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Level 1

4 points

Mac Pro freezes after sleep, wont shut down, and 5870 issue

Hi,

I just got my new Mac Pro 3.33Ghz hexacore a couple of days ago and I've been having some issues with it.

1) When waking up the comp from sleep and its been cold for a while, the Mac Pro freezes. I can still move the mouse but that's about it. So, I have to do a hard restart. But...

2) Since last night I'm not able to turn the MP off. When I try to shut it down from the menu it closes all the apps and nothing but the background and dock shows and it gets stuck there. So I have to do a hard restart, but when pressing down the power button it just goes to sleep rather then shutting down, so only way to turn it off is to pull out the cord.

3) And the last problem I'm having is in bootcamp. When I play games (Battlefield Bad Company 2 or Crysis) the computer freezes after 3 min or so. The screen either turns blue or black and I have to shut it down. I am able to do the hard restart in Windows 7, in fact I just have to press the power button ones and it shuts off correctly.

I'm really frustrated since in the last 2 months I've had 3 iMacs and this MP and all have had problems. My old 20in iMac has been running for a couple of years now and has never had any problem...

Also, if I have to take it to the Apple store, is there anyway a tech can come to my house? I'm tired of going to the Apple store all the time, its a big hassle taking the comp there, plus I don't feel like they're really helping me.

Thanks for your help!

Mac Pro 2010 3.33Ghz Hexacore, 12gb Ram, 120gb OWC SSD, 1TB HDD, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Feb 1, 2011 1:22 AM

18 replies

Mar 26, 2011 11:02 AM in response to Andrew Hoyt

Just got off the phone with OWC, they are going to replace my SSD due to me not being able to update my firmware and I'm within the first 30 days of purchase. The technician said they've had this issue (not being able to update the firmware) with 3-4 of their SSDs, while the rest have had no issue. OWC has restored my faith in their customer service, which was the primary reason I bought the OWC SSD over the OCZ. I'll post up here once I have the new drive and can verify how it works with sleep.

Mar 29, 2011 7:55 PM in response to Andrew Hoyt

Ok, now updating the sleep situation.

I contacted OWC, and they paid shipping both ways for a new SSD since my sleep issue was not fixed. After confirming there was a problem even with the new sandforce firmware installed (360A13F0), they sent me a new drive. I can now report that sleep works normally and I have no more issues with my SSD.

I can't confirm it, but as an EE, I suspect some of the older mercury pro ssds have some sort of bad internals or bad internal firmware. This is different than the firmware that you download from OWC's site. We are talking about very low-level code––I am not talking about the stock sandforce firmware that you download from the Internet.

If you have sleep issues with your Mercury Pro SSD, you might have an older drive that contains the bad "low-level" firmware. You will need to send it in for a replacement. OWC staff were very nice and understanding about the problem. I'd add that my drive was past its 30-day return period.

My issue was solved with the replacement.

BlakeW

Level 1

8 points

Oct 6, 2011 3:54 PM in response to Andrew Hoyt

I wish I could say that OWC was as helpful to me, but far from it. Customers have had these drives installed at real expense, only to find that they cripple their computers. Why did OWC not proactively contact them to let them know this might be an issue for their machine, thus letting them waste huge amounts of time wondering what the heck is going on with their machines in the hope that there wouldn't be a problem? There is a problem.

I wrote to technical support in real exasperation, having clean-installed, looked for externals causing the sleep-hang issue, and wasted many hours doing so. When I enquired why OWC had not proactively contacted customers who _might_ be experiencing this issue, to save them all the wasted time, I was told "if we had any idea that these issues were occurring, of course we would have contacted you." When I pointed out a (relatively buried) webpage on their own site with its long list of customer complaints about the very issue at hand, which shows that such a response was---at the least---disingenuous, and OWC had long known it was a potential issue for my computer, the response was: "I apologize." Hmmm.

The proposed solution? To send in the computer, at my substantial expense and with a narrow window for this return to happen, to fix a problem that OWC created in my brand new computer by installing hardware that crippled the machine.

OWC should be offering free shipping both ways to fix this problem (and judging by my experience this is not happening), and they should also be offering a very serious apology to their customers, so that they do not become former customers, or still worse and more likely, angered former customers who spread the word. Do they or do they not stand behind their work? The way things stand now, there are real credibility problems that are not going to go away.

Mac Pro freezes after sleep, wont shut down, and 5870 issue