Artitron

Q: 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

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Q: MacBook Pro (2010) Freeze

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  • by Jeroen Leenarts,

    Jeroen Leenarts Jeroen Leenarts May 19, 2010 3:46 PM in response to califfo1975
    Level 1 (10 points)
    May 19, 2010 3:46 PM in response to califfo1975
    If I do that, my system freezes quite fast. Running from my adapter seems to keep the freezes away.

    Running on battery now btw.

    Message was edited by: Jeroen Leenarts
  • by Artitron,

    Artitron Artitron May 19, 2010 4:01 PM in response to Artitron
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 19, 2010 4:01 PM in response to Artitron
    I just received my refreshed MBP yesterday and haven't had an issue yet. Before handing my first MBP off to Apple, I did a System Profile dump and emailed it to myself. On the new system I did the same and am going through the differences in FileMerge. There are quite a few diffs with some that look encouraging:

    SMCversionsystem
    1.58f15->1.58f16

    NvidiaGeForceGT216Item
    spdisplays_rom-revision
    3532->3540

    kHW_IntelGMAHDItem
    spdisplaysdisplay-product-id
    9cb7->9cbb

    Updates to the physical system seem to be in there. If I continue to see the hard freeze issue on the new hardware; I will certainly alert the thread.

    Regardless, if you are seeing the hard freeze issue on the new MBPs, I would suggest that you report it to Apple and try to get a replacement.
  • by djanthonyw,

    djanthonyw djanthonyw May 19, 2010 4:52 PM in response to Artitron
    Level 1 (15 points)
    May 19, 2010 4:52 PM in response to Artitron
    So they gave you a newer MBP with updated hardware? If that's the case I guess it means a software update isn't the solution and it would be best to wait before buying.
  • by BigCat400,

    BigCat400 BigCat400 May 19, 2010 6:16 PM in response to Artitron
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 19, 2010 6:16 PM in response to Artitron
    so was your previous machine one of the new models (i5/i7)?

    my machine already shows 1.58f16, and have the NVIDIA freezing problem. I don't know about the other numbers you posted. How do you take a system profile dump?
  • by morejanus,

    morejanus morejanus May 19, 2010 6:51 PM in response to Artitron
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 19, 2010 6:51 PM in response to Artitron
    I've been having the same problem, however have not waited 10-15mins to see if it cleared up. App's running were Lightroom (dormant), Firefox, and Thunderbird. Each time I was actively using Thunderbird and the others were closed. The first time it was under a heavy load as the new Thunderbird was busy indexing all my mail folders. The second time, just composing email with "nothing" else going on. Nothing in console except logging messages from Thunderbird.

    Entire status bar freezes as well and time does not update. Have iStat running and all icons also freeze. Seems to be running hot at the time - first time the fan was one, second time not. I think it's actually happened more than 2 times, but I was not paying close enough attention and though it was a low battery. I've had the machine about 1.5 weeks.

    Just wanted to add my voice to the list - more voices get noticed.
  • by Jeroen Leenarts,

    Jeroen Leenarts Jeroen Leenarts May 19, 2010 7:34 PM in response to Artitron
    Level 1 (10 points)
    May 19, 2010 7:34 PM in response to Artitron
    This is encouraging if it actually is fixed by exchanging the system for a new one and the only differences are these three items in the system profile dump.

    At least two items are fixable by a firmware flash, and the third I think is also fixable by flashing.

    Let's hope your new system doesn't have any freezes. Then Apple can fix this by doing hardware exchange or a software update for those who aren't having that much problems.

    Question remains though: What's causing different people to have different frequencies of this freeze event occurring?

    I've had it 3 times in all, while some here have a completely unusable system due to the amount of freezes they are experiencing.

    Message was edited by: Jeroen Leenarts
  • by Jeevan111,

    Jeevan111 Jeevan111 May 19, 2010 7:52 PM in response to Artitron
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 19, 2010 7:52 PM in response to Artitron
    According to maclife, Mac OS X 10.6.4
    "Resolve an issue that causes the keyboard or trackpad to become unresponsive "

    http://www.maclife.com/article/news/appleseeds_fourth_mac_os_x_1064_beta_contains_no_knownissues



    Freezing Problems On 2010 MacBook Pros

    HardMac's Lionel reports that a reader with a MacBook i7", 8 GB,500 GB HD, says his "small but pretty jewel" will freeze making it impossible to use the keyboard, eventually blocking completely, requiring a complete restart of the machine, and that after some research he's determined that the problem seems to affect a great number of core i5 and i7 machines.

    I'll add here that I've been experiencing somewhat similar issues with my late 2008 model 2.0 Ghz unibody MacBook, and it got a lot worse after installing the OS 10.6.3 update, to a degree that I finally got sick of having to reboot two or three times a day to restore keyboard response, and reverted to OS 10.5.8 in disgust.

    Apparently this is a known issue with Mac OS 10.6.3. appletoolbox.com reports that users continue to experience intermittent mouse/keyboard freezes and/or system stalls after updating to Mac OS X 10.6.3 -- typically the cursor freezing in place, or text input becoming suddenly interrupted then catching up a few seconds later. Personally, I mercifully haven't encountered system stalls, and the mouse/trackpad have always working long enough to permit saving work and shutting down applications in an orderly fashion before rebooting.

    According to appletoolbox.com, factors that can trigger this behavior with Mac OS X 10.6.3 include Adobe Flash, Spotlight problems, outdated drivers, and problematic startup/login items. On my rig, it seems to be mostly associated with switching between Desktop Spaces using keyboard commands (it's never happened that I can recall when using the Spaces menulet).

    Appletoolbox.com suggests that the most effective workaround is a downgrade to Mac OS X 10.6.2, but say they've received word that forthcoming Mac OS X 10.6.4 includes new IOUSB files that should resolve the freezes/stalls under most circumstances. Here's hoping.

    http://www.macprices.net/cell.shtml
  • by Thinking_Different,

    Thinking_Different Thinking_Different May 19, 2010 8:14 PM in response to jdpolk09
    Level 1 (5 points)
    May 19, 2010 8:14 PM in response to jdpolk09
    I'm sorry to hear that you have the problem, but hearing that the 13" model, which doesn't have the 330M, is also having the problems.

    Makes me wonder what's causing this, and if there's a fix for it in the works.
  • by BigCat400,

    BigCat400 BigCat400 May 19, 2010 8:22 PM in response to Jeevan111
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 19, 2010 8:22 PM in response to Jeevan111
    Nice. However, the problem discussed here has nothing to do with the trackpad, keyboard, or mouse. In fact, for me the only thing that continues to work is the mouse. The problem here is the freezing of the screen while driven by the NVIDIA GPU.
  • by michelbuchner,

    michelbuchner michelbuchner May 19, 2010 10:39 PM in response to Artitron
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 19, 2010 10:39 PM in response to Artitron
    I have the same problems, only my systems releases after 10 seconds or so. for the rest all the symptoms are the same. I reinstalled the system clean 3 times, no effect... the machine is virtually useless because I use it a lot during presentations. I can't have this problem in a live environment...

    any ideas?

    thanks

    Michel
  • by armadillu,

    armadillu armadillu May 19, 2010 11:57 PM in response to Artitron
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 19, 2010 11:57 PM in response to Artitron
    I had around 6 random freezes so far, GPU related. Nothing to do with HD or USB.

    Checking my SMC and GPU firmware I see I have the:

    SMCversionsystem 1.58f15
    NvidiaGeForceGT216Item spdisplays_rom-revision 3532

    the same versions that the guy that got his mbp replaced had the same issues with.
    Can we all post our HW info for Nvidia GPU and Hardware to see if we find a pattern? Does it happen to every system with such versions, or just a few ones? I really want to find out if this would be solvable with a firmware update

    NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M:

    Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M
    Type: GPU
    Bus: PCIe
    PCIe Lane Width: x16
    VRAM (Total): 512 MB
    Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
    Device ID: 0x0a29
    Revision ID: 0x00a2
    ROM Revision: 3532
    gMux Version: 1.9.21


    Hardware Overview:

    Model Name: MacBook Pro
    Model Identifier: MacBookPro6,2
    Processor Name: Intel Core i7
    Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
    Number Of Processors: 1
    Total Number Of Cores: 2
    L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB
    L3 Cache: 4 MB
    Memory: 8 GB
    Processor Interconnect Speed: 4.8 GT/s
    Boot ROM Version: MBP61.0057.B05
    SMC Version (system): 1.58f15
    Sudden Motion Sensor:
    State: Enabled
  • by David Benoun,

    David Benoun David Benoun May 20, 2010 1:18 AM in response to Artitron
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 20, 2010 1:18 AM in response to Artitron
    Just to add myself to this long list:
    My 5 day old MBP i5 17" freezes often and randomly (I have had it do this 5 times in 1 hour) I have to hard restart and it can happen again after 2 minutes.

    I am hoping for some type of software fix but my guts tell me its hardware.

    I will try to go to an Apple store (trouble is that I live in China)
  • by mixvio,

    mixvio mixvio May 20, 2010 1:23 AM in response to Artitron
    Level 1 (5 points)
    May 20, 2010 1:23 AM in response to Artitron
    I've had this happen to me on my new i7 15'' MBP about six times.

    The first time it happened was the day I got it, while I was transferring files from my old MacBook to my new one. The screen locked up, though I was able to move the mouse, but otherwise everything was unresponsive. I could see the light on my external HD was still flickering, so I was afraid to shut the computer off-- I went to take a shower and came back about 20 minutes later and it was working fine again, with all the windows I'd attempted to open while it was frozen appearing as if the machine had just lagged.

    The next time it happened I was in the middle of an IM conversation on Adium, so I saw the timestamp of when it happened. Again, I was able to move the mouse fine, so I left the computer alone. Exactly ten minutes later it unfroze, Adium updated the chatlog with timestamps indicating a gap of ten minutes (although my friend said that they'd sent the IMs during the time the computer was "frozen") and the machine was normal again.

    I've had this happen while copying files, doing stuff in a Parallels virtual machine, or simply writing emails. Every time I've timed it and it's hung for exactly ten minutes. Nothing in the console, just an absence of activity while the machine was frozen. I can move the mouse, but the computer itself seems stalled.

    Interestingly, one of the times it locked, I went on a Windows machine and connected to the computer over the network. I was able to browse the hard drive fine with no lag, and I started copying over random directories to the desktop-- which appeared once the computer unstuck itself. It would appear to be a screen freeze (while the machine itself is otherwise carrying on normally) except for the fact that stuff like the console and my Adium logs clearly show that there's a gap of activity for ten minutes.
  • by Blue_Sun,

    Blue_Sun Blue_Sun May 20, 2010 1:36 AM in response to BigCat400
    Level 1 (5 points)
    May 20, 2010 1:36 AM in response to BigCat400
    I've only had 1 freeze.

    But the mouse cursor (unlike yours) was completely frozen as well.

    Is my problem the same as yours, or something else entirely?

    Possibly due to 10.6.3?
  • by Artitron,

    Artitron Artitron May 20, 2010 7:21 AM in response to BigCat400
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 20, 2010 7:21 AM in response to BigCat400
    Yes, my previous machine was "the same machine" a CTO MBP (mid-2010) dropshipped from China. I had ordered it the first day the refreshed machines became available.

    The recently received MBP one is a newer version of that same machine with the same specs, but seemingly updated ROM versions and the like.

    To collect an XML representation of your system specs, open System Profiler and select File > Save As.
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