MacBook OS X Lockups

[rhyx]

I have a MacBook Black 2.2Ghz Merom. Installed 200GB 7200rpm drive and 4GB aftermarket RAM.

I keep having seemingly random lockups. I can still move the mouse around the screen but clicking on anything results in nothing - whether it is an application window or even the Apple at the top left of the screen. This happens anywhere from 10 minutes to hours after I do a clean boot.

I do notice that the FAN seems to stay at ~6000rpm almost constantly even when all I am doing is browsing or listening to music. Is this normal? The thing sounds louder than just about any other laptop I have had.

Temps seem to hover at around 150F for the CPU.

Any ideas?

 

[heatmiser]

Could be a memory or drive issue. Try switching back to your original memory first and seeing if this fixes things.

 

[rhyx]

Could be a memory or drive issue. Try switching back to your original memory first and seeing if this fixes things.

Yeah I'm thinking it is probably bad memory that only gets hit when almost all memory is used up.

I'll have to try it again with the 1GB that came with the darn thing. Hopefully I don't have to mail this other RAM back.

 

[NC MacGuy]

Woah.. ^What he said. I'd actually put it all back to stock and test thoroughly for a day or two and add the ram one module at a time and then move on to HDD.

Good luck!

 

[jemeinc]

<"Yeah I'm thinking it is probably bad memory that only gets hit when almost all memory is used up.">

There's no way you're using up 4 GB of memory just "browsing or listening to music" like you said in your original post.. Definitely stick the stock Ram set-up back in and run with that for a bit..

I guess you could put the other ram in one module at a time to determine which one, if any, is bad.. One question with that though is does it matter? If you have 4 GB's doesn't that come in a "kit"- in which case wouldn't you just have to send the whole "kit" back anyway? Not sure, though I suppose you could send back the bad one if you identified it.. Might want to look into that, but from the sounds of it there's a good chance you could be sending some Ram back.. Keep us posted..

 

[rhyx]

Yeah it is a kit.

Most lockups happen when I have VMWare open with various other things in OS X.

Right now I'm at 400MB free and expecting it to lock up at any moment.

Yes it is a kit of 2x2GB sticks. Would have to send both back to Newegg.

 

[ricpac]

150F is too hot. And 6000rpm for just browsing and music-playing? Better have that all sorted out man. Yeah you can start by sending it back to stock configuration and compare. Then move forward one piece at a time.

Good luck.

 

[jemeinc]

Wow!! You use some serious memory.. That sucks that your ram might be toast.. Hopefully that's all it is though, that's just a minor inconvenience compared to most other issues..

Good luck with it..