MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze

I still haven't encountered a hard freeze even after doing simultaneous iMovie and Handbrake renders for over a hour. And I played Modern Warfare 4 for about 15 minutes this morning with no issues...but I'm not saying I'm immune, maybe just lucky so far.

To those who are experiencing the hard lock after exiting a full-screen game...that sure sounds to me like a video card driver issue. Out of curiosity, has anyone tried gaming in Windows/Boot Camp to see if the issue can be replicated? If not, then it almost certainly points to a driver problem.

Message was edited by: Schwa72

@Schwa72

I haven't tried Boot Camp yet, however - I did receive confirmation from an AppleCare Support rep this morning the particular freeze I'm experiencing is a known issue they're looking into. All that was said was "wait for an update".

Video card driver? Quite possibly. I'm expecting a firmware update of some kind. Thank goodness Apple keeps everything secret and doesn't tell us anything except wait.

Hi did the Apple support Rep give any other indication such as If your not happy with the machine to get it returned for a full refund? or did he seem optimistic that a software issue was at hand ? Did he seem overall that he knew what he was talking about and knows something about the issue is about to be sorted? Just trying to find out a little more info
Thanks.

The representative I talked to was extremely dismissive until I he said, paraphrasing "hold on, my associate needs to talk to me about this".

when I came off hold, "yes, there is a problem and we are aware of it."

no additional information was given other than I was told to wait for an update. I'm only assuming he meant a software update, given the depth of his vocabulary in context to my issue.

I believe someone in this thread already got theirs swapped out for a new machine, and it didn't work. You have two real options, return it and wait for Apple to fix it, or hang on to it and wait for Apple to fix it.

I bought one of the original MacBook Pro unibody models back in 2009. It had issues that took a few months for Apple to figure out, when they did, it was a perfect machine.

There is a 14 day return policy without any restocking fees on Apple products now. I am also having freezing issues but I'm not gaming or running intensive tasks on the machine as of yet. I plan on doing this in a few days and that's why I bought the machine in the first place. I'm sure Apple is on top of this because it will start trickling in the media soon and that is not a good thing for Apple nor for Intel with the already reported mishap with the chip in the first place. I asked a genius bar employee what he thought was going on and he asked me if I did migration assistant(yes) he recommended that I do a erase and install,(why should I have to do this?) The whole reason I did the migration because I wanted my data on this system!

Hello.

I've been following another thread here on "Apple Discussions" that is also in the throes of discussing issues that could be similar and/or related to ones being discussed here. It's title is "New 2011 MacBook Pro Heating Issue?" , and had grown to 134 posts as of Thursday afternoon. Over there I suggested posters look at your thread, and I'm suggesting to readers here to do the same re. that thread, just to see if there are any additional new tidbits of information can be shed on whatever is going on. It's good to see on this thread that apparently Apple engineering is at least aware of a need to study the issue.

Jason Schroeder wrote:
@Schwa72

I haven't tried Boot Camp yet, however - I did receive confirmation from an AppleCare Support rep this morning the particular freeze I'm experiencing is a known issue they're looking into. All that was said was "wait for an update".

Video card driver? Quite possibly. I'm expecting a firmware update of some kind. Thank goodness Apple keeps everything secret and doesn't tell us anything except wait.

What you're saying implies something that I've been thinking...there are several different problems going on here. Some people are experiencing freezes when exiting from full-screen gaming (seems like a video subsystem-related issue), others are experiencing freezes when running CPU-intensive tasks (heat or compatibility issues), and others are experiencing problems when just poking around. I'd be interested in knowing the CPU temperatures upon lockup for the last group of folks. On another forum, one user was complaining of high fan speeds and high CPU temperatures when doing simple tasks. In instances like that, there's almost certainly a cooling problem (bad fan, too much thermal paste), and I wonder whether some people here aren't having that issue. That would be easy to verify by taking a look at idle temperatures which should be in the mid-to-high 30's to low 40's (depending on ambient temperature).

The video lockups, absent of any visual artifacting, are almost certainly indicative of a driver or firmware issue. It's been my experience that video cards that get too hot almost always display visual artifacts before they lock the system.

Message was edited by: Schwa72

I got my 15" i7 on the 28th of Feb, after installing starcraft 2 in medium/high res full screen, I noticed that the laptop would crash if 1) I used high settings or 2) playing in medium and once I finish playing and exit the game, it would crash. Fan's running full speed, PC completely locked up. It's done it over and over again.. I now play sc2 in a window.. but obviously I'm not taking full advantage!

Anyone got a fix yet? I don't feel like bringing it in until we're sure of the solution.

I can not help but think that with the speed of these macs and the fact that there seems to be alot of issues with regards to heat and fans spinning to try and cool the system, that the freezes are just a sort of cooling of period for the processor and/or graphics. There may be a system fix that may alleviate some minor processor usage issues but with intesive tasks I think this could be a hardware config issue also. The fans may have to be replaced for more powerful and silent if possible and the processor heat sink and paste redone. Im hoping im wrong here, but until Apple issues a firmware or update software patch we are not really going to know, this will most probably go pass anyones 14 day exchange policy anyway. I am very dissapointed because I am currently waiting for my macbook and if I come across some of these errors I will need to have Apple tell me exactly whats going on as I sold my previous mac and should have waited. I hope we get an answer very soon.
The other part is ain't these chips meant to run cooler and if so what else could be the underlying issue ? - I hope this is not a hardware problem and if it is I think Apple are not going to tell us any time soon, the longer it takes for a reply the more chance that this may be.

The other post relating to this is : Re: New 2011 MacBook Pro Heating Issue?

Nicholas.

I'm in the first group - exiting from full-screen games. Or going into dashboard during full-screen games. As far as my temps: During the games they can get up to 185 to MAYBE 190 CPU/GPU, and regular tasks temps like right now my CPU and GPU are both at about 90 degrees F.

One thing to note: I can play my full-screen games for like 5 to 8 minutes with no problem, but if I've been playing them for more like 15 minutes I can guarantee it will lock up.

Message was edited by: Adam Adkins

I'm experiencing a lot of freezes in which on three occasions I've reinstalled OS x. Most recent crash occurred while doing a Time Machine Backup. I went into Outlook 2011 while the TM backup was going on, and machine locked up with cursor movement, but no apps available. Had to power off/on in which following, got the background splash screen but no login prompt. It is at Apple Store Genius bar for examination.

I have a MacBook Pro 2010 model that is flawless. Did a complete TM backup of it, and did a TM restore to the new MBpro 2011. Thought I was in the clear when everything seemed to be running, but had the following symptoms:

Power connector was flashing green / orange. Battery message was alternating from Charging / Not Charging.

While attempting a Time Machine Backup of MBpro 2011, system hung.

Are those of you getting freezes using iStat Pro or iStat Menus? I used them since I bought my 15" High-end Macbook Pro, had a few freezes and for a few days I've stopped using them. Guess what - I've had no freeze at all. It froze using Skype, watching Flash content, playing Call of Duty etc. Now it works flawlessly.

Try not using iStat Pro or iStat Menus and see what happens.

Btw: I tried a number of fixes: reset PRAM, set AMD-graphics only etc. But it didn't make any difference. There's also no overheating issue. I did a Cinebench test on mine, it went as high as 95 degrees Celsius, but it was working perfectly after the test. High temps are mac-specific; it's not critical if you get almost 100 degrees.

No, unfortunately there is no rhyme or reason to it - I've installed/uninstalled monitoring software like iStat and Fan Control with no change either way.

The problem has a definite trigger but is intermittent when that trigger sets - sometimes I'll crash every five minutes, the other night I went for two hours with nothing.

So was on with support today for a while, they assigned a specific tech to me.

We did all the normal troubleshooting, smc/prom reset, installed a new partition and mac os x, was able to replicate the problem (freeze out of fullscreen game after longer time, 15 minutes seems to be as good a mark as any).

They have no idea .. they did not tell me engineering knew about it .. or at least if they did, they weren't making the support teams aware.

I was surprised they assigned someone to work my case when I told them I was able to ssh into my box during the freeze. So I was encouraged, that I was going to get a tech that new what to do .. of course, she had no idea what commands I could run to troubleshoot the issue.

Couple of items I did notice though, that seemed to go over her head:
1. everything seemed to be running as normal, though the screen was completely black
2. it looked like the graphics chip had lost its power, saw the following error message in the logs
+ATIFramebufferNI::setPowerState(0xffffff800c4f3000, 0 -> 2) timed out after 45117 ms+
3. when forcing a reboot from the command line, it looks as if the system was rebooting but I saw no visible progress after 2 minutes, so did a hard restart .. next time I'll give it a much longer timeframe.

Has anyone attempted to close the laptop (sleep it) while in the game and come back after an extended period of time and see if it exits clean? I may try that tonight.

I called AppleCare back just to make sure what I was told was correct

- My case # references the engineering notice specifying they're aware of the issue
- I had the support rep double check this to make sure I heard her right
- they wouldn't tell me anything more about it, as engineering doesn't give status of cases like this to front line support