Q: MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze

Hey Chughster,

Here is someone with a 13" one that seems to be experiencing the problem:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2788946&tstart=30


Most folks here think it has something to do with switching between the integrated video and the AMD chipset, but I don't think the 13" ones have that option though.

I bought my Macbook Pro 15" on June 2007. I am having the same problem only recently, say last 2-3 months, and increasingly more. It hangs, and I can only move the cursor, can play with the screen brightness as well and that's it. I need to hold the power button to turn it. I think this is something to do with the OS X and not specific to any hardware.

This is a discussion regarding the new 2011 MBP.

I believe he (or she) is implying that this issue may not be isolated to the 2011 mbp.

My 17'' MacBook Pro (2.3Ghz/ 8GB ram / 750 @5400) is on the way to me now - I'll try to leave a post here to indicate whether or not I've seen the same problem, but judging from the speed at which this thread is growing and the amount of people posting, it seems almost imminent...

Anyway, I also sent a tip to Engadget with a link to this page attached so let's see what happens next; if Engadget posts the issue there's a good chance Apple won't be able to ignore it anymore =)

So you think, even if I am a Mac user, I can not discern what this is all about Thanks for the trust!

I think it may not be related to a specific hardware release. I've been having similar problems with my MBP5,3 (circa 2009). This MBP has the two nvidia geforce 9400M and 9600M GT graphics cards (I usually run it on the more battery-friendly card). I've been reporting system freezes related to VMware Fusion for about a year now, with no resolution to both Apple and VMware. I do not believe my system has any hardware related problems.

I can usually freeze the system by putting it under load in the VMware Linux guest. It's worse if I create a dual-processor guest, or run more than one VM at a time, although I've frozen it by doing a big compile under a single processor Linux VM. VMware claims that it's an Apple problem when the system gets resource starved. Maybe, but such freezes are pretty catastrophic (data loss has occurred after hard reboot).

My problem may be different than the one being described here. When my system freezes I cannot ssh into it, so I actually can't tell if anything is still running in the background. But everything else about this problem sounds eerily familiar.

I had it happen once so far on my 2011 15" 2.0GHZ

This is also happening to me. I took it into an Apple Store to see what they could do... and i couldn't recreate the issue as they keep the store cooler than my house is normally.

It seems to be doing better since my visit to the store, though I believe its just me keeping the bottom of the laptop open to the air (especially since it averages with my workload 70-80 degrees Celsius.

pumpichank,

I believe Apple dropped nVidia for the 2011 MBP, so If you are experiencing the same issues then this would indicate it is not related specifically to hardware (or at least not that particular hardware).

After following this over the last week or so, I'd speculate that your issue is different than the one being discussed here.

ruckc

Try this:

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=13219904#13219904

You don't have to reinstall, just boot it up fresh and run the photobooth and debian ports boost install.

John Harrold wrote:
Horniasty,

Are you talking about windows under a virtual machine (vmware or parallels) or bootcamp?

It's a bootcamp assisted genuine Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit install, with few Autodesk CAD software - used few times, produced some renders at full speed etc. , and one game (CoD:MW2)
It all worked perfect for 2 days, as did MacOS, then it all went down at the same occurrence

Yeah I agree, I have a macbook pro 2007 with the same problem from before the new ones came out. But it doesnt seem to occur as much as others seem to have.

I have apps crashing at high load and very occasionally the screen hangs as others mention and I can only move the mouse. This has only happened for maybe a month or so after I did a software update so is there any way I can revert back down to Mac OS X 10.6.1?

Ok, when you said they happened at 'the same time' I thought you were running Windows in a VM within OSX.

If it's the same problem causing the problems in Windows and OSX, then that would indicate something lower level than a driver is causing it; firmware or hardware related.

This thing is very frustrating.

I got a new MBP 2.2 17" a couple of weeks ago when they came out and mine is freezing as well. I can't even move my cursor; the whole screen just freezes. Only seems to happen when I'm doing high CPU / GFX stuff, such as topaz denoise in photoshop.

If I shut down photohop first, then reopen it fresh and run denoise, it's less likely to freeze, although still does some times.

The CPU / fans also can go a bit crazy if I use video calling with skype.