Does low disk space make my Macbook Pro act weird?

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Does low disk space make my Macbook Pro act weird?

Hi! I have an early 2011 15" MBP with a 750gb hard disk space. Just the other day, while I was using photoshop with my laptop, the screen went off so I had to reset it. My laptop acted weird after: doing a screen split (the right part goes to the left and vice versa), one time it had weird pixels that were scattered all over, recently, a blue striped screen. All of this froze my laptop by the way. And all of this happened after a few minutes of usage. And I noticed if I use photoshop, it would only take a little amount of time before it would act weird again compared to when I don't. All the times caused me to reset my laptop by holding the power button.

Yesterday, it wouldn't boot past the gray screen after resetting about five times. But after it turned off by itself, I tried turning it on again and it booted normally. And I could use it normally again, but with extra care (using it beside an electric fan, checking the temperature with iStat pro).

I tried the extended Apple Hardware Test but it told me no trouble was found.

Another thing was, everytime my laptop froze and did the weird screen thingy, my laptop was hot.

I tried to use it again yesterday to just surf the web, and after some minutes it was still functioning. But I remember one time I was only surfing the web, it did the split screen and froze after almost an hour or so.

Also, my laptop heats up quickly compared before. And can stand being hot for a long time until now.

I haven't used any heavy applications besides photoshop to test my laptop's weird behavior by the way.

So I guess it's because of the laptop's heat. Because I can only use it for a very short time when using photoshop but I can use my laptop for a longer time when only surfing the web.

I also noticed that if I was forced to reset my laptop and turn it on again, it would boot longer than normal. But if I was able to shut it down properly and turn it on again, it would boot normally.

And, just a while ago, I remembered my laptop's disk space was only 14gb from 750gb (downloaded a lot of series since I bought my laptop). So maybe what's causing the heat was the low disk space. Just a guess. So is it possible that my laptop is behaving weird because of the low disk space?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Apr 25, 2013 12:36 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 25, 2013 12:49 AM in response to airbender_07

Probably not - although the 'rule of thumb' is that you should keep at least 10% of your total hard drive space free. It sounds more as if you're having a problem with your GPU. If I were you, I would take the machine into your local Apple Store or an AASP and have them run their more 'sophisticated' tests.

Clinton

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Answer 2

airbender_07 Author

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Apr 25, 2013 12:54 AM in response to clintonfrombirmingham

Is it possible that it's because of a damaged motherboard though? Although I haven't dropped my laptop even once.

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Answer 3

Apr 25, 2013 12:56 AM in response to airbender_07

Your logic board could still be damaged even though you've not dropped it - it could just be a 'faulty' logic board.

Clinton

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Answer 4

airbender_07 Author

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Apr 25, 2013 1:01 AM in response to clintonfrombirmingham

So assuming it's damaged, but hopefully not, is it because of the laptop's heat? Although that would be unusual because as far as I can remember, my laptop was not extremely hot when it started to act weird.

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Answer 5

Apr 25, 2013 1:06 AM in response to airbender_07

No, not heat, I would think. Rather a problem with your GPU (from what you describe).

As I said, only the Apple techs have the diagnostic tools to find out what is really wrong.

Clinton

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Answer 6

airbender_07 Author

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Apr 25, 2013 1:12 AM in response to clintonfrombirmingham

Ok, will do if I get the chance because the nearest Apple store is almost 200mi from here. One more question: what causes can make the GPU problematic?

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Answer 7

Apr 25, 2013 1:14 AM in response to airbender_07

It's likely just faulty - that would be my guess (from your post).

Clinton

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Answer 8

airbender_07 Author

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Apr 25, 2013 1:23 AM in response to clintonfrombirmingham

Oh so it is possible for a gpu to become faulty after 2 years. I'll just have my laptop checked. Thanks, Clinton! :)

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Answer 9

airbender_07 Author

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Apr 25, 2013 3:31 AM in response to clintonfrombirmingham

Hi, Clinton! Just an update on my laptop. I played a 1080p movie and it did a split screen as soon as it started. I restarted and it booted normally. I deleted a huge chunk of files (movies and series). Now my laptop is back to more than 100gb. I played the same movie and it played normally. I surfed the web and used photoshop for more or less an hour and everything went well. So i guess it was just the low disk space. I hope this is right. :)

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Answer 10

Apr 25, 2013 3:33 AM in response to airbender_07

Could be - as I pointed out, the general 'rule of thumb' (back to my days of operating PDP1144's) is to alwasy leave 10% of disk space free!

Clinton

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Answer 11

airbender_07 Author

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Apr 25, 2013 10:16 PM in response to clintonfrombirmingham

The problem is back. But this time, it only happened when I used photoshop or played a 1080p video. I was using my laptop for almost 3 hours when i decided to use photoshop. It froze as soon as it started and made my screen display weird pixels. I restarted and tried to open photoshop again and this time, it froze. I did it the third time and after using PS for a minute, it did the split screen. After restarting yet again, I tried to play a 1080p video to just test my laptop. It froze as soon as VLC started. But when i only surf the web (which is the only thing I did before using PS), everything goes well. So I guess it really is the GPU and not the logic board or some other parts. I've decided to just have my laptop checked.

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Answer 12

airbender_07 Author

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Apr 25, 2013 10:23 PM in response to airbender_07

By the way, when the split screen happens since the start of my problem a few days ago, I can still move my cursor. When the weird pixels happen, there is a line of pixels which move when I use my trackpad, probably representing the cursor. So this shows that my laptop is still functioning, only the screen froze. Yesterday, when I played the 1080p video, it had a chance to start the movie before doing the split screen. And the sound was still playing while the screen was frozen. So I guess this supports the faulty GPU theory. At least it's not the logic board I guess.

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