macisthenewcrack wrote:
I'm having the exact same problem as thousands of you other 2013, October MacPro users.
I spent $2,000 on the 15" Macbook in October.. and all this time the computer freezes for no reason.. the keyboard freezes.. the curser freezes.. and I lose all my work. Apple keeps refusing to find a solution for this. It is very sad.
First of all, the freeze problem was reported on a very wide basis only for 13" rMBP. If you have this issue on a 15" rMBP, it very much points to faulty hardware which should get replaced.
Secondly, Apple did not refuse to find a solution. They put out an EFI update, which solved the problems for thousands and thousands of people. Everybody, who still has this problem today - even after applying the EFI update - has a device with some hardware problems. Maybe nothing is seriously "broken", but some specs are out of bounds.
To make it clear once again:
- All late 2013 13" rMBP were affected from the freeze problem.
- A few older devices were affected by the same problem after updating to Mavericks.
- This very much points to some kind of software problem inside Mavericks (related to hardware).
- Apple put out an EFI update for the late 2013 13" rMBP
- The EFI update solved the problem for probably 95 up to 99% of all customers of this device.
Putting the facts together at this point I will try to give an example to non-technical people or non-programmers. Please note that this is just a very abstract example which is ment to give you an idea about the "bug" and why this "bug" was solved by Apple for most people and why you should from my perspective not wait any longer for some sort of "fix" for this.
Assume, all Laptops have an USB-chip, which sends every 500 milliseconds a signal: "I am still up and running."
Now, older versions of OS X were set to listen to the next signal up to 600 milliseconds. If the new signal came in within that time-frame, the operating system (OS X) knew, the USB is still alive and kicking. All good.
In order to save energy (which equals battery life) OS X Mavericks does listen only up to 520 milliseconds after the last signal. So the time-frame is simply more narrow than in older versions of OS X.
Most (but not all) devices besides the late 2013 13" rMBP had a chip that would give signals within that range. So they did not have any problems.
On a few older devices - and all late2013 13" rMBP - a problem occured: due to hardware-tolerances, some chips in some devices (and all chips in all 13" rMBP devices) gave out a signal every 550 milliseconds.
Remember: Mavericks stopped waiting for the signal 30 milliseconds earlier.
Now Mavericks thinks, the USB is sleeping. Since both the keyboard and the touchpad are internally connected to the (internal) USB hub, those input USB devices are put to sleep. (Again: all I write here is simply an example to give you a vague idea)
Apple heard of the problem and realized that all late2013 13"rMBP were affected. People reported the problem to this thread almost every minute(!) My mailbox was bombed when this started.
So after a few days (If I remember right, it was about 2 weeks) Apple pushed out an EFI update. (The EFI is very low level software that "speaks" directly to the hardware. A very low-level hardware-driver if you want it that way.)
This EFI update told the USB chips in all late2013 13"rMBP: "from now on, send your signals as fast as possible".
From there on, all late2013 13" rMBP sent out the signals on the lower border of their individual range.
For 95% (or99%) of the devices, this ment they were from now on within the range that Mavericks expects. They could change from 550 milliseconds to 510 milliseconds continuing this example here.
Result: the freezes stopped on all these devices.
But: there are devices which have chips where the lowest - fastest - they can possibly do, is 525 milliseconds. So even though they try - they do not fullfill the "needs" of Mavericks. So these devices do still freeze sometimes.
Again: this problem is still relevant for a very small amount of people. If you would read this whole thread here, understand the frequency of people reporting these problems in the beginning and comparing it to now, you would understand, that it has ceased very very much.
The people that are still affected do have hardware, which is and probably always will be out of certain bounds. It is IMHO very unlikely that Apple will address this issue one more time, since it is simply solved for some 95% (or even more) of the people that were affected.
The 5% that are left should definitily call Apple or even better go to an Apple store and tell the people about it. Because from my point of view, it is not a software bug that will be fixed soon. It is much more likely that your hardware is out of bounds and should get replaced.
I am one of the thousands and thousands of people that had this problem on their 13" rMBP - and it was completly(!) solved by the EFI update. I use my device for many many hours every day for months now and the problem has never occured again even once after the EFI update which I did in November 2013.
So the EFI update did solve the problem.
If you still have the problem, you should stop waiting for something (a fix, an update, etc.) which will most likely never happen - and contact Apple. The sooner, the better.
A MacBookPro is a bulk good. Due to manufactoring tolerances and the human factor at the assembly, from 1 Million devices sold, a few thousand will have problems. That is sad for the people affected, but normal. If you are one of them, go and tell the manufactorer that your device is not working as expected. In the past, Apple was generous in all cases that I personally heard. But if you sit at home and do nothing, it is very much unlikely, anything will change.
I personally am convinced, there will be no fix in the future - as there is no real problem anymore. For you personally maybe, yes, but not for almost all other customers.
Again, for almost all people, this problem was solved in the past.
And please do note that many reports of this problem that come in here are not reports of the original freeze problems, but simply reports of Macs crashing. This can have many many possible causes. There is a big difference, whether the Mac is still alive (still playing that youtube video, still fetching Mails from the Server, etc.) but simly not reacting to keystrokes on the keyboard and clicks of the touchpad - or whether the Mac has crashed, meaning the operating system "died" and all activities stopped.
I read quite many comments here lately where I am pretty sure the person does describe a simple crash and not a keyboard/trackpad-freeze.
Although some people are in the state of denial: this thread is - compared to the time when the new rMBP hit the market last year - pretty much dead by now and very very few people do still have and report this problem.
Again: my personal recommendation is: if you are still affected from freezes (not from crashes) do report it to Apple, point them to this thread here and persist on a solution for you. Especially if you have a device that is only a few weeks or months old. (meaning you have a late2013 Macbook Pro)
kind regards,
Oli
kyawlin
Level 1
(18 points)
kyawlin
