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C2D weird locking up/freezing/hanging?

Hey everyone,

I have been experiencing some weird locking up/freezing/hanging when using my Core 2 Duo. The first couple of days after I got my MacBook Pro and after using the Migration Assistant I would get locking up -- the machine would go in a state where some functions are working (like the mouse, you could move it around) but everything else would not be available to use.

This meant that I could move my mouse around but can't click on any windows, any buttons, can't type anything in and the dock doesn't magnify, nor do its icons work. Since I can't click on the Apple menu to log out/restart/shut down, I have no option but to force a shut down by holding onto the power button.

This happened twice within 4 days of owning the machine, so I reformatted and moved everything over from my old PowerBook G4 manually -- reinstalled all my apps manually, copied my mail over manually, all my data over etc.

This freezing or whatever hasn't occurred until 15 mins ago, so there has been about 2 weeks between lock-ups. Up until now, I put the previous lock-ups down to something that perhaps was copied over from the PPC side of things over to the Intel side that the MBP C2D didn't like.

But now this is really weird. I can't remember what I was doing the first time the machine locked up, and I think I was command-tabbing through open apps the second time it happened and as I released the keys it froze then. The third time this happened (today), I was doing the same thing as the 2nd time.

When it did this today, I was listening to a podcast, and when the machine froze the podcast was still playing! So clearly half the machine is unresponsive, while some other parts of the OS and apps are still working. Unfortunately I didn't have Activity Monitor open during any of the locking up, so I can't see if there are any wayward applications.

Could this be a graphics problem? Maybe the drivers or the video card is a little dodgy? I sometimes get graphics corruption as well, either in Safari with the tabs showing up as black rectangles, or once when I woke up the machine from sleep the usual black background for the Username and Password dialog box was "coloured random static". I also sometimes get graphic rendering bugs in pages in Safari -- there would be a "line" missing from the browser screen, but scrolling up and down again usually corrects this.

This has never happened to me on my PowerBook G4, and find this rather odd. Anyone got any ideas? If anyone needs more information I'll be more than happy to provide.

15" MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz, 15" PowerBook G4 1.67GHz, Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Nov 24, 2006 1:17 AM

192 replies

Dec 8, 2006 7:18 AM in response to George Haritonidis

I have been experiencing this problem (though, I haven't seen it in the last week or two). And, yes, I use an external monitor via the MBP DVI connector. I'll try your recipe in a couple hours and see if I can reproduce the problem as well.

Thanks for uncovering this!

Dec 8, 2006 7:20 AM in response to Ethanee

I have a small question: by "bezel" would you be referring to the rounded box containing the icons for programs, and that appears when Cmd-Tab is pressed and not released?

Yes. I think this is called a 'bezel' by Apple engineers, if not, I think it is called that in developers circles.

I don't know if the bezel has any effect or not.

Neither do I, however I suspect it since the errors are graphics-related. We could still try using your script though for stress-testing and see how we go.

Dec 8, 2006 9:28 AM in response to George Haritonidis

OK, connecting and disconnecting my external monitor (DVI) seems to produce varying amount of the following type of log:

Dec 8 09:26:26 excalibur /Applications/iCal.app/Contents/MacOS/iCal: removeDisplayMapping: _CGSUnmapFramebuffer returns -536870206

I plugged in my monitor, did a bunch of cmd-tab'ing with no freeze. I unplugged it (more errors in the log) with more cmd-tab'ing. Again, no freeze.

The MBP I am using today has never exhibited this problem. I'll try again tonight on one that has. And, I'll keep trying on this one as I have time throughout the day.

Dec 8, 2006 3:08 PM in response to Ian Searle

Hi Ian,

When I was doing the cmd-tabbing, I must've done about 50 in a row (manually, on my keyboard) before it had actually hung. I was doing them constantly for at least 2 minutes, which is a lot more than just a 'bunch'.

HTH.

Ethanee

Level 2

350 points

Dec 8, 2006 6:07 PM in response to George Haritonidis

Here's the script:
http://www.uploading.com/files/HCA4G7X1/windowswitcher.rtf.html

To run, open Script Editor, paste the contents of the file there, and click Run.

It does the following:
o Open 4 applications, iTunes, iPhoto, Mail and Safari
o Bring each of the windows to the front, and uses Cmd-Tab
o Closes the 4 applications (because I'm thinking it might use different parts of the VRAM if applications are reopened).
o Iterate through the above steps.

It's pretty easy to change the number of iterations (if you've some programming experience).

I added an external monitor, and ran the switching script. I don't get hangs, but I do get:

Dec 8 17:53:59 172 /Library/Application Support/Logitech/LCCDaemon.app/Contents/MacOS/LCCDaemon: removeDisplayMapping: _CGSUnmapFramebuffer returns -536870206

Guinea pigs anyone?

Ethanee

Level 2

350 points

Dec 8, 2006 6:35 PM in response to Ethanee

Disclaimer: Use the script at your own risk!

There will be some "bung" sounds when running, I think it's because the cmd-tab command is given when the process isn't ready (similar to invalid commands).

Also, half an hour after getting the error in the log, I experienced the hang, which I have never ever gotten before.

Ethanee

Level 2

350 points

Dec 8, 2006 10:44 PM in response to Ethanee

I just submitted a bug report at bugreport.apple.com, I'll wait and see what they say...

Dec 11, 2006 4:18 PM in response to George Haritonidis

I have the same problem---spinning cursor can be moved but nothing else works.

I tried the experiment you suggested, with the same results---plug in external monitor, 2 minutes of cmd-tabs, then it freezes where the cursor can be moved but nothing else works. (But in this case, cursor is an arrow and does not spin.)

Assuming these two problems have the same cause, do you have an answer from Apple tech support yet?

This type of system crash is one of the things I bought a mac to avoid.

-Tim

Mac Book Pro Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Dec 11, 2006 4:56 PM in response to George Haritonidis

From what I've heard on other posts, most problems arise from using the migration tool in Tiger. Some have fixed the problem by reformatting the hard drive and doing a new install of the OS. It's weird... I would've thought that apple had fixed that problem with the migration tool by now...

Dec 11, 2006 5:51 PM in response to George Haritonidis

I had the same issue. VERY frustrating.

Mac would randomly lock up. Rainbow and all. Mouse moved, nothing else worked. Had to hold on button to reset.

After a while I figured it was a network/airport thing.

So I turned off Airport and plugged in via ethernet.

NEVER had any issues since. It has been months with flawless performance. Previously, I was crashing 4-6x a day.

Apple needs to provide a fix for this so I can use wireless again. This should be a known issue, so many people have it.

Ethanee

Level 2

350 points

Dec 11, 2006 7:49 PM in response to Tim Bretl

Today I found that the problem title of the bug report was changed from
External Monitor Causing WindowServer Hangs
to
External Monitor Causing WindowServer Hangs (possible OpenGL wedgie)

I didn't make that change, so I guess it means someone's looking at it, and is also able to replicate the bug. Hopefully it'll be resolved soon. In that report I also pointed to this thread...

Dec 12, 2006 12:03 AM in response to helpful hal

Hi Hal,

As I stated later on in the thread, this hanging still occurs even after a reformatting.

Cheers,
-- George

Dec 12, 2006 12:04 AM in response to Ethanee

Ethanee, you wouldn't happen to have a link to the bug report for viewing would you?

It would be interesting to follow this bug report and sees where it ends up...

Dec 12, 2006 7:38 AM in response to helpful hal

I've been through 2 fresh installs of Tiger and never used the migration assistant. I'm not saying the migration assistant never causes problems. It just doesn't seem to be involved in this particular problem.

Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Dec 12, 2006 9:19 AM in response to Paul Pedrazzi

At work I use ethernet, not airport (and I turn airport off) and still get freezing. So this is not a wireless issue (at least not entirely).

C2D weird locking up/freezing/hanging?