[DMBand0026]

I have a 12" PowerBook, 1.33 ghz with 768MB or RAM running OS X.4.1. Recently it has gotten so slow that it's to the point where I can't use it anymore and still be productive. I'm talking with everything, I'll click on a link in Safari and Safari will hang for a full minute and a half, beach ball and all, until I can even use any other applications on the computer again. I'll send a message in Adium and it'll beach ball for a full minute before the message is sent, again, rendering the computer useless until it is sent.

In order to try and figure out what's wrong with my PowrBook I opened Terminal to run some tests and it took about 2 minutes with beach ball to open Terminal and another 2 for it to be ready for me to run anything. I tried to open Disk Utility and when I hit apple+shit+U (key command to open utilities folder) it never opened, after beach balling for almost 5 minutes it finally allowed me to use the computer again, but it never opened the utilities folder.

So I eventually got terminal open, ran top, CPU usage is normal, repaired permissions, got info on my HD and SMART status reads: verified (it always has through this whole incident beginning two days ago...that was the first thing I checked). After that I finally got Disk Utility open, it told me nothing that Terminal hadn't. So I booted with the OS X.4 DVD and did the repair disk thing. Rebooted, nothing changed.

What became more obvious to me as time went on was that my computer wasn't making its regular noises. Notably the noise I've come to know as the hard drive spinning and seeking has changed considerably. I've heard buzzing, humming...ect, but no clicking or anything like that. The area over the HD doesn't feel any hotter than usual. The thing that really freaked me out today though was when I picked up my computer to try and listen more closely to the HD and when I tilted it the HD sounded like it was grinding against something and it only got worse the more I tilted it.

I re checked the SMART Status, still verified. So what's wrong, did I bust a HD? I still have AppleCare and I didn't drop, kick, dropkick, punch, sit on, hit, explode, or otherwise abuse my computer, in fact, it's been sitting on my desk for the better part of the last month. All I really want to know is what's wrong, since I have the AppleCare, if need be I'll take it into an Apple Store. Yes, my data is backed up, yes, it has been for a while, so I'm not concerned about data loss, but I'm suffering an extreme downturn in productivity as I can't really use my main computer.

So for anyone who actually read this far, thanks, and thanks for the help!

[alcimedes]

Just for shits and giggles, have you tried creating another user account to see if the problem persists?

[DMBand0026]

I have not, but I will now. Thanks for the tip. I'll report back in a day or two when I'm finally able to create the account

[DMBand0026]

The second account is a no go. After I waited almost 5 minutes for it to log in and I tried to open Safari, it just hung. That was after I had to force re start to even log off of my account. When I held down the power button it turned off normally like it should, but the HD sounded like it whined when the computer turned off, it was really short, high pitched, and the pitch seemed to fall over the 3 or so seconds the sound was made.

I'm pretty convinced that it's the hard disk, I'm already planning a trip to an Apple Store tomorrow. I just wanted to see if maybe someone had some insight into this and to see if maybe I was just overreacting.

[DMBand0026]

For anyone who cares, it's all but CONFIRMED® that it's a hard drive issue. In attempting to backup 85 mb of documents that I've acquired in the week since my last backup it has taken nearly 45 minutes to cache 40 of the 85MB to the HDD. So it's off to the Apple Store I go and back to using a Cube as my primary computer for the next week or so.

[DMBand0026]

Update:
It's officially the HDD. I brought my PowerBook to an Apple Store and they told me nothing was wrong with it. I was insistant that they were wrong, but they wouldn't take it unless I was willing to pay for the repair out of pocket (I have AppleCare).

So I brought it home, did a clean install of Tiger, rebooted, it was too slow to do anything, booted from the Tiger install DVD again, checked the smart status: FAILED.

I was right, the Genius Bar was wrong. I spoke with the same Genius when I brought it back to the store a few days later, he was pretty embarrassed. Thanks for the help guys.

[alcimedes]

Score.

Was it not failing SMART status prior to the Tiger install?

[FFL]

Sorting out true hardware problems from software and operator error problems is one of the more difficult tasks assigned to a Genius. Some are much better at it than others, is all I'm going to say...

[DMBand0026]

SMART status was verified before and even after the Tiger install. It wasn't until a few days after I installed Tiger that it started to slow down and I figured the drive was failing. When I took it to the Apple Store the first time it had all the hallmark signs of a failing HDD, the clicks, the whirrs, even a grinding coming from the drive when the computer was tipped slightly.

I think they didn't bother considering a drive problem because the SMART status still said verified when I brought it in the first time, it wasn't until a few hours after a clean install of Tiger a second time that I had to reboot because it was so slow. I tried to reboot and it wouldn't boot past the Apple screen so I booted from the Tiger DVD and when it finally mounted the HDD in disk utility it said something about how there was massive and or critical hard disk failures.

FFL, plain and simple the guy should have known it was a HDD issue, it doesn't take a SMART status to tell someone that. We know the signs, they know the signs. I just found it odd that he was that insistent that there were no hardware problems.

I told him that I was 99% sure it was hardware related because I had ruled out software problems, I told him I repaired permissions, emptied caches, reset PRAM, and even did a FSCK via single user mode. He looked downright shocked that I even knew how to do all that.

On the other hand, I have so much respect for those guys and gals. The woman that they were helping before me was livid that her iPod wouldn't load her new songs. The genius kept telling her that she needed to update her iPod software and she was yelling (yes, top of her lungs yelling) that there was absolutely nothing wrong with her computer and she was demanding a replacement. I couldn't deal with that kind of crap.

[FFL]

Originally Posted by DMBand0026 When I took it to the Apple Store the first time it had all the hallmark signs of a failing HDD, the clicks, the whirrs, even a grinding coming from the drive when the computer was tipped slightly.

Yes, that definitely should have screamed "bad drive" to him.

I told him that I was 99% sure it was hardware related because I had ruled out software problems, I told him I repaired permissions, emptied caches, reset PRAM, and even did a FSCK via single user mode. He looked downright shocked that I even knew how to do all that.

Your demonstrated knowledge of Mac troubleshooting should have been his second clue.

On the other hand, I have so much respect for those guys and gals. The woman that they were helping before me was livid that her iPod wouldn't load her new songs. The genius kept telling her that she needed to update her iPod software and she was yelling (yes, top of her lungs yelling) that there was absolutely nothing wrong with her computer and she was demanding a replacement. I couldn't deal with that kind of crap.

Yeah, there's much more to the Genius position than most people realize, especially since the iPod's success means that Apple now has millions of Windows-using customers.


You might have caught the guy on a bad day, or he could have been new, but most geniuses I have met would have spotted that. The main point of my previous post is that I wish Genius knowledge and service were more consistent, as I've seen it vary widely.

[DMBand0026]

Yeah, I gave him the benefit of the doubt and decided to try what he suggested, after all, he is the Mac genius and I don't really do hardware, so I figured I'd listen to him. That 1% of me that wasn't sure was kinda kicking me at that point. That, and the tirade he had just endured from the psycho woman made me feel sorry for him.

[Ebby]

(I didn't read the previous posts, so sorry if I repeat stuff)

BACK YOUR FILES THE HECK UP!

Seriously, every time that has happened to me, the OS or disk format had serious problems requiring a reinstall and (based on a horrible event a few months ago) CAN cause data loss.

[DMBand0026]

Thanks for the tip, I was already all over that. I backed up right before I installed Tiger so I had a backup that was less than a week old when the drive went bad. I always keep a backup, you'd be stupid not to

[Ebby]

Originally Posted by DMBand0026 I always keep a backup, you'd be stupid not to

Hey!

Anyways, I was running behind when I posted that and didn't have time to read everything. Sorry 'bout repeating stuff but better safe than sorry. The title of the thread caught my eye and I just threw my $0.02 out based off the beginning of your post. I see you backed up (Second to last sentence) and I suppose the last sentence is specifically for me.

I would be more specific though with what happened to me. From what I understand, I had something called a file allocation overlap. Sometimes under stress (using the computer 100% like in photoshop) the drive would overwrite portions of the drive or something. Even though the computer worked slow-as-molasses simply using the drive worsened my problem.

All's cool though.