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

@JWDemon I'd read more about CUDA if I were you, and then allow others to post about the freezing issue. You're being off-topic.

Do you think I haven't been fighting the same issue? That's how I found CUDA, trying to find a workaround because, after 20 years, I know how Apple works, evidently you don't. You should try it before you knock it so strongly, you'd be surprised! Besides, it's not like you have to keep it if you don't like it! TRY IT!! Then come tell me it didn't work!

You fixed the issue because you disabled auto-swithing of the GPU, not because you installed CUDA. CUDA has nothing to do with the freezing issue. Please stop spamming this thread by mentioning CUDA.

You're wrong, after I disabled the auto-switching I still had the freezing with the NVIDIA GPU, Cuda stopped the freezing while using the NVIDIA but if I turn on auto-swtiching, even with CUDA, it will still freeze as soon as I open Photoshop because PS is set to use the Graphics Processor for computations, and that's the NVIDIA GPU. You should read my other posts in this thread.

YOU KNOW, I'M ONLY TRYING TO HELP PEOPLE HERE, BUT IF YOU DON'T TRY IT, YOU WILL NEVER KNOW!! WHAT A SHAME!

Has anyone looked at this?  I had similar issues and just had the logic board replaced under this program:

https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/

Best of luck,

ZC

@zcinkosky thanks for that. Doesn't apply for MBP Late 2013 (not among the affected models listed there). Also, most of us in this thread reported that this was not an issue under Mavericks, but only on Yosemite, so it's almost surely a software issue (driver).

@qnxor

I am also running Yosemite, and did not have the issue with Mavericks.  Not that your issue and mine were/are stemming from the same root cause, but the symptoms all appear to be the same.  From what I understand from some further reading, Yosemite does some "more advanced" switching, which either generates more heat on the non-lead based solder or is simply creating more failure points (if the only time it fails is during switching, more switches = more opportunities).  This might explain how a hardware issue could manifest itself as a "software" issue.

Again, not saying they are necessarily the same, but I found many comments on this thread were consistent with what I saw.

ZC

@zcinkosky as I said, the webpage you linked to does not include MBP Late 2013 as an affected model, so I don't think it's the same problem.

@qnxor

Not to be pedantic, but the thread does state "MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012) freeze with Yosemite".  While you may not be eligible for the program (and as I had said previously, the issue I stated may not be yours) I believe this to still be relevant to the rest of the thread.

I wish you well in resolving your issue, whatever it may be.

ZC

@zcinkosky apologies, you're right (I misread it as a response to my replies). Still, I'm pretty sure that the issue described in this thread is not hardware related, and that your issue had different roots (even though it caused freezes). Yosemite doesn't do any "advanced switching", not even sure what that means (I'd like to see some credible and technical references and proofs for that). The switching is a driver thing which is painless in terms of power draw of the Intel and Nvidia chips -- the Nvidia chip is simply powered off, that's all. This is dictated by the driver. What most people in this thread noticed is that it only manifests in Yosemite.

Although I, too, had this problem beginning with Yosemite (first the public beta and then the final release), I did notice something else in prior OS versions like Mountain Lion: Once in a while the screen would do a quick flicker; usually while browsing. I have never seen that in Yosemite, although instead I have the full freeze followed by an automatic restart. I do not know if this occasional flicker with earlier OS X versions was the same manifestation as the occasional freezing I'm getting now. I wonder if anybody else remembers any such flickering (in my case, it would be once every few days).

Wow. What a thread. It was quite overwhelming to read the entire thread, so I might have missed some points..

Main problem for me is that I was rejected to repair my Mid-2012 Retina Macbook Pro. After Genius Bar's testings, my Macbook seem to have passed their test. I tried to replicate problem, but it didn't happen. A week later, which is today, I got the glitch again. My Macbook even froze all at a sudden two times this week. Strange thing is that those two freezes happened at around same time (8:30AM). I acquired some screenshots and picture of my screen with the problem this time. So I'm going to try visiting Genius bar once again.

Has anyone got to get their Macbook fixed at the second trial like me? Did you have to pay additional cost or shipping fee?

My Macbook had received Samsung LCD replacement and Macbook itself is custom ordered one that have these options: 2.7 Ghz i7 CPU, 16GB Ram, 256GB SSD.

I was wondering if my macbook have different cooling component or something since it have 2.7 Ghz CPU and this is why I get the glitch less occasionally. If anyone have 2.7 Ghz CPU option in their Macbook and have this issue, I'd like to know.

My Macbook's symptom:

I get graphical glitch (lines and boxes, though not entire screen and happens more often on Safari and some times in Photoshop). However, this doesn't happen routinely and its very difficult to reproduce. I can use as it is, as mine doesn't glitch and turn itself off often, but I had to re-do some important work due to occasional system crash.

Thanks!

Hey Blckcat, my Macbook (15" Retina, Early 2013) is almost the same configuration as yours: 2.7 Ghz i7 CPU, 16GB Ram but 512GB SSD. The symptoms are exactly the same as you describe. They have not been present while using Photoshop but while browsing with Safari I get the same graphical glitch. This glitch is very strange because it is positioned above the Safari browser UI but I can get rid of it by reloading the webpage. Don't know either how to reproduce ist, it happens very seldom and I cannot find out in which scenario it appears.

The main problem I had is that the GUI was extremely slow and laggy and sometimes (very seldom) a freeze. I posted before that I did not have this issue in my other user account. Now I re-installed Yosemite (reboot -> CMD+R) and repaired the MacOS harddisk (also CMD+R).

The GUI runs more fluid now, but I am not completely sure If it is as fluid as originally. And the graphical glitch did not appear until 2 weeks now.

Maybe you can try re-installing and repair harddisk and post if it is getting better.

Did you ever try to make a screenshot of the graphical glitch?

Again, I think it's a driver issue. I could freeze all 4 15" MBPr's on display in a local AppleStore last night just by turning the Automatic Graphics Switching on and off. The 4th computer took couple more minutes than the others, but it did freeze after all. Then the employees offered help and I could not continue testing. If it was a hardware - it would be very weird that all 4 of them were faulty.

Yup - so to me a driver issue when switching between the GPU's. Hope Apple / Nvidia fixes this one with a higher priority, these wonderful computers start to have a bad reputation because of this glitch.

@philab It's virtually certainly a driver issue (the Intel driver in my opinion, or Apple's tweaks around it, all the crash logs I have show that the Intel Iris Pro driver hung).

I was going to ask people here if they know of a consistent method to replicate the behavior. Is there a step-by-step way (some website, software, procedure etc) to trigger it every time?

I'll try @philab's method tonight ... did you just repeatedly toggle the checkbox "Automatic grpahics switching" in Systems Preferences > Energy Saver? If it works, that'd be awesome and clear proof to Apple.

EDIT: What do you know, I just tried that on a colleague's MBP Late 2013 and it froze it right away! Took only 3 toggles before ti froze. I'll test tonight on mine too.