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Macbook Start Up Problems

S

sanyo193

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 9, 2008
9
0
My macbook (OS X 5.5) is having some start up problems. It will get a gray screen that pops up and locks up my computer. It will say that your computer needs to be restarted. So i will restart it and then the load screen will come up and the dial turns and then it will just shut off. It will do this every time i try and start it back up. I took my computer into Apple and they ran Disk Warrior on it and that fixed the problem that time. Then a week later the same thing happened. I called Apple this time and told them the situation. They said it sounded like my hard drive was going out. So i sent my computer in and got a new hard drive. It came back and i loaded everything off of my hard drive back onto my computer. Seemed to be working fine. Then a week or so later the same thing happened. So I ran disk warrior on it again. It fixed the problem for about two days this time. I ran disk warrior on it AGAIN. I have no idea what is wrong with it. Does anyone have and ideas of what it could be?

I should also say that I had bought some third party RAM off of a friend and put that in there. Apple said it COULD be the ram. I wanted to see what other people thought before i spent 130 bucks on Apple Ram and that end up not being the problem.

PLEASE HELP!!
 
do you have the original ram that came with the computer?

if you still have this, swap the ram over.

if your problems go away, then it's a ram issue. you can then try different combinations of the ram to determine which is the "bad" stick.

another common problem with kernel panics (the grey screen) can be USB devices. maybe try running the computer without any USB devices attached for a few days. again, if that fixes the problem, one of the USB devices isn't playing nice.
 
Funny Story. I left the old ram at my friends house. and then it disappeared. no one knows where it is. It is actually very frustrating and not funny at all. Is there a program or anything that can test to see if there is a bad stick?

And thanks for the info on the USB. I usually have a USB mouse and my USB external plugged in. I will try not plugging those in for a while.
 
did you leave it going for several cycles? it's best to run ram tests for hours, rather than just 1 pass.

regarding the USB being the cause of all you problems, i think all you can do is try using the mac without extra devices, and see if that stops the kernel panicking. (the first thing that i would drop is the USB hub, and correct devices required directly to the mac.)
 
I set the loop to 10 and then ran it. For each pass it said everything was ok. Should i set the loop to a bigger number then 10? I do have apple care so i can go to apple to have them check on some things. Is there a test they can do to check the USB ports to see if something is wrong with them? I live over an hour from an Apple store so driving there is not something i enjoy doing. And mailing it in sucks even worse.

I have left everything unplugged from it today. I will give it a while longer before i try plugging anything in to them.
 
memtest/rember is best left running for several hours (maybe 4?)

i don't know of any way to test the USB ports.

often the problem is one of the USB devices, and not the ports. often USB hub's can be at fault.

when you start plugging stuff back in, try and do it one at a time.

you really have to work out which device is causing the problem through trial and error.

plug in your most required devices first, and maybe use the computer for a day or two before trying the next device, so you can properly get an idea if the problem is getting better or worse.

as said, drop the USB hub first, and connect devices directly to your mac.
 
The only things that i plug into my computer via USB is my external hard drive and a mouse. The problem had happened before i got the hard drive that i have now. thats why i got the hard drive. to do time machine so i could back everything up.

Apple had also mentioned that it COULD be a corrupt file. i have run disk utility and disk warrior and they have not said anything about a corrupt file. Is there something else i can do to check for a corrupt file? Disk Warrior ends up getting an error and i read some where that it gets that error every time if you have 5.5 which is what i have.

Any other suggestions?
 
New Development:

I ran the Rember for a lot more cycles this time around. It did not complete it. An Error came up and stopped the cycle. Then the report said everything was fine. But then the log says this:

FAILURE! Data mismatch at local BUFA address 0x000000011375ba70, BUFB address 0x00000001354a9510
BUFA Data: 0x0000000000004040, BUFB Data: 0x0000000000004000



Know what this means?
 
http://hcidesign.com/memtest/manual.html

here's some interesting information about memtest (which rember is just a gui for.)

quote from error section - "Note that even ONE error is a sign of a serious problem - a correctly functioning computer can run MemTest for weeks with no errors."

what you can try now, is removing one stick of ram and retesting. no errors? test the other stick by itself. this will allow you to work out which stick of RAM might be faulty.

sounds like some new ram might be required! (what brand is your RAM? many RAM manufacturers offer lifetime warranties ie. crucial, corsair. so it may cost you nothing but shipping.)
 
I got some different RAM yesterday. I am going to try this out for a while see if this fixes the problem. It is not the original RAM. Searched my friends house high and low for that. Couldn't find it anywhere. So we will see if this fixes the problem.
 
The RAM was called OMNI. Have you ever heard of it? I am looking at their website and it looks a bit sketchy. It says it is Lifetime warranty.
 
even though it might not be a "recognised" brand, the ram chips themselves still come from samsung, or one of the other major ram manufactures.

they just put the ram chips on their own boards. of course some brands are better than others, and some brands have better QC.

if you can get the ram swapped over, and it runs fine, it shouldn't matter what brand of ram it is.
 
it has been some time since i have put this new ram in. so far everything is running great. something so simple was so frustrating.
 
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