13" MBP 2012 freeze, HD4000 graphics to blame?

The drivers can still have bugs whether they're from Apple or Intel (Windows driver). I hope it's a driver issue, that can be easily updated when they get around to updating it.

It's not just Apple hardware either, this PC gamer reported a similar crash/freeze:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/354632-33-integrated-hd4000-crashes-game

Another reported freezes too: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/357247-33-problems-bridge-running-intel-4000

There was a link to Intel's latest HD4000 Windows drivers, which for Win7 64-bit was updated May 24.

Under Lion, the Mac drivers seem to be located here and were updated May 6, at version 7.28.1:

/System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelHD4000Graphics*

The Mountain Lion versions are dated July 4, and are version 8.0.51. They *did* seem more stable than Lion, but still had issues.

I can't even do video encodings! I've twice tried to save video files as MP4 using h.264 encoding. The first attempt the system froze during encoding. The second time it froze shortly after the encoding was done. This was with different programs, one sent all four CPU cores to 100% and the GPU to 99°C, the other had minimal CPU but GPU temperature went to 81°C before it froze. CPU temperature never exceeded 55°C even when maxed out.

Obviously I'm getting very frustrated with this. I'm effectively prevented from doing anything that can actually take advantage of the 2012 Macbook Pro's latest and greatest capabilities, and am just browsing the web, watching movies and Youtube. If that's all wanted to do, I could've just stuck with my 2006 Macbook and saved $1300.

Lion as primary. I had a Moutain Lion test-install on an external drive to see if I could trigger the freezes under the latest OS. If I couldn't make it freeze in the same ways, I would've upgraded immediately. But, although it's less likely to freeze versus Lion, it still does freeze.

So, no great rush to upgrade my primary drive to ML.

The system froze playing a video as a Time Machine backup to a new external hard drive was going on.

GPU temperature was 77°C.

I deleted what little the TM had backed up and started over to reduce changes of data corruption, and restarted the Time Machine backup as I started writing this post. It froze again. GPU temperature was 81C.

Looks like I can't do even simple things on this machine.

Is this issue really so rare that it's not affecting more people? A small number would point to hardware issues with a small batch of computers using the new Intel Ivy Bridge architecture. The serial number says it was assembled in late April, even though I bought it in an Apple Store early July. Everyone else who's having issues, when were your machines assembled?

Froze twice while attempting to install Mountain Lion. Thankfully it was onto a separate partition, so I didn't lose my "working" system.

Time for an appointment with the Genius Bar.

A quick call to Apple Support, and they said it sounded like hardware so I took it in. At the Genius Bar they ran their basic tests--OK. Did a thermal/fan test, the basic one took 10 minutes (didn't have time to stay 45 mins for the longer one). Passed again. Well that's rather frustrating.

I'm leaving it with them overnight while they do a full, continuous stress test. Hopefully the crash will manifest quickly and they fix whatever the problem is.

One thing I noticed, the diagnostic tools I stayed to see showed the temperature of the CPU and some others, but not for the GPU. I don't know if any heavy GPU load tests were done either... if there were it wasn't shown on-screen. I don't know where the GPU sits, but after thermal testing the bottom-left keyboard area was not as hot as it was at home when the system crashes.

The store ran their tests for 30 hours and passed. Not satisfied, I set up another Genius Bar appointment immediately after picking it up, and remained at the Bar to (successfully) reproduce the issue.

I verified with a tech that no matter how hard I run the system or GPU, it shouldn't just freeze like that.

I was there for almost 2 hours, so long story short: In the end we wiped the entire drive and installed Mountain Lion fresh from Apple's servers, then I ran the "suicide test" as one Apple tech put it: Opened the Grapher.app from Utilities, and started running all the 3D demos at the same time (never got to starting the second part to the suicide test, which would've run the CPU cores continuously at 100%). The lower-left keyboard area quickly heated up as before, and froze within minutes. At that point they authorized a logic board replacement--I didn't specifically ask for it, either.

Job is expected to take 3-5 days.

Open Grapher.app in Utilities folder. Under the Examples menu there are 2D and 3D sections. Every time I chose a 3D one an additional window for it came up and view automatically rotates around them.

I think I had 10 Grapher windows open (some were repeats), and the MBP seemed to run them fine.

I left all Grapher windows running, and clicked to the desktop and started opening folders, doing Quicklook on everything, opening/minimizing/restoring windows, going to different programs. Any normal, everyday action that has animation effects that probably use the GPU to render.

After a minute or so of this my system froze. This isn't quite typical use but if it helps, replace Grapher with "export video from iMovie".

My MBP was already running hot after the Mountain Lion install, you might need to run it longer.