+R immediately after the startup chime, letting go when the computer reboots (it may boot slower than usual, this is normal).

 

[MFKitten]

ok, so i did that, and now we just have to wait and see during the day if it happens again. it usually happens a bunch of times per day, so it´s very restricting. it actually froze just as she was finished writing a long exam, and there was nothing that could be done to resolve it, other than restarting it and losing the document...

sad thing, too because the warranty expired, and she doesen´t have applecare... we´re calling apple support tomorrow to see if we can have it picked up and repaired.

 

[Skeletal-dæmon]

Okay, let us know how it goes.

And unfortunate for loosing the exam paper... that happened to a friend of mine and he lost an entire video project and had to rescue the videotape before it got re-used.

 

[Chandler Adaway]

ok, so i did that, and now we just have to wait and see during the day if it happens again. it usually happens a bunch of times per day, so it´s very restricting. it actually froze just as she was finished writing a long exam, and there was nothing that could be done to resolve it, other than restarting it and losing the document...

sad thing, too because the warranty expired, and she doesen´t have applecare... we´re calling apple support tomorrow to see if we can have it picked up and repaired.

Before paying an ass load for a repair, I would try swapping your RAM sticks. I've heard that it's helped people with similar problems now that Skeletal-dæmon brought up the RAM possibility.

Just open up your RAM, and switch the two sticks and put them in the opposite slots. This won't void your warranty (I know it's out, but it puts a little ease to your mind) either.

 

[logana]

Before paying an ass load for a repair, I would try swapping your RAM sticks. I've heard that it's helped people with similar problems now that Skeletal-dæmon brought up the RAM possibility.

Just open up your RAM, and switch the two sticks and put them in the opposite slots. This won't void your warranty (I know it's out, but it puts a little ease to your mind) either.

A better idea would be to take the RAM out and try starting up with one stick only at a time (first time in slot zero then same stick in the other slot). Repeat with the second RAM module. That way you can work out whether it is the slot or the module.

If you have one faulty RAM stick then swapping them over and still using both will give the same problem as before surely ?

 

[falcontook]

my girlfriends macbook would also freeze when it would get too hot. When your macbook freezes, is the laptop chassis really warm?

 

[MFKitten]

i´m not sure if i would call it "really" hot, it seems to be well within normal heat levels, and it´s been lots hotter without any sort of malfunctions before. it happens when it´s cold too, at times.

so i don´t think it´s heat related at all. the other day (after the reset PRAM command thing during the startup had been performed) it froze up as many as 4 times i think. so yeah, definitely handing it to apple!

 

[MFKitten]

okay, so it´s time for an update!

we called apple support, and they told us to try and reinstall Tiger, but keeping the files intact. this didn´t eliminate the problem, and so we tried a full reformat. luckily, we recieved Leopard, which we had ordered the week before, and so we reformatted with that, with a 100% clean iinstall. it seemed to work, but then the problem repeated itself.

so now we know it´s a hardware problem, and not a software problem. the apple support people said that if the partial reformat or full reformat didn´t work, then we should hand it over to them to have it fixed.

 

[Skeletal-dæmon]

That is very unfortunate. If Apple Care in Norway is anywhere near as expensive as Apple Care in the UK, your wallet will feel a good deal lighter following the repair.

If you haven't sent it off yet, I would advise maybe just visiting your local regular computer shop and asking them to check your RAM modules. My local techy was able to diagnose and replace a dud RAM chip in my Mac Mini for £40 whilst Apple was quoting £60 just to look at it and then I bet they'd have charged me Apple's RAM prices to replace it.

 

[MFKitten]

the problem around here is that you don´t find computer tech support that is good enough to do that sort of stuff. most people only know the basics.

i kinda think apple care is better at this point, but i could try switching places between the RAM and see if it works?