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HELP Brand New MBP freezing

V

vlug

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 18, 2009
276
186
Hi All,
Im typing this on my brand new MBP and boy was I looking forward to getting this however the novelty has worn right off with this thing freezing on me.

Symptoms:
Had the MBP for about 7 hours yesterday and probably experienced about 1 crash every hour.

Originally it crashed when I opened up bluetooth to turn it off.

After that every other crash seems to be when I put the cursor over an Icon in the dock or when I right click any item in the dock, be it safari, twitter app, sys prefs.

The computer will freeze the mouse icon will disappear and nothing will get it out of the freeze but to hard reboot via the power button.

Installed Apps since getting it
Only things I have installed are:
VLC Player
Logitech Control Center for a performance MX mouse. (However I experienced a crash before installing this if my memory serves me right.)
Twitter App from official app store
Flash Player from Adobe
Microsoft Silverlight for Sky Go Player

Things I've tried
Rang apple they said definitely won't be hardware it has to be software.
Made me do a disk repair and a permissions repair and made sure I had all the updates which I did as soon as this MBP booted up.

Once we did the above they said call back if it happened again, which it did. So called back and got a lady who said definitely software related lets reinstall the OS and see if that solves it.

So I have reinstalled the OS Lion and haven't done any updates yet but decided to watch a movie, halfway through the movie I paused VLC moved my mouse to the dock area and it froze.

Additional info
When I first ran the machine setup allowed me to choose my language and then the next screen had a background picture and an Apple voice explaining voice commands but nothing showed on screen. I originally thought that was ok as we were learning voice commands so I continued to try press the keyboard shortcuts to skip this but it wouldn't let me and hanged at this point so I think it crashed on the instal boot up out of the box also.

Obviously after apple explained to me how to reinstall the OS i realised what the correct process was and noticed the initial setup didn't go to plan.

Ive done some googling but struggling to find people with the same problem. Can anyone please advise.

Shall I ask for a replacement outright?
Do you think its software or Lion teething problems?
Anyone else had similar freezes?
Could it be graphics related? weird it happens when I go towards the dock.

Specs
Apple Macbook Pro, 17" Hi Res, 128GB SSD, 4GB Ram

Any advice welcome please, if you got this far in the post thank you, I know long posts can be boring to read.
 
Check Console.app for messages related to crash.

Try creating a new user and see if it happens there.

Also try booting in safe mode (hold shift at start up) see if it happens there.

Sounds like bad RAM or HDD to me.
 
If it only ever happens when you click on the dock, it's going to be software. That being said, it's probably not going to be software. That is, there are going to be other ways to make it happen.

When you call Apple Support, their job is to try their hardest to fix it in software. You being on the phone with them for ten hours costs Apple less than it costs to replace a hard drive.

Being a bench tech myself, I find that the vast majority of problems are hardware. There are plenty of software problems out there, but if the system is hard freezing, it's almost certainly hardware.
 
I appreciate all the replies, being new to all things Mac I didn't know Console.app existed so I will be checking that the next time it crashes.

That being said it hasn't yet crashed today touchwood, but that doesn't fill me with confidence after day 1's experience.

Hansr is there any part of the Console.app log pages I should be looking at? specific words like the obvious (crash) or codes?

Detrius the majority have been when accessing the dock but yeah it has happened when opening bluetooth and I believe on the initial setup.

So lets say it crash's again what do you guys suggest? Shall I just ask Apple to replace to save all the hassle of troubleshooting?

Im in the UK so wondering how Apple will play this as its a custom spec, will they make me send this back wait until received then send another out or will they do a swap at the door?

My nearest Apple store is about 30 miles away so if I have to go there will they want to repair it or will they replace it there spec for spec?

Thanks for the responses. :)
 
take it in to the apple store, But remember to make an appointment first!

If they find a problem with it, they will most likely exchange it for you on the spot. So sucks that its some drive away but at least your problem will be solved.

They will probably givey ou the same model but I have heard some weird stories around here, just don't get your hopes up for anything more.

Sorry that you didn't get a good first experience with your mac :(
 
i noticed you said adobe flash... did you happen to install any update pop ups from adobe lately?
 
Really sorry also you have not had a good experience. My 2007 iMac is rock-steady, i know it does not help you but keep the faith!

I would give Apple a chance to resolve the issues, be it on the phone or at the Apple store. Do the troubleshooting a bit, don't waste a week on this, but go through the steps and if it does not work they will find a solution.

Funny story; few years back, university student with macbook pro calls Apple 6 months after applecare expired. Macbook Pro is dead.

Guy at Apple on the phone says

Apple guy: "ok, you have the previous gen of the macbook pro, it's defective, but you no longer have a warranty. Sooo, you would like?

university student: "euh, I would like?"

apple guy: "you would like?"

University student: " i would like a replacement?"

Apple guy: "let me transfer you to the dept who will ship you free of charge the latest gen macbook pro"

I have not encountered many companies who treat their customers so well

Best of luck!
 
It's almost definitely a hardware problem by the sounds of it. Send it back to Apple, they'll repair or replace it.
 
vlug said:
Hansr is there any part of the Console.app log pages I should be looking at? specific words like the obvious (crash) or codes?
Click to expand...

Not really just if it crashes again make sure it's the first thing you open and paste the last say 5 min here. Maybe it will identify what's causing the issue.
 
Sounds like Lion to me. Crashing in Lion is pretty much a big right now and we can only hope that Apple will address it shortly.
 
also try Oynx. It's a maintenance program for mac. I use it whenever my computer starts to freeze up or slow down. It's a long shot, but worth a try.
 
Apple should really be repairing or exchange it for you since you only had it for such a short amount of time -.-
may most likely to do with lion imo, due to many complaints about this os x....
 
Last edited:
B.LI said:
Apple should really be repairing or exchange it for you since you only had it for such a short amount of time -.-
may most likely to do with lion imo, due to many complaints about this os x....
Click to expand...

I really do think that it is Lion rather than the OS. However, I also wonder if Apple realizes that they are taking a hit with their hardware for the OS tossing kernel panics. Most people believe that kernel panics are mostly a hardware issue rather than bugs in an OS.

This is what happens when a company grows too fast. The public starts to demand new releases frequently and quality control starts to go as the company tries to keep up. We have seen it with iPhones, iPads, iMacs and now OSX. What is next?
 
Well I erased the HD setup a nice new clean install and did nothing but mess around in the OS trying to recreate the crash. I opened:

Safari
Console
iCal
System Prefs and then tried to close iCal down and it crashed!! :(

So with a clean install and doing something so simple I have called Apple up and they have organised a replacement. It's just a shame it has to come from Shanghi to the UK and will probably not be here until the 11th October.

In the meantime they wanted to charge my card for a 2nd £2200 for the replacement which I argued through successfully as my Credit card cant take 2 hits of this amount this month and after that argument they said once I received the new MBP and I was happy with it reply to an email I was going to receive from the advisor for a free accessory for my troubles.

Better than nothing I suppose, I just want a working Laptop.

I will stick with it, bad first experience but I have friends that love their MBP's and in the few days I have spent without crashing the Trackpad is great fun the gestures that is and the multiple desktops etc is all fun. I think i'll enjoy a working Mac.

Thanks for all the replies, just hoping my replacement turns up in good order :)
 
Last edited:
MacBook Pro Crashes

I am also new to my MacBook Pro (about 4 weeks new), and I am having the same problems. However, I am not running Lion but Snow Leopard, so the problems are not confined to the the Lion X operating system. Given this thread, I guess my only alternatative it to take the machine back to the Apple store, which fortunately close by. COOPIX
 
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