OS X – Lined rectangle following cursor and freeze
Alright, what is going on here? My MacBook Pro is not in a happy state. Starting last night, it has been doing a strange crash. Here’s what happens:
- The computer becomes unresponsive to any clicks, and a rectangle of horizontal lines follows the cursor.
- Cursor becomes beach ball, and at some point the rectangle disappears.
I can’t force quit or anything; I can only force a shutdown by holding the power button. Since the whole system becomes unresponsive, and there are those funny lines, I’m thinking it’s a kernel panic.
At first I thought this was no big deal, and somewhat of a mixed blessing. It was about time I did a clean install of the system, for instance I had completely killed Spotlight a few months ago and was looking forward to getting it back. However, I’m afraid this issue may be independent of the system software. I started up from an installation disk, and before I could even complete the first step, choosing a language, I saw the dreaded lines. This happens both when booting from the hard drive and from the CD, so that can’t be good.
Here’s a picture:
Any Apple geeks know what this is? I usually know what’s up when I take my computer to Apple, so I can confidently say that it’s a hardware issue and I won’t let them waste our time trying to run Disk Utility or reformatting my hard drive.
Fortunately, this thing should still be under AppleCare (always a good buy on a laptop or monitor), so I might even get a free upgrade out of this. But I don’t like being without my personal laptop, and as nice and knowledgeable as the Genius Bar people are, I really really hate the experience and guaranteed 20+ minute wait after my scheduled time.
I went to the Apple Store tonight and explained that it did this when booting from the hard drive or DVD. The genius hooked up their external hard drive to boot from that, and I was of course worried that they would just reinstall my OS and say that everything was fine. And usually when I go to the Apple Store, my computer will act perfectly, and even dance if you ask it to, making me look like a fool. [1] [2]
But this time, even as I was starting to explain that the computer may have to run for an hour before it freezes, the system just booted to a blue screen and didn’t even make it to the login prompt. They’re ordering a new logic board.
Comment by Wysz — December 5, 2008 @ 11:57 pm
I too have this same problem.
A rectangle occurs near the mouse cursor and the system freezes.
Funny that it happens not only in MACOSX but also in Ubuntu 8.10 which I have as dual boot.
I shut down and reset using cmd+option+P+R during boot. Its working fine till now (1 hour) after doing that.
Shiva
Comment by Shiva — December 22, 2008 @ 8:30 am
Hi there,
Did the logic board change sorted your problem ? …. I having the same issue with my Macbook Pro Core duo of 2006 and no apple care (I know I am a fool ! I guess this is the hard way to learn).
I would not be surprised if a mac logic board is worth the price of full PC….
Take care
Comment by Eric — January 4, 2010 @ 9:08 am
I finally took my macbook pro to an apple store. As dreaded it is a problem from the ATI X1600 . I tried calling apple but they apparently decided that it was tough luck. It is really annoying to loose your computer on a flawed hardware coming from original design (overheating of this machine is already quite unpleasant). I have to say that I was a bit naive thinking that buying a high end product from apple was like an investment. At the end of the day, I may as well by a PC every year….
So new logic board for 500 euros that could fail again in 3 months or brand new PC guaranty one year …. Too bad apple does not seem to make any effort to keep its customer happy…. from quality by design to pure branding that seems to be the way…
Good luck with your machine…. because apparently that’s what matter…. luck
Comment by Eric — January 15, 2010 @ 6:41 am
I just started having this problem on my MacBook Pro 15 2 GHz about 1 month AFTER having the motherboard replaced for a different problem (the fans stopped working). I had it checked at the Genius Bar & they said they could find no hardware problem. It worked for a couple of days and now has started flaking out again intermittently. Genius Bar told me to do a clean OS install, but it sounds like that’s not going to help based on comments here. Would love to know if anyone has solved this problem. If in fact it’s the motherboard, mine should still be under warranty.
Thanks for any info on this
Comment by Susan — January 26, 2010 @ 4:27 pm
To answer Eric and Susan, I had Apple replace my motherboard under warranty and it has been working ever since.
Comment by Wysz — January 26, 2010 @ 4:48 pm