Q: MacBook Pro (2010) Freeze

Some posts before someone reported also freezing without 1.3 update, as he was hoping that this update (not installed on his machine) would have fixed the issue. The more time passes, the more I ma convinced that the problem is very random...Waiting for 10.6.4...We'll see!

Also adding to the chorus:

I have my MBP 17" i7 (Serial C02CK24YDC7C), 8GB RAM, 500GB Toshiba HDD for 3 weeks now, and experienced that freeze once so far. Mac stops responding, mouse still moves a while but then freezes after around 3-4 mins.

Luckily, for me it only happened twice so far. Once about 3 weeks ago, and once right now.

My machine is always using NVidia (because one of my menu bar applets uses core animation, which forces use of NVidia all the time - that's an issue by itself, but does not belong here).

Both times the machine was AC powered, and not under heavy load (just typing something, CPU mostly idle).

Same issue here.

Froze twice so far and have had since 10th May.

First time happened while using pages and vlc media player and second time full screen youtube. Fan was at 6000rpm (using smc fan control) and at 48degrees.

After hard reset had to unplug headset and ethernet before it would start.

Hey! I'm joining the club!

This is very exciting for me.

FWIW, my experience has been that if I walk away it returns to normal after a spell. (15 minutes or so).

Also: that after the current song playing finishes, the computer will not load the next song until after it has "returned to consciousness". So that can be a good signal that you can go back to your machine and keep working.

Until the problem gets solved, obviously.

Duk242: I appreciate the recap, but add another 13-inch MBP to the list. Mine's the entry level model, less than a month old and has frozen twice. I haven't tried to outlast it. It's discouraging to see so many people with the same issue and no solution.

The solution for many will be 10.6.4, but for some reason Apple is taking their sweep time on releasing it.

I already have 2007 MacBook, and planning to get a new 15'' Core i7.
But according to this discussion, I see that it has a big freezing issue. Should I really go for it? Coz 2100 is big money for me.
Please reply for this post. Your response will be greatly appreciated.

May please all people having a 13" confirm that they have the same freezing occurrence as on 15" models? This would help in the hw-sw indetification of the root cause, as far as we can assume...
Cheers

I don't think my MBP13's freezing is related as it seems that one of the heat sensors were malfunctioning. It's back at Apple for repair at the moment.

The first time my 13" froze, I was too started to note the details. The second time, it was plugged in, asleep, and I was only doing email and surfing for a few minutes when it froze. The cursor became an arrow and neither the trackpad or keyboard worked -- which seem to be the classic symptoms described here. Good luck to us all.

Noticed somethng on my replacement MBP 17" (has not locked up so far, my 15" locked up lots of times)

It seems to be running at SATA 1 mode, but the HD can do SATA2...
Now why is that?

Intel 5 Series Chipset:

Vendor: Intel
Product: 5 Series Chipset
Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 1.5 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.30 Supported

TOSHIBA MK5055GSXF:

Capacity: 500.11 GB (500,107,862,016 bytes)
Model: TOSHIBA MK5055GSXF
Revision: FH305B

Another 2010 MBP 13" with freezing. Found many others with similar issues here so I returned it the other day to Best Buy to wait out this freezing issue.

Freezing started within a week of purchasing:

_Freeze 1:_ Beachballing freeze while using Traktor. Was able to move cursor but it was beachballing. Sound kept playing but everything was visually frozen. Could not click on anything. Waited about 3 minutes and it all of a sudden came back and everything was back to normal.

_Freeze 2 (partial):_ On the web. Loaded a site and it only loaded half the screen. I originally thought it was just not loaded properly. I hit refresh and the bottom half of the page was still "not loaded" and remained white. Even tried scrolling down and the bottom half was still staying white. I copied the web address, closed Safari, reopened it, went back to the same page, and it ended up loading fine thereafter.

_Freeze 3:_ Watching Youtube on full screen. The video ended and the screen went white. Tried pressing escape. Tried toggling full screen with the short cut. Nothing worked. Cursor was still on screen (movable) but couldn't click on anything as everything was just all white. Finally, I had "hot corners" or whatever it's called turned on. I had it set to turn the screen saver on when I mouse to the bottom left corner. So I moved my mouse down there, the screen flickered over to the screen saver. Then I moved it away and Safari came back. Without the hot corners turned on, I don't think I could have gotten it back.

_Freeze 4:_ Complete freeze while watching Youtube videos. New Safari session. Opened links from Gmail message. Around the third video (on full screen) completely froze (full freeze including sound and cursor). Tried waiting it out as many mentioned around 15 minutes allows the mac to snap out of the freeze .. but no luck. Waited around 30-40 minutes. Interesting point regarding this particular freeze is that I originally tried holding down the power button to reboot the machine but it didn't want to reboot. Closing the lid didn't force it to sleep. I was left wondering how to start the system because I couldn't even remove the battery. I was expecting to have to wait for the battery to completely drain. In the end (after the aforementioned 30-40 minutes) the hard reset finally worked for some reason.

~

Hopefully this info will aid in the alleviation process. Cheers!

For all those who've recently joined the discussion and are having this issue: I haven't had any freezes for the last 7 days or so after I installed gfxCardStatus (http://codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus/) and set the driver to Intel-only for the first 2 days, and nVidia only for the rest. I don't think 7 days is sufficient time for a real confirmation but you may want to try this as a workaround until Apple addresses the issue.

I've started using gfxCardStatus (http://codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus/) to force my computer to use only NVidia or Intel and it hasn't frozen since. I think it's something to do with graphics switching, but I could be wrong. My i5 still froze when I used the system preferences to turn off graphics switching, but when I started gfxCardStatus, the problem stopped occurring.

Hello Everyone,

my brand new MBP 6,2, 15" HRG arrived May 14th and i accoutered couple of those described freezes.
I am usually running a VM in Fusion 3.x and allocated 2Threads and 1.56GB Memory to it. At the mean time Skype Video conference is running and other stuff.
I installed gfxCardstatus and i am a bit curious who else is running this small little App.
It is a very good App, but I noticed that when I switch manually:
1. My VM was not control able anymore.
2. The Maschine could not use a second screen
3. My MBP tend to freeze like described.
After a reboot and the gfx card status is set to Automated, my machine seems to run fine without any problems or freezes.

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.B09
SMC Version (system): 1.58f16
Serial Number (system): W802007GAGZ
Not sure if someone can reproduce the same thing.
Else i was also played Half Life 2 on native Res with all graphic options at highest, but the GPU was running at cool 68C while the CPU ran at 76C.