scootracer
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Problems with mid 2007 black macbook, crashing constantly

I was hoping that I could get some advice on troubleshooting steps for my backup computer, a black mid 2007 black macbook 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, I am running snow leopard on it currently but I have tried it with clean erase and installs several times with 10.4 and 10.5 with the same results. I seem to have problems with the computer freezing up whenever I would ask it to do more than one thing at once, or even just simple web surfing. I've had it crash many times while doing software updates, it will get halfway through and the progress bar just stops for hours. I have done the extended hardware test with the disks that came with the computer with no faults found, the hard drive smart status checks out as Verified in disk utility. I wan't to think that it's a software problem since my hardware all checked out with those diagnostic tools but I still have the same problems after I do a clean re-install of the OS without bringing in anything extra like photos, music etc. so I am a bit stumped. Hopefully someone has some tips for me, I'd like to figure it out so I can keep using the computer for now.

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Jan 11, 2014 11:09 PM

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scootracer

Q: Problems with mid 2007 black macbook, crashing constantly

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  • by Mike Sombrio,

    Mike Sombrio Mike Sombrio Jan 12, 2014 5:34 AM in response to scootracer
    Level 6 (17,283 points)
    Apple Watch
    Jan 12, 2014 5:34 AM in response to scootracer

    Would you download and run EtreCheck and post it's results so we can get a good look at your system? http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

    It's a small utility that will tell us everything about your MacBook, and hopefully provide some clue.

    When your Mac "crashes" does it just freeze or does it kernel panic? http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3742

    Do you have or have you tried to install OS X on an external hard drive and running off of that to test?

  • by scootracer,

    scootracer scootracer Jan 12, 2014 8:59 AM in response to Mike Sombrio
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2014 8:59 AM in response to Mike Sombrio

    Thanks for the Reply Mike, when my Mac crashes, it tends to just freeze up, I get a beach ball and it becomes unresponsive. Sometimes the dock will freeze but generally I will be unable to use the dock or any pull down menus. I have had the "you have to restart your computer" message once that I saw on the Kernel panic description before, the last time that happened was when I was trying to do a software update from 10.4 to 10.4.11. During that update I got a beach ball near the end of the update progress bar, I went to work and checked in on it several hours later to see if it would clear up on it's own but when I got to it the screen was black, the sleep  light was on steady and the fans going full speed, it would not respond or wake from sleep. I restarted it and got a grey screen with the restart logo and a message that said "unable to find driver for this platform" I am assuming because the update was not completed that the OS was flawed at that point and unable to start up the machine perhaps? Aside from that instance, I don't get the Kernel panic message when my Mac freezes up. I haven't tried installing OSX on an external hard drive and booting up from that yet, I will give it a  try to see what happens. Thanks for the help so far.

    Here are the results from my EntreCheck test:

     

    Hardware Information:

              MacBook (13-inch Mid 2007)

              MacBook - model: MacBook2,1

              1 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2 cores

              4 GB RAM

     

    Video Information:

              GMA 950 - VRAM: spdisplays_integrated_vram

     

    System Software:

              Mac OS X 10.6 (10A432) - Uptime: 0 days 9:56:32

     

    Disk Information:

              Hitachi HTS541616J9SA00 disk0 : (149.05 GB)

                        Untitled (disk0s2) /: 148.73 GB (138.6 GB free)

     

    USB Information:

              Micron Built-in iSight

     

     

              Apple Computer Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

     

              Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

     

              Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

     

    FireWire Information:

     

    Thunderbolt Information:

     

    Kernel Extensions:

     

    Problem System Launch Daemons:

              [not loaded] org.samba.winbindd.plist 3rd-Party support link

     

    Problem System Launch Agents:

              [failed] com.apple.Kerberos.renew.plist 3rd-Party support link

     

    Launch Daemons:

     

    Launch Agents:

     

    User Launch Agents:

              [failed] com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-[...]@me.com-SharedServices.Agent.plist 3rd-Party support link

     

    User Login Items:

              None

     

    Internet Plug-ins:

              QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.6.3

              Flash Player: Version: 10.0.23 Outdated! Update

     

    3rd Party Preference Panes:

              None

     

    Bad Fonts:

              None

     

    Old Applications:

              None

     

    Time Machine:

              Time Machine information requires OS X 10.7 "Lion" or later.

     

    Top Processes by CPU:

                   2%          EtreCheck

                   1%          WindowServer

                   1%          Activity Monitor

                   1%          activitymonitord

                   0%          ps

     

    Top Processes by Memory:

              205 MB          Safari

              33 MB          mds

              33 MB          WindowServer

              33 MB          EtreCheck

              20 MB          SystemUIServer

     

    Virtual Memory Information:

              2.05 GB          Free RAM

              511 MB          Active RAM

              164 MB          Inactive RAM

              298 MB          Wired RAM

              131 MB          Page-ins

              0 B          Page-outs

  • by Mike Sombrio,

    Mike Sombrio Mike Sombrio Jan 12, 2014 9:21 AM in response to scootracer
    Level 6 (17,283 points)
    Apple Watch
    Jan 12, 2014 9:21 AM in response to scootracer

    Other than the update flash player message! and that isn't causing your problem, I don't see anything. I don't understand the failed launch agent though. It sounds to me like an I/O error with the hard drive, like the hard drive is losing connection with the computer for some reason. That's why I suggest trying an external boot volume to see if the problem persists.

  • by scootracer,

    scootracer scootracer Jan 13, 2014 8:28 PM in response to Mike Sombrio
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 13, 2014 8:28 PM in response to Mike Sombrio

    Well I tried booting from my external Hard drive with Snow leopard and I got the same results, the Mac froze up when I tried to open up a second tab in Safari with only Safari, Text edit and the Finder open. I may try a different web browser to see if that makes any difference.