My late 2008 MB freeze with no reason, help!

[panchoskywalker]

Hello, I have a problem with my macbook late 2008. It has a 160GB HD and I placed another 500GB HD where was placed the superdrive. All my files are in the 500HD and the OS (10.7.5) is in the 160GB HD.

The 160GB HD is half full, so it has 80GB free space. The problem is that sometimes it freeze and I get the window that says that it has not enough memory to run applications and that I should erase files from the HD. I only use it for internet and I use maxthon browser, sometimes I have more than 10 windows opened. It allways freeze on maxthon. The problem is not the browser, I'm quite sure.

This is a unibody macbook late 2008, core 2 duo, 8GB ram.

I am thinking about replacing the main HD with a SSD but first I want to be sure there's nothing wrong with the macbook.

 

[rajivhifi]

Macbook

I had the same laptop until last week. Late 2008 Unibody 2.0 GHZ 8GB/1TB HDD. Was showing signs of slowing down and so sold it on craigslist for $450. And got myself the new base Macbook and love it.

You got to realize the laptop you have is 7 years old and its about time you upgraded. Give or sell it to someone who may have a simpler use for it and get something new. If your need is mainly for browsing, I suggest you switch to Safari and get the rMB. You will see a world of difference.

 

[panchoskywalker]

I had the same laptop until last week. Late 2008 Unibody 2.0 GHZ 8GB/1TB HDD. Was showing signs of slowing down and so sold it on craigslist for $450. And got myself the new base Macbook and love it.

You got to realize the laptop you have is 7 years old and its about time you upgraded. Give or sell it to someone who may have a simpler use for it and get something new. If your need is mainly for browsing, I suggest you switch to Safari and get the rMB. You will see a world of difference.

Thanks for your advice, but I'm currently trying to use this mb till it die by itself...just a way to fight against consumerism. It may sound stupid but it's just for fun.

it is 7 years old, if it last 10 years I would be happy.

 

[Phyco126]

When the machine freezes, how much RAM are you using?

Is the machine freezing only on that browser?

Does the machine freeze in any other programs/browsers?

 

[rajivhifi]

Thanks for your advice, but I'm currently trying to use this mb till it die by itself...just a way to fight against consumerism. It may sound stupid but it's just for fun.

it is 7 years old, if it last 10 years I would be happy.

That was my thought as well on my laptop till it reached a point where the 8GB ram on the older machine was still resulting in beachballs frequently but not to the point of freezing up. The hardware was struggling to keep up with the OS and the CPU was becoming super hot.

Try doing a clean install of the OS and switching to Safari to see if that makes a difference. It may for a little while till you are back in the same boat. The switching to SSD will not help much. Your CPU is the weakest link and nothing much you can do here to upgrade it.

My personal opinion is to cut your loses while you can and get some economical benefit while you can. You can still sell a dead laptop on eBay and get a couple of hundred bucks but I prefer to get double that while its working and use it to get a base MBA if you want to keep the price low. You'll see a world of difference.

 

[panchoskywalker]

When the machine freezes, how much RAM are you using?

Is the machine freezing only on that browser?

Does the machine freeze in any other programs/browsers?

Don't know how much ram I'm using, the mb has 8g and as it freeze I'm unable to check. It does usually freeze on maxthon, perhaps I have too many windows opened. Usually maxthon is set to pause and then to "no response", sometimes I have time to "force out" maxthon but sometimes every other software I'm using also freeze and the mouse does not move anymore.

 

[ApolloBoy]

Why are you still using that browser if you're having so many issues with it?

 

[panchoskywalker]

Why are you still using that browser if you're having so many issues with it?

I don't think the browser is the problem, do you?

 

[ApolloBoy]

I don't think the browser is the problem, do you?

I would suggest trying another browser just to rule out that problem at least.

Also have you checked both hard drives in your computer yet? If your computer's saying that there isn't enough hard drive space I'd suggest you get both drives verified ASAP. If you have a recovery disk or flash drive, boot from that and then run Disk Utility to check both drives.

 

[Phyco126]

I don't think the browser is the problem, do you?

What Apollo said. I would also use another browser and see if it happens with Chrome or Safari.