MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze

First of all, I apologize if this is redundant information. There are a lot of replies in this thread.

I purchased a Early 2011 15" 2.2GHz MBP at the end of February and have been experiencing these issues as well.

I decided to come up with some manner of repeatable test to bring my system to a halt and here is what I came up with.

Handbrake encoding VOB files already on the hard drive.
Running Netflix in a browser window (used Chrome)
Running a video game (World of Warcraft, Civ V)

I can consistently get the machine to freeze within a few minutes doing this. The CPU temp is around 91-92 degrees Celsius and all 8 virtual cores are at or near 100% usage.

I also have bootcamp set up with a Windows 7 Professional install. I decided to see if I had these problems in Windows. I tried the same experiment as close as I could. I ran handbrake, NetFlix inside a Chrome window, and ran Dragon Age Origins. My CPU temps were around 95-96 degrees Celsius and my CPU usage was at or near 100%. I ran this for over 30 minutes without a freeze.

This makes me suspect that this is not a hardware issue but a software/firmware issue. Has anyone who has gotten a macbook replacement found that their issues went away?

Thanks @nickwellings I'm glad someone else can confirm that the Sims 3 is not working with the new MBP... or.. working at dangerously hot temperatures.

The first time I played I didn't realize it was over heating and after 1-2 hours of play the computer was so hot that I'm worried it could have caused slight internal damage. Since lowering the graphic settings to the lowest possible & still having the problem I have been afraid to play any games.

Message was edited by: kirkins

Mike,

the interesting part is that i had itunes running, and music continued to be played in the background, it even switched from one song to another

This is consistent with many (most?) peoples experiences. Go back through the thread (all 500 replies) and see for yourself. Also, if you have remote login enabled, you can ssh into the frozen machine. It's just the interface that's frozen at that point. Though there is some indication that this it the beginning of a cascade which will even freeze these underlying processes that seem to still be running.

I'm currently at work and can't do this but can we perhaps setup a blog somewhere with:

*-Description of the problem.*
*-How to re-create the crash.*
*-Known models potentially affected.*
*-Possible workarounds.*

Here you go. If anyone wants to edit or make changes, and I need to add any permissions so you can do so just email me (john dot m dot harrold at gmail dot com).

http://mbp-freeze.wikispaces.com/

I have been able to reproduce the issue with my new 15" MBP 2.3Ghz.

I had 4 copies of "openssl speed" running for 30 minutes with no issues... if I start smallluxGPU and set it even to just 4 cores + GPU while all the openssl commands are still running, it took less than 30 seconds for the UI freeze to occur!

If you want to see yet another problem with the new MBP 2011, let your battery drop below 80%, change your battery indicator to 'Time' mode, plug in your magsafe and wait about 2 mins for the recharge time to stabilize, then start taxing the CPU. Your recharge time will start shooting upwards of 10+ hours and after a couple mins, the laptop will stop charging the battery altogether.

I have another week to return my MBP, should I return it and wait for the problem to be solved?

If Apple does address this, and it can't just be fixed through an update, will they have a recall?

Basically, what I'm asking is if I hold out and it turns out to be hardware issue, am I screwed?

Message was edited by: Mike282

Mike282 wrote:
I have another week to return my MBP, should I return it and wait for the problem to be solved?

If Apple does address this, and it can't just be fixed through an update, will they have a recall?

Basically, what I'm asking is if I hold out and it turns out to be hardware issue, am I screwed?

Message was edited by: Mike282

If it is a hardware issue and they consider a piece of hardware to be faulty in all of the machines - they should definitely go with a recall, or at least provide everyone with an exchange possible in the nearest apple support service.. or whatever it's called where they repair stuff 😉

Mike,

By default it's supported for a year. If you have applecare, then it's supported for 3 years. If you bought it with the right kind of AMEX or any other credit card with warranty extension then it's supported for 2 or 4 years (respectively).

Logic would suggest that either apple fixes this or they quit selling computers 🙂. I believe the policy is that after three returns they have to give you a new computer (that part is pure hearsay on my side).

So, I'd say you're probably fine. However, if you don't need the computer (or cannot use the computer) until the fix, then I would just take it back.

I don't think that's it. I suffered through several mobo replacements due to that issue. The video once lost never came back. I can get this back every time, lately though the screensaver, before by rebooting. This one started for me right after upgrading to snow leopard.

This is not new MacBook pros have done this for at least 3 generations that I know of. Under full load they draw more than the 85w power brick can provide. The battery provides the difference. If the battery doesn't have the juice performance is throttled back.

I was getting the freeze when I was using topaz denoise in photoshop cs5, so I followed the advice earlier in this thread and installed gfxcardstatus. I forced it to always use integrated gfx and, although a little slower at processing, there's been no UI freezes yet.

My machine has been freezing everytime I render a large file in C4d, or edit some large files in AI or PS (500-600mb) with a few small apps running in the background (pandora, iphoto, chrome, itunes). When I need to Save a file out of PS or any CS5 app after I've used a lot of processing power, I get a beachball and I need to do a hard reset. Everytime. I did a clean install of osx, then installed cs5 master, and it still happens. *** apple

Andrew Preece wrote:
I have been able to reproduce the issue with my new 15" MBP 2.3Ghz.

I had 4 copies of "openssl speed" running for 30 minutes with no issues... if I start smallluxGPU and set it even to just 4 cores + GPU while all the openssl commands are still running, it took less than 30 seconds for the UI freeze to occur!

So weird. Usually I'm the first guy to run into problems like this, but I'm replying to your post while running four instances of "openssl speed" and while running SmallLuxGPU on all 8 CPUs + GPU and it's been going for over 1300 seconds with no crashes or hangs. I need to stop tempting fate I guess.

[(screenshot here)|http://home.earthlink.net/~kfscoll/images/MBP stresstest.JPG]

FWIW my fans were pegged at full speed (6200rpm) but my CPU temp never exceeded 92C and actually dropped to around 88 before I quit.