Q: MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze

My MBP is 15", 2.2GHz i7 4GB RAM with hi-res, only 2 months old. the macbook usually freezes right after i log in, when it is loading the login items and if i click on anything (can be on desktop, click to open an app, anything..). it will freeze, and even though im still able to move the cursor, it will not respond to anything, so i have to force shut down it by pressing down the power button for 5 seconds.

My question is, will it destroy the macbook in anyway?

I called AppleCare regarding the problem, and he advised me to force shutdown it, and reset the SMC and PRAM, which I already did, and still does not solve the problem. The macbook will still freeze when logging in if I click on anything, as if my click confuse the macbook and it just decides to stop responding to anything at all. I didn't notice any heat or any noise from the hard disk, but this thing really bugs me. I didn't pay $2000+ to get a laptop that does not respond after a SINGLE click during login.

The machine is back from the fourth visit to the repair centre.

This time they started with replacing the 8GB RAM with 4 GB Apple original. The machine seemed fine. Then they replaced the 8 GB installed from day 1 with a pair of new sticks (Not Apple original, but Kingston, installed by the store).

Now the machine has been running 24/7 for 3 days, lid closed, attached to two 1080p screens via a Matrox Dualhead2Go with Apple Wireless keyboard and mouse.

So it actually seems lite there was bad RAM, or at least the RAM didn't agree with the macine. N.B. the RAM passed all memtests.

So, there could be an issue with incompatible/flaky RAM that passes memtest. I really hope that this is the case.

So all of you having trouble with freezing - demand that the service centre tests the machine with fresh memory.

Kiaora from Auckland New Zealand

I had my 17 inch first off the line Macbook Pro replaced  with a new 15 inch modelabout a month ago becuase of the freeze.

All was well unitl yesterday when I woke it up from it night's sleep et volia the freeze. Had to reboot!

Now I had left it stupidly open on the Googel Chrome page and maybe my Mac did not appreciate this! I notice that thier are issues at the moment with updating Google Chrome. It will not aloow many of us to do this so Google Chrome may be the problem.

I reported the problem to Applecare who of course had never encountered it before. I pointed out nicely that this type of reboot freeze was unreportable and to look at this discussion page if he did not believe me. I asked him to pass on this information and I urge all users to ring Applecare after a freeze so that they know.

I notice that Google Chrome is advertising a new version of the ap for Mac users and I wonder if I should just trash my present version and install the new. Any suggestions?

My Mac is going fine so hopefully this will continue.

Just did clean install. Boot, Login and Kernel panic in the middle of opening basic applications. Looks like NVIDIA GeForce stuff.

As I said in the recent post, I had minor problems also with Snow Leopard. Maybe Lion has revealed a hardware design bug?

Ari

      Kernel Extensions in backtrace:

         com.apple.NVDAResman(7.0.2)[7E65ECA2-D3A1-35F8-B845-C975FB531E7E]@0xffffff7f808 b2000->0xffffff7f80b88fff

            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.6.5)[95ABB490-3AB5-3D5E-9C21-67089A9AE6A1]@0xffff ff7f8083e000

            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(2.3)[E99C8907-946D-3F1A-A261-4C0F2D5D0451]@0xffff ff7f808a0000

            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(2.3)[897EB322-FD55-36D7-A68E-9E9C34A74A84]@0xf fffff7f80868000

         com.apple.nvidia.nv50hal(7.0.2)[2E84958C-1EEC-316B-9F7A-68C368F83476]@0xffffff7 f80b89000->0xffffff7f80eaafff

            dependency: com.apple.NVDAResman(7.0.2)[7E65ECA2-D3A1-35F8-B845-C975FB531E7E]@0xffffff7f808 b2000

         com.apple.GeForce(7.0.2)[18E50F21-1E7F-3FFE-B298-7CD7A11879F8]@0xffffff7f818e90 00->0xffffff7f819a5fff

            dependency: com.apple.NVDAResman(7.0.2)[7E65ECA2-D3A1-35F8-B845-C975FB531E7E]@0xffffff7f808 b2000

            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(2.3)[E99C8907-946D-3F1A-A261-4C0F2D5D0451]@0xffff ff7f808a0000

            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.6.5)[95ABB490-3AB5-3D5E-9C21-67089A9AE6A1]@0xffff ff7f8083e000

            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(2.3)[897EB322-FD55-36D7-A68E-9E9C34A74A84]@0xf fffff7f80868000

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: WindowServer

I have had my macbook pro 17 8g ram 2.2g processor for two days and now on the second day I have had the freeze. It came preinstalled with Lion 10.7. I must admit I am a bit disapointed in that I thought this machine would be so good and most important reliable and stable. I have owned a DELL XPSM1710 for many years without any issues and was going to upgrade to the new M18X Alienware but decided instead to take the Mac leap, maybe a big mistake. I will give apple support a few days to see if they can solve the issue then it looks like I will have no choice but to return it and I will order the Alienware. 

A simple fix I have found to stop the freeze is install gfxcardstatus.app so I can control which card is active. The problem seems to happen when the graphics cards switch but if I select the dedicated or internal the problem goes away. If for example I switch to dynamic switching and play a game the computer is fine. When I come out of the game and click on the finder or apps the computer freezes and I have to hit the power button to restart. The same will happen in imovie then back out to the finder or some other app. If I keep the graphics locked to dedicated or internal  the problem does not happen.

I am in two minds, I really like the Lion OS but should I even be considering not sending this machine back considering what it cost.

Just had the problem again.

Whole screen froze with a garbled checkerboard pattern, I could only barely make out the mouse moving, everything else was frozen.

It was on the dedicated graphics card (using gfxcardstatus), iTunes was not running (I was suspicious it was implicated, as some suggested, but it appears not). The problem always occurs when I'm not at the computer (idle). Not sure if this has anything to do with it. It also seems that the problem always occurs a fair while after I have woken the computer from sleep, I don't recall it ever happening after a reboot (without a sleep before it).

Seems to be a software-hardware problem, perhaps some sort of energy saver related problem? I don't know how to reproduce it, anyway.

Now going to run my laptop on the integrated, sleep it, leave it idle for a while, to see if it can be reproduced on the integrated graphics.

Look at this ...

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/08/24/apple-releases-imac-graphics-firmware-update -to-address-freezing-issues/

Slap in the face for us ? Why only for iMac??

HEEELLLLLOOOOO Apple employee-nerds ... has you recordnize this exploding thread with over 100 pages full of the same problem?

That´s disgusting ... shame on you!

The same problem, MBP 15", 2GHz, i7, 4GB RAM, freezes every few week or every few day, sometimes several times a day.

Sometimes with Parallels opened sometimes without, no idea what it could be, i am going to change the RAM in a few days.

One of the faulty production, I dare in the moment about 10% of Macintosh Computers have problems when delivered new.

I AM GLAD TO ANNOUCE THAT THIS PROBLEM IS NOT THERE ANYMORE ON MY NEW QUAD CORE I7 17" MACBOOK PRO AFTER I UPDATED LION TO 10.7.1 !!!!!!

Previously, on Lion 10.7, I was able to replicate the overheating and sluggishness problem as follows:

1) Open photobooth to engage the graphics cards

2) Open the terminal window and type this command 8 times:

yes > /dev/null &

3) within max 30 seconds, fans go so crazy, GPU & CPU temp hits 90 C degrees and performance goes so so bad until it freezes with mouse pointer engaged.

Now that does not happen anymore !!!

THANK YOU APPLE, I WAS SO DISAPPOINTED BUT NOW I AM HAPPY

Don't be so happy yet - I tried method described here and it didn't freeze my macbook. But still - some games and things heavy on graphics (even youtube movies) did cause the freezing. I found picture I made of the screen during one of those freezes - the music did play in the background and I could move the mouse cursor but that's it (plus those "pixels" that show up on the screen just before it freezes)

Same for me .. i also could do this terminal command ... 20 times .. only fans going crazy but no freeze at all.

I got my appointment to change the logicboard at apple store at 27th of september ... :-( no earlier appointment possible .-. i´ll reply as soon as i can.

you can try this to reproduce it also (works for me)

• start mbp
• use it normal -- firefox etc. - but don´t terminate the progs
• close mbp (standby)
• open mbp and play a game with a graphical need for the "real" graphic-card (for me WOW) - quit game (terminate the programm)
• close mbp (standby)
• open mbp - start itunes and connect your iphone /ipad with the usb of your mbp
• for me everytime --> FREEZE (after itunes recordnize the ipad/iphone)

Sometimes i just get the freeze before itunes recordnize anything - and then - i often have to hard-reboot it twice.. because after the first reboot and starting itunes with ipad/iphone connected it freezes again. Then i have to hard-reboot it again.

Hi, I believe I am having a similar problem to yours. Funny pixels and 3 loud beeps repeated endlessly.

https://discussions.apple.com/message/16063306#16063306

My post above. Sound familiar?

Yes, that's exactly the same.

Have you resolved your problem?

There is no solution for this problem - it´s a hardware fault, but apple won´t care.

So do as everybody here - go to the wonderful apple store and let them change your logicboard.

But keep in mind, there are two versions of the logicboard - one faulty (the first) and one that seems to work fine (6GBs SATA on DVD-device)