30-60 second random lock-ups

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Hi everyone
I am experiencing that my Mac randomly locks up for like 30-60 seconds, apparently varies a lot in length, and this is really starting to kill me!
I read a lot about this on the net, but none of the fixes i have read about seems to work at all.

My setup is:
MacBook Pro (Coconut says age 13 month), so must be the late 2008/early 2009 model.
2 GB stock RAM exchanged with 4 GB kingston.
Stock HDD exchanged with 500 GB WD disc.
Snow Leopard with all updates.

Tried fixes:
Uninstalled DIVX
Repaired permissions
Reformat

None of above had any effect.

As far as I can tell from reading on the net, the problem may have something to do with 1.7 EFI firmware update?!?!

Please help!
 
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Two steps to try - create a New User and log into that User and check - still get the problems?
Download this and install and test it out again.
 
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Above didn't work.
Also checked all fonts, all ok.
Also tried reverting to EFI 1.6, but i just get a circle with a line through it when trying to do it from USB.
 
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Above didn't work.
That means that u had same issue in the New User?
Your 500 GB HD - how full is that? still have 10% free?
Do u have a current back up?
 
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That means that u had same issue in the New User?
Your 500 GB HD - how full is that? still have 10% free?
Do u have a current back up?

Yeah the new user did the exact same thing as my normal user. Tested it both with multi users running and when only running the newly created, still same problem.

I have no backups, I never do backups. But it's almost a clean install.

I have 400 gigs free.
 

cwa107


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Do you use Boot Camp?
 
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Bootcamp is installed yes, but I do not have any issues when running in W7
 

cwa107


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Try excluding your Boot Camp partition from Spotlight indexing.
 
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And next step remove Kingston memory and install the original and see if that makes any difference.
 
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Forgot to post that i actually tried that. Didn't work.

Haven't tried reverting to the old HDD though, cause it is this one that i want working.
 
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For a lark, try going to Mail/Preferences, and setting "Check for new mail" to "manual."
 

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System Preferences => Spotlight => Privacy tab => Drag your BOOT CAMP drive icon into the list.
 
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Back to my old 2.2GHz C2D MB after selling my MBP and wondering what my next Mac will be :)
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Tried making checking email manual, didn't work.

Excluded boot camp from indexing, and since i did that, no lockups so far, I'm pretty sure it will start locking up again though unfortunately, because mostly when it happens, is not really something related to spotlight.

Mostly it happens exactly when doing something, not just when the computer is idling. I.eg. it could happen if i click a link in Safari, or mount a DMG or something. And it will just show the beachball and lockup for 30-60 seconds and then act like nothing happened afterwards.
 
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chas_m

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I personally think you have actually fixed this now (the boot camp/indexing thing) but just in case, try opening Activity Monitor.

If the lockup happens again, once you regain control switch to Activity Monitor and note if there were any spikes of CPU activity or network activity.

I should also mention that this COULD BE repeat COULD BE your drive stumbling over a bad block or beginning to fail. So if the excluding boot camp thing doesn't work, I might suggest you clone the drive to an external, test the clone to make sure its okay, erase by ZEROING OUT the boot drive then restore. That will "lock off" bad sectors, but bear in mind that's a band-aid for a bigger problem, namely hard drive is slowly going.
 
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I personally think you have actually fixed this now (the boot camp/indexing thing) but just in case, try opening Activity Monitor.
Ok i guess I will have to try.

If the lockup happens again, once you regain control switch to Activity Monitor and note if there were any spikes of CPU activity or network activity.
What exactly should I look for. Programs with high CPU activity or?

I should also mention that this COULD BE repeat COULD BE your drive stumbling over a bad block or beginning to fail. So if the excluding boot camp thing doesn't work, I might suggest you clone the drive to an external, test the clone to make sure its okay, erase by ZEROING OUT the boot drive then restore. That will "lock off" bad sectors, but bear in mind that's a band-aid for a bigger problem, namely hard drive is slowly going.
In this case, how do i zero out the boot drive? I do have another drive, so I could try it just for kicks.
 
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I said it in my last post to this thread in short, but you chose to ignore it.
I don't take it to heart, but I am trying to warn you....
You will lose everything without a backup if your hard drive dies.
Zeroing out will wipe it, so once again, you need a backup.
External drives cost as much as the few packets of headache tablets you will take if it does die.
Also, if you have a bootable backup drive, you can use it when (not if) your internal HD dies!
 
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I personally think you have actually fixed this now (the boot camp/indexing thing) but just in case, try opening Activity Monitor.

If the lockup happens again, once you regain control switch to Activity Monitor and note if there were any spikes of CPU activity or network activity.

I should also mention that this COULD BE repeat COULD BE your drive stumbling over a bad block or beginning to fail. So if the excluding boot camp thing doesn't work, I might suggest you clone the drive to an external, test the clone to make sure its okay, erase by ZEROING OUT the boot drive then restore. That will "lock off" bad sectors, but bear in mind that's a band-aid for a bigger problem, namely hard drive is slowly going.

I said it in my last post to this thread in short, but you chose to ignore it.
I don't take it to heart, but I am trying to warn you....
You will lose everything without a backup if your hard drive dies.
Zeroing out will wipe it, so once again, you need a backup.
External drives cost as much as the few packets of headache tablets you will take if it does die.
Also, if you have a bootable backup drive, you can use it when (not if) your internal HD dies!
Yeah, well in my entire life with computers, I never had a HDD die, and I never used backups, so it's just something i choose to ignore. It's not the end of the world if a HDD dies. I'd just download all my stuff again and I'm going.

That said, it might be a good idea to do backups, just in case, as it will same me a lot of time. I do have some external HDD's lying around. Should i just use time machine to back the harddrive up or?
 

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