05-24-2010, 05:05 PM

Hey

I have had and have lots of problems with my 2 months old MBP having random hangs and beachballs.

I think i've have tried pretty much everything to solve the problem. Permission and disk repairs, PRAM and SMC resets, DiskWarrior, TechTool Pro, CleanMyMac, Deleting Caches, AHT - you name it. Ended up doing a clean install - and have done another 4 clean installs to test out various stuff - didn't help.

I then switched my original HD with a WD Scorpio Blue 640 GB. Tried all the above again. Still didn't solve my problem.

I really can't see what possible problems that are left.

Think i might have to take my computer to the store and have them send it to service. Haven't done this yet, since i don't wanna be with no computer for up to 3 weeks (that's what they told me).

What i wanted to ask you is, what the service center would do, if i took it in.
What kind of tests and stuff do they have, that i don't?
How would they determine the problem and then figure out how to help me out?


Thanks in advance

05-24-2010, 05:20 PM

What i wanted to ask you is, what the service center would do, if i took it in. What kind of tests and stuff do they have, that i don't?
How would they determine the problem and then figure out how to help me out?

First - you should take it on in. The longer you wait, the more frustrating things may become and the more $$ you're going to spend trying to fix something that you can't.

As for what the Apple technicians use to trouble shoot the machine.... I'm sure they use (software) which is also available to the consumer, and other software which may be proprietary. They also have diagnostic equipment that can check hardware. Equipment made especially for that.

Before taking it on in, make an appointment.

Regards.

05-24-2010, 05:26 PM

Would it be possible to know what kind of problems you have?? I don't expect you to list them all out as it seems clear form your post that the list may be endless, but it would be nice to know what the big issues are causing you problems...

As a newbie I'm always trying to learn as much as I can...

05-24-2010, 05:42 PM

Thanks for your response.

I live in Denmark, so i can't take it to an Apple Store.
Will have to take it to the Authorized Apple Reseller in my city and then they'll mail it to their AASP.

But i guess you're spot on. It'll only become a bigger and more annoying problem, if i wait.

Snakedoctor, it's these very annoying "hangs", where the beachball occurs and the app in use becomes unresponsive from everything like 2 sec to 45 sec. Most often it's like 8-10 sec.
The main problem is that this happens with very light tasks, where it IMO makes no sense for a brand new 1,500$ computer to stall.

Recent examples:

- 5-8 sec hang and beachball when i tried double clicking on a song in iTunes (to change to that one). Happened again right after too. Makes no sense to hang here.

- When writing the above, it took about 2 sec from i started typing till the text appeared. This happens quite often.

- Hang and beachball for like 5 sec the other day when i was loading System Preferences (very light app, and takes like 0.5 sec normally, but as described these problems happen very randomly).

- Most of the time the sound (most of the time iTunes playing music) starts and stops instantly, when i press the start/stop key on my keyboard. Sometimes, however, it's really slow to react - also pretty weird and annoying.

05-24-2010, 05:53 PM

Also. Before i send it in, what do i do?

Do i do a clean install or do i just erase my partition without reinstalling OS X?
Do i erase with zeros (and how many times) to fully remove private informations?
Anything else?

Btw. i have everything backed up on my Time Machine, but would it be a good idea to use Carbon Copy Cloner too? I hear that restores more than a Time Machine restore!?

05-24-2010, 06:47 PM

Originally Posted by rasmusDoh

Thanks for your response.

I live in Denmark, so i can't take it to an Apple Store.
Will have to take it to the Authorized Apple Reseller in my city and then they'll mail it to their AASP.

But i guess you're spot on. It'll only become a bigger and more annoying problem, if i wait.

Snakedoctor, it's these very annoying "hangs", where the beachball occurs and the app in use becomes unresponsive from everything like 2 sec to 45 sec. Most often it's like 8-10 sec.
The main problem is that this happens with very light tasks, where it IMO makes no sense for a brand new 1,500$ computer to stall.

Recent examples:

- 5-8 sec hang and beachball when i tried double clicking on a song in iTunes (to change to that one). Happened again right after too. Makes no sense to hang here.

- When writing the above, it took about 2 sec from i started typing till the text appeared. This happens quite often.

- Hang and beachball for like 5 sec the other day when i was loading System Preferences (very light app, and takes like 0.5 sec normally, but as described these problems happen very randomly).

- Most of the time the sound (most of the time iTunes playing music) starts and stops instantly, when i press the start/stop key on my keyboard. Sometimes, however, it's really slow to react - also pretty weird and annoying.

What are your log-in items? Disable all log in items (System Pref>Accounts>Login Items tab). And close out all open programs except for Finder (that runs by default). Don't worry about Dashboard, about 90% of the time, anything running in there is usually set aside on the CPU priority list. While I'm at it, what do you have running in the Dashboard? Certain Dashboard widgets do take up system resources.

Then...if it doesn't stall out, open up Activity Monitor, located in Applications>Utilities.

From there, see what's taking up the CPU, what is using the most RAM etc.

If anything, it very well may be the logic board not functioning with the RAM or CPU correctly (which is where an Apple certified technician, preferably at an Apple Store which you don't have, would diagnose). I would still check Activity Monitor to verify if anything is hogging the CPU or taking up valuable RAM.

05-24-2010, 06:49 PM

Originally Posted by rasmusDoh

Also. Before i send it in, what do i do?

Do i do a clean install or do i just erase my partition without reinstalling OS X?
Do i erase with zeros (and how many times) to fully remove private informations?
Anything else?

Btw. i have everything backed up on my Time Machine, but would it be a good idea to use Carbon Copy Cloner too? I hear that restores more than a Time Machine restore!?

If you do this route, you might end up with problems that you do not need.

Time Machine backs up the entire Macintosh HD. And I mean everything. There is no need to use Carbon Copy Cloner.

05-24-2010, 07:17 PM

Btw. i have everything backed up on my Time Machine, but would it be a good idea to use Carbon Copy Cloner too? I hear that restores more than a Time Machine restore!?

I routinely use both in my backup strategy. The reason why CCC is good to use is that it will make a bootable clone whereas Time Machine will not. So, if you have CCC and an extra external hard drive, why not use it? Redundancy is better than being left without a means to restore.

However, as Chris stated, Time Machine does back everything up.

Regards.

05-24-2010, 08:51 PM

Originally Posted by chscag

I routinely use both in my backup strategy. The reason why CCC is good to use is that it will make a bootable clone whereas Time Machine will not. So, if you have CCC and an extra external hard drive, why not use it? Redundancy is better than being left without a means to restore.

Very true actually.

I use Time Machine alone however, though CCC I myself will take into consideration on all my Mac's.

05-25-2010, 04:58 AM

Chris H -> I have TextExpander and Growl. But i've had these problems for a long time, and i have tried removing all the startup items too.

I've had Activity Monitor running almost non-stop and there's simply no indications in there, that "helps me out". There's no processor spikes, page outs or anything when my problems occur. It's totally random and makes no sense.

What do you mean with "If you do this route, you might end up with problems that you do not need."?
If i go down what route?

And still, do i do a clean install on my internal drive, before taking it in?