MacBook is running VERY slow ?

[treyjustice]

My MacBook has always been great and quick. I have the 2.16 core2duo. 2 GB ram. It worked fine last night now it barely boots. and when it does the dock doesn't load. and it takes a few minutes to do something simple like open the hard drive or drop down the apple menu. What could be wrong with it?
any help please?!

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Can you try booting off of the OS X DVD and see if it boots decently fast?

 

[treyjustice]

Can you try booting off of the OS X DVD and see if it boots decently fast?

how do i do that? boot and hold C or whatever?

 

[treyjustice]

okay i can't get it to boot off the CD it is taking forever. It came up to enter my password and it was stuck loading forever

 

[XboxMySocks]

Probably a harddrive failure.... experienced similar problems on an iBook G4

 

[chrismacguy]

Probably a harddrive failure.... experienced similar problems on an iBook G4

Well, its either the HD or the RAM. If a RAM chip goes bad it can cause similar havoc (although it was quite fun to watch a friends DELL with 2 faulty RAM chips attempt to load Windows XP with 8MB of functioning RAM)

 

[KielderWolf]

I have to agree, it does sound like a RAM-repated issue. If it's successfully booting regardless of how slow, then the hard drive is still responding. If it is working pitifully slow, and things are appearing in jolts as you do them, that could usually either be RAM or something is seriously eating your processor.

So a few questions, 1. Does it get ridiculously hot (I'm talking 160ºF/70ºC) and 2. does the mouse move freely, or does it suffer the same slowdown?

 

[treyjustice]

I have to agree, it does sound like a RAM-repated issue. If it's successfully booting regardless of how slow, then the hard drive is still responding. If it is working pitifully slow, and things are appearing in jolts as you do them, that could usually either be RAM or something is seriously eating your processor.

So a few questions, 1. Does it get ridiculously hot (I'm talking 160ºF/70ºC) and 2. does the mouse move freely, or does it suffer the same slowdown?

The mouse moves perfect no glitches I can't get it to boot anymore. It is stuck at the loading circle after I enter my password. It isn't getting super hot.

 

[XboxMySocks]

The mouse moves perfect no glitches I can't get it to boot anymore. It is stuck at the loading circle after I enter my password. It isn't getting super hot.

Sounds like hd...

 

[bsamcash]

I agree - hard drive. I had this same issue. If you're still covered under Apple Care, they should replace the hard drive, I just hope you have a backup.

 

[treyjustice]

I agree - hard drive. I had this same issue. If you're still covered under Apple Care, they should replace the hard drive, I just hope you have a backup.

okay I got everything off of it I needed last night. Where can I find a decent hard drive pretty cheap? How do I replace this one? Thanks everyone

 

[student_trap]

okay I got everything off of it I needed last night. Where can I find a decent hard drive pretty cheap? How do I replace this one? Thanks everyone

if your not 100% sure, why not run the hardware test that came with your mac?

 

[treyjustice]

if your not 100% sure, why not run the hardware test that came with your mac?

i cant get the macbook to boot its stuck loading. i bought a (Western Digital Scorpio Blue 320GB (WD3200BEVT) 5400rpm SATA2 8MB Notebook Hard Drive (2.5 inch)) today for $54.00 hopefully that fixes it!

 

[treyjustice]

this update is super late but my macbook had a hard drive failure. even though it wasn't under apple care they said it was a known defect and replaced it for free! they even upgraded to a larger drive cause they didn't make the one i had anymore... they also replace the white casing around the keyboard.