Q: MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze

I dont know if anyone already mentioned this but I was having the same problem and I just went to my power menu and switched "off" graphics switching, which means the more powerful gpu is always running and the intel gpu is switched off completely, doing this turned down the fan speed and stopped all the freezing, I feel like I shouldn't have to go and do this every-time I want to play Starcraft but its a quick fix until apple has a software update to fix the issue.

One note, when you turn off the graphics switching it does it for BOTH battery and plugged in (you can't selective it for just one profile), so if you are using your laptop without the plug make sure to turn on the graphics switching again cause the battery will take a hit.

John Harrold wrote:
... I'm not a port guy (I'm more familiar with fink), so is there a way to clear out the cache and make the boost compile thing restart from scratch?

After it freezes and you rebooted, just run "sudo port clean boost" to remove the build artifacts.

If you want to see a successful build, don't launch Photo Booth (or anything else that triggers the AMD GPU) and run "sudo port install boost" again. It should work, no freeze (that's also a good way to demonstrate how fast these new machines are; compiling Boost is not a trivial task).

After a successful build while running on the Intel GPU, you can run "sudo port uninstall boost" to remove Boost, launch Photo Booth to trigger the AMD GPU, run "sudo port install boost" again and you'll have another freeze.

alvinzho wrote:
Is it necessary to wipe the disk first and reinstall, or is it reproducible just by opening photo booth and compiling boost?

It's reproducible just by opening Photo Booth and compiling Boost. Wiping everything and installing only the OS and Xcode just creates a better test case, because you can rule out interference by third party applications.

Compiling Boost is nothing special though, I picked it at random because it’s a CPU-heavy task which reliably makes the machine work hard and produces a lot of heat. Same goes for Photo Booth: nothing special, just a random application which ships with the base install and triggers the AMD GPU, while (I assume) not really doing all that much on the GPU unless you start applying effects.

Ok my unit runs fine when editing in Aperture and playing WOW, however it has froze on me twice in a matter of minutes when tethering using my iPhone via USB. I got a message on screen telling me to hold down the power button to shut off... WTH?

Keiron

I had the EXACT same problem with my first macbook 15" 2011. I haven't had any overheating issues yet, not even with my new model but I am using windows 7 for work and OS X for watching movies/browsing.

I found on OS X when I tethered my iphone 4 it would crash the second I opened uTorrent. I don't know if it's linked to the graphics switching (apparently it utilises AMD graphics for even simple tasks) or the USB driver being incompatible with that bus.

I also found with the build of 10.6.6 which came with the new MBP that I was unable to install my dongle drivers whereas I could with a 2010 MBP which had 10.6.5 and 10.6.6.

Most peculiar... I was thinking of returning the 2.0 GhZ and getting the 2.2 one with the better GPU but now I don't know if I should bother since so many seem to be reporting problems.

There appear to be several issues with these 2011 machines.

My earlier posts in this thread detailed complete freezes and partial freezes (mouse movement but OS UI not responding to anything),

twice when switching out of a running game, Bio Shock
3 times when running handbrake to encode video,

and now several kernel panics (5 last night within 30 minutes of each other - including once, immediately after OS boot/login - no applications running).

The culprit in this instance was iPhone 4 tethering via USB because after disconnecting the tethered iPhone the kernal panics stopped.

See here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=13221341#13221341

Schwa72

These things aren't going to be addressed just by calling apple and hoping they can figure out on their own that graphics switching+cpu intensive stuff is causing the problem. By providing them with a machine that can reliably recreate the problem they will have a good starting point. If I have to be one of those people then that's fine. As it stands, I cannot use the machine in it's current state, and I really need this for work. I've gone through this with the guy on the phone, and I've even documented what ND381 suggested with a video:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1901170/Temp/mbp/mbp%20freeze.mov

I emailed all of this to the support guy, so it's attached to my case ID. I just want it to get figured out as quickly as possible. If they keep my machine for a week and send it back to me with a firmware update, then that's fine by me. And everyone will eventually benefit from it.

don't have an iphone & my box is unchecked so I'm always on the AMD card. Ran BoinxTV last night with a matrox mxo expresscard box inputting 1080p video scaled down to 720p. this app is very GPU heavy & the only issue I had was to reboot once, did a lot of unplugging, plugging in mic, and changing settings in BoinxTV. it bogged it down so it was dropping frames but was fine after the restart & I didn't mess with anything. rendered & recorded just fine.

John Harrold wrote:
Schwa72

These things aren't going to be addressed just by calling apple and hoping they can figure out on their own that graphics switching+cpu intensive stuff is causing the problem. By providing them with a machine that can reliably recreate the problem they will have a good starting point. If I have to be one of those people then that's fine. As it stands, I cannot use the machine in it's current state, and I really need this for work. I've gone through this with the guy on the phone, and I've even documented what ND381 suggested with a video:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1901170/Temp/mbp/mbp%20freeze.mov

I emailed all of this to the support guy, so it's attached to my case ID. I just want it to get figured out as quickly as possible. If they keep my machine for a week and send it back to me with a firmware update, then that's fine by me. And everyone will eventually benefit from it.

What I meant was that some folks think that simply posting on this forum will make Apple aware of these problems. It won't. Making a phone call is better, but what you're doing is even better still. Thanks for running point on this!!

let's try atMonitor, it shows the GPU usage & vram too. can also pull up a stats menu with all the sensors.

http://www.atpurpose.com/atMonitor/

What I meant was that some folks think that simply posting on this forum will make Apple aware of these problems. It won't. Making a phone call is better, but what you're doing is even better still. Thanks for running point on this!!

You sir are correct. Posting on the forum only helps us work out some of the variables associated with this problem. That and it allows us to take solace in the knowledge that we are not alone .

So yes, if someone out there is experiencing these issues and you have not yet called apple, you should *definitely call* them. I've seen nothing to indicate these forums are used by anyone at apple, diagnostic purposes or otherwise.

I have had 3 crashes running a raw processing program called Capture One which is very core dependent with my graphics checked. I also had it happen when using Carbon Copy cloner yesterday and running safari at the same time it crashed or froze up so this morning I tried unchecking the graphics so i have the most powerful one on and it should be noted here i am also connected to a 30 in NEC monitor. Well no freeze this morning and still trying a few things out my idle is also 60C and fan speeds around 2900 which maybe a little warm but I am chalking that up to all the cabling connected to the side of the MBP which cause a lot of heat. I'm thinking this is fireware on the freezing so I may just cancel my Genius appointment tomorrow this is my second 2011 MPB. First one was hotter and had a mysterious power issue. It was flat out possessed. LOL

Now i should also note I was working on 700 images and processed 378 of them at full bore which left only 1. 5 mgs of free ram and when I hit safari after a minute it would crash. I was chalking this up to just being flat out being overloaded and my cores where going at 98 percent full bore. Very core dependent program along with Ram. So not sure what to think

Okay back to running C1 at full bore processing about a 100 files, CS5 PS and In design are opened trying to suck as much ram as i can. Also have word, mail and safari as i am tying this. Temps running at 72 up from idle at 60 C and fan speed is 6200.

Now i have the graphics UN checked and seems to be working have not froze yet. Free ram 39mgs. CPU running at 93 percent. Have not crashed with box unchecked yet on the graphics

Message was edited by: Guy Mancuso

To add after a few minutes when all processing was don brought machine back down to 56 C and fan speed at 3200 . It will go back up to 60C.

Now weird thing is that all seemed perfectly normal but yesterday with graphic checked i froze.

Have no idea except something maybe funky in the firmware switching mode between the graphics.

Hi, I have had my macbook for less than 24 hrs , it froze 3 times in that time period (although the mouse still worked). All three times i needed to hard reset the machine.