Rensoom

Q: MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze

Overheat? The fans revved and suddenly I could use nothing but the cursor. Had to hold down the power switch to kill all and then re-power & startup. I wasn't doing anything unusual, but I had 7 apps open and was amid an auto-backup to TimeMachine.

Just a little disillusioned and concerned, wondering if anyone else there has experienced a hard freeze like this.

macbook pro 17" 2011, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Mar 1, 2011 11:15 AM

Close

Q: MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

first Previous Page 131 of 153 last Next
  • by bastienvans,

    bastienvans bastienvans Aug 19, 2013 3:55 AM in response to walkietokyo
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 19, 2013 3:55 AM in response to walkietokyo

    Add me to the list... my mbp 15 started crapping out a week ago and now I can't even boot.

  • by walkietokyo,

    walkietokyo walkietokyo Aug 19, 2013 4:38 AM in response to bastienvans
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 19, 2013 4:38 AM in response to bastienvans

    I've contacted Apple on this page: http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookpro.html

    I suggest everyone with this issue to do the same. Describe the model and year of MacBook Pro you have, and detailing the issues.

     

    Then point to this and other threads where users are saying the exact same thing, and try to convey that this is a big, systematic issue that Apple should fix under an extended warranty program.

     

    It sure seems like this is a case of poor build quality, and they need to be made aware of it.

     

    Apple had a similar issue with 2011 iMacs which they recently announced that they will fix under extended warranty.

  • by Heidarson,

    Heidarson Heidarson Aug 19, 2013 5:18 AM in response to Robk93
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 19, 2013 5:18 AM in response to Robk93

    Robk93: I also used to think that my computer was unbootable. It would rarely boot up, and when I managed to boot up, if I used gfxCardStatus to switch to integrated GPU, there was a pretty big chance the computer would crash. However, since a month ago I figured out how to get my computer working again.

     

    Basically, when I restart the computer, it gets stuck on the white/grey screen and the fans go crazy. I used to freak out and turn the computer off. Now, instead I let the computer continue like this (fans spinning hard) for a few minutes until the computer shuts itself off. The next time I turn on the computer, the computer boots up without a problem. This process has to be repeated every time the computer is restarted. This way, I get my computer up and running 9 cases out of 10. Every now and then the computer puts up a bit more fight, but its rare. It's been working predictably for a month or so now, so much that I even successfully updated my OS the other day.

     

    Not sure what is going on there. Perhaps there is a overheating failsafe mechanism that is remembered on the next boot.

     

    Of course, once back on the desktop, I have to be quick to deactivate the discrete GPU with gfxCardStatus. Since I started using this procedure, gfxCardStatus won't crash the computer anymore, at all.

  • by Robk93,

    Robk93 Robk93 Aug 19, 2013 9:35 AM in response to Heidarson
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 19, 2013 9:35 AM in response to Heidarson

    Well I figured that out too a while ago, but it won't do that anymore either

     

    Maybe because I claened the fans and re-applied thermal paste like it's supposed to be, the laptop stays cool enough now.

  • by Kristian_F,

    Kristian_F Kristian_F Aug 19, 2013 11:36 AM in response to Robk93
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 19, 2013 11:36 AM in response to Robk93

    For real,

     

    when I disassembled my my MacBook (2011) it was taken over 100x of times of the cooling paste.

     

    And it was a malfunctioning in the FoxConn factory.

     

    Look at the start of this topic.

     

    When I disassembled my 15" MBP and cleared whole CPU & GPU element and added a just a drop Arctic Silver between the prosessors and between the cooling element, my MBP has done allthing right.

     

    Ask You local PC-repair to fix the problem or cry for the end.

     

    <Edited By Host>

  • by Robk93,

    Robk93 Robk93 Aug 19, 2013 12:47 PM in response to Kristian_F
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 19, 2013 12:47 PM in response to Kristian_F

    You misunderstood me I think

     

    I already re-applied my coolpaste, using Arcticlean first and then filling it back up with Arctic Silver 5

     

    I'm affraid I was just too late I did not know it was that bad untill I started googling hard since my graphics problems came along.

  • by DreamEnder,

    DreamEnder DreamEnder Aug 19, 2013 1:09 PM in response to Rensoom
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 19, 2013 1:09 PM in response to Rensoom

    I'm joining the club. My MacBook Pro 2011 15 inch just died. It's not even two years old.

  • by Robk93,

    Robk93 Robk93 Aug 19, 2013 2:35 PM in response to Rensoom
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 19, 2013 2:35 PM in response to Rensoom

    Okay, somehow my machine came back to life, switching to the discrete card doesn't make it crash anymore.

     

    The only thing I did was replacing the paste, and then after 3 days of failure, now it suddenly works again.

    I notice that the overall temperatures have decreased by at least 5 to a staggering 25 degrees on different components. It was equally loaded as when I measured it before applying new paste.

     

    However, the laptop still crashes when stressing the 6750m, so it's not all over yet...

    The wierd thing is that the GPU doesn't exceed 75°, where I recall that GPU's are very likely to be 80-90° when stressing it and can even withstand temperatures up to 120-130 degrees.

     

     

    This really is getting wierder every day. But no matter what, there's a big problem with apple's cooling paste and GPU's in the 2011 MBP's

  • by saramwrap,

    saramwrap saramwrap Aug 19, 2013 3:41 PM in response to Kristian_F
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 19, 2013 3:41 PM in response to Kristian_F

    I'd be very cautious about replacing the thermal paste, especially on the heels of the iMac recall.  If they begin a replacement program for affected 2011 MacBook Pros, replacing that paste (or having someone else do it who is not an Apple Authorized Service Provider) may cost you the opportunity to have Apple replace your chip or logic board. 

     

    We don't know exactly what is going wrong with these AMD GPUs, even as the iMac recall make it much more clear that they are the likely culprit.  While the messy, uneven gobs of thermal paste seem like a  plausible contributor to the problem, the chips themselves may have inherent defects... or be irrevocably damaged due to long-term heat issues.  I am very curious about what the iMac repair program is doing - new logic boards, new chips, or something else?

     

    Any warranty-voiding repair is something to think about very carefully before doing.  New thermal paste won't revive a damaged or dead chip, but it may keep Apple from servicing your machine in the future... and it may especially keep them from doing it for free, should that offer appear soon.

  • by Karl Ihrig,

    Karl Ihrig Karl Ihrig Aug 20, 2013 7:18 AM in response to saramwrap
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 20, 2013 7:18 AM in response to saramwrap

    Thanks saramwrap.  From what I have seen on the web, reflowing solder on the BGA and replacing the thermal paste are temporary fixes.  I also agree that we don't know what is wrong.  Previously Apple had named a GPU manufacturer at fault.  However, I am sure the manufacturers didn't like that, and asked Apple to play together.  I dont' think it is likely to get answers.  However, Apple does offer depot repair, and I believe it is better than DIY without sufficient information to achieve a permenant fix.

     

    To make a long story short.  I paid the $310 for repair in April for my 15" MBP i7 with ATI and Apple replaced the logic board and RAM (giving back my old RAM), and it worked for a month.  In June Apple replaced the logic board and RAM again, under 90 day warrantee of the repair.  That worked for two days.  I brought it back.  Apple sent it back for repair again, saying it would go for a higher level of repair, and they refunded the original repair price.  (I used the refund to buy an 11" Air.)  The third repair, they replaced the logic board, the keyboard, aluminum case (not screen or bottom lid), and I bought a new power supply.  (They accepted taking my computer without my hard disk.)  In this process, I did not have to argue with Apple.

     

    Although I haven't used it a lot, my MBP has been operating daily for a month, and I have done heavy processing using all i7 core capacity of the MBP for more than three hours strait.

     

    For $310 you can put your MBP in a repair cycle until Apple fixes it, and Apple might even return the repair price.

  • by saramwrap,

    saramwrap saramwrap Aug 20, 2013 8:46 AM in response to Karl Ihrig
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 20, 2013 8:46 AM in response to Karl Ihrig

    They actually do name a manufacturer and chip at fault in the 2011 27" iMac replacement program:

     

    Apple has determined that some AMD Radeon HD 6970M video cards used in 27-inch iMac computers with 3.1GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 or 3.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processors may fail, causing the computer’s display to appear distorted, white or blue with vertical lines, or to turn black. iMac computers with affected video cards were sold between May 2011 and October 2012.

     

    What has concerned me about Apple's regular or depot repairs is that I know they both have a tendency towards using refurbished parts... so if GPU issues are one of the main reasons that people return our models for repair, and the issues are apparently hard for Apple to diagnose, why should I expect that any of the replacement logic boards that I get from Apple or depot repair service aren't going to have the same issues sooner or later?  If they fail more than 90 days after the repair, they're no longer covered by the parts warranty on the repair.  As far as I know, they don't replace individual chips, so they haven't been swapping fresh new GPUs into the mix when I get replacement logic boards. This is what I'm really curious about with the iMac program - if they know that the chips "fail," I assume they're replacing chips with new ones?

     

    I have hope for a program for our models, but I also know that many other product lines seem to have widespread GPU issues that haven't been addressed.  The 2011 27" iMac threads are full of posters with models that have a different chip and the same problem, and Apple hasn't recalled their computers...

  • by Karl Ihrig,

    Karl Ihrig Karl Ihrig Aug 20, 2013 9:41 AM in response to saramwrap
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 20, 2013 9:41 AM in response to saramwrap

    If you have to go through multiple replacements in both the recall and depot repair, the difference is $310 for the first two tries, which may be refunded on the third try.  So the choice is wait for a recall, or lend Apple $310 to get service now.

     

    If everyone put their 2011 MBP lemons through depot repair, that will get Apple's attention.  I am sure three repairs costs Apple more than replacing the computer.  (Apple shipped my laptop express 8 times, replaced the logic board 3 times and the case once.)

  • by gammapoint,

    gammapoint gammapoint Aug 20, 2013 12:41 PM in response to Karl Ihrig
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 20, 2013 12:41 PM in response to Karl Ihrig

    Went yesterday, gave it for repairs for $310 to the Apple Store.

     

    Yesterday night read this thread.

     

    The solutions with gfxCardStatus don't seems to provide a seemless use of MBP. People have issues, it seems, I decided to continue the reapair.

     

    Can someone confirm that external display can't be used if gfxCardStatus is used to stop the discreate card?

     

    early 2011 MBP 15" 2GHZ.

     

     

    Sent the feedback to Apple. Thanks for the link.

     

    http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookpro.html

  • by Karl Ihrig,

    Karl Ihrig Karl Ihrig Aug 20, 2013 1:11 PM in response to gammapoint
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 20, 2013 1:11 PM in response to gammapoint

    Gammapoint, I couldnn't use the external monitor under any cicumstances with Mountain Lion when my early 2011 15" MBP was crashing.  The first Apple Store genius used an external monitor to verify the graphics card. 

     

    gfxCardStatus can't hold the computer in integrated only against the requirements of some applicaitons.  I actually set mine in dedicated only mode to prevent switching.  http://gfx.io/switching.html

  • by Puresoundguitar,

    Puresoundguitar Puresoundguitar Oct 21, 2013 2:46 PM in response to Rensoom
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Notebooks
    Oct 21, 2013 2:46 PM in response to Rensoom

    Sorry for the long post, but another user here with the same problem.

     

    Just sent the following email to Tim Cook... Desperate attempt, really...we'll see.

     

    Start of email message:

     

    Unfortunately I'm having the same issues as dozens of other people.


    The computer won't boot; after being connected to an external monitor, I get a black screen and/or a distorted screen. Hard reset is necessary to reboot.

    Now it doesn't even boot, as it freezes on a grey screen.

    I've taken it to an Apple Store, to be told that the computer is out of warranty thus having to pay 650$ for Logic Board replacement.

     

     

    This is a common problem among MacBook Pro users, please see the following links:

    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4766577?start=225&tstart=0

     


       https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2768351?start=1950&tstart=0

     

     

    I've tried this:

     

    I've disabled the discrete GPU in my MBP by moving the kernel extension that controls it.  Here's how:

    In Terminal:

    > mkdir DisabledExtensions

    > cd /System/Library/Extensions

    > sudo mv ATIRadeonX3000.kext ~/DisabledExtensions

    > sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions

     

    ATIRadeonX3000.kext appears to be the only extension that I  needed to move to disable the ATI Radeon 6490M GPU.  There are a bunch of other extensions that seem to affect other graphics functions (and many of them aren't actually being used).  Disabling some of the others caused a kernel panic.  This means that my discrete GPU is disabled at startup, so I'm no longer having boot problems.

     

    This proves that there's an issue with the integrated graphics card...

     

    On top of this, apparently Apple has started a replacement program for 27" iMacs that show the exact same symptoms as my own Macbook.

     

    http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5167?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

     

    I would appreciate any feedback on this, as I feel that a Warranty extension (and eventually a full replacement) should be applied.

     

    There are users who claim that their Logic Board has been replaced up to 4 times and the problem keeps coming back...

     

    I sincerely thank you for your time, and I hope that you can do something that will allow me to fully enjoy the "Apple - it just works" slogan...

     

    End of email.

     

    Sad really, if this stays like this it will be my last Mac that's for sure.

     

    <Link Edited by Host>

first Previous Page 131 of 153 last Next