HELP! MacBook Pro 2008-09 running El Capitan complete lockout/wouldn't boot up

[2Dogs2ManyCats]

I am looking for anyone who can answer a bizarre question for me: Can the random and frantic, almost angry and violent continuous clicking of a mouse lead to the complete shutting down of a Mac and ultimately locking the owner out of having access to the computer?

I know it sounds like a whacky question, but a newly refurbed MacBook Pro (2008-09 I think) in excellent condition running El Capitan shut down and refused to completely boot back up after a series of reboots after lockups running Chrome and accessing HootSuite. This issue happened to a co-worker who has a terrible tendency to become incredibly impatient and angry and will aggressively and violently continuously click his mouse over and over again when the computer is executing a function he doesn't think is working fast enough. Sometimes he pounds the mouse on the desktop 3-4 times. I can't help but think that this is potentially dangerous since the clicking of the mouse puts procedures in play. It would seem to me that random and frantic clicking of the mouse while waiting impatiently for a function to finish could lead to random or unexpected dialog boxes popping up and executing commands that the user might not want implemented.

When the computer completely shutdown and wouldn't boot back up/kept shutting itself down with 3/4 of the progress bar loaded, I rebooted and accessed the Disk Utilities to run first aid, where there were problems. (First Aid reported the HD "could not be verified completely. File system check exit code is 8. File system verify or repair failed". I have no idea what that means and found no explanation online.) Ultimately, I erased the drive and attempted to reload El Capitan. I could not do this as we have never "purchased" El Capitan and therefore did not have it in our Apple purchase history, and since Sierra is the newest OS available online, reinstalling El Capitan was not possible. The attempt to reinstall yielded a message saying there application was not available and to try later. No other options were presented. Of course, i was not 100% sure the OS issue was the case, after all the drive could have been damaged even though the drive was error free after the erase. In order to fully determine if the drive was OK, I was able to create a bootable flash drive with Yosemite. This worked. The install was successful and the computer is functioning again.

Obviously, it is evident that there was/is nothing wrong with the drive on this MacBook. BUT, this has left me with one big puzzle I am trying to solve. WHAT CAUSED THIS COMPUTER TO LOCKUP RUNNING HOOTSUITE & CHROME, leading to a forced shutdown to reboot the computer but NOT BOOT BACK UP? WHAT HAPPENED THAT FORCED ME TO HAVE TO RUN DISK UTILITIES, ERASE AND REINSTALL THE OS? FYI, when he launched Chrome to access our website, he chose to run HootSuite to update his Twitter and Facebook accounts and make updates. this is something he does not do very often, so this accessing of HootSuite was his first time on this particular computer. Oddly, the application asked for the user logins of past employees who did use the application BUT NEVER this computer. Since I was not a witness to any of this happening prior to trying to helping him get the computer running and it shutting down completely, I cannot say how he accessed the app, what the prompts said, and how often he may have been aggressively clicking that mouse when the login prompts from HootSuite popped up.

If anyone can shed any light on this, I would greatly appreciate it. I need to know if it is possible that someone angrily and repeatedly clicking the mouse out of frustration while the computer is running a function can cause the computer to freeze-up, locking the owner out. Or was this another strange anomaly caused by El Capitan?

I have wondered if it is possible the previous owner had forgotten to disable Find My Mac and this shutout was an issue of a security function being invoked from some place in the world, but we never got any kind of warning saying there was security issue. Even if this were the case, then I wouldn't have been able to reinstall an operating system, would I?

I am sorry this is such a long post, but the situation was very involved and, believe it or not, there just might be information I left out.

Thanks for any ideas and input. We really want to have some kind of idea what happened so we can take measures to prevent them from happening again.

THANK YOU!

 

[harryb2448]

I would disagree about the hard drive. Of course you have a current backup on an external hard drive?

 

[2Dogs2ManyCats]

Hello,

So you think that the HD could be suspect even though I was able to successfully install Yosemite and get it running again?

No backup yet, but we will arrange to get a backup running on it. We've only had it a week.

Thank you.

 

[pm-r]

I would disagree about the hard drive. Of course you have a current backup on an external hard drive?

Wow Harry, you finished reading the post and deciphered it all and replied already. Most impressive and it must be due to that tea you drink.

 

[harryb2448]

A computer that old (sorry) originally came with a system start disc with the original operating system, maybe Leopard or Snow Leopard OS X.5 and 6 respectively. Any chance you have the original disc to run Apple Hardware test? You cannot repair a disk you are booted from, hence the quesion about the system disc. If this is your personal computer I would suggest spending $20 and getting Snow Leopard OS X.6 from Apple Online, booting from that when in the drive via the 'C' command after booting and running repair disk.

Or you can boot from the Yosemite flash drive and go to Repair Disk that way. The message repair failed is pretty drastic. Smahing the keys can cause all sorts of problems and temper never wins anything with a computer.

If it is his computer leave him to get himself out of his mess.

 

[2Dogs2ManyCats]

Hello,

Actually, I did get the computer running again. I created a bootable Yosemite flash drive and it worked like a dream. So the computer is working now. It hasn't been used by the reporter since getting it running yet.

Interesting fact: I DID have a Snow Leopard DIsk and tried booting off it to install it, but it couldn't be installed. This surprised me. I thought the same thing as you: it must've had Snow Leopard to start with. However, since it couldn't be installed, perhaps this computer is just more recent enough it cannot run 10.6. Its possible I have the year manufactured wrong. Perhaps it is a 2010. But I thought they ran Snow Leopard too.

I know I can run the serial number through Apple and find out when it was built.

There you have it. It IS OK right now. It is running Yosemite. I'll ask him to not pound and click his mouse so often. We don't want him accidentally engaging keychain or security vault accidentally. (This is one thing I was concerned that he may have done since the computer locked the owner out.)

Thank you.

 

[pm-r]

Interesting fact: I DID have a Snow Leopard DIsk and tried booting off it to install it, but it couldn't be installed.

Just to mention that sometimes a previous version of a Mac OS X Installer may balk at being installed onto a compatible volume with a later version already installed, even if one does have and use the correct install disc.

Creating and using a separate partition may be needed as one solution to get the install to work.





- Patrick
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[2Dogs2ManyCats]

This good to know. Thank you. I didn't think of that.

Partitioning did cross my mind, but, for now, we will leave as is.

If this drive is dying, is there anyway to determine this? I ran First Aid after successfully installing Yosemite and it was error free.

Still very puzzled as to what cause this initial lock-up and reluctance to boot up. The "owner disabled" message I got after running First Aid when the problem first occurred still has me thinking the computer became "concerned" there was a security breach after the Chrome/HootSuite debacle.

I hope we don't have a dying drive. The warranty is for 90 days only. It would be terrible if it is an iffy drive and it were to die in day 91.

Thank you.

 

[pm-r]

I hope we don't have a dying drive.

I don't mean to be the bearer of bad news, but all working drives are in the process of dying, it's just a matter of when and a fact of computing.

In your case you bought used and probably saved some money but that's not the reason why most will suggest you have a current backup if any data is worth saving.




- Patrick
======

 

[lclev]

Personally I think the person should be charged with abuse of a MB Pro. I am sure there is a law somewhere.... seriously!

And if this is a work computer I would be addressing how the person planned to pay for the abuse. No laptop is designed to put up with someone's impatience.

But....if you end up replacing the drive put in an SSD. The increase in speed might just impress the person enough to get them to treat it right.

Lisa

 

[MacInWin]

I had a system-abuser once. We "cured" him by simply indicating that if he broke ANOTHER system, we would have his pay docked for the repair/replacement. He gentled down immediately. Somehow having "skin" in the game changes behavior.