Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Macbook Pro freezing constantly

I have a late 2011 Macbook Pro, 10.10.3, with 453GB/498.88GB free. It worked fine until I upgraded to Yosemite a while ago, which was a hassle to fix, but I found out the software was defective and I deleted everything and resinstalled OS X and it was perfect...for about a day. Out of absolutely no where (I was checking my grades on a site I regularly visit) it froze up and hasn't worked since. When I say it freezes constantly I mean constantly, finder won't even open without freezing and I can't even force quit with the keyboard shortcut! It freezes so badly I have no choice but to hold down the power button almost instantly after logging in. I've restarted it a billion times to try to get it to work, but nothing.


I have reset NVRAM/PRAM, repaired disks in disk utility and verified permissions and everything, booted in safe mode (what I'm currently in), ran bitdefender to check for malware, and rebooted more times than I can count. I also want to say that I turned off time machine because the biggest usb flash drive I had wasn't big enough (16GB) so I just moved the important documents, music, pictures, etc onto someone else's computer for now. So no time machine backup. Any suggestions? Should I try to reinstall again? Should I give up and take it into Apple? Please help, I'm very dependent on my computer right now as I have exams. Thank you to anyone who replies!

MacBook Pro

Posted on Jun 16, 2015 6:38 PM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Jun 16, 2015 7:19 PM

The first step is to get rid of "Bitdefender," which as likely as not is causing the problem.

Remove "BitDefender Antivirus" by following the instructions on this page. I can't vouch for the effectiveness of those instructions. If they don't work, refer to the developer for more information.

Back up all data before making any changes.

9 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Jun 16, 2015 7:19 PM in response to jfry195

The first step is to get rid of "Bitdefender," which as likely as not is causing the problem.

Remove "BitDefender Antivirus" by following the instructions on this page. I can't vouch for the effectiveness of those instructions. If they don't work, refer to the developer for more information.

Back up all data before making any changes.

Jun 16, 2015 8:15 PM in response to jfry195

1. This procedure is a diagnostic test. It changes nothing, for better or worse, and therefore will not, in itself, solve the problem. But with the aid of the test results, the solution may take a few minutes, instead of hours or days.

The test works on OS X 10.7 ("Lion") and later. I don't recommend running it on older versions of OS X. It will do no harm, but it won't do much good either.

Don't be put off by the complexity of these instructions. The process is much less complicated than the description. You do harder tasks with the computer all the time.

2. If you don't already have a current backup, back up all data before doing anything else. The backup is necessary on general principle, not because of anything in the test procedure. Backup is always a must, and when you're having any kind of trouble with the computer, you may be at higher than usual risk of losing data, whether you follow these instructions or not.

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

3. Below are instructions to run a UNIX shell script, a type of program. As I wrote above, it changes nothing. It doesn't send or receive any data on the network. All it does is to generate a human-readable report on the state of the computer. That report goes nowhere unless you choose to share it. If you prefer, you can act on it yourself without disclosing the contents to me or anyone else.

You should be wondering whether you can believe me, and whether it's safe to run a program at the behest of a stranger. In general, no, it's not safe and I don't encourage it.

In this case, however, there are a couple of ways for you to decide whether the program is safe without having to trust me. First, you can read it. Unlike an application that you download and click to run, it's transparent, so anyone with the necessary skill can verify what it does.

You may not be able to understand the script yourself. But variations of it have been posted on this website thousands of times over a period of years. The site is hosted by Apple, which does not allow it to be used to distribute harmful software. Any one of the millions of registered users could have read the script and raised the alarm if it was harmful. Then I would not be here now and you would not be reading this message. See, for example, this discussion.

Another indication that the test is safe can be found in this thread, and this one, for example, where the comment in which I suggested it was recommended by one of the Apple Community Specialists, as explained here.

Nevertheless, if you can't satisfy yourself that these instructions are safe, don't follow them. Ask for other options.

4. Here's a general summary of what you need to do, if you choose to proceed:

☞ Copy a particular line of text to the Clipboard.

☞ Paste into the window of another application.

☞ Wait for the test to run. It usually takes a few minutes.

☞ Paste the results, which will have been copied automatically, back into a reply on this page.

These are not specific instructions; just an overview. The details are in parts 7 and 8 of this comment. The sequence is: copy, paste, wait, paste again. You don't need to copy a second time.

5. Try to test under conditions that reproduce the problem, as far as possible. For example, if the computer is sometimes, but not always, slow, run the test during a slowdown.

You may have started up in safe mode. If the system is now in safe mode and works well enough in normal mode to run the test, restart as usual. If you can only test in safe mode, do that.

6. If you have more than one user, and the one affected by the problem is not an administrator, then please run the test twice: once while logged in as the affected user, and once as an administrator. The results may be different. The user that is created automatically on a new computer when you start it for the first time is an administrator. If you can't log in as an administrator, test as the affected user. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this section doesn’t apply. Don't log in as root.

7. Load this linked web page (on the website "Pastebin.") The title of the page is "Diagnostic Test." Below the title is a text box headed by three small icons. The one on the right represents a clipboard. Click that icon to select the text, then copy it to the Clipboard on your computer by pressing the key combination command-C.

If the text doesn't highlight when you click the icon, select it by triple-clicking anywhere inside the box. Don't select the whole page, just the text in the box.

8. Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

Click anywhere in the Terminal window to activate it. Paste from the Clipboard into the window by pressing command-V, then press return. The text you pasted should vanish immediately.

9. If you see an error message in the Terminal window such as "Syntax error" or "Event not found," enter

exec bash

and press return. Then paste the script again.

10. If you're logged in as an administrator, you'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. You will not see the usual dots in place of typed characters. Make sure caps lock is off. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you make three failed attempts to enter the password, the test will run anyway, but it will produce less information. If you don't know the password, or if you prefer not to enter it, just press return three times at the password prompt. Again, the script will still run.

If you're not logged in as an administrator, you won't be prompted for a password. The test will still run. It just won't do anything that requires administrator privileges.

11. The test may take a few minutes to run, depending on how many files you have and the speed of the computer. A computer that's abnormally slow may take longer to run the test. While it's running, a series of lines will appear in the Terminal window like this:

[Process started]

Part 1 of 8 done at … sec

Part 8 of 8 done at … sec

The test results are on the Clipboard.

Please close this window.

[Process completed]

The intervals between parts won't be exactly equal, but they give a rough indication of progress. The total number of parts may be different from what's shown here.

Wait for the final message "Process completed" to appear. If you don't see it within about ten minutes, the test probably won't complete in a reasonable time. In that case, press the key combination control-C or command-period to stop it and go to the next step. You'll have incomplete results, but still something.

12. When the test is complete, or if you stopped it because it was taking too long, quit Terminal. The results will have been copied to the Clipboard automatically. They are not shown in the Terminal window. Please don't copy anything from there. All you have to do is start a reply to this comment and then paste by pressing command-V again.

At the top of the results, there will be a line that begins with the words "Start time." If you don't see that, but instead see a mass of gibberish, you didn't wait for the "Process completed" message to appear in the Terminal window. Please wait for it and try again.

If any private information, such as your name or email address, appears in the results, anonymize it before posting. Usually that won't be necessary.

13. When you post the results, you might see an error message on the web page: "You have included content in your post that is not permitted," or "The message contains invalid characters." That's a bug in the forum software. Please post the test results on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.

14. This is a public forum, and others may give you advice based on the results of the test. They speak for themselves, not for me. The test itself is harmless, but whatever else you're told to do may not be. For others who choose to run it, I don't recommend that you post the test results on this website unless I asked you to.

______________________________________________________________

Copyright © 2014, 2015 by Linc Davis. As the sole author of this work (including the referenced "Diagnostic Test"), I reserve all rights to it except as provided in the Use Agreement for the Apple Support Communities website ("ASC"). Readers of ASC may copy it for their own personal use. Neither the whole nor any part may be redistributed.

Jun 16, 2015 9:56 PM in response to jfry195

The startup drive is failing, or there is some other internal hardware fault.

Back up all data on the drive immediately if you don't already have a current backup. There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional—ask if you need guidance.

Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider.

If privacy is a concern, erase the data partition(s) with the option to write zeros* (do this only if you have at least two complete, independent backups, and you know how to restore to an empty drive from any of them.) Don’t erase the recovery partition, if present.

Keeping your confidential data secure during hardware repair

Apple also recommends that you deauthorize a device in the iTunes Store before having it serviced.

*An SSD doesn't need to be zeroed.

Jul 2, 2015 11:09 PM in response to axeros

I have a Mid-2012 13" Macbook Pro and had some major issues with it. It started when I would get the spinning beachball constantly and it would be abnormally slow for the computer to process anything I was doing. Sometimes up to a minute for it to register that I clicked a link or several minutes for it to open an application. I tried all the fixes I could. Tested in a new user, reset PRAM, cleaned out my hard drive, and even clean installed my operating system(which took upwards of 6 or 7 hours to install). After all of this, and lots of research on the discussion boards, I came to the conclusion it was a hardware issue. I decided to try replacing the hard drive first. It was the quickest, easiest, and cheapest place to start. I bought a hard drive off of Amazon that was larger and faster than my previous hard drive. I saw this as a great opportunity to upgrade. It wasn't expensive, around $70. I installed it in the computer and installed the operating system OS X Yosemite. It seemed to work. I no longer had the spinning wheel all of the time and my computer seemed to be back to normal......Until I went to start it up, wake it up from sleep, shut it down, or restart it. Most of the time I would get the "do not enter" or prohibitory sign when starting it up. Sometimes I would get the folder with the question mark, and then after resetting the PRAM several times and resetting the SMC, eventually it would start up and load the operating system. I searched and searched for answers through discussion groups and even visited some Apple stores, official and 3rd party, and kept finding that the logic board could be the issue. This didn't make sense to me because when the computer would actually start, it would run fine until it went to sleep or I had to restart it. As long as I kept it awake at all times, it worked. This was terribly inconvenient! Finally, deep in a discussion board that I can't seem to find again(or I would write a heartfelt thank you to the person who posted it) I found a solution!!! That person stated that the cables that connect the hard drive to the logic board in Macbook Pros are notorious for not being able to handle a higher performance hard drive. I bought a new cable, making sure it was made for my computer specifically, and since I was out of warranty on mine, making sure it was not the same one that originally came installed in my computer, and installed it. Viola! It worked! No more startup issues! No more issues with waking up from sleep or shutting down! I hope this helps someone else out there who is having the same problems I was. It took me months of research and reading to finally get the answer I needed.


So, abnormal slow performance? Spinning wheel constantly? You have tried all the software troubleshooting steps? Probably the hard drive.

Did you upgrade the hard drive (HDD)? Are you getting the prohibitory sign or folder with a question mark? Tried all the software troubleshooting steps? Try a new hard drive connecting cable. They are very inexpensive and easy to install yourself.


Good Luck!!

Oct 6, 2015 2:52 PM in response to Linc Davis

Hi, I'm in a similar situation as the oringinal poster. I have a 13" macbook pro since june 2014, I've had no problems until yesterday. It suddenly started freezing so frequently that it's basically unusable. This is my first apple computer so I don't really know what I'm doing here, but I followed your directions and performed the diagnostic tests. I'll paste my results below and I would really appreciate it if you can give me some insight to what they mean...


http://pastebin.com/BQh1RKJA

Macbook Pro freezing constantly

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.