Level 1

0 points

MacBook Pro (2010) Freeze

Anyone else with the new i7 MBP experiencing a hard freeze? No Grey Screen of Death, just freezing screen and input. Only remedy is to hold the power button to cycle the power.

It has frozen twice in the last week. Both times the machine was on battery power and certainly not under load - just light browsing, no gaming.

Just curious if this is going to be a longer term problem...

[System]
Model Identifier: MacBookPro6,2
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
Memory: 8 GB

[Serial ATA]
Model: APPLE SSD TS512B
Revision: AGAA0206

MacBook Pro (2010), Mac OS X (10.6.3), Intel Core i7 2.66, Apple 512GB SSD

Posted on May 3, 2010 1:56 PM

1,712 replies

Mar 31, 2011 4:07 AM in response to joethefox

joethefox wrote:
GUYS GOT IT I can reproduce the freeze every time I want:

1. Start a time machine backup
2. During Time Machine if I close the LID, go to apple>Sleep or CMD ALTEJECT the system absolutely freeze. Every time. No logs in system logs.

I tested this on my MBP i7 and my iMac i7, both have no trouble waking up and immediately resume the backup without problems.

Mar 31, 2011 4:13 AM in response to Kevenly

Kevenly wrote:
but if I use MAC OS X with automatic graphics switching turned on, I will get freezes. I think it's the Intel graphics because Windows doesn't use the Intel graphics, and the Mac only uses it with AGS enabled.

It might be the intel graphics (so you may want to replace your logic board). It could also be RAM (since the intel card shares the system RAM while the GT 300M card has its own VRAM), but I guess that's ruled out by the fact that your system is stable if it only runs on the GT 300M card. Another possibility is that you have migrated from an older system and carry with you some old system extensions that do harm (e.g. my daughter's flawless 2007 macbook got unstable after installing Snow Leopard - until I removed the remnants of an old Parallels installation).

jtweezy

Level 1

0 points

Mar 31, 2011 7:02 AM in response to Artitron

So after talking to a friend of mine who owns the model previous to the mid-2010 MBP (NVIDIA but no automatic graphics switching) I've concluded that Apple most likely swapped my logic board, probably out of good will, and without telling me. Reason why I think they swapped boards is because my Logitech MX Revolution mouse never worked (and confirmed at the Genius Bar) with my laptop prior to dropping off the laptop for the graphics freeze issue. When I got it back the mouse worked. The Apple tech told me that it was most likely the USB dongle didn't work with the logic board because he looked at the system level and saw that the USB dongle was not even recognized. So please disregard the statements about my laptop "magically" working after Apple wiped it and reinstalled the OS...it's probably more accurate to say that replacing the logic board is a fix for this issue.

ragtag_2

Level 1

0 points

Mar 31, 2011 8:37 AM in response to jtweezy

Went to Apple store yesterday - Think I got "the guy" that deals with people with these issues as I added in the problem on the booking form. He ran a system scan - nothing wrong of course. Then said I should reinstall OSX.

When I explained the issue and mentioned about this and other threads he said he had never heard of it, but couldn't look at me when he said it. I really think they know there is an issue but not publicly acknowledging it after the previous issue and group action.

For me I have gone back to 10.6.4 - leaving it here to see how it goes. I do remember commenting on twitter that I had issues after installing the AppStore and so far for a week I've not had any issues. But who knows.. it will probably happen again.

Judda

Level 1

45 points

Apr 4, 2011 3:38 PM in response to Artitron

This huge thread was an interesting find. I've been having odd freezes, spinning balls doing some of the most simple tasks. I don't remember having this trouble with my Macbook SR 2007. I have only had my MacBook Pro 2.66 C2D 2010 13" for a short time and from day one I have had delayed keyboard input, spinning balls and trouble waking up having closed the lid. I get a freeze, no track pad input possible. Sometimes it will clear after 30 seconds or so, others I have to hard reset. I have taken all steps. Reset PRAM, SMC. Booted from system disk and repaired HDD with disk utility (as per recommendation from Apple tech support), installed fresh from installer disks but still I get the freeze. It's totally intermittent so the chances of this happening when I need it too are pretty slim I reckon. I see most of this thread is about the i Intel series, but this machine is most definitely not what I would expect for such an expensive machine. I must admit I did not read the entire thread as it's too long! Do these symptoms sound the same to everybody? Cheers.

Kevenly

Level 1

25 points

Apr 4, 2011 4:35 PM in response to Espen Vestre

System migration can be ruled out as it was a fresh system from the factory from time of purchase (early December 2010), which was either 10.6.5 or 10.6.6, don't remember. The 10.6.7 update was applied when that came out. I reinstalled the system of course as part of standard troubleshooting.

deseomar

Level 1

5 points

Apr 6, 2011 12:13 PM in response to Kevenly

[HELLO]

My 15" MBP (June 2010) started showing these same symptoms; randomly freezing with a black screen without any pattern or apparent cause. Could lock up in 2 minutes, or two hours. I attempted all the troubleshooting techniques posted in this discussion forum and in others. Nothing worked, even re-installing OSX on a clean HD showed the same symptoms within one hour. This was the least preferred step, but at least it identified the Hardware as the cause of the issue and NOT the software.

[Update]
I took it to Apple store, had diagnostic run on it. No apparent error message that the Genius could identify. They are going to repair it for zero cost under the one year warranty.

I hope that the issue is fixed, and that the Laptop remains stable. Reading multiple discussion entries about "Logic Board" replacements and issues after the warranty expires is quite concerning for me. This is my first Mac Computer and my first experience with Apple Service. While I'm not terribly impressed, I'm not disappointed either. This was my first experience with Apple Customer care. I won't know if I'm satisfied until I get my MBP back and it works like it's supposed to.

[Update]
Laptop has yet to return. Return status is stuck in a circular loop. The repair was completed, but it's not shipped back yet.

Apr 8, 2011 7:41 AM in response to Artitron

Hello again everybody!

Well i returned my labtop after some freezes with a strange pattern on the screen (see previous post).

They changed my logic board (again!), and for now, it seemed to have solved it. I have had it for 24 hours now, and now freeze or error yet..

Have a nice weekend!

Judda

Level 1

45 points

Apr 8, 2011 8:05 AM in response to joethefox

Thats it! Exactly it! Just tried that and had to hard reset my machine. I wouldn't intentionally shut the lid if I knew it was backing up timemachine, but obviously you don't always look at these things and can't sit around waiting for them to finish!

deseomar

Level 1

5 points

Apr 11, 2011 9:44 AM in response to deseomar

[UPDATE]
My MBP was returned via fedEx the other day with the logic board, RAM, SuperDrive, and hi-res display replaced on it. Booted up fine and even transferred a full TimeMachine backup. System has been up and running for over 24 hours without an issue.

Thanks, Apple!

socal16

Level 1

8 points

Apr 13, 2011 10:21 AM in response to Artitron

I thought I'd share my experience and what I've noticed with my recent freezes. My symptoms is that it would completely freeze, but I don't see spinning wheel or distorted screen. All I see is my screen right before the lockup. I cannot move my mouse or do anything until a hard reset.

Anyways, Applecare told me to keep Activity Monitor running to try and capture state of machine during the freeze. I was able to see my System Memory status in 2 seperate freezes. Both times, I noticed that I had a Page Out of 640 Kb and Swap Used of about 4.0 MB. These numbers were both zero right before the freeze.

This is very strange because I still have 1.63 GB of Free Memory. The Swap and Page Outs should not be used until all Free Memory is used up, then the system will Swap out the memory (in theory).

My feeling (and that of the Apple store tech) is that the system is locking up during the process of this memory swap. I have taken my system in for repair at the Apple Store and they said they will sawp out the memory unit to see if it fixes the problem. Next step for them would be to replace the logic board. I'll post an update when I get my system back.

socal16

Level 1

8 points

Apr 15, 2011 9:45 AM in response to Artitron

A quick update to all those that are interested...

I got my laptop back last night. AppleCare ran full hardware tests on my system and said they found nothing wrong. So they performed a "Software Repair Level 1". I didn't have time to argue with the guy so I took my laptop and went home. I have experienced 2 freezes last night alone. Needless to say I was pretty ****** off. Those AppleCare techs don't know sh*t. I have NEVER experienced the level of freezes that I have with this laptop. Something is wrong with it and Apple is trying to avoid fixing it under warranty.

I am taking it back to them later today.

Lance000

Level 1

6 points

Apr 20, 2011 1:25 PM in response to Artitron

Is this only affecting 2010 MBPs or also the 2011 macbook pros?

Apr 25, 2011 6:26 AM in response to Kevenly

I started having freezing problems last week after an update.... Is there any possibility for this to be a problem with the MAC OS ??? My conection falls and then my screen freezes and I have to restart on the power button... I do not receive any message when it restarts... only keep on freezing...

This problem started after the last security update for safari that I did last week..

Basically I'm using a Macbook pro 13"

2,4ghz

4gb memory

and airport express as router..

I do not have a back up

Apr 25, 2011 9:59 AM in response to Artitron

Hey all, I think my freezing problem has been fixed and I wanted to share the solution. It won't apply to everyone here but might help some people.

I had months of intermittent freezes that could only be fixed by hard resets. I couldn't tie it to any particular application or activity; it's happened during startup as well. After some time of this, my AirPort card completely conked out—"no AirPort card installed." I noticed that after that happened I didn't have a single freeze. So I took it to the Genius Bar and they replaced the AirPort card (under warranty), and after having it back it hasn't frozen at all yet. My guess, which I hope is correct, is that I had a faulty AirPort card which, though it worked for a long time, was messed up enough to cause the whole system to freeze. So for those of you still looking for the problem, see if you can reproduce it with AirPort off, and if you can't, maybe this is your answer.

Good luck! This is a terribly annoying problem and I'll be thrilled if mine is indeed totally solved.

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MacBook Pro (2010) Freeze