My Macbook Pro, two or three years old discount buy from Amazon I think, no extended warranty, started behaving oddly in London the other day and taking a long time to do things, displaying that little coloured catherine wheel instead of just doing them. Then it started to freeze necessitating forced shutoffs. Then although still working it would start to display a frozen blank screen if left for a while. Now it won't boot and has crashed.
This is horrible. It's almost as bad as having your car broken down. The thing seems to contain about half my brain and I feel disabled without it. Anyway I often need it for work and so on.
I can't afford to pay Apple prices for a new one. I'm going to take it to a friend in London who always seems bullying and negative and promises that it'll cost you to recover your data if it's recoverable, but who has a track record of ramrodding pathetic computer-illiterate intellectuals back to functioning status. I think he has a trusted techie. But I'm not optimistic, and it'll probably cost me.
Damn damn damn damn damn. Would Sheikh Rattolo be able to help even if he lived next door? I doubt it.
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Annoying innit. Desktops would be fairly easy, the parts are easy to replace and are readily available. Any kind of portable is a nightmare, and usually fairly costly, as often a whole motherboard is required for whatever component has gone.
It could be something as simple as re-seating memory might fix it. Even if they do get it working I'd be starting to save for a replacement as, unless they actually find something faulty, there is no telling when the problem might come up again. It does sound to me like something other than the disk itself, so hopefully your data is safe.
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>> Annoying innit. Desktops would be fairly easy,
If I were engaged in an urgent long piece of work and being hassled to hurry it would be a lot worse than annoying.
I am indeed toying with the idea of a desktop - they're cheaper too - and later a pc laptop to go with it. I've got an old desktop but I don't know where all its cables are and it too was misbehaving a bit before we moved here and I stopped using it.
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Just make sure it's not something silly like the vents have got all fluffed up with dust and crud, leading to overheating. I think Rattle posted once about someone bringing him a machine in a similar state, and it turned out she often used it resting on a blanket in bed, hence filling with fluff.
I'd give it a good puff in the vents, or run a hoover over the outside on low suction, if that can be achieved. If that failed, I'd run it with a desk fan blowing at it - if it keeps running then it's an overheat. Probably won't work but costs nothing to find out.
And of course, now is your last chance to get stuff backed up if you can and haven't. Take it as a warning.
Edit - now seen it won't boot, so perhaps too late. Will it boot with a CD?
Last edited by: Crankcase on Tue 2 Oct 12 at 16:24
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Arrange for it to suffer an accidental accident, then claim for it on your contents ins!
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>> now seen it won't boot, so perhaps too late. Will it boot with a CD?
How would I know? lost the CD ages ago.
My first proper desktop melted its brain when the cooling fan got so gunged up with dust and tobacco tar that it stopped working. But the Macbook doesn't seem to have any vents, apart from a long slot concealed under the hinge. Anyway I've vacuumed the keyboard (on maximum suck though, why mess around?) to no avail.
It still whirrs very quietly so I think the disk is running at least.
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One of my Dell laptop work cheapies locked out last week and started doing all manner of funnies on the screen. Turned out a fan has packed up and it was simply overheating.
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I'll try to help when I'm back in the UK. But I'm not back until Monday.
I'm sure it's software and fixable. What version of Mac OSX are you on and can you list some of the things you're doing when it hangs.
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I thought Macs don't crash because they are better than PCs :-)
Have you tried booting it with Linux via DVD/USB drives? At least then you can copy your data (assuming hard disk is fine).
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AC,
When you say it crashed, can you describe what it actually did and what you saw?
You say it won't boot. What actually happens, or what can you see or hear?
Assuming that you will have a prod yourself.
If you prefer not, then its worth dropping by a Apple Store and showing it to them. They will usually at least look at it before charging you money.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Wed 3 Oct 12 at 14:12
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Well, I took it to my friend in London. He began by scolding me about its filthy state and swabbing it down disdainfully removing two years' worth of my blood, sweat and DNA. Then he plugged a big fat external hard drive into it and muttered and crooned for about an hour. All along he was scolding me about its filthy state, but he soon had a screen showing and did stuff with lists of files and so on for a couple of hours more. He kept asking me i I used various programs and when I said no deleted them. Late in the process, when he had reconstructed the thing enough for it to work on its own, and was tidying it up, he gave me another severe scolding about my desktop and its hideous heaps of redundant documents. Just like my real desktop (a whole dining table's worth of mingled documents and rubbish), I said.
Wordlessly he indicated his spotless desk and dining table. Took him three or four hours. He said he didn't charge people like me but if the HD had been jiggered he would have charged 400 smackers to recover the data.
I liked him anyway but now I love him.
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Macbook pro crashed - smokie
