Q: MacBook Pro (2010) Freeze

Nexcin wrote:
I dont think I got that "9 minute" thingy?.. Whats that all about and why should i wait 9 minutes?

I dont buy a product in this pricerange so i can sit and watch in for 9 minutes, ill ship it back to Apple in 9 minutes if anything.

Of course you didn't buy it for that, but you're missing the point. Clearly, the more data we have about what's going on here, the more likely we can present that data to Apple and get a fix. The "I'm taking my toys and going home" posturing is not useful to the rest of us here who are trying to understand the exact symptoms and obtain a fix. Surely in your busy life, you can-- just once-- eek out 9 minutes JUST TO SEE if the laptop starts responding again. Well, maybe you can't, as you obviously cannot be bothered to scroll up a bit and read my specific post about "that 9-minute thingy." But hey, if you'd rather just vent and talk big than help the rest of us understand the problem better, more power to you. Welcome to the forums.

If Apple cared about fixing the problem, they would actually be contacting us to get details on the broken systems!

I filed a bug report 10 days ago. Still no response. It is, quite obviously, not high on Apple's priority list.

Update:

This is a very long thread so my previous posts won't be easy to find. So I will just recap briefly and share my experience so far.

I purchased my new Macbook Pro 15", 2.66, i7, 500HD back in early May (my first Mac). Shortly after purchasing the Mac I experienced freezing and lockups when playing videos in iTunes. My laptop would freeze anywhere from 5 to 40 seconds with all input being non responsive. The track-pad, mouse and keyboard, all frozen. Mac would unfreeze and continue playing the video from the advanced position. Thought it was only iTunes, but then noticed the beach-ball and freezing in iPhoto and in Safari. Sometimes freezes would occur numerous times during a video playback, sometimes never. And this happened with audio only podcasts as well. All media was either purchased, rented or subscribed to via iTunes. But I also tried other players with some avi files. Freezes randomly occurred.

Steps to resolve:
Included all the proper channels from starting a Case Number with Apple, bringing it to the Service Center, escalated to Senior Advisor, clean install of OS (3 times). Final result: Apple could not clearly attribute the problem to software or hardware, and indicated problem could not be replicated during the in-service period. Apple advised on exchange. Received my new Mac yesterday.

New Mac so far:
No freezes in playing videos. Tested since last night and then again this morning. Will test further. Had one lockup this morning which I never experienced before on my previous Mac. I had closed the lid, Mac went to sleep, opened the lid 40 minutes later, screen showed but mouse, track-pad, keyboard could not be used. Waited 5 minutes, still nothing. Did a hard shutdown by holding down power button. Restarted and functioning properly now. Tried a couple of "sleep sessions" by closing the lid but problem did not come back.

I'll test the new Mac extensively over the next few days. If the freezing problem is solved I'm assuming a hardware issue on the previous Mac since numerous clean installs were done. That being said, I did save a System Profile from my old Mac and will compare it to my new Mac. It might shed some light on the freezing issue if any hardware specs are different by brand or version. I'll share that when I get to that stage.

Peter

Fred Turner wrote:

Nexcin wrote:
I dont think I got that "9 minute" thingy?.. Whats that all about and why should i wait 9 minutes?

I dont buy a product in this pricerange so i can sit and watch in for 9 minutes, ill ship it back to Apple in 9 minutes if anything.

Of course you didn't buy it for that, but you're missing the point. Clearly, the more data we have about what's going on here, the more likely we can present that data to Apple and get a fix. The "I'm taking my toys and going home" posturing is not useful to the rest of us here who are trying to understand the exact symptoms and obtain a fix. Surely in your busy life, you can-- just once-- eek out 9 minutes JUST TO SEE if the laptop starts responding again. Well, maybe you can't, as you obviously cannot be bothered to scroll up a bit and read my specific post about "that 9-minute thingy." But hey, if you'd rather just vent and talk big than help the rest of us understand the problem better, more power to you. Welcome to the forums.

No offense, but given the amount of pages this Topic has, i dont really think i should spend my time in here, when i want to spend time with my expensive and brand new MacBook Pro, that should be WORKING as intended. And excuse me if i havnt read up on all 39 pages to find a "9 minute" issue/cure, helping Apple to decide whether they want to fix this or not.

This MacBook Pro is going back and keeps going back until its working AS intended!

Thanks!

Nexcin wrote:
No offense, but given the amount of pages this Topic has, i dont really think i should spend my time in here

Then why did you post?!?!

And excuse me if i havnt read up on all 39 pages to find a "9 minute" issue/cure, helping Apple to decide whether they want to fix this or not.

Good grief...just click on my name and look for my post in this thread that is prior to my initial response to you. If it is that horrible and happening that frequently, then surely you could check your clock when it freezes, go get a cup of coffee or take a bathroom break, and look at it 9 minutes later to see if it has started responding again. Wow, that's too hard!

That's the thing.
It's not the job of users to find the reason behind such a problem (which of course shouldn't exist in the first place).
They should report them,and the manufacturer should try and fix them - or at least have the courtesy to respond to them.
But this,this is ridiculous and childlike behavior.
I'm all about the community getting together and helping each other,but hey,if Apple did its job correctly in the first place,there wouldn't be 39 pages of various assumptions,suggestions,"fixes".

Not trying to sound like a hater -cause I'm not,just saying that the anger and frustration of people here,is absolutely understandable to me. Especially considering the money spent.

Good luck.

If you've ever tried to troubleshoot anything, then you know that the more info you have about a problem, the greater likelihood of fixing it-- I have clients all the time who give me minimal info and expect me to wave a magic wand and "fix it." No, it isn't our job to find the reason, but wouldn't you rather attempt to gather as much info and observe as much detail about the problem as possible SO THAT WHEN YOU REPORT IT TO APPLE, *THEY* have a greater chance of fixing it?

I myself am frustrated by this problem, too, but it only happens about once a week for me-- hardly reproducible if I were to call up Apple or go into a Store demanding a replacement. If, instead of demanding Apple fix something w/o providing any details, those of us here would attempt to find similarities and details about the problem, perhaps we can help Apple get to the bottom of it quicker. But, if you'd rather close your eyes, put your fingers in your ears, stamp your feet and cry "Replace it! Replace it!" then we won't get very far.

Now, I believe it is a driver and/or firmware problem. I believe this because if you let the machine sit while frozen for-- in my case-- 8 minutes and 42 seconds, it will resume operating as if nothing had ever happened. If this were a hardware fault, I think the crash would be "fatal". So...I'm not sure why there's so much resistance to doing this, but if you'd just check to see if your machine resumes in about 9 minutes, then we'd have add'l data points about the problem. Worst it's gonna cost ya is NINE MINUTES...oh, and a few seconds to let us know here.

non_local wrote:
That's the thing.
It's not the job of users to find the reason behind such a problem (which of course shouldn't exist in the first place).
They should report them,and the manufacturer should try and fix them - or at least have the courtesy to respond to them.
But this,this is ridiculous and childlike behavior.
I'm all about the community getting together and helping each other,but hey,if Apple did its job correctly in the first place,there wouldn't be 39 pages of various assumptions,suggestions,"fixes".

Not trying to sound like a hater -cause I'm not,just saying that the anger and frustration of people here,is absolutely understandable to me. Especially considering the money spent.

Good luck.

My thoughts exactly! I guess you were better at saying it than me. My frustration obviously did shine too much when i was trying to make that point. I apologize for that.

I received my new replacement MBP today. First thing I did was wipe out the hard drive and did a clean install. After booting I noticed two things that were different from my previous MBP:

1) The graphics update was not listed in the updates. I checked multiple times, all the other updates (Java, Airport, iTunes, etc.) was listed. All updates were installed successfully but still no graphics update.

2) The font is a lot smaller. As if my previous MBP was not displaying at 1680x1050 even though it was selected in preference. The fonts look much, much better than the previous one.

I will be using my MBP today and tomorrow extensively and will post if I encounter any freezes.

MBP Specs:

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
Hard Drive: 500GB 7200RPM
Display: 15"HS Anti Glare

I'm sorry if my words came out wrong.
I am respectful of these forums and its users,even if I just became a part of it.
They have helped me in many ways so far.
I absolutely agree with what you say,on gathering as much possible information in order to speed up the process. Everyone should do their bit.
My point was that in cases where people become frustrated for all the right reasons,we should cut them some slack,even when there is seemingly no need in posting just to declare one's anger.

That said,I wouldn't suggest anyone to leave the problem as it is,and not try to get to the bottom of it.

Thanks for trying to help.
Cheers.

I received my MacBook Pro last Friday. On Saturday night, it froze while just sitting there with Firefox open. I went to restart (by holding the power button down), one time it did not get past the gray Apple screen, the next time the Apple and the spinning circle came up but it froze at that point. When it finally got to the desktop, it froze. I held down the power button yet again and it seemed to be working for awhile. I left it on over night, in the morning the screen was black and it was frozen.

It then started working fine after I held down the power key yet again. But I went to the Apple Store on Sunday, it was working fine then and they couldn't find anything wrong.

It worked okay until last night, when it froze with just Safari open. After repeated freezing at the gray Apple screen, it came on, but I found it frozen again this morning.

I tried to reinstall the OS but it froze...once during the install and then I tried it again and it froze at the point where you select the language.

When I finally got to the desktop (after repeated freezing at the Apple screen) it froze again. Then it worked for awhile after I restarted (except for one time it said the AirPort card was off and it wouldn't turn on again), but then froze while reading this thread. I tried to hold the power button down and restart and while it was attempting to start I got a message that my computer needed to be restarted and I needed to hold the power key down.

At this point, it either does not get past the gray Apple screen and, if it does, it freezes almost immediately at the desktop. I have another appointment at the Apple Store this weekend, I am so frustrated.

I have a 13" custom configuration I got through ordering at the Apple Store online.

Just to reiterate, my "total freeze" did not come back after waiting 9 minutes ... nor did it come back after 40 minutes. However, something DID indeed happen within that time though because originally I couldn't even hard reset with the power button (nor sleep the system by closing the lid). It was just frozen solid. After repeated attempts to use the power button, I could finally get it to reboot. Again, I was worried I'd have to wait for the battery to drain or something at that point due to the lack of removable battery.

As with everyone else, this is a shame as I truly liked my Macbook Pro and was rather hesitant when returning it. But as everyone else, it is rather unacceptable for this issue to not be "official" .. especially coming from a company that touts it's system stability.

Cheers.

Little update.
Yesterday my MBP frozen 10 times on Windows.
I have tried to update the graphics drivers, chipset drivers but the problem persist.

In the night I have used it with 3ds max for some renders.
With a lot of stress for the cpu the system fan run very high but I have not received a single froze.
My opinion is a problem on the firmware that control the fan speed. At some temperatures the graphics board can't be cooled and it crash the MBP.

On OS X without stress the MBP does not frozen because it use the intel graphic.

Another question, what is the difference between the macbook pro 6,1 and 6,2?

Thanks
Enrico

6.1 is the new 17 inch model.

6.2 is the new 15 inch model.

wow seriously??

this many replies and tons of people having the same problem with several machines and we still don't have any type of response from Apple????
Either they are ignoring all the noise and they don't care. Do you really think they are unable to reproduce the problem on their machines????

my 14 day return period ends tomorrow. So far only one freeze. I've used my machine a lot trying to get it to freeze again but nothing. i installed vmware fusion and w7 and everything is fine. i'm just worried the problem will occur more often after my 14 days are up