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Level 1

25 points

2009 MacBook Pro Freezing

My macbook pro 15" (june 2009) occasionally freezes for about 30seconds with the "Spinning Beach Ball Of Death". This happens about every 5-10 minutes. All I/O is halted during this soft freeze, causing cause a short bottle neck (eg. Sometimes after freezing during an iChat conversation, all my messages rush in at the same time.) I'm not sure what the issue is.

I've tried disk repair, booting safe mode, and changing energy settings. None of them work. I would like to know standard operating temperatures for each component so that I can monitor my average and peak levels.

Posted on Aug 3, 2009 2:38 PM

39 replies

iBagwan

Level 2

361 points

Oct 14, 2009 10:29 PM in response to Dale Weisshaar

I was having beach balls and stalls 20 to 30 times a day and they were lasting 30 to 60 seconds each time. It was making my computer worthless. I ran the Performance Update 3 hours ago and restarted and haven't had a single beach ball, hesitation or stall since! I really, really, really hope this is the solution that we have all been waiting for. I'm going to give it 24 hours before I call it done!

iBagwan

Level 2

361 points

Oct 15, 2009 4:31 PM in response to J24Keys

Okay, its been almost 12 hours since I did the Performance Update and my mid 2009 17" uMBP is running like a champ! I have had this problem ever since I got this computer so I have never seen it run as it should and it is like a completely different computer! It is so much faster and smoother without hesitation, I believe that it even shuts down faster. I have now run Quicktime movies, VLC movies, iTunes music, I have streamed audio off the internet and not one hesitation or beach ball. I have also run Safari, Quicktime and iTunes at the same time and it is all running smoothly without any glitches. I wish Apple had been a little more forthcoming about this issue so we didn't have to sit around wondering what the problem was but thank goodness they did the update. I hope it works for everyone that has had the beach ball, hesitation and freeze issues!

Oct 20, 2009 12:52 PM in response to J24Keys

mine freezes like death too.... what a rubish machine... my 5th mac and this just *****!!! looks like converting back to pc may be an option with windows 7... i cant use this for anything it makes me look soo stupid, the apple store said theres nothing i can do they all do the same thing.

Oct 20, 2009 1:25 PM in response to notabluemac

I'm curious.

What have you tried in an effort to rid you of this issue?

Dale

Oct 20, 2009 2:20 PM in response to Dale Weisshaar

I have....
Upgraded to snow leopard
Reinstalled the whole os without using my time capsule for restoring data
Turned off time machine
Turned off airport
Turned off mobile me
Changed my energy saver settings
Removed all third party applications ( Microsoft office )
Software update
Turned off bluetooth
Not used data intensive programs ( i.e games )
Checked temperatures

Everything that i was told could be done, but to be honest... its not really the point... do apple not proclaim how easy it is to use there stuff out of the box? Should i really spend 4 days jumping around forums and reinstalling os to get my 1month old macbook to be usable?

Its already cost me a job as i look a complete idiot trying to run a presentation on a macbook that froze 4 times in 1 hour... i have lost my fair in mac's really this will be my fifth mac and it.. well... *****...

Oct 20, 2009 6:27 PM in response to notabluemac

notabluemac wrote:
I have....
Upgraded to snow leopard

Was your Mac acting up before the upgrade? I assume you were running 10.5?

Reinstalled the whole os without using my time capsule for restoring data

Did you do an +Erase and Install+ ?

to be honest... its not really the point... do apple not proclaim how easy it is to use there stuff out of the box?

Yes, but with any technology today, there can be unforseen issues.

Should i really spend 4 days jumping around forums and reinstalling os to get my 1month old macbook to be usable?

No, if it's a month old, Apple should be able to fix it. Ship it to Apple Repair if your store can't fix it?

Its already cost me a job as i look a complete idiot trying to run a presentation on a macbook that froze 4 times in 1 hour...

Sorry to hear that. Let's see what we can do to get you going.

Dale

Oct 29, 2009 1:29 AM in response to notabluemac

I honestly thought I had a lemon of a model.

I'm using the 13" MacBook Pro 2.53GHz, and I've been experiencing freezing for several months now. It has made pretty simple tasks extremely frustrating. Working in PS CS4 only to open another file and the program freeze, or worse... having to do a hard restart.

Like everyone else, I've tried all the suggestions and nothing has helped. Freezing with only two programs open? Common Apple, I know you're better than this.

I hadn't been able to pin point what the exact problem was because I was in denial over the thought of it just freezing, just to do so. I assumed it was Safari at first... then for having it on for a couple of hours, but really it just freezes regardless. I've been trying to put off taking it down to the Apple store because it is a good hour and thirty minute drive.

I set up an appt to have an Apple Expert call me so I can tell him exactly what's up. Hopefully he will tell me something helpful.

Does anyone know the exact cause of this problem? I've read through the reads but it all seems to run together.

Oct 30, 2009 4:10 PM in response to J24Keys

I wrote this below on the other forum.
the symptoms seems similar but not sure if they are the same.
This happens on older Santa Rosa 2.4GH Macbook Pro.
I am just leaving this message because I do not think it happens just on the Macbook Pro 2009.

I suspect Snow Leopard's OpenCL and Graphics driver, which allegedly will be updated on the next point release.

FFS.. this better be fixed; for some reason, it is getting worse and worse.
I feel like my logic board is melting down by this problem.

Now when I try to boot after hard restart, the screen shows broken lines all over and it freezes during the boot up (kernel panic stuff)...

-----

Everyday, at many occasions, I am getting the exact same problem.

I am relieved that others are having the same symptoms... I hope it is something related to software, not hardware that needs pricy replacement. (my warranty had ended)

Maybe, Apple should roll out their Nvidia driver update and SL 10.6.2 update as soon as possible.

the description of symptom:
my screen flicks and shows weird rainbow colors as if the screen is pushed and twisted;
it is similar to the symptoms when you do OVER over-clocking VGA/CPU and screen distort.

Is anyone else getting this symptoms too?
I am still testing but it seems like it happens to me only when I use external monitor.

Thanks,

Oct 30, 2009 5:11 PM in response to Minsoo Kim

Now when I try to boot after hard restart, the screen shows broken lines all over and it freezes during the boot up (kernel panic stuff)...

I'm afraid that's probably due to a hardware malfunction.....not Snow Leopard.

You may be experiencing a Kernel Panic as seen and described in Apple doc.#106227. If not, disregard.

Bad or incompatible RAM is the most common cause of KP's. It could just need to be reset too.

Here's a great site for Resolving Kernel Panics. Please do all the steps in order, even if you don't think you need to do a certain step.
Pay special attention to running your +Apple Hardware Test+ in there.
Here's a great MacFixIt article.

 Good Luck! DALE

2009 MacBook Pro Freezing