2011 Macbook Pro 13" Freeze/Crash

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2011 Macbook Pro 13" Freeze/Crash

This is my first mac and so far it has been great except for this problem that has become increasingly frequent.

The screen will go black (screen backlight stays on) and the sound will cut out. The keyboard light will stay on as will the fans and the apple light on the lid. In this state the computer is unresponsive (I tried to shut down the computer with keyboard shortcuts with no luck) and the only way to shut it down is by holding the power button for a few seconds. After this the computer will boot fine. This problem happens anywhere from once every few days to a couple times a day.

It doesn't seem to be coinciding with heavy cpu usage. I have reset the PRAM and the NVRAM as well as the SMC. I've looked through the logs and found nothing of note. There is a kernel post "npvhash=4095" that appears out of chronological order ( http://i.imgur.com/LqPz0.png), but nothing else noticeable. I've validated all the installed fonts as per this thread ( http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1442741) and the problems keeps happening.

Once I have some free time I'll try a fresh install of OSX but it would be convenient if I didn't have to resort to that. The other option would be to take it to an apple store but the closest one is a couple hours away.

2011 Macbook Pro 13" i5 stock, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Apr 12, 2011 10:42 AM

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Answer 1

a brody

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Apr 12, 2011 10:46 AM in response to mrklever

Welcome to Apple Discussions!

Run the hardware test that came with the Mac:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509

If the machine is less than 14 days out of the shop see if an exchange/repair program can be acted upon by the shop. Otherwise if issues persist, see if just having the RAM replaced can be done under warranty.

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Answer 2

mrklever Author

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Apr 12, 2011 10:53 AM in response to a brody

Sorry I forgot to mention I ran the hardware test and didn't get any errors. Though I will try removing a single sticks of RAM and see if the problem persists. Thanks for the idea.

I bought the mac over a month ago so I missed my opportunity to exchange it.

Message was edited by: mrklever

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Answer 3

a brody

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85,314 points

Apr 12, 2011 10:59 AM in response to mrklever

It sounds like you are getting a kernel panic*:

http://www.macmaps.com/kernelpanic.html

As long as your data is backed up, any third party peripherals or drivers installed?
Is the hard disk less than 85% full?
Is there anything else visible in the console logs?

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Answer 4

mrklever Author

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Apr 12, 2011 11:29 AM in response to a brody

When this problem happens there are no peripherals attached. I have the drivers for my wacom tablet installed.
I'm currently using about 25% of the hdd.
This line keeps showing up in the console "com.apple.kextd[10] Can't create kext cache under / - owner not root."
In system accounts I am an admin.

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Answer 5

mrklever Author

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Apr 12, 2011 11:47 AM in response to mrklever

I ran repair disk permissions in the disk utilities and found/repaired many problems except for this one
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAg ent" has been modified and will not be repaired.

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Answer 6

a brody

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85,314 points

Apr 12, 2011 11:58 AM in response to mrklever

That's normal to have such errors, and have nothing to do with your freeze, except possibly a bad setting in Apple Remote Desktop, if you are using that.

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Answer 7

edgarjs

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Apr 13, 2011 1:56 PM in response to mrklever

I'm having a similar issue. Not sure if this is related though. I used to plug in an external monitor and close the mac so I have only the external monitor. But then whenever I needed to unplug the monitor and open the mac, sometimes it wouldn't wake up, or other times the brightness of the screen is messed so the meter was showing the brightness at half but the screen was without brightness at all and by increasing it to the max, the screen would top until half its brightness.

So I read and looked for, and some possible solutions were to reset the SCM, PRAM and reinstalling the system, I've done all, the last was reinstalling the OS and it seemed to work (actually I can't be fully sure because I stop using an external monitor, and have pluged in only a couple of times after the reinstall). However, today suddenly my mac froze and the console shows that error code "npvhash=4095". Also I've tried with the fonts validation and nothing...

As I said, not sure if this is related but hope a little of more information helps.

As a side note, while reading about the external monitor issue, it seems that thunderbolt port doesn't play nice with DVI.

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Answer 8

a brody

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85,314 points

Apr 14, 2011 5:03 AM in response to edgarjs

Welcome to Apple Discussions edgarjs!
Please start a new topic thread here:

http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1293&start=0

You'll get a wider audience to solve your problem. It is just as possible the adapter you are using on the Thunderbolt port is damaged or improperly connected.

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Answer 9

edgarjs

Level 1

5 points

Apr 14, 2011 2:05 PM in response to a brody

Hi a brody, thanks for the advise. However I posted it here because I got the error described in the initial thread, but I'm not sure if it's related to the display problem. But I'm going to post it there anyways, thanks!

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