MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze

Noticed this on my MacBook just now:

http://tweet.pho.to/9j75Cz

Thoughts?

What the ****?
Was it delivered like that?

I got my MBP 2.2 15" HR today.. no crash yet (I just played 2 hrs of Crysis under Bootcamp and fans didnt even turn on).
But I havent had any switching procedures yet as I work with an external screen attached to the MBP.
However I noticed a bug, on (re)starts it fails to recognize the external monitor. I need to unplug/plug it back in to get it working, which is really annoying.
(Also I'm running gfxcardstatus set on auto, smcFanControl and iStat Pro)

Yeah it arrived "bent" :/

Wow.. i'd send it back in for a new one asap!

Also since my last post i've been stress-testing my machine a little with Photoshop running, Handbrake encoding a video, 4 instances of Quicktime playing video, 1 instance of VLC and Youtube doing 720p fullscreen whilst Spotlight is indexing the main-drive and Timemachine doing a full backup (also had Photobooth open).
Also running Skype and Adium.

Test lasted around 15 mins.

CPU hitting 89°C max. with fans at 6000rpm max.

Your fix of using smcFanControl didn't work for me. I set the fan RPMs to a minimum of 4000, heard them kick in a bit, then launched Starcraft 2. As soon as I went to change the video resolution in Starcraft the screen froze while the music continued playing. The fans also ramped up quite a bit while it was frozen like this and I eventually had to hard reboot it.

Its already a replacement machine too! I stress tested mine earlier and never crashed once. Yet randomly with just one thing open it will freeze completely or appear to free yet still be working in the background

So I shipped my computer out yesterday, and this morning I noticed it was being repaired. Now I've the following:

*Step 2 - Service*
On hold - Need information (16-Mar-2011)

I wonder what kind of information they need? I did leave the DVD rip of "The Jerk" that I was using to test with Handbreak on the desktop, perhaps they're watching it (it's a classic).

Take it back

Can anyone who has "stress tested" their laptop please make sure to do the test where you instal boost as others in this thread have mentioned and make sure you are on the AMD GPU at the time.

I am mentioning this because I can stress test all day long without a crash but certain scenarios such as installing boost or changing resolution in Starcraft 2 will always cause a a crash if on the AMD GPU.

Sorry, I should clarify. The SMC Fan Control is really for monitoring purposes at this point. It's been determined that it's a problem with switching. The gfxCardStatus can help with that.

I would only force it on discrete though when you are going to be doing things that cause it to switch frequently, as it's after that process that it has a chance to lock up. Note that forcing the integrated one works just as well if you don't mind the slower speed and prefer battery life.

The GPU locking up is why people report that audio and other things unrelated to the GPU continue to work after the freeze (Ventrilo still playing audio, etc.). A firmware update is most likely needed, but I'm not in engineering :P

If you're doing something that always causes it to be in one mode continuously (as others note: having an external monitor attached forces discrete on) and not switch back-and-forth a lot, then that's why you're not seeing it happen to your machine.

Also, setting the fan speed above the minimum in SMC Fan Control is not needed. I've changed mine back to the default speeds to reduce unnecessary wear.

I don't think the problem is with switching. I used gfxCardStatus to lock the graphics on discrete and I still had the exact freeze mentioned when trying to install boost via macports. Also same problem when exiting from a fullscreen game such as Starcraft 2. I do however think it is related to the graphics card as sound and other processes do continue in the background

My 13" i5 sometimes freezes for 10 seconds when I wake up from sleep, the beach ball just keeps spinning. I tried resting the PRAM but it still happens from time to time.

I play VERY graphics demanding games full screen on my MBP for about 8 minutes maximum, quit, NO crash. If I play for longer than 10 minutes, I am almost guaranteed a crash. ???

Very strange then. Have been going for 7 hours now playing WoW encoded 2 DVDs running 4-5 apps on top of those, Safari, iTunes, QuickTime playing a movie, and others. Freeze seems to only happen using dynamic switching with testing, and would happen within minutes of doing all or part of that before. Well I hope that eng figures it all out soonish. Sorry to hear that didn't resolve it temporarily for you.

Just out of curiousity, has anyone had these freezings/hangs with an external monitor attached to the MBP ?