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Weird MacBook Pro Issue...

acfusion29

acfusion29

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Nov 8, 2007
3,128
1
Toronto
So if I let it run on the battery and have it with me on my lap... it will just freeze out of no where and I have to restart the whole computer.

What could be wrong?

Should I open it up and re-apply some arctic silver? It oculd be possible it's overheating.
 
its not overheating, unless it feels REALLY REALLY hot on the bottom, usually on battery the CPU is running at a much lower frequency...this is...something else, do you know about when it does it, like, can you make it do it? there are several things you can try, since it has to do with it going to battery you might try resetting the Pram (google: "resetting PRAM")

a reinstall of OSX might fix it, is it kernel panicing?
Kernel_Panic-1p0f.png
 
squeeks said:
its not overheating, unless it feels REALLY REALLY hot on the bottom, usually on battery the CPU is running at a much lower frequency...this is...something else, do you know about when it does it, like, can you make it do it? there are several things you can try, since it has to do with it going to battery you might try resetting the Pram (google: "resetting PRAM")

a reinstall of OSX might fix it, is it kernel panicing?
Kernel_Panic-1p0f.png
Click to expand...

No it's not. I'll try to reset the PRAM. The battery gets quite hot. Possibly a defective? It's fine running for days on battery on my desk, but as soon as I unplug it and bring it to my bed it freezes. :rolleyes:
 
RE: Macbook Pro Freeze problem

I have this problem as well.

I will be lying in bed with the MBP tilted a little sitting on my legs. I will be surfing along and it will just stop in its tracks frozen. Only fix is to hold the power button and restart it.

I thought too it may be a heat issue but at one time I had even held the laptop completely in the air while checking my email before bed and it did it their as well.

Do you think it could be the angle at which the laptop is being used for an extended period of time?

Or would anyone have any other ideas? I planned to do a fresh install when I get a lull with work anyway to fix some other kinks I've had with leopard but would sure like to get this solved before then. But, who knows if that would do anything..
 
acfusion29 said:
So if I let it run on the battery and have it with me on my lap... it will just freeze out of no where and I have to restart the whole computer.

What could be wrong?

Should I open it up and re-apply some arctic silver? It oculd be possible it's overheating.
Click to expand...

I have the same issue. Itried all kinds of things and can't figure out what is wrong??? Anybody figured this out?

Mark:confused:
 
I am by no means a MBP expert, but with windows machines, this symptom almost always means hardware problems.

-Battery is dead
-Battery recharge circuit is dead
-battery connection to the unit is flaky causing a "brown out". Usually this causes problems with the memory or hard drive
-Bad memory connection, not properly seated

Don't know how old your machine is, but if under warranty contact apple. If not, I'd start by trying a new battery and then look at other advanced hardware issues.

This can also crop up sometimes on machines that have freefall sensors for the hard drives (that go bad). My wife's laptop has one of these and if you josle the computer the hard drive head parks to protect the disk. The bad thing is that windows usually crashes or disk data read/writes fail.
 
shakenmartini said:
This can also crop up sometimes on machines that have freefall sensors for the hard drives (that go bad). My wife's laptop has one of these and if you josle the computer the hard drive head parks to protect the disk. The bad thing is that windows usually crashes or disk data read/writes fail.
Click to expand...
That would make sense, all Apple notebooks have the SMS (Sudden Motion Sensor) built in to protect that hard drive should the notebook suffer a fall or a sudden jolt or thump. And two of the people have said that it'll work fine on their desk, but not when they move it.

If this were the case then the notebook would have to be taken to Apple to get the SMS poked at and reset/replaced.

If not, it could be something I suffered with my Starbook before I got annoyed and fixed it with sellotape; the RAM may be loose in its claspings, so when you move the notebook or tilt it back, the RAM looses contact with the chipset. This is a bit of a long shot and I'm not sure which way round the RAM is mounted in the MBP, but the Starbook would loose its ram out of the slot if you tilted it to the right.
 
Old eMacs had this problem. It was a problem with the logic board with transitors leaking and freezing when heating up. Maybe you have a bad logic board.
 
Hello and thanks for the responses but I don't think it's the battery. The battery is good, I even cleaned the contacts and still freezing intermittently. Also I don't think it's the sudden motion sensor. Yesterday I tried, shaking it and would not freeze. Although I noticed it freezes more often when it's warmer. I did install the CPU Temp utility a while ago but I noticed freezes on a very warm computer and a when it was pretty cool as well.
:mad::mad::mad::mad::eek::eek::eek:
One thing that is weird is that the keyboard and trackpad get wacky before the freeze and usually the pointer disappears, then a couple of seconds later the trackpad becomes unresponsive yet keyboard still works for another 10 or 15 seconds and than a freeze. I downloaded the keyboard firmware/utility update but it says my computer does not need it??? ...... My warranty ended a month ago and now I'm screwed.
 
bump... I'm having the same issue, and it's getting real annoying. Never happens when my mbp is sitting on the desk, just when it's on my lap. The keyboard/trackpad will just freeze up on me, forcing me to use the power button to restart. :mad:

And it's usually a guarantee for it to happen if I move it; i.e. removing from my lap and setting it down on the bed.
 
OK, I think I finally got a handle on it. When I have the keyboard backlight OFF, turned off with the key F8, I get no freezing. So I assume there's something wrong with the backlight system. I had it off for a while and no freezing for a couple of weeks, today I turned it on cause I just noticed it was off for a long time and it crashed within a couple of minutes, turned it back off and no freezing.... so there you go.

Mark:confused:
 
I also have this problem. I really wish that Apple fixes this problem. It kind of sucks not being able to fully use my MBP (turning off keyboard backlight)
 
I've only seen this screen when visiting my parents place. After a while of using the wifi at there place, my kernel panics. My guess (for me at least) is that the wireless router was the cause.
 
panzerjedi said:
I've only seen this screen when visiting my parents place. After a while of using the wifi at there place, my kernel panics. My guess (for me at least) is that the wireless router was the cause.
Click to expand...

Panzerjedi,
Yours has a different problem. We dont get kernel panics we just have system freezes.....Again mine is still fine with bakglight off, no freezing.

Mark
 
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