is your 2011 15 or 17 MBP freezing? [SOLVED by 10.6.7???]

[nebulos]

UPDATE: (3/21) the 10.6.7 update seems like it fixed this issue for many, BUT NOT ALL users. Give it a try and let us know!


**********************original post*****************************************


wanted to see if we could get an idea how widespread this freezing problem is:

"Macbook Pro 2011 17" Hard Freeze" (reports include 15 and 17 models)
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2768351&start=0&tstart=0


someone made a separate wiki page to organize the info in that thread,
including ways to reproduce the problem.

MBP Freeze: http://mbp-freeze.wikispaces.com/


here's the test they recommend: (see page for more)

FREEZE TEST: (Warning! Your Computer May Freeze!!! )

0. if possible, switch to the dedicated GPU, or try with both.

"1. Start Terminal.
2. Execute top in terminal
3. Start new terminal window
4. Execute yes > /dev/null
5. Start new terminal window
6. Execute yes > /dev/null
7. Start new terminal window
8. Execute yes > /dev/null
9. Start new terminal window
10. Execute yes > /dev/null

Wait for computer to hang - usually within seconds."


Reports:
Many report crashing under heavy load: Handbrake, Gaming, ...
Many say they have no problems in Windows (on ATI, even under heavy load) or when stuck on integrated graphics.
Many suspect the culprit is bad OS X drivers for the ATI cards.
Many, in general, seem happy with their machines and there are explicit responses from users with no such issues.

Status:
Apparently, Apple is aware of this problem and has made it a priority. If it is just a driver thing, of course there's a good chance they can fix it and we can all rest easy. (Considering we still don't what the problem is, or when it might be fixed, I'm still interested to see some numbers.)

CREDIT: I had seen the Apple thread previously but I kinda forgot about it till I saw this MR thread, which also links to the wiki page: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1120543/


***********************************

EDIT: There's another poll here that breaks it down by GPU: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1121819/

I know, we've made a bit of a mess, but, still, I encourage everyone to take all such polls.

 

[calderone]

My impression is that this occurs in combination with the AMD graphics enabled.

 

[nebulos]

indeed, i was just adding that. it seems to be a common theory, if not the central one, that this is an issue with the OS X drivers for the ATI cards. thanks!

 

[dekka007]

No Freeze here so far after 20mins.

Running on Discrete graphics on 2.3Ghz 15" Macbook Pro.

CPU Temp: 86c
GPU Temp: 58c
Fans: 6200RPM.

And this was straight after 3 hours of Starcraft 2 on mac osx without a freeze also.

Only thing I can think of is i done the thermal paste remove and reapply with AS5.....Overheating problem with those using stock gunge on the CPU??

 

[fineaddme]

i tried the terminal method from that apple forums thread on my 15" 2.2ghz mbp and had it running for about 5-7mins and i checked temps and fans and only touched 90 degrees maybe once or twice and fans were at around 6200 and i turned ON the discreet gfx and was running two 1080p youtube vids at same time and a vimeo hd vid and had no freeze

i had no idea how to reverse terminal commands so i rebooted

 

[k43l]

My new Macbook Pro freezes when I'm starting a rendering process in Cinema 4D. The CPU temperatures are reaching ~90C very quickly. I think the problem is, that the fans are still running at about 2500rpm, even when the CPU temperature reaches 80C. It seems like the temperature management / SMC is too slow to react, which causes overheating and leads to freezing the system.

My workaround for now is to simply get the fans to run at about 5400rpm before I start the rendering (streaming a 1080p Youtube video is probably the easiest way to get the fans running .

hope this helps

 

[RainCityMacFan]

i tried the terminal method from that apple forums thread on my 15" 2.2ghz mbp and had it running for about 5-7mins and i checked temps and fans and only touched 90 degrees maybe once or twice and fans were at around 6200 and i turned ON the discreet gfx and was running two 1080p youtube vids at same time and a vimeo hd vid and had no freeze

i had no idea how to reverse terminal commands so i rebooted

Same. I ran the terminal commands from the Wiki page on my 15" 2.2ghz MBP with only integrated (on dynamic switching) for a minute or two. The temperature started soaring. I manually switched to AMD and no freeze either. Switched back to dynamic, opened up chrome and went on YouTube, it switches to dynamic and no freeze.

Rather than reboot, I just killed the "yes" processes in the activity monitor. It's all good now.

Perhaps this is a over-heating issue? Or a faulty card?

 

[wct097]

That test didn't cause a lockup, even after I fired up photobooth. The boost compile test did. WoW has caused it to lock up a couple times (2x in maybe 8 hours or play time). Also note similar issue occasionally when shutting down Windows 7 in Bootcamp. Machine hangs on the shutdown screen and fans go to full. Forced to press power button to shut down.

 

[Blipp]

Gaming yes, rendering no

I'm running a 17" 2.3GHz MBP

I've experienced crashing on several occasions in Left 4 Dead 2 (maybe 6 total) and only once with Starcraft 2 but never with handbrake, FCP or After Effects CS5.

I now make sure I have SMC Fan Control turned to max before I start a game or render and it keeps the internals from rising above 150º-170º which seem to be well within its standard operating ranges. The fans are loud as all get out but the machine hasn't been locking up since.

 

[Teggy]

No (15" 2.2), but I'm a little embarrassed to say that the majority of my use with it since I got it last Wednesday has been playing Rift in Win7

I played almost the entire day yesterday, fans blowing hard, so I have to imagine this is a software, not hardware issue.

 

[daneoni]

No freeze here

 

[jmoretti]

My 2011 MBP does seem to hangup excessively. It will do it at random; however, it doesn't normally seem to doit while under load (IE rendering in FCE or video converting in MPEG Streamclip). It my lock while surfing in Chrome or running a TM backup. The primary aggravator for me seems to be Pandora's Adobe Air app. If I run this app I can almost guarantee the computer will freeze in an hour or two. My configuration is for all intents is identical on a 15" MBP 2,2 and I could leave the OS on that machine running for over a month with no problems.

 

[M Powered]

no freeze here, I went and opened 2 more yes terminal screens on top of the 4. Ran a 1080p movie as well, not a single hiccup.

 

[paulrbeers]

I haven't tried the above issue, but I have problems with when I leave the lid open and it goes to sleep it will not come back out of sleep. To fix this, I have mine set to Discrete Graphics always on (except when on battery when i switch it to integrated) which apparently is also a trick that works for this freezing issue (at least some report that works).

 

[New Account]

I voted "NO, and i ran the test! ", while on the discrete graphics card.

2011 MacBook Pro 15" 2.0 GHz AMD Radeon 6490M.

 

[nebulos]

thanks for participating everyone!

it looks like the 10.6.7 update might have taken care of this. Let us know if it worked for you!

THNXXX!

 

[New Account]

Not beeing to familiar with Terminal commands, what exactly did the command yes > /dev/null do?

 

[binary10]

thanks for participating everyone!

it looks like the 10.6.7 update might have taken care of this. Let us know if it worked for you!

THNXXX!

Update 10.6.7 did appear to last longer on my MBP, but by 9.30am this morning it had frozen twice.

I had already raised a apple care call about this problem after having 5 freezes in 1 day - So I took the decision to go and get my 2.3 AG 15" replaced today.

 

[mrwonkers]

All good 10.6.7 has fixed the issue here

 

[boris42]

Not beeing to familiar with Terminal commands, what exactly did the command yes > /dev/null do?

Absolutely nothing while eating up your cpu cycles by being repetitively affirmative.

 

[wct097]

Have not been able to reproduce a lockup with 10.6.7, though it wasn't 100% before.

 

[Tadros]

All good 10.6.7 has fixed the issue here

I noticed in your signature you have 16GB of RAM in your 2011 Macbook Pro. How is that? Have you ran into any problems with the system not being able to handle that much RAM? Where did you go for the upgrade, and how much was it?

 

[greytmom]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8F190)

Mine didn't freeze before update (Photobooth test) and runs fine after the update as well.

 

[mulo]

I noticed in your signature you have 16GB of RAM in your 2011 Macbook Pro. How is that? Have you ran into any problems with the system not being able to handle that much RAM? Where did you go for the upgrade, and how much was it?

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Apple_MacBook_MacBook_Pro/Upgrade/DDR3_1333MHz_SDRAM

 

[JasonH42]

10.6.7 has NOT fixed the issue here. 2.2GHz 15" running 10.6.7 just locked up under load, running an XP virtual machine using VirtualBox which itself has serious performance issues with the 64bit MacOS kernel.