alxsha

Q: Screen froze, purple lines, three beeps. Help!

I was using my computer to watch a movie, when suddenly it froze and purple lines appeared on the screen. The purple lines seemed to glitch, and the sound of the movie sounded like a broken record. In a panic, I held the power button to turn it off. The screen went black, but the fan was still going, and the computer was emitting three beeps. I held the power button again, and it finally completely shut down. I did some research, and it says the three beeps are a problem with the memory, but what about the lines? What does that mean?

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Oct 5, 2014 4:06 AM

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Q: Screen froze, purple lines, three beeps. Help!

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  • by Terror5,

    Terror5 Terror5 Jan 23, 2016 2:55 PM in response to alxsha
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 23, 2016 2:55 PM in response to alxsha

    Hi, very similar problem, my solution: change place between the memory cards.

     

    I am running a MacBook Pro 13" Early 2011 i7 which until yesterday was unmodified since I bought it brand new in 2011. So, yesterday I:

    -changed the hard drive to a new Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB (on which I had preinstalled El Capitan using usb/sata cable)

    -changed the RAM to Corsair DDR 1333MHz 16 GB

    -I booted up fine after the surgery and the mac recognized all new hardware.

    -But, after 1 hour of use I got a similar freeze as previous screenshots and loud beeps.

    -I force quitted and rebooted up fine, used the mac for another hour and the same thing happened again, this time I recognized that it was 3 beeps in interval.

    -I read it could be the RAM. I rebooted in Option-D mode and did an extended diagnostic hardware test and found nothing.

    -When the mac froze for the third time I turned him over and changed back to my old RAM. I used the mac for half a day with no freeze interruptions.

    -Finally I once again tested to put back in the new RAM, but this time I changed the slot order.

    -I fired up the mac and now it has worked for like 10 hours with no interruptions.

     

    I believe when I first installed the new RAM maybe it did not fit perfectly which caused the crashes, when I changed the order of installation of the RAMs, maybe the fit was better (my simplest explanation) so now it works...

     

    Thus, the solution was to switch the place of the RAMs and hopefully it will work fine now, I'l tell if the problem appears again...

     

     

  • by h.gouveia,

    h.gouveia h.gouveia Jan 23, 2016 3:18 PM in response to Terror5
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jan 23, 2016 3:18 PM in response to Terror5

    Hi! Nice to know that it worked for you!

     

    Let us know if it was fixed, indeed.

    Yesterday, mine was rebooted out of nothing after I disconnected the magsafe and reconnect it.

    Sometimes crazy things happens -.-

  • by koalasan,

    koalasan koalasan Feb 2, 2016 7:19 PM in response to alxsha
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 2, 2016 7:19 PM in response to alxsha

    I Have MacBook Pro 13" mid 2012.

    started to have same issues bout a month  ago.

    when I move mac, it gets fuzzy , freeze. Shut down .

    when tried to restart , 3beeps.

    went to apple genius and they replaced logic board. Rams,magsafe board for 280$.

    after 8hours oc using repaired mac, the issues started again.

    now , even without moving the mac, it suddenly gets fuzzy , freeze and shut down by itself.

    Im going to take it back to apple . Very stressful . It's expensive and This shouldn't be happening

  • by h.gouveia,

    h.gouveia h.gouveia Apr 15, 2016 7:40 AM in response to alxsha
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 15, 2016 7:40 AM in response to alxsha

    Hey, guys! I've got some news!

     

    Early in this post I've said that my problem was solved, but last month I started getting those glitches again.

    I decided to plug the two RAM memory cards, put the bottom cover and DO NOT place the screws.

    Somehow, by doing this, I was able to move my Mac without worrying about the freezes.

    So, check this option if you still getting errors.

    My screws are a bit weird. They are acting like magnets... They attract each other when placed together.

    Well, I'll try to replace them... Perhaps they are interfering on the electric circuit of the logic board.

    This can explain why people change the logic board and still getting glitches and freezes...

    Of course, this is my guess...

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