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El Capitan Freezing on Boot and Randomly Crashing

I have a early 2011 Macbook Pro (8,2) with 16GB of RAM with a Samsung 840 EVO SSD and I am running OS X 10.11.1. I have never had any problems with this machine prior to El Capitan. In short, I believe that others are having a similar problem: El Capitan consistently freezes while booting displaying one of the following behaviors:

1. Progress bar will get about half way, and then the screen goes white and doesn't load.

2. Progress bar will get about half way, and then I get a garbled (graphics) bar across the screen, and then it goes to a white and doesn't load.

3. Progress bar will get about half way, then the screen goes blue and doesn't load (sometimes it will shut down after about 30 seconds to a minute).

4. Progress bar gets about half way and screen freezes.

Additionally, the machine will crash randomly either halting, or going to a blue screen (after which I have to begin the reboot process).

After multiple PRAM (Command Option P R) resets the machine will eventually boot (it sometimes takes 30 or more minutes), but there doesn't seem to be a reason why it eventually boots (I can't detect any kind of pattern).

These problems initially began when I upgraded to El Capitan. Finally, I gave up and did a complete, clean, reinstall of the OS. After a few days, they began occurring again. The only 3rd party software I have installed is ClipWrap, Tor, Office 2016, Trim Enabler (I've disabled), and Quicken 2015. I have looked for any offending kexts (as mentioned in the various fora), but don't seem to have any of them.

If anyone can help, I would really appreciate it. When El Capitan is running properly, it's fantastic...but these crashes are driving me crazy.

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Nov 29, 2015 11:12 AM

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Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Posted on Nov 29, 2015 1:05 PM

According to Apple's specifications, that model can use at most 8 GB of memory, but you've installed 16 GB. The results are unpredictable. I know that the aftermarket RAM vendor says that the configuration will work. If you accept that assurance, please ask the vendor for help with any problems you have. Otherwise, reinstall the original memory, or new memory that meets the official specifications.

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32 replies

Jan 14, 2016 11:46 AM in response to Bill LT S.

Bill, curious to see how things are going for you? I too have a 2011 MacBook Pro that is acting up. This past fall I started having problems rebooting, usually around the time my battery was running low. Sometimes I'd be working along and get a screen of vertical lines and have to restart. Resetting the SMU or a safe boot would sometimes get me back and running, other times I'd have to wait until the battery fully recharged before I could get things going again. I was running Lion at the time. Took it to the Genius Bar and they ran the test to see if it was one of the defective models and they said it wasn't. They kept it for a couple of days and told me there was nothing wrong with it and to upgrade to El Capitan and it would solve all my problems. Been muddling through the holidays with it and last week finally decided to install El Capitan. Everything seemed fine at first, but again, once my battery got low I started having boot problems again and getting some artifacts on screen similar to those seen in the YouTube link in the issue mentioned here https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/270474/MacBook+Pro+crashes+half+way+through+ boot.

I've tried regular boot, safe boot, single user mode running fsck and rebooting, Resetting PRAM and every other diagnostic trick Apple lists and have even tried booting from the flash drive I used to install El Capitan. I get the Apple and progress bar and then it will either hang, reboot itself or boot to a blue/gray screen and never come up. When it does this the fans run at high speed and it gets very warm. I've seen many people posting with similar issues with this model and I just have to think it is something hardware-related at this point that Apple is not addressing. I'm going to try another Apple-authorized center here locally and see if they can determine anything. Just curious if you've had any luck with yours in the last week. Thanks!

Bill LT S. Author

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Jan 15, 2016 9:37 AM in response to Beth Ernst

HI Beth,

Apologies for the delay, my machine dropped out on me again. Interestingly, and I was specifically testing for this, the latest reoccurrence seems to be linked to a low battery (<9%)-- in line with what you have experienced. What's strange is that while El Capitan won't boot, I can boot to single user mode, restore mode, or diagnostics (diagnostics doesn't identify any issues) following again, my replacing the thermal paste. This would lead me to believe that this is not a firmware issue, perhaps it's a battery issue, or something related to the software's use of the battery. I've checked the battery state, and there doesn't appear to be anything wrong, so again I'm zeroed in on El Capitan. Howver your experience with Lion may discount that (I never experienced it prior to El Capitan)

I must say that this is enormously frustrating given what I've come to expect from Apple -- and I'm sorry that you're burdened with it as well. I'm going to try yet another fresh reinstall of El Capitan and see what happens when I run the battery down. Let me know if you get any answers on your end.

And should anyone from Apple happen to see this, please help. I have old PCs downstairs that I could boot up right now--I have never had anything like this happen to me with a machine. It really makes me reconsider investing in another Apple machine if all we receive is radio silence.

Jan 15, 2016 9:51 AM in response to Bill LT S.

Have you looked into the secret warranty replacement program for video cards? I know there are some of those out for various MacBooks ( and iMacs, too)

I have an iMac that was always reliable, until OSX 10.10.3 upgrade came along. After that it started spontaneously rebooting. After weeks of frustration, multiple clean installs, ( and several trips to the Apple store where all hardware was deemed perfect ) it was finally noted that there serial number of the iMac fell into a range of those covered in a video card recall program. Apparently the flaw in the card remained LATENT AND HIDDEN until such time as they tweaked something in the 10.10.3 OSX video subsystem!!

Sure enough, after they installed the replacement video card - same card just a different hardware revision - the problem immediately disappeared.

Went from spontaneously rebooting three times a day, to NEVER spontaneously rebooting. No other changes, just replaced the video card.

( Incidentally, the "bad" version of the video card passed all hardware tests ( even the advanced one that could only be done at the Apple Store two hours down the highway from me) WITH FLYING COLORS.

It was only the serial number of the iMac that gave the hint. And I had to discover that myself by a lot of web sleuthing and inference, as the Apple Store folks do not check the recalls ( they are actually quite secretive about that sort of thing...)

Jan 15, 2016 10:15 AM in response to Bill LT S.

Bill, Right now I am booted into Target Disk mode and trying to copy my user folder before doing anything else and then I'm going to attempt to do a clean El Capitan recovery from the Network and see how that goes before trying to reload all my other files and software. My original El Capitan install was done from a Flash drive and I can't find a Recovery drive when I try to boot into normal recovery mode, so must have done something wrong there. But I did try the flash drive on another laptop and it is working fine there, but this computer won't boot from it even though it did initially. Today I was able to get it to run the Hardware Test from the network - the only thing I've been able to get it to do in 2 days. Of course everything checked out fine. I even put the original memory sticks back in as I had heard that there were problems with aftermarket memory( mine was installed by the reseller at the time we purchased these computers) and still no luck. As with you, my battery status is showing good, but I can't help but feel like something is happening when it gets low. I've included a screen shot of what is sometimes happening when it boots normally and I feel like this is related to the video extension issue that has been listed for these model MacBooks.

rotechflightsafety,

I have looked into the "secret warranty replacement program". I took this to the local Genuis bar about a month or so ago and specifically mentioned that issue and that this problem existed before El Capitan was even released and is documented all over the internet. They supposedly ran a test that looked for that problem, kept it for two days to monitor it, and said that wasn't the issue and if I just installed El Capitan all my problems would be solved. Well, they were wrong! February 27th is the end of the offer to repair these by Apple so I'm wondering if they are just trying to put this off until they don't have to deal with it. I hate to think that way, but too many people are having similar issues. When I checked Apple's site for the warranty replacement my model did come up as one of those possibly affected. I'm hoping to drop it off at another Apple-authorized repair shop tomorrow and have them take a look to see if they come up with anything different. Fingers crossed.

Thanks for both of your input. I will keep you posted on what I find. The store I talked to about bringing it in this weekend said they wouldn't know anything until possibly Tuesday of next week so I'll let you know what I hear.

Jan 15, 2016 11:00 AM in response to Beth Ernst

@Beth... the hardware testing doesn't detect the bad video hardware ( at least it failed to do so in my case).

But try to check all the recall bulletins - and if your machine serial is in the range you need to PRESS them to replace it.

Keep phoning the Apple line till you get a tech who is sympathetic, and eventually you will get authorization for the warranty replacement.

For me , it was indeed the INVISIBLE fix...

Jan 15, 2016 11:37 AM in response to rotechflightsafety

Do you know where you find the range of serial numbers? All I can find on Apple's site is this. https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/

Clicking the check your coverage tool does show it as being one of the affected models listed in the bulletin. Guess I'll have to be a little more persistent with Apple.

Bill LT S. Author

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Jan 16, 2016 3:12 PM in response to rotechflightsafety

Thank you for the tip, indeed, I have checked my serial number and spoken to Apple (over the phone). They confirmed that my machine was not one of the machines recalled. If this continues, I may press them further...but it is interesting that the machines that they recalled seemed to be having issues some time back (2013 I believe), as opposed to mine which began over the past few months.

Bill LT S. Author

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Jan 16, 2016 3:15 PM in response to Beth Ernst

Beth,

Sorry again about the delay, this time it was pneumonia! What other devices are you running on your machine? Do you happen to have a printer? As to the screen, yes, I get that same screen from time to time when it boots normally. The funny thing is, after a reinstall all of this goes away...I have to think there's something that is software related.

Let me know how it goes. I'm planning on doing that reinstall...I just need to find the time.

Bill LT S. Author

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Jan 17, 2016 8:33 AM in response to Bill LT S.

Beth,

One more question, can you send me your discrete graphics information from system preferences? Mine is here:

Chipset model: AMD Radeon HD 6750M

Type: GPU

Bus: PCIe

PCIe Lane Width: x8

VRAM (total): 1024 MB

Vendor: ATI (ox1002)

Device ID: 0x6741

Revision ID: 0x0000

ROM Revision: 113-C0170L-573

gMux Version: 1.9.23

EFI Driver Version: 01.00.573

Additionally, I am trying an experiment. I have taken the ATI related kexts (System/Extensions) from my old version of OS X and transplanted them in El Capitan. Thus far, the system is working (as I write this). I will continue to run and see what happens.

Once again, a plea to Apple and the support community. Please help. We can be contacted via this posting, or via our emails.

Bill LT S. Author

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Jan 17, 2016 12:59 PM in response to Bill LT S.

After some further experimentation with the graphics kexts I have discovered some interesting behaviour. When I replaced the ATI related kexts, I did not realize that a simple copy and paste would not provide them with the proper permissions to be activated. Yet when I ran into the boot problem again, it was far easier to reset the PRAM and regain regular control of the machine. I have deleted all AMD and ATI related kexts that were not listed as "loaded" in system report (extensions) and while there appear to be some discrete graphics related issues testing with GFXbench GL, I have not run into any other problems (Photos, videos, etc.). Additionally, reboots when encountering the booting issues seem to resolve after one or two PRAM resets (unlike anything I was experiencing before). While these observations don't demonstrate a causal link, I do think they demonstrate some link between the booting issues and the graphics drivers provided by El Capitan. Booting OS X 10.9.1 has zero issues or problems before all of my interventions and afterwards. Obviously the only difference is between the software. Perhaps has a result of these poorly manufactured GPUs from AMD, changes were made to accommodate the new revision of the GPU at the cost of older GPUs that had not failed yet. I would ask that as a part of new builds of OS X, Apple test these specifically with my and Beth's builds of the AMD 6750M chipset (Early 2011 Macbook Pro). I will contact Apple again to report this as a potential bug.

Bill LT S. Author

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Jan 17, 2016 1:01 PM in response to Bill LT S.

As a record, the kexts currently running are:

AMD Framebuffer

AMDRadeonX3000

AMDSupport

Again, if anyone from Apple is reading this, please help us.

Jan 18, 2016 6:40 AM in response to rotechflightsafety

rotechflightsafety, I contacted Apple on Friday and they still couldn't tell me if my machine was covered. He told me I'd have to take it to an actual Apple store, not an authorized service center, and they would run a test to see if it qualified for the recall. So guess I'll try to make another trip in to them sometime this week.

Bill, I don't have any devices directly connected, but do use several printers, both at home and work via wi-fi. I was able to back up my user folder on Friday via Target Disk mode, but was unable to reinstall the OS. It would not boot from my Flash drive and I tried doing an Internet Recovery and that was not successful either. The first attempt said it failed, so I switched wi-fi networks here at work and it did the countdown portion of the recovery, then went to the blank blue/gray screen again. I booted into target disk mode this morning and wiped the hard drive and attempted to reinstall from my flash drive again, no dice, so I tried internet recovery again and still no luck.I can't get into the computer at all so the only graphics info I can give you is what I found on a site that lists specs of your computer based on the serial number. I thought I had printed out all the system profiler info after I initially set this computer up, but cannot find it anywhere. So all I know is this: AMD Radeon HD 6750M (512MB) and Intel HD Graphics 3000 (384MB ).

Jan 18, 2016 9:04 AM in response to Beth Ernst

Bill, was finally able to get into my computer this morning. I tried one last attempt at an SMU reset (done this a few times already) and after that it booted from the flash drive and let me install El Capitan. So I now have a clean machine with nothing but the OS installed. Going to see how that goes over the next few days, just letting it run until the battery goes down and see if my problems resurface. I was able to run System Profiler and all the information for the AMD Radeon is the same as yours, except the VRAM, mine is showing 512MB.

Bill LT S. Author

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Jan 23, 2016 12:41 PM in response to Beth Ernst

HI Beth,

Curious how your experience has been coming. I just upgraded to 10.11.3 and there have been some interesting results. While the graphics crashes have not gone away, (indeed -- they seem to have increased), the boot problems don't seem to be occurring. In other words, I've traded being unable to boot my machine with more crashes. I suppose this is a better situation, because getting through the boot cycle was a complete nightmare previously...but we'll see how bad the crashes get. Again, appear to happen when the machine switches over to the discrete graphics (6750M), though there's no pattern as to when the machine will drop out. I have installed gfxCardStatus so I can manually enable or disable the discrete graphics...even with the discrete graphics enabled, the machine won't crash, it only seems to be when I'm using a graphics intensive program like Photos, or Safari (for intensive sites) that I see the behaviour. Temperature of the GPU as well is not a concern, so I can rule that out as well.

I just got off the phone with a really helpful individual at Apple, and the next step I'm going to take is to install El Capitan on my factory 5400RPM drive to see what happens. Given that I've had zero problems with the stock drive running 10.9.1, problems with El Cap on that drive should give us more evidence that this is a software related issue (assuming they happen again). I'll write back after this next round of tests.

After you install 10.11.3, I'd be interested to hear your observations.

Jan 25, 2016 1:33 PM in response to Bill LT S.

Hi Bill, sorry to take so long to post back.After reinstalling the OS last week,I also installed the Temperature Gauge app to monitor heat coming from the system. This computer has always run a little hot in my opinion. (Much hotter than my old White MacBook ever did even when the processor was really ramped up.) Up until last week I had a Speck case on it, but I've removed it to see if it was interfering with cooling too. Haven't seen any warnings of overheating, but haven't really had a chance to do anything too intensive yet. I tried testing the low battery issue and just played some music CDs to run the battery down and each time it would reboot fine after shutting down due to lack of power. I will try the OS X 10.11.3 upgrade this week when I get a few free minutes and see how that goes. I reinstalled Office on Friday, but haven't actually used it yet and I need to reinstall the Adobe Creative Suite. So nothing I am doing on it would be using the discrete graphics card at this point. I did look up how to tell when it is in use so that I can watch to see what apps utilize it and if there is any correlation there. This is not my main computer, it is mostly used for testing of new applications and OS upgrades, so I'm mainly working with it when I don't have other projects going on here at work, though I do need to be getting up and running reliably so I can move forward with some other tests. I have 3 other MacBook Pros I need to upgrade to El Capitan at some point, but I'm leary of doing so at this point. Since I was having video issues prior to El Capitan I can't say for sure if it was the software or the computer. On my previous El Capitan install I had done a clean install of the OS, but then when I started up for the first time I chose the option to restore from a Time Machine back up and pulled my old apps, etc. over from my last Time Machine backup so it could be by doing that I brought over something from my old install that was causing problems? I guess only time will tell. Will keep you posted. Let me know how the El Capitan on your factory drive goes.

El Capitan Freezing on Boot and Randomly Crashing