[POLL] Does your 2011 15" Macbook Pro Crash Under Load?

[Littleodie914]

In an effort to narrow down exactly which hardware is plagued by the high-load crashing issue mentioned here, please run the following test, and then vote.

Option 1 - Easiest and preferred for scientific repeatability of testing

1. Open an application that forces the discrete GPU (e.g Photobooth or Cinebench GPU test)
2. Open the Terminal application located in /Applications/Utilities
3. Type the following command and press the enter key: yes > /dev/null &
4. Press the up-arrow key to see the command again and hit enter
5. Repeat the previous step seven more times (a total of 8 times, once per logical core)
6. Wait for computer to hang (usually within seconds)
7. In the case that the computer does not hang, end the test by typing the following command and pressing the enter key: killall yes

(Instructions snagged from the wiki)

 

[exscape]

15"/2.2/6750M

Photo Booth open + compile boost did crash for me a few hours ago.
So far, yes >/dev/null (x8) with Numbers forcing the 6750M on has NOT crashed. Perhaps because more GPU load is needed, rather than just keeping the 6750M enabled.

 

[Mix]

I tried it 8 times and nothing happened then I opened up a few more apps as well as opening gfxcardstatus and switched to discrete i then typed it twice and it froze. I have been getting random freezing from day one when I first turned it on and it asked to take a picture of me for my apple account and it froze so a dissapointment from the first time I ever turned it on.

What does that command do. If I use that command in front of an apple genius and I demonstrate it freezing can they say that im not allowed to use it or something.

 

[exscape]

I tried it 8 times and nothing happened then I opened up a few more apps as well as opening gfxcardstatus and switched to discrete i then typed it twice and it froze. I have been getting random freezing from day one when I first turned it on and it asked to take a picture of me for my apple account and it froze so a dissapointment from the first time I ever turned it on.

What does that command do. If I use that command in front of an apple genius and I demonstrate it freezing can they say that im not allowed to use it or something.

"yes" is a tiny UNIX utility that... prints an endless stream of "y" characters. That's it. It supports changing the printed string, but nothing else.
It might be a good idea to find a more real-world scenario that crashes as well.

 

[wct097]

In an effort to narrow down exactly which hardware is plagued by the high-load crashing issue mentioned here, please run the following test, and then vote.

Option 1 - Easiest and preferred for scientific repeatability of testing

1. Open an application that forces the discrete GPU (e.g Photobooth or Cinebench GPU test)
2. Open the Terminal application located in /Applications/Utilities
3. Type the following command and press the enter key: yes > /dev/null &
4. Press the up-arrow key to see the command again and hit enter
5. Repeat the previous step seven more times (a total of 8 times, once per logical core)
6. Wait for computer to hang (usually within seconds)
7. In the case that the computer does not hang, end the test by typing the following command and pressing the enter key: killall yes

(Instructions snagged from the wiki)

Mine locks up, but not 100% of the time.

What does that command do. If I use that command in front of an apple genius and I demonstrate it freezing can they say that im not allowed to use it or something.

It prints out a continuous stream of 'y' to the console. "> /dev/null" sends the output to a null device rather than the console (basically forces it not to output while running the process).

Don't bother taking it to the genius bar. I don't understand why people are so quick to run back to try to get a replacement on the least little thing. A replacement won't help, it's likely to have the same problem until Apple solves the issue. Just wait and see, or at very worst, return it for a refund and buy something else.

 

[Littleodie914]

"yes" is a tiny UNIX utility that... prints an endless stream of "y" characters. That's it. It supports changing the printed string, but nothing else.
It might be a good idea to find a more real-world scenario that crashes as well.

To be more specific, the command

yes > /dev/null &

continuously prints a bunch of 'y' characters to a fake device that simply consumes them. (It's a file that accepts incoming data, and just discards it.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//dev/null

The '&' symbol at the end allows the process to run in the background continuously until you kill it, or until you close your terminal window.

 

[Mix]

So its not ok to show the apple geniuses this?

 

[wct097]

So its not ok to show the apple geniuses this?

It is OK, but pointless. Apple hasn't released a fix for it. All they'll do is flounder around wasting both their time and yours. Maybe swap out for another MBP with the same issue. Just sit tight and wait for a fix.

 

[lithast]

So its not ok to show the apple geniuses this?

Should be. Just explain that it is simple way to reproduce the load that you would normally put on the machine through other (harder to demonstrate on demand) uses.

 

[wct097]

I would suggest, that a couple more additions to the test be stated.

1. Computer is on A/C power with fully charged battery.
2. Brightness turned to max
3. Keyboard backlight turned to max

If it is a power/voltage issue, these three things could be important to narrowing it down.

 

[wct097]

My 2011, 15" 2.2ghz MBP is currently running Photobooth, and 50x "yes>/dev/null" commands under terminal. SMC shows me at 85*C with fans pegged at 6200rpm. Not locked up after several minutes. Previously it locked up in a matter of seconds. Plugged it, fully charged, keyboard backlight on full, screen brightness on full.

After several minutes I unplugged the machine to let it run on battery, and adjust the screen brightness back up. Still no lockup. Going to let it run the battery down a bit, then plug it back in to see if that changes anything.

edit: For good measure, I fired up an XP VM in Fusion. Still no lockup, going on 10 minutes. Battery life is suffering under load... looks like a little over an hour at this rate. Gonna plug it back in after another couple minutes.

 

[OneMike]

this didn't cause my machine to lockup. I tried the other day as well. Will give it another go tonight.

 

[daneoni]

No crash here.

Even added the playback of a 1080p.avi short, scrolling through a hi-res 5D Mark II photo and switching between Spaces to the mix. Did all these whilst driving an ACD in clamshell mode...no dice.

I also have these running all the time.
-SMC Fan Control (default settings)
-gfxCardStatus (default settings)
-iStat Pro

My sympathy goes out to those who are having the issue. Hopefully 10.6.7 fixes it.

 

[endless17]

No crash here on a stock 15" 2011 MBP. Running 8 instances of the command for 30 minutes to no effect. My temps are as follows - 91C on CPU 1 and CPU 2 while fan is at 4600RPM, 83C when at 6200RPM.

I did clean out and reapply thermal paste from stock, so my thermals may be a bit better than some.

 

[adrian1480]

people should also mention what software they typically have open or running in the background when their crashes happen.

If you're using:

-SMC Fan Control
-gfxCardStatus
-iStat Menus
-iStat Pro
-Fidelia music player

please make a note of it. It's possible that one or some combination of those applications may be causing a problem with the OS. It's possible.

Also, I've had some freezes. None since Saturday morning, but it's better than once a day, which was the average before.

 

[advan031]

2011 2.0ghz and no crash here so far.

 

[liva]

no crash here either

 

[incongruity]

Should be. Just explain that it is simple way to reproduce the load that you would normally put on the machine through other (harder to demonstrate on demand) uses.

There's certainly nothing wrong with showing them that. It's not like dropping the clutch in a manual car or overclocking a processor -- it's just a simple way of pegging the processor that simulates a processor intensive activity. It's single threaded, however, so it needs to be repeated 4x to peg each of the cores.

 

[edifyingGerbil]

i'll try this when I get back onto OS X later

so just to verify, should I leave the graphics card on automatic switching, and turn off iStat etc while terminal is doing its null thing?

EDIT: I just did it, all 8 cores, turned on photobooth first, saw in gfxCardStatus that the discrete graphics was enabled, left it on for about 15 minutes while i made a pot of tea and nothing...

but then again, i have been through a ton of macbook pros for various reasons. i feel somewhat gratified that it was all worth it in the end.

interestingly, software update claims there are no updates for my system...

 

[Exana]

I got 5000 rpm for both fans. 85°C for CPU and 64°C for GPU. Any issue.


I already post it :

This tool runs fine to stress the unit :
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/33632/smallluxgpu/

8 CPU cores @ 100%
GPU core @ 100%

After about 20 minutes CPU * 8 + GPU :
http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/8...0110321225.png

I got much more heat and noise with smallluxgpu than with the test from this file. Btw, your test is really nice, easy to setup and did not required any third parity software.

 

[Penguissimo]

Haven't been able to reproduce this, even under a bunch of different scenarios (all separately):

Extended Starcraft II session
Video encoding (both Handbrake using H.264 and iDVD)
Batch audio encoding (both Pro Tools and XLD)
Installing Win7 in a virtual machine
8x yes > /dev/null &

15" with Radeon 6750M