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Sp4rt4n

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 1, 2010
8
0
Hello everyone!

I just got my first Mac about a month ago after being a PC guy for the last 13 years. I ended up getting a 15" MBP... C2D @ 2.4ghz, 4GB RAM, 200gb HDD (which I upgraded to a 500gb). Edit: It originally came with 10.5, which I upgraded to 10.6.2.

Ever since I got it, it would lock up for about 1 second no matter what Im doing. Either Im typing in Pages, browsing the web, playing a game... doing anything, it would lock up... but only for a second, and then it just goes along like nothing happened. This happens every 3-4 minutes or so.

I tried running the verify/repair permissions in disk utility, and then Verify Disk in there too... verify disk didnt come up with any errors, but verifying permissions did, so I ran the repair for it... and it still happens.

Any clues on what to try next?

Thanks!
 

HikariYuki

macrumors regular
Jun 29, 2009
101
24
Try updating to the latest osx point update 10.6.3 and see if that changes anything.
 

Burnsey

macrumors 6502a
Jul 1, 2007
572
67
Canada
Do you monitor your RAM usage? You can do so from activity monitor. The only reason my MBP ever locks up (aside from Flash in Safari) is if I run out of free ram, at which point even short bursts of disk access will cripple it for a short while.
 

Sp4rt4n

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 1, 2010
8
0
I do, but I rarely see it go over 1.75gb of usage, and its got 4GB in it.
 

Sp4rt4n

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 1, 2010
8
0
I suppose Im still on the PC way of doing things, haha.

Well, I tried it... and unfortunately it still happens.

Im wondering if its something with the hard drive. Maybe Ill try booting with the 10.6 CD and running disk utility when the HDD isn't mounted. Maybe it will give me a different result.
 

peterja

macrumors regular
Jan 21, 2008
112
0
Is it a Seagate Momentus 7200.4 ST9500420ASG?
I had the problem you describe with that drive, probably because of the G-shock protection interfering with the one built in. After a while the drive failed, now I have a ST9500420AS that works well.
 

Sp4rt4n

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 1, 2010
8
0
Is it a Seagate Momentus 7200.4 ST9500420ASG?
I had the problem you describe with that drive, probably because of the G-shock protection interfering with the one built in. After a while the drive failed, now I have a ST9500420AS that works well.

Its actually a wd5000bevtrtl. One of the reasons I got that particular model was because someone who has a MBP put it in and loved it.

I ran the long AHT today, nothing bad found. I also watched the Activity monitor like a hawk to see if anything odd happened when it stuttered... nothing registered at all, it was like it didn't even happen.

/cries
 

Makosuke

macrumors 604
Aug 15, 2001
6,661
1,242
The Cool Part of CA, USA
Is it a Seagate Momentus 7200.4 ST9500420ASG?
I was going to ask the same thing--I had an older (factory stock) 7200RPM Seagate, and it would periodically park the heads for no apparent reason, resulting in a ~0.5-1 second stutter, and a very soft audible "ker-chunk" sound.

Your WD blue shouldn't do that, though--I replaced said Seagate with almost exactly the same drive (500GB 5400RPM Scorpio Blue), and it has run smooth as glass for the past few months.

You might still try listening very closely (put your ear on the case) during a stall, to see if you can hear the drive spinning back up and/or parking/unparking the heads. All of the WD green desktop drives I've owned periodically "nod off" and spin down partway for no readily apparent reason, probably due to conflicting attempts to reduce power use on their own instead of letting the OS handle it. Blue ones shouldn't, but you never know.

Relevant question: When you say "lock up", do you mean REALLY lock up, with even the mouse pointer not moving at all, or is it just a stall for the programs reacting, but the pointer continues to move? Also, if there's audio playing at the time, does the audio skip/pause, or does it keep going? That would narrow down the cause (a stalling hard drive for whatever reason would not lock up the pointer, and there's usually enough buffer for audio to continue, as well; everything hanging would point to something lower-level or maybe a low-level software issue).
 

Sp4rt4n

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 1, 2010
8
0
Hmm... it doesnt seem to be in tune with the snags, but I put my ear to where the HDD is, and there is a distinct 'click' every minute or so, even when Im not doing anything.

I cant say Ive ever heard that before.

EDIT:

Actually, paying more attention it seems to happen about 2-3 seconds after the lock up clears up, and you can hear the drive spin down, click, and then spin back up.

EDIT2:

Sorry, I was listening too much... I just saw your last paragraph. The cursor goes to the rainbow sphere and spins for a second and you can move it around fine... but you cant click on anything.
 

Sp4rt4n

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 1, 2010
8
0
I'm just trying to make sure I understand your first post; you say this issue was also happening w/ the original hard drive?

To be honest... I dont know. I only had the notebook about two days before I replaced the HDD, which I sold on feeBay a couple days later.
 

RITZFit

macrumors 65816
Sep 16, 2007
1,273
29
Just around the river bend
If you have the time, it would be good to try the old drive (possibly w/ a fresh install of mac os if its currently blank) to help determine whether its your WD drive at fault or something else.
 

Makosuke

macrumors 604
Aug 15, 2001
6,661
1,242
The Cool Part of CA, USA
Actually, paying more attention it seems to happen about 2-3 seconds after the lock up clears up, and you can hear the drive spin down, click, and then spin back up.

...

The cursor goes to the rainbow sphere and spins for a second and you can move it around fine... but you cant click on anything.
Ok, the spinning beachball is a definite symptom of a hung I/O operation, which is usually due to a drive spinning up from sleep or otherwise becoming unavailable. Since the cursor doesn't appear instantly, the stalls are probably a second or two longer than you perceive them.

Now, combined with the fact that you hear the drive go through a partial sleep routine, I'm inclined to believe it's either the hard drive or something related. As I said, I have exactly the same drive (WD5000BEVT - the "rtl" on your part number is because it's retail rather than OEM--same physical drive, different box), so I'm pretty sure it's not a problem specific to the model (like with the WD GPs).

Question is whether the drive is faulty, or if there's something else going on--say, the sudden motion sensor in your MBP falsely detecting a "fall" and doing an emergency park of the drive heads or something.

Not sure what to suggest as a next troubleshooting step, apart from trying another drive and seeing if it still happens.

If you have the time, it would be good to try the old drive (possibly w/ a fresh install of mac os if its currently blank) to help determine whether its your WD drive at fault or something else.
He just said that he already sold it, so not going to be an option. Though trying another drive is the thing to do.
 
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