MacBook Freezing/Slow Loading. The Battery?

[MacFoo]

Hi everyone. Hope you could help me diagnose my MacBook's problem. My MacBook is about 3 years old now. Its processor speed is 2GHz and originally had 1Gb of RAM. It runs on OS X 10.4.11.

I don't install any junk and keep the desktop clean. I mostly stream video, and edit photos.

I guess the probs originally started with my my Safari randomly closing on me. Eventually, the MacBook would freeze when I opened iPhoto. I figured it's about time I get some more RAM. So I upgraded from 1Gb to 2Gb. I also formatted the machine and did a clean install (I think that's what it's called).

So I don't have any of the above problems much or at all anymore. What I do have is an extremely slow start up. I'll see the apple screen for a while. Then, the Mac OS X loading screen for short while relative to the other waiting periods. Before I could use the Mac, I'll have to wait on a blue screen for maybe 5 mins before everything else including the mouse arrow appears.

Aside from the slow start up, the Mac freezes if I close it and then open it up. The beach ball also regularly appears when downloading updates.

A recent finding that I noticed is that the MagSafe wiring is partially melted. I read somewhere on here that not using a battery with a MacBook or having a bad battery could slow down the start up process.

Could a damaged battery as the result of the MagSafe adaptor be the root cause of my problems or is it one of many root causes?

Update (1/11/10): Last night my MacBook didn't boot up. It would show the loading screen with the apple and then switch over to a black screen that looks similar to DOS. It apparently continued to try to restart but failed and ended with a message, something like "I have no name!".

I appreciate any help. Going to get a new MagSafe adaptor today.

 

[Chappers]

Hi everyone. Hope you could help me diagnose my MacBook's problem. My MacBook is about 3 years old now. Its processor speed is 2GHz and originally had 1Gb of RAM. It runs on OS X 10.4.11.

I don't install any junk and keep the desktop clean. I mostly stream video, and edit photos.

I guess the probs originally started with my my Safari randomly closing on me. Eventually, the MacBook would freeze when I opened iPhoto. I figured it's about time I get some more RAM. So I upgraded from 1Gb to 2Gb. I also formatted the machine and did a clean install (I think that's what it's called).

So I don't have any of the above problems much or at all anymore. What I do have is an extremely slow start up. I'll see the apple screen for a while. Then, the Mac OS X loading screen for short while relative to the other waiting periods. Before I could use the Mac, I'll have to wait on a blue screen for maybe 5 mins before everything else including the mouse arrow appears.

Aside from the slow start up, the Mac freezes if I close it and then open it up. The beach ball also regularly appears when downloading updates.

A recent finding that I noticed is that the MagSafe wiring is partially melted. I read somewhere on here that not using a battery with a MacBook or having a bad battery could slow down the start up process.

Could a damaged battery as the result of the MagSafe adaptor be the root cause of my problems or is it one of many root causes?

Update (1/11/10): Last night my MacBook didn't boot up. It would show the loading screen with the apple and then switch over to a black screen that looks similar to DOS. It apparently continued to try to restart but failed and ended with a message, something like "I have no name!".

I appreciate any help. Going to get a new MagSafe adaptor today.

Damaged electrical wiring can and does cause problems - you really shouldn't leave expensive equipment plugged in to something that obviously has an electrical fault.

I would have originally thought you need to "rebuild permissions" - do you do that regularly?

However your problem seems to have become bigger. Do you happen to have the hardware diagnostics disc that came with your computer?

 

[MacFoo]

Yeah. I haven't plugged in the Mbook anymore.

I'm going to try to get the MagSafe adaptor repaired or get a used one off craigslist. I didn't regularly repair permissions, but I did start doing it after I learned about it. But after reformatting and doing a clean install, it shouldn't really matter so much should it? In the end I did repair permissions anyways.

I have two discs that came with the laptop and one with the Applecare (Just expired a few months ago so Apple didn't replace my adaptor yesterday.). For today I'm going to try to resolve my adaptor.

Thanks.

 

[MacFoo]

Using the same MacBook with a good condition MagSafe adaptor. Ran the hardware diagnostics off of the disc. The result is that there is no hardware problems identified. I tried to rebuild permissions again a while ago, but seconds after accessing the Utilities folder that window disappears. This happened twice or thrice so far. I would get into the folder, while it tried to load and display what's inside the folder, it closed. I'll try to rebuild permissions again. Before trying anything, I tried resetting PMU. I think that's what it's called.

Update:I just got through repairing the permissions. The Mac hesitated a little, but the icons showed up unlike before. If the diagnostics show no hardware problem, could there still be hardware problems?

 

[Chappers]

Is there an Apple store near you - this all looks odd and you may need further help

 

[MacFoo]

Thanks Chappers. I went ahead and got a new hard drive installed, and it did the trick.

So I guess the moral of this story is that a hardware diagnostics test doesn't always catch a bad hard drive.