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MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze

Overheat? The fans revved and suddenly I could use nothing but the cursor. Had to hold down the power switch to kill all and then re-power & startup. I wasn't doing anything unusual, but I had 7 apps open and was amid an auto-backup to TimeMachine.

Just a little disillusioned and concerned, wondering if anyone else there has experienced a hard freeze like this.

macbook pro 17" 2011, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Mar 1, 2011 11:15 AM

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2,292 replies

Mar 3, 2011 4:20 AM in response to Rensoom

I have had the same thing several times with my 15" 2011 2.2GHz model. Each time it was when the system was under load and the fans start running high and then there is a freeze.at first I thought it was connected to VMware running but I have now had it without VMware going at all. I will try to get a series of actions that can reliably reproduce the problem and the get the Apple Store to have a look. For me, at least, it seems pretty common and I hope it can be fixed because I didn't switch to Mac to keep rebooting 3 or 4 times a day.

Mar 6, 2011 6:43 AM in response to feldkamp

I've had my MBP 2.3 15" for 5 days.
It has now frozen or locked up about 6 or 7 times.

Each time, the fan(s) were spinning audibly.
Last time it happened I was running Handbrake converting video.
Machine froze, no mouse movement - completely "dead" and had to hold down power button to shut off.

Twice it has happened when running BioShock - in this case, in one instance at least, I Apple/Tabbed out of Bioshock to go into finder and do something and the screen went black, OSX seemingly unable to "get out" of Bioshock and the whole thing froze - ALT/APPLE/ESC etc did NOTHING.
Had to hold down power button again.

Also, I have had similar behaviour, when fans were spinning loudly and thus, presumably the machine working relatively hard, but the mouse would stay responsive to movement but clicking did not work for anything. Again, Apple/Tab etc would not work, could not force quit anything - effectively the same problems as above, but the mouse would at least move.
Only way to fix = hold down power button.

In each instance, the machine started up fine, immediately and most recently (such as right now) I am running Handbrake again and typing this post, and the MBP appears fine.
Thus, the problem does NOT occur everytime the CPU/GPU is under load, but it HAS ONLY happened when the CPU/GPU is under load.

Rather worrying and I will be talking to Apple first thing Monday morning!

Mar 6, 2011 1:11 PM in response to Janusfox

Exactly the same issues are happening with my 15 inch MBP 2,2 Ghz i7,

When rendering from After Effects the fans go wild, like an airplane and the CPU temp reaches 98C,
then sometimes everything freezes but the cursor movement, only way forward is a hard reset.

Will call Apple first thing tomorrow Monday morning.

/d

Mar 6, 2011 8:17 PM in response to Rensoom

I have a 15" 2011 MacBook Pro with a 128 SSD. It has repeatedly frozen in the week I've had it - often at random points while using StarCraft II and also while trying to access Time Machine. When it freezes, sound continues and I can still move the cursor (which is sometimes the spinning ball and sometimes the regular cursor) but the computer is completely unresponsive -- force quit does not work nor does anything else - have to do a hard reboot.

I tried turning off Time Capsule entirely but still get freezes. Turned down graphics settings in StarCraft II - still freezing. Very frustrating. This has happened about a dozen times in a week.

Mar 6, 2011 10:17 PM in response to brandonlive02

Mine freezes almost every time I open a game. I play for a couple minutes then click on something and bam. I hear the sound of the game but the whole computer is frozen except the cursor. I have to hold the power button. This is very frustrating! What could be causing this? I do not think it is temperatures... the times this has happened the CPU has never gotten hotter than 185 degrees F.

Mar 7, 2011 1:57 AM in response to Adam!

Sorry to make an intervention even though I am still a 2010 MBP owner: did you have a look at 2010 MBP freeze 'kilomteric' thread? It seems that there is something not fully addressed even in 2011 MBP, probably coming from past generation (I had a 10min freeze with my MBP a long time ago and only once during Imovie files import).
On the other hand, I had already noticed high temps on 2010 MBP when rendering with FCE or imovie but I had never had freezes (max noted temp was 104°C for me).
I was thinking of changing over my 2010 MBP but I will probably wait a couple of months yet.
Cheers

Mar 7, 2011 4:26 AM in response to califfo1975

Spoken to Apple this morning regarding the hard freeze, they suggested reinstalling Snow Leopard and give it another go, if the problems persist, ask for a replacement, they will ship me a new one within 24 hrs, I doubt this to be a Snow Leopard/faulty install problem, but will give it a go and report back tomorrow.

/d

Mar 7, 2011 6:11 AM in response to AutoFiend

I sure hope apple's tech support and engineering teams are all talking to each other and a fix is imminent. I will not keep a $2000+ machine that keeps freeing up for a few months while I wait for a new OSX. My return policy expires on Thursday and I'm seriously considering returning the machine and waiting it it out on the other side of the fence.

It appears all I can do without freezing up is light computing which can be done on an old ipad which can be now be had for $399.

I've been an apple fan since 2003 and their customer service and tech support is excellent, (no...I'm not an apple plant) but I don't have the time to wait out a fix with a broken machine. BTW: They have already replaced my 2011 MBP with another 2011 MBP and the same thing happens.

DO CALL APPLE so they recognize that this issue is chronic and not user error or a 3rd party program

keep us posted!

Mar 7, 2011 7:27 AM in response to heat235

I have one of the new 2.3Ghz i7 17" and it worked fine for 6 days using it 8-12 hours a day. I turned it on Saturday and everything seemed fine but then the screen went black and unit was froze. I powered it off and then turned it back on and it froze again. Tried a third time and it corrupted some part of the disk in the process. Took the disk out and put in a different one and still was freezing sometimes with screen on and other times with it off. Apple Hardware Test would often hang. Went to Apple Store and described the situation and they decided to replace it. New unit has been fine thus far after using Time Machine to restore my drive. Keeping fingers crossed but unlike other posts this was a sudden change.

MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze

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