Is it software or harddrive problem?

When I boot up from my imac is seem so very slow and i have to wait for 10 mins to do something just for the imac to work because when I click the icons at the bottom it doesnt work or the names of the icons doesnt show if i wait for 10 mins it will work I did the disk utility thing and may SMART status is varified even in safe mode it is very slow to boot up even when i load the Mac os x dvd is it still slow my dad is gonna buy a hard drive but we are just gonna make sure if it is a hard drive problem

Could check the drive out with demo of SMART Utility
http://www.volitans-software.com/smart_utility.php
Free drive space is urban legend territory. You may want to have more than this on hand, but at 10-15GB free you should be just fine. It shouldn't slow to a crawl until it gets much, much closer to completely full.
Message was edited by: WZZZ

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Harddrive problem?

my iMac (24 inch, the first of the metal cased imacs, 10.5.newest update) crashed yesterday (beachball, everything frozen) and i had to hold the power button to restart it. When it came back with was just stuck at the gray screen with the little spinning thing and the apple, and it just stayed there. I tried restarting it again to the same effect.
So i popped in my 10.5 disc and booted from the disc. when i ran Disk Utility it could not verify or repair the harddrive (invalid sibling link). so i looked it up online (using my wife's imac) and booted to single user and ran 'fsck_hfs -r /dev/disk0s2' and then 'fsck -fy' Both failed.
Then i decided to erase the drive and re-install 10.5 (i had my user/app data backed up via Time Machine on an external drive). The re-install went fine. the comp restarted and made me watch the Welcome movie. Then when it takes you through the set up stuff, there was an option to use your Time Machine back up to recover your user info and data. I tried this. It froze up after about 5 minutes (there was no change for over 30 minutes and the external HD went to sleep). So i restarted and had the same thing happen again.
After another restart i just had the set up program create a new user account and i was able to get through it (the set up). Everything looked okay and i was able to run safari. Then i went to time machine to bring back my files and after about 5 minutes it froze up again (beach ball, everything else frozen). I restarted was and was back to the beginning: having to boot from the CD and getting the 'Invalid Sibling Link' error in disk utility.
Now i have an appointment at the Genius Bar tomorrow morning (i should still be under apple care). Does this sound like a harddrive problem since it couldnt be repaired after a clean install? Is there anything else i should try before taking it in tomorrow?
thanks in advance!

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Mac OS X doesn't have a "clean install" per se as this user tip explains:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=121995&tstart=0
Now your symptoms can just as easily be software as well as hardware.
To diagnose it further, you need to make sure your data is first backed up.
Several data recovery techniques exist if you need to use them first*:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
Once you are backed up, you can examine the hard drive for issues that could cause similar behavior to hardware such as those indicated on this FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/directoryfaq.html
Now if you ran the hardware test that came with your computer, you could more quickly determine if a hardware issue is easily diagnosable via these instructions:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303081
But getting no result there is no guarantee the hardware is perfect.
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

Software Related Graphics Problem

Hey Guys,
My iMac C2D 17" early 06 has been having some software related graphics problems. It hasn't occured a lot but it has happened a few times. Small black dots or bars may appear but when I click or hover over them with the mouse, they go away. So, I am thinking that it may be the hard drive because it could be misreading something that could make it not show certain pixels but I am not really sure.
Any help will be well appreciated.
Thanks

RAM Specs:
2 sticks of 512 MB PC2700 CL 2.5 Apacer RAM. I don't know if this matters but they're in DIMM slots 1 & 3.
I downloaded nForce drivers (version 5.10 as Richard suggested) and everything installed fine. However, the computer freezes whenever I'm using MSI liveupdate.
So, instead of using liveupdate I downloaded the nvidia drivers directly from Nvidia.com. During installation the screen flickered three times, and immediately after this the only thing appearing on the screen was a blinking cursor in the upper left; the computer just hung at this point.

My ipad mini is stil in warranty, but my software has some problem, if format it need to pay?

my ipad mini is stil in warranty, but my software has some problem, if format it need to pay?

Restoring the iPad can be done by the owner and doesn't involve or affect the device's warranty. It's free.
(107649)

My iPad2 went blank. Troubleshooter says driver software MTP USB problem, what do I need to do?

My iPad2 went blank. Troubleshooter says driver software MTP USB problem, what do I need to do?

iOS: Resolving update and restore alert messages
For error -50: See error 13 and 14:
Error 13 and 14: These errors are typically resolved by performing one or more of the steps listed below:
Perform USB isolation troubleshooting, including trying a different USB port directly on the computer. See the advanced steps below for USB troubleshooting.
Put a USB 2.0 hub between the device and the computer.
Try a different USB 30-pin dock-connector cable.
Eliminate third-party security software conflicts.
There may be third-party software installed that modifies your default packet size in Windows by inserting one or more TcpWindowSize entries into your registry. Your default packet size being set incorrectly can cause this error. Contact the manufacturer of the software that installed the packet-size modification for assistance. Or, follow this article by Microsoft: How to reset Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) to reset the packet size back to the default for Windows.
Connect your computer directly to your Internet source, bypassing any routers, hubs, or switches. You may need to restart your computer and modem to get online.
Try to restore from another known-good computer and network.

Tried to buy Aperture 3 and got an error message Aperture can't be installed on "Macintosh HD" because Mac OS X version 10.7.2 or later is required. You can update Mac OS X using Software Update. Problem is, I had already updated my IMac to Lion OS

Tried to buy Aperture 3 and got an error message Aperture can’t be installed on “Macintosh HD” because Mac OS X version 10.7.2 or later is required. You can update Mac OS X using Software Update. Problem is, I had already updated my IMac to Lion OS

iPhoto 9.3 requires OS X 10.7.4 now. You can use your actual version of iPhoto or upgrade to Lion (or wait to Mountain Lion)

Harddrive problem on 845PE MAX (PCB2.0)

I have a harddrive that probably is dead or something, and I get two strange sounds when the bios is trying to detect the harddrive. I wonder if these are diagnosic sounds ? In that case, what are the problem when there are these 2 sounds ? ?(
Reason I ask, is that I wonder if there is a MB problem or a harddrive problem. The bios won't detect ANY harddrives now! X(

ACIDBURN88888888,
What is your PSU, how much output for +5V?
Go to this link, it'll give you lots of help you need. http://www.msi.com.tw/program/e_service/forum/index.php?threadid=1135&boardid=16&styleid=1
All the Best... :D!!!

The built-in iSight on my iMac no longer works on Skype an camera booth. Is that a software or hardware problem. the video screen shows no picture but just horizontal line. Any suggestions?

Hello,
The built-in iSight camera stopped working for Skype and Camera booth giving each screen the same horizontal lines. Is this a software or hardware problem. What insight and advicecan you give me. I would be greatful. Thanks
Georges

Is the little green light on?
Open Console in Utilities & see if there are any clues or repeating messages when trying one of those Apps.

[ Helix ] Rear camera picture malformed, but video is fine. Software or hardware problem?

Hi, it's is my first post here, so welcome everyone
I've just purchased Helix 3702-3LO (i7, 8GB, 128GB, Win8Pro 64bits upgraded to 8.1) and today found some problem. Pictures taken by rear camera are malformed. The picture looks like:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5MpmFU1Jqq8Ym5ucGt6WDhUQXM/edit?usp=sharing
But at the same time video taken by the camera is perfect. So how do you think, is it software or hardware problem?
I've already tried refresh drivers, update what was possible to update, but still no imrovement, I still want avoid sending the computer to the service. It looks like some part of the image (bottom) is paste in the middle. Looks like codecs problem???
But now I'm not sure if it is only software problem or may be some how hardware (video is recorded is fine).
Thank you.
Moderator note; embedded picture >100K removed About Posting Pictures In The Forums
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Thank you kroe, you were absolutely right!
I rolled back the driver and it's fixed now, I should think about this in first place! :-)
"Device manager" > "Imaging devices" > "AIT Webcam" > Right Mouse Button Menu > "Properties" > Tab "Driver" > "Roll back driver" > OK
and now I have, like you wrote, "Integrated Rear Camera" instead of "AIT Webcam"
And the photos are perfect now :-) Thx again.
So.. problem SOLVED! Thx

HT201413 i cannot restore my ipad software i had download a new software on itunes but i couldnot download it on ipad or restore the old software and the problem is restoring ipad firmware

i cannot restore my ipad software i had download a new software on itunes but i couldnot download it on ipad or restore the old software and the problem is restoring ipad firmware

Try and force iPad into Recovery Mode
1. Disconnect the USB cable from the device, but leave the other end of the cable connected to your computer's USB port.
2. Turn off the device: Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button for a few seconds until the red slider appears, then slide the slider. Wait for the device to turn off.
3.While pressing and holding the Home button, reconnect the USB cable to the device. The device should turn on.
4. Continue holding the Home button until you see the "Connect to iTunes" screen. When this screen appears, release the Home button. iTunes should alert you that it has detected a device in recovery mode. Click OK, and then click Restore to restore the device.
Note: Data will be lost. You may have to repeat the above many times.

Brand new mac pro crashing. Software or hardware problem?

Hi!
First of all, I just wanna say - help from as many as possible would be highly appreciated, as I've talked to apple service center etc. No one knows what the problem is.
Alright, here we go. I purchased a Mac Pro with 2x500GB HD, 4GB Ram and 2x2,66 Dual Core Intel Xeon processors just two weeks ago. Up until now, it has worked flawlessly.
The first thing I did, was I imported my home folder from the .mac software Backup, and it worked fine. Everything was okay for a week or so.
Then I used the application Visual Hub to convert some video files into iTunes, and it worked fine. Along with this, I downloaded stuff with Tomato Torrent - four or five downloads, couple of gigs, but not too much.
And then the mystery started. I had the following applications open; Pages, Mail, Safari, iTunes, Visual Hub, Tomato Torrent and iCal. All of a sudden, iTunes crashed, saying it couldn't save the session or something, and my music library xml file got damaged. This happened quite a few times, and I had to re-import all the songs and movies and make new playlists.
Pages said it couldn't save to disk, and Mail said the startdisk was full (it had over 350gb of free space).
I forced a shutdown and when I restarted the machine, the blinking folder with a question mark showed up. I re-started it again, and it found the startdisk, and I got into MacOsx. However, no applications would open and if I tried to copy anything or empty the trash, the dialog box marked files as DW and NE instead of the file names.
So I restarted from the install disc. It couldn't activate the main HD when I tried Disk Tools, and found lots of faults on the main HD that couldn't be repaired. After 5 or 6 restarts it finally found it, and I was able to re-install Mac OsX.
After that, it seemed okay. Everything worked as it should, but the machine is working very slow, and when opening files and folders I sometimes get the wheel of death. It hangs in almost every application and when I try to move around a finder window for example, it jumps around in sharp movements instead of gliding.
Disk tools can't find any problems on the harddrives anymore. Everything seems okay, but I feel that it's not.
Apple says it might be the harddrive or the memory.
I really do not want to send them the machine, cause I really depend on it. My question is - could this be a hardware or software problem?
If it is a software problem, does anybody know what it can be?

I agree that it might be the hard drive or memory.
Run Apple Hardware Test.
Get some backup drives going, and use Disk Warrior and SuperDuper.
Did you import from a G4/5 computer some applications? don't. Install only.
Were any of the drives or memory 3rd party or all Apple?
When you installed the system again, did you erase? you should. And especially because it came up with errors and problems. You NEED 3rd party disk repair (Disk Warrior is the most reliable and preferred).
It sounds like Visual Hub or Tomato threw a monkey wrench into the gears.
And at this point your drive and file system needs to start all over, fresh, from scratch, and backup your data files, and then reformat.
The only way to know is to physically test and do the things that a "mechanic" does, with more tools and experience with tools and problems.
iTunes can push the limits and stress RAM, so it is a good way to find marginal or poor RAM. So is Memtest. But it takes awhile, but can be run 16 copies at once to test 256MB chunks for 4-5 cycles. No guarantee.
Zero your drives. It helps insure they are working. Or put them in a PC or run XP/Vista on your Mac Pro and use vendor tools (LifeGuard, Seatools, etc) to map out blocks or zero the drive)
It also ounds like the drive's permissions were trashed in the process and the ownership locked you out. Or something. WhatSize and OmniDiskSweeper and good. Or Tomato turned something on/off or into soup or sauce.
Never continue to use a system after freezes and crashes without taking some precautions, maintenance, booting from an emergency 2nd drive.
Use FSCK in single user mode.
Do a Safe Boo.
run Applejack to delete all the cache files along with any swap files (can't hurt, some don't see the need).
Make a list, Rule something out and move on. But you will have to start with a freshly erased drive or partition, fresh OS, and then gradually test and add, one thing at a time.
Lastly, when you do install the OS, and have made all the APPLE updates, make a backup.
Create a disk image as well (sparse) on another drive/s. Setup one as "emergency only" and never add or alter or use it for anything other than running updates to Apple, disk repair stuff, testing the main drive.
If you get to having a stable system, back it up as a clone of your working system. Put it away (Firewire is ideal).
Updating to 10.4.11 or something ?
backup first so you have a working copy. Only add or update programs AFTER you have a backup. Takes longer but you can 'fall back' and have a recovery plan.
Installing an application that you are unsure of or might cause trouble? even an OS update can cause trouble, and there is no easy way yet on OS X to "back out" or uninstall or revert to an earlier point or driver or version. The only way I know of it with backups and more backups.
Which is why I have JUST the OS on its own drive, just have to deal with applications and the system that way, and all the data and personal files are safe but also backed up.
Rather than use online backup, get some backup disk drives.
That may or should be "common sense" approach to installing and updating. Takes longer. Protects you and your data.
When you had to re-import your data again and again, you were already walking on thin ice, about to go. Or had gone and just hadn't hit yet.

Harddrive Problems

Im working with film and needed an upgrade on my system - from Mac OS 10.3.8 to
Mac OS 10.3.9 - because it was required for an upgrade to Quick Time Pro wich I
at that moment needed. So, when this was done I went the following day to a
filmset where I was Live-feed editing suddenly nothing was working. On the set I
was using another Lacie Fire Wire Hard Drive and I needed to connect an DV
device to that harddrive and the unit didnt appered in Final Cut Pro. Panic
Anyway about the time of lunch the problem was solved be downloading a driver of
some sort wich i cant recall at the moment. An abther guy helped me with it. Now
Im at home trying to connect my old friendly harddrive wich been working just
fine for years and it dont show up on the desktop. It starts up, Its sounding
and the lamp is lit as usual, but it dont appear on my desktop. I got a lifetime
of film on that harddrive, the idea of it not working wasnt in my head. I dont
have any backups on many of the film. I guess Its an easy fix, some new driver
is needed for te upgraded system. The quastion is; wich one?
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

"Manually mount" the drive is done in the disk utility application. Usually it's found in your utilities folder inside your applications folder. Open the program, select your hard disk, then go to the mount/unmount button. (it toggles depending on what disk you've selected. Also.... REPAIR disk permissions any time you install new software or an update.
Finally, I do a lot of video editing also. Two other possible fixes. Turn the disk on AFTER your computer has completly booted and all of the stuff you've got set at startup is finished. I've got one disk that won't load like this, out of four.
Also, the order they appear in the daisey chain sometimes makes a difference. put the ones working in a daisey chain, and the one that's not first in line in another firewire port. The older firewire disk I've got only loads when I do this, all of the newer ones (under 1.5 years) load fine in a chain.
hope this helps.
Jim

Slow and hanging - harddrive problem?

I have a 15", mid 2012 NON retina macbook pro, 2.6GHz Intel Core i7, 8GB ram, 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M, and the standard 750GB Hardrive, running latest OSX software.
All was fine when first purchases, but for the last few months performance has been suffering. Applications are sometimes unresponsive and crash, log in times have become sometimes very long, with the dock and menu bar sometimes taking minutes to appear, as well as applications also taking a while to open even after leaving to full load up for a few minutes. I just thought, fair enough, I've got a fair bit on here, large graphic files for uni and mastercollection, but when the computer wouldn't even bring up the log in screen, or sometimes not even log in after password is entered after waiting 10 minutes is when I started to worry. Even windows 7 on bootcamp which has hardly been touched is even showing major performance issues! Even video streaming is stuttery when I have more than one program open (Chrome and Word or iTunes for example) which I really do not expect from this spec laptop!
Do you think this could be a problem with the harddrive, or is it worth doing a clean wipe and restoring from a time machine backup? I have repeatedly disk repaired and permission repaired (even though opinions on this are varied) but relatively new to the OSX software still and unsure on maintenance techniques.
I'm reluctant to wipe or take in for a service because I've still got a month of coursework, but I also do not want my laptop to completely crash out on me!
Any advice would be great!

Hi there, yes this certainly sounds like a problem! Before you do anything, back up everything! Get yourself an external hard drive and use time machine to back up your whole laptop which it will do automatically.
Ok, once you have done that we can move on:
You need to run a system hardware test (its on a CD which came with your new mac) or here http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
This rules out a hardware issue such as a faulty HD etc. If it detects a fault, then you are going to have to take it to an Apple store for some TLC and hope the warrenty is valid.
If not a hardware issue then its a software problem which is an entirely different thing! Do the check and comment back and I will see if I can help you
Dont worry just keep your stuff backed up and make multipukes copies of the important stuff like coursework!

Upgrading from OSX 10.3.9 to 10.5.4, Software or Hardware problem?

I have a Mac mini G4, 1.42GHz, 1GB ram, running 10.3.9 I tried to install 10.5.4 from the grey disk that came with my newer iMac but I just get an error saying it cannot be installed. Is this a hardware problem with my Mac mini or a software problem with the disk only being lisenced for one computer or something like that?

Leopard requirements/10.5.x...
    * Mac computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5, or PowerPC G4 (867MHz or faster) processor
minimum system requirements
    * 512MB of memory (I say 1.5GB for PPC at least, 2-3GB minimum for IntelMacs)
    * DVD drive for installation
    * 9GB of available disk space (I say 30GB at least)
Classic/OS9 Apps no longer supported.
Trouble is Apple no longer sells it, check eBay & such for the Retail version, not the Gray Discs...
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=mac+os+x+leopard+retail+10.5

Using the software update created problems

Ok so I bought Leopard and upgraded from Tiger, then updated using the software update. Now I have a whole bunch of problems. My Apple Works is now missing, the program is just gone. All my Adobe programs now give me the error of Incompatible with current OS or some Your Licensing is not working error. I have a whole load of Adobe programs that should be working, like Contribute CS 3 and Photo Shop and Illustrator and Designer and so on. All of which worked under the 4.11 and the 5.1 OSes but now no longer work. This isn't even touching on the elimination of the Classic environment which i have a lot of programs that will cost way too much money to buy again for the new OS.
Anybody know how to get back Apple Works and how to get the Adobe products running again?

First set of problems, I had two software packaged programs go missing. Totally erased from the system. iWeb and Apple Works.
This would not happen after a software update, unless the directory got damaged somehow*:
http://www.macmaps.com/directoryfaq.html
That would give the machine a difficult time trying to find files on the computer.
Next set of problems my external firewire drive stopped being seen from the system.
This most commonly happens if a Firewire hard drive does not have the proper firmware to be used with the operating system in question. This is one reason most people recommend dismounting and disconnecting all third party devices before applying updates. This used to be a more common problem with 10.3, but not out of the realm of experience of people with 10.5.
The next most common cause is the clock battery dying, but not quite dead. Replacing it can fix that problem as well.
I should say that my system consists of several computers networked together.
I would have completely disconnected the computers before applying the update.
I can take my external firewire back up time machine drives and connect them to a PC and see the data. But my macs do not even recognise them, they don't even show up when plugged in.
This is further evidence the firmware on the hard drive was not yet updated for compatibility with the operating system.
Third set of problems, all the apple install disks became unreadable by my system.
This can be commonly caused by a dying optical drive, or bad permissions on the system, or a dying clock battery.
Fourth set of problems, all the Adobe programs became un-useable and returned errors. Adobe has been working with me on this and have been far more helpful than Apple has been.
That's a case of corrupt files, or files which were migrated from another system. Migration that is done improperly from a PowerPC to an Intel system may create issues with powerpc plugins on an Intel Mac. If your hard drive got over 85% full and/or the directory was damaged for any reason (especially forced reboots), that can also trigger such a reaction during an update.
Fifth set of problems just recently discovered, all my stored movies, music and podcast in iTunes is gone.
This is usually due to a directory issue, but can also be a dying hard drive issue.
Sounds like you have multiple symptoms pointing towards a few common possible causes. Directory damage, and clock battery malfunctioning, and needing a better firmware on your Firewire hard drive case. Replacing the hard drive case with a compatible one is simple enough. http://www.macsales.com/ makes the right cases. I would not go with LaCie, Western Digital, or Seagate cases. Western Digital and Seagate internal hard drives are fine in of themselves. Replace the MyBook hard drive cases with http://www.macsales.com/ cases and same with the LaCies.
I have Apple TV and EYE TV and a Midi interface box attached to my G5 mac. My G5 is the one that lost Apple Works and iWeb.
Remove the Midi interface box. It may help things work better.
My systems have the super drive on them and I have virtual PC and Softwindows installed.
Softwindows barely works if at all under Classic, and VirtualPC only works with version 7.0.2 under Leopard. If you got an earlier version working under Leopard you were lucky. You really needed to migrate to a supported emulator under Leopard listed on my FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/macosxnative.html#WINTEL
It says you didn't research your options well enough before upgrading to Leopard. This has been well documented in the forums before this.
Booted up from the Norton disks and repaired disk.
This is the biggest flaw in your plans, which caused ALL your problems. Norton is not compatible with any version of Mac OS X. It eats directories for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Only Alsoft Disk Warrior is safe and only after a data recovery attempt with Prosoft Data Rescue II, Subrosasoft Filesalvage, or Boomerang's Boomerang. We have constantly harped on the forums here that Norton is damaging to data. This has been known about since Mac OS X came out. It has even been called "Norton Kevorkian" by some.
You can't blame Apple for this. Your lack of research and lack of asking in the right places at the right time led to your failures.
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

Is it software or harddrive problem?

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