MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze

Confirmed on my new 2011 Macbook Pro 15" 2.2 Ghz. I noticed the hard freeze while running Second Life, and can reliably reproduce it every time by taxing both the GPU and CPU such as using the first test case at:

http://mbp-freeze.wikispaces.com/
(Run the Cinebench R11 OpenGL test while the CPU is taxed e.g. 8 "yes" processes or video encoding)

Only solution for me is to hold power to turn the system off. Has not happened when the system is idle or when only the CPU or GPU is taxed.

@ amadeoh

that would be at least one relief (if Chrome were the issue and not the computer). and I join you in your displeasure.

I, for one, sincerely hope that the issue here is software. Nothing worse than using a computer that you feel like is going to stop working on you for no apparent reason at any moment. All of my freezes have come when the sensors were reading relatively normal temperatures. A little warm, but nothing shocking. Nothing higher than 85C.

Also, if anyone has any insight as to why the maximum fan speed i can get is 5500 while others are getting 6200...I'm all ears. My OSX temps never get above 91C...but I'd still like to know why I'm getting a lower max rpm speed than some others and if there's anything I can do about it.

@Adrian J.

With gfxStatusCard set to Integrated only, are the freezes supposed to stop altogether?

I was just running 1000 fish and was happy that it ran for ~1 minute without freezing the computer. Then, as I alt-tabbed to Chrome to come post my findings here, it freezes. Again, music plays fine in the background and mouse moves freely.

@ Ethics

Under "integrated only" graphics using Chrome, my computer freezes consistently inside of 15 seconds or so with that fish test.

I have about 25 tabs open, but nothing else. But hopefully as one poster noted recently, it may be an issue with Chrome or the WebGL fish application itself. I certainly hope so.

edit: @ ideaz

It's really your call and yours alone. I believe it to be a software issue that will be fixed via update. It could, however, be a hardware issue which necessitates sending these machines out for repairs. As such, you have 2 options:

1.) Wait it out and see. You deal with the issues until they get fixed via software or via hardware repair @ Apple. Worst case scenario is that it does require physical repair (nobody wants a laptop that had to be repaired/refurbished)....or that the software fix takes MONTHS instead of days.

2.) Return to Apple before your 14 days are up. Exchange for a new one or get your money back and wait until the fix is known. Of course, you're without a MBP during this period of time.

It's a tough decision, but one all of us are facing. I don't yet know what I'm going to do, but I'll be doing it in the next 7 hours. That I am sure of.

Message was edited by: Adrian J.

Yesterday my new macbook freezed when starting up from sleep. Before i put it to sleep i had xcode with the iphone simulator running. I could move the mouse cursor but the system did not respond to clicks and had to hard reset the macbook.

Today i saw the freeze issue on a blog and tried to reproduce the freeze with the information from http://mbp-freeze.wikispaces.com/ I tried option 1 and 3 but they didn't let the macbook freeze.

Then i tried everything at the same time (running photoboot, watching Youtube HD video's, xcode with iphone simulator, re-encode HD video, etc.) and still the macbook didn't freeze.

So i tried the the test with the aquarium in Google Chrome. At first it didn't crash until i downloaded the tool http://codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus . When i did switch to integrated and started the aqarium it still didn't crash. But when i click on 1000 fishes the whole system crashed within 5 seconds.

I hope there will be more info soon about the issue.

New MBP 17" 2.3GHz, 8GB RAM. Has never crashed, even under heavy load.

FWIW: I use Fan Control, I have it set to a low of 129F/54C and a high of 171F/77C:
http://www.lobotomo.com/products/FanControl/

I use System Load to load the CPUs:
http://www.bresink.com/osx/SystemLoad.html

With all cores running at 100%, the highest temp I see is 180F/82C. And I'm not crashing!

I have run Geekbench in all modes with issue. I also ran CineBench without issue.

If all the new MBPs are affected, then Fan Control MAY be why I haven't crashed.

Still, the fish in Chrome under Windows 7 runs without any problem, though the computer gets rather hot.

The funny thing is, sometimes when Mac OS X freezes, the computer isn't even warm, as compared to under Windows.

This has been a very disappointing purchase for me. I was very excited to get back on the Mac bandwagon and treat myself to a nice new 15" 2.2 MBP. I immediately noticed the problems with home sharing. That bummed me out a lot because I use home sharing every day between my phone, PCs, and Apple TV. I was kind of on the fence about what to do about it since I really liked the machine. Then I read about the freezing issues this morning. I felt agitated all day at work just thinking about it. I came home on my lunch break, fired up Photo Booth, ran yes > /dev/null & 8 times in terminal, and waited. The fans started roaring like a jet engine and the laptop started getting really hot on my lap.

Then it froze.

...

I am so incredibly disappointed in this $2K+ laptop. I'm even more disappointed that I had to order a custom build for the high res screen, so now if I want to return it I have to pay for shipping back. All for a product that seemingly can't do what my 3 year old ThinkPad can do.

Oh, and my new Colcasac sleeve just got delivered too. Even MORE shipping costs to eat over this stupid laptop.

@ cyborgasm,

no, Fan Control doesn't fix it. I tried that earlier. Also, that app is pretty darn irritating to uninstall. lol.

@ Patranhadas,

welcome to the club. hopefully, the crash we're experiencing with Chrome has something to do with either Chrome or the WebGL application itself. Of course, I really don't know for sure. :-/

@ amadeoh,

same here. no problems under Windows (though to be fair, Windows does not use the integrated graphics and it is not an option to test it). and some freezes come when the computer is only in the 60C range. the issues are not [always] temperature-dependent...and may not be temperature-dependent at all. it may be something else entirely. we just don't know...and maybe Apple doesn't know either.

@ hark,

I believe you can walk it into an Apple store and return it there.

Message was edited by: Adrian J.

Message was edited by: Adrian J.

For me the worst scenario is that there is a design flaw, and on Apple's part nothing can be done about it since, well, the flaw is in design itself, and what we eventually get is a piece of firmware update that underclocks everything under Mac OS X.

@ama,

yes, that would be bad. but again, heat is not the issue in my case. my machine never gets warmer than 91C in OSX. yet it can hit 99C in Windows with no adverse affects to performance and stability.

Hi everyone,

After trying every suggested method to crash my 2011 MacBook Pro (2.2 i7) I CAN NOT crash it. I've tried the yes > command in the terminal for all 8 threads, I've ran 4 movies through handbrake (all of which are 7+ GB in size) and I've played about two straight hours of counter strike source (on full settings). None of which can recreate the crash. The CPU get to 86C but never crashes the system.

Is it possible that I may have just gotten 1 in 100 MBP's and mine has no problem?

It is a tough call.. I have 3 more days before I hit 14 day period... Although I haven't seen any issue with my (under)usage so far, I am going to try those tests and see it how it responds although I'm sure its going to crash.

I have been using Logic Express fine though with about 30-40tracks running with several plugins loaded without issues.

I hope Apple acknowledges this soon.

I don't think it's been mentioned, but this sounds like a pretty classic ATI driver issue under Windows (I have the exact same symptoms with a Radeon 5770 in my Windows 7 machine). I know the issue for me is related to automatic voltage switching, so you might try finding a tool that would let you manually specify the timings, which would prevent the card from switching voltages.

to the people who say this doesn't happen:


I've noticed that it doesn't always happen. I've been able to reproduce it at times, and other times it's worked just fine.


to the people this is happening to:

Please call apple. Let them know this is happening to you. If you live near an apple store please take the machine in. Please show them what is happening. I called tech support and the guy i talked to hadn't even heard of this issue yet. He tried to help me though, and offered me a replacement. I declined at this time because i believe this issue will be fixed in software but if it DOES turn out to be a hardware issue that requires replacing, i wanted to have the call on record. I recommend everyone do the same thing.

He also asked me to go to www.apple.com/feedback/ and let apple know what is happening.