Q: MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze

Over the weekend, I rendered a 1 hour 16 minute movie using Final Cut Studio 3 (Compressor) for SD DVD and 720P Web distribution (original content was 1080i video clips with hundreds of cuts and overlays). This computer ran pretty much for 24 hours rendering video content. I hand zero problems.

--Mark

psaraiva wrote:
Hello. I have the 15" 2011 2.2GHz model and I don't have this problem. I CAN'T reproduce the 'yes > /dev/null' issues with photobooth.

Like I said before I can't reproduce that issue but I can reproduce the second suggested method from

http://mbp-freeze.wikispaces.com/

Please read it and try it.

Also wanted to say I'm calling Canada Technical Support and can't get through to anyone. They must be getting a lot of calls.

Just had a "Battery is not Charing" that cant be good... only holds a few hours charge too... Ran Geek bench and Safari and the mac crashed.

Anyone tried this with Lion at all?

@ digimania,

Restart Chrome after setting to Integrated Graphics and try running the test again. Set to 1000 fish.

It will fail.

I often experience this random freeze while I am watching flash video, anyone else?
I tried to re-create crash described here, http://mbp-freeze.wikispaces.com/, but no crash

I've had it happen randomly.


I've also been able to make it happen by doing the "yes" test but not every single time.

Also, i just tried the fish test with integrated only, didn't crash me....been running the fish at 1000 fish for 10 minutes now....even running 8 "yes" doesn't seem to crash it on integrated but like i said before, it's not something whch happens EVERY time.

Milk wrote:
I often experience this random freeze while I am watching flash video, anyone else?
I tried to re-create crash described here, http://mbp-freeze.wikispaces.com/, but no crash

Did you try to re-create the crash using option 1, 2, 3, or all of them?

wonslung wrote:
I've had it happen randomly.


I've also been able to make it happen by doing the "yes" test but not every single time.

Also, i just tried the fish test with integrated only, didn't crash me....been running the fish at 1000 fish for 10 minutes now....even running 8 "yes" doesn't seem to crash it on integrated but like i said before, it's not something whch happens EVERY time.

Did you make sure to restart Chrome after switching to integrated? My'n crashes when I switch to integrated during animation, and when I switch and restart but not if I switch before launching without restart.

kirkins wrote:

wonslung wrote:
I've had it happen randomly.


I've also been able to make it happen by doing the "yes" test but not every single time.

Also, i just tried the fish test with integrated only, didn't crash me....been running the fish at 1000 fish for 10 minutes now....even running 8 "yes" doesn't seem to crash it on integrated but like i said before, it's not something whch happens EVERY time.

Did you make sure to restart Chrome after switching to integrated? My'n crashes when I switch to integrated during animation, and when I switch and restart but not if I switch before launching without restart.

Yes. It doesn't crash.

If i don't restart chrome, the page doesn't even work.

Adrian,

OK, I did as you said and after a minute, the integrated graphics card did freeze, but I had mouse control (nothing else).

I don't think this is a fair test though for the integrated graphics card. It's not meant to push heavy loads. This one http://www.chromeexperiments.com/detail/fractal-lab/?f= warns you that if you push it, it will lock up your GPU.

After this test, I can't run any of the Chrome Experiements.

--Mark

I think we're missing the point here if we "force" it to use integrated when rendering 1000 fish - of course it's going to muck up.

For the record I downloaded google chrome (wasn't using it anyway seeing as it usually forces discrete) to test it and was able to render the 1000 fish a few times but it was on discrete.

@ digimania and Luke

actually no. the graphics card may struggle (low fps), but it's not supposed to *freeze the computer* when "under load". that's just not supposed to happen. Trust me, they're meant to take a load of weight. No other computer ever made is designed to freeze a computer if it's not working. I could run Photoshop CS5 on a 15 year old computer. It will be dog slow, but it will get it done, if given enough time. That should be the case here too.

Either there computer is flawed, the drivers are flawed, or Chrome/Chrome Experiments is flawed.

But to be sure, the machine is by design supposed to be able to handle whatever is thrown at it without crashing. Period. It's not a handicapped GPU that needs to be coddled. Ask anyone with a computer that has IntelGMA integrated graphics from over the last several years if their machine crashes because they're working it "hard". Heck, even the 2010's (which had a significantly underwhelming version of Intel HD graphics than the 2011's do) if they have these issues. I know I didn't last year.

Don't make any excuses for the hardware. Either its fine and the software/driver is problematic, or it's problematic and the software/driver is fine.

Message was edited by: Adrian J.

One last thing - apart from this horrible, horrible crash issue, which I deeply regret - this is, hands down, the best machine I've ever owned (note the Mac Pro, iMac and others in my profile...).

Awesome machine, let down only by this...

@ tekacs

agreed. cheers. best laptop I've owned yet (as a total package of size, speed, style and performance)

Adrian,

I think it's the Chrome Experiments that are. The Fractal Lab tells you this:

"WARNING: it is possible to create GLSL fractal shaders that will lock up your GPU requiring a hard reboot if pushed too hard. Use at your own risk!"

http://www.chromeexperiments.com/detail/fractal-lab/?f=

And this applies to not only Macbook Pros but others laptops as well.

Like I said in previous posts, I've put a lot of stress on this machine over the weekend, and I do not have any of the lockups or overheating issues (aside from the Aquarium in Integration mode only).


--Mark

Message was edited by: digimania