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My MacBook Pro (Retina) Freeze up Randomly

Hello,


I've seen other people having issues with this too, but wanted to post and see when (or if) Apple officially is coming out with a statement and solution, or if anyone has seen one yet..


My Mac freeze up around 10-20 times during a normal work day, in retro perspective I laugh about "Blue Screen of Death" on PC, but this is ridiculous.


It's a hard freeze, so I need to hold the power button to cold start the computer completely.


I tried:

  • Locking down the gfx card, so it doesn't switch.
  • Check heat values...
  • Use only "approved" Apple software's - (not use flash, and only Safari).


Nothing seems to work, and the freezes are completely random...

It freezes cold/hot, independent if I have Intel4000 or Nvidia,

Using Chrome, Safari, or have nothing running at all...


It even freeze as soon as I entered OSX again AFTER a cold restart from a previous freeze. (Like it doesn't even have time to start the softwares).

Seems to be completly random... But one thing is for certain, 20 freezes per day, is starting to get too much..

And I'm concerend about the SSD being hard resetted like that 20 times a day, cutting the power of the data I have, if that is going to corrupt things.. (luckily there is no HDD in there).


Any ideas or clues what can be causing this, or is there a way to troubleshoot, pinpoint what might be wrong here?

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jul 11, 2012 9:35 PM

Reply
179 replies

Jul 12, 2012 12:22 AM in response to thExplorer

20 freezes a day seems a little insane to me. In an 8 hour work day that's a freeze every 20 minutes or so--I think there is something seriously wrong with either your mac or what you have installed on it. I run win 7, ubuntu and mac systems for the work I do all day long--I don't shut them down at the end of the day. By far, the most reliable system I am running is windows 7. Crashwise, I've got one hard freeze every 5 or 6 months with windows, once a week or so with OSX and every 2 or 3 days with Ubuntu. Of course, a lot of this is hardware/software dependent, but I am amazed at how unreliable a stock mac system (no third party software software installed) can be. This has been been going on for years. You think upgrading your Mac to a future version of OSX is going to be the cure? Mountain Lion like butter? I can tell you where that butter better go.


At some point apple will recognize that despite controlling the hardware, OS and software, the have managed to create an unreliable environment and they will fix that, because it matters.

Jul 12, 2012 9:10 PM in response to thExplorer

I heard that Google Chrome was freezing the Macbook Airs - Have you been using this? It has typically been running when mine froze.


What config of hardware do you have? I have the 2.6GHz, 16GB RAM, 512GB hard drive


I have also been having similar issues. It's so bad that I might be returning it to Apple because the release of Mountain Lion is not until after my 2 week return window has closed.


I have not had nearly as many freezes as you though. For a while tonight, I couldn't even log in to OS X unless I was in safe mode. To regain access, I booted into safe mode, which I believe does a disk repair before loading. (boot into safe mode by holding the shift key right after you power on, you can release when you see the progress bar). Inside safe mode, I then opened the disk repair tool (Apps>Utilities>Disk Utility) and "repaired disk permissions". Next, I tried to "verify the disk" at which point it all froze again and I had to power off.


I have 3 PC's all running windows 7 since 2009 and have NEVER had windows freeze (though some programs occasionally freeze), but have had this new macbook pro (which costs as much as a car!) for 5 days and it freezes nearly every day!!!


Probably be retunring it soon.

Jul 15, 2012 8:40 AM in response to thExplorer

I am having the same problem thExplorer, exactly as you described. And i'm pretty sure its not being caused by a program because it'll freeze up as soon as I start the comp. I bought mine from Best Buy and have yet to discuss anything with Apple. Mine is also a hard freeze where I have to hold the power button down to get the computer to respond in any way.

Jul 15, 2012 10:52 PM in response to Guilty.Spark

I took mine to the Apple store, they said to call apple care and have them replace it. They are supposed to call me to do this tomorrow.


A few things that might be helpful that they had me try


1. Reinstall the OS. This shouldn't require you to reinstall any programs (at least it didn't for me).


2. There are ways to view error messages - either in console (apps>utilities>console) or through something else (Apple icon in top left corner>about this mac>more info>system info>software\logs).


In my case, I think reinstalling the OS helped somewhat, but who knows. Also, I found lots of error messages in the spots I mentioned.


I think that mine is a harware issue, but don't know for sure. I don't know if I'll ever buy another apple computer.

Jul 16, 2012 12:09 AM in response to thExplorer

Macbook Retina. Machine froze, and I mean completely froze. The icons in the dock were frozen halfway up. I had to hard-power down. Result: The machine would not boot at all, not even in safe mode, I had to restore from Time Machine backup.


In the days since, the machine has locked up many times. Each time the behavior is the same: 2 or more apps suddenly are "Not Responding". I've been keeping Activity Monitor up, and sometimes I can force quit one of the offending apps, but it doesn't matter. More and more apps freeze up, Command-Option-Escape does nothing, and eventually my only option is to hold the power button until the machine powers off.


It is definitely not an app problem. The apps involved are different each time. Furthermore, one time I booted into Safe Mode, ran only Disk Utility, and the machine froze.


After one of the more recent freezes, my Thunderbolt drive is no longer recognized at all. Disk Utility doesn't even see it. I think that might be the drive, because the drive doesn't appear to be getting power, and I've tried it on 2 different Thunderbolt ports.


I also ran Apple Hardware Test in extended mode, and the machine came up clean.


Taking it and the Thunderbolt drive to the Genius Bar tomorrow.

Jul 16, 2012 12:12 AM in response to Curtis Jackson

By the way, an interesting kicker is that once when it was in the process of disintegrating, I was able to switch to Terminal. I was using "ps -ax" there, but soon enough the shell hung. I then tried to create a new Terminal window, and did so successfully, but no shell was spawned in the window. So what would allow an app to create a new window, but would prevent it from starting a bash process?

Jul 16, 2012 3:48 PM in response to Curtis Jackson

Went to the Genius Bar with my bricked Thunderbolt drive and my Macbook Retina. Genius Bar guy plugs drive into his laptop -- it gets power. So it isn't a doorstop after all. Then he plugs it into my Macbook and it gets power. ***?


Finally after he's scrounged around in the inventory room for a while, he comes back and I once again plug it into my Macbook and...no power. No nothing. Plug it into his Macbook, no problem.


So it appears to be flaky Thunderbolt hardware in my Macbook. This explains why I've had almost no crashes since I unplugged my Thunderbolt drive after I thought it was dead.


2 weeks (or more) to get a replacement machine.

Jul 16, 2012 4:08 PM in response to thExplorer

Update: So it sounds like a lot of people have this same problem; Mine could crash 10 times within 3 minutes, as soon as it started up, then work


I installed a software that locked the graphic card to ONLY use the INTEL graphic card, not the Nvdia...

A lot of people were instructing me to only use the Nvdia but that made the machine crash still, not sure if it still swapped it even if it was forced somehow (maybe the tool wasn't hacking it 100%).


Anyway, I'm ok with using the Intel4000, plenty fast for what I'm doing anyway, and I get better battery times..


While this solved it for me temporarily, I still hope Mountain Lion will improve on the gfx card changing, since that appears to be the problem on my machine.. Either if it's hardware or software, but since my software setup worked flawless on my former computer (2011 Air, which naturally don't have this gfx card function), it sounds like this is one of the things that could cause it.


So if someone has the same problem, this might help you as well..

Jul 16, 2012 5:10 PM in response to thExplorer

I'm glad you got some solution. If I were you, I would get a new one while you still can. You paid a lot for this computer, and should probably get it fixed while it's still under warranty


Did you guys install the latest update? I think it came out sunday... It said something like, "fixed graphics stability issues with the mid 2012 macbook pro retina". Even if it is a hardware problem, I'm guessing that the update could help by making the software more robust.

Jul 17, 2012 2:26 AM in response to SP00LER

Hey Spooler: I cannot wait 2 weeks for "repairs" - so I rather just stick with it..


I saw a link for that "preview" or pre-release, but it did not appear to be "official"...

I found a link to download an update but that's the one that the computer already came with, so not sure..


Mountain Lion is like 2-3 weeks away, I can wait until then.. It works fairly well now as long as I don't use that fast gfx card.. 😉

Jul 30, 2012 12:26 AM in response to thExplorer

I have a similar problem with my Retina MBP.


The frequency of freeze is less, but I am getting really frustrated as I do not know when it could freeze up again.

When it freezes, mine either shows colorful sandstorm kind of thing on the screen and becomes completely unresponsive, or just go back to the login screen without warnings. All i have been doing so far is simple browsing and watch videos, also a little bit of adobe CS6 for work.


I was expecting to have an extraordinary pleasant experience with this investment, but this issue really disappointed me.


I will have to take this to nearby Apple store. I hope they do not make it difficult to get a replacement or even refund.


I would like to hear if installing Mountain Lion has fixed this problem for the original poster and others.

Jul 30, 2012 11:22 PM in response to thExplorer

Update.


I made an appointment to see a genius at a local Apple store.


He performed standard hardware checks. Nothing unusual found.

He goes over the crash logs and he did not see any particular thing that was causing the crash (chrome, CS6, windows server have caused freeze/crash. there is no pattern.)


He recommended to clean install the OS and see if it makes any difference.


Came home, installed all the software updates. So far, no freeze, but now Safari can not be opened.

Before it appears on the screen, i get "Safari quit unexpectedly."


I m going to exchange. I am truely disappointed this unpleasant experience comes with the flagship model of highly regarded company.

My MacBook Pro (Retina) Freeze up Randomly

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