My Mac Keeps on Freezing

supanatral · #1 June 3rd, 2007, 10:28 PM

I've posted this a while ago but got no response and now I can't find it. My mac kept on freezing again and again. So I completly reformatted it and installed Mac OSX again for the fourth time.

After about three weeks (just like before). It's started to break down and start to freeze on me again! My mac only freezes once a day or so but when it does, I need to restart it by the button.

First thing to go is the minimize feature on finder, after that, i can't restart my computer. All I can do is try to keep it running as long as possible. After that, the top bar goes and the next thing after that, the bottom bar freezes. I can't restart by use of ctrl + apple + eject. Is there anything I can do?

If not this is getting out of hand and I need to sell this notebook.

P.S. The diagnostics say that the hardware is fine including ram. I've replaced the ram completly with two new sticks and still get the same problem

nixgeek · #2 June 4th, 2007, 10:43 AM

Is there anything that you've installed afterwards that started the whole process? Any third party software?

supanatral · #3 June 4th, 2007, 11:21 AM

Well, I thought that too. So when I formated my computer the second last time, I tried not to install much of anything, just what I needed and it still caused it to freeze. so after formatting it again I completly changed software. For instance I use open office instead of office. amsn instead of msn and the list go's on. This didn't seem to help either

Good news though! I just got back from my fourth appointment at mac genius and I got a really good guy this time. He thinks the same way as I do about hardware diagnostics; it's a very powerful tool but if the tests pass and you still think that it is hardware then trust yourself. I thought it was between either being the motherboard or the hard drive. He completly agreed with me so he ran a quick diagnostic tool on the hard drive which passed so he decided to replace the motherboard but tells me that if it still freezes on me bring it back and they will replace the hard drive for me.

Thanks for your help Nixgeek.

nixgeek · #4 June 4th, 2007, 11:34 AM

No problem. I would also question the diagnostic software as sometimes you get false positives. If you still know that something is wrong, then something is wrong regardless of what the software says.

As for the software, I don't see how any of those would affect your computer's stability, unless maybe it was a theming app or something else that would deal with system files. But since none of those are being used then it's got to be hardware related in my opinion.

Hope everything turns out for the best.

supanatral · #5 June 4th, 2007, 10:41 PM

I was so impressed with Apple today. They told me that it would take upto five days to replace the motherboard and only 4 hours later they called saying it was ready. They told me that there weren't very many repairs to do so they had time for mine right away. So I headed over to the Apple store and picked it up they told me to try to use my notebook as much as possible to and see if I can get it to freeze. So I headed back and booted up my notebook and now it has this high pitch squeel and to top this off, the right speaker doesn't work. There goes my good mood.

I've made an appointment at mac genius for tomorrow and going to take it back to get them to look at it again. The downside is that because I'm young I can hear the squeel but I know that others can't so I want to figure out what it is so atleast I can tell them just in case they can't hear it. It's wierd though because it starts and stops without any pattern. it might last for a minute or two then it's fine for another couple minutes or so. It sounds like a fan but I don't know why it would start and stop. Do you guys have any ideas?

riccbhard · #6 June 4th, 2007, 10:53 PM

The high pitched squeal is usually caused by (from my experience) something in a power-supply related circuit. Usually this high pitched squeal is caused by a high-voltage, high-frequency current flow. You can hear this same noise when CRT Television or monitor is turned on. Some people cannot hear it, I'm one that can. My iMac G5 makes this noise when it's Shutdown but plugged into power.

And I know this sounds obvious, but it's happened to be before. Did you check the Balance in Sound in System Preferences (under the Output tab)?

Sometimes, for some reason, it goes all the way to the Left. My iMac G5 does this every once in a while.

supanatral · #7 June 5th, 2007, 09:14 AM

So I guess this is not just a fan or something easy for them to replace. That really sucks, I just hope I can find a tech at the apple store that can hear it. It took me 8 months for them to fix and issue that they never saw (the freezing issue), I wonder how long it's going to take for them to fix a problem that they can't hear. :P

I checked the audio balancing and its in the middle. good job though! I never thought about that.

supanatral · #8 June 6th, 2007, 02:49 PM

I took my mac to the apple store for the 5th time and the Genius there heard the noise and said that he's going to replace the board again as well as the top panel on the notebook. Also, I should be getting a phone call in a week to tell me that it's fixed

I'm sorry if I seem unreasonable or impatient but I'm really starting to get fed up with this! I mean, I'm a PC technician myself and I knew exactly what was wrong with it plus offered my suggestion but it still took me 7 1/2 months to prove to them that this is a hardware problem and for them to start working on a solution. Finally when they do get the solution and replace the piece of hardware that I've been telling them all along to replace, it stops the freezing but at the same time I get another defective part as well as them breaking my right speaker.

I realize that my computer is a lemon and that it's not normal to have to go through all this hassle in getting it repaired, however since there are a lot of new mac users since the new ad compain started (myself included), not too many of them will be willing to put up with 8 months of their new computer not working properly before they count their losses and go back to having a PC. I just hope for the sake of Apple that this is a rare case.

That's just one man's oppinion though. I'm intrested in hearing other peoples experiences with Mac Genius to see if I'm the only one that has had an issue with them.