Late 2009, A1342 Macbook freezing, then reboots

Just to add to this, the computer ran fine for a long time after installing the SSD. The Disk Utility found many permissions wrong but was able to correct them and the SSD checks good.

Gene

Anyone have any suggestions on this. Still happening at random, solid freeze, with sound on and some sound playing, during the freeze, the sound is stuck and repeating very fast.

I'd sure like some suggestions, I can post stuff from Console logs if needed but I surely can't make much sense of them.

Thanks

Joker,

I'm also surprised that not anyone has suggested a cause. I was thinking a memory issue but from my experience, memory issues will crash a system and often do damage to files etc since I think the memory we're using is NOT ECC as with most PC memory. Thus when a reference is made to a memory location that is picking or dropping a bit or so, no one is the wiser until the bad data craps on something causing a crash.

Thus, I'm suspecting a video issue as video issues will not often corrupt things in the system, thus the freeze and reboot, the machine comes right back up and all is well until the next time and often mine will freeze while playing a movie etc., and the sound will still be playing but stuttering.

If indeed the issue is video, it will require a new main board and I'm not sure that's an investment that's a smart thing at this point.

I've done a bunch of searching around and have not come up with anything.

THanks for that update, since you replaced the logic board and it still happens, I guess that rules out the video. Did you install your original memory into the replacement logic board?

I Guess when I get back home from vacation, I'll put my original memory back in as I had upgraded mine soon after I got the book. Then we'll see how it goes. Could be the board you got on eBay may also have the same issue as we're having. My book is not a main computer for us, it's mainly used while away on vacation and sometimes at home when I'm relaxing in the living room so it's not a huge loss. My wife says, just get a new one but ****, they are expensive when you look at what you can get a new Dell laptop for these days. BTW, we use both Macs and PCs, PCs mainly.

keep me posted as I will you.

gene

On Mac notebooks with non-removable battery

Mac notebook computers that have a battery you should not remove include: MacBook Pro (Early 2009) and later, all models of MacBook Air, MacBook (Late 2009), and MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015).

To reset the SMC:

1. Shut down the computer.
2. Plug in the MagSafe or USB-C power adapter to a power source and to your computer.
3. On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.
4. Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
5. Press the power button to turn on the computer.

On MagSafe power adapters, the LED might change states or temporarily turn off when you reset the SMC.

Ive not tried this reset myself yet, but I will give it a go when I get back home.

Keep me posted,

Gene

This may be nuts to post...

But right after I posted for you how to reset the SMC, I reset my SMC....and, I hope this don't jinx this - but so far, most all morning and now a good long time this PM it has not hung.

So to the poster who suggested this - I thank you very much. I know I have in the past reset SMC etc., but not since this hanging issue started. I just never thought SMC could be the issue.

Keeping my fingers crossed,

Gene

Well, the problem is NOT solved for me but one thing is for sure, the hangs are WAY less frequent. Like this morning, over 3 hours of use and no hang yet. It went for a day or more without a hang, but it's still not a solved problem but surely way less frequent since I reset the SMC. I have to do some research into the SMC thing and try and understand why it could affect the hanging situation.

How is your hanging failure doing since you did the reset?

Gene

Hey, sorry about your return to rebooting after all you've done. Memory probably is top suspect I'm now thinking but in my case, I'm SOL I think cause we

're back from vacation and this morning I had the Macbook on and it wanted to do some updates that I had ignored while on vacation and after it finished them it no longer boots. I get a circle with a slash in it, and that's it. I tried doing the recovery thing, first had it verify the disk and that didn't help so next I did a restore from my Time Machine and that also did not work. Could be I have a toasted SSD maybe but there's no way to tell.

I'm thinking I will not replace this Macbook with another Mac product, instead I'll get probably just buy a laptop from Dell, I'm not a well versed MAC person, so trouble shooting is hard for me with that product line. I'm a little disgusted with the lack of understandable log information the operating system provides. I've solved many hangs and crashes on PC products over the years by reading the crash dump information.

So here I am without my Macbook.

Gene