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Q: 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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Q: MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze

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  • by kmac1036,

    kmac1036 kmac1036 Mar 16, 2011 7:12 AM in response to ImQuackers
    Level 4 (2,360 points)
    Mar 16, 2011 7:12 AM in response to ImQuackers
    I haven't installed anything, just unchecked that box in the Energy Saver that turns off the automatic graphics switching. recorded my meeting last night using BoinxTV, with an HD cam hooked up to a Matrox input box, a blue yeti usb mic, & doing a live screen capture of another mac using screen sharing. Didn't freeze or anything.
  • by nickwellings,

    nickwellings nickwellings Mar 16, 2011 8:54 AM in response to Rensoom
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 16, 2011 8:54 AM in response to Rensoom
    Noticed this on my MacBook just now:

    http://tweet.pho.to/9j75Cz

    Thoughts?
  • by matthewadams,

    matthewadams matthewadams Mar 16, 2011 1:58 PM in response to nickwellings
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 16, 2011 1:58 PM in response to nickwellings
    What the ****?
    Was it delivered like that?

    I got my MBP 2.2 15" HR today.. no crash yet (I just played 2 hrs of Crysis under Bootcamp and fans didnt even turn on).
    But I havent had any switching procedures yet as I work with an external screen attached to the MBP.
    However I noticed a bug, on (re)starts it fails to recognize the external monitor. I need to unplug/plug it back in to get it working, which is really annoying.
    (Also I'm running gfxcardstatus set on auto, smcFanControl and iStat Pro)
  • by nickwellings,

    nickwellings nickwellings Mar 16, 2011 2:10 PM in response to Rensoom
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 16, 2011 2:10 PM in response to Rensoom
    Yeah it arrived "bent" :/
  • by matthewadams,

    matthewadams matthewadams Mar 16, 2011 2:28 PM in response to nickwellings
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 16, 2011 2:28 PM in response to nickwellings
    Wow.. i'd send it back in for a new one asap!

    Also since my last post i've been stress-testing my machine a little with Photoshop running, Handbrake encoding a video, 4 instances of Quicktime playing video, 1 instance of VLC and Youtube doing 720p fullscreen whilst Spotlight is indexing the main-drive and Timemachine doing a full backup (also had Photobooth open).
    Also running Skype and Adium.

    Test lasted around 15 mins.

    CPU hitting 89°C max. with fans at 6000rpm max.
  • by MattiX,

    MattiX MattiX Mar 16, 2011 2:29 PM in response to ImQuackers
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 16, 2011 2:29 PM in response to ImQuackers
    Your fix of using smcFanControl didn't work for me. I set the fan RPMs to a minimum of 4000, heard them kick in a bit, then launched Starcraft 2. As soon as I went to change the video resolution in Starcraft the screen froze while the music continued playing. The fans also ramped up quite a bit while it was frozen like this and I eventually had to hard reboot it.
  • by nickwellings,

    nickwellings nickwellings Mar 16, 2011 4:02 PM in response to Rensoom
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 16, 2011 4:02 PM in response to Rensoom
    Its already a replacement machine too! I stress tested mine earlier and never crashed once. Yet randomly with just one thing open it will freeze completely or appear to free yet still be working in the background
  • by John Harrold,

    John Harrold John Harrold Mar 16, 2011 5:03 PM in response to Schwa72
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mar 16, 2011 5:03 PM in response to Schwa72
    So I shipped my computer out yesterday, and this morning I noticed it was being repaired. Now I've the following:
    *Step 2 - Service*
    On hold - Need information (16-Mar-2011)

    I wonder what kind of information they need? I did leave the DVD rip of "The Jerk" that I was using to test with Handbreak on the desktop, perhaps they're watching it (it's a classic).
  • by dsosb,

    dsosb dsosb Mar 16, 2011 5:26 PM in response to nickwellings
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Mar 16, 2011 5:26 PM in response to nickwellings
    Take it back
  • by MattiX,

    MattiX MattiX Mar 16, 2011 7:05 PM in response to MattiX
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 16, 2011 7:05 PM in response to MattiX
    Can anyone who has "stress tested" their laptop please make sure to do the test where you instal boost as others in this thread have mentioned and make sure you are on the AMD GPU at the time.

    I am mentioning this because I can stress test all day long without a crash but certain scenarios such as installing boost or changing resolution in Starcraft 2 will always cause a a crash if on the AMD GPU.
  • by ImQuackers,

    ImQuackers ImQuackers Mar 16, 2011 8:16 PM in response to MattiX
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 16, 2011 8:16 PM in response to MattiX
    Sorry, I should clarify. The SMC Fan Control is really for monitoring purposes at this point. It's been determined that it's a problem with switching. The gfxCardStatus can help with that.

    I would only force it on discrete though when you are going to be doing things that cause it to switch frequently, as it's after that process that it has a chance to lock up. Note that forcing the integrated one works just as well if you don't mind the slower speed and prefer battery life.

    The GPU locking up is why people report that audio and other things unrelated to the GPU continue to work after the freeze (Ventrilo still playing audio, etc.). A firmware update is most likely needed, but I'm not in engineering :P

    If you're doing something that always causes it to be in one mode continuously (as others note: having an external monitor attached forces discrete on) and not switch back-and-forth a lot, then that's why you're not seeing it happen to your machine.

    Also, setting the fan speed above the minimum in SMC Fan Control is not needed. I've changed mine back to the default speeds to reduce unnecessary wear.
  • by MattiX,

    MattiX MattiX Mar 16, 2011 8:51 PM in response to ImQuackers
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 16, 2011 8:51 PM in response to ImQuackers
    I don't think the problem is with switching. I used gfxCardStatus to lock the graphics on discrete and I still had the exact freeze mentioned when trying to install boost via macports. Also same problem when exiting from a fullscreen game such as Starcraft 2. I do however think it is related to the graphics card as sound and other processes do continue in the background
  • by zues21,

    zues21 zues21 Mar 16, 2011 9:30 PM in response to Rensoom
    Level 1 (6 points)
    Mar 16, 2011 9:30 PM in response to Rensoom
    My 13" i5 sometimes freezes for 10 seconds when I wake up from sleep, the beach ball just keeps spinning. I tried resting the PRAM but it still happens from time to time.
  • by Adam!,

    Adam! Adam! Mar 16, 2011 9:58 PM in response to MattiX
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Mar 16, 2011 9:58 PM in response to MattiX
    I play VERY graphics demanding games full screen on my MBP for about 8 minutes maximum, quit, NO crash. If I play for longer than 10 minutes, I am almost guaranteed a crash. ???
  • by ImQuackers,

    ImQuackers ImQuackers Mar 16, 2011 10:20 PM in response to MattiX
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 16, 2011 10:20 PM in response to MattiX
    Very strange then. Have been going for 7 hours now playing WoW encoded 2 DVDs running 4-5 apps on top of those, Safari, iTunes, QuickTime playing a movie, and others. Freeze seems to only happen using dynamic switching with testing, and would happen within minutes of doing all or part of that before. Well I hope that eng figures it all out soonish. Sorry to hear that didn't resolve it temporarily for you.
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