Q: MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze

Thanks Phil3345,

I saw I can get the discount though Apple UK Education Store as I am a student here in UK.

I was getting it even cheaper on Amazon and other websites, but the problem is, I have a special requirement of AntiGlare Screen,that they aren't having.. as they don't have the custom built laptops just the standard ones.

Thanks anyways for your response. Will be having my MBP soon!

Hello Everyone.

Just read on a other discussion board, that the update 10.6.8 is out today. I am unsure of that, as I don't have a Mac still, about to purchase one shortly.

I guess you guys must install it up as many say that it even addresses the issues of Airport Wifi disconnections and some other technical problems too. Do have a look at it!

Cheers!

I also have the 17" Macbook Pro 2009, just in the past 3 weeks I have been having problems on Safari, keeps locking up and I have to power off and on to get it to work again.  This happens several times a day.  Very frustrating.

It really does feel that in the rush of getting ahead of Microsoft's ever growing list of Operating Systems, Apple has been recently doing some stupid stuff with its latest updates being not so stable whatsoever.

This problem of Hard Freeze, another problem of Regular Wireless connection Dropping or less Speed on Wifi Networks and all is all being faced only on MAC OS X, people who try and use Windows Operating Systems on their Macbook Pro, don't get all these troubles.

So does anyone of you reckon any ways out there to get back to old versions of MAC OS X, something like Before 10.6.7 or even before 10.6.6 for a stable use of Macbook Pro without any stupid glitches and hard freezes and all.

I contacted Post Sales Customer Support, they gave me this link to send feedback to Developers' Team of MAC OS X. I did so informing them of this discussion and the other discussion in regards to Wireless Dropping and intermittent Connections and Slow Internet speed on Wifi NEtworks and so on.. I hope something good comes out of it before the launch of next update of MAC OS X. Till then, I would request all of you to do post your same feedbacks on the same link where I posted, so that it goes direct into the head of the Developers' or Technicians' Team rather than just posting it over here.

This is the link:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookpro.html

Thanks Guys!

Cheers... Hoping to get a solution out of it very soon!

2011 mbp 17", was having hard freeze when it first came out, software update fixed the issue and I had zero freezes after a couple months of abuse.  Past few days I have had some more hard freezes since updating the software again...

It's a bit different.  Previously, the mouse would move, music would play, but that's it.  This time, the mouse can move sometimes, but sometimes not.  Haven't had music going, so don't know about that.  Either way, fix that ****.

Hello There,

Thanks ArtByJamesThornton.com for your response..

I hope you posted the same query on the link I mentioned above, just before your post, if not, please do that, so that the more feedbacks we have, the more chances we own of getting something done about it asap.

How about the Warranty? As its a 2011 MBP, your Mac would still be under warranty, have you tried speaking to the customer services? Asking them for a replacement machine or something else like that lately?

What you reckon? Would that be a good idea?

Please don't forget to post your feedback on that link above, it would be alright even if you just copied and pasted the whole post as it is on that feedback form, filling in just your name and email address, that won't really take you more than 2 mins I guess.

Thanks in anticipation.

I'm having the same issues on my 2011 MBP 17". I have intermittent flickering when clicking on app icons and occasional freezes that requires a hard boot. I had to replace one 2011 MBP 17" for over heating issues that dislodged the frame around my LCD screen. I hope Apple fixes this issue because I spent big $$ on this new MBP and starting to lose consumer confidence in QA Apple has having these computers built in China.

Ookay - update.

To recap,  in March I bought a MBP 15" 2.2 with 10.67, and it did the hard freeze thing as soon as it even sniffed a bit of video. Apple offered to replace it as soon as they were approached, as if they are tacitly admitting there is a prob.

New one arrived a few days ago, and so faar...it's been fine.

We've run videos without a hitch,  while downloading big stuff and Apple updates (which was another flashpoint before).

Today I'm gonna really try and max it out and  see what happens.

Fingers crossed

Hello Eveeta,

I guess we have heard from you before as well.. Did you get your Macbook replaced so late? I mean you said you were facing troubles even if you played a bit of video, so you should have given it for replacement back in March? How come you received the replacement unit just a few days ago?

:And yes, please do max it out with other applications too... No matter how it goes, you can be satisfied whether or not it is good, as it is a new product and the money paid for it is a big fortune, so yes, the product has to be worth what has been paid for it.

Do keep us posted.. Wish you all the best for your new Mac!

Cheers!

my update... the Authorized Service Center replaced my motherboard (that contains everything: CPU, graphic card, motherboard, etc). After this replacement surprisingly we have found a Firmware 2.1 update available for download. We installed that as well. And since a few days it is running seamlessly. Finger crossed...

Thanks gldb,

Great to hear another happy story.. Fingers crossed.

Hope it continues to run great now

Cheers!

Well,  it arrived late March/early April, and the intermittent freezing started almost immediately, but since it wasn't being used for much video the extent of the prob wasn't immediatley obvious. As soon as someone tred to run a vid editing program on it it went bananas, freezing three of four times a day,  and getting worse all the time. Returned it mid-May.

Streaming live cricket atm, and downloading Portal2 at same time -  stream is a little laggy, but no  real probs so far.

Ohh ok..

Thanks for your quick response Eveeta, Do Let us know if you face any troubles further..

Thanks again! Hope it goes great from here on.... As far as Stream of live cricket is concerned, could be even due to a slow internet Connection. What you reckon?

Anyways, do keep us posted! Thanks!

When I - as a pc user - decided to buy a Macbook Pro a couple of months ago, I researched the market carefully, because I was aware of a potential heat issue with the 15" and 17" 2011 model. I was not too surprised to discover that there was a lot of users out there with crashing Macbook 2011's, especially when running games and other hardware demanding tasks.

Luckily I finally bought the 2010-model with I7 and the Geforce 330M - I guess it was the last 2010 model available in Denmark. The 2010 model also runs very hot, but its not crashing.

What to do with a crashing 2011 model?

First one shoud be aware that the model just runs hotter because of the sandy bridge chipset and the new ATI graphics GPU's:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4205/the-macbook-pro-review-13-and-15-inch-2011-br ings-sandy-bridge/14

Therefore you should simply expect it to run hot, and take your precautions.

The precautions should be in my opinion:

- Update the OS X to the latest update.

One could guess that one of the things the OSX 10.6.7 brings is lower thresholds for when the fans kicks in, so this update is probably quite important. Another guess is that it maybe solves a bug when switching between the two graphics processors, or prevent switching to the 3D GPU when it's not really necessary. Only Apple knows.

- If you are going to run games - buy a cooling pad, you'll probably need it to avoid crashes. There is a good and quiet one here:

http://www.targus.com/us/productdetail.aspx?sku=AWE41US

- Download the utility smcFanControl. The utility lets you monitor your fans rpms, and you can manually adjust them to 4000 or 6000 before you enter a game. 4000 is not loud and will work together with a cooling pad.

smcFanControl also monitors the temperature of your system. If it runs 80-100 degrees celcius in a split second under normal usage, you should probably return your Macbook to the store. There are evil rumours out there on the internet telling that there is too much cooling paste on the graphics GPU and this could cause overheating like the case stories we see in this forum. (This is a die hard rumour, and I have not seen prove of this anywhere and no one should try to check this for themselves by disassembling their Macbook and then probably loose warranty.)

Where does all this leave you as a consumer? We'll you have probably bought a wonderful laptop, but it sure runs (too) hot, but ... you can with the right precautions get the best out of it in some way. If you have a problem with the above mentioned issues, you should probably wait buying the 2011 model until the production and the software has been running for a while, or you should wait and buy the next model with the IVY bridge, which is expected - by Anandtech - to run cooler.

Still - both the 2010 and 2011 models - are one of the best laptops on the market in my opinion, and I would not hesitate to buy the 2011 model if I had no other choice.

But it's not a 'cool' laptop.

I solved my "freeze issue" as it was two fold.

1: The video card required a update which Apple provided in a Software Update

2: Backed up files, c booted off the installer disk, Disk Utility Erase w/Zero /format HFS+, reinstalled OS X.

The #2 was done because hard drives are not tested at the factory for bad sectors as this would add hours, the OS is just slapped on them and it's packaged up.

So by doing #2, the Zeroing checks every bit on the drive, mapping off any bad sectors and thus when data is laid, it's only on good sectors not bad ones.

Now my machine is stable and glitch free, just thought I tell everyone.

Oh, I also ran memtest at boot (it was good, so no problem there, happy trails)

http://www.command-tab.com/2008/01/11/how-to-test-ram-under-mac-os-x/