5 hours install for OSX and now running slow

abehm · Jun 16, 2011

I'll start from the beginning.... My 15" 2010 8gb RAM macbook pro had a tantrum a couple of months ago when it refused to load past the grey apple screen (it would intermittently flash up a 'prohibited' symbol like on a road sign). After some asking around I decided to reformat the HDD and re-install osx. It seemed to be ok, but then started freezing at points (once or twice a day). I installed smartreporter, which told me there were I/O errors and could be signs the disk was on its way out. Time for a new HDD I thought.

Yesterday I reinstalled my new HDD, began the installation of snow leopard from the disk, and waited. And waited. Went to bed. Got up half way through the night to check and it still wasn't done. 5 hours in total it took before it finally installed. Then it got to the bit where it has the fancy intro video for mac osx and it froze (music still played, just video didn't - this is with 8GB ram!). That was the second sign of trouble. Finally got to the desktop and decided to run safari, and this is where it really went wrong. I tried three times to use the google bar, and every time i typed something the spinning colored wheel came up, so no text was typed. then it wouldn't let me press return, again a colored wheel. Then I tried to close and restart the macbook, and the wheel hijacked every click of the trackpad and stroke of a key, til the point where I just closed the screen over and tried to ignore the osnet of panic.

Now throughout this process I have always assumed it was the orginal HDD that was corrupt in some way. Now the new HDD is in, things are running worse than ever. So what else could it be? Someone mentioned the logic board as a possibility, but I wouldn't know where to start with that...

any help much appreciated!

Buzzard2010 · Jun 16, 2011

Welcome to Mac-Forums

Is your MBP still covered by AppleCare? If so then get it to your nearest Apple Store, with AppleCare you are covered for pretty much anything that is a Manufacturer fault. So they will replace/ repair for free.

HTH,

- Simon

abehm · Jun 16, 2011

Buzzard2010 said:
Welcome to Mac-Forums

Is your MBP still covered by AppleCare? If so then get it to your nearest Apple Store, with AppleCare you are covered for pretty much anything that is a Manufacturer fault. So they will replace/ repair for free.

HTH,

- Simon

thanks for your reply.

The system is over a year old and I actually bought it second hand, so don't have any extended apple care on it. My worry is I take it into an Apple Store and they land me with a huge bill, so hoping to find a simpler solution if there is one and leave the expensive repair to the last resort...

purple · Jun 17, 2011

How long has the RAM been in it? What else might you have changed just before the computer began to fail?

harryb2448 · Jun 17, 2011

Did you upgrade the memory yourself or the previous owner do it., Sounds like incompatible memory from what you describe. Must use low density and not cheaper high density PC memory which causes very similar to what you are describing.

avishare · Aug 21, 2012

Have you ever got an explanation?

abehm said:
I'll start from the beginning.... My 15" 2010 8gb RAM macbook pro had a tantrum a couple of months ago when it refused to load past the grey apple screen (it would intermittently flash up a 'prohibited' symbol like on a road sign). After some asking around I decided to reformat the HDD and re-install osx. It seemed to be ok, but then started freezing at points (once or twice a day). I installed smartreporter, which told me there were I/O errors and could be signs the disk was on its way out. Time for a new HDD I thought.

Yesterday I reinstalled my new HDD, began the installation of snow leopard from the disk, and waited. And waited. Went to bed. Got up half way through the night to check and it still wasn't done. 5 hours in total it took before it finally installed. Then it got to the bit where it has the fancy intro video for mac osx and it froze (music still played, just video didn't - this is with 8GB ram!). That was the second sign of trouble. Finally got to the desktop and decided to run safari, and this is where it really went wrong. I tried three times to use the google bar, and every time i typed something the spinning colored wheel came up, so no text was typed. then it wouldn't let me press return, again a colored wheel. Then I tried to close and restart the macbook, and the wheel hijacked every click of the trackpad and stroke of a key, til the point where I just closed the screen over and tried to ignore the osnet of panic.

Now throughout this process I have always assumed it was the orginal HDD that was corrupt in some way. Now the new HDD is in, things are running worse than ever. So what else could it be? Someone mentioned the logic board as a possibility, but I wouldn't know where to start with that...

any help much appreciated!

Have you ever got an explanation?
My MBP Mid 2009 has all the same symptoms as you described (just as the warranty expired...).
I even did loads of memtest86 runs to test my 4GB of RAM.
I also zero-ed out my HDD and did a fresh reinstall of 10.6.
BUT I never had any SMART errors. This MBP is so weird; I turned back to a Win7 Lenovo T60... sad but true

iggibar · Aug 21, 2012

Like mentioned earlier, sounds like a ram issue. If you have friends with the same kind of ram as your MBP needs, I would ask to borrow it/them just to check.