MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze

So, In summary I recommend everyone download gfxcardstatus and keep the machine in integrated mode until a fix is found. I am now doing things that would certainly kill the machine on discrete. Hopefully that isn't too far off.

Message was edited by: Chullo

A tentative confirmation is what I'm offering. But almost cleanly confirmed as a few mins ago I was doing the same thing and the machine died. I am simultaneously encoding 2 DVDs to h.264 and CPU temp is hovering around 90-92C and no lockup, it locked up on me encoding one yesterday.

Update...I am encoding 4 streams now and CPU is maxed out, temps have fallen below 90C and no lockup.

Message was edited by: Chullo

That's cool, there's so many postings and this unthreaded flat, 20+ page format makes it difficult to scroll through the history and evaluate things in a more effective and concise way. I was more or less relying on what you've surmised. I was outsourcing 🙂.

Lol, yup it's been a long day. I am very confident at the current state of affairs though, the integrated mode eliminates my issues completely @ my highest levels of stress....and that's saying a lot. Hope to hear from other people if they are experiencing issues in integrated mode as well.

After some wierd screen flashes on this machine when in descrete mode, have to agree - GPU drivers seem to be the problem.

However, I still very strongly feel that a firmware update is needed to make the fans kick in earlier. Processors evenually go into emergency shutdown if they get too hot, so Im not worried about my CPU getting damaged.

However, I have absolutely no idea what the radeon mobile GPU does - and more to the point, whether the result that we see at then moment might be permenantly damaging to them leading to a later permenant failure (year and a day death syndrome for eg).

Basically themal issues + flakey GPU drivers are a pattern that I have seen in the context of GPUs having a very short lifespan (usually nVidia), so anyone experiencing this might want to go for the replacement option for more than just a way to extend the 14 day thing.

Thanks Chullo and everyone else... Been running SmallLuxGPU for nearly 30 minutes now with no freeze... I'm even going to let it grind away overnight - CPU's are hanging out 92-98.

Maybe tomorrow I'll actually get some work done? Lot's of catch up to do. This is now a $10k purchase considering lost time and wages. And that doesn't even begin to take the weekend away I owe my wife for being such a freak. 😉

Night all... Let's connect tomorrow and report our findings...

Also happening to me.

FFS this is REALLY annoying, I can't convert any video or play any graphics intensive games...

I've tried disabling card switching and it doesn't make a difference.

So much for spending the extra on this $3700 machine! FFS Apple... not happy!

I don't think he got that far john, he probably just disabled it in system preferences. We need to post this authoritatively somewhere.

Temporary solution until apple fixes this..
Download gfxcardstatus
Set mode to integrated only
Use machine.

Yeah Madhat, you kiwis are getting the raw end of the deal.

I was in Samoa for two years, and my Mac at the time died. I had to send it to NZ to get repaired. I believe it went to a place called MagnumMac in Auckland. Service was a bit limited though. Most of the parts had to be imported from Australia.

I'm in Christchurch where the earthquake was, we have a MagnumMac here too but they're really useless, they're all about upselling and have very poor service.

I'm quite angry I just spend NZ$3700 on this beast and I can't even use it for what I bought it for, my old hackintosh was more reliable!

How about you wait a day to get feedback from folks. Then after we've got a better sample response you post a new discussion with the fix. Then we can move discussion to the new thread and keep it on the top of the list of topics.

I've filled in the Apple online feedback form i hope everyone does the same. However i would also suggest reporting these findings to the likes of Engadget, Gizmodo and Wired.. I think a public shaming might be in order for Apple's silence on this clearly evident problem.

I fear taking this machine back will solve nothing when i read reports of people buying 3 machines or more with the problem across the board.

We should have some justice for the amount of money we have invested in a defective product.

When you're stuck on an island and the machine you depend on for everything suddenly dies, you kind of go with what works. I had applecare, so I just needed someone authorized. I'm sure they got their moneys worth from Apple.

I feel your pain though. I use my mac for work. I'm back to my old 2008 MBP until they get this all sorted. If you read through this discussion thread, I think you'll realize this is a pretty widespread issue. If it works for you with the system set to use only the integrated card, then you're better off than I was. I'd use it until something comes out from apple.

Welcome to Apple Version 1 bliss 🙂

Interesting finding...

My music continues to play after it's crashed, which as a friend pointed out suggests the CPU is still working and it hasn't KP'd.

I noticed my CPU got to 97deg(c) before the fans kicked in and cooled it back down to a stable 88deg(c) - note this is while forcing the laptop to use the HD3000 graphics.

Hi there,

So I've been doing a bit more playing regarding this issue.
Decided today to stay in Windows 7 via Bootcamp. And guess what. Not a single crash. I've been playing games, done a handreak encode, and some 3D rendering in Softimage. All of which maxed out the cpus.
Nothing. Stable as.

So. I'm pretty sure now the issue isn't overheating. I think the issue is the ATI drivers under OSX.

It's quite funny that Apple have released a product that's more stable in Windows than it is under it's native OS! 🙂

Anyhow, I have hope now that it will be driver / firmware update. And until then I'm staying in Win7.

Si