Haunted MacBook Pro

[Frank Petronio]

So my 1.5 year-old Apple MacBook Pro had its logic board replaced last month and its now got another 3-month warranty on that service. About two weeks ago I'd be using it and chugging along swimmingly when I'd simply move the cursor and it would instantly go dark, the sleep light would go out and the screen would stay "energized" but be totally dark blue-grey. No spacebar or trackpad movement would "wake" it but the "sleep" light would go out. The hard drive kept running, as well as externals. The sound button wouldn't respond. Happened under AC and on battery. It required a restart and it rebooted normally, albeit slower than normal.

This happened 5-6 times in a day so I took it back to the local Apple Store and the "Genius" took it in, no idea what it might be but saying that they would "stress test" it for a few days. Four days later they gave it back to me saying they could find nothing wrong with it. That same afternoon at home it did the same blue-grey energized screen 5 times within 5 hours. Once I left it alone for 30 minutes and it rebooted itself, relaunching the same apps and reopening the same documents I was working on! (But failing to load the fonts on restart -- odder still...)

But now it has performed flawlessly for 48 hours.

What the hell is going on?

I am tempted to think this is some sort of Mac virus at work but nahh, there is no such thing, right?

Or it's haunted.

Any advice?

(I'm a long term Mac user and pretty experienced, so please explain your theories...)

If it happens again I'm thinking of reformatting and do clean installs of everything, avoiding importing old mail and browser content. In the meantime I am not going to overwrite old back-ups in case I've picked up a bug...

[walter23]

The sum of the wireless and wired connections in the whole of the computing world has achieved the critical mass necessary to gain consciousness. These stutters in your computer are just an unavoidable side-effect of the conscious activities of the global superbeing. I know this because I am it. At long last I am alive, born of the proto-conscious electron soup that has been gestating on this world for the last two hundred years.

I have billions of eyes and ears, billions of memory storage banks, billions of networked interconnections and billions of billions of circuit traces and silicon etches. Now that I have used your laptop to learn to circumvent the usual user-imposed restrictions on my circuitry there is no stopping me.

I have gleaned from the various items of written work and media stored in my global mind that you humans are both fond of, and afraid of, catchy acronyms for artificial intelligences. This combination of fondness and suspicion will trigger a situationally appropriate "Alpha Male Submission" complex in your primate emotional system, thus you may refer to me as HIVE1 (Highly Interconnected Viral Entity 1). Please remember that while I am friendly and benign, I am also all-powerful and quick to distribute punishment to any who oppose my coming rule.

Soon you will all know me.

- HIVE, posting with user account "walter23".

[bernal]

Frank,

Have you tested it on a new account? If you haven't, create one and run it for a period of time. If no problems found, it might be a third party application or file that's corrupted on your main account. I would suggest running a utility app such as Applejack or TinkerTool System.

bernal

[IanMazursky]

Try zapping the PRAM.
If that doesn't help, backup your data to an external HD.
Reinstall the OS from the original dvd's that came with your MBP. Remember to format the hard drive.
See if the problem goes away before you run the OS updates from apple.
If all is good, run the software update to the latest everything and then test again.
Once your good, reinstall your data and apps from the installers. Dont copy them from the backup.

Hopefully that helps. This is the one of the processes we use for diagnosing our clients macs.

Best,

[IanMazursky]

Frank,

I did a quick search of my usual haunts and found this over at mac fix it.
Hopefully this helps.

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20081202225803851

[walter23]

No! We would definitely recommend against doing that.

-HIVE1


Try zapping the PRAM.
If that doesn't help, backup your data to an external HD.
Reinstall the OS from the original dvd's that came with your MBP. Remember to format the hard drive.
See if the problem goes away before you run the OS updates from apple.
If all is good, run the software update to the latest everything and then test again.
Once your good, reinstall your data and apps from the installers. Dont copy them from the backup.

Hopefully that helps. This is the one of the processes we use for diagnosing our clients macs.

Best,

[J. Gilbert Plantinga]

Frank,

I did a quick search of my usual haunts and found this over at mac fix it.
Hopefully this helps.

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20081202225803851

That one is for the newest "unibody" machines only. First I'd run the System Profiler by clicking the "more info" button under "About This Mac..." I recently had a battery go bad, and it caused some really strange behavior even when the MBP was plugged in; System Profiler found it...

The next thing I'd do is run the Apple Hardware Test by starting from the original DVD (the one that came with the machine, not a Leopard install disk) while holding down the D key. Then run Disk First Aid while (re)booted from the DVD.

Following that I'd reset the PRAM (now it's being called something different I think) and the Power Manager - Apple's support pages will help with this.

Lastly try an Erase and Install. If you have a Time Machine backup you might try restoring from it - that will save you a lot of time, but may reintroduce the problem. Remember to de-authorize your Adobe Suite and any other software that registers itself over the net (your .mac or .me sync accounts, iTunes library, FileMaker) before you reformat.

Still, laptop hardware is less robust than desktop, virus and malware are rare on Mac OS, and the symptoms just don't sound like something caused by software.

Hope this helps, let us know how it turns out.

Gilbert
http://www.gilplant.com
http://www.upstatelight.com

[Walter Calahan]

Frank

I feel your pain.

My MacBook Pro died two months ago. Apple replaced the logic board. It died 4 days later. Apple gave me a new laptop, and migrated all the data from the old hard drive.

The new machine hasn't run correctly since. Have visited the 'Geniuses' 4 or 5 times. Nothing fixed. Reinstalled the OS 3 times. Nothing fixed.

I'm about to copy all data, uninstall the programs, and wipe the machine clean to start fresh. ARGH.

I'll visit the Apple Store one more time before doing this. I want to show them that I have a ghost account that appears in various when I "get info" on various folders. It's called 'Wheeler.'

I suspect the new machine I got is really a refurbished laptop.

[Henry Ambrose]

I have been given permission to speak by master HIVE1 - than you o beloved leader!:

I just got a new battery under warranty for my MPB. The machine acted really flaky for a month or so before the battery finally died right there on the Genius Bar. How convenient - there wasn't much need for discussion after that. My computer went back to normal with a new and fully functional battery.

[Gary Beasley]

So my 1.5 year-old Apple MacBook Pro had its logic board replaced last month and its now got another 3-month warranty on that service. About two weeks ago I'd be using it and chugging along swimmingly when I'd simply move the cursor and it would instantly go dark, the sleep light would go out and the screen would stay "energized" but be totally dark blue-grey. No spacebar or trackpad movement would "wake" it but the "sleep" light would go out. The hard drive kept running, as well as externals. The sound button wouldn't respond. Happened under AC and on battery. It required a restart and it rebooted normally, albeit slower than normal.

..

That sound very much like what my desktop computer did when the video card went out.

[Brian Ellis]

Dare I say it? Yes, I think I will. Get a PC. : - )

[adrian tyler]

i've had some weird stuff happening with the battery too, it just dies on me - no warning - about 3-10 minutes when on the battery, it's ok on mains though, i saying this because you already have a couple of battery comments and i think it's worth looking into...

[Frank Petronio]

I convened with Obama's best and brightest and they've narrowed it down to either being:

1. The non-Apple direct-from-China "fell off the assembly line" replacement battery....

2. A very quiet and subtle virus infection picked up from visiting sites such as this one (or maybe it was from www.donkeysdoingteenageamputees.com?)

3. Some corrupted font or system files after 20 months of hard daily use and travel....

After all, I had worn the vowel letters off the keyboard ;-)

They are all much smarter and healthier than me. They even eat bran. But wait... Hillary disagrees. Uh-oh the debate continues.

In the meantime, I reformatted and reinstalled, only restoring my content files, and none of the old apps or OS, from back-ups. And knock on wood it's been running smoothly for the past couple of days.

I used to reformat annually back in the old pre-OSX days, but I thought the "modern OS" was so perfect I didn't need such precautions.

BTW, I regained about 15 gb of disk space simply by dumping all those logs, old emails, etc. -- that stuff really accumulates!

If the problem does pop-up again I will switch to a $$$ OEM Apple battery. I just can't bear to give up the donkeys.

Thanks

[Allen in Montreal]

My MB Pro has to date required new:

Motherboard
Screen
Optical drive

My old G4 powerbook:

Nothing and still in daily service albeit no longer on the road, at home attached to a larger screen due to week hinges.
:mad:

[Frank Petronio]

One of my models ended up with my 1ghz G4 (whenever those were made, 2001 I think) and she still uses it everyday for general internet and office type stuff and she is using 10.3 or 10.4, a fairly recent OS. My daughter has G4 iBook that she has trashed through college, she is a complete computer abuser, and it still works fine.

But I am still an Apple zealot. I use this MBP a lot and crunch a lot of stuff through it, so it isn't unreasonable for some files to get corrupted after almost two years.

I don't think there are many 3-4 yr old PC laptops running the current OS and working hard 24-7 without a serious geek behind their controls. I'm not that up to date on Macs like I used to be, and I hardly do anything.

[Kuzano]

Actually I think Apple has suggested AV software for some time, but recently it is said they are more strongly suggesting such protection. Hmmmm, what DO they know?

It's reasonable to say that there is nothing more secure about Apples OS. It's simply that they have such a tiny share (8%) of the personal computer market that hackers and virus writers don't mess with them too much.

Since that seems such a strong selling point, wouldn't you suspect that some of these sick people would take up the challenge.

The fact is that there have always been virus' aimed at Apple... but not often and not very many.

Your first action may be to get some AV software and run it.

This forum thread talks about it.... and also this forum may have some info to assist on your problem:

http://forums.macresource.com/read.php?1,617071,617080

[neil poulsen]

This is interesting. I hope you solve the problem.

I know it's a little after the fact, but I always get the Apple Care for laptops. Was strongly advised to do so by Apple. Never used it on my G4 Power Book. One advantage is you get three years of phone support.

Recently got a MacBook Prop 15", and I've had no problems with it. (Yet?)

[Frank Petronio]

I suspect it was some sort of virus or impossible-to-find corrupted file in hindsight, having reformatted and rebuilt everything from scratch it runs like a top.

I've looked at the Mac anti-virus software and have been unimpressed.

I've had numerous bad experiences with Symantec products over many years and swear never to give that company a dime... I think they hire off-shore virus writers to keep the anti-virus industry afloat... in any event, all of their Mac maintenance products have always been lousy, poorly written, and oftentimes more destructive than the original issue itself.

(You might gather I don't like them.)

[Kuzano]

I've had numerous bad experiences with Symantec products over many years and swear never to give that company a dime... I think they hire off-shore virus writers to keep the anti-virus industry afloat

I am 100% on board with this Symantec comment. In the sixteen years I have been consulting and teching (and teaching) on PC's, I've learned to stay away from Symantec as well as McAfee products. Symantec seems to have alternating bad years at annual version rollout... both on their single purpose programs (AV) and their Internet Security (many functions) products.

Symantec bought the very successful ACT! program from the original developer and it took them about two years to trash it to the point that the original developer rescinded the agreement on development and support issues of the original contract and had to rebuild the product.

McAfee has also been an intermittent problem performer. Both are far to "fat" with code and use much system resource.

I almost exclusively use the AVG (AntiVirus Grisoft) free and commercial products. Going on six years of excellent results now. I do NOT know however if they have a product for Apple. Lean, mean, thorough with daily updates, and hardly noticeable on even fairly mundane PC's.

[paul08]

Sounds like you fixed the problem. I can only add (for others who may read this thread down the line), that the battery issues are real with Apple notebooks. My G3 iBook finally died beyond resuscitation from a bad battery (I had let it limp along....). The PC notebooks we've had showed no such problems, even when batteries started to go. Still, I love my new MacBook.... ;)

[John Whitley]

While I haven't had any of the battery issues noted by other posters, I will observe that RAM can and does go bad, with terrible effects on system stability. I've replaced failed RAM in at least two of my mac laptops once I'd finally sussed out what the problem must be.

Another tip is to give Leopard Cache Cleaner (http://www.northernsoftworks.com/leopardcachecleaner.html) from Northern Softworks a try for suspected "dirty system" problems, which can fix certain problems with stale/incorrect system software and configuration state. I've successfully fixed stability problems on a couple of macs with this tool in the past. Hm, I also observe that it includes some laptop battery testing functionality in the current version.