Macbook Pro (Late 08) Freeze

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Level 1

8 points

Macbook Pro (Late 08) Freeze

Been doing research on this issue but can't find a right reason. This all started two weeks ago where airport failed to pick up any wifi spot, and if it did, entire computer would freeze up, forcing me to hard reboot it. At first I thought it was a hard drive failure but the hard drive did not make a clicking sound, and the problem seemed to go away after the reboot. The freeze tends to happen when I tilt the computer. Brought it in to Apple store and the genius suggested to do a clear install of Mac OS but he couldn't pinpoint the problem. Any chance this could be the sign of logic board failure? Any input will be appreciated!

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), Late 08. 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo. 4G RAM

Posted on Mar 9, 2013 10:20 PM

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Answer 1

CMCSK

Level 6

11,452 points

Mar 9, 2013 11:21 PM in response to Marsh182

Marsh182 wrote:

Brought it in to Apple store and the genius suggested to do a clear install of Mac OS but he couldn't pinpoint the problem. Any chance this could be the sign of logic board failure? Any input will be appreciated!

Did you ask the genius? Your symptoms could be a sign of hard drive failing. The only way to check this is for the genius to do diagnostic testing. Was this done?

How large is your hard drive and how much hard drive space do you have left? If you do not have enough hard drive space, freezing may occur. Try the solutions mentioned in the following link - Troubleshoot the spinning beach ball

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Answer 2

Marsh182 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 9, 2013 11:45 PM in response to CMCSK

I did while he's running the diagnostic testing. Everything came back normal except the missing optic drive which I removed three months ago. After the test, the airport was working fine and able to pick up the in-sotre wifi (as it couldn't before). We tried to create a new admin account and it worked, too. He concluded that the airport had passed the test so this could be something I may have installed... which I don't believe :S

I'm buying a new harddrive to try it out tomorrow but here's my current one made by Seagate

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148837

Also thanks for the link, my freeze does not contain a spinning wheel. When it freezes, it freezes as if I took a snap shot of everything going on at the moment - like you paused the movie 😝

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Answer 3

CMCSK

Level 6

11,452 points

Mar 10, 2013 12:04 AM in response to Marsh182

could be something I may have installed... which I don't believe

Why not?

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Answer 4

Marsh182 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 10, 2013 12:21 AM in response to CMCSK

Don't seem to make sense. In the past two weeks I've been working on my paper, leaving me no time to install anything on this laptop. He also mentioned it may have been something installed earlier that ultimately led to this but... he wasn't sure either. I'm not holding against him but the way his attitude/daignosis changed dramastically after the test really put me in doubt.

I really hope it was simply a hard drive problem, I'm trying out a new one tomorrow.

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Answer 5

Marsh182 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 12, 2013 6:56 PM in response to CMCSK

So it's been two days since I had the new hard drive put in, I'm still experincing freezing as described before. It just happens less often, down from 5-6 times a day to 1-2. With the new hard drive, I transferred my old data via Time Capsule but left out the application folder like the Apple genius suggested. I also cleaned up the internals with DataVac. Is there anything else I could/should try out?

The freezing occurs particularly when I tilt/pick up the laptop off the desk. After the reboot, it shows no Airport card installed, forcing me to reboot it again in order to get it detected. If I don't pick up the laptop all day, it'd work as usual, no freezes whatsoever.

If this is really a logic board issue, I'm getting a new rMBP. Don't get me wrong I love this laptop, but it's just not worth throwing in 2k for repair. It's weird that this happened to my previous Laptop (iBook G4) at almost exact same time... as if they're set to malfunction after 4 years :S

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