MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze

Stevo, try this:

Instal the program gfxcardstatus and put in Integrated mode only
Run Chrome and execute this: http://www.chromeexperiments.com/detail/webgl-aquarium/?f=webgl with 1000 fish.

credits to: Adrien J. (founder of this method to crash 2011 macbook pro in 1 second, lol)

I have no freezes with my new Macbook Pro 17 inch 2011.

Runned Cinebench, Handbrake conversions, SmallluxGPU etc the temperature raise to 85 Celsius and fans kick in 5000 rpm and then slowly goes to 3700-4000 rpm and wont go higher then 85 Celsius.

I was under the impression that CTO orders could only be shipped back to Apple for a refund. If I'm wrong, I'll be very pleased to just drive it over this week and return it and not pay any more shipping charges.

Ok, was playing with the OpenGL "shark" test in chrome, and got a hard lockup after a while. (No mouse movement this time).

I was able to ssh in and "sudo reboot". After a minute or so, the fans spundown but the screen remained frozen. After another minute or two I was back at my functioning desktop.. almost didn't even realize it had restarted as I never saw the apple logo or hear any of the usual restart noises (It did, I checked the console logs). Was really really weird.

I'm sure a "shutdown -h now" would work too; both are likely a lot better for your machine/data/hdd than holding the power button!

Good to see Engadget picking up the story.

At least Apple might be more inclined to say something about it....though in my experience, Apple doesn't acknowledge a problem until they have a fix for it (yellow tinting iMacs) or solution to mitigate it (iPhone 4 & free cases).

As has been said, call in and at least get your incident on record. I can't do a replacement right now because I have a business trip to go on in the morning and need it now. Maybe I'll let them replace it when I get back, provided no fix has been released by that time.

Has anyone noticed if this problem will affect DJ software? ie: Virtual DJ. My previous dj computer died, and I just went to best buy the other day and bought a 15" standard $1799 customization so I could be back up and running. I haven't run tests yet, (Haven't even opened the box!) Should I return? If so any replacement ideas instead? Thanks.

@Patranhadas

Yea, that did it. I had no problems until I ran the google chrome thing. I hope even after this test I can still play CSS without lockups.

I KNEW I should have not ever bought a mac with an ATI chipset. I told myself when I purchased this (my first mac) that the ATI gfx card WOULD eventually cause problems. Looks like I'll be returning this, unless Apple or AMD says this is a software error and can be fixed with an OSX Update.

ahhhh I hate this! !$@% you AMD!!!

@hark.hogum

This is not true. I have sent my CTO machine in for repairs. After they got it they asked if they could keep it and send me a new one which is on the way.

The best way to get reliable information is to simply call them and discuss the problem with them. Everyone who is experiencing this problem *SHOULD CALL APPLE*.

@everyone else

I'm inclined to believe the chrome test may not be related to this problem. Has anyone been able to ssh into the computer after the chrome test? I went through the logs after several of my freezes and was unable to find anything associated with the freeze. But the crome test is clearly leaving log messages.

by the way, for anyone new: http://mbp-freeze.wikispaces.com/

InsaneCircusSeal wrote:
Has anyone noticed if this problem will affect DJ software? ie: Virtual DJ. My previous dj computer died, and I just went to best buy the other day and bought a 15" standard $1799 customization so I could be back up and running. I haven't run tests yet, (Haven't even opened the box!) Should I return? If so any replacement ideas instead? Thanks.

It seems to happen randomly and also under very heavy load when graphics switching is enabled.

I can make it happen by opening photobooth then running 8 threads of

yes > /dev/null &


about 70% of the time...

Other times it won't happen, and other times it will happen while doing simple web browsing....though much more rare in those situations (though i'm always running parallels as well)

No problem with that test. Running smoothly at 60FPS with 1000 fish for more than 15 minutes on Google Chrome 10, with gfxCardStatus set to "Integrated Only". Tried every possible view options. All details options activated.

Hmm.. It is such a tough call! I wouldnt be running other programs, but I can't tell you how embarrassing it is to have your program cut out in the middle of a set and have dead air! I'm wondering if an "air model" might be a safer choice. Well either way I suppose I have some time to run tests and see if I get it to crash.

@ iFrodo

set the number of fish to 1000.

also, i agree with John that this may not be a fair test. something may be wrong with Chrome or the WebGL implementation. Unfortunately, we don't know either way for sure. Either way, I don't think anything is supposed to be able to lock up an entire system like this.

@ Insane

Nobody can say for sure. Sorry, but it's true. I've had crashes where I was doing nothing but browsing websites and listening to music. No clear rhyme or reason. and certainly not limited to heavy loads or heat.

Could it crash on you in the middle of a set? I don't see why not. We have no sure-fire way to know what's causing the problems right now. Sorry.

Message was edited by: Adrian J.

No one can know anything for sure, but it is possible to reduce the uncertainty. For example after the chrome test:

does the audio still work

can you still ssh into the computer

These two things would tell us if the nature of this specific crash (chrome) and the one this thread is about are the same.

Hello all,

I have a brand new mbp, 15" 2.2Ghz with hi res antiglare.

Seemed rock stable till today where I experimented some freeze with the Chrome FishGL test.
Seems stable with discrete graphics, but hangs as soon as I turn to the integrated graphics board.

The mouse still moves on the screen but the display is completely freezed.

I'm still in the 14 days return period so for now it's "wait and see"...

Too bad that this fantastic user experience is spoiled with such a bas surprise... By the way I'm a switcher and this is my first mac !

Enable remote login

System Preferences -> Sharing -> Remote login

Then get an ssh client for windows, I'd use putty

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

Before you crash the machine, write down your ip address. Use this and you're short login (beside the home icon in Finder) to connect across the network.

Try it before you crash the machine to make sure everything is working correctly. Then crash it and see if you can connect.

The audio test will probably be easier for you to run. Fire up iTunes, get some music going, and then run your test.