[SOLVED] Flashing folder - probably not cable or motherboard..?

[broseph1]

Hi

My macbook have started messing with me (again). I have a new SSD so it's not the problem. I had the flashing folder about two months ago so I changed the SATA cable and it started working again.

A few days ago it started behaving weirdly, took around 5 minutes to start up. I ran a s.m.a.r.t test which gave me a warning about data transfer. I don't remember what it said but I concluded that it was either the cable or the motherboard. So I took it apart and made sure the cable was in place and I also ran apple advanced hardware tests which said that nothing was wrong with the motherboard.

Started it up twice yesterday, first I got the flashing folder and then the startup was like normal. Today, however, it gives me the flashing folder again. So it's working semi-normal (except a little slower than usual) sometimes and sometimes it doesn't work at all.

What could possibly be wrong with my computer? It is an early 2011 13".

 

[BadAsAl]

Have you run fsck -fy?
Have you reset PRAM and SMC?
Also make sure you are not running out of space on the SSD.
If none of this makes a difference...

Take the hard drive out and put it into an external USB caddy. Boot from that and see if it runs normally (albeit a little slower). If it does, it is likely the cable. Just because you replaced it recently means nothing, it could have failed again and this is an easy way to tell. If it doesn't run normally while booted off the USB then you might need to try another hard drive with a fresh install to see if that works normally.