Display issues, system failures, lock ups- oh my!

Question

Hi all,
For the last few months I've begun to experience significant issues with my Macbook Pro. I got it back in early 2006, so I believe it's one of the original models. Specs below:
Model Name: MacBook Pro 15"
Model Identifier: MacBookPro1,1
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed: 1.83 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 2 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP11.0055.B08
SMC Version (system): 1.2f10
Graphics...
ATI Radeon X1600:
Chipset Model: ATY,RadeonX1600
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 128 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x71c5
Revision ID: 0x0000
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.068
Displays:
BenQ E2200HD:
Resolution: 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz
Depth: 32-Bit Color
Core Image: Hardware Accelerated
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Rotation: Supported
Current Software info:
System Version: Mac OS X 10.5.7 (9J61)
Kernel Version: Darwin 9.7.0
Boot Volume: Macintosh HD
Boot Mode: Normal
So, to explain my issues... I have experienced the following:
*Temporary lockups involving a "beach ball of death" spinning for maybe 5-10 seconds, then going back to normal.
*Much longer lockups with the spinny ball that can only be solved by the computer's lid being shut, waiting for sleep, and then re-opening it.
*Lockups you simply don't recover from- the screen getting "messy" with artefacts and scrambled images, bits of random colours, and no movement at all. These I have to restart the laptop physically to recover from.
As time has gone on in the past few months, these are getting worse and worse. I thought it was overheating, but the temperatures seem okay and I have a laptop cooling pad for it. Then there's the completely random screen tearing and artefacts that seem to be happening; Safari, iTunes, Football Manager 2008, Firefox, Seashore... all these apps that I use on a consistent basis appear to discolour, tear, introduce horizontal lines across the screen, and just generally completely @#$% up the look of the desktop. What's going on there? :S It almost seems like it could be a graphics card issue, but that's why I'm asking here I suppose.
The issues are getting more frequent, and it's a bit disappointing because, while I imagined that I would get a new laptop one day, I was under the impression macs had a good staying power and I could at least keep it working as a backup at home or give it to my brother. Now it appears that this one might have a terminal problem, be out of warranty, and thus most expensive to fix. Or is it?
Anyone have an idea what I might be experiencing here?

Answer 1

A failing hard drive can cause all sorts of problems by operating erratically. Your first priority should be to be sure you have a good backup of your data on an external drive, just in case the drive fails completely. Otherwise data recovery could be very expensive.
You might try booting from your install disc to the Apple Hardware test. This will take the hard drive out of the equation, and you can see if the video problems persist, even when booted from a disc. Run the extended version of the Apple Hardware test and see if you get any error codes. If so, post back with them.
While booted from the install disc, you can also navigate to Disk Utility from the menu bar, select your drive, and see if you can repair it. Since it is failing physically, repairing the software part will not actually fix it, but it might make it work better temporarily.
Replacing your hard drive is worth doing if there are no other serious problems with your Mac. You can upgrade to a faster and bigger drive--up to 500 GB's if you like. However, you do want to be sure that you don't have any logic board problems first.
One thing you could consider doing is getting an external drive, preferably FireWire, and installing the OS on it with your installation discs. Then you could boot from the external and see how the display behaves when booted from a new drive. That would give you a good idea of how your Mac would run if you replaced the drive.
Normally I would suggest making a bootable clone of your internal drive using a cloning utility like Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner:
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
Either one can be downloaded and run for free. If you want to free up the more useful features of Super Duper, you can register a copy for about US $28. CCC is donation ware.
You could still use one of these to make a clone of your internal drive as a back up, but keep in mind there may be some corruption from the failing hard drive which would just get cloned. But these utilities are great for backing up a good drive.
Good luck!