Day two w/my MBP: Startup taking 7 minutes and counting

I installed a bunch of applications last night (firefox, chrome, skype, some internet banking thingy) then went to bed without shutting it down. Woke up this morning and I had the beach ball of doom when I woke it back up from sleep. So I did a hard restart and now start times are going on 9.5 minutes. I tried resetting the PRAM and did what the manual told me to do for a restore but the thing would just shut down and not restart.

When my 5 year-old, Tiger, '06 MBP takes less time to start (less than 30 seconds) than my brand-new MBP there has to be something wrong right?

I did some software updates and restarted and start times were something more normal, like less than a minute.

PS: nearly 12 minutes now and still no reaction.

 

Try disk utility and do a disk checkup

Or it's probably a dead HDD, I'd get the 500GB/750GB momentus XT. It's a nice upgrade for the money

 

It sounds like you need to perform an OS re-install. You can boot from the Lion recovery partition on your hard drive and even run the disk utility to make sure the hard drive isn't to blame. Completely format the hard drive (except for that ~600MB partition), re-install Lion, and go from there.

Further encountering the issue would point to a hardware problem but you can't narrow that down until you know that the software (i.e. OS X) isn't to blame. Or you could just take it to your nearest Apple Store if you are still under the one year warranty. They will essentially do the same thing I said along with running some further diagnostics.

 

Doing a reinstall. I guess I'll have to check back once that's done. I have to go to the Apple Store to grab a firewire cable so I can migrate everything over so I guess I'll let the MBP do its thing.

 

Reinstalled OS X (forgot to erase the drive though) and that didn't fix the problem so I checked my hard drive and I got:

Invalid node structure
The volume Macintosh HD was found corrupt and needs to be repaired

And now it's repairing the disk and it keeps saying Invalid record count with an occasional Invalid node structure.

Did I screw something up?

 

Sounds like the drive is bad. I'd return it for a different one.

 

I wiped the drive and now it shows to be OK though....I'm gonna try reinstalling again and if that doesn't work out I'll have to take it in to get fixed.

 

I think there's something wrong with my internet or something. My MBP keeps saying it can't download the additional components for OS X Lion.

 

Well, if that is during the setup process, I would say that it is normal. My early 2011 13" MBP said the same thing during clean installs of OS X Lion. It would find my wi-fi network but never actually connect to it until after Lion was fully setup and running.

 

It was in the process of setup, right after you click "agree" to the EULA. It tries to download a few times and then tells me it can't. I tried it on ethernet and get the same thing. What gives?

If I can't get this thing taken care of tonight, I'll have to take it in to the service center. I basically have a brand-new laptop with no recovery DVD, no operating system, that has problems staying online and I can't figure out. Looovely.

 

So it won't let you go beyond that screen? Well, seeing as it isn't connected to your wi-fi network, I don't think that would be the issue. You could always unplug your wi-fi router and try to continue the setup process. Either way, I don't think it is vastly important that Lion downloads those updated files in order for the setup process to continue so I don't know why it would be a problem.

 

I meant it went to the page where it says it's downloading additional components for OS X Lion and then the countdown would go to zero, start back up at 20 minutes and then go to zero again like four times before it gives up and says it can't.

I went to the service center this morning and I tried the whole process again. They tried downloading the files from an external drive and it still didn't work so they suspect it's some kind of hardware failure. It's in for repairs...

I wouldn't figure Apple to be spiteful enough to send all the lemons to Amazon, but I sort of suspect that now. Complicating matters is the fact that I'm out of the country right now and I can't exactly return it to Amazon Would Apple replace it if it did turn out to be a lemon or do I have to go through Amazon? Maybe should have bought through Apple

 

I don't know if Apple would give you a whole new model. I can tell you that their policy for iDevices doesn't have them giving out new models. Instead, if it can't be repaired, they will give you a refurbished unit. I don't think Apple would give out a whole new MBP unless you purchased it from them and fell within the return period. Otherwise I think you have to go through the repair process. I could be wrong on this though and that would be a question to ask the person at the Apple Store where your MBP is currently being serviced.

 

Perhaps I could just get Amex to give me a refund and let them deal with Apple should that ever be a problem. Macs have been pretty reliable for me so I don't suspect it will be, but we'll see.

 

Sounds convoluted.

 

If it's a faulty HDD, you don't need a whole new computer. A replaced HDD would solve the problem 100%. I'd try dealing with Apple first. I'd assume the warranty is an Apple warranty even when purchased from Amazon (just as you have a warranty with a car manufacturer, not the local auto dealer, when you buy a car from the dealership).

 

The warranty's definitely with Apple of course. The thing's like a week old. I guess I do have Amex as a backup though.

 

It's not really a lemon if it has a defective component causing a problem. Just have them replace the component. It's not like a custom made suit.

 

It is if the same component fails a billion times though

 

sure, but you saw the problem and sent it in for repair. it should be fine.

 

If you bought it from the Apple store and it's less than 2 weeks old, you should be able to return it for a refund or exchange it for a brand new one.

 

The apple geniuses have been fantastic since they opened stores here in orlando. I'm surprised they didn't just slap in a new drive... they're probably stress testing all of your components to make sure its not another issue causing write errors

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

The service center guys here are a dream to work with. I took my laptop in on friday and got a text on monday telling me it's ready for pickup. I couldn't go during the week (as it's an hour each way) but I'll be picking it up tomorrow morning.

 

That it's akward considering you just bought a brand new (expensive, top notch, apple, suppossed to be tested prior selling) laptop. Mine is on the way and i crossing my finger to get a fully funtional unit.

Tell us what whos the faulty hardware that caused this problem.