Q: MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze

Apologies, i haven't read all 86 pages but i've been suffering from issues and tried a lot of fixes over the last few weeks with no luck!

But... finally yesterday when i booted after a freeze i decided to boot with 32bit kernel instead of 64bit (the default) and (fingers crossed) so far everything has been fine (I have been running handbrake, watching films via displayport/hdmi, and plenty of other process/gfx intensive tasks). Has anyone else tried this as a workaround?

L

well good news,

after seeing that most people has no problems at least after the new updates, or with latest revisions, i bought my new mbp 17" i7 at 2.3ghz.

i already tested it around with a couple of games, playing full graphics (1920x1200) and after the laptop almost was on fire from heat, it never got to the point of needing a hard reset. hope it stays this way, but i think it would already freeze if it was a fail one.

will keep you posted, until then, everything's fine!

Vasilis Sagonas wrote:

 

well good news,

 

after seeing that most people has no problems at least after the new updates, or with latest revisions, i bought my new mbp 17" i7 at 2.3ghz.

 

i already tested it around with a couple of games, playing full graphics (1920x1200) and after the laptop almost was on fire from heat, it never got to the point of needing a hard reset. hope it stays this way, but i think it would already freeze if it was a fail one.

 

will keep you posted, until then, everything's fine!

Congrats! What hard drive did you get? How much RAM?

My mac locks up after the EFI update whenever iTunes and the discrete card is running. I'm using gfxcardstatus to keep it locked in integrated to prevent anything from going haywire.

Same for me. Have an appointment with a certified support center, will post evolutions. Now with integrated card only my Mac works really good - just a bit slow on graphic effects, but not so bad. Of course would like my Mac to work as it was designed for...

750g hdd and 4gb of ram, will do an upgrade in the summer, right now i think it's more than enough :-)

fingers crossed after having 2 virtual machines open, it still didnt hang...

i'm pushing it around because i have a refund for the next 2 weeks if something is wrong! :-)

@Vasilis Sagonas I did the same and no problems so far. I even added RAM and a SSD. I still think Apple may have silently modified the hardware recently.  

I ran the update - 10.6.7, I have aftermarket ram + 1tb hdd on it, and it still freezes. 13 inch macbook pro. The easiest way to reproduce the freeze is to boot into windows and run a 3d game. Any game. It is guaranteed to crash 3/5 runs.

personally, i think this is rediculous... i've owned and used a Mac since they were ugly brown and booted from a floppy. through all of the internet age and everything, i've never had problems with crashing, viruses, etc. and now they try to be a little different with a new graphics card and everyone's having problems for the first time ever with a mac. come on... if we, as consumers and loyal customers, are going to continue supporting you, at least respond with a valid solution or reimbursement so that we can all run at least half of the programs we've had no problems with before now. thanks.

and secondly... we all know a majority of the funding is going into the iPad and non-3rd-party-friendly software... after the peak, i'm afraid things are going downhill for relentless peformance seekers.

mac have always been the most stable computers, reliable to any type of professional users, heck, even hacked OSXes in pcs worked better than any version of windows.

i had never a single freeze in my MBP 2010, MBP 2009, Mac Pro 2009 and Macbook 2006.

this is a one-time thing, and even that i suspiciously have a 10.6.7-preinstalled-macbook pro bought in Greece this monday, after only a week or so since the update came in software update, (impliying a hardware fix >.<) apple has been and always be the reason i've been a happy computer user most of the years of my pro career.

windows and pcs caused so many problems, yet the majority still uses them and not complain, and in apple, something happens in like 4-5 years, and suddently all community say they are dissapointed etc.

i'm a true Apple lover, and even if i had a freezing macbook pro, i would just go for a refund and buy a new one when it was fixed, i wouldnt complain and throw accusations  here and there. i had my 2010 mbp anyway.

all i'm saying is that we should stop complaining, get a refund, or get a replacement (which i'm almost sure it won't have a freezing problem now).

ps. 4hrs of 3D gaming in full graphics and 1920x1200, and no freeze.

regards!

Just visited an Apple Authorized Service Center, changed the RAMs - the problem is still there. Hard freeze when using Discrete graphics and iTunes. Next week I will bring in my MBP for a continuous diagnostic test. If they find something, they will replace the motherboard and/or the GPU. One of the guys told me (unofficially) that the newer MBP have a different motherboard/firmware (was not very detailed, but let me understand something like Apple changed something). Any case, next week we will see what to do.

Thank you so much for keeping us informed. I had the 17 inch but returned it because it was just so frustrating but I do need a new computer! Do let us know the outcome.

Update on taking it into the Apple Store (Upper West Side, NYC).

(15" Unibody Early 2011 MBP AMD HD 6750M)

The genius bar submitted my problem to engineering since he noticed threads like these about hardware freezes. He thinks it's relate to iTunes, Quicktime and how it interacts with the AMD Chipset. He said something about 10.6.8 coming out in a month or so, so that may possible provide the fix. I'll let you guys know what happens when they get back to me next week.

WOW !!!

I can't believe this.

I have been following this thread from day 1 with Rensoom's post.

I can't remember when but around page 50 something everyone said the problem had been fixed with 10.6.7 update.

I desperately wanted to buy a new 17" with the works but was dubious about some of the reports.

I kept on querying the real "fix" because I doubted it had really been fixed but most on this forum kept on telling me I was stupid to query that Apple had really fixed the problem.

Well all I can say is that I am glad that I refused to be swayed until there was enough evidence that Apple had really fixed it.

They obviously haven't.

Those idiots on this forum who say that their machine works OK and basically giving the finger to those whose don't should get off this forum.

There is no use for you here. You are not helping getting the message through to Apple who should be helping those who do really have the problem and for those who genuinely want to get a new MacBookPro but are waiting for some reassurance that the problem is fixed.

It is a $5,000 machine for me and like everyone else on this thread we don't want an Aluminium BRICK