It's freezing!

[mrsp]

My computer has been a bit off for some time but today it got so bad I can't do anything much - it will be a miracle if i get to the end of this post and send it.

The cursor keeps freezing.

Sometimes it lets me restart....sometimes not.

When i try to shutdown completely i often have to resort to unplugging the machine to do so.

When i manage to restart, it allows me to post for a ten minutes or so and then freezes again.....

Is there anything I can do myself, or do i need to get professional help?

 

[searay345]

Hello mrsp.

Sorry to hear about your freezing problems. What OS are you running? I would try going into Disk Utility and try repairing disk permissions, if you can. Let us know if you need more help

Cheers on this snowy day in Michigan
Searay

 

[mrsp]

Hi - i am running OS X version 10.4.8

i did the repair thing in utilities - but it made no difference

 

[LightGear]

you can download a free program call "main menu" it will put a drop down meun on you top bar when you open the app.

I would say try the cleaing setction on it and clean your Caches and preference.

If that does not help then you might have one of two problems the OS needs to be reinstalled or you might have a problem with the logic board.

i.e. my Imac (g5) likes to run all fans when opening any app. and then will not turn the fans off. took it in to the repair shop and it is the logic board has a problem. And at 700 bucks to fixs aww i will wait till it dies and get a better mac

 

[zeyhra]

The freezing is a definite symptom of logic board failure, but only after all other possibilities are ruled out. Possible freezing causes include, as Searay says, disk permissions (and a repair of disk permissions would help there, but also, corrupt prefs (especially if the freezing can be traced to a specific app), bad RAM, or recently added software or hardware (as in it worked fine before it was installed, and after installation it started freezing up). If there was any new hardware or software installed, uninstall it, and remove all 3rd party devices (basically remove everything that didn't specifically come with your Mac: scanners, printers, 3rd party mice or keyboards, etc), then restart and see how it behaves. To rule out bad RAM, pull out the Apple Hardware test. It's either a seperate CD that came with your machine, or it's "hidden" on the software install/restore disk. If you have a separate hardware test disk, just pop it in, boot from it and run the extended tests. If it's hidden, pop in the first (if there's more than one) of your install disks and restart with the option key held down. This will give you all bootable disks, and you just choose the Apple Hardware Test disk and then run the extended test... This should make a fuss if there's bad RAM, but I've had 5 machines with logic board problems in 7 years, and it's only seen the problem on one of them, so even if the logic board appears to pass the hardware tests it doesn't rule that out as a possibility. If your freezes can be narrowed down to just one application, or one group of applications (like the Microsoft Office bundle or something like that), toss the prefs, empty the trash and restart...

 

[Ric]

Hi MrsP,

how have you got on ?

Is it still giving you problems ?

regards

Ric

 

[mrsp]

Hi there ric - it is still too bad to use for more than a few minutes ..... so it was a good excuse to get a macbook pro to tide me over!

The man who came to get my macbook on line for me reckons it's to do with memory....i need to get an expert in! But i will probably wait until after christmas.

 

[Ric]

Hi there,

sounds like Santa's already been to your house ! ;-)

Well, when you get time, back everything up and then use the install disk to erase the hard drive, then reinstall OS X. At least this way it will prove one way or another whether it is a software problem or hardware...

regards

Ric

 

[mrsp]

... back everything up and then use the install disk to erase the hard drive, then reinstall OS X.

'back everything up'? erase and reinstall...

Ric - you are talking to the woman who can't right click her Mighty Mouse!

 

[bluekatt]

in other words
ric suggests that you burn all your files to a dvd or a set of cd's
boot the mac up with a mac os X cd or dvd
erase the whole hd and reinstall mac os X again

cheaper then letting some technician look at it if its indeed a software problem