Attn: Macbook users - how to avoid disaster

The Phat Conductor · Post by **The Phat Conductor** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 12:42 am

ok, so my macbook started experiencing some problems a few weeks ago, which lead to a gradual meltdown, hard drive corruption + suddenly not recognizing my midi controllers at a gig. i am going to try to quickly outline what i have learned so that you guys can avoid what happened to me.

!!! if you notice your macbook booting up slowly, or having trouble waking from sleep, that is the warning sign that shit is about to go haywire.

apparently this 'waking' problem is a precursor to the usb ports not working anymore.

the guys at the mac store said that it has something to do with running photoshop on the native graphics card and using other apps that are not specifically designed for universal binary. they said it was some sort of software conflict, but we didn't have time to check it out completely as i have another gig tonight.

if you are going on the road, be sure to have a firewire hard drive handy with a backup of your OS, as well as all of your music files. you should also make sure to have the install cds for os x in your tour bag.

when i was at the gig where the midi meltdown happened i compensated for the lack of midi control by using multiple outputs on the soundcard, running into multiple inputs of the dj mixer and just mixed it there. it is probably a good idea to have something like that as a backup if you are going on tour.

the good news is that if you reinstall the os, everything will be fine. this reinstall also took care of that pesky issue with the usb port not recognizing the trigger finger.

good luck, and be careful with your macbook!

peace

d

sqook · Post by **sqook** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 2:18 am

Photoshop? Are you kidding me? I run that program daily, and I've never had any problems... I find it hard to believe that non-UB sofware could cause physical hardware damage, especially when I know from my temperature monitor that the graphics card doesn't overheat during the process.

I think you just got a lemon of a machine with a weak hard drive... at least it broke while still under warranty.

Pitch Black · Post by **Pitch Black** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 2:39 am

Sorry to hear about that, Phat!

After the FW port on my 1st gen powerbook blew up, I'll never buy a 1st gen Mac.

Glad you were able to get it sorted!

cheers,
p

muthafunka · Post by **muthafunka** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 3:16 am

I'd keep an eye out here too. Not all doom and gllom for most peeps but helps to be aware.

D K · Post by **D K** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 5:38 am

to quote b0unce:
"another early adopter gets the hot end of the flaming shitstick"
good info, thanks!

The Phat Conductor · Post by **The Phat Conductor** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 6:57 pm

sqook wrote:Photoshop? Are you kidding me? I run that program daily, and I've never had any problems... I find it hard to believe that non-UB sofware could cause physical hardware damage, especially when I know from my temperature monitor that the graphics card doesn't overheat during the process.

I think you just got a lemon of a machine with a weak hard drive... at least it broke while still under warranty.

see the non UB thing is what the mac store guys said, it seemed wierd to me too. but apparently my hard drive passed all diagnostics, and since i did the reinstall it has been a dream. it really does seem like an odd problem. doesn't exactly inspire a lot of confidence in apple to be honest.

sqook · Post by **sqook** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 7:09 pm

The Phat Conductor wrote:
sqook wrote:Photoshop? Are you kidding me? I run that program daily, and I've never had any problems... I find it hard to believe that non-UB sofware could cause physical hardware damage, especially when I know from my temperature monitor that the graphics card doesn't overheat during the process.

I think you just got a lemon of a machine with a weak hard drive... at least it broke while still under warranty.
see the non UB thing is what the mac store guys said, it seemed wierd to me too. but apparently my hard drive passed all diagnostics, and since i did the reinstall it has been a dream. it really does seem like an odd problem. doesn't exactly inspire a lot of confidence in apple to be honest.

Understandable. I still would take the UB thing with a grain of salt, though... I've been told some questionable things by apple store employees in the past, like not to change the label on my hard drive from "Macintosh HD" to because it could cause "severe system problems"...

rtopia · Post by **rtopia** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 7:29 pm

sqook wrote:I've been told some questionable things by apple store employees in the past, like not to change the label on my hard drive from "Macintosh HD" to because it could cause "severe system problems"

that alone would prompt me to rename that volume:

"severe system problems"

- r

gregorythis · Post by **gregorythis** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 7:36 pm

99 percent of the apple employees in the store dont know dick from dick. most the dudes who work at the stores by me just look like "hip" kids to.

The Phat Conductor · Post by **The Phat Conductor** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 7:43 pm

so what's up then?

how can i avoid the recurrance of this dramatically awful BS?

gomi · Post by **gomi** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 9:20 pm

rtopia wrote:
sqook wrote:I've been told some questionable things by apple store employees in the past, like not to change the label on my hard drive from "Macintosh HD" to because it could cause "severe system problems"
that alone would prompt me to rename that volume:

"severe system problems"

- r

it's funny because it's actually recommended NOT to use spaces in volume and folder
names...

yet it comes with it stock..

in my system builds i just rename it to osx

sqook · Post by **sqook** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 9:38 pm

The Phat Conductor wrote:so what's up then?

how can i avoid the recurrance of this dramatically awful BS?

I wish I could have had a chance to check out your machine in person to get a better diagnosis. The part about your long boot time was especially suspicious... if that happens again, hold down command + v during the boot process. This will give you a better idea of what's slowing down the boot, and possibly give some insight into what went wrong with your machine.

Either way, I think it's clear that you don't have a hardware issue, as a reinstall was able to correct your machine and you said that disk utility passed inspection.

sqook · Post by **sqook** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 9:40 pm

gomi wrote:it's funny because it's actually recommended NOT to use spaces in volume and folder
names...

Nah, HFS is smart enough to deal with spaces. I can't think of one time where such a character caused a serious problem because of this... can you?

gomi · Post by **gomi** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:09 pm

sqook wrote:
gomi wrote:it's funny because it's actually recommended NOT to use spaces in volume and folder
names...
Nah, HFS is smart enough to deal with spaces. I can't think of one time where such a character caused a serious problem because of this... can you?

yah stupid people trying to use terminal and not knowing how to use " or /

sqook · Post by **sqook** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:28 pm

gomi wrote:
sqook wrote:
gomi wrote:it's funny because it's actually recommended NOT to use spaces in volume and folder
names...
Nah, HFS is smart enough to deal with spaces. I can't think of one time where such a character caused a serious problem because of this... can you?

yah stupid people trying to use terminal and not knowing how to use " or /

I think you mean \