JFP1983
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: My mid-2010 MBP freezes on startup.

Having a problem with my mid-2010 MacBook Pro. It's the 13" model, with a 2.66ghz Core 2 duo processor, 320gb harddrive, and 4 gigs of RAM. I don't exactly remember the OS, but it's probably Lion or Mountain Lion. TL;DR is that after plugging it into the power adapter, it froze, and will now take forever to start up, hanging indefinitely once I get to the desktop. I am seemingly in purgatory with only a SBBOD for company.

 

 

The background on this machine is that I bought it new from the Apple Store in 2010. During the next year while it was under warranty, I had it repaired twice(I think) with the second and last time being a replacement of the logic board. When I got it back, I had a weird problem where if it went to sleep, it couldn't wake up until I held the power button for 5 seconds, then pressed it again. It would then give me a status bar and reopen after a minute. It was a minor annoyance, so I let it go even though I should have probably complained about their poor repair job. Despite this, it operated fine for many years, though had begun to show some signs of slowing down. Spotlight searches seemed to be the biggest problem.

 

 

Fast forward to my current problem. I was browsing the Internet, and I believe I was opening a gif, when I saw that the battery was dropping. I plugged it in and it began to hang, as if Chrome had crashed. I waited a couple minutes, and when it didn't respond, I did a hard restart. As it booted up, it took forever to get to the login screen, and seemed to be frozen when I finally got to the desktop. It would take many minutes of spinning until it would unfreeze briefly, just to jam up again if I tried to click on anything. I tried force quitting as many programs as I could (there were very few open) and getting to the activity monitor but it kept hanging indefinitely. I kept rebooting to no avail, with it hanging every time I got to the desktop. Rebooting in safe mode didn't seem to work either, because after letting it go for 2 hours, I still couldn't get past the apple logo.

 

 

I think it's hanging on some kind of background process, but I have no idea what it is and no way to find out. Any help would be appreciated.

MacBook Pro

Posted on Mar 14, 2015 3:38 PM

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JFP1983

Q: My mid-2010 MBP freezes on startup.

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  • Helpful answers

  • by OGELTHORPE,

    OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE Mar 14, 2015 4:30 PM in response to JFP1983
    Level 9 (52,793 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 14, 2015 4:30 PM in response to JFP1983

    Try to boot the MBP into the recovery partition (COMMAND + R).

     

    If successful, from the 4 option menu select Disk Utility.

     

    Run Disk Utility>First Aid, Verify and Repair.

     

    If the disk cannot be repaired, it will have to be replaced.

     

    If you cannot boot into the recovery partition, use the original installation disks to get into Utilities.

     

    Ciao.

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Mar 14, 2015 6:11 PM in response to JFP1983
    Level 10 (208,044 points)
    Applications
    Mar 14, 2015 6:11 PM in response to JFP1983

    If this started happening without your having made any changes and without a warning of low disk space, then it's likely that the startup drive, or some other hardware component, is failing. Back up all data immediately, then make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store to have the machine tested.

    If you don't have a backup, DO NOT try to repair the startup volume.

    There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional. Ask if you need guidance.

  • by JFP1983,

    JFP1983 JFP1983 Mar 15, 2015 9:37 AM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 15, 2015 9:37 AM in response to Linc Davis

    Thank you for your reply, how would I go about backing up my drive despite my inability to  open any menus?

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Mar 15, 2015 10:54 AM in response to JFP1983
    Level 10 (208,044 points)
    Applications
    Mar 15, 2015 10:54 AM in response to JFP1983

    There are several ways to back up a Mac that is not fully functional. You need an external hard drive or other storage device to hold the data.

    1. Start up from the Recovery partition, from Internet Recovery, or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) Launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.” The article refers to starting up from a DVD, but the procedure in Recovery mode is the same. You don't need a DVD if you're running OS X 10.7 or later.

    If you use FileVault 2, then you must first unlock the startup volume. Select its icon ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) It will be nested below another disk icon, usually with the same name. Click the Unlock button in the toolbar. Enter your login password when prompted.

    2. If Method 1 fails because of disk errors, then you may be able to salvage some of your files by copying them in the Finder. If you already have an external drive with OS X installed, start up from it. Otherwise, if you have Internet access, follow the instructions on this page to prepare the external drive and install OS X on it. You'll use the Recovery installer, rather than downloading it from the App Store.

    3. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, start the non-working Mac in target disk mode. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.

    4. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.