New Retina Macbook pro 13 Haswell system hang/unresponsive

Please note: if you are affected by the "original" freeze-problem, then there is a very simple but effective work-around:

plug in any USB device. This could be a mouse, an USB-memory-stick for example.

As long as you have something connected to your USB port, the freeze will not happen.

I just had the keyboard+trackpad lock-up problem. I already had an iPhone connected to USB at the time. After the lock-up I tried pluggin it in and out, and also tried plugging in a memory-stick. None of these helped, I was forced to hard-reset the computer.

So I have to say that unfortunately this info isn't correct, or at least not in all of the cases.

I've got very similar problems with my Dec 2013 Mavericks rMBP 13" but pleanty of other complications. Let me explain how Chrome and the "Genieo" malware has corrupted the system, making Safari unusable.

First I had the problem common at that fall, requiring a logic board replacement (done in a few days in January '14). All was well. It performed like a champ again! No problems.

Then at the end of January, I acquired the "Genieo" malware problem. The only real help I got was from Thomas' site, themacsafe.com, especially on the hidden dangers of re-installing trojans for Geneio like "installmac" here

http://www.thesafemac.com/installmac-uninstaller-antics/

His recommendations involve disposing of certain bits of code that it had installed and avoiding the malicious "uninstaller" software - something I had already tried and failed with.

I went plenty of rounds following his recommendations. Genieo would take up ridiculous amounts processor and disk space; the fan ran all the time. It would get better with a restart, but only briefly. Then I tried uninstalling Chrome extensions and re-starting with different sets. In addition, Genieo malware got me to re-install Adobe Flash (through out of date" messages). Thus, I have two installed versions, like this:

and

After disabling the latter (selecting "Always"), things improved, but I got recurrent screen shudders or flickering at random times. Performance suffered again.

Next, I tried the old fashioned Mac OS cure, the "Safe-Start." This, again massively improved performance for a time. But them I was back to daily, then twice and three times daily system freezes just like before.

I tried to move my browsing activity to Safari. It worked for a brief time, then began crashing increasingly. Now it fails on launch - all the time. It is literally unusable. So for a month I've been living with daily system freezes and hard restarts using Chrome - typically two or three times a day (depending on length of use).

I've been putting off a complete system re-install. Meanwhile, in late April, it seems I have a new system update to perform. I suppose I will try that before doing the complete new OSX system re-install of Mavericks.

The point is that I've been living with an expensive, fairly new Mac machine that hugely underperforms and doesn't satisfy the user. I am bereft of any help apart from what I've discerned above from reading online BBs and peoples speculations.

I expect to go back to my default computer buying position before I upgraded from a 7 year-old MBP I bought 5 years ago (ie, late last year): NEVER buy a new Mac, always go with USED, older second-hand Macs (the previous year or older models), and avoid all of this B*** S***!

Some people - like me - are forever better off never being an early adopter. Let others deal with the headaches, delays, mysteries, and insolubles of any latest and greatest computer.

It's worth adding that besides an ancient router and an old MPB, I have no other Apple products in my home or workplace. And if I do in the future, they will be older and bought used.

Throughout the whole iPhone and iTunes mania and success of the past decade, I was something of an Apple dissenter in my buying habits. And now, once again, the Apple brand is deeply damaged for me. How unlike ten and twenty and even thirty years ago when I was a booster for the outsider genius of Steve Jobs, his vision and living legacies (when 'divorced' from Apple). This recent reversal of fortunes of Apple is all very sad to me.

Time to do an erase/install and rebuild your user account from scratch! Make sure you back up your personal information, documents, iPhoto library and iTunes media, etc on an external disk. Also list your apps and note any serial numbers.

Do not use Transfer Assistant or Migration Assistant, as it will only bring back the malware and corruption that may have occured.

You can download your apps from MAS or get up-to-date versions of third party apps from the developer's website (only) later. It all takes a couple of hours

The procedure for a recovery is given here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4718

Perhaps if you started a new discussion with the output from an EtreCheck run you some of the troubleshooters here might be able to get you back on track with some minor cleanup. There just aren't many folks paying attention to this long, old thread anymore.

That said, I'm a firm believer in simply restoring OS X without erasing anything using the recovery procedure that putnik pointed out. You still need to have your important files backed up, but the procedure should not touch any of your user files or third party applications. It returned my system to better than new with very little effort and has worked for dozens of others I've worked with, as well.

"I think that, now, just a few rMBP are affected by this problem."

My 2012 Macbook Pro (non retina) does sporadically does the same thing. Keyboard and touchpad freezing up only having the power button working. The OS seems to work because when I click (not holding) the powerbutton it askes me if I want to shutdown, restart, ... .

The only thing that I can share is that it started happening after upgrading to Maverick and the fact that a clean install doesn't fix the problem.

"I think that, now, just a few rMBP are affected by this problem."

Well I have got MBPr 2013-Late, 13" bought in December and it is still freezing...

yes, but I don't think that this is the same problem of this thread. Your keyboard doesn't seem to be completly blocked.

with my fist rMBP late 2013 it was completly impossible to interact with the OS, the olny thing possible was to force shut down by holding the power button.

If you replied to my post then yes I have got the same problem. My keyboard & trackpad is completely blocked. What I can do is only press the Power Button.

my reply was for glenn which probably met another problem related with Mavericks.

i think that your freeze was the same of mine with my first rMBP. are you still in time to ask for the sostitution of your machine?

My keyboard and touchpad completly locks up.

It is not because when I click the power button for 1.5 seconds and the old shutdown/restart dialog comes up, that I'm able to choose shutdown or restart that I can even select one of those 2 options. That is difficult with a non working keyboard or touchpad.

It is only a clear indication that the OS self is still running. In the end the only way to get my machine working agains is by holding the power button to restart te machine.

This problem is certainly not something that only happens on retina machines.

I also have a problem with my new rMBP 13" late 2013. After 5 seconds of no use, when I touch the trackpad, there´s a little lag, the cursor doesn´t follow my movement inmediatly, instead it moves after one second or so. I don´t know why all the rMBP came with that problam (maybe not all, but I have openned five and four came with that problem, the other came with a Wifi problem, so by this time, I´m on my fith rMBP) but I think it´s not the rMBP, it´s Mavericks. Maybe Apple will release an update soon ´cus we´re going crazy with these problems.

I have to say that the problem disappear when I connect a USB mouse. Also, the long log in the console (the usb device apple....) stops appearing when I connect the mouse, but appears like crazy when I use the trackpad without the USB connected. Does this problem appears only on the rMBP 13" late 2013 with 256GB, 8RAM and 2.4GHz? Or is a general problem? I´m thinking in returning the computer and buy another one!

You all have to seriously be lying. I've had my 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro for 6 months now and not once ever encountered this problem. I don't use any USB device. Have any of you updated to OS X 10.9.3 yet?

It's because of people like you that the mac user community has been so thoroughly despised for so many years.

The fact is that there are a lot of people who have had a lot of problems with recent Apple laptops, including me and several people that I worked with over the past year and half or so.

Grow up and get a clue.

I'm also having similar problems. I purcahsed a refurb macbook pro where the problem got progressively worse over 3+ months. From touchpad, blue tooth freezing and having to use usb mouse while I restarted 4 times.

Happened whenever machine was idle for 30+ minutes. By then end I had to restart 10 + times to get it working. Apple finally agreed to replace machine and having problems with this one too!!! Slightly different in that I can't use mouse or touhpad (or USB this time) to select anything. Machine is working fine, but only the key board can operate.

Not sure what to do now....Your comments are months old - will it be months before Apple come up with a fix? Should I revert to windows and blue screens or stick it out!

So frustrated...

I don't know what Apple expects to do. I had a Macbook Pro 13" retina late 2013 with some problems. Now I have the same but refurbished, they gave me $300 for the change and, for the moment (like one hour of use) it has no problem, I hope it continues this way because I don't trust Apple products anymore. I hope they comes up with a fix for all the probems we have encounter with our Macs, the issue with this is that the threads are very old and even after months Apple has no yet release a fix.