Resolved MacBook Pro Mid-2009 Random crashing

[simonsi]

What do I do?!

Stop blaming the installer, assuming you got it from Apple then they are very reliable and are used 1000's of times a day, if there was a fundamental issue then forums would be burning down with it and they never have.

You have a software issue and/or a RAM issue and/or an HDD issue. You may have a CPU issue but you can't do anything about that. Some files on the boot drive that you have booted from will be locked by the OS, no surprise there.

Work through these components in order, stop messing with files here and there, do a reformat and full, fresh install. If that won't complete change the HDD. If it still suffers crashes then swap out the RAM for known good.

 

[poiihy]

Stop blaming the installer, assuming you got it from Apple then they are very reliable and are used 1000's of times a day, if there was a fundamental issue then forums would be burning down with it and they never have.

You have a software issue and/or a RAM issue and/or an HDD issue. You may have a CPU issue but you can't do anything about that. Some files on the boot drive that you have booted from will be locked by the OS, no surprise there.

Work through these components in order, stop messing with files here and there, do a reformat and full, fresh install. If that won't complete change the HDD. If it still suffers crashes then swap out the RAM for known good.

It's not a software problem. I am doing a memory test using PassMark MemTest86 and on one test I got a flood of errors. 34 errors so far. Now i believe it is the RAM. The ram was upgraded by the previous owner! It makes sense.
As for the HDD i cannot reformat it because i have no other storage devices large enough to store all the stuff.

After the memtest i will take out one ram module and test it.

 

[lokster]

Could be the ram. Just use one stick at a time.

If it's not The ram buy a hdd, and have another one for back up . Always have a backup in case things like this happen. But you can use software to check the health of hdd.

If after getting a new hdd and it still crashes, then it's most likely the CPU.

 

[poiihy]

I tried both RAM modules alone. First time got two crashes in Safari due to bad access, then a computer crash. Second time ran longer but then computer crashed.
Both RAM modules got lots of errors in Test 6 in MemTest86. The second one got more errors than the first.

Perhaps both modules are damaged, or perhaps they are incompatible.

Also I really doubt the Internal Hard Drive could cause any crashing. I am running this OS on an external drive, and it even crashes when the HDD is sleeping. Should I go ahead and remove the HDD and try that?

 

[poiihy]

WELP
Just when i thought it could not get any worse...
My External 30GB hard drive, that I was running my operating system on, failed.
It just suddenly started clicking. Sounded like the read arm tried to go somewhere but kept getting hit by something. Sometimes it would get to read a bit but then start clicking again.

I dont understand this... The hard drive was on a stable surface, it didnt fall on the floor and get a shock, it was just sitting there. Nothing hit it or anything. it just suddenly failed.

So now I am stuck with a crashaholic Macbook pro with only the Recovery HD for 10.10 Yosemite...
I can probably add a partition to the internal disk, and install Lion (again) on it.

As for my broken Yosemite... What should I do? I could try using the Lion USB Stick and overwrite Yosemite with Lion, not sure if it would work though...

---------
SO... To wrap things up a bit
• I need to fix my main Volume
• I still have the crashing problem.




Also I cannot reformat and clean install OS X because I have no external volume with enough free space for it. :\

 

[simonsi]

At this point I think you need access to another Mac to make a bootable USB or external HDD.

Once you have one of those you need to:

Replace the RAM, if both modules are giving errors then replace them.

How old was your 30GB external? I haven't seen a drive of that size for sale for many years.

Then you need to replace the internal drive. Once done you can boot of the USB or bootable external, then format and fresh install of OSX.

I think then you will have a stable system. Only you can decide if you want to put that money into it.

 

[illusionx]

Poiihy, stop messing with it. You confirmed already that both memory module has failed memtest. Replace the ram and we can continue further.

 

[lokster]

replace ram, and your HDD of 30gb is also really really old, maybe it was its time.

 

[poiihy]

How old was your 30GB external? I haven't seen a drive of that size for sale for many years.

It was taken out of an iBook G3 so... Probably 13-14 years old

 

[poiihy]

At this point I think you need access to another Mac to make a bootable USB or external HDD.

Once you have one of those you need to:

Replace the RAM, if both modules are giving errors then replace them.

How old was your 30GB external? I haven't seen a drive of that size for sale for many years.

Then you need to replace the internal drive. Once done you can boot of the USB or bootable external, then format and fresh install of OSX.

I think then you will have a stable system. Only you can decide if you want to put that money into it.

Ok so I switched the RAM modules between the Macbook Pro and the iMac. (they are both the same kind of ram and compatible) Did a test 6 again and no errors. Then did test 6 on the iMac and got errors (88 errors).

Test 6 is Block move, 64-byte blocks.

Now to see if the crashing problem is gone.

 

[poiihy]

MY IMAC CRASHED!!! IT WAS THE RAM!! YAY THANK YOU MACRUMORS IT WAS THAT SIMPLE!!!

Now I need to fix my OS...

 

[simonsi]

MY IMAC CRASHED!!! IT WAS THE RAM!! YAY THANK YOU MACRUMORS IT WAS THAT SIMPLE!!!

Now I need to fix my OS...

Glad you found it.

 

[poiihy]

I fixed my operating system!! All is good now.