jmacbookpro
Level 1 (5 points)

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

by jmacbookpro,Solvedanswer
jmacbookpro jmacbookpro
Level 1 (5 points)
A:

To everyone's interest: my MacBook Pro logic board was finally replaced two days ago, and the problem was still there . So I have been back to the Genius Bar today (again...) with my repaired-but-not-properly-working Mac. Just while the technician was working with my computer, they have received a notification about a new quality program for this same issue.

 

Those waiting for a software fix, then, wait no more, or wait forever, as it seems that Apple has found something wrong with at least some mid-2010 Logic Boards. It was not Lion's fault, after all...

 

So, if you have a Mid-2010 MacBook Pro 15'' which experiences a spinning-ball freeze at login with OS X Lion, check Apple's support page, as they should post news quite soon. You will probably have to take your computer to an Apple Store; then, if your computer's serial number corresponds to an affected machine, Apple will change your Logic Board for a new revised one (free of charge, even if the computer is out of warranty).

Posted on Oct 27, 2011 11:03 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 29, 2011 11:43 AM in response to Lord2013
    Level 1 (35 points)
    Oct 29, 2011 11:43 AM in response to Lord2013

    @Lord 2013: Thanks for the before-and-after comparison of the video Software Update. Good to know.

     

    Question: Why do you think "the new OpenCL implementation in Lion" may cause this bug?

     

    It is good to hear that your logic-board replacement fixed the problem (SBBoD freeze - I assume). But I wonder why logic-boad replacement did not fix the problem for at least one other person on this thread? (could it have been 2 faulty logic-boards in a row?)

  • by Terry Mahoney,

    Terry Mahoney Terry Mahoney Oct 29, 2011 12:17 PM in response to Von_Neumann
    Level 1 (35 points)
    Oct 29, 2011 12:17 PM in response to Von_Neumann

    @Von_Neumann: a late 2009 i7-iMac, no login PWD prompt, and no response to keyboard or mouse-clicks! That's interesting. I have one of those too but I have not yet put Lion on it. I need at least one reliable machine around the place. I will definitely be sure to do a full backup and a clean, dual-boot (SL + Lion) install on that machine before I try it with Lion.

     

    And note there's no AGS-switching involved on that machine. But it does have nVidia's graphics inside. Curious.

     

    I am starting to think that Lord2013 may be right (that Lion's new implementation of OpenCL) is somehow incompatible with the nVidia GPUs.

  • by Metalizer,

    Metalizer Metalizer Oct 29, 2011 12:25 PM in response to Terry Mahoney
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Oct 29, 2011 12:25 PM in response to Terry Mahoney

    ...but why does Lion only work with the Intel graphics disabled/bypassed?

     

    Surely, that means the nVidia chipset, itself, does not cause the problem?

  • by jmacbookpro,

    jmacbookpro jmacbookpro Oct 29, 2011 12:36 PM in response to Terry Mahoney
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 29, 2011 12:36 PM in response to Terry Mahoney

    Terry Mahoney wrote:

    [...] But I wonder why logic-boad replacement did not fix the problem for at least one other person on this thread? (could it have been 2 faulty logic-boards in a row?)

     

    When a set of MacBook Pro is to be manufactured, they produce also a set of Logic Boards: one logic board per MacBook, plus some more for stock. If a new set of MacBook Pro is produced, another set of logic boards is produced again (and, again, some of them go to the computer, and some for stock). Well, it seems that there is a whole set of logic boards (that is, produced at the same time) that are faulty!

     

    Now, let's say you have the "Lion Problem" because your logic board is faulty and Apple replace it by a new one. If the replacement takes place before Apple knows that the production of a whole set is faulty, they do the normal thing: they replace your logic board by one of those produced for stock. But the new logic board is also faulty, because all of that set are!

     

    Then, why some replacements solved the issue? Because some people is lucky: if they choose a replacement that belongs, by chance, to a revised set, produced later for later MacBook Pros!

     

    I believe Apple has already realized (or is realizing these days) that there is a whole set of faulty logic boards in the mid-2010 production. So, from now on, they will hopefully use only a revised new version for replacement of faulty mid-2010 logic boards. And, if they do a Quality Program as I was told, they are going to do it for free even if your computer is out of warranty.

     

    Hope this helps to answer your question!

  • by Metalizer,

    Metalizer Metalizer Oct 29, 2011 12:59 PM in response to Metalizer
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Oct 29, 2011 12:59 PM in response to Metalizer

    I seem to recall that nVidia implemented their own solution to graphics switching/power management called Optimus.

     

    now there's a third party solution for Linux available:

     

    https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee/blob/master/README

     

    note that this is about off-loading rather than switching and that they plan to bring it to more platforms (OS X?)

     

    This refers back to my previous question: is nVidia holding out on us in regards to a driver solution, notwithstanding the fact that they probably don't feel obligated, now that Apple has dropped them

    and Intel has paid them off

  • by chrisby10,

    chrisby10 chrisby10 Oct 29, 2011 1:54 PM in response to bruleke
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 29, 2011 1:54 PM in response to bruleke

    @bruleke

     

    Yes, the logic board was replaced (free of charge).  NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 256 MB.  I have restarted 7 or 8 times now and everything is running perfectly on fully updated 10.7.2.

  • by Lord2013,

    Lord2013 Lord2013 Oct 29, 2011 2:19 PM in response to Terry Mahoney
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 29, 2011 2:19 PM in response to Terry Mahoney

    @Terry Mahoney :This is just a good guess. I did not do any research or debugging, but what i noticed is that these kernel panics always showed up, when I reeboted from my native Win7 (BootCamp) to Lion. The only reason I have the WIn7 partitin is because of  -  right  - GAMES.

    So I use the NVIDIA card in Windows and pretty everytime I rebooted back to Lion I had the freezing issue and the related kernel panic.

    One big difference between Lion and Snowleopard (which I ran for a few moth without those issues) is OpenCL 1.1 and NVIDIA has always had issues in supporting OpenCL. They were always trying to push their proprietary drivers. (http://www.eoshd.com/content/3089/opencl-in-osx-lion-to-give-fcp-x-huge-performa nce-hike)

     

    So my guess is like some other mentioned here, that the bug has to be somewhere in a small set of NVIDIA hardware revisions, which gets trigered by Lion's extended use of the OpenCL functionality, which SnowLeopard did not use or used in a different way.

     

    To validate it maybe would be a good idea to run the OpenCL benchmark I used for testing on a buggy hardware and see if that leeds to crashes ...

    But as I said just a gues ...

    I have a degree in computer science but hardware and kernel drivers are not my field at all!

     

    If you want to try the benchmark here is the link to a ZIP file: OceanWave_NO_Multisampling.zip

    Attention you have tu run it by calling it from the terminal, as is won't find some related libraries if ran directly by doubleklicking! The benchmark is discussed in this thread (German language only).

    http://m.maclife.de/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=68900&start=20&sid=5d5f5ce85b6df1 f7c6eb355078d2ba37

     

    Good Luck to everybody!

  • by Terry Mahoney,

    Terry Mahoney Terry Mahoney Oct 29, 2011 2:46 PM in response to jmacbookpro
    Level 1 (35 points)
    Oct 29, 2011 2:46 PM in response to jmacbookpro

    @jMacBookPro: Thanks - yes, that (faulty production-batches of boards) explains how a replacement logic board could have the same problem - and why a "Quality-control" campaign by Apple would enable reliable fixes.

  • by Metalizer,

    Metalizer Metalizer Oct 29, 2011 3:04 PM in response to Lord2013
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Oct 29, 2011 3:04 PM in response to Lord2013

    thanks Lord

     

    "NVidia have begrudgingly implemented beta support of OpenCL for developers, but it is not yet fit for purpose in apps yet."

     

    That's what I suspect is the real issue. I still can't reconcile this to a hardware malfunction.

  • by Terry Mahoney,

    Terry Mahoney Terry Mahoney Oct 29, 2011 3:20 PM in response to Metalizer
    Level 1 (35 points)
    Oct 29, 2011 3:20 PM in response to Metalizer

    @Metalizer: Re. "why does Lion only work with the Intel graphics disabled/bypassed?". Good question. I am not a hardware.driver guy (just another computer science refugee), but my guess is that the intel-nVidia hardware switching of control depends on correct parameters being shared between drivers (Intel-nVidia) during the switch - and either they are wrong values, or else not interpreted the same way by both sender and receiver. So - if you turn off AGS - the problem gets bypassed - maybe because the parameters are OK. At least that seems to work on MBPs. But this doesn't explain why iMacs would have a problem.

  • by X-iT,

    X-iT X-iT Oct 30, 2011 3:10 AM in response to jmacbookpro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 30, 2011 3:10 AM in response to jmacbookpro

    I've been following this post closely as I ran in to the same problems you have.

    I own a 15" Mid 2010 Macbook Pro (produced in April (China)) and had the same problems.

     

    1. Sometimes the macbook wouldn't wake up after sleep (de system is on, you hear sound when you're pressing the buttons but the screen keeps black)

     

    2. Sometimes the macbook wouldn't boot. I got a beach ball on loginscreen. (This especially happend after cleaning kernel/system caches)

     

    The 1st problem also occured in Snow Leopard. But after installing Lion the problem was more visible.

     

    After looking at the console messages I saw a lot of Nvidia errors:

     

    kernel          NVDA(OpenGL): Channel timeout!

    kernel          NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0x6 = Fifo: Parse Error

    kernel          IOVendorGLContext::ReportGPURestart

     

    I replaced the hard disk and reinstalled Lion (10.7.2 disk, clean install, no restore). Updated the graphic drivers, cleaned the system/kernel caches but the problem was still there.

     

    Fortuneately my problems are solved after replacing the logic board. The tech told me they replaced the Logic board with a Revision B part.

     

    The only thing I noticed after the replacement is that the revision ID of the Intel HD Graphics has changed from 0x0012 to 0x0018. The revision ID of the Nvidia card did not change.

     

    As said before: If you have problems with your Macbook mid-2010 and are running Lion.

     

    1. Install the latest graphics drivers (Apple article TS4088)

    2. Clean all system/kernel caches using OnyX for Lion

    3. Install Gfxcardstatus (use google)

    4. Reboot your systems a few times with forced discrete graphics and integrated graphics

    5. Open Console app (In the utilities folder)

    6. Search for NVDA.

     

    If you see any errors as I experienced, get yourself to a service center and get the logic board replaced.

     

     

    Good luck fixing your Macbooks! 

  • by Metalizer,

    Metalizer Metalizer Oct 30, 2011 4:49 PM in response to X-iT
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Oct 30, 2011 4:49 PM in response to X-iT

    yep, I have the login problem with a 0018 version Intel graphics (gMux version 1.9.21, also quoted for the nVidia graphics 330M  whose device id is: 0X0a29, revision id: 0X00a2, ROM revision: 3560)

     

    so it seems I have a Revision B logic board that also presents the same conundrum

  • by chairmo,

    chairmo chairmo Oct 31, 2011 1:56 PM in response to jmacbookpro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 31, 2011 1:56 PM in response to jmacbookpro

    Okay guys, I have an update.

     

    I took my Macbook Pro in to the Apple Store this evening.  The genius didn't appear to be aware of the widespread problems we have been having.  I mentioned this thread, the graphics card and the out of warranty logic board replacements. She seemed unimpressed!

     

    Of course, I could not replicate the SBBOD in the store.  I referred the genius to the aforementioned knowledge base article, she went to her computer and starting tapping away whilst I was busy trying to get my machine to freeze.  After about five minutes, whilst I was struggling away, she turned round and asked me if I'd installed the video update.  I said yes, more tapping and more struggling.  All of a sudden she said "we'll replace the logic board for free". 

     

    They will be doing the repair in store but they have to order the part, so they will ring me and I will take in my Mac.  She said it will be away for 5-6 days.  And hopefully that will be that.

     

    Apparently, this replacement programme is very new so you will have to specifically refer the Apple tech to the relevant knowledge base article.

     

    So, like others, I can confirm that they will replace logic boards out of warranty for free.  I urge anyone still struggling with this problem to contact Apple.

     

    And as ever, good luck all.

     

    As an aside, I've also had two black screens after trying to wake from sleep since the recent firmware update.

  • by georgefromblackburn,

    georgefromblackburn georgefromblackburn Oct 31, 2011 9:58 PM in response to jmacbookpro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 31, 2011 9:58 PM in response to jmacbookpro

    Hi,

    Also having freezing cursor when both loging in and using Safari- after UPGRADING ???? to Lion.

    Macbook Pro early 2011.

  • by mwong94544,

    mwong94544 mwong94544 Oct 31, 2011 11:08 PM in response to jmacbookpro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 31, 2011 11:08 PM in response to jmacbookpro

    Strange. The Pleasanton, CA store was not aware of any quality programs related to this problem when I asked. All they did for me was ran long diagnostics and a clean Lion install claiming victory. As I suspected when I brought it home, the problem still persisted. I think the tech specialist didn't pay attention that you will not see the problem if you login immediately once the login UI was available.

     

    Like checking your take orders before leaving, should have fired up the MBP in the store.

     

    Since the stores are not located conveniently for me, going to try Apple Support over the phone next to see if they have better knowledge over the situation since it worked for others.

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