Q: MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze

Just got off the phone with Apple techsupport.

One thing they got me to try which has been mentioned is resetting System management controller, which I had not previously done.

-Power off.
-Hold: Left Shift, Control, Option - then also press and hold the power button. Hold these 4 keys for 5 seconds then release.
-Power on the laptop.

Right now I'm endcoding some video in Handbrake with my CPU at 100% for 5 minutes at 93deg(c) and no crash, however I know this issue is intermittent and will require a few days for me to say weather my problem is gone or not.


*+Has anyone here tried this? What were your results?+*

If you have this problem and are serious about it read all of the previous posts. Don't waste peeps time posting the same question answered on the first few pages fcs.

- First of all [http://mbp-freeze.wikispaces.com> for repeated info
- *FRESH install with NO 3rd party software and still crashes.* So gtfo with it's so-and-so software.
- _Auto switching in Preferences does not prevent crashes._ Only using the free app seems to help the +vast majority of people+ (go look it up)
- ALL system resets have been tried. People still have freezes after.
- Apple *will not* acknowledge there is a problem until they have a fix. It's about their bottom line. Makes sense business-wise. If you don't understand then go ask mommy or daddy to explain it to you.

I'm running intel only using the app and no crashes. I also can't get my machine to go over 88C with everything that caused it before.

Does anyone know for sure the cause? No. We DO know some of the things it's NOT.

Your best option is to report it and keep your machine at this point IF it's useable in integrated mode and wait for a fix.

Otherwise take it back - buy a PC - and good riddance.

Same problems here, coming from windows I could not see this as not normal... thnx for the tread and i hope they fix it soon...

You should definitely try calming down or you'll find yourself banned from these forums in no time, especially with language like 'GTFO', that's simply not helping anybody.

I'm well aware of http://mbp-freeze.wikispaces.com - I put some of the content on that wiki. :/

It's very important we gain knowledge on if certain troubleshooting steps 'prolong' or effect when and where the crashes happen, you cannot speak for everyone by saying 'everyone has tried all the resets' it's simply not the case, it's very easy to miss trying one little thing.

I don't for a second think this simple fix will resolve everyones issue or even my own, but the fact of the matter is right now, for me, after doing that, it's not crashing - so you have to ask yourself if by chance resetting the SMC had something to do with that, be it temporarily or otherwise..

It seems that this was also a problem on the 2010 models that have been re-uped since they switched to the Raedeons from the nVids. The video drivers from the boot camp CD cause issues and lock ups ... .. i've read this from multiple sources: Check this link out to replace your current video drivers http://wilby.com/cameron_blog/?p=118

The other issue is it may be with your discrete GFX processing. If you Download and run gfxCardStatus you can manually switch to your GPU and this seems to help with the issue as well as some say it may be caused by your discrete GFX processing.

Overheating: There is also an app called... smcFanControl that allows you to optimize your cooling by slowling spinning up your fan before it's too late causing your fans to loudly overwork themselves and any heating issues.

Depending on the nature of your issue... these three things may help and combat it.

Hi, I was about to order one of these laptops (15", 2.2 CPU, 8 Mb, SSD) until I saw this article via Slashdot. Is this problem perhaps less severe if I order the slower 2.0 GHz CPU? Any other tips? I wonder how long I should wait on this purchase. Thanks...

Hi John,

I wouldn't stress too much, Apple will come to the party (probably in the form of a firmware or software update).

If you're not happy with it and it crashes for you, you are covered by AppleCare for at least the first year anyway.

It's funny, smallluxgpu crashes my system immediately but LuxMark which is a benchmark based on the same stuff doesn't crash at all. I've been running the benchmark over and over with gpu+cpu, or gpu only and it's still going after 30 minutes. I tried smallluxgpu again and it crashed straight away. Some of these crashes could just be from a bug in the program but some especially the terminal method wouldn't be. Running the burn-in test using Sisoftware Sandra in Windows is perfectly stable also. The crashes seem to be OS X/driver related and in some cases program related so I wouldn't sweat it being a potential hardware recall problem.

As far as I can tell this bug isn't heat or stress related as my system is hot and stressed repeatedly running LuxMark with no problems. I also have no issues running X-Plane or Cinebench.
http://www.luxrender.net/wiki/LuxMark

Add me to the list of people this is affecting. I read about this this morning and thought I might have just gotten lucky since I hadn't seen this happen yet on my 15" 2.2GHz i7 w/8GB ram and the AMD Radeon HD 6750M... Then about 10 minutes later, while watching hulu and syncing my iPhone, BOOM, image on the screen locked up, audio kept playing, and the cursor could be moved, ssh in worked for a while, before coming unresponsive. Keyboard was unresponsive (cmd-opt-esc, cmd-ctrl-power, brightness, sound, kb backlight keys, caps lock all did nothing), and only fix was holding down the power button.

While the machine was hot this was reproducible very quickly (I first noticed this with the machine on my bed). With the machine cool it took much longer to reproduce (but it eventually did happen).

So sorry to hear all of you are experiencing these problems. All I can say your comments have resulted in me abandoning plans to upgrade to the 2011 17" MacBook Pro. I'll stick with my 17" C2D for another 12 months now.

I went through similar hassles with a large number of people here in mid-2009 when it was click, beep, freezes and it took Apple 2-3 months to fix the issue with a firmware update. No way in **** am I going through that ordeal again. I seriously regretted my decision not to take advantage of the 14 day return opportunity at the time. So if you still have that chance, and you don't like the idea of waiting maybe 2-3 months for a fix, you probably should seriously consider going the refund route and watching from the sidelines.

Good luck!

Message was edited by: richardaustin

I've had mine about 12 days or so. 13" with i7. I'm just surfing and having freezes. Not hot, no load. Little rainbow circle just spins. I'm disappointed, this is my 1st MAC, I hope I don't regret my decision.

I've considered it being some 3rd party stuff like Firefox or Sophos, but not sure.

I can make it happen by running Handbrake. CPU usage goes right up to 779%, temperatures of the CPU cores go to 99C and the machine freezes. I took a photo of my frozen screen and was going to upload the picture but don't know how.

What gives? Isn't thins thing supposed to do thrive at very thing? Not flounder.

I bought this thing for my job and so far, have been unable to do it.

Had that symptoms when I had iStat Menu installed with default settings, that turns on custom fan speed control settings (in Sensors -> Fan Speed Control option, activated by default), by default. I was able to reach a CPU temp of 100°C and the screen froze quite easily using Handbrake or Cinebench.

Since I deactivated the Fan Speed Control option of iStat Menu, my CPU temp doesn't go more than 97°C at most (rarely more than 95°C) in fact, and I've yet to reproduce a screen freeze since then. Even with Handbrake or Cinebench, couldn't reproduce the issue yet.

So I suggets to track down any installed software that may alter the fan behavior (iStat Menu is not the only one having such a feature), and deinstall them or deactivate the fan speed control option, if it's only an option.

are you using a 3rd party SSD drive?

There is a known issue with some 3rd party SSD drive. So if you did put a 3rd party SSD drive, put back the Apple stock HDD that was provided with the MBP in the first place, and use it until the 3rd party SSD issue is fixed.

I have not installed any software that (to my knowledge) would affect fan speed.

I have an OWC 120GB SSD that I have purchased but not yet installed into the system; so far I'm still using the stock SSD from Apple. I hope I don't have trouble with the OWC drive!

Maybe I'll install iStat and see if I can gain control of the fans that way...