MBP 15" Total System Crash (?)

[jokron]

I have a macbook pro 15" intel with 2 slots of ram installed.

I've had this computer since January of 2007 and it has worked fine ever since, until about 4 days ago, when, in the middle of using Firefox, I got this screen of death in four languages telling me to reboot.

That was the last time it has worked

I tried rebooting and it got back to the desktop before freezing again. No cursor movement, no activity from keyboard (CAPS lock won't light up, and so forth)

since, then, a number of things have happened. Sometimes it starts up and I get to the desktop and it works for 5-10 minutes before A) freezing B) screen goes black and stays that way or C) i get the grey screen of death telling me to restart.

Other times, it does not start up at all. Sometimes i press power and the LED in the front goes on but the screen stays black, there is no harddrive sound or anything else

Sometimes it startsup and gets to the Apple icon before turning back off.

Sometiems its startsup but just plays the startup chime over and over again

there doesn't seem to be any consistency to why different things happen at different times, except that when I leave it off for a while it usually starts up at least halfway through before freezing or getting to desktop

as i have said, I have had this computer for over two years with no problems, and nothing I was doing knowingly precipitated this event.

i have tried running command - v and command - s, and both seem to work but it never fixes the problem.

when i run file-system-check in command - s, it tell me i have a kernel trap and double command <panick>

my DVD drive stopped working a while back so would be difficult to boot from reinstall disk.

Not sure what to do.

I live in Rwanda and my computer is my life

josh

 

[NightSailor]

I have a macbook pro 15" intel with 2 slots of ram installed.

I've had this computer since January of 2007 and it has worked fine ever since, until about 4 days ago, when, in the middle of using Firefox, I got this screen of death in four languages telling me to reboot.

That was the last time it has worked

I tried rebooting and it got back to the desktop before freezing again. No cursor movement, no activity from keyboard (CAPS lock won't light up, and so forth)

since, then, a number of things have happened. Sometimes it starts up and I get to the desktop and it works for 5-10 minutes before A) freezing B) screen goes black and stays that way or C) i get the grey screen of death telling me to restart.

Other times, it does not start up at all. Sometimes i press power and the LED in the front goes on but the screen stays black, there is no harddrive sound or anything else

Sometimes it starts up and gets to the Apple icon before turning back off.

Sometiems its starts up but just plays the startup chime over and over again

there doesn't seem to be any consistency to why different things happen at different times, except that when I leave it off for a while it usually starts up at least halfway through before freezing or getting to desktop

i have tried running command - v and command - s, and both seem to work but it never fixes the problem.

when i run file-system-check in command - s, it tell me i have a kernel trap and double command <panick>

my DVD drive stopped working a while back so would be difficult to boot from reinstall disk.

Not sure what to do.

I live in Rwanda and my computer is my life

josh

Take the battery out and let it dry thoroughly. And never take it in the bathtub again---Just kidding.

It sounds like a hardware problem. If this is the case, there are only a few things you can try.

First, you should replace the Superdrive, or put in a Combo Drive. And then try boot off of it. Then run disk verify and repair. If this computer is your life, then you have to have a method of reinstalling software--an optical drive.

You can try removing the memory--keeping track of which board came from what slot. Cleaning the contacts of the memory boards with an eraser tip, and reinstalling them--putting them in the opposite slots--so you swap the positions of the two memory boards. This might help if it is a memory problem.

Most likely it is a bad hard drive since it stopped making noises. Try swapping the hard drive for another drive. Even if it is making normal sounds it may have a bad boot sector. If you do need a new drive, the best type to get is a 7200 rpm drive. You will need to install OS X--for that you need a Combo drive--at a minimum.

Summary: Install a new optical drive, try booting off of it, and also try the memory board and hard drive swaps and if that doesn't fix it, take it to a repair facility.

 

[sascha h-k]

you can also start from an extern dvd drive connected via usb ...

 

[jokron]

okay...

hey, yeah I have DVD +RW USB drive that I will use to try that. i want to go through everythign that does not include resinstalling my software, though, first. how can i tell exactly what the problem is?

i've researched a lot online, some people say bad hard drive, other symptoms make it sound like the battery overheats...or maybe the hard drive overheats? or that the ram cards have gone bad...im really not sure.

the thing to me is that, depending on when i try to turn it on, and depending on how long i have left it off for, it performs differently, although, after 10 minutes or so at best, its crashed again

i just tried command - s ....fsck -yf and it ran through (other times when I have done this it has crashed and gone blank in the middle of the check)

but this time after runing file system check, it said that my "key were out of order" 94, 3911) whatever that mean, and that it couldn't rebuild "Macintosh" something about a B-Tree problem?

when I have run the command - v tests, it said something about kernal panics and double kernel panics

thanks for your help!

 

[sascha h-k]

if you have diskwarrior 4.1.1 run this from an extern hdd.

 

[NightSailor]

Check your power too

I forgot to mention. Check your power going into the computer.

Are you running on battery or plugged in? Either one of these could be a problem. If you have low voltage computers act funny. Clean all your battery terminal connections--likewise your AC adapter.

Also try someone else's power cord.

 

[NightSailor]

hey, yeah I have DVD +RW USB drive that I will use to try that. i want to go through everythign that does not include resinstalling my software, though, first. how can i tell exactly what the problem is?

i just tried command - s ....fsck -yf and it ran through (other times when I have done this it has crashed and gone blank in the middle of the check)

but this time after runing file system check, it said that my "key were out of order" 94, 3911) whatever that mean, and that it couldn't rebuild "Macintosh" something about a B-Tree problem?

It sounds like a bad disk.

Try booting off your OS X disk and run Disk Utility. You may have to do a wipe and reinstall. If you have files you want to save, you might be better off installing a new disk with a CLEAN install, then you can access your files though USB or firewire.

 

[jokron]

will try that with the battery and power thing

was just trying to run file system check again and it just blanks off in the middle of everything, yes, like there is some sort of power thing...but is it possible that this would also be from the hard drive? or the mother board? if so. and I am in Rwanda, what can I do to McGiver this thing myself, other than with the bootup with external DVD drive, which I will do when i get home in a couple hours)

is there any other solutino?

is it also possible to take out my internal hard drive and put it in an enclosure that would make it act as an external one?

josh