Resolved MacBook Pro Mid-2009 Random crashing

[poiihy]

I have an MacBook Pro 15 inch Mid-2009. It was bought used on ebay a long time ago, so don't ask about that, because I didn't buy it and I don't remember.

Ever since I can remember, this computer was a crashaholic. It would (and still does) randomly crash. Almost always the crash report would contain:

Kernel extensions in backtrace: AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.... bla bla bla

It didn't bother me because I installed this FanControl software, and set all three sliders all the way to the left. With this software, my computer rarely crashed (it still did though but not enough to bother me). I recently upgraded to Yosemite, and Yosemite changed some things with the fan stuff and broke all fan control softwares. I removed FanControl. Now my computer started crashing like it used to.

I found that it crashes much more often when the fans are at low speed. Using smcFanControl (which is still not updated and broken, but still kinda works) I set the fan speeds to ~4,000 rpm. It still seems to crash more often than when i had FanControl.

A while ago I tried installing and running Ubuntu Linux to see if that would crash, but Ubuntu didn't work on my machine. Graphics wouldn't render properly and I couldn't see anything.
Today I discovered I could install Mac OS X on my external drive. I downloaded Mountain Lion, and restored the Install thing disk image to a USB stick. It didn't work though, the apple logo turned into a NO-sign (circle with line in it).
Then I remembered I had this Lion Recovery/Install USB stick. I tried that and it worked, and successfully installed it on my external drive.
I booted from Lion and it worked! I am typing this using Lion on my external drive right now.
And the weird this is, I have not gotten a single crash!

So, How do I fix this crashing problem? I thought, I really thought it was a hardware problem, but it was not! Do I have to reinstall OS X? Should I downgrade to Lion? (I kinda like Lion better than Mavericks or Yosemite...)

By the way, this crashing problem, I believe, has existed ever since Lion was on this. I am not sure if it crashed before Lion, I do not remember.
Another thing, when we got this computer, it had an operating system already installed and already used by the previous owner. It was not reinstalled (and yes, I know, it should've been reinstalled :/).

If you want a complete crash report tell me and I will boot in the Yosemite and wait for a crash.

 

[yjchua95]

I have an MacBook Pro 15 inch Mid-2009. It was bought used on ebay a long time ago, so don't ask about that, because I didn't buy it and I don't remember.

Ever since I can remember, this computer was a crashaholic. It would (and still does) randomly crash. Almost always the crash report would contain:

Kernel extensions in backtrace: AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.... bla bla bla

It didn't bother me because I installed this FanControl software, and set all three sliders all the way to the left. With this software, my computer rarely crashed (it still did though but not enough to bother me). I recently upgraded to Yosemite, and Yosemite changed some things with the fan stuff and broke all fan control softwares. I removed FanControl. Now my computer started crashing like it used to.

I found that it crashes much more often when the fans are at low speed. Using smcFanControl (which is still not updated and broken, but still kinda works) I set the fan speeds to ~4,000 rpm. It still seems to crash more often than when i had FanControl.

A while ago I tried installing and running Ubuntu Linux to see if that would crash, but Ubuntu didn't work on my machine. Graphics wouldn't render properly and I couldn't see anything.
Today I discovered I could install Mac OS X on my external drive. I downloaded Mountain Lion, and restored the Install thing disk image to a USB stick. It didn't work though, the apple logo turned into a NO-sign (circle with line in it).
Then I remembered I had this Lion Recovery/Install USB stick. I tried that and it worked, and successfully installed it on my external drive.
I booted from Lion and it worked! I am typing this using Lion on my external drive right now.
And the weird this is, I have not gotten a single crash!

So, How do I fix this crashing problem? I thought, I really thought it was a hardware problem, but it was not! Do I have to reinstall OS X? Should I downgrade to Lion? (I kinda like Lion better than Mavericks or Yosemite...)

By the way, this crashing problem, I believe, has existed ever since Lion was on this. I am not sure if it crashed before Lion, I do not remember.
Another thing, when we got this computer, it had an operating system already installed and already used by the previous owner. It was not reinstalled (and yes, I know, it should've been reinstalled :/).

If you want a complete crash report tell me and I will boot in the Yosemite and wait for a crash.

Just do a clean install with a Mavericks/Yosemite bootable USB (download either one of these via the Mac App Store and use DiskMaker X to make a bootable USB).

After that, from the bootable USB, reformat the internal drive and install the OS.

Clean installs may help fix crashes sometimes.

 

[lokster]

agreed, complete clean install of mavericks 10.9 and update it to 10.9.4

What it could be is that there were some files or compatibility issues.

DONT use yosemite as your main OS ever again until its released for the public, there is a reason why its in beta and its for testing and bug reporting.

You don't need to use mavericks, if you can find a mountain lion or lion clean install then go with that.

CPUmanagement could mean there were some runaway programs causing the CPU to overload, overheat and maybe crash.
Suggest you also install istat and keep an eye on your temps

 

[poiihy]

CPUmanagement could mean there were some runaway programs causing the CPU to overload, overheat and maybe crash.
Suggest you also install istat and keep an eye on your temps

The CPU usage doesn't go up when it crashes nor the temperature. In fact it seems to crash more often when there is less CPU usage and fans are set full speed.

I will try to reinstall the OS X using Recovery HD next time I am using that computer.

 

[poiihy]

Ok so before I reinstall the OS I waited for and grabbed the latest crash report.

http://pastebin.com/MwrjmXwv

 

[illusionx]

MacBookPro Mid-2009 Random crashing

If you have 10.10 installed, you probably have a 10.10 recovery partition. Just turn it on and hold ALT and you should be able to do a fresh install if 10.10

 

[poiihy]

If you have 10.10 installed, you probably have a 10.10 recovery partition. Just turn it on and hold ALT and you should be able to do a fresh install if 10.10

That is what I did. You would know that if you read my previous post.

-----------------------------
Anyway...
So I went to reinstall the OS using the Recovery HD. I went through that and after that it restarted to the second part of the installation (the actual install). It was estimated about 22 minutes at first but it was very slow and took much longer than that. At about 1/3 or 1/4, the install stopped and said that the install failed!! I saved the Install log, here it is:
http://pastebin.com/6pLNfqA6

What should I do? Should I try to install it again?

 

[simonsi]

That is what I did. You would know that if you read my previous post.

You said you upgraded to Yosemite, he said do a fresh install from the recovery partition, did you do that? They can be different things.

 

[poiihy]

You said you upgraded to Yosemite, he said do a fresh install from the recovery partition, did you do that? They can be different things.

That is what I did, I reinstalled the OS using the Recovery HD. Please help me with this other problem!!

 

[simonsi]

That is what I did, I reinstalled the OS using the Recovery HD. Please help me with this other problem!!

Ok, then I would recommend you reinstall Lion as that seems the most stable on your system.

 

[poiihy]

Ok, then I would recommend you reinstall Lion as that seems the most stable on your system.

The installer has failed, I could try again but I doubt it would work again. Why did the installer fail? Can you diagnose the log? I`ve looked at it and there looks like a crash.

What should I do? I`d rather reinstall Yosemite than downgrade to Lion; I doubt this crashing problem is related to the version of OS X, I think it is some broken/corrupted files.

If I would install Lion myself, how would I do that? Without erasing the data in the Users folder? Would a Recovery HD for Lion install alright?

 

[simonsi]

You said you had it running stable on an external drive on Lion. Now it has installer failures.

I'd suspect the HDD is failing but a prior step would be to erase it, format and clone it from the Lion external drive, then reboot on the external.

If it then crashes you need to replace the HDD and install the OS of your choice, any should work (but Yosemite is itself unstable so not a good idea for your machine yet).

If it doesn't crash then you should be then able to install further OS versions BUT if crashing returns then replace the HDD as above.

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Would a Recovery HD for Lion install alright?

Who knows, I can't tell from here, sorry.

 

[poiihy]

WELP, MY COMPUTER CRASHED IN LION!!!
And it crashed while Disk utility was resizing partition in my internal drive. I hope its not corrupted


So it seems that it IS in fact a hardware problem! Well, in lion it crashes less than Mavericks or Yosemite. Its probably because it is older than Mavericks and does not have the more efficient management bla bla. It could also be because I have an external drive connected which uses more energy.
So I would downgrade to Lion if it reduces the crashing.


Crash report:
http://pastebin.com/tt5Raxbg



----------

[/COLOR]

You said you had it running stable on an external drive on Lion. Now it has installer failures.

I'd suspect the HDD is failing but a prior step would be to erase it, format and clone it from the Lion external drive, then reboot on the external.

If it then crashes you need to replace the HDD and install the OS of your choice, any should work (but Yosemite is itself unstable so not a good idea for your machine yet).

If it doesn't crash then you should be then able to install further OS versions BUT if crashing returns then replace the HDD as above.

Hmm...
In my previous post I said Lion crashed, but when it crashed I was resizing partitions in my Internal drive. perhaps you are right, perhaps it crashed because my hard drive is faulty.

I don`t know... it could've been because the internal HD drawing power. AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement seems like something to do with power management, but who knows, maybe the hard drive is causing power surges? If that is possible?

My external drive is only 30GB (it was pulled out of an iBook G3).


I have an idea! Perhaps I could swap the two hard drives. Put the lion hard drive inside the computer and the original Macintosh HD in the external are drive case caddy thing whatever you call it
Then I can see if it crashes running only the lion drive inside.

 

[poiihy]

Does anyone know a solution??

 

[poiihy]

My computer crashed again!!! It crashed right when I was writing a post about Safari crashing. Safari crashed and then a bit later my computer crashed. I don't have the Safari crash but it looked similar to previous app crashes.

I forgot to mention, apps sometimes crashed too. Even webpages in Google Chrome crashed sometimes. They would always crash due to something like
KERN_BAD_ACCESS
INVALID_ACCESS
Something like that I am not sure exactly.

http://pastebin.com/hNNgkfBE

I was running a Glucas CPU Test and both CPUs were being 100% used

My Internal Hard drive was sleeping (idle) so it is NOT a faulty hard drive. I believe CPU #1 is faulty!!! I know how to disable a CPU core but by doing this it uses only CPU#1. if anyone knows how to disable CPU#1 and only use CPU#2 please tell me!


Heaaalp mee

 

[poiihy]

I am trying the installer again, it crashed twice already and started over. I'll try one more time and if it crashes again i give up.

 

[simonsi]

I am trying the installer again, it crashed twice already and started over. I'll try one more time and if it crashes again i give up.

Based on the new info about apps crashing, I'd pull one of the RAM chips and see if you can isolate that way. Pull each in turn and run for a period to indicate whether the issue is still there. Once isolated I'd still recommend a fresh install as you may have disk issues.

There is no sensible way I know of that you can isolate to a core, what makes you convinced cpu#1 is faulty?

 

[poiihy]

I am trying the installer again, it crashed twice already and started over. I'll try one more time and if it crashes again i give up.

It crashed again so i gave up. Also the bar moved REALLLYYY slowly :/

----------

Based on the new info about apps crashing, I'd pull one of the RAM chips and see if you can isolate that way. Pull each in turn and run for a period to indicate whether the issue is still there. Once isolated I'd still recommend a fresh install as you may have disk issues.

There is no sensible way I know of that you can isolate to a core, what makes you convinced cpu#1 is faulty?

The bad access thing is pretty rare though. Also the RAM was upgraded by the previous owner.

I think it is CPU 1 because, it seems like it in crash reports, and i have tried disabling a cpu core (which disables cpu 2) and the crashing didnt stop. It actually got worse.
i've heard you cannot disable CPU 1, is this true? And if CPU 1 fails, the whole system fails, but if CPU 2 fails, CPu 1 still works.

 

[simonsi]

It crashed again so i gave up. Also the bar moved REALLLYYY slowly :/

From my experience:

Slow progress means potential disk errors
Sudden crash points to RAM

Until you change something you will continue to get these frustrating crashes...

 

[poiihy]

From my experience:

Slow progress means potential disk errors
Sudden crash points to RAM

Until you change something you will continue to get these frustrating crashes...

The extremely slow progress is not caused by my hard drive, i am sure, because my hard drive performs fine and usually os installations go much faster. Something is wrong with the installer. And the frustrating thing is i cannot get it finished installing without getting a crash

So i have nothing to replace. I am convinced it is a faulty CPU OR, even more, faulty power management system. Perhaps it is a simple fix, just a piece of metal or conductive dirt shorting out something somewhere. Or perhaps it is much worse than that. Perhaps it is a defective part that was always there.

I will try moving all the installer stuff in a folder. And then all the old system stuff, from the "Recovered Files" folder, back into the root directory.

 

[simonsi]

The extremely slow progress is not caused by my hard drive, i am sure, because my hard drive performs fine and usually os installations go much faster. Something is wrong with the installer. And the frustrating thing is i cannot get it finished installing without getting a crash

So i have nothing to replace. I am convinced it is a faulty CPU OR, even more, faulty power management system. Perhaps it is a simple fix, just a piece of metal or conductive dirt shorting out something somewhere. Or perhaps it is much worse than that. Perhaps it is a defective part that was always there.

I will try moving all the installer stuff in a folder. And then all the old system stuff, from the "Recovered Files" folder, back into the root directory.

Then good luck.

 

[poiihy]

Then good luck.

Didn't get any of that good luck
I have a problem
Whenever I try to copy the System or Library folder from the Recovered Items directory to the root directory, it will stop copying when it comes across some files that it says cannot be read or written! I would think it would skip those items but it doesn't! It stops the entire copy! What do I do?!

 

[poiihy]

I just got a crash again and I post it here because it looks a little different.
http://pastebin.com/1hHNPrcE

 

[illusionx]

Have you tried removing one of the 2 ram? It does sound like data corruption at that level.

 

[poiihy]

Have you tried removing one of the 2 ram? It does sound like data corruption at that level.

I have not tried that now but I have tried that long ago. Does it really have anything to do with the power management crashing?

--------------------------
Edit:
Got a crash again similar to previous one, something to do with graphics.
http://pastebin.com/YgehPeEk
Sometimes I get a crash for something other than AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement, sometimes i get stuff related to graphics as you can see in report.