My Macbook Pro freezes and makes a "fan sound," like its venting.

Question

Level 1

8 points

My Macbook Pro freezes and makes a "fan sound," like its venting.

Recently, my computer (MacBook Pro) Has been randomly freezing. No spinny-wheel, just freezing up. The mouse is unresponsive, the keyboard is unresponsive (even the caps lock light won't go on, and I can no longer brighten or dim the backlight or screen, or change the volume when it's frozen). If I'm in the middle of watching a video or listening to music at the time that it freezes, it'll repeat the same part of the song over and over again (as in, the same last half second that I'd just been listening to). Even when I only have 1 thing open, or when I have nothing running, it'll freeze randomly. Even closing the laptop doesn't affect anything, the screen light and keyboard lights are still on while it's closed. The only way that I've been able to 'unfreeze' my computer is by shutting it off by holding the power button. I'm sure that's not good for the battery. I'll find this happening 3-5 times per day since the problem first occurred the day before yesterday. Any idea what might be happening? It's even frozen on the login page of the computer before.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.3)

Posted on May 22, 2014 12:11 PM

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Answer 1

John Galt

Level 10

155,810 points

May 22, 2014 12:15 PM in response to Drakinik

Back up your documents and everything else important to you, not that there is any reason to believe your hard disk may be failing, but the symptoms you describe may presage an impending disk failure, and you should have backups anyway.

To help determine the possible causes of this behaviour read the following. None of what follows is intended to fix anything, but it will provide the additional information required to advance troubleshooting:

Boot OS X Recovery by holding ⌘ and r (two fingers) while you start your Mac. At the Mac OS X Utilities screen, select Disk Utility. Select your startup volume (usually named "Macintosh HD") and click the Repair Disk button. Describe any errors it reports in red. If Disk Utility reports "The volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK" in green then you can be reasonably (though not completely) assured your hard disk is in good working order.

After completing the above please determine if the problems also occur in "Safe Mode":

Safe Mode or "Safe Boot" is a troubleshooting mode that bypasses all third party system extensions and loads only required system components. Read about it: Starting up in Safe Mode
You must disable FileVault before you can start your Mac in Safe Mode.
Starting your Mac in Safe Mode will take longer than usual, graphics will not render smoothly, audio is disabled on some Macs, and some programs (iTunes for example) may not work at all.
Merely starting your Mac in Safe Mode is not intended to resolve the problem, it's to observe its performance without certain additional components.
To end Safe Mode restart your Mac normally. Shutdown will take longer as well.

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Answer 2

John Galt

Level 10

155,810 points

May 22, 2014 2:15 PM in response to Drakinik

That's good news, since the behaviour you describe is often hardware related. Since it does not occur in Safe Mode, a potentially expensive hardware fault appears less likely.

Do you think I could be related to an specific program?

Probably; the challenge is to find out what it might be. If you have been unable to correlate it with any particular software, consider the following.

Apple Support Communities contributor etresoft wrote a very useful app to quickly gather certain system information that may help point to a cause of this problem. Read about it here. It contains a link to download EtreCheck. Don't download it from anywhere else (such as may be found by following the results of an Internet search).

Click Open - etresoft contributes to this forum frequently and can be considered a trustworthy developer.

It will take a moment to run as it collects its data.

Copy and paste its output in a reply.

Do not be concerned about anything that says "Problem" or “failed” or anything else that may appear in red.

EtreCheck was designed to remove any personal information (such as your computer's name and serial numbers) but if you see anything that looks like an email address or any other personal information that should not be divulged to others, please delete or obscure that information when you post the reply.

When you are finished with EtreCheck, quit the program. It occupies very little space, and you can keep it or drag it to the Trash as you wish.

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Answer 3

Drakinik Author

Level 1

8 points

May 22, 2014 12:51 PM in response to John Galt

I've done everything you told me.
I did the Disk Repair and it reports no errors. It also says that "The volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK" in green.
It seems to work fine on Safe Mode. I've open all my apps and many tabs on safari and it hasnt freeze.
Most of the times it would freeze when I was on Chrome, but I erased it.

Do you think I could be related to an specific program?

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Answer 4

Drakinik Author

Level 1

8 points

May 29, 2014 9:19 AM in response to John Galt

EtreCheck version: 1.9.11 (43) - report generated May 29, 2014 at 12:14:37 PM GMT-4

Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro9,2

1 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 2 cores

8 GB RAM

Video Information:

Intel HD Graphics 4000 - VRAM: (null)

System Software:

OS X 10.9.3 (13D65) - Uptime: 0 days 0:47:51

Disk Information:

APPLE HDD HTS547575A9E384 disk0 : (750.16 GB)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 749.3 GB (607.14 GB free)

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

HL-DT-ST DVDRW GS31N

USB Information:

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Thunderbolt Information:

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Configuration files:

/etc/hosts - Count: 43

Gatekeeper:

Mac App Store and identified developers

Kernel Extensions:

[kext loaded] com.bluecoat.kext.bckd (4.3.0f188 - SDK 10.7) Support

[kext loaded] com.digidesign.iokit.DigiDal (9.0.5f4 - SDK 10.5) Support

[not loaded] com.focusrite.driver.usb2audio (1.5 - SDK 10.6) Support

[not loaded] com.paceap.kext.pacesupport.leopard (5.8 - SDK 10.4) Support

[not loaded] com.paceap.kext.pacesupport.master (5.8) Support

[not loaded] com.paceap.kext.pacesupport.panther (5.8 - SDK 10.3) Support

[kext loaded] com.paceap.kext.pacesupport.snowleopard (5.8 - SDK 10.6) Support

[not loaded] com.paceap.kext.pacesupport.tiger (5.8 - SDK 10.4) Support

[kext loaded] com.qustodio.qnke (1 - SDK 10.0) Support

Startup Items:

DigidesignLoader: Path: /Library/StartupItems/DigidesignLoader

HWNetMgr: Path: /Library/StartupItems/HWNetMgr

HWPortDetect: Path: /Library/StartupItems/HWPortDetect

PACESupport: Path: /Library/StartupItems/PACESupport

Problem System Launch Agents:

[failed] org.thebends.iphonedisk.mobile_fs_util.plist Support

Launch Daemons:

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support

[running] com.bluecoat.k9filter.plist Support

[loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist Support

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist Support

[loaded] com.oracle.java.JavaUpdateHelper.plist Support

[running] com.paceap.eden.licensed.plist Support

[running] com.qustodio.engine.plist Support

[running] com.qustodio.updater.plist Support

[loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist Support

[loaded] PACESupport.plist Support

Launch Agents:

[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist Support

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist Support

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist Support

[running] com.qustodio.apptray.plist Support

[loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist Support

User Launch Agents:

[loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist Support

[failed] com.facebook.videochat.[redacted].plist Support

[loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2Helper.diskSpaceWatcher.plist Support

[loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2Helper.scheduledScan.plist Support

[loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2Helper.trashWatcher.plist Support

User Login Items:

iTunesHelper

AppTrap

Internet Plug-ins:

AdobeAAMDetect: Version: AdobeAAMDetect 1.0.0.0 - SDK 10.6 Support

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 13.0.0.214 - SDK 10.6 Support

Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9

Flash Player: Version: 13.0.0.214 - SDK 10.6 Support

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

o1dbrowserplugin: Version: 5.4.1.18709 Support

googletalkbrowserplugin: Version: 5.4.1.18709 Support

Silverlight: Version: 5.1.10411.0 - SDK 10.6 Support

JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 7 Update 51 Check version

Safari Extensions:

Searchme: Version: 1.2

Video Converter: Version: 3.1.0

Cuevana Stream: Version: 5.0

Audio Plug-ins:

BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9

AirPlay: Version: 2.0 - SDK 10.9

AppleAVBAudio: Version: 203.2 - SDK 10.9

iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9

iTunes Plug-ins:

Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.9

3rd Party Preference Panes:

AppTrap Support

Flash Player Support

Java Support

K9 Web Protection Support

MacFUSE Support

Time Machine:

Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU:

3% WindowServer

1% fontd

0% ps

0% notifyd

0% opendirectoryd

Top Processes by Memory:

131 MB Finder

106 MB mds_stores

90 MB qengine

82 MB com.apple.quicklook.satellite

82 MB com.apple.IconServicesAgent

Virtual Memory Information:

4.88 GB Free RAM

1.95 GB Active RAM

261 MB Inactive RAM

935 MB Wired RAM

521 MB Page-ins

0 B Page-outs

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Answer 5

John Galt

Level 10

155,810 points

May 29, 2014 9:36 AM in response to Drakinik

If you have a backup that you created prior to using CleanMyMac, now is the time to use it. For Time Machine, boot OS X Recovery, and at the Mac OS X Utilities screen, choose Restore from Time Machine Backup. Choose a date preceding the installation of CleanMyMac.

If you do not have a backup, create one now, verify that it is a viable backup of your essential software and files, then erase your Mac completely, reinstall OS X and your essential software. When you reinstall your essential software, you must do so from their original sources, not from a backup that may have been corrupted.

Using CleanMyMac2 to remove files and components of files it considers "junk" will corrupt a Mac. Nothing less than erasing your Mac and rebuilding it from the ground up will undo the effects of having used it, and its developer's instructions for uninstalling it are not completely effective.

I know no other way to recover from having used it other than these recommendations.

Other problems exist, including what appears to be a modified Hosts file. There may be valid reasons for altering Hosts but I can't think of any. If you know the reason for its alteration then you can troubleshoot it on the basis of that knowledge. If you do not know the reason, it often occurs as a result of installing pirated or "cracked" software to circumvent its ability to contact an external host to verify their software was legitimately obtained. If that's the case then anything is possible as a result of having installed illegally obtained software.

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Answer 6

ChuckHu

Level 1

0 points

May 22, 2014 2:34 PM in response to Drakinik

It may sounds like your MacBook Pro is an (early?) 15"/17" 2011 model - can you confirm this for me?

Have you tried using another browser - were you able to replicate the freeze with that?

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