Macbook Pro keeps freezing - hard disk failing?

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Macbook Pro keeps freezing - hard disk failing?

Hi everyone, hope I've posted in the right place.

I have a 13" Macbook Pro early 2011: Running MacOS Sierra 10.12.4

My macbook is running extremely slow and freezing - all of this is very sudden. I had my previous hard disk fail on me just six months ago. Replaced it with a new one myself and it had worked fine up until now. Two days ago, Safari started to freeze, restarted and everything worked fine. Woke up yesterday and opened the macbook and it wouldn't sign in, after 10 minutes I force switched it off.

The current symtpoms are:

Extremely slow during startup and launching/closing applications.
Startup takes 20-45 minutes - usually 2 min max, (just to get to the point of a loaded desktop)
Programs freeze for a few minutes with the rainbow icon every click or so. For about a minute at a time, programs will function normally - I can watch a HD youtube video on safari like normal but if I click anywhere outside of Safari, it freezes again.
As far as I can tell, I can access all my files and don't seem to have lost any data (which makes me think maybe hard disk is fine).

Tried so far:

On/off
restart
force turn off by holding power switch
ran disk utility - all clear
NVRAM reset
SMC reset
command + R during boot up leads to internet recovery - not recovery mode - (very strange - this led me to do the NVRAM and SMC reset)

I'm thinking could be:

Hard disk issue again (new hard disk failing)
RAM issue (maybe they've come loose)
CPU problem?

Any ideas/advice? Thanks in advance.

MacBook Pro, macOS Sierra (10.12.4)

Posted on Mar 2, 2018 3:38 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

y_p_w

Level 6

17,762 points

Mar 4, 2018 10:18 AM in response to Nosh21

Run Apple Hardware Test. You probably don't have the version that was originally installed on the original hard drive, but there's a version that works from Internet Recovery. Either hold D at power on and it will probably default to the internet version, or option-D at power on and it will always load up the internet version.

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Answer 2

dominic23

Level 10

84,018 points

Mar 2, 2018 5:51 AM in response to Nosh21

Backup your Mac as soon as possible.

Please run EtreCheck and post the report here.

https://etrecheck.com

Click “Free Download” button, open Downloads folder, click on it to open, and then select ”Open”.

Click on the bouncing EtreCheck icon in the Dock.

“Choose a problem” from the popup menu box, and then “Start EtreCheck” in the dialog.

Click “Share Report” button in the toolbar, select “Copy to Clipboard” .

Paste it into the reply.

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Answer 3

y_p_w

Level 6

17,762 points

Mar 6, 2018 7:31 AM in response to Nosh21

AHT only tests memory and simple hardware checks. It won’t scan through the drive. Extended just does a longer RAM check. I was thinking maybe it could find some fault like perhaps a bad connection.

Thr only other thing I can think of is perhaps a marginal drive “cable”. That’s the polyester film connector with the metal traces that connects your drive to the board. You could try booting your drive in an external USB enclosure, although if you’re beach balling then it’s still going to do that somewhat with a hard drive.

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Answer 4

y_p_w

Level 6

17,762 points

Mar 6, 2018 1:59 PM in response to Nosh21

Nosh21 wrote:

Thanks for your quick reply, my question is, is there a way to identify if it's HDD, RAM, CPU or software? As it stands now, I replaced the HDD six months ago, after the original failed after 6+ years. This new HDD could have just been waiting to die and maybe some shock damage is causing all of this.

If that's the case, I was going to swap it out for a Samsung 850 SSD but my worry is if I swap it out and the problem persists, I'd have just wasted £120 on an SSD.

Like I said - maybe boot from an external USB enclosure. It won't be as high performance, but if there's a problem with the internal drive connector you'll know. I'd recommend one to anyone with a 2.5" SATA drive just to have around for several different reasons. Something like this (just an example):

***
<Link Edited by Host>

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Answer 5

y_p_w

Level 6

17,762 points

Mar 3, 2018 10:15 AM in response to Nosh21

You might be better off with a clean install. Preferably with an SSD to speed up things. You have a reasonably capable machine, but using a hard drive is kind of the weakest link. You could then copy over what you need from your old drive.

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Answer 6

dominic23

Level 10

84,018 points

Mar 3, 2018 6:27 AM in response to Nosh21

If you can start from Recovery HD, try repairing disk.

https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/repair-a-disk-dskutl1040/mac

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Answer 7

Nosh21 Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 3, 2018 5:55 AM in response to dominic23

Hey, thanks for the quick reply,

I already have a recent backup, so on that front I am ok for now, but even if I wasn't I don't think I could do a backup now, the macbook keeps freezing, likewise I can't get to even download Etrecheck,let alone run it. I will keep trying, typing this on a different computer.

Is there anything that can be done without EtreCheck if I can't get it to run and report?

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Answer 8

Nosh21 Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 3, 2018 1:36 PM in response to y_p_w

This is actually a new hard disk that I replaced six months ago, my worry is what if it's something else and I spend money on an SSD to still have the same problem? If it is a faulty HDD then an SSD seems like a good buy but I don't know if there's a way to confirm/diagnose the issue?

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Answer 9

Nosh21 Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 4, 2018 9:45 AM in response to dominic23

I'm afraid I still can't get to download etrecheck and run it, is there any other way of knowing what could be going wrong? I'm thinking about buying an SSD and installing that but my worry is if this error continues after a system restore onto a new SSD because the issue was with the RAM or CPU - any advice?

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Answer 10

Nosh21 Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 6, 2018 4:56 AM in response to y_p_w

I finally managed to run Apple Hardware Test and just held D on startup and like you said it defaulted to the internet recovery - but it stopped before asking me for my wifi password and just loaded up the Apple Hardware Test about 10 seconds after seeing the spinning glove.

The results came back fine - 'No Trouble Found'.

I did both tests the normal 'short' one and the extended test and both came back the same but the extended test only lasted 24 min and 12 sec but my Time Machine Backup was somewhere in the region of 270Gb so definitely expected this to be longer.

Any idea whats going on?

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Answer 11

Nosh21 Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 6, 2018 8:43 AM in response to y_p_w

Thanks for your quick reply, my question is, is there a way to identify if it's HDD, RAM, CPU or software? As it stands now, I replaced the HDD six months ago, after the original failed after 6+ years. This new HDD could have just been waiting to die and maybe some shock damage is causing all of this.

If that's the case, I was going to swap it out for a Samsung 850 SSD but my worry is if I swap it out and the problem persists, I'd have just wasted £120 on an SSD.

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Answer 12

Nosh21 Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 3, 2018 9:50 AM in response to dominic23

Do you mean start up whilst holding command + R? It skips and goes straight to internet recovery. If you mean once I boot up, I was able to run first aid and it came back fine.

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Macbook Pro keeps freezing - hard disk failing?

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