Q: MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze

In my instance it seems to be an integrated effect. I encoded a movie with Handbreak and ran six instances of VLC. This caused it to freeze after about 10 minutes or so. Instead, I ran a backup and that froze after 1.5 hours. Then doing nothing over night froze it after 8 hours. So pegging the cpu seems to speed up the process.

I've got a phone call scheduled for 3pm est to discuss this with Apple.

Hmmm, keep us updated because when I run CoverScout, my computer freezes in about 5min.

Can anyone run Windows 7 Experience Index using VMware fusion without it crashing? It crashes for me every time when it tries to do the Aero graphics test.

Ok I just got off the phone with apple. Evidently their phone system isn't day light savings time complaint. So if you setup a call and they don't phone you on time, just give them an hour. I called them at 3.30 and the guy I got a hold of said he couldn't help me debug it if it wasn't frozen right then. I tried to explain to him that if it was frozen I couldn't do anything to debug. So I agreed to freeze it and call back. While I was in the process of freezing it, I got a call and spoke with someone who seemed to have a slightly better understanding of the concept of 'non-responsive even after several hours of waiting'. So along with these steps:

- resetting the pram AltCmd+pr at boot
- shiftctl+altpower (3 seconds)
- boot off of OS install disk -> disk utility -> repair disk permissions
- clean install+updates-> confirm freez

he had me do the following:
Stick in the Application disk that came with the computer and boot into the diagnostics (hold down 'd' while booting). Then:

- run the quick test (a few seconds)
- run the extended test (it's running now and can take several hours)

If you're going to call apple, you might as well do everything above (because they will tell you to do it anyway :)).

I'm waiting on the result of my extended test, then I'm going to call them back.

Hi John,

When your doing the hardware test in quick or extended did you have the power plugged in ?
Try Booting up into AHT (D key) & *make sure you have the battery 20% to 70% Charged and the power connector is in charging the mac* (not an already charged mac). Then do the std test and repeat a few more times without restarting - Do you get an error such as- tmp' error ??

I'm on the phone with them right now, and I finally got escalated up to the next level. After I get off the phone I'll try it out under those conditions.

I got a crash this morning when trying to wake it from sleep. The screen went nuts; black columns at (approximately) every second line of pixels across it, alternating grey areas and black areas, the impression of a menu bar at the top. All looked very much like a graphics card crash/issue to me. Something was still responding, as the keyboard backlight could still be adjusted, and to start with, pressing the arrow keys repeatedly would result in a system alert beep (though I don't know why).

Cmd-opt-esc did nothing.
Cmd-ctrl-power for a few seconds restarted it and it seems normal now.

Waiting to see whether it happens again. After reading this thread, I'll try to ssh to it if it does.

New 2011 top-end 15" standard.

alvinzho wrote:
Can anyone run Windows 7 Experience Index using VMware fusion without it crashing? It crashes for me every time when it tries to do the Aero graphics test.

[It ran fine for me|http://home.earthlink.net/~kfscoll/images/VMWareFusion_pre_WinUpdate.JPG]. I just installed VMWare Fusion and Windows 7, so I haven't run Windows Update yet. I'll post back after I update windows.

FWIW, the VMWare Fusion video drivers SUCK.

You may already know this stuff, but just in case

Make sure you have remote login enabled:

System Preferences => Sharing => check Remote Login

Also figure out which ip address you have as well.

[It also ran fine|http://home.earthlink.net/~kfscoll/images/VMWareFusion_post_WinUpdate.JPG] after I installed all 70+ Windows updates. And the video drivers still really suck.

{quote}Under normal use I have not had any issues but when testing StarCraft II and Minecraft, I will randomly incur a lockup where only the pointer is usable. In some situations I can play for hours without issue but in others it won't even take 5 minutes for a lockup to occur. {quote}

this, in addition to the garbled display issue is sounding more and more like the graphics chipset is overheating. Could also be a driver issue however. My MBP is arriving in a few hours, looks like I'll have to do a thorough burn-in to make sure all is A.O.K. :\

Hey Folks

Ok I spoke with them, and I asked the guy I was escalated up to if this was a problem they were seeing a lot of. He said that was not the case. I told him if this was something that was going to be fixed in a couple days with a firmware update or a new driver then I would wait. He he said he didn't have any reason to expect that. So, some of you can wait if you want, but my return box is on the way.


WRT the diagnostics with my battery at ~40% I didn't get those messages Nicholas.

Are you using the ATI 6750 or the 6490? I am on 6750.

I'm on the 6750 also.

Well, let us know the results of your new machine but just so you know: Every person on this thread who returned theirs for a new machine experienced the same exact problems.