Q: MacBook Pro (2010) Freeze

I had/have this issue on a 2010 MBP 17" I took it into the Genius bar within the first 30 days of owning it.

I did not demonstrate the freeze but I did have a video of it on my iPhone when I went into talk to the Genius at my local store. I also had a bit of the console log around the time the freeze occurred. In the end the Genius did not look at the video and was not very interested in the console log snippet. I was told to remove my 3rd party RAM and see if the problem resurfaced. I use this machine for work (I am a programmer) so I was fairly unhappy with this outcome.

I recieved a survey request from Apple the next day (after running hardware test on the factory RAM and the 3rd party RAM - no issues with either) and used the opportunity to express my frustration. I recieved a call for a business rep at the Apple store (this Apple store has a dedicated Business department) and I explained to him my predicament. I was also able to tell him that I can make the freeze occur by running IORegistryExplorer.app (part of the Devleoper tools installed with XCode) - I found information in this thread posted by gmarinov (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11908723#11908723) that describes the issue - author of that post seems to think that the issue is software. At the time I was not convinced. The Business rep told me that he would explore my options and get back to me. In the end he told me that I could get it repaired (A main new logic board) or exchange it since I was within 30 days. I then called Apple Support and they processed my replacement since the local store had marked it as a hardware failure, likely at the request of the Business rep.

The machine was a refurb. I received a new refurb machine hours ago. I can recreate the freeze on this one by having IORegistryExplorer running and then launching something that kicks the video card to use discrete graphics - in one case simply opening up the Trackpad prefpane (which shows demo videos.)

This leads me to believe that gmarinov is correct - it is a kernel issue with graphics switching. I plan to continue to use gfxCardStatus but manually switch between graphics cards. Prior to this machine I had the first gen unibody MBP and never used the discrete graphics card. I hope that keeping to intel graphics will avoid these freezes.

Thanks for the info, Thomas!

I just got my MBP back from Apple earlier tonight and after running it for 48 hours of stress tests and "max cpu" tests...NOTHING. No freezes...no kernel panics...nothing. They wiped the computer, and put a clean install of 10.6.6 on it for me. I'm going to run it like this for a while and see if it freezes up on me before I start (slowly) adding back my applications and data.

I'm also a developer, but I hadn't really done much with XCode yet. This is my first Mac (well second...my first was back in the early 90s) so I haven't started developing for Apple devices. I used Coda a lot and started using Espresso.

Could just having XCode installed cause the issue with IORegistryExplorer? Or do you actually have to install that app separately and run it separately?

IORegistryExplorer is part of the dev tools package and is installed when you install Apple's Developer tools (Xcode). It is located at /Developer/Applications/Utilities/IORegistryExplorer.app

Hmm...I haven't explicitly started that application on my machine =/

How many people have cases on their MBPs? I have the Speck Satin something...basically it's a snap on case from Speck. I only ask because some people said they experience the freeze when their machine is working hard and heating up. When I gave my laptop to Apple, they took the case off and gave it to me to hang onto, so through all their testing the MBP was "naked". Just one definite difference I can pin down between how I use it and how Apple tested it.

IORegistryExplorer is not something you would run under normal circumstances. It is simply a tool and whatever is does to give you the data from the hardware registry causes this bug to surface. I think gmarinov's post I referred to earlier describes it fairly well.

Good luck!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppleDeveloperTools#IORegistryExplorer

@douglas3e8

I have done all the things you suggested, had it working pretty good for a few days, then back to the freezing issues. When I can get it to load up, I do a back up, appreciate the suggestions sir.

Just hope to resolve this soon as the computer is quickly becoming unusable. I notice it does it more on battery power than ac.

I had many freezes/kernel panics only under 10.6.4, i updated to 10.6.5 and only 1 kernel panic showed up. Now i updated to 10.6.6, hoping that it would had update/fixed something, and this MBP has become a terrible mess (lots of hangups, spinning beachballs & slow internet).
Tried everything from cleaning the cache, to update Flash to repair disk/permissions.......all with no improvement. Funny thing is that the App Store is the only thing that "just works" as it should (no hangs/freezes of any kind).
Think i will wipe out OSX completely and just use Windows 7, instead. Until i have some moneys to buy another computer, is the only solution that does not make me regret the cost of this machine and that of its unreliable support (AppleCare). Won't buy any Apple products anymore.....EVER!!!!

I'm probably jinxing myself here....but here goes. After 48 hours of CPU and GFX stress tests on my machine and no freezing at the Apple store, I told them to wipe it and put 10.6.6 on it for me. So far I've been watching Netflix, Internet, setup my mail, setup contacts and iCal, just installed Eclipse and VLC...and so far no crashing. I still think it's a software thing. Either something I had installed or the 10.6.6 combo update I downloaded was corrupt. Not sure but Apple said they don't have physical copies of 10.6.6 they can distribute. I asked for one in case I needed to reinstall OSX.

Has anyone else (recently) wiped their drive and installed a clean OSX?

jtweezy wrote:
Has anyone else (recently) wiped their drive and installed a clean OSX?

Yup. It didn't work for me. Here is what I tried:

1) reinstall using migration assistant
2) new HDD from Apple
3) reinstall using migration assistant
4) reinstall without using migration assistant

None of the above fixed the "beach balling" or freezing. Apple has since replaced my MacBook and I haven't experienced a freeze in the 12 days since I've had it. This is with a variety of daily use both AC/battery powered and nVidia/Intel powered. I've been using GFXCardstatus for monitoring only and often toggle the graphics card in an attempt to reproduce the freeze - nothing so far.

--
Marc

It's been a week for me with the changes I outlined in my previous post and I haven't had a single crash. That is to say, turning off the Intel graphics via gfxCardStatus and essentially turning off sleep.

@digitial1313

I'm sorry you returned to freezes. Let me share some more information as to how I went about repairing my system.

Initially, I ran repair permissions, and discovered the sleep var file was out of wack. This made the system stable-r ... in a way. But continued problems led me to boot from an external partition (10.6.5 vs. 10.6.6 on my boot drive) to see if they continued - they did. Even 10.6.4 partition on yet another drive (and yet another interface) had the same feeezing issue. It was only when I booted from the restore CD that the system was stable. So I ran a repair permission and disk repair from the CD - all came back fine. Starting back from the boot drive was the worst yet, freezing and even a dreaded kernel panic.

I went about testing the ram - no issues.
I tried replacing the Superdrive (had MCE enclosure with 120GB SSD installed) - same problems.
I tried swapping hard drive locations - same problems.
I removed each DIMM, testing each and one in each slot - same problems.

I finally ram a suite of utilties. Disk Warrior was the big one from an emergency boot partition on a USB drive. Ran that, turned off sleep immediately (so no sleep var file was created), and kept it to nvidia only on reboot. Haven't had a freeze since.

Hope this helps someone.

For a fix, try the following:

1. go to energy saver
2. set the slider bar for 'Computer Sleep' to 'never'
3. Uncheck the box 'Put the hard disk to sleep when possible'

thiss will prevent your computer's hard drive from falling 'cold' and not waking back up when it goes inactive.

your macbook should still 'sleep' normally when the lid is closed...just don't leave the screen open and let your computer fall to 'sleep' mode. (the screen can sleep, but not the hdd)

I am having the same freeze issue.

MacBook Pro 15" Core i7 2.66 GHz with SSD and 8GB RAM bought in November, running 10.6.5.

The freezes (with pixel garbage on the screen) emerges with an external monitor plugged in and a power supply (my standard config, maybe would emerge with battery and internal monitor too). GPU switching disabled. About 1 freeze a day, sometimes no freeze in 3 days, sometimes 3 freezes a day. No particular dependency on what I do which I can see.


Here's the interesting bit:

After a freeze and if a don't touch the Mac, the kernel will still switch the monitor into standby after about 15 minutes. I can then wake up the display and everything is up to normal (tested wake up after another 10 minutes though). I'll now try to configure a shorter display sleep time to make this a more acceptable work around. I'll keep you posted. The display sleep/wake-up cycle saves all precious data which may be lost with a hard reboot!

Also, after the wake-up I know that all logs are complete. And no trace whatsoever from any log. I.e., I don't see the NVDA Channel exceptions. Maybe the exact error phenotype depends on which part of the Nvidia chip is faulty?


BTW, I am having trouble with my dealer. He says in anticipation that he won't exchange the logic board if the tests show no fault (which they likely won't do according to this thread). He says it's an Apple policy. Any idea what I shall do?

yes, call Apple tech support directly and if you don't get satisfaction from the initial person, then ask to speak to his/her manager and so on. Sometimes you have to be forceful and stand up for what you want.
good luck!

That´s what i made!
And finally i had to sell it cause Apple also didnt want to replace it....!
THANKS APPLE !!