MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze

Schwa72 -- Well said. To the matter @ hand. I just ran the smalluxgpu @ 1024x768 @ 8 cores but only on the integrated graphics and the CPU temp tops out @ 92C Witt the fans blaring @ 6200. No hangs at the moment. So maybe only the ATI chip has an issue? I do know that both the processor and the GPU are connected via the same pipe so maybe it is the GPU overheating? The combination of both?

Second thought....it could still be a driver issue as any catastrophic error in the driver is exacerbated by stressing the GPU with calculations. Making the heat just a symptom that would be present regardless.

Message was edited by: Chullo

Sorry Schwa my intention wasn't to throw around academic credentials. I was simply trying to point out that I wasn't just shooting my mouth off. I've seen a lot of mention of thermal paste being a problem with these computers and a one off remark from the iFixit link is the only thing I've seen anyone reference. I just don't want people to go too far astray when trying to understand the problem.

In my experience building and working on computers there has always been ample pressure to force out excess thermal paste. Of course your experiences may differ from my own.

Something Im puzzled about - a bunch of you are quoting 6200 RPM as the max fan speed. What tool are you using for this as my fans seem to max out at 5500 according to smcFanControl?

This is with a MBP 17 / 2.3GHz (that aslo freezes when it gets hot and GPU is in use).

Chullo - I'm unable to run SmallLuxGPU in integrated only mode on my machines with GFXCardStatus - it immediately terminates when I initiate the test. I can run in Discreet and Dynamic Switching modes and produce failures on all three machines. Thoughts?

Khazul -- smcfancntrol should give you access to 6000rpm. The extra 200 is apple's driver which ups the voltage to above the documented limit.

Jkirker --- yea I had that issue. Force it into integrated with gfxcardstatus, then relaunch the app.

John- No worries. Who really knows how much of an issue the thermal paste is in the case of these Macs. I did understand you were simply trying to qualify your comments by mentioning your PhD; I was just being an ***. 😉

Chullo- I'm confused. When I ran the smallluxGPU test, I left Automatic Graphics Switching engaged and didn't have any problems. I assume that the ATI GPU was getting taxed in this case...weren't you also able to successfully run the test with automatic graphics switching enabled? I just figured that if my ATI card didn't crash, the integrated GPU would work fine also.

Oops, never mind, that was Adrian J. who was able to successfully complete the test, not you. My bad.

Message was edited by: Schwa72

I have a very interesting development....when you run the test in integrated mode it's almost unreal as to how fast the "integrated" graphics performs compared to the discrete. I looked @ the numbers and both are coming in almost as quick if not quicker on the integrated side! I followed up with a test in dynamic mode and sure enough it crashed. I'm now thinking that we do in fact have a driver issue as no way should the integrated gfx be coming in anywhere near the discrete solutions. Recommendation....keep your machine in integrated mode while apple sorts this out.

Update... Even more evidence of a driver issue. I can no longer run the test with integrated enabled so I'm guessing there must be a glitch somewhere that enabled me 2 do it before.

Message was edited by: Chullo

@Chullo - cheers.

I have never sen the reported fan speed shown as higher than 5500 in any monitoring utility regardless of how much stress I put on the system.

In fact just run some more stress tests on both internal and descrete GPU and in nether case did it exceed 5500 or so.

Wierd ???

Chullo - BTW - I am finding the opposite for the applications I am using. Ableton Live running 64 tracks is much more efficient when using descrete rather than integrated which suprised me. I didnt expect any difference.

Message was edited by: Khazul

Khazul-- yea weird. Remember we have a very powerful machine now, takes a lot to stress it. Run smallluxgpu @ max settings and you should see them ramp up if not crash the machine.

One way to test the thermal question is to get two computers: one that exhibits the problem and one that does not. Set them side by side idling (just the OS). If the heat wasn't transferring fast enough from the problem computer, you would expect it to have a consistently higher temperature (mean each +/- the noise over 10 minutes or so), even under a low process load. You'd want them side by side so you had the same ambient conditions.

If you can talk that guy with three macs into getting a fourth, then he could do it --- what's another three grand on the amex 🙂. Or perhaps someone could go to an apple store and find a working machine with the same configuration as their broken one and try it out.

Checking in - same problem with a CTO 15" 2.2GHz Hi Res Screen and 7200rpm 500GB drive. Ordered on opening day of sale and arrived 4th March-ish.

Consistently locks up in WoW or doing a Handbrake encode using discrete or dynamic GPU modes. Doesn't lockup in integrated. No truly high temps, tends to crash between 65-75 degrees on the AMD card.

Spoke to Apple Support in Sydney from about the 7th March (so they've known about it in Sydney since then and they're replacing it (waiting for a courier to actually turn up to pick up the original).

Not holding out a **** of a lot of hope that a new one won't show the same issues...looking less and less like a bad batch or an isolated issue.

John, I've tried this on ALL the new machines they had @ my local apple store and they all failed. Much to the surprise of the genius "helping" me. This is a systemic issue and I'm still pretty surprised that Adrian's machine doesn't get killed by it. So....there is hope.

All the new machines at the store? I was under the impression that there were folks whose computers were actually working. I thought it was much more systemic, but I had no idea it was this bad. Since they took my machine to "learn" about the problem, I sent the representative dealing with my case the email below today. Now I think I should have worded it more strongly.

---

Hey Liz,

Don't worry, I'm not emailing you to harass you folks about the
replacement. It's on the way, and I'm sure everyone is struggling with
this.

I should tell you that I ordered my original computer the day (or the
day after) the new machines were announced back in February. I mention
this because I'm thinking this issue may not be isolated, and I may be
at the front of a much larger group. The folks on the forum may
represent a statistically irrelevant subset of the customers (as was
intimated by one of the support folks over the phone), but the
experiences of people like fellow who currently has three different
laptops that are freezing (among other issues):

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=13248189#13248189

others who are reporting similar issues with their replacements, and
the increase in people reporting problems these last few days would
suggest this problem is a little more widespread.

Chullo - I have it forced into Integrated mode - i showing in menubar... But I'm unable to launch the test even after shutting down SmallLux and even restarting the machine in I mode.

Thoughts? I have to be doing something super-simple-stupid wrong.