MBP 10.6.8 Strange Memory Issues

[carryonplease]

Recently I've been experiencing some of the weirdest mac issues I've ever seen.

I've had my MBP for about 3 years now. I'm running 10.6.8, 4 GB of RAM and 2.4 core 2 duo. Should be enough for what I am doing.


Recently I've been having some strange what appear to be memory leaks. I have to hard reset the machine as least 3 times a day because the whole thing just locks up.


I've been monitoring the activity monitor and Firefox takes up a lot of RAM and CPU but not an exhorbitant amount. Whenever I try and quit Firefox I have to force quit it.

Also the other day I got the message "not enough room on the startup disc for application memory. I have over 50 GB of free space and at the time about 2.5 GB free of memory, but it was still acting slow.

I also have the common issue where spotlight only finds a dictionary entry and no app. And I can't drag things to the trash because I get an error code.

Would a fresh install help? Or some sort of diagnostic?

 

[Asuriyan]

Can you post some screenshots of your Activity Monitor?

 

[niteflyr]

A shot in the dark, but an easy thing to try first, SMC reset:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

 

[carryonplease]

I reset the PRAM and SMC, and I thought it worked but after a few hours the same thing happens. Spotlight doesn't respond, have to force quit everything...

Here is a screenshot of activity monitor but I just restarted so i dunno if it'll help

 

[carryonplease]

Well just an update , pretty sure my hard drive failed today. Had to force shut It down and I have the ? Logo on start up. It still chimes though.

I just ran disc utility a few days ago and it was fine, I also repaired permissions. No boot options when holding alt, and I don't have the install DVD but I can probably find one. Anything else I can try?

 

[GermanyChris]

Pull the old drive put the new one install whatever you can find hook the old drive up externally and see if you can pull your info off the disk.

 

[carryonplease]

ok so, I bought a new hard drive, 256gb samsung 830 ssd.

Was super easy and all seemed to be running ok...then it locks up again and I again had the spotlight issue and firefox not quitting properly.

I also reset the machine and it was just trying to boot on the apple logo screen forever. I reset it again and it boot up within 5 seconds and now I'm using it and its fine.

could it be a firmware issues? I went to repair disc permissions and lots of them failed to repair.

 

[Macman45]

ok so, I bought a new hard drive, 256gb samsung 830 ssd.

Was super easy and all seemed to be running ok...then it locks up again and I again had the spotlight issue and firefox not quitting properly.

I also reset the machine and it was just trying to boot on the apple logo screen forever. I reset it again and it boot up within 5 seconds and now I'm using it and its fine.

could it be a firmware issues? I went to repair disc permissions and lots of them failed to repair.

I hate to say it, but this is narrowing down to two things...possibly faulty RAM stick ( download and run MEMTES free) or a possible faulty PSU /LB

I'd test the RAM first. After that, it might be worth getting Apple to take a look..won;t cost to check things out.

 

[carryonplease]

I was afraid so - maybe the old hard drive is find then?

I left the machine on overnight and its running ok now several hours later after I was able to successfully repair disc permission. I did a bunch of updates without doing so, so i figured that might help. I guess I'll report back after the memory test.

 

[carryonplease]

ok memory test came back ok. Apple hardware test gives me the

4HDD / 11/40000004: SATA (0,0) error message.

Assuming it wasn't my hard drive, I guess it could be the flat cable? Is there anything else it could be? I'm a DIYer and I'm sure there are people on this forum that know just as much as an apple tech.

 

[Macman45]

ok memory test came back ok. Apple hardware test gives me the

4HDD / 11/40000004: SATA (0,0) error message.

Assuming it wasn't my hard drive, I guess it could be the flat cable? Is there anything else it could be? I'm a DIYer and I'm sure there are people on this forum that know just as much as an apple tech.

That actually DOES point to the HDD being the issue I think.

 

[chrfr]

Assuming it wasn't my hard drive, I guess it could be the flat cable? Is there anything else it could be? I'm a DIYer and I'm sure there are people on this forum that know just as much as an apple tech.

I'd say it's likely to be the cable now that you've had what appear to be two disk failures. Do you have access to another computer you can use to test the disks?

 

[carryonplease]

Well good news, I replaced the SATA cable and all seems to be well. I couldn't be assed to reconnect the activity indicator light connection but I ran the hardware test again, not only did it take 1/5 as long but NO issues! woohoo!


so yea, a note to anyone reading this in the future, before you buy a new hard drive, test it externally to make sure its not the cable. Its rarely the logic board controller but could have been in this case (luckily not)