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

This sounds like a different problem, not the (primarily) "spinning beachball of death - freeze on login" problem that most of us mid-to-late 2010 MBP users were (and some still are) dealing with. It may be a hardware problem.

If you have not already done so, first try using Software Update to upgrade to Lion 10.7.4 (or higher, if available), then restart in Safe Mode, to clear any previous junk out of your system caches; then do a normal restart. Maybe that will make the problem go away.

If that doesn't work, I would take the machine in to a Certified Apple Dealership (or preferably an Apple Store), to demonstrate the problem to them.

I am another Macpro 15 inch (Mid 2010) user that has the dreaded spinning beachball and system locking if I don't login within 5 seconds of the login screen showing. No other problems found with the system just this issue. I also experienced a blank screen waking up from sleep mode sometimes.

I have found that simply not using "Automatic Graphics Switching" under "System Preferences","Energy Saver" worked to solve both issues for me. I suppose the battery may take a hit(?) but I don't really care since everything is working now with Lion. Never had an issue with SL.

Good luck all

I regret to report that the problem returned for me. This seemed to occur immediately after an install of an iTunes upgrade and something else. Could be coincidence, but it's a bit disappointing.

I've reverted back to the simple work around of switching off the automatic graphics switching and it is fine now.

Sincerly hope that Mountain Lion sorts this out. Have to say, I won't be upgrading from day one - I'd like to know if any brave souls out there report that Mountain Lion does fix the problem (rather than make it worse) before I take the plunge. 😉

Cheers all.

Earlier I said that deleting the kext files you can solve the login freeze problem. Images quality, however, degrades slightly and the battery is not managed in an optimal way. So I decided to restore the kext file and edit it.

You may also use "Kext Wizard" software for moving kext files.

Follow this "standard" procedure:

1. Edit the /System/Library/Extensions/AppleGraphicsPowerManagement.kext/Contents/Info.plis t file according to the values for the 6,2 MacBookPro in the 10.6.8 version of the same file using TextWrangler.

Please edit the kext file in this way:

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/74251040

Please consider the image on the left.

2. Move the extension file to the trash and reboot in safe mode (shift key down) to flush the extension cache.

3. Move the extension file from the trash back to its original place (you'll need to authenticate)

4. Reboot...and take AS LONG AS YOU LIKE to type your username/password.

This now works for me! 🙂

Thanks GiovP,

I'll try that. I assume that would give me a permanent fix? How long ago did you do this and have you applied any Software Updates since?

One other question - can I clarify which image is the one I should use. You say "please consider the image on the left" - do you mean that is how my edited kext file should look? Thought I would be doubly certain - don't want to make any stupid mistakes at this point. 😉

Cheers,

Simon.

I did this fix last Friday (June 15) and every day check for Software Update. Unfortunately I do not remeber if Software Update has installed something after that date.You could check if Apple has released updates after that date.

The image shown consists of 2 sub-images:

- on the left Snow Leopard kext file;

- on the right Lion kext file.

Your edited kext file should look like the sub-image on the left.

If it is allowed in the forums, I can post a link in order to download my kext file.

Let me know.

Greetings.

I have no idea whether forum rules permit the posting of a link to download your amended kext file. I would be very grateful if you did this as it appeals to the lazy side of my nature . Alternatively I could provide an email address - is that allowed or will the forum police be around to cart me away?

Perhaps you could post the link - I can copy as soon possible and then you can amend the post to remove the link - no-one need ever know...

Simon.

loîcfernandezcastrillon: To delete the Guest Account, go to System Preferences > Users & Groups

Delete the Guest User (account) by clicking on the padlock-icon at the lower left (of the Users & Groups panel), entering your Admin Password (when prompted for), and then selecting the Guest User and following the prompts to delete it.

GiovP: re. your post (to jslawton, June 18 at 10:58 a.m.) about replacing the AppleGraphicsPowerManagement.kext/Contents/info.plist file: Good job! I can confirm that it continues to work for me (for the MacBookPro6,2).

As you've probably noted, the essential difference is to remove the XML-definition of the P3historylength parameter (for vendor10device0a29 and vendor10device0a34 - in both MacBookPro6,1 and MacBookPro6,2) . It was added in Lion but was not defined in Snow Leopard.

I suspect that both these laptops were the first ones to use Automatic Graphics Switching. ;-)

BTW, I have had no related problems with Lion 10.7.4 on either my iMac (late 2009, 27", ATI Radeon 4850 - sole GPU), or my MBP8,3 - early 2011. But there's a caveat to that: A "clean install" seems necessary - i.e., do a complete backup; verify you can restore from it; then wipe your hard drive (or install a new one), install Lion, bring it up to date, then restore from backup, or use Apple's Migration Assistant.

Just wanted to put my 2 cents worth into this long running thread (which I have followed for several months).

My fiance had a 2010 Macbook Pro 15 (6,2) and started having this freezing since I upgraded her from Snow Leopard to Lion.

I replaced her laptop with my Mid 2011 model and issue went away (using the same hard drive that was locking up with the 2010 Macbook pro).

I took the laptop into Apple store and was told they couldn't do anything as long as my laptop had 3rd party memory and hard drive installed, so I was told to replace them with stock parts and bring it back for hardware testing.

Laptop was sent to the Apple depot where the hard drive cable was found to be defective and replaced. All excited I brought the laptop home, booted it up (finding that they loaded 10.7.3 on it) and updated the system to 10.7.4 using the combo updater.....the system froze.

Now I haven't tried any of the kext changes or anything like that, but what I did do was login to my developer account (I just paid for a developer account so I could try mountain lion on my new 2012 macbook pro) and downloaded the preview release of 10.7.5 combo update.

Boom....no issues what so ever.

I have booted several times (over 2 dozen times) and let the login wait and no freeze.

I have also left it at login prompt all night and checked in the morning and no issue.

This machine would lock up every single boot if you just left it sitting at login.

So, I can't say 100% this will work for everyone, but 10.7.5 preview release update has resolved my issue on this specific model.

Good luck everyone, and cheers!

PS...Mountin Lion is pretty sweet, it is in my opinion what Lion should have been.

Thanks for this update. Just out of curiosity, are you in a position to compare the Mountain Lion version of the offending Kext file contents with that of Lion? An earlier poster did highlight some differences with the Lion version and the Snow Leopard version and swears that re-adopting the Snow Leopard version solved the problem in Lion.

I really hope that Mountain Lion does fix this issue - I'm not sure that I will be an early adopter until it is confirmed that it does.

In the meantime, I'll stick with the simple workaround of disabling graphics switching. I wonder how much efficient it was in terms of battery-life anyway?

Regards,

Simon.

Hi Guys,

just to report my experience: MBP mid-2010 perfect; then I installed Lion and I experiences the problems that you all unfortunately know.

Then I decided to restore SL but my mac was really really slow; I had no crash or freez but running application was something frustrating and the user experience terrible.

Then I dediced: ram upgrade (from 4 to 8 gb) and replacemnt of my 5400rpm hd with a beautiful SSD Samsung 830 256gb. I was installing SL again but I said: why not trying again Lion?

Then I installed Lion (clean install from DVD, 10.7.4) on the SSD drive: the installation was ok; then I installed a fews apps (iLife 11, skype, etc) and everything was ok. After a few restarts the terrible surprise: the login freeze!

Then I restarted the machine, logged in again and tried the simplest trick I catched from this thread: disabling the automatic graphic switch.

One week is passed with several restarts: I didn't experience any problem and the performances (thanks to SSD drive) are at the top.

Surely my old hard disk was damaged in some way, but I'm quite sure that Lion, even the latest 10.7.4 version don't fix our problem; fortunately I always use my MBP on my desktop so the battery duration is not a real problem for me.

Hope this help.

Bye
A.

Hi terry . How r u ? Long time . Well I got calls from Cupertino too and gave them log files in march after which got no revert or fixes as the problem remains . It's like windows 7 over windows vista a.k.a OSX lion .

<Edited by Host>

Hi Raj: I've been keeping my head down, mainly because Leo 10.7.4 is behaving OK on my iMac11,1 and my MBP8,3. I no longer own the MBP6,2 although I recently installed the 10.7.4 update on it. But at least the current owner is happy with its Snow Leopard 10.6.8 partition (and does not need to use iFog/iCloud ). But I am anxious that he should be able to use the machine in an un-crippled state, ASAP.

Good to hear that 10.8 seems to have put a stake thru the heart of the problem. I agree that the cause was probably a mismatch between the 10.7.x driver-code (for the MBP6,2) and its associated info.plist file.

I note that adamsbrian74 (on this page) says the the preview release for 10.7.5 has (also) fixed the problem. Can you confirm? I haven't downloaded either 10.8 or 10.7.5.

YES!

Mountain Lion 10.8 has fixed the problem on my MBP 15". It's a 6.2 version, medio 2010. Just installed ML as an upgrade. I'm probably going burn the installer or make a USB restore thingy and do a clean install. (Clear out a lot junk on the disk).

No more login freeze - yeahhhhhh :-)