Q: MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012) freeze with Yosemite

Hi guys,

Just to keep you informed with not very good news...

Today I had an appointment at a genius bar, and the guy found out that even trying to get back to mavericks got some crash during install. Then, he did another test with the apple store bootable hardware test over network, that didn't show any problems. He said though that this was more like a connection test and if something was wrong in a firmware for example, they can't do anything except changing the main board.

then, he decided to ask for the following repairs :

- changing main board

- changing logic board / supply

I suspect the yosemite update and all those gpu switch crashes to "break" something in the bios or some kind of gpu firmware...

Whatever, I have no macbook for a week

Yes..  This is exactly what happened to mine.  My MBPr (mid 2012) had been back to the Apple Store once and they replaced the logic board for display issues I was having in Mountain Lion (original shipping OS on this MBP).  After I got it back, I never had another issue until I updated to Yosemite, same problems as everyone else reports.  I took it back to Apple Store a couple weeks ago after the issues starting appearing again after the Yosemite update, they ran tests, etc., didn't find anything while I was in the store, decided to keep it a couple days to run some more "in-depth diagnostics", they called me back the next day and said they were sending it off.  Two days later it was back at the store with (another) new logic board and hard-drive cable.  I haven't had a single issue since, been using it about a week now.

Just to add my own experience with this GPU freeze issue.

I brought my MBP yesterday at the genius bar for 2 problems: a nasty white spot on the screen (called "mura spot") and these random crashes with Yosemite.

The genius decided right away to change the screen as the laptop is still under warranty (kudos for that), but the graphics problem left him wondering.

He asked other colleagues about the symptoms I told about it(occurs when switching from integrated to dedicated, more often in yosemite than mavericks, reducing transparency and removing flash helps, etc ...), but nothing led him to the conclusion that the issue was hardware related.

The genius was reluctant to change the logic board, and offered me to test the machine for some time and have a first hand experience on the crash.

So, my guess is that Apple isn't addressing the problem at all; aren't they even aware that many rMBP users are affected ? I will get my macbook back in a few days, so I'll keep you guys posted. To be honest, I'm pretty sure they won't solve the issue, but who knows ...

Keep faith !

I had the same issues with 2012 rMBP, under both Yosemite and MAvericks.  This culminated in a new logic board being fitted under Applecare. After that, the problem "Intel GPU Hang" came back within 4 weeks of the repair.

I made another Genius bar appointment, and (like before) arrived with the console logs listing the hangs, dates, times, as much documentation as possible.  The Genius started down the path that it was more likely to be software (eg flaky kernel extensions) but only the non-Apple ones.

I was offered2 choices:

1. Doing another fresh install of the OS then running with no 3rd party software to test
2. Having another logic board fitted

Neither choice was really acceptable, as I use the laptop daily for work.  I mentioned a colleague of mine had ended up with a replacement machine, and after the Genius got permission from his boss they swapped my old 2012 rMBP with a brand new 2014 model under Applecare.

I do sincerely hope it is a software/driver problem but suspect it is hardware, perhaps another Radeongate but this time with the Intel chips

I should also add that when I took mine in, I had already reformatted back to Mountain Lion (several times) and it still had the hangs.  When I went into the Apple Store, the only thing on the Laptop was a fresh install of Mountain Lion, nothing else.  I figured if I could take it to them in that state and it did it, they would have to agree it was hardware.

if the problem was software related, i guess lots of rMBP owners would have already experienced the graphic issue.

I notice that all these problems relate to MBPs (as does the thread title of course),  but I am having the same issue on a 2011 iMac which doesn't have the same option under Energy Saver.  

Has anyone else come across this?

Not sure if the problem is solved now. But I didn't have freezing for 2 days know.
Reinstalled the new Dropbox, Googledrive manually by downloading the new versions and changed from Acrobat to normal reader.
As I said no freezing after rewake from standby. *crossing fingers that this will stay*

I had an appointment at the Genius Bar two weeks ago. The genius said he never heard of that problem before, but suddenly could remember having some earlier MBP with bad GPUs. He told me they would change the logic board (to get a new/working GPU).

To say: before that I had not only GPU Panics but no screen signal at all (could –

@delook: Did the GPU Panics start after the upgrade to Yosemite? I had the same issue with panics and was told that there is no connection to the GPU resets discussed in this thread here, but maybe the problem is more serious than just freezing the system as it causes damage to the underlying hardware. But that's just an idea, as it seems that others may have the same issues. The machine was heavily used for development and graphic intense applications and running without any freeze or kernel panic for one year before I upgraded to Yosemite.

EDIT: The MBP 2014 replacement I got was working fine with pre installed Mavericks, but after upgrading to Yosemite the GPU Resets / Intel GPU hang came back, hopefully the GPU Panics won't join in the future.

[Thanks LudovicLeger for the information; and sorry for the double posting!]

I had an appointment at the Genius Bar two weeks ago. Genius said he never heard of that problem before, but suddenly could remember having some earlier MBP with bad GPUs. He told me they would change the logic board (to get a new/working GPU).

To say: before that I had not only GPU panics (it started with that) but no screen signal at all (could – sometimes – connect via terminal, sometime I could enter to single user mode but never finish some  tests). In this time I made several SMC & PRAM resets, tried to fix disk permission but could not finish it.

After changing the logic board I've had not a single freeze (10 days now) and everything works fine and fast again. For me it looks like we have defective GPUs – something that makes the panics in combination with 10.10 . Not very nice, but after all I can recommend changing the logic board to solve the problem …

GPU panics just started with 10.10 – never had any troubles at all before Yosemite.

Cannot say if/that it affected any other hardware. Let me know if you can recommend me any test for checking that …

As they couldn't reproduce the GPU freeze, I couldn't get anything from the Geniuses (apart the screen exchange, but this is another story).

I followed your advice and updated every plugin / app that is running on the background:

• Dropbox
• Google Drive
• Google Music Manager
• Adobe Flash Player

I hope this will permanently solve the issue... until next time. It's all good for now.

I don't know if anyone mentioned this but you can use "gfxCardStatus" app to use integrated graphics card only. That prevents auto graphics switching and sticks to Intel HD card (less power consumption etc. compared to disabling auto switching from Power preferences). And you can go back to your Radeon/Nvidia cards whenever you want from the menu bar.

At least that's what I'll be doing till Apple fixes it.

BTW, I'm almost certain that the problem is either with the Intel card or with the graphics switching but not with the discrete card. I play games on bootcamp (Nvidia 650m) and I guess I would've noticed if the card were defective. So, it can be a logic board problem, or a software one, I'm not sure. I didn't have such freezes back in Mavericks though.

See my answer at http://apple.stackexchange.com/a/159661/75935 if you want to reproduce the crash, it may help with a genius bar appointment.