Retina Macbook Pro with Mavericks freezes

Question

Retina Macbook Pro with Mavericks freezes

So ever since I upgraded to OS X Mavericks I've been having a really annoying issue. Usually around once a day (or every couple of days) my computer will freeze. First usually one program freezes (like Google Chome or Microsoft Word) and then when I open up the Force Quit window other applications will start freezing (as well as the Force Quit window itself!) and after a little bit my entire computer is just frozen. I've found that the only way to fix this issue is to force my computer to restart by holding down the power button. I've tried writing to Apple about this (multiple times!) but haven't gotten a single response. If you have any ideas on what might be causing this or how I could try fixing it that would be greatly appreciated.

If it helps, I have a 2012 15-inch Macbook Pro with Retina Display.

Thanks in advance!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Dec 10, 2013 3:49 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 10, 2013 3:50 PM in response to russiansergey19

It looks something like this when it freezes:

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Answer 2

kmacart

Level 1

5 points

Feb 11, 2014 11:15 PM in response to russiansergey19

Exactly my problem. I thought it was just something to live with, after all, I've been living this way before I switched from PC. In fact, my mac is frozen and I'm typing this on my old PC.

Did you get any solutions?

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Answer 3

Feb 11, 2014 11:25 PM in response to kmacart

Okay, it's good to know that I'm not the only one having this problem. I've tried contacting Apple Support about this twice. One time they told me to reset the SMC and another time they told me to delete some files in the Library folder. While these solutions generally solved the problem for a few days, it would then again come up. At this point I just don't really have to time to spend hours trying to contact them about this problem (might take it to a Genius at an Apple Store at some point though).

I have a theory that it might have something to do with Microsoft Word 2011 as the issue seems to come up at times when I have Word open (but then again, I generally almost always have Word open). Also, just last week this happened to me while I was typing in Word and I just let the computer sit there and after 20 minutes or so it unfroze – Microsoft Word crashed/closed and my computer was back to normal.

But just to get an idea of what might be causing this, do you think it could be Microsoft Word? (do you use Word often? What version do you have? etc.)

And then, do you also have a 2012 15-inch Retina Macbook Pro?

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Answer 4

kmacart

Level 1

5 points

Feb 12, 2014 12:06 AM in response to russiansergey19

Wow this is weird...The only real thing we have in common are the freezing and the operating system. Sometimes if I leave it for 10 or 20 minutes it'll unfreeze and pretend nothing happened, but usually I have to hit the power button.

I have a brand new (Nov 2013) retina macbook pro, 13 inch, and it came with mavericks pre-installed. I don't have any Microsoft products installed. It freezes so randomly that I don't see any pattern with apps that I have open.

I figured it was just a buggy version and apple would fix it soon. But still waiting.

Have you tried a fresh reinstall? If this keeps up I might try that.

Does you keyboard freeze up? I just noticed that the back-lighting on the keyboard of my laptop doesn't go on during the freeze. I guess that means the keyboard has no power to do anything about the freeze.

I noticed in your shot of your screen, microsoft word wasn't giving you any problems...only the native apple apps.

Here's one of my freezes. What a beauty eh?

EDIT*** I tried pasting an image but didn't show up after posting this reply...oh well, It was similar to your one.

User uploaded file

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Answer 5

Purd

Level 1

108 points

Feb 12, 2014 2:12 AM in response to kmacart

Count me in. you are not alone. my mid 2012 MBPR 15 inches also freeze like yours. already file bug with Apple but no response yet.

When that happen, if you click on WiFi icon on menu bar, it will also stop functioning. And hard reboot is the only solution.

This started immediately after 10.9.1 update. Hope Apple will fix this and make my Mac rock solid as before

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Answer 6

Purd

Level 1

108 points

Feb 12, 2014 2:16 AM in response to Purd

Also, my Mac reboot itself when lid closed, and when that happen, a diag reporting form appear, asking me to report the log to apple. It is sleep wake failure diagnostic report.

There are also many spin files related to many apps, include native apps, and they are attributes to Wakeup resources issue.

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Answer 7

Purd

Level 1

108 points

Feb 12, 2014 2:18 AM in response to Purd

I have my hardware checked and it is perfectly OK. So the issue is with bloody Mavericks. My Mac become very unstable and quite unusable.

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Answer 8

kmacart

Level 1

5 points

Feb 12, 2014 2:57 AM in response to Purd

I remeber having that sleep/wake failure thing...I forgot what I did to fix that. It might have been unchecking the "wake for network access" in the system preferences> energy saver.

I'm conviced the freezing is a software issue too.

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Answer 9

Feb 12, 2014 7:45 AM in response to russiansergey19

When a system crashes often and randomly, start to think about hardware issues, like overheat, hardisk problem.

I experienced that in an old mac, it was the faulty nvidia chip that caused the crashes, and finally died.

When i was running in safe boot mode it went better.

Reapair your disk and permissions, from the recovery partition, then make a safe boot, then the normal. And take a look to the temp.

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Answer 10

Feb 12, 2014 5:03 PM in response to russiansergey19

el_mancebo, I don't think it has anything to do with the hardware. The issue here isn't that the hardware is overheating or anything like that – it's just that the system randomly freezes on a regular basis. For me it usually happens when I'm doing something very basic (like browsing the web, working in a Word document, or listening to music).

Also, if it was a hardware issue I feel like it would have come up before. For me literally the first time this happened was after installing Mavericks. And ever since it's been happening regularly. I honestly thought that Apple would fix this very quickly but it's been 6 months and still nothing...

kmacart, I have not tried a fresh reinstall. If you do try that, let me know how that works out. I don't know about the keyboard backlight (I usually have it off). However, I have noticed that my time on the screen (top right corner) freezes completely – I have the seconds enabled and those stop changing.

It seems like what all of us have in common is that we all have pretty recent Retina MBPs (and that we have Mavericks installed).

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Answer 11

kmacart

Level 1

5 points

Feb 18, 2014 11:45 PM in response to russiansergey19

I contacted apple and they emailed me some instructions to reset the SMC and the NVRAM and alos to reinstall Mavericks without losing any of my data.

It's been 6 days and today I got my first freeze. But today's freeze was different than usual. There was absolutely no warning -- no beachball spinning or anything. It just froze and that was that. The keyboard and trackpad were unresponsive. I waited 10 minutes...no change. I had to shut it down with the button.

I was hoping for my problem to be fixed. Argh!

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Answer 12

Feb 18, 2014 11:48 PM in response to kmacart

I've contacted Apple in the past about this issue and they also told me to reset the SMC. Similarly, it fixed the problem for a bit of time but in the end the issue came back.

Weirdly enough though, something weird happened to me today as well! Usually this issue would come up once every few days (at most once a day) but today it happened 3 times to me! Because I usually need my computer for work ASAP, I would force restart it, but on the last time I decided to wait and after about 20 minutes it unfroze.

At this point I'll probably go into an Apple store soon.

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Answer 13

kmacart

Level 1

5 points

Feb 19, 2014 1:09 PM in response to russiansergey19

russiansergey19 If you go to the apple store, let us know what happens.

Wow 20 minutes to wait for an unfreeze. I'll try that next time if I'm not trying to work.

I wish there was a crash or freeze report that could generate the cause of the freezing...like cpu overheated, or memory overloaded, or something. At least that's what I'd hope for in "the world's most advanced operating system".

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Answer 14

Feb 19, 2014 2:36 PM in response to kmacart

Will do! I'm just worried that they're going to do some standard stuff (like reset the PRAM or something) and then tell me to 'try' wiping my computer and reinstalling Mavericks....who has time for something like that anyway?!

If anyone actually does try reinstalling Mavericks, please do let us know what happens!

And I completely agree with you. For "the world's most advanced operating system" I really expected more. At times in my life I have been pretty much a self-proclaimed 'apple fan boy' but right now I'm really angry with the company. Really thought this would have been fixed months ago!!

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Answer 15

kmacart

Level 1

5 points

Feb 27, 2014 12:28 PM in response to russiansergey19

Have you updated to 10.9.2 to see if apple fixed that issue? I was getting the sleep/wake failure if I had the "wake for network access" and "enable power nap" check marked. But now it seems fixed with the update. So I'm hoping any freezing gets fixed too.

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