The Freeeze Blog

Is it OK to publish retrospectively? This is a log I've kept on my desktop since my Mac Powerbook G4 began exhibiting, at first some then all, of the same faults that it had been sent in to get repaired, beginning a few weeks after the repair. I love Macs, especially the operating system and general lack of hassle that I see Windows users struggle with. And usually they're pretty reliable. But not this one, which is itself a replacement for a previous Powerbook (first time purchase from PC World... mistake?) which died 3 times in the first few months. Maybe they're both from the same bad batch.

Anyway... (resisting the temptation to type 'Anyhoo') I thought I'd put this continuing sago out there and see if it registers anywhere. Big cut + paste...
Freezes...
Summer 06: Random... spinning beachball when cursor put in RHS menubar, Random freezes. Screen flashing and going off.
Sept 06: Repair ID: R9246218
MenuBar RHS spinning beachball
3/10/06 - 21.51
6/10/06 - 00.57
6/10/06 - 03.11. Discovered spinning beachball next morning. This was when clock stopped
10/10/06 - 23.28
+ 3 - times not noted
Seems to be when several progs running
17/10/06 - refused to wake from sleep. Again, lots of progs had been running the night before, though several were quit before putting machine to sleep.
26/10/06 - didn't go to sleep when lid closed - hard drive whirring, then stopped, but sleep light didn't come on. Had to do Force shutdown re-start.
27/10/06 - 30 seconds to fire up Word and load a small doc. Not a lot else running (Finder, Mail, Safari, Dashboard, Suitcase).
28/10/06 - 20 seconds to fire up TextEdit and load a ReadMe.txt
1/11/06 - 01.14. Put to sleep, woke up next morning, but had frozen at point of going to sleep. Had quite a few progs running. Force shutdown re-start.
2/11/06 - 00.26. Launched Classic. OS9 progs wouldn't run; force-quit Classic; then spinning beachball in Save dialog. Had to do Force shutdown re-start.
3/11/06 - 23.32 As 1/11/06 (Put to sleep, woke up next morning, but had frozen at point of going to sleep. Had quite a few progs running.)
9/11/06 - 14.50. Would not awake from sleep. Force shutdown re-start.
9/11/06 - Reported to Apple. Suggested taking out one DIMM at a time.
13/11/06 - Made in US DIMM removed (from upper slot)
15/11/06 - 15.40. Froze waking up from sleep. Force shutdown re-start.
15/11/06 - 23.55. Made in US DIMM put back in (lower slot) Singapore DIMM removed
16/11/06 - 10.00. Problem putting to sleep? Unsure if my fault for rushing it.
19-20/11/06 - Seems sluggish e.g. when moving icons on desktop, even with very few progs running and CPU monitor not showing huge activity. Is the problem with video memory or card? i.e. the display isn't coming on when waking from sleep, but everything else is.
24/11/06 - Singapore DIMM put back to get full memory for DTP jobs.
25/11/06 - 15.00. Spinning Beachball. Photoshop InDesign running.
28/11/06 - 19.15. Froze waking up from sleep. Force shutdown re-start.
29/11/06 - 17.00. Your computer needs to restart screen
1/12/06 - 09.20. Froze waking up from sleep. Force shutdown re-start.
17/12/06 - 19.00. Froze waking up from sleep. Force shutdown re-start.
21/12/06 - Mail froze and would not force-quit. Tried restart, but whole computer froze. Force shutdown re-start. As before 10 minute start-up. Lots of time on first screen with spinning wheel.
25/12/06: Spinning beachball - top right side of menubar. Clock stopped at 23.44 25th. Restart needed. Re-set Power Manager.
27/12/06: OS re-installed.
28/12/06: Spinning beachball - top right side of menubar. Started when plugging in external monitor. Finder lock-up when attempting to re-start.
30/12/06: iTunes frozen. Forcequit. But would not re-open. Needed a force shutdown to fix. Restart took ages.
3/1/07: Photoshop CS2 putting up error message ("The license configuration data for Adobe Photoshop is no longer usable") - has to be forcequit. Cannot reinstall!!
5/1/07: Problems with iMovie - camera recognised but no import. But had been OK earlier in the day. Tried restart - stuck - had to force restart. Same result - tried another restart - stuck again - had to force shutdown. Reset PRAM.
5/1/07: iMovie importing OK. Decided to use FinalCut Express instead. Would not launch from App. Icon. Tried via previous project file - spinning beachball - had to force shutdown. Reinstalled FCE OK.
Lots of firewire errors generally... external HD not appearing on desktop, or 'Device not removed properly' warning after awaking from sleep. External HD refusing to unmount...
Also... Bluetooth randomly unavailable. “EyeTV won’t work with USB 1” messages.
8/1/07: Phoned Apple - referred to AppleStore Trafford Genius Bar. She seemed to think problem was software and therefore bill-able (!!!). Recommended an Erase and Re-install.
PART TWO...
9/1/07: Backed up HD to external HD. Did erase and re-install of 10.4. Not sure what to do at 'do you have another Mac?' screen during set-up - phoned Apple. While discussing PB went to sleep. Tried to awaken it. Sleep light went off but PB would not wake - force re-start. Went through set-up again - twice got spinning beachball (2 mins on select Keyboard screen and 45 secs on a later screen) Apple Tech "95% certain" I have a hardware issue, but to make sure he asked me to run Hardware Test and then via Disk Utility do a Format and then Re-install (different apparently) of my original system disc (10.3). Hardware Test passed. PB now has 10.3 on. Can also boot into old system etc from clone on external HD - so it's see what happens time.
9/1/07: Format HD, reinstalled 10.3.7 from original system disc. Reinstalled iLife 5, iWork 5. Later in evening upgraded to 10.4 from Tiger install disc.
10/1/07: Transferred Mail data. Ran software update (10.4.8 etc). Transferred Address Book and iCal data.
11/1/07: iTunes Library copied; Movies copied; Pictures and iPhoto library copied. MSOffice Reinstalled. Safari prefs, bookmarks etc transferred. HP1510 printer software installed. AppleWorks installed. Toast 7.1 installed. Adobe Photoshop, GoLive, Illustrator, Acrobat, InDesign installed. Popcorn installed.
12/1/07: Documents copied back. SuitcaseX1 installed. Palm desktop installed. EyeTV installed.
13/1/07: Finder freeze when trying to access External HD on firewire. Solved by switching drive off/on (Device Removal message)
13/1/07: VirtualPC installed. [NB: All installs either from original discs with latest patches from web, or fresh installs from web]
14/1/07: Taking PB out: properly ejected external devices, put lid down to put to sleep, removed cables. PB HD started up again, sleep light went off. No time to investigate, put in case. When I got there took PB out, sleep light on. Opened lid, sleep light went off, but PB REFUSED TO WAKE UP. Needed force shutdown!!
15/1/07: Lexmark C522 printer software installed. FileMaker Pro 6 installed
16/1/07: Still got EyeTV USB1 problem
17/1/07: Everything getting sluggish - lots of spinning beachball (e.g. ejecting iPod, two minutes to change channel on EyeTV, Stuffit taking 60 secs to start up). Running GoLive, was running Photoshop. Plus usual Address Book, iCal etc...
19/1/07: DocumentsToGo, FruitMenu, Windowshade X, Typinator, MailSteward installed.
19/01/07: Finder freeze on logout. Had to force shutdown.
20/1/07: EyeTV taking 5 minutes to load and get a picture. 30 mins later still got spinning beachball as channel splashscreen fades. Computer has been on for a while, scanner software and Photoshop running earlier. Is there an issue with accessing memory? Restart. and reinstalled EyeTV. Still running incredibly slowly. After further restart EyeTV running OK.
21/1/07: Default Folder installed
29/1/07: Tried to wake up PB from sleep... Frozen at 27/1/07: 13.42. Unplugged firewire cable and it came on - along with Device Removal warning.
31/1/07: InDesign suddenly put up 'Out of Memory'. I tried to quit, but an 'unexpectedly quit' message came up.
On pressing Save after writing previous sentence, 10 secs of Spinning Beachball. And again after typing that sentence...
6/2/07: Shortly after wake-up from sleep. In Mail, imported attachment, clicked on 'view as icon'... spinning beachball. Defied ForceQuit. Quit other progs and tried Restart. Defied that. Had to do Force Shutdown.
8/2/07: Alt-Cmd-D to show/Hide the Dock only works while the keys are held down...
10/2/07: Cubase 4, TascamUS428 and Hercules FW16/12 drivers installed
14/2/07: Froze waking up from sleep. Sleep light went out, but nothing else happened (on previous occasions screen has come on with clock still at time of going to sleep, HD spins up). Tried unplugging firewire cable to see 29/1 solution would work. No joy. Force shutdown.
Conclusion: Not as many freezes etc, but it's still happening. I've lost a LOT of time not just in re-installing everything from scratch, but in re-creating loads and loads of preferences, settings, font sets, printers etc etc (I'd been told problem could be a corrupted Library). In normal use there seems to be an excessive amount of the 'spinning beachball' This is the busiest time of my year...
Now the display is flashing again... repeat of last summer and the initial repair?
15/2/07: Take laptop to Sheffield - display flashes and goes off - exactly the same problem as last summer. As then, no pattern, just random flashing and blank. Impossible to work. This is the busiest time of my year...!!
16/2/07: 1515: Phoned Apple... Tech Support - Customer Service - Apple Sales - Tech Support. Total: a few seconds short of 50 minutes. Line kept breaking up. TS called back: Case no. 74938330. Switched to Customer Relations - line went dead. Called back... TS, Ian - Quentin, CR, Cork. Replacement refused... has to go in for repair again. 20mins [Applecare - May 17 2007] I can get by at home with external monitor, but finding a slot when I can do without PB for several days just now will be a challenge. Still very busy. May have to wait until March.
16/2/07: Copying file - Finder locks up. Force shutdown needed.
17/2/07: Copying file - Finder locks up. Force shutdown needed. Left machine to do this - came back, in sleep mode (though light not flashing). Force shutdown again.
17/2/07: Later in day. Machine again seemingly in sleep mode (though light not flashing). Force shutdown again. Did PRAM reset and fsck on re-start.
17/2/07: And the same again. Have put Energy Saver sleep setting at Never.
19/2/07: Photoshop asked for my password... Why?
22/2/07: Lots of spinning beachball e.g. when switching back to a program. Up to 75 seconds - GoLive and Photoshop. Quit Safari - 40 secs beachball. Highlighted a few words of text in a Save dialog and pressed delete... 8 seconds beachball. This has been going on all evening.
End of Cut + Paste.
To be continued...

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