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

@maulattu: re. "practically I've quite the same problems of you, but I've a mac mini late 2009, not a MBP, so 1 video card (nvidia 9400) "

... it "feels" (to me) like a different problem to this "Lion freezes ... (Spinning Beach Ball of Death)" discussion.

I did a google search and came up with this other thread ...

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3469660?start=0&tstart=0

Does this sound more like your problem?

Good news for Italian customers! The hang had arrived (as expected) and I then took my MacBook Pro to Apple Store "Roma EST" here in Italy. I had to mention http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4088, particularly the sentence "Apple will service affected 15-inch MacBook Pro computers free of charge until two years from date of purchase. Apple will provide further extensions to this program as needed. This worldwide Apple program does not extend the standard warranty coverage of the affected MacBook Pro." and I had the logic board replaced for free (my Mac has less than two years but more than one). I took the chance to reinstall Lion from scratch and I am now waiting with fingers crossed... However Lion goes now very fast. Just for info, the NVidia Video Card revision is the same as before the service.

Hi Terry, I can now confirm that I've had two consecutive clean logins from two separate cold starts, so I can confidently say I have a fix (by enabling root account, using above steps, and repairing permissions within root, minimum of two consecutive repairs recommended; I ran it 5 times)

@Metalizer: Re. "permissions fix": Sounds promising. Keep us posted.

@Pistarino: Good to hear your local shop is helpful. Mine was not so - They are extremely competent (IMO) but declined to do a "free" hardware repair, even after seeing an emailed copy of TS4088. This is what drove me to develop my own "software hack".

But even so, it makes no sense to me that a "hardware problem" is the cause. If Slow Leopard does not have a problem but Lion does, then the problem is logically in the software or firmware - not in the hardware.

...will do Terry, just to add the laptop also seems to be running cooler (now comparable to my 13inch with nVidia 320M) and battery drain slowed a little bit...

Hi everybody.

Sorry to inform you that I have tried the MacBook Pro Video update 1.0 to no effect whatsoever.

Still have the exact same issues I've had since upgrading to Lion:

• waking up from sleepmode - force quit required
• freezing during startup - force quit required

Apple - you have yet to solve this one, and until you do, for many of us Lion is the worst piece of unfinished software and ultimately useless waste of time and money.

Now I'm down to two options, as I see it:

1. clean install of Lion
2. clear my drive and go back to Snow Leopard

MacBook Pro 15" (2010), 2.4Ghz Intel Core i5, 8GB ram, 240 SSD HD

SDG, I tried your suggestion and on first sight it worked!

However, I'll need to give it a few days to see if it's only temporary.

One question, though:

What do I do with the "AppleGraphicPowerManagent.kext" which is now in the bin?

Should I save it somewhere or just delete?

Thanks

MacBook Pro 15" (2010), 2.4Ghz Intel Core i5, 8GB ram, 240 SSD HD

Suggest you save it for a while. It can be edited to provide a cleaner fix. An alternative is to drop in the original one from your Snow Leopard 10.6.8 up-to-date AGPU.kext.

I just installed Lion on an end-of-2010 15" mac. One day into using it, and it froze while I was using it. At startup, it froze at the login screen. I had to restart countless times before I made it in again. I am afraid of the next time it will happen.

@FN: your first step is to go to Apple (menu) > System Preferences > Energy Saver > and [uncheck] the Automatic Grahics Switching checkbox (if it is there).

Then you'll be able to proceed without fear - to a more complete fix.

@FN: The next step (or perhaps the 1st one) is to be sure you have an alternative way to boot your (I assume) MacBookPro into Snow Leopard. E.g., your OEM Installation DVD (by holding down the C-key wihle restarting) or, better yet if you have one, a bootable external HD. As an aside - if you do this, you can also use it to turn off the AGS checkbox and it will stay off, of course - it is a "firmware" switch.

Next: Try SGD's quick fix: move your Macintosh HD/System/Library/Extensions /AppleGraphicsPowerManagement.kext/Contents/info.plist file into the trash - but do not delete it. Just leave it there temporarily.

Next: Power Off or just Restart and immediately hold down the Shift-Key - to reboot into Safe Mode. Apparently this will cause the system to flush the kext cache - getting rid of any previous settings. After this, shut down normally.

Next: do a normal Power-On and start-up. Turn the AGS switch (check-box) back on. This will (hopefully) work-around the problem, until either Apple provides an official fix or you feel adventurous enough to try my own hack (described earlier on the thread). If this doesn't work then you may need your alternative boot HD or DVD to get going again.

Next possibility: reboot (again) from your Snow Leopard alternative HD or DVD - its version should best be 10.6.8 up-to-date - and try replacing the aforementioned Lion AGPM.kext/Contents/info.plist file with the copy from your Snow Leopard boot-system. If this works for you I would leave things as they are. Otherwise there are a few more things to try: One is to edit the Lion AGPM.kext/Contents/info.plist file to remove an apparently erroneous parameter; Another is to use Metalizer's method to hammer in a repair of messed-up file-permissions in System files that are owned by the root (think God's Own) account.

For actual editing of these files (if you want to make changes) - either use a programmer's text-editor (like Textwrangler or BBEdit), or at least make sure your editor is producing a .txt file - not a .rtf or .doc or .html (etc) file. The latter are littered with (normally invisible) formatting codes in them and will almost certainly cause a kernel panic if they are used.

Thank you, Terry. I have already disabled the Automatic Graphics Switching, and I'll hang on to your next set of instructions and to my Snow Leopard bootable backup, hoping I won't need them. I also repaired disk permissions, just in case, as the first thing after I made it in again, and before posting. ;-)

Best regards

I have this problem on a Mac Pro version 1.1, so an older one. If I type my user name, tab, and then my password and hit enter, even if there is a beachball and then sleep the machine by pressing the power button, and then after it sleeps, the space key to way, it wakes and brings me straight into my user account. This has been my work around. Its odd that after a sleep with security set to require login and pass it takes me to my account. But considering the bug, its better than a full reboot

@Rotax: That's interesting. I recall that I once tried to workaround the Spinning Beach Ball by closing up the display on my MBP6,2, but the machine refused to enter "sleep mode" (the lighted white apple on the back of the display stayed lit. Normally the lighted Apple goes out when the machine sleeps) - when I opened the display up again the SBBoD was still there.