jmacbookpro

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

I installed OS X Lion in my Mac Book Pro (Mid 2010) and have two issues:

 

- Login screen freezes sometimes. "Colored rotating disc" appears, text cursor stops blinking and I can not do anything; I can not click anywere, I can not enter my user name/password... Only option is to hard-reboot the computer, which is not a pleasant thing to do.

 

- App Store is very slow. It takes about 30 seconds of "rotating colored disc thinking" every time a page has to be loaded!

 

I first installed OS X Lion via Mac App Store and login screen freezes happened about 50% or more of the times I turned on the computer! Also random freezes happened during computer work. Computer was almost unusable under these circumstances, so I reinstalled OS X Lion by doing a clean install (from DVD). After this clean install everithing seemed to run smoothly at first, but now login screen freezes happen again and Mac App Store is very slow as I explained.

 

I did not have any of these problems with Snow Leopard. I have checked permissions, and I have not installed too many apps yet.

 

Anybody with these same issues? Any idea of a solution? Somebody at Apple working to solve these problems?

 

Thanks!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 25, 2011 3:47 AM

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

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  • by Terry Mahoney,

    Terry Mahoney Terry Mahoney Oct 25, 2011 2:27 PM in response to bruleke
    Level 1 (35 points)
    Oct 25, 2011 2:27 PM in response to bruleke

    @bruleke: re. "apparent downclocking of GeForce 330M". That would be a bummer. Since I have a dual-boot machine it should be easy enough to compare SL vs. Lion (assuming that the Software update to Lion does not also impact Snow Leopard. I think it should not, since it was not a firmware update).

     

    I have at least one graphically intensive App that I can use to twist the two cats' tails. Or I can download the test-suite. No time to test it right away, though. But if I have to choose between stability vs. GPU speed, I'll choose stability - at least in Lion, for now.

  • by Metalizer,

    Metalizer Metalizer Oct 25, 2011 3:08 PM in response to chairmo
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Oct 25, 2011 3:08 PM in response to chairmo

    the video update does nothing to rectify the stalling login/spinning beachball syndrome on my mid 2010 spec'd

    refurbed 15 inch MBP.

     

    I only bought Lion last week and discovered the bug on Friday when I tried to boot from my Lion volume

    (at least I had the sense to partition out and keep the origina SL startup volume)

     

    This evening, I tried disabling the AGS (automatic graphics switching) from within the SL system preferences

    and managed to boot into Lion for the first time since installing it.

     

    I am thoroughly disappointed, having gone to the trouble of buying and installing Lion from the App Store, that Apple would see fit to release the OS in such a state!

     

    To rub salt into the wound, they then proceeded to skip the issue entirely in the latest Video update. At the very least, they should have had the common courtesy to inform us on the status of the bug.

  • by chrisby10,

    chrisby10 chrisby10 Oct 25, 2011 5:49 PM in response to Metalizer
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 25, 2011 5:49 PM in response to Metalizer

    Everyone,

     

    I have contacted the senior tech that originally told me that this was a software bug that the engineers are working on fixing through software channels.  I asked if this update was supposed to address the login beachball issue and told him that it was still occuring.  He emailed me back stating that he is contacting the engineers to determine if the bug was supposed to be fixed by this update.

     

    I will report back when I have an answer.

  • by Terry Mahoney,

    Terry Mahoney Terry Mahoney Oct 25, 2011 5:55 PM in response to Metalizer
    Level 1 (35 points)
    Oct 25, 2011 5:55 PM in response to Metalizer

    @Metalizer: don’t give up so easily. Keep checking this thread for updates - as more of us find “fixes”. A lot of us were in the same boat. What’s the spec on your MBP? A lot of us have the mid-2010, 15-inch MBP6,2 with

     

    Chipset Model: NVIDIA 330M

      VRAM (Total): 256 MB

      Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)

      Device ID: 0x0a29

      Revision ID: 0x00a2

      ROM Revision: 3560

      gMux Version: 1.9.21)

     

    But we are not all identical in spec. And I have only just succeeded in getting this “fix” to work (after 2 weeks of personal and Apple Certified Tech troubleshooting). It may be pretty specific to this hardware spec. And Apple has left the door open to Macs that are less than 2-years old, even if out of warranty.

     

    My own Snow Leopard HD had a lot of stuff on it, so rather than wrestle with backups and restores, I just dropped in a new HD and did a clean install of both Snow Leopard and Lion into separate partitions, so I could experiment with both of them. I put my previous hard drive into a FW800 enclosure and can boot from it just fine, if necessary.

  • by Terry Mahoney,

    Terry Mahoney Terry Mahoney Oct 25, 2011 6:08 PM in response to chrisby10
    Level 1 (35 points)
    Oct 25, 2011 6:08 PM in response to chrisby10

    @chrisby10: Thanks for the info. I think a lot of us will be interested to hear what your Apple Engineer contact says - about the Spinning Beachball freeze problem.

  • by bruleke,

    bruleke bruleke Oct 25, 2011 7:32 PM in response to chrisby10
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 25, 2011 7:32 PM in response to chrisby10

    @chrisby10: Thank you for that. We are all waiting for the engineer response to this.

  • by BasementJack,

    BasementJack BasementJack Oct 25, 2011 9:01 PM in response to jmacbookpro
    Level 1 (32 points)
    Oct 25, 2011 9:01 PM in response to jmacbookpro

    I too am having this issue with Lion, whereas I did not in Snow Leopard.

     

    That said, I think SL booted in 32 bit mode and lion in 64 so perhaps this is the first time we're seeing the nvidia driver being used on a wide scale in 64 bit mode?

     

    Does holding down 3 and 2 on startup still force 32 bit mode? I wonder if the problem exists that way as well?

     

    Anyhow just came here to see if the video update fixed this, it looks like it did not...

     

    I agree with the other user who said they left windows to avoid all this and here we are held hostage so to speak.

     

    At least on the windows side, you had the option to chuck the whole laptop and go get a different brand with a different video card.

     

    A little frustrated over here...

  • by Terry Mahoney,

    Terry Mahoney Terry Mahoney Oct 25, 2011 9:51 PM in response to BasementJack
    Level 1 (35 points)
    Oct 25, 2011 9:51 PM in response to BasementJack

    @BasementJack: Hi Jack. Yep! I was frustrated too. Have you had a loook at www.everymac.com for 32bit vs 64bit hardware architectures? (I just checked and am probably not the best guy to answer this query). But the last Intel 32-bit hardware were the Core Duos. Then, around 2006 came the Core 2 Duos with 64-bit hardware. Not sure if vintage MacOS X matched that hardware bit-for-bit. But that was definitely before SL.

     

    Nope! Holding down the 3 & 2 keys at boot won't boot into 32-bit mode.

     

    Yup! Today's video Software Update fixed my Frozen Lion - this afternoon - with the caveat that I'm running a clean-install, dual-boot system (both SL 10.6.8 and Lion Cub 10.7.2) - with my "production" HD moved to an external FireWire 800 enclosure. It remains to be seen if it will "break" again. When it froze "on login" as others have noted, if you can enter your password within 7 or 8 seconds you can usually get logged in and turn off System Prefs > Energy Saver > [uncheck] AGS as a temporary workaround.

     

    I gave up trying to maintain NT4 as a home-use system, back in 1999. You need an (expensive) army of IT bods to do that. I already had a day-job and didn't want to switch to full-time Windows Maintenance. I suspect that not much has changed in the Windows trenches.

  • by fortegas,

    fortegas fortegas Oct 25, 2011 11:15 PM in response to Terry Mahoney
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 25, 2011 11:15 PM in response to Terry Mahoney

    Apparently no luck, I made ​​the video update that was in software update and restarting the system, only 5 seconds were enough to bring the ball back.


    I'm waiting to open the Apple Store in Marbella (Spain) in November to make an appointment with an Apple Genius.


    Should I call instead of waiting for Apple to open the store this holiday season?

    Thanks.

  • by silvann,

    silvann silvann Oct 26, 2011 2:40 AM in response to jmacbookpro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 26, 2011 2:40 AM in response to jmacbookpro

    I made a clean Lion install yesterday and my Mid-2010 MBP started to have the same login-window-freeze-issue. I used Lion as an upgrade from SL for one or two months and it worked just fine. Shame on you, Apple.

  • by Lincoln Adams,

    Lincoln Adams Lincoln Adams Oct 26, 2011 7:34 AM in response to jmacbookpro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 26, 2011 7:34 AM in response to jmacbookpro

    Apple finally came through for me, just got my MacBook yesterday and the problem finally appears to be gone for good (7 reboots/startups and counting)

     

    Ultimately they replaced the logic board as well and did it for free, which is a relief because the repair bill would have been $310 otherwise.  Either the Genius tech listened when I showed him this thread or the repair center finally knew about the issues these mid-2010 MBPs were having.  Either way, they did the same as they did for mikeev, which was to repair and replace the logic board the MacBook for free despite being out of warranty and with no AppleCare.  Definitely made up for all the aggravation at the Genius Bar before, and I now have warm fuzzy feelings for Apple again.

     

    Interesting to note, the nVidia graphic revision is still exactly the same despite being a new motherboard/graphic card.

     

    Also, I did NOT install the video update yet, the one that supposedly addresses this issue, but now I'm afraid to for fear the solution could actually cause other problems (especially if the underclocking report is true).

     

    I'm backing everything up before I add any new software patches and updates, in the meantime anyone know a good utility to help evaluate the video card performance so I can see if the patch for the video really does affect it?

     

    As a side note, I'm impressed by Time Machine too.  Once I restored it even remembered what apps were still open at the time I made the last backup, as if the hard drive had never been erased.  Ahhhh, that's the Apple I know and love. 

     

    To sum up, a logic board replacement finally resolved the issue, so I definitely believe this was hardware related as well.  Hopefully the software patch won't affect things either especially now that the problem is gone.

  • by Lincoln Adams,

    Lincoln Adams Lincoln Adams Oct 26, 2011 7:32 AM in response to jmacbookpro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 26, 2011 7:32 AM in response to jmacbookpro

    Apple finally came through for my, just got my MacBook yesterday and the problem finally appears to be gone for good (7 reboots/startups and counting)

     

    Ultimately they replaced the logic board as well and did it for free, which is a relief because the repair bill would have been $310 otherwise.  Either the Genius tech listened when I showed him this thread or the repair center finally knew about the issues these mid-2010 MBPs were having.  Either way, they did the same as they did for mikeev, which was to repair and replace the logic board the MacBook for free despite being out of warranty and with no AppleCare.  Definitely made up for all the aggravation at the Genius Bar before, and I now have warm fuzzy feelings for Apple again.

     

    Interesting to note, the nVidia graphic revision is still exactly the same despite being a new motherboard/graphic card.

     

    Also, I did NOT install the video update yet, the one that supposedly addresses this issue, but now I'm afraid to for fear the solution could actually cause other problems (especially if the underclocking report is true).

     

    I'm backing everything up before I add any new software patches and updates, in the meantime anyone know a good utility to help evaluate the video card performance so I can see if the patch for the video really does affect it?

     

    As a side note, I'm impressed by Time Machine too.  Once I restored it even remembered what apps were still open at the time I made the last backup, as if the hard drive had never been erased.  Ahhhh, that's the Apple I know and love. 

     

    To sum up, a logic board replacement finally resolved the issue, so I definitely believe this was hardware related as well.  Hopefully the software patch won't affect things either, now that the problem is gone.

  • by chrisby10,

    chrisby10 chrisby10 Oct 26, 2011 7:42 AM in response to bruleke
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 26, 2011 7:42 AM in response to bruleke

    Update:

     

    I just got off the phone with the senior tech who spoke with engineering.  The update was supposed to address this issue.  My computer is going to be sent in for logic board replacement.   If you are still having this issue after the update you need to contact apple techs or a mac store about it. 

  • by Terry Mahoney,

    Terry Mahoney Terry Mahoney Oct 26, 2011 10:18 AM in response to Lincoln Adams
    Level 1 (35 points)
    Oct 26, 2011 10:18 AM in response to Lincoln Adams

    @Lincoln Adams: Kudos Lincoln! After your last post (7:32 a.m., Oct 26) I'm thinking that there must be 2 potential causes - One is the logic-board hardware (which I have not yet needed to replace but seem to have a fix), and the other is in the "software" (that the latest video-patch appeared to fix (in my case). Even though it looked as if we both had the same hardware (MBP6,2, GE 330M) and software (Lion 10.7.2). Intriguing!

     

    Just out of curiosity - has the logic-board repair changed any of the Hardware and Graphics specs in your System Profiler listing?

  • by Lincoln Adams,

    Lincoln Adams Lincoln Adams Oct 26, 2011 12:57 PM in response to Terry Mahoney
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 26, 2011 12:57 PM in response to Terry Mahoney

    I only checked the specs for the nVidia which stayed the same, don't know if anything else changed.  It's possible the on board intel graphic is a different revision (or other components on the logic board) but no way to compare those now.

     

    I'm just glad it's working again!  Hopefully the video update won't impact anything either. 

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