System Hanging After New SSD Install

Hello all!

This is my first time posting here. Long time Mac user.

I have a Macbook Pro 2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo (Model A1211). I just recently swapped out the original HD to a Verbatim 128GB SSD. The speed increase is noticeable, but now the system completely hangs probably five to ten times per day, for about 30 seconds at a time.

Basically, what I did was plug in the new SSD externally, use Disk Utility to erase and format it as OS X Journaled and clone my old HD to it, then I booted from it to test that it worked, then installed it. Everything seems fine except for the system hangs. I've noticed they happen more when the system is busier, however they literally never happened before I installed the SSD. I used to get a hung app, obviously, like everyone else gets, but never a a complete system hang.

Would it help for me to use the system install CD to "repair" the OS? I really don't want to have to reinstall the OS and migrate all my data from Time Machine.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

steiney

G'day and welcome to the forums.

For what it is worth OWC technicians strongly recommend not cloning a platter disk drive to a SSD because of such problems. Best way is usually the clean install method and Migration Assistant things across. You might try the Verbatim web site. Sometimes manufacturers release their own cloning software however this is usually for Windowsd.

Thanks for the reply! I took a look on the Verbatim website but didn't see anything helpful.

So what's the possibility that letting the install CD repair the operating system is a viable option?

I doubt the system CD/DVD would be much help unless there were some areas on the file that were a bit suspect before the clone. That's just my opinion.

Here are the two things I would probably try:

1. Open activity Monitor (in Application/Utilities) and have it running in the background. When the hangs occur see if you get any indication what file / process is slowing things down. Chances are the CPU use data for the problem process will spike.

2. Go to the Apple site and download the Combo Updater for your OS. Apply it to the SSD and see if that helps.

Okay, thanks! I'll try both of those. For the record, about 2/3's of the time, when I get the system hang, after it ends, either Firefox or Thunderbird give me a "script is not responding" notification, asking me to keep letting it run or kill it. I've gotten those occasionally in the past with the regular HD, but I get them so frequently now with the SSD.

Regarding the combo update, it looks like that was released in 2011. I don't specifically remember downloading and using it, but it seems like I must have. Everything is up to date in my software update thing.

Respectfully suggest do as Sly advises. Can fix many a bug the Combo updater. Can't google the link as you never supplied operating system.

I just did the combo update, and everything seems to be running more smoothly, but it's only been a few minutes of uptime since the update. I'll see how the system handles now under a heavy load. It seems like the system hangs became more frequent as the CPU and RAM loads increased.

I'm on 10.6.8, for the record.

Also, I ran the activity monitor, but it's hard to use that method because once the system hangs I can't switch to it, and by the time the system comes back and I'm able to switch to activity monitor, the process more than likely has regained normal operating parameters. Oh well. Hopefully this combo update will do it. So far so good, and now I'm up to about 10 minutes of uptime.

Thanks!

You may have downloaded the individual parts of the updater without actually downloading the combo update. The combo update is a good way of making sure one or more components aren't missed.

Thanks. Well, after cranking up one of my virtual machines, the system is back to acting like it was before. It seems like it's been getting worse, as well. Basically anytime the system has to do some heavy lifting, it will hang for a minute, but always comes back and has performed all the operations that were requested before and during the hang. Frustrating.

I think I'm going to run Time Machine to back up my current state, then do the system repair option from the CD. I still feel like it's worth trying before going to the trouble of reinstalling the OS and migrating all my data back. My Time Machine disk is on a USB 2 external HD and I'm not even sure if I can migrate from anything but FireWire.

Problem with using TM now is it may will take these problems with it. Suggest leaving until you do that clean install.

I don't think Time Machine will "take" the problems with it, but I guess we'll find out soon enough. The system has been running fine since my last post. I'm going to give it a day and if I have problems again, I'm going to try Time Machine next. Next option after that I guess will be a regular clean install. I hope it doesn't come to that.

That's funny, by the way. I've never had someone try to tell me to "leave" a forum before.

You misread maybe deliberately?

'Leaving' was suggestion for leaving TM update.

Oh, haha. No, not a deliberate misreading. You must admit it was stated very ambiguously, though.