Emac random lock-up / freeze

It seems there's a handful of threads on this... although i'm not 100% sure i've got the same.
Basically, emac works quite happily, then - usually when you come back after having a short break - it's locked up, screen static, no movable cursor, mouse has lights, keyboard has lights (capslock on/off), fans are (as always) on. Need to hold power button & restart it.
[it's a 1ghz g4, with 1gb memory, running 10.3.9, all relevant s/w updates done. bought just when 1ghz emac came out (mid 2003?) with 10.2 on it, and I bought 10.3, never had a a full reinstall]
Thought it was screensaver (now off), maybe firefox 2 (now not used), maybe word/excel (mostly off). Got a HP LaserJet 2600n recently (connected via IP/router, not USB), drivers up to date (1.3.0 Jan 2007). Going off software issues. It does it for me and my wife; seperate logins & startup items (although nothing crazy - smartdisk reports nowt). Onyx has done it's housekeeping regularly. 10-12Gb free disk.
Very occasionally, on boot, it'll have a disk/folder icon with a ? - like it can't find boot disk. Power off, on, then it's ok and boots.
Tried hardware CD - all ok. Did repair disk - found 1 error, fixed.
My thoughts:
3rd party software - perhaps not? [no consistency]
os - mmmm maybe [~5 years of cruft and needs it]
hardware - may check capacitor issue later
disk - could be on the way out? [re startup issues, but nothing SMART]
Any ideas? What next? I'm loathe to reinstall, but desperate times an' all. Reset PMU / PRAM?

Well, Nobody has even welcomed you to Apple Discussions! Welcome!
You haven't said that you have repaired permissions (using Disk Utility). Have you? If not, do so.
Some explanation. Permissions often become corrupted when new software or software updates are done, especially with 3rd-party software. This can cause various faults in the operation of the computer.
Most experienced Mac users recommend that you always repair permissions after each software instal/update and many recommend doing so before instals/updates as this can help the reliability of the installer.
Personally I would update the OS to either Tiger or Leopard. Both should drive your eMac quite well. The new OS will give a fresh installation and probably resolve your problems. If you don't want to do this you can do an 'Archive & Instal' using your 10.3. This wil keep all your personal files and other software. However, it is recommended that you have as much as possible backed up on a separate drive first. I've only once had to rescue personal files and that was when a hard drive was in the process of failing. Others have been less fortunate!
Other suggestions:
1) Restart holding the P, R, Option & Apple keys until your hear at least 2 chimes then release the buttons. This resets PRAM which holds various temporary information but it can become corrupted. You may have to redo some settings afterwards - time, etc.
2) Replace the internal battery but it's probably OK if your Mac is keeping correct time.
3) There is a power management unit, PMU, which can also be reset but I don't remember the steps for the eMac. They are in the Apple online support articles. This sometimes resolves various problems.
Let's know how you get on.
Neville

Similar Messages

Re: Satellite P300-161 - Random Lock-ups/Freezing

Hi all,
I've had my Toshiba Satellite P300-161 laptop for roughly about 6 months now. However, during the past month or so.. I've been experiencing random freezing of the whole laptop.
It usually just starts off at anytime.. then it'll have a break then start freezing again. When it freezes, it lasts for about 10-15 seconds and everything goes to "Not Responding". Even Ctrl + Alt + Del doesn't load up the task manager until after the freezing stops. However, I've discovered that when it's in its "freeze" mode, where the applications are not responding, I can give the laptop a gentle tap with my hand on the open space area to the right of the touchpad... and it unfreezes.... Surely this is a bad thing.
I plan to take this back to where I purchased it from and have it sent off to Toshiba to get it fixed as I have a 2 year warranty with them IF I can't get help from here.
Much help needed.
Thanks in advance,
Benny Fung.

Hi.
Thanks for your reply.
Yeah, it's currently running on Vista SP1. I have reinstalled Vista _once_ for this laptop, perhaps I should reinstall it again before I take it back to John Lewis just to make sure...
I don't think it's overheating, as it can do it at anytime.. for instance, I could just be running Firefox and Messesnger and it still does it and with 3GB of RAM and 2.1Ghz, it should be able to perform simple tasks like that without overheating.
Hmm, What's this air spray cleaner thing you're talking about? How does it work?
Thanks.

Lab Full of Emac Randomly Freezing

Since school year has started back. I have a lab of emacs randomly freezing. Does not appear to be applications specific happens randomly in any app. Have done clean install with no help. Some will freeze as a window starts to open with video breakup lines. Other just freeze completely NO distorted video & NO spinning wheel just frozen until you hold powerbutton and restart.
Thanks in advance

cadecruickshank,
You're in for a world of pain... we single users think we have it bad... [sorry - that's not helpful]
Just hazarding a guess - 1.25Ghz eMacs purchased mid 04-05?
Time to check them out for bad capacitors, which are covered under Apple's Repair Program:
http://www.apple.com/au/support/emac/repairextensionprogram/
To do this, open the inspection hatch and check out the 2 capacitors on the right hand side. If they look like a can of coke after it's been left in the freezer overnight - you have the problem.
Some people are experiencing delays in repair time due to a supply issue in obtaining a new logic board... I'm assuming Apple have had to either destroy or replace the caps on their stockpile of eMac 1.25Ghz logic boards (or else they'd just be giving you another logic board that will go bad in 18 months time).
So that's where the pain comes in... Check for bad caps, get on the phone to Apple and see what they say...

K8N Neo4 Platinum random lock-ups and BSOD

I built a new PC about 3 months ago and from day 1 it has always locked up / frozen at random intervals. Sometimes it also BSOD's with a Machine Check Exception. Seems to lock up / freeze more often when have multifple windows open eg. Multiple IE running but really is random. I have replaced the Mobo and Ram but keep having the same issues. Have tried a clean install but no luck either. Did a clean install on an old IDE HDD and seemed fine but it did not have all of the software that I run on the SATA drive. Thinking the SATA drive may be the issue? Please Help!!!
System is as follows:
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum [Bios 1.D]
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ DC [AMD Drivers]
2 x Kingston 1024Mb ram [Dual Channel]
Nvidia 6800 Ultra [Latest Drivers 91.31]
Thermaltake Purepower 460W PSU +3.3V 30A, +5V 30A +12V 15A
Western Digital 200G SATA II HDD [SATA Port 5 i think]
1 x LG DVD +-R/RW [IDE Master] IDE port closest to edge of Mobo
1 x LG CDR/RW [IDE Slave]
MS XP Home SP2

Quote from: davePC on 09-August-06, 09:06:44
Did a clean install on an old IDE HDD and seemed fine but it did not have all of the software that I run on the SATA drive. Thinking the SATA drive may be the issue? Please Help!!!
Seemed fine?
There isn't really be any difference between an IDE drive and a sata.
Except that the sata drive needs some drivers as your installing the os.
Check your ram timings in bios but likely it's your psu.
Which components are on which rail?
The ones that use the +12v are your cpu,cdrom,dvdrom and graphics card.
Try disconnecting both roms and see if it improves things?

P6N-SLI-FI Random Lock-ups

Hi,
New build listed below. Works great 99% of the time. The only issue I have is infrequent random lock-ups. The lock-ups occur either during windows start-up, or randomly while doing some non-stressing task (like web browsing or word processing). Currently at 2.4GHz, but have had it higher. I lowered it to 2.4 to see if it made any difference, but it seems about the same.
Since "lock-up" can mean a lot of different things I will describe it. The screen freezes totally. Does not respond to any input (CTR-ALT-DEL) etc. It often seems to occur in the middle of HDD access, and the HDD light stays on continuously. Hard reset is required to fix.
It has not locked up during a game, burning or transcoding a DVD or when running any stress tests. It happens VERY INFREQUENTLY (I just had my first one in about a week) and is not repeatable. The only other bit of info I can come up with is that is seems that it usually occurs during HDD access, and the HDD light is stuck on.
I almost wish I had the problem more often. If I had this problem regularly I would feel pretty comfortable troubleshooting, but as it is I could spend a lot of time changing things around and "think" I fixed it only to have it come back a week later.
My thoughts are either a RAM issue or my PSU. Thoughts?

Quote from: JoeFriday on 20-March-07, 12:18:23
Hi,
New build listed below. Works great 99% of the time. The only issue I have is infrequent random lock-ups. The lock-ups occur either during windows start-up, or randomly while doing some non-stressing task (like web browsing or word processing). Currently at 2.4GHz, but have had it higher. I lowered it to 2.4 to see if it made any difference, but it seems about the same.
Since "lock-up" can mean a lot of different things I will describe it. The screen freezes totally. Does not respond to any input (CTR-ALT-DEL) etc. It often seems to occur in the middle of HDD access, and the HDD light stays on continuously. Hard reset is required to fix.
It has not locked up during a game, burning or transcoding a DVD or when running any stress tests. It happens VERY INFREQUENTLY (I just had my first one in about a week) and is not repeatable. The only other bit of info I can come up with is that is seems that it usually occurs during HDD access, and the HDD light is stuck on.
I almost wish I had the problem more often. If I had this problem regularly I would feel pretty comfortable troubleshooting, but as it is I could spend a lot of time changing things around and "think" I fixed it only to have it come back a week later.
My thoughts are either a RAM issue or my PSU. Thoughts?
Do you have all the necessary options for overclocking disabled, C1E, EIST, all the spread spectrums. Also what are your cpu voltage and NB voltage set at...those two seem to have the most effect on system stability when ocing. Also what are your memory settings... I have your same memory and it refuses to work at anything but its advertised setting (800mhz at 4-4-4-15)

Windows 7 randomly locks up on T60

I have had this T60 for over a year. It came with a clean install with Windows 7 Professional. Over the last 3 weeks it has started locking up randomly.
Powering off/on seems the only way to bring it back.
I've been getting the family to tell we when it happens and what they were doing at the time. No patterns. It happens when they're browsing or using MS Outlook or playing games. At its worst one might only get a few minutes before it happens.
Mr. Google offered some solutions:
update BIOS
scan for adware, malware, and viruses
make sure all devices in device manager
run a registry cleaner utility
run ThinkPad system update
check if graphics drivers up to date
Run Microsoft memory diagnostics test.
Updating the BIOS seemed to solve things for 2-3 days and then the lock ups came back.
So did running ThinkPad System update, but eventually they came back after a day or two.
There were no ATI graphics drivers for the T60 and Windows 7
Currently the machine is locking up about twice a day and it is being used intermittently for about 2 hours each day.
I'd do a clean install but I don't have the Win 7 discs and there is no recovery partition as this is not the original HDD.
Any help greatly appreciated.
T60 Tablet; T60 Widescreen; T60; T40; 701C; 3 x Apple Newton MP2100; 2 x HP 200LX
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Fredie5 wrote:
i had similar issues of Windows 7 locking and freezing. Researchng on the issue, i found this could be because of registry errors. An article, ascribing solution to this issue, suggested Registry Recycler to repair and defrag registry, helped me breaking the locks. Got my system performance revived !!
Thanks for the heads up Fredie5, great little program!
My older Toshiba laptop started to lock and freeze for no apparent reason. Windows logs and events showed no indication of the problem and the lock/freeze occurred at random times with no pattern. I ran across your posting and decided to give Registry Recycler a try. Bingo, problem solved! My best guess is that a few weeks earlier I had been trying out different drivers as well as a couple of software applications. Remnants left behind by their uninstall was most likely the culprit. Thanks again !
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Solved\ Random lockups/system freezes AMD 6850 crossfire mode

Hello all,
I have come to these forums because i have a problem for 4 months now and i cant seem to figure out.
First my systemspecs:
Asrock X79 extreme 4 slot 2011 (Bios version 2.0 (latest))
Intel i7 3820
16 Gig Geil 1600 DDR 3 memory (4 dimms)
2 x MSI R6850 Cyclone Power Edition/OC (crossfire mode with bridge)
1 x OCZ agility 3 SATA III 2.5" SSD 120GB (System drive)
2 x Samsung HDD 500GB 7200rpm
TG600-BZ 600 Watt maxx 24 amps
Running Windows 7 64bit
Catalyst 12.6
12.7 CAP1
So my problem:
When i have 2 cards inserted in crossfire mode my system goes true random lock ups and freezes. Up to several times a day.
While heavy load and gaming i sometime hear the system hang for a few seconds (sounds hangs system freezez) and then it continues to run.. usually that happens about 5-6 times before the system hangs locks up and does not respond anymore.. (i can hear the sounds hanging) and have to do a reset.
I had a few BSOD's getting the well know ATIKMPAG.sys error but that happen only twice.
Funny thing is that it does not always does this while under heavy load but also while doing YouTube video's.. even had one while cooking dinner.. (computer not in use).
Seems to be completely random.
So what have i done to fix the problem:
I have done a complete clean install of windows 7 only running basic drivers and hardware.. problem persists
Check system event log on any problems but since it does sudden lockups there are no logs of these hardware events.
Did a check on my power saving options in windows.. made sure all were on performance.
I have run true Catalyst 12.1 to 12.6 and all kinds of cap's.. problem persists
Checked temp, does not come above 70 degrees Celsius. (case temp not above 30)
Made sure i run the latest BIOS version of my motherboard.
Run a 24 hours memory test with memtest86+ no errors.
Did a heavy load and MSI burn in test on the single cards separately from each other continues to run perfectly.
I have run both cards separately from each other in my system (single card mode) for 2 weeks...(both PCIE slots) system runs like a charm.. no lockups no random freezes.
So i hope anyone can help me, i have some experience troubleshooting computer problems but this one has me baffled.
TheAbeL

Quote from: TheAbel on 19-July-12, 14:19:47
This is indeed the Tagan piperock 600 watt. Problem is that i have no idea how much amp my cards are pulling from 1 rail.. are they trying to pull it all from 1 rail? or are they getting power from 2 different rails. If my crossfire setup is pulling al his power from 1 rail i still have a problem..
Also i read in the review (my german is rusty but ok, tnx xmad) that when turbo mode is enabled that all rails work as one rail.. so 80 amp is available? Is this even possibly?
My new PSU will arrive today so i will report tomorrow if it has solved the issue or not.
No, as noted in my last reply for your PSU: "48A combined total for +12V rails". Max for any individual 12V rail is 20A. If three of the rails are loaded to total of 48A then the 4th is useless. You can't just add up 20+20+20+20 & come up with 80, it doesn't work that way on PSU although Antec seems to think so.

IPhone 5 screen is flickering randomly, the phone freezes and the screen turns black.

I bought an iPhone 5 in New York last December. Now I live in Bogotá, Colombia and I can't find an authorized service center because they said that only if I bought it from a local carrier they attend the warranty.
My iPhone 5 screen is flickering randomly, the phone freezes and the screen turns black… The only way to make it work is to reboot with Home and Lock buttons pressed at the same time. But in the process most of the times it flickers again, and again, and again. I couldn't find a reason to identify what could be causing the issue. Also sometimes when it freezes, some group applications get ungrouped, causing a big mess.
I already tried to restore the phone, remove the SIM, delete all applications with no luck.
Any sugestion? Thanks!

Was this phone ever jalbroken?
If restoring as new, without using a backup, didn't help, there is certainly a hardware problem that only replacement can fix. Your warranty is void unless you return to the USA. Short of that, finding a local independent iPhone repair center would be your only option

IPad 3rd Gen iOS 7.1.1 - screen randomly locking and more!

Okay, since just this morning, my iPad has been randomly locking. It worked fine last night. Also the home button stops working half the time and occasionally my iPad kind of freezes then captures the screen when I try pressing the lock button. And occasionally after it hasn't locked itself in a while, it will come up with the shutting down screen..
None of my apps have updated for weeks, I haven't edited any settings and I haven't downloaded any new apps. I've tried turning it off and back on, rebooting and resetting all settings (I haven't tried wiping all data because it hasn't been updated since December..)
Please help! Is it my lock button playing up? Maybe a software bug that took a while to surface? Or did one of my games update without me knowing and cause all this?

Swingflaps-
One thing you can try is to reset (reboot) your iPad. Hold both the Home and Sleep buttons for several seconds until the Apple logo appears. Ignore the "Slide to power off" arrow. The iPad will restart after a couple of minutes. Resetting this way will not hurt anything, and sometimes clears up mysterious problems.
Fred

Random Lock ups

I'm using K9N2-SLI plat with Bios 3.5, AMD64 X2 6400+ Black Ed., 4GB ram (2x2GB Cas 4-4-4-12 T2 matched set), XFX 8800GTS(92) 512, Corsair TX650, Artic Cooler Freezer64 CPU H/S running Vista64 Home Premium Sp2. I'm having random lock-ups during 3D games. Sometimes it locks up after 30 mins in game or sometimes it locks up after days of playing, I can't get it to reproduce the lock up at will. I have read alot of post about this motherboard and it seems it comes down to power supply. I had a New Apevia Beast 2 rail system but after reading the posts I returned it for new Corsair TX650. At full load CPU cores never go above 47c and Idles around 30-31. Ran mem test over night with no errors. Did notice in Mem Test it stated Ram was set at Cas 4-5-5-18 T2. I went to BIOS and set the mem for Volt 2.0 Cas 4-4-4-12 T2. This did reduce the lock-ups to the point I thought I had it fixed. Than today I locked up twice. When it locks up computer becomes unresponsive last sound repeats for few seconds and the only way to resume is to press restart button. I have tried with Cool n'quite on and off, DOT is never been on. Computer runs fine in 2d operations. It's only when I go into 3d games. Video Card has been tested in other machine and is working fine. My game sometime requires me to stay logged in over night to Sell goods. Every morning this last week computer has froze sometime during the night. Crysis plays fine for hours, It seems it happens in not so demanding games, Aion, Knight Online and Wow. All power plugs are plugged, fresh install of Vista, Newest drivers from web site, Bios update via the Forum USB key app. Would really like a reliable computer. What am I missing? Let me know if you need any other info.

OK I ran single stick and it locked up quicker. I went to BIOS used optimized defaults with only changing the volts to 2.0. and it locked up again. It's lockups seem longer if I change mem setting to 4-4-4-12 T2. I used CPU Z and noticed few things.
The memory report from CPU-Z:
DIMM #            1
   SMBus address      0x50
   Memory type      DDR2
   Module format      Regular UDIMM
   Manufacturer (ID)   A-Data Technology (7F7F7F7FCB000000)
   Size         2048 MBytes
   Max bandwidth      PC2-6400 (400 MHz)
   Part number      EXTREME DDR2 800+
   Number of banks      2
   Data width      64 bits
   Correction      None
   Nominal Voltage      1.80 Volts
   EPP         yes (2 profiles)
   XMP         no
JEDEC timings table      CL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS-tRC @ frequency
   JEDEC #1      3.0-3-3-9-12 @ 200 MHz
   JEDEC #2      4.0-4-4-12-16 @ 266 MHz
   JEDEC #3      5.0-5-5-18-23 @ 400 MHz
EPP timings table      CL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS-tRC-CR @ frequency (voltage)
   EPP profile #1 (full)   4.0-4-4-12-22-2T @ 400 MHz (2.000 Volts)
   EPP profile #2 (full)   4.0-4-4-11-20-2T @ 400 MHz (2.000 Volts)
since I was using EPP profile 1 I noticed that motherboard is running my memory at 4-4-4-12-24(EPP profile shows should be 22)-2T. Should I change to match memory? or should I try JEDEC #3 @ 400MHZ
Next thing I noticed was The chipset is stated as 740a not the 750a
Chipset
Northbridge      NVIDIA nForce 740a SLI rev. A2
Southbridge      NVIDIA nForce 740a SLI MCP rev. A2
Graphic Interface      PCI-Express
PCI-E Link Width      x16
PCI-E Max Link Width   x16
Memory Type      DDR2
Memory Size      4096 MBytes
Channels         Dual
Memory Frequency        400.0 MHz (CPU/7)
CAS# latency (CL)        4.0
RAS# to CAS# delay (tRCD)   4
RAS# Precharge (tRP) 4
Cycle Time (tRAS)        12
Bank Cycle Time (tRC) 24
Command Rate (CR)        2T
I've tried loser setting 5-5-5-18 and still locks up.

[SOLVED (in kernel 3.8.8)] Random complete system freezes

I have installed Arch Linux on my desktop, however I am getting random complete system freezes when I use either GNOME Shell or KDE 4 when using OpenGL compositing. I have resorted to using Xfce (which uses Xrender for compositing).
Sometimes the system freezes immediately upon login.
Sometimes GNOME Shell says "Oh no! Something has gone wrong. A problem has occurred and the system can't recover. Please log out and try again." and forces me out.
Sometimes the system works fine for an hour or so before it freezes.
Sometimes the driver appears to have crashed but then recovers (screen goes blank for a second and windows/decorations are redrawn, then works fine until it completely freezes again).
I am using the xf86-video-ati driver with a ATI Radeon HD 3850. I suspect the problem is with the video driver and/or kernel.
I have tried:
- Using Alt+SysRq+? keystrokes after adding kernel.syseq=1 to /etc/sysctl.conf (system doesn't respond at all once frozen)
- Keeping an SSH connection open (SSH client says "host down" once the computer is frozen)
- Doing a memtest (ran for 11 hours with no problems)
- Redownloading and reinstalling all packages from a different mirror (no improvement)
- Disabling KMS (GNOME Shell runs very slow, at wrong resolution, and the resolution settings doesn't give me the option of the correct resolution)
- Adding radeon.agpmode=-1 to my kernel parmaters (no improvement)
- Edit: Also I tried installing linux-lts (GDM and GNOME Shell graphics ends up all broken)
I was previously using Fedora 17 with the open source driver without any problems.
dmesg: http://pastie.org/private/z3c793diqvujvtzjecxr4q
pacman -Q: http://pastie.org/private/jy8a5fpsxidkkg2dheyq
/var/log/Xorg.0.log: http://pastebin.com/NaXiA6q9
/var/log/Xorg.0.log.old: http://pastebin.com/MPKGrLSV
uname -a: http://pastie.org/private/lqp73mj3bztdzptcisxt4g
lspci: http://pastie.org/private/ziiazawut1gfpwxjviova
What should I try next to help troubleshoot this problem?
Thanks
Last edited by jesseschalken (2013-04-23 04:56:46)

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Do … g_Packages

My iPhoto 11, V 9.4.2, locks up/freezes when I attempt to empty the iPhoto trash bin. Originally, I thought it was due to 800 files in the trash, however, I removed ALL but 5 photos from the trash and it continues to lock up.

My iPhoto 11, V 9.4.2, locks up/freezes when I attempt to empty the iPhoto trash bin.
Originally, I thought it was due to 800+ files in the trash, however, I removed all but 5 photo files from the trash and it continues to lock up. Inititally the "progress" bar would get to about 1/2 way and then it would stop and stall. However, now the progress bar no longer shows a progress line it immediately freezes and locks up. Can anyone help?

You may have damaged the library - Back up your iPhoto library, Depress and hold the option (alt) and command keys and launch iPhoto - rebuild your iPhoto library
LN

Random mouse pointer freezes

On my PPC dual 2.7 running latest Leopard 10.5.2, I have started experiencing random mouse pointer freezes. The freezes last about 10 seconds or so, then all goes back to normal. This happens maybe 10 times a day.
I cannot correlate this to any recent updates or installations. I have repaired permissions and zapped PRAM. My PPC is on 24/7 so all automatic maintenance routines run when they should.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Jeff

Are you using Time Machine or .Mac Synchronizing? Those automatically run about once an hour and can temporarily slow the computer function.
Open Activity Monitor from the Finder menu, Go/Utilities, Activity Monitor. When the cursor movement slows, look at what application is using the most CPU.
You might also want to restart the computer once every day (or night). You can use the System Preferences Energy Saver to set it up to automatically restart when you are not likely to be using the computer, like 3 AM. The restart does a bunch of system checks and resets things to improve function.

Computer randomly locks up when firewire drives are connected?

Here's what I have:
- 2011 27" iMac i7
- 2011 15" MacBook Pro i7
I recently replaced all of my USB hard drives with Firewire drives, mostly as a speed and simplification measure. Under USB, I had to have a series of hubs which seemed to slow things down pretty dramatically, as well as cause a lot of weird behavior, like randomly ejecting. And, of course, there was the inevitable birds nest of wires. So, since there was no way to add USB ports to the iMac, except for hubs, I decided to move FireWire and daisy chain them.
This was all connected to a dedicated iMac workstation, the MacBook was never connected to the drives.
The drives were added a few days before a complete system overhaul was done. The system had been acting funny. We're little things here and there (finder often had to be relaunched after a restart, wifi was not able to automatically connect, etc.), and the system was starting to lock up on a somewhat regular basis. So, Lion was installed fresh and nothing was restored from Time Machine except for a few applications here and there (nothing system related). Once the system was all freshly installed, the little quirks were gone, but the random locking up was not. And it was getting worse.
So, I did some of the trouble shooting I had done in the past; created a new user, repaired permissions, repaired the disk, etc. It wasn't fixing anything, just getting worse. I finally did an extended Apple Hardware Test and got the error: 4M0T/4/40000003: HDD-1285
I couldn't find anything on the web about it. So I called AppleCare, they didn't know what it was either. So I took the computer into the Apple Store. They eventually got back to me saying the hard drive and the fan had failed and that they were in the process of fixing it.
However, in the mean time, I moved the MacBook Pro over to the workstation where the iMac had been. Low and behold, within a few hours, I was seeing exactly the same symptoms I'd seen on the iMac. If the Firewire drives were plugged in, the computer would randomly lock up, and again, not even necessarily when the drives were reading or writing. It appears to be completely random. Sometimes specific applications will lock up, like Mail, VLC or System Preferences. Force quitting the application has no effect. The window won't disappear, even if I attempt to log out or shut the computer down. The screen will change to the grey background, but the window will never go away. It'll just sit there with the pin wheel forever. The only option at this point is to force the system to shut down with the power button.
This only happens when Firewire is connected.
I've tried swapping out the cable with no luck, the same problem is true. I have five drives daisy chained like this:
WD MyBook 2TB --> WD MyBook 2TB --> WD MyBook 2TB --> LaCie d2 Quadra v3 2TB --> LaCie d2 Quadra v3 2TB
Now, admittedly, I have never daisy chained, so I don't know if I've made some bad mojo for myself by my device order, or by mixing brands or something, or if it's even possible that maybe one of the drives is faulty and it's screwing things up for me. I just don't know, and troubleshooting is challenging becuase I can't make the problem happen, it just happenes whenever it feels like it.
I have to get this issue resolved. I could switch back to USB, but I'd hate to do that because I spent a substantial amount of money on the drives specifically to avoid using USB
Insight into this would really be appreciated.

I am having the exact same problem. Th eone difference is that on occasion, iTunes downloads my playlists yet not the associated songs in the playlist.

Mac Book Pro (4.1) Randomly Locks Up/Not Responsive to Anything

My Mac Book Pro (OSx 10.5.5) seemingly randomly locks up after ~10ish hours of being on. This started about a week ago (purchased in late February) after nothing new being installed. I'm of course never in my office to see this happen, but what I see when I come back is a computer with a black monitor, not responsive to the keyboard at all (caps lock light won't even turn on, space doesn't "wake it up", etc), and not responsive to USB devices (iphone won't charge, external keyboard doesn't do anything). The LED on the open the lid button is in a solid dimly lit state. When I attempt to close the screen the same LED is in a solid (non-blinking) state though brighter. Again, USB peripherals have no effect on the state of the machine. When I open the screen it's exactly as described above. The only solution I've found is the power button which is incredibly frustrating since a) I lost some work and b) I lost a 3 GB download in the middle for the third time now. Help??? Thanks,
Doovie

Have you run Repair Disk from Disk utilities while booted from your OS installer disk? Is your MBP set to sleep if not used while on?

Emac random lock-up / freeze

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