Q: MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze

Sounds like you have the 5400 RPM HD version. The 7200 RPM HD is preferable for video editing.

I'd my second freeze today ever since I bought my New Mac (three weeks ago). The freeze occur by clicking on a simple YouTube video. I've the latest Mac update.

I suffered the third freeze today since I updated to 10.6.7. I installed a Virtual Box guested Windows XP. I frozen all 3 times during I was working in the VBox Windows XP. The system load was not high and temperature was about 60 to 70c. I don't think the problem is solved.

as sad as it is. i know this problem is only ever gonna happen in the Mac's that have the AMD/ATI Video Card. it has to deal with a bunch of stuff some say its the drivers some say its the heatsink glue itself but idk. since i own a mbp 13" from 2009 and my 10.6.7 never crashes and runs very smooth. . so all i have to say is APPLE FIX THE DAM ISSUE. i also tend to belive its more of a driver issue because if you run bootcamp you will not see these issues pop up or appear . that is what my employee is telling me about his mac 15" that has the ATI 1GB card in it. he has no issues like this in windows. so it has to be a driver error that is what i think.

APPLE NEEDS TO UPDATE THE KEXT for the Drivers on there ATI Graphics Cards . this should fix the issue with freezing.. ( PROBLEM SOLVED ) - unless if you are having Hard Disk failure or the heatsink glue is coming undone .

****, it's hard to convey how frustrated I am.

I have the latest i7 2.3 ghz, 8gb ram, high end ATI, 15 inches macbook pro.

I had the 2010 i7 and I sold it last week to get the new one. I regret that soo much! This machine is a beast when it comes to speed, but what good is it when it keeps hanging ?

And I can see that it's not related to being under heavy load, I've done some heavy load stuff, and nothing happened. It just randomly freezes.
I've noticed that if I have iTunes open, I'm listening to music, and a Skype call comes in, Skype will pause the music, and I take the call normally. But after a few minutes the machine freezes, the fan turns on, and I can't even ssh into it.

I also always have W7 running with Parallels, since I have a job as a .NET Developer.

I hope Apple fixes this quick....it's really bad to pay for a really expensive machine and see crappy quality. Apple itself spoiled me with great quality products

Same thing happened to me. I began tethering with Mywi and it crashed 3 times, each in almost exactly 20 minutes time. it had nothing to do with what programs were open (the first time i was not even using my computer). Now i've put mywi on wireless tethering. it has not crashed yet and it's been about 20 minutes. Will write back if it crashes....

I am planning to buy a new macbook pro 15 , 2.0 ( early 2011), but I was reading in this foro that you are sufering a lot of problems with then ( early 2011 macbooks pro). Could you be so kind to let me know/advice if the problems were fixed with the last update 10.6.7 or you are still having problems ( frezee.....). Even I have the option to go for 2010 model which are on sale ( -200 Euros)...your advice are welcome.

I have updated to 10.6.7 and STILL have the problem with my 15" MacBook Pro. At random but graphic-intensive points while playing StarCraft II, the system completely freezes up. Sound still plays and I can still move the mouse, but the system is otherwise completely unresponsive and requires a hard boot. This is the same problem I posted about in the first page of posts here. This happened twice in the last few hours.

I checked console and at the moment it froze, there is a message entitled "** Device in slot: SLOT--1 **" then "** GPU Debug Info Start ** followed by a few hundred entries each with a code like 0x00006741.

I just got my MBP last week after thinking all of the issues were fixed with the latest update. However today it went to sleep and when I openend it, the display was frozen with some sort of psychedelic looking distortion if the home page. You could still make out the icons but they were surrounded in a rainbow haze. I had to restart. Does this sound like the same problems people have been having? I did the latest software update. I took a picture so I can show Apple. I may just take this unit back or exchange it. I feel that may be the only way they will act or acknowledge the issue. Thoughts?

This is a real problem Apple.

My MacBook Pro 13 started freezing a couple of weeks ago. I've run all sorts of utilities to clean the disk, but I think the continual freezes are causing the disk problems, not the other way around.

I Have the same problem bought in UAE Dubai. Mac Hang on heating Normal temp Ideal 45Degree. When I start apeture program or Other Heavy Software it hang temp on Hang are 97degree. MAc Fan are at full blast it is working. I return the MBP to the store for Repairs or replacement. If the replacement are given still having issue I will Keep comming to the store until problem is solve. They sould stop selling MPB and recall the product.*We are the user we should n't suffer from Apple Design or Manufacturing issue*. Anyway this is not a sofware issue . My suggestion is Keep replacing your Apple MBP every 14days until they solve this issue let the apple store are fill with defected MBP until they solve it. I love MAC but this is to much ....

STILL no problems after the update! Heavy 2d (12,000x24,000 photoshop, many layers) and plenty of complex 3d rendering. Very happy with the performance of this machine.

You all need to get your macs looked at. If the update didn't solve it, you clearly have a different problem than the one in this thread.

Hi isaacdetoro,

I have had mixed results with this problem.

1st up, I ordered a CTO (custom to order) MBP, which is a 2.3, 4GB, 128GB SSD, HighRes-AntiGlare screen and have been using that for 1 week with minimal problems. I had 1 kernel panic a day after I got it, but have been using it for 8+ hours a day since then without a problem. I updated to 10.6.7 before doing anything else and run VMWare Fusion with Windows 7 Enterprise for work related stuff.
In short, it's going very well and I'm impressed at the performance and relieved at there being no major headaches.

2nd, my friend bought a 13" MBP with the 2.7 on the weekend, he bought it over so I could show him some Mac OS stuff (he's pure windows) and unpacked it here in front of me. We had turned it on and it was on 10.6.6. I didn't think much about it and we'd had it running for 30mins, I bought up Facetime and that was the nail in the coffin, it just locked hard.
I had to power off by holding down the button, but even when it was turned back on there was an alarm tone coming from it.
I did a PRAM reset and that managed to get it back to the desktop, we updated it immediately to 10.6.7 but that didn't matter, it still played up.
In the end, we took it back to the Apple store and they swapped it over for a brand new one, no problems.
We used the Apple Store WiFi and updated the brand new one to 10.6.7 and I ran a couple of tests as recommended by the mbp-freeze.wikispaces.com, bascially test 1, bring up photobooth/facetime, spawn off a bunch of yes > /dev/null & workers.
It was rock solid and has continued to be so.

I know a lot of people here are blaming the ATi GPU, but the 13" MBP does not have the GPU, yet it exhibited the exact symptoms of this forum, 100% lockup, full fans, the works.

So in response to your question, yes, there's a chance you might get a lemon.
If that happens there are ways to test it very quickly and the wikispaces site has some good repeatable ways to validate it.
In which case, you should return to the Apple store as it's looks like you've got some bad silicon.

I just bought my MBP three weeks ago and I am having lots of freezes. Specially when I have some (4 or 5) apps open. This circular multicolor in motion appears almost in every single command that I do in my Mac. I previously owned a 2009 MPB and I truly miss it. Originally, I transfer all my settings from Time machine, then I have re install Mac X, then I call support and I did a Resetting of the Mac's PRAM and NVRAM and still I have the same issue. I believe that ther is a conflict between software and Hardware.
Since I see that I am not the only one having this problem, can apple suggest what to do? or is there a serial number by which we can exchange our MBP for a new one? My case number is 213510312