OS X Lion freezes at login screen + App Store is slow

Everyone: I found the solution.

My mid-2010 Macbook Pro is now running as solid as a rock w/ OSX Lion 10.7.1 and Automatic Graphics Switching turned ON. It sounds like the rumors of a bad revision of the NVIDIA GT330M or some other component on the motherboard could be true.

They replaced my motherboard for free, and my machine is out of warranty. They paid for shipping. And best of all, I shipped off the unit late Thursday afternoon, and it showed up early this (Saturday) morning. You cannot get better service than that. I am absolutely floored.

I know a lot of you are upset at Apple about this problem, but the service they've shown me here has made me so happy that I'm probably never going to buy any other brand of laptop ever again. I'm already planning my next Macbook purchase because of this. Would it be helpful if Apple was more vocal and admitted the issue? Absolutely. But their support rep suggested that I send it in for motherboard replacement when we started this whole thing, and I stubbornly said "no, I'm pretty sure this is a software issue", and he politely didn't fight me on it. In other words, that's on me.

I'm sure there are legitimate OSX Lion stability issues caused by software, but THIS ISSUE, related to MID-2010 Macbook Pros SPECIFICALLY, can only be solved with a trip to Apple for a HARDWARE fix.

You will not be without your laptop for long. Go ahead and do it. Everyone gets a free Apple support call with Lion, and I expect that you'll get the same level of service I've gotten once the support rep diagnoses your problem. Just make sure to BACK UP EVERYTHING with Time Machine. My drive came back wiped- thankfully I backed up. Then used Migration Assistant to recover.

Good luck everyone!

Hi Mike

This seems like great news. When you say 'mother board', is this the same as 'logic board' which is what they did for me ( as in my earlier post). If so then I'm everything you describe is how it was for me !!

Fingers crossed !!!

Thanks

Dave UK

I want to chine in on this subject. I too was having login and video freezing issues on my 2011 Mac Mini Server. I was able to finally fix it by examining the console logs and addressing any issues I found. There were 3 main issues and I found the solutions for all of them with some Google searching. This is probably not a solution for most of you folks but it's worth consideration.

I just cant believe that all our MBP's were fine and flawless running 10.6.8 but now we need new hardware to run 10.7?? We should not need new motherboards/logicboards to run an updated system!! All our machines are easily within the required technical specification for running Lion. There HAS to be a software fix. Perhaps new drivers for the graphics cards?

@Dave - yes, "logic board = mother board". The main system board/logic board/motherboard/whatever you want to call it has the CPU and GPU soldered on. In order to replace the GPU, they need to replace this entire board.

@michael - I understand your frustration, but I assure you that cases like this are possible. I am actually a GPU Design Engineer (not stating affiliation so don't ask), and I promise you that hardware bugs like this can unfortunately happen. There are key differences between Snow Leopard and Lion, such as the fact that Lion now fundamentally supports OpenGL 3.2, and OSX is heavily dependent on OpenGL. It's very possible that there are new commands that are being sent to the 330M in Lion that are never sent by Snow Leopard. An early revision of the 330M could have easily had a hardware bug that was only repairable by a metal fix in a later revision, such the one that I suspect was on my logic board.

I was not involved in the design of the 330M, nor am I completely convinced that it was at fault. All I know *for certain* is that Apple completely replaced the logic board with a *newer version* of the logic board (not the same exact design), and now all of my problems are now gone. What are the differences in this new logic board? I cannot say for certain. Even the "waking from sleep crash" bug is gone. I used my MBP Mid-2010 all weekend with AGS turned on, rebooting about 20 times, and never once had a moment of instability.

P.S. Lion rocks, when it's working right.

Mike

Thanks for the prompt reply. I'm guessing then they have done the same for me as I've had no grief since the board was replaced.

Can you comment on whether or not I should reinstall the OS as the shop suggested to speed up booting etc

Currently it fires up in around 25 - 35 seconds. After the board was changed they thought it was a bit sluggish but to be honest I can't tell the difference between now and when it was new.

Any comments would be useful as I'm not the most technical !

Cheers

Dave UK

Are you running Bootcamp? If so, try this (from: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=329194):

"Try going into System Preferences, Startup Disk and reselecting the Macintosh HD as your boot drive."

Otherwise, I have no idea. Mine came back wiped with a fresh OSX install, which I then restored my TimeMachine backup to. I'll time my boot time tonight when I get home for a comparison.

Mike,

Still no issues I'm pleased to report and total boot time is around 35 - 40 seconds.

To everyone else - I think the solution might be as Mike states in getting the hardware fix.

Cheers

Dave UK

Yeah I'm clocking in between 46-51 seconds for an OSX 10.7.1 boot (from pressing the power button to the login screen). I'm also running bootcamp though, so that might be a factor. Anyway, your time sounds good/normal.

Even I face the same issue, after upgrading to Lion 10.7...

Problem: If I don't give the password for initial few seconds (10-15) the password prompt freezes and I see a colorful spinning disk spins forever.. Just cant do anything at this stage as and have to forcefully shutdown my Macbook pro(15") by pressing and holding the power button at the top right corner and then restart freshly... "The workaround is to give the password immediately as it prompts without any delay" But this definitely needs a fix

Apple!!!!, please fix this soon... 😟 This really annoys, when it freezes at the login prompt 😟

Good news all. I finally got tired of waiting for an update to this issue that we are all experiencing that I went back to the Apple Store today. I told them look, we've done the logicboard swap, we've tried multiple hard drives and memory and i'm still having this problem even with 10.6.8. The screen goes black, the laptop freezes up and everything I was working on is lost. Is there anything you can do to get me something that's going to work. I told them I do have Apple Care and that it's getting crazy as this is my third time in the store. The manager then came over and said since we know you've been dealing with this for a few months, we are going to give you a new laptop. I walked out of the store with an early 2011 MacBook Pro runing Lion with no issues at all! Guys, go to the Apple Store and be nice and maybe you will get hooked up also.

Good for You. However, I am living in Russian Federation, where no App Store located. Also support centers only in the capital (Moscow) wich is quite far away from my location. I am having same issues - spinning beachball upon login, freezes when automatic graphic switching is enabled. My only hope is software fix.

If I will travel to service center, I must be sure that it is hardware problem. I am afraid that authorized service center will refuse to help me, since my macbook pro out of warranty. Do not even know what to do. A bit dissapointed of Apple hardware quality.

My brand new iPad 2 and iPhone are having issues too, but that is a different story.

When I got my logic board replaced I was told it is not a revision board and it will have the same GeForce 330m. Once the logic board was replaced, the tech told me it did not fix the issue as he was still seeing the same problem occur. If you downgrade to Snow Leopard 10.6.7, this problem will not exist for you but you should not have to do that. It seems the driver that is being used in 10.6.8 and 10.7.1 is the issue. It is not a hardware issue but rather some very buggy drivers. If you guys remember back in the days, this same issue happened with the Titanium MacBook due to an nvidia issue.

My true feelings toward this is point to a software issue being the biggest issue and a corruption of the GeForce 330m that Nvidia knows about and isn't doing anything about it hints why the new MacBooks have ATI graphics and not Nvidia going forward.