Q: MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze

check this page:

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


I used the first test with about a 70-80% success rate in 10.6.6

After 10.6.7 its 0%

So I thought that perhaps I was out of the woods with the 10.6.7 update and now, 5 days later, I'm once again experiencing lockups. This time there are a few kernel panics that manifest along the way. Starting up StarCraft alone (not with iTunes) and attempting to load a replay or start a game is sufficient to induce a crash.

Anecdotally, I can add that I installed Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit last night and noticed today that the "Starting Windows" screen had become garbled up and the system crashed on boot (blue screen). Upon trying to load up OS X following this incident, I immediately saw that the "select hard drive" screen shown when holding down option at boot was graphically corrupted and that the Apple logo was half red, again showing more corruption. Not until after leaving the computer completely off for a few minutes did normal function resume. But then more problems presented...

I tried running my bootcamp partition through VMWare Fusion 3 and the system eventually locked up in a hard freeze. Future runs did not have this issue but then the StarCraft issues emerged. Interestingly I had determined that my 8GB upgrade memory had sustained the problems even after 10.6.7 hit and upon removal and restoration to stock 4GB, the problems went away. But now, I have remained at 4GB and the problems have come back.

Next step I'll completely reinstall OS X and see if this alleviates the issues.

To be honest I think you have a hardware issue and you should contact Apple and see what they can do - replacement/repair.

I immediately saw that the "select hard drive" screen shown when holding down option at boot was graphically corrupted ...

To me this indicates that your problem is at a lower level than the OS, so reinstalling OS X isn't going to fix this problem. You probably had the freezing problem before 10.6.7 came out because I think 99% of the computers had this problem. I'm betting that 10.6.7 fixed the freezing problem, but what you're experiencing is in addition to that. You should either call apple care or go to an apple store for what you're experiencing.

@wonslung

"+I used the first test with about a 70-80% success rate in 10.6.6+"
When you say 'success' I assume you could crash it 70-80% of the time?

The reason I ask is that I've just orderd a new MBP 15" 10 days ago.
I'm expecting delivery this week coming (28th - 1st of March) and only discovered this thread 2 days after ordering it
It's a custom order as I've modified the following

- top processor, 2.3Ghz (8MB L3).
- 128GB Apple SSD.
- HiRes / Antiglare screen.

I left the memory at 4GB because I believed I could get to 8GB cheaper than Apple offered (macfixit.com.au) 8GB OWC kit.
http://www.macfixit.com.au/shop/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=1350

The first thing I'll do when I get it, will be to check it's at 10.6.7 and if not, update it to that version.

Once updated, I'll be looking to guarantee that it is a stable machine.

I've read the http://mbp-freeze.wikispaces.com/ site.
I was considering Test 1 like you did, but just want an idea on how many times and how long you ran the test for?
The site indicates that it would happen very quickly if it was going to fail.

How long did you leave the test running, before you considered it "unsuccessful at crashing it"?, 1 mins, 2 mins ... 30mins?

Test 3 with handbrake would appear to stress it reliably, so I'll try that too.

If it does fail (which I'm desperately hoping it won't) then I guess I have 2 choices.
1. Raise a support call with Apple and see where that goes.
2. Wait it out and see if another update addresses the issue.

Finally, I've seen a number of comments about people upgrading the RAM, having stability issues and then rolling back to the Apple supplied memory.
After they roll back, some report no longer having problems.

Full details of the OWC kit can be found here on the site.
http://www.macfixit.com.au/shop/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=1350

It makes me hesitate about ordering the kit, which thankfully, I have not done yet.

Does anybody have a stable machine that they've placed the OWC 8GB into?

Thanks for any feedback.
I really really really hope the new machine I get works!

@hadderz

First, I think you can relax. I don't think your chances of having problems are any greater than the would have been before the 2011 models came out. At least with the base apple hardware.

I worked with a bunch of folks here to setup that wikispaces site. To test, I used method 2 (the one with macports), and it would crash every time I ran that test. It took at most 20 minutes to crash my computer using that option. If you're computer is at 10.6.6 when you get it, go a head and try out the tests. I'm quite certain one of them will crash it. Then update to 10.6.7, and I'm also quite certain that the problem won't persist.

You should do all your tests before you upgrade the ram. When I bought my machine I think it was $200 to go from four to eight, it looks like OWC charnges 112 + say 8 for shipping (I used these two because they are in USD, and I don't know about the AUD exchange rate). At some point we have to ask ourselves how much time is $80 worth? I'm not trying to slam you here. Rather I'm just trying to put it into perspective. You may be working on the margins financially, and if that's the case just ignore this.

If you run into issues after upgrading the ram, then put the 4gb back in and see if they persist.

I just got another 2011 2.3 15" to replace the one I returned last week because of the overheating. I immediately installed 10.6.7 and then smallluxgpu. Works great! I cannot get the laptop to crash now whereas before, I could kill it in 10 seconds or less.

I still have to do some vmware testing and x-plane testing as well, but for now, I am satisfied, and fairly sure that any remaining issues would be software. I feel bad for jumping the gun and returning the last one before 10.6.7 came out... or wait, actually I don't. Apple could have told us an update was coming and to hold off.

Okay, I haven't read through all 76 pages, but I can report that the 10.6.7 update hasn't cured the problem for me. I've had the laptop for two weeks and have had three freezes in the last four days, two of them after the OS update.

My freezes are not associated with heat or fan speed, afaik. In fact, each has happened when I have left my desk for half an hour or so; when I come back the display is frozen (i.e., no screen saver or sleep). Two times out of three, removing the magsafe connector caused an immediate reboot. The third time I had to do a hard reboot. I ran both the speedy and the exhaustive Apple Hardware Test and neither turned up anything. Typically I've had Safari running with a few tabs open, but no video to speak of. Plus iCal the Mail app, maybe a Solitaire game and Calculator. Nothing heavy-duty. And no crashes are showing up in Console. I haven't been able to reproduce the freeze with any of the techniques shown on the MBP-Freeze wiki. The only unusual software I'm running is the f.lux utility that progressively dims the screen after the sun goes down. But one of the freezes took place during the day, when f.lux isn't doing anything. Next stop, genius bar.

Do you have third party ram? What brand? Does it freeze with stock ram?

Yes, I installed the 8GB kit from Transintl.com. Would that not show up on the Hardware Test if problematic? I still have the the RAM it came with so I suppose I could put it back in and see if the problem goes away.

If a hardware test returns an error then you probably have bad hardware. But if a hardware test does not produce an error that *does not* mean the hardware is good. It just means the test failed to find a problem. The freezes you are experiencing are not the same freezes under discussion in this thread. You should definitely try to use the computer with the ram that came with it. If the problem persists, then you should call Applecare.

Has 10.6.7 corrected this problem?

Yes,and by the way this macbook pro is awesome .I haven't seen any better.

Figured I would respond, in my case it seems bad ram I had used to upgrade to 8GB (2x4gb) was bad, even though I ran memory tests through some tools and even apples hardware test and didn't find any errors but as soon as I swapped out the memory to my original 4gb from apple it was working like a charm, no more random application crashes and kernel panics..

Unfortunately in this case it was the ram, and yes 10.6.7 seems to fix the gpu issue which I saw on 10.6.6 but could of also been ram induced on my end as I didn't test on 10.6.6 much.

In any case I recommend you get crucial memory or such that has recent reviews on them for these models of mbp's.

Oh and I did a clean install a few times as well and made sure to properly copy my old data back as to not corrupt the install, also make sure you run permissions verify incase you have any issues.