MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012) freeze with Yosemite

No argument here. I am 100% positive it graphics switching related too. Just not sure if something else is contributing to it.

Well, this is strange.

Some of you may remember my post where I rebuilt my MBPr mid-2012 from scratch. Downloaded 10.10.1 from the start using Recovery and added applications and documents from backups and slowly loaded up the laptop.

I am now back to having my laptop as before (after a steady ramp-up) including apps that had issues like Dreamweaver and iPhoto and others that use the GPU switching - not to mention some websites that I am sure caused panics. For days now of constant use I have not experienced a single crash, freeze or screen distortion. Whereas before, it was at least once a day and sometimes it clocked up to three times in 4 hours. I have been using the laptop in the same way as always and the crashes/panics have subsided to zero. Its still early days but there is a notable and marked difference.

I cannot place whats going on here which is highly frustrating. My MBPr had all the symptoms and was becoming a pain to use because of the freezes and reboots. I have rebuilt, reloaded the applications, used again like I did before and its running as if nothing was wrong. So many other forum members have done this without the same success. I know I should be counting my blessings but not knowing the cause is driving me nuts - I am technology manager so not understanding these things get to you.

I don't get it. I don't like that I don't get it but I don't get it. Why is the not occurring now when so prolific before?

Update on the situation with my laptop:

I went to the Apple Store to ask about a replacement. After showing them the logs, they said they would replace it, but they couldn't since it was purchased from the Apple Certified Refurbished store. Instead, I would have to call the support number and arrange a replacement there. Did that, and I should be getting the next model of rMBP after mine, which I think is the first to include Intel Iris graphics, which is a nice upgrade.

Also, I didn't worry about not getting a replacement, since the consumer law in my country (Australia) means I am entitled to repair, refund or replacement at my choice if a major fault has occurred.

Same problem here. Plus the symptom is changing. For me it began with random crashes every month, then every week, then every day, then more times per day.

I ended up with buying a 13 inches MBPr as temporary replacement but still seek a solution for my 15 inches mid-2012 retina.

I'm confident the problem is hardware related :

- same symptoms under windows 7 (bootcamp)

- i could demonstrate the freezes are linked to the use of the gt650m (and played with gfxcardstatus during a while)

It's obviously a conceptual issue and I beg Apple to take the case in charge (or at least issue a patch that allows to force the use of integrated graphics, also at boot time right after you power on the machine. I mean disabling totally the gt650m)

Like Brian, I got my pentalobe screwdrivers out and took the back off - yerchhhh! Pet hair, fluff dust etc. Cleaned it all with a computer circuit brush and a vacuum cleaner set to low. Turned transparency back on in Accessibility, opened Photoshop CC 2014 - crash! I think it is down to the genius bar next week. I still have a bit of the Apple Support left on this machine.

Wilson

I am not site this is solely hardware related. I never had the issue until a particular upgrade within Yosemite versions and then things went horribly wrong. I had many freezes and towards the end I got strange screen distortions. All symptoms described on here.

I erased the hard drive, dowloaded Yosemite and slowly have been putting my apps back on. I am intensively using the laptop (I do anyway) and the problem has not reoccurred since. If this was solely hardware related I would expect more consistency in failure.

I am continuing to use my MBPr and keep trying to push it. I am actually very frustrated why my rebuild has had such a positive impact - I don't like it when I can't find the root cause. Others have done this and had no improvement. Something is triggering this but I have no idea what!

I have made an appointment to take my rMBP to the service centre in Hove next week. Spoke to Apple Care and they confirm that they will replace what is needed on my machine FOC. I will run Carbon Copy Cloner in case they mess around with the SSD. No point in messing about with this if Apple will sort it.

I believe in setting up a more scientific process for figuring these things out. Changing a bunch of things and then claiming one thing solved the issue isn't something that can be claimed so I decided to start with one thing that has been talked about on this thread but I didn't see anyone try with the exception of people going back to Mavericks; I decided to replace my video driver while staying on Yosemite.

Alright, so if anyone here has ever caused their NVIDIA driver to crash on a Windows PC with drivers that had been updated anytime in the last couple years you would know that even when something crashes it usually doesn't lock up the machine. The screen might go blank for a few seconds but the driver will restart itself and then the picture will reappear. Sooooo...

I took the latest NVIDIA drivers (for Yosemite 10.10.1) for the Mac Pro and asked them nicely to install on my machine (An early 2013 Retina MacBook Pro) even though they normally wouldn't allow this. 😉 After they were installed I have tried to crash the machine intentionally and been completely unsuccessful. Prior to this change I had to use gfxCardStatus to force the graphics card to either be the Intel or NVIDIA one (just so long as it didn't allow dynamic switching) because it crashed CONSTANTLY. Now I am allowing the dynamic switching and my machine hasn't locked up even once.

What it _IS_ doing is crashing the driver even once in a while. Remember what I said about how the PC driver acted? Well, now I will be working and when the graphics card dynamically switches it will sometimes work but sometimes it'll cause the driver to crash. It seems almost like a coin toss, but the good thing is that now it correctly restarts the driver like the PC one does. So I'll get a flash on the screen where it'll go black for a second or two but then it's right back up and no freezing up and I don't lose any work, etc.

So in the end it looks like something as small as changing the driver version is enough to cause big changes in the behavior compared to what I was seeing before.

Sure, it's not perfect but I can tolerate it at least for a while.... and then if Apple hasn't fixed it I'll take the machine in and let them pay for a replacement.

How exactly did you coax the NVIDIA driver to install on your rMBP?

I'd like to see if this helps for others that have this problem constantly, and can reproduce the problem by rapidly switching graphics cards. You might be on to an acceptable workaround/fix, but we really need to see the same thing happening for most or all of the people affected by this issue.

My laptop isn't currently having this issue frequently enough in general use for me to test, but if the replacement I will soon get has a severe case of the issue, I'll also be able to test this.

Nvidia don't list any drivers of the GT650M for any Mac Operating System.

10.10.2 saved all my graphic problems (MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012)). any other success stories?

Does that include laggy Expose animations and garbled graphics on screen?

After about 2 weeks of sending Apple a complaint message, there is still no reply.

They are either working on a fix, or not caring.

yes both have left the building 🙂

Unfortunately, neither of these is the subject of this thread.