MacBook Pro locking up.

I have a late 2009 MBP 13 running Mavericks. 3 times now over the past couple of weeks it has totally locked up with no cursor (apart from what I called it!!) showing. None of the keys are operative either. We also have a Logitec M555b bluetooth mouse atached.

The only way to get out of it is to press the powerer button until it switches off.

When it's rebooted everything is fine again.

Any ideas please folks? Is there likely to be anything logged and if so how do I get to it?

How long have you been using the Logitech mouse?

Did you download & install anything recently?

- Nick

Hi Nick. The mouse has been used on it for several years now.

There have been a couple of downloads from Adobe for my PS Elements 13 and a couple for my Synology NAS box, but no new programmes that I can remember for ages now?

Ok…neither of those areas would seem to be a problem. 3 lockups over a 2-week span may be difficult to track down (not occurring frequently enough to troubleshoot via trail & error).

Can you associate any of the lockups with using Photoshop Elements or your NAS?

- Nick

No. Today SWMBO (she who must be obeyed) was prepairing an e-mail to send and I was in my workshop.

The thing that surprised me is that even although I had to chop it dead with the power button the e-mail was not lost. A good thing because it was in French and not easy for either of us. Speech, no problem, but tryping or writing is another matter!!

Jonzjob said:

No. Today SWMBO (she who must be obeyed) was prepairing an e-mail to send and I was in my workshop.

Click to expand...

- Was Photoshop Elements open at the time?
- Is this computer connected to your NAS via a cable or WiFi? Is it possible to disconnect from the NAS for long term testing purposes?

What I'm getting at is. If updates for Photohop Elements & your NAS are the only things that have changed (since everything was stable)…then these are the things I would investigate first. And to investigate…I would try to eliminate these two things from the "equation". Thus if you get a lock-up when Photoshop Elements is closed & the computer is not connected to the NAS…then we can eliminate them as possibilities.

And since these lockups don't occur that often…this could take a while.

- Nick

PS Elements was shut. I know that because the last download for it wouldn't finish until I had done a 'Force Close' on it. It was a little odd because when the instal manager told me t shut it down I opened the Dock, right clicked on the PSE icon and it gave the option to open it?

Tha MBP is connected by RJ54 as we have had an intermittent WIFI problem that I haven't been able to trace. Like this one, just once in a blue moon! I can disconnect the NAS from the Livebox router. It isn't used quite as much as it probably should be and it would give it a rest..

I agree with your thinking about the larest changes. When I was an IBM mainframe hardware eng I used to hate intermittents. They are a total bain.

NAS and PSE are both chopped. If I do need to do any photo work I still have Elements 8 that I can use instead.

Thank you for your help.

Jonzjob said:

NAS and PSE are both chopped. If I do need to do any photo work I still have Elements 8 that I can use instead.

Click to expand...

Good deal. Not sure how long to say the testing should last with things setup this way. Obviously if you got a lockup within the next 15 minutes then that would answer the PSE or NAS "being the problem" question (not necessarily the problem).

But if PSE or the NAS are the problem (and they are not being used)…then the stability time would be infinite. Then you would have to decide when to terminate this part of the test (a few days, a week, 2 weeks, etc.).

Then you would also have to decide which one to start using again (PSE or NAS)…and then test again until you either get a lockup or 100% stability. Etc. etc.

- Nick

When I am using any of the NAS utilities they are opened as a tab in Firefox. Either the Disk Station or Photo Station, they are the main ones for me. If they are not open then are they likely to be the possible suspects? Because neither were open when the lockups occured.

I am not well up on just what connection/impact the NAS box can have I have to admit. From what I can make out the MBPsees it as something like a private cloud?

it's the gpu again

the 2009 macbook pro's where known for the bad gpu so honestly if its freezing constantly and locking up your gpu could be going out