Q: MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze

Only 1 earlier post was interesting in that they attempted to describe how it was fixed. They seemed to imply a de-tuned memory timing.

Can anyone confirm HOW it was fixed?

Yes I am curious about this too.

maltb wrote:

<snip>

Also, I've found this MacBook Pro to be sluggish when performing simple tasks like launching applications, etc. Anyone else experiencing the slow response and spinning rainbow when launching applications? Hope Apple comes up with a fix here quickly.

Yes. I isolated the problem to the disk (using another disk I happened to have around). I took it back to the Genius Bar, told them it was sluggish and I suspected the disk and they swapped machines no questions asked. My machine performed better booting from a USB drive than it did off the internal drive (Xbench). That's all the Genius needed to hear.

My symptoms were general sluggishness, Spaces laggy, right click on Finder elements taking for-ever. Interesting to watch the output from dtruss; that's the tool that lead me to the disk i/o.

If you don't have an extra disk, the Genius Bar should.

Brian.

Hi All,

I've been following this thread, as I had been having the same freeze issue as everyone else on my new 15" Macbook Pro. I downloaded the OSX update and during installation, my computer froze up saying "error during installation". From that point on, my computer never got past the white apple screen at startup.

I ran diagnostics and it seems that my harddrive is corrupted, and I couldn't reinstall my OS or fix the drive.

Has anyone else had this issue? I am going to the bar of geniuses tomorrow.

Thanks for all the help in this forum and the wiki.

A variation of this problem occurs also with my MB 2 CD (10.4.9) - a short spike in cpu load constantly kills my ethernet port. Tried everything (clean 10.4.11 install, excanged the RAM, PRAM reset, created a new user, using airport, etc. etc.). Only restarting the machine helps, and I am doing this roughly 30 times a day.

I am ready to get a MS machine, believe me. It is such a pain...

Any ideas? Or am I in the totally wrong place anyway and you guys tell me to get lost...

Sorry to tell you your problem isn't even similar to the issue being discussed in this thread. The issue here only occurs with 2011 Macbooks, and results in the a complete hangs the entire machine. It's got nothing to do with a wonky ethernet port.

1) Please read the thread topic. This thread is regarding hard freezes in the latest MacBook Pro 2011. You can check if you have this issue by going here and recreate the test. http://mbp-freeze.wikispaces.com/

2) I bought my 15" MBP 2011 in february, although I did not have issues with it I decided to try and replicate the problem and sure enough it turns out my MBP did a hard freeze. Good news is the latest Apple update (10.6.7 for Macbook Pro 2011) has solve this problem (make sure you update using the built in Apple Software Update and you're downloading the correct update. I have run the yes>/dev/null& test and ran the cycle 9 times and everything is working nicely.

3) To those who are still having strange issues with their 2011 MBP please report your problem to Apple and start a new thread. I know that no update is full proof. This newest update may work for 90% of us but for the rest of you please start a new thread and address the issue to Apple

Thanks guys. Good work on the update Apple! =)

Any new MBP you get will have this problem

Mine doesn't. LIterally the "coolest" fastest running computer I've ever used in my life. YMMV greatly, it seems. Amazing machine and nothing I throw at it slows it down and it barely gets luke warm and even running for hours with Safari, flash, video it's not even luke warm right now.

They'd have to pry this machine from my dead, cold hands. It's that amazing. And, I should note I've not been on 10.6.7, I've been on 10.6.6 this whole time.

Message was edited by: Cowicide Moo

Not that it matters anymore, because it's been fixed with 10.6.7, but if you didn't run the various stress tests, you have no idea if you're machine has the problem. Personally every machine I've laid hands on had the problem. I crashed ever floor model at the local apple store in under 5 minutes each. The idea that your machine is one is a million seems far fetched, but I suppose anything is possible.

I have also a 13" with a 8GB DDR and update at 10.6.7 but when i use a VM (VirtualBox) with windows, I have the same problem.

Cowiside, what version macbook do you have ??

I am gaining confidence that the issue that everyone was experiencing was indeed DRAM timing issues when the system hit high temperatures. I'm relying on a VMWARE VM reporting the Windows Experience numbers for RAM access.

My numbers dropped from 10.6.6 reporting "7.9" to 10.6.7 reporting "7.7" on my 2011 17" MBP. I also have a 2010 Mac Pro WS with a 6-core Westmere processor running ECC DRAMs at 1333MHz as well. The numbers on that machine before and after the 10.6.7 update remained at "7.8".

I believe a DDR3 timing parameter was changed for the shipping DIMMs. The kernel was updated in the 10.6.7 release from 10.7.1 to 10.7.3, this is where I believe these parameters are provided to the memory controller. If I were to predict the effect on memory performance of adding a 1-cycle idle gap between the Intel driving the bus and the DRAM driving the bus, for Read/Write turn-around, I would expect at least a 1% hit on throughput assuming lots of read/write/reads are present (vs read-read-read ... write-write-write). This may be the case in the Windows benchmark test.

Anyways, the reality is that the DDR3 bus is a source synchronous bus that moves slightly with temperature, and by design Apple would want to remove any overhead cycles. Here, either the DRAM vendor may have misquoted their exact timing relationship at the high temps, or Apple may have counted too much on some timing margin existing. Either way, the bus timing if tuned exactly will eventually fail at some max temperature (silicon slows down slightly, jitter rises due to high switching currents present).

When the DRAM bus fails timing, I would expect the CPU will run out of cache for a while, graphics access should be fine but obviously any action (such as a mouse click) that causes a DRAM access would not complete.

I do know that different DRAM vendors require slightly different timing for RAS/CAS latency and turn-around times. I would caution folks to be very mindful of this when adding DRAM's from vendors not on Apple's matrix assuming Apple has a matrix. Or, buy a faster speed grade if available.

This leaves the concern of low (medium) temperature freezes. These were reported earlier in the forum, very infrequent and would not be addressed by this particular kind of resolution. Hopefully the OS update included a fix for those (which really appear to be involved with the GPU switching), but time will tell.

What is everyone using to measure temperatures and fan speeds? I haven't received mine yet, but I have ordered the 15" Quad Core i7 and am just waiting for my package to arrive. I would have gone for the 17", because I love my 17" Power Book so much, but it has become more cumbersome due to how evil the TSA has become and I am positive that there is less and less room in the seats on the planes every time I fly. Without fail I always end up with a nimrod in the seat in front of me who can't stop jumping up and down, so using my 17" has become more of a pain. Something a little smaller will make traveling a little less of a hassle.

Anyway, just wondering what you use to measure fan speeds and temperatures. :P Thanks!

I can't believe the issues that I have had with this thing. Here is what I got. It is supposed to be the top of the line, even upgraded the memory and was expecting a super deluxe system. Bottom line, I AM EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED. Friends have been telling me for a couple of years how great the MAC operating system is. So much for the most stable operating system ever. I never had the kind of issues with my Windows machine, even Vista beat this. I am definitely returning it

MacBook Pro 17 Inch
17-inch: 2.3 GHz
• 2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
• 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM – 2X4GB
• 750GB 5400-rpm1
• Intel HD Graphics 3000
• AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 1GB GDDR5
• Weight: 6.6 lbs
• Built-in battery (7 hours)2
• Ships: Within 24hrs
• Free Shipping
• $2,949.00

I have heard nothing but good things about Windows 7, so guess I will give it a try.
For the money I am going to get this beauty. As good or better specs and over $750 cheaper.

Dell
XPS 17

Processor Intel® CoreTM i7 2820QM (2.3GHz/8MB cache)
Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
Display 17.3" HD+ (900p) LED Display with 2.0MP HD Webcam
Memory 8GB2 Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory at 1333MHz
Hard Drive 1.28TB (2 x 640GB 7200 RPM HDD)

Optical Drive Tray Load Blu-ray Disc BD-Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD) with Roxio Creater 2011
Video Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 550M 1GB graphics with Optimus and TV Tuner
Battery: 9-cell (7 hours, 32 Minutes)
Weight 7.57 lbs.
Dell Price $2,13798

Just got my new BTO macbook pro yesterday. Fan sounded like the darn thing was gonna take off after 30 sec (yes you read right) of youtube video. Photoshop CS4? Forget it! Rev'd up in no time.

Then AFTER the 10.6.7 update I got the dreaded Video HARD Freeze with a power cycle necessary to clear things up.

Apple is issuing a refund (not a replacement) with hardly a question. must be some MAJOR production issue. What a bummer... Any suggestions on a replacement machine?