MacBook help needed

[Tradd]

I have a MacBook (little more than 3 years old running Snow Leopard). I've recently started having an issue I don't know how to solve.

I would often not shut it off for days at a time, I would just close it and it would sleep.

I will go to click on an icon on my desktop and I just get a "sound." The document would not open. When I try to empty the trash, the pop-up menu with "Do you really want to trash everything" would not respond when I hit the YES button.

So, I go to shut down my computer, using command from drop down menu. Nothing happens. I even let it go the minute without doing anything that will shut it down. Nothing. I finally have to shut it down by pressing down on the power button until computer shuts down.

Last night desktop icons/trying to shut down weren't responsive even after the MacBook had been shut down and then restarted.

I've been getting the spinning beachball a lot lately, and I'm going to add more memory, but that has to wait for a few weeks.

Any ideas on the desktop icons/buttons not responding?

I'm not running any funky software, I still have plenty of hard disk space left, etc.

BTW, I was talking about starting a photography side business in another post. I decided not to do that for various reasons. Will still shoot friends' weddings, kids' baptisms, and such for fun, but nothing more.


Thanks!

[Alan]

I haven't had that much experience with a Mac, but I do know that if you're getting the Spinning Beach Ball Of Death, otherwise known as SBBOD, there is usually some sort of intensive processing activity going on in the background and relatively minor tasks end up in a processing queue awaiting resources to become available.

If I were to venture a guess about what specifically causes it, I'd say that your hard drive is on the verge of failure or is having trouble coming out of sleep mode, and the operating system is working extra hard trying to read/write from it.

Try running the Apple Hardware Test and see what it tells you. http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/aht.html

[puglogic]

Tradd, take a look at this article and the things it suggests:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10330118-263.html

I've heard of things like this happening with MacBooks and it sometimes means the logic board is going bad, but before assuming the worst, maybe follow their directions to try these resetting things first. AND what Alan suggests

[Tradd]

Thanks. I also just found some things where people relaunched the Finder and things were fine. So will try all tonifht. No other issues that indicate hard drive failure.

[SoSimple]

Thanks. I also just found some things where people relaunched the Finder and things were fine. So will try all tonifht. No other issues that indicate hard drive failure.

The problem with hard drive failure is that sometimes there are NO other issues that warn you it's imminent. Back up everything, just in case.

[Tradd]

Everything backed up. All pics on Picasa and some on Flickr. CDs of pics, too. Did Time Machine back up to external drive last night. Just need to put some docs on CD and Google Docs.

[H-work]

Make sure your back ups are current
Check the Apple Menu: About This Mac: to see your installed ram, make sure it's showing all that you have installed
Do the hardware check Alan linked
Reset the PRAM and PMU (link puglogic posted)
Check your hard drive with Disk Utility (In the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder)
Make sure all system updates are installed (Apple Menu: System Update)

I'm guessing it's a PMU issue, if the problem is only happening when you wake from sleep. If it happens alllllll the time and you can't do anything with it, then it's more serious.

: (

[Tradd]

That reminds me to ask - is it better to do full system backup or just specific things like documents, pictures, music library?

[SoSimple]

I only have PCs but I go with data (documents, pictures, music, etc.) and any software I've downloaded (which always lives in a specific folder on my hard drive anyway). Software with media (e.g. MS Office) I don't bother backing up, obviously. If you needed to be up and running very quickly, the fastest restore is with a full image + differential (i.e. a full system backup, plus whatever you changed since you last did that backup), but for most home users that's overkill. I could get back up and running within four hours or less, assuming I restored all my data and was restoring to the same machine built from scratch. But I have a second machine at all times, so can actually be back up and running far faster if I just restore that data I need right then and there.

Above is a long way of saying "it depends". I like to take an image of my basic machine once essentials are loaded and then backup data as described above for an intermediate kind of set up. I still have to restore software I've downloaded after donig the image, but I like to keep the image fairly lean and download what I need afresh if disaster strikes.

[Alan]

Above is a long way of saying "it depends".

Agreed. A current, full system backup can be very helpful to restore the same machine, but may not for a new machine due to differences in hardware. As a rule, I don't bother with and backup data only.