MacBook Pro (2010) Freeze

Got my new 17" i7 last week. I have had 5 freezes so far, mouse moves for a few seconds then nothing until it comes back 10 minutes later. I hope they release a fix soon...spending $3000 for a non-usable laptop is frustrating!

For some reason my earlier posting was deleted, so I'll give it another go.

These "system freezes" might be related to the graphic switching.

My freezes happens under both OSX and Win7, but the system only recovers under OSX after between 10-15 min.

The other day my Win7 appeared to freeze up. After waiting 10 minuttes I hard-rebooted the computer. I was supprised to see in the Windows log, that the system had logged everything while the computer appeared frozen ... as if it continued to run in the background.

Mayde the issue is, that it is in fact the wrong graphic chip sending the signal to the screen. Let's say that the system switches to the NVidia chipset, but the intel chipset keeps pumping the picture to the screen. Then the system would appear frozen, while in fact running in the background on the other chipset.

This would explain why the system regain control after 10-15 min ... this would be when the control is passed back to the intel-chipset.

Any thoughts on this?

I am also having the same problem. I had 3 lockups already, where the computer carries on (itunes plays, etc) but the screen is frozen. I suspect is GPU related. I've just tried turning off the GPU switching to see if that makes it stop.

I have never been patient enough to wait 15 minutes to see if I could recover from it, I will wait and report back next time it happens.

No panic or kernel log entries... The only solution seems to be a hard power-off by holding the power button. I really hope this can be fixed with a firmware update, I can't afford sending the computer in to get it fixed right now.

The same thing is happening to me.

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro6,1
Processor Name: Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 2.53 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 4 GB

It happens when I'm running low on RAM. I think it's the graphics switching.
I used to be able to run VMWare fusion with 2 GB set for the image and have no problems. I run it now, and try to do anything else, the memory gets practically full and freezes the computer. I've never waited 15 minutes and it's never been hot. I've turned off the graphics switching, that seems to have solved it, for now. Yet another reason to dislike integrated graphics!!!

So, right now, my first one happened.
I've an i7 with HDD500GB@7200rpm, screen HR AG, 4GB RAM.
I was programming with xCode. Everything freezed.
Just mouse worked, and nothing more (well, screen turned of too, and bluetooth worked to, cause I conected my magic mouse).
No window moving, no mouse click, no terminal, no keyboard, nothing...

Suddenly, after 10 minutes, PAM!
Everything happend in a eye blink! ti ta ti ata ti ta! Everything I done during the freezing time, happend on the same time. And then, everything worked fine, like nothing happened.

I've paid 2000$ or more (accesory) for this machine.
I need it for job, and because I'm an Apple Developer.
I recived this machine, past week Wednesday, so Tuesday 11th, it's the last "14 magical days" day.
If they work tomorrow, I'm gonna open an RMA before 5pm. If they dont work tomorrow (Saturday), on monday I'll do it.
This machine gives me no more trust. It'll fly to Cupertino, pretty fast. Belive me.

It's SAD that Apple made a pretty big mistake like this. So sad.
This have been my first MBP. And probably it's going to be the last, cause I'm gonna think for a iMac or a Mini, cause for developing, it's pretty enough.

What a bad joke man...

Greetings fellow owners of the new MBP,

Mine freezes up after going into sleep mode....just now and then...it freezes up. The resulting note after a hard start-up refers to a kernal issue, though this last time it didn't record a problem.

Message was edited by: Sspector

Hello!

I have the same issue with my 2010 MBP iCore7 & SSD.
After two weeks of usage it was freezing twice so far.
Maybe the graphic card?

b.r.

I got this today as well:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro6,2
Processor Name: Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
Memory: 4 GB

Model: Hitachi HTS545032B9SA02
Revision: PB3AC60W

I'm currently keeping gfxCardStatus 1.5 running as that prints to log when the gfx card changes. Now I just have to make the issue occur again. Last time I was running spotify, and went to make an image larger in Chrome. That's when it froze, but the audio was still playing.

I am having the same issue with my 15in Core i7 Macbook. It's forzen three times since I got it today. Almost every time I was browsing in Chrome, but I think it might be when flash content is loaded which switches the graphics (watched it with the gfx tool). The issue sounds just like everyone else, under light load while browsing. I turned off automatic graphics switching for now, and will see how it goes.

I have also had an issue with using a Dell 2408WFP display, where using DVI it would output what I can describe as digital static with no picture at all. I could unplug and replug the display adapter to fix it, but it's clearly a graphics driver issue.

I was able to capture some console messages though, Channel timeouts related to Nvidia:

5/7/10 8:29:30 PM kernel NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0x8 = Fifo: Watchdog Timeout Error
5/7/10 8:29:30 PM kernel 0000006e
5/7/10 8:29:30 PM kernel 00000010 00008597 00000474 00000000
5/7/10 8:29:30 PM kernel 0000047e 00001528 00000000 00000009
5/7/10 8:29:30 PM kernel 00000000 00000000 00000043
5/7/10 8:29:58 PM kernel NVDA(OpenGL): Channel timeout!
5/7/10 8:30:19 PM kernel NVDA(OpenGL): Channel timeout!

I hope we get an answer soon or I might have to send this back. I have another MBP that's a little older, but it's rock solid. Hopefully we'll hear something soon.

Even with graphics switching off, it just froze again when I tried to put it to sleep. I found this in All Messages this time:

5/7/10 9:28:55 PM kernel NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0x1a = Fifo: FBISTATE Timeout Error

Should I send it back already?

This is most definitely a software issue or an issue that can be resolved via a software update. I would suggest anyone that can hold off shipping their machines back do so. I can pretty much guarantee the replacement will do this as well, and you could end up with a machine with other flaws (dead pixels, etc.)

That being said, I have not experienced the freezing yet, but I am confident I will.

My bet is on a fix with 10.6.4 or a separate patch in the next few weeks.

I disagree that it's a software issue. People have reported this issue in Windows 7 on a Mac. If there's a software based fix, it could either be a firmware patch or updated drivers that tell the card not to do what it's doing.
If the problem happened for everyone with a MacBook Pro, then you would have a lot more people complaining, if people are getting replacements that are having the same issue, then it's possibly something to do with the way we use our computer that's different to everyone else.

Hopefully Apple will see that we're having issues here, and they will investigate and work a fix for us.

Ducky

Very glad I found this as I was concerned there was an issue with mine individually. This has happened to me 4 times so far (mouse freezes, display does not turn off when lid is closed to keyboard). I had unsaved documents open at the time and I only wish I had known about the potential chance of recovery by letting it rest for awhile. I had done a hard restart each time.

Configuration:
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro6,1
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
L3 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 8 GB
HD: 500 GB HDD

Hope this gets fixed soon!

-SM

exactly same thing happen to me
i7 15 2010 mbp
all standard spec

i find out whenever i use the intel card, the mbp is working fine. however, when the 330 kicks in , normally, i say 15 minutes, the mbp freeze . and no response at all. have to restart the mbp

especially when i was running, VLC and CS5 illustrator and ps5.
what is the problem with that ?