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2011 MacBook Pros Crashing Under Load?

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Apr 12, 2001
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A lengthy discussion thread on Apple's discussion forum reveals an issue that some new 2011 MacBook Pro owners have been having with their new machines. A MacRumors discussion thread also mirrors some of the complaints. Forum user lithast describes his situation:
Received a new 15" 2.2/6750M MBP last week and have been having some issues with the machine locking up under load.

For example if I boot up a VM using Fusion the temperature will spike up above 90 degrees and the machine will lock up most of the time. The machine appears locked (cannot move the mouse at all and keyboard is unresponsive). I can SSH into the machine still and it still is running however. This is one example but it will freeze under a number of circumstances where the CPU/GPU load is very high (rendering, DJ Software, compiling so far in my travels).
Click to expand...
There's been speculation that the issue is related to the graphics driver or power management, and it seems the issue is reliably reproducible. A wiki has been organized to document the issue. Apple is reportedly aware of the issue, but no reliable solution has been provided.

Article Link: 2011 MacBook Pros Crashing Under Load?
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/03/21/2011-macbook-pros-crashing-under-load/
very interesting, my new 13inch pro has occasionally frozen up after lock-up. wonder if there is any correlation? anybody know if apple would do anything if i called?
 
I have not had this problem on mine thankfully but I will have to do some load testing tomorrow. Hopefully for those affected, this can be fixed with some sort of software update.
 
good to know. I'm definitely gonna wait to see how this turns out before I recommend them to my parents
 
...heat...

to all the naysayers: told ya.

firmware update on the way...

Edit: or 10.6.7 will adjust this issue
 
I haven't any problems yet either for it freezing however I have noticed that while watching 1080p youtube videos my 13" i7 tends to have the fan running after the second or third one I watch.
 
Issues here. It's happened running handbrake and running Civ 5 under Steam. Seems to be triggered or happen coincidentally around when I switch Spaces (A couple of times it froze up in the middle of animating switching between spaces), but I suspect that's just some interaction with the switch from discrete to integrated graphics (or vice versa). It's frozen up around 6 times since I got my 17" 2.3GHz/8GB/512SSD last week. In all but one case the mouse cursor keeps moving. I seem to be able to ssh in (I didn't try it the first few freezes though).

For those who say they haven't seen it, there is a test using a compile with photobooth running that they've posted in the apple forums; every person who's tried it has had the problem.
 
No problems here:

2.3 GHz 15"

But I know why! I have disabled "Automatic graphics switching" and this is confirmed to fix the problem.
 
2011 17" MacBook Pro 2.2GHz here.

I haven’t had any problem yet, it does tend to get warm but that is about it. I’ve ripped a few DVDs with Handbrake with no issue. Apple will probably address this with a firmware update to get the two fans to run faster than the current settings.
 
No problems with my 13" but it is probably just a 15" issue.

This reminds me of the first gen MacBooks that would shutdown under load if the temps were elevated. It turned out that the temperature sensor was not calibrated correctly and a firmware update fixed it. Mine was one of the models affected and it worked perfectly after that.

Just a thought.
 
No problems here with my ThunderBook. I've pushed this thing as far as I can get it to go. Max settings in Portal and Bioshock, rendering 1080p video in Premiere Pro and doing all sorts of other fun things in Photoshop (like editing 18mp RAW image files, Illustrator, and InDesign CS5 while it's working. It's a beast of a machine. Only time I see a beach ball is when my external hard drive wakes back up when I'm connecting over the AirDisk server and when the Flash plugin crashes in Firefox. Otherwise it handles just about anything I can throw at it and then asks for more. I'm beyond happy with it's performance so far and so far have no reason to believe that this machine won't be my workhorse for years to come.

Too bad for those who have machines with problems. If there is a specific way to get this to happen, let me know because I'd love to test it. I'll download whatever software or test suite does it. Hopefully it's just a software issue for those involved, but seeing how my machine gets a beating without issue, it seems unlikely.

Edit to add: this wouldn't have anything to do with OS X running 64-bit mode by default on these new systems, would it?
 
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Waiting for Lion to be released before I jump on these new MacBook Pro's. Hopefully all of the kinks will be worked out by then.
 
my guess is it is the same crap that been a problem for a while. That is Piss poor application of the thermal paste.
 
macduke said:
If there is a specific way to get this to happen, let me know because I'd love to test it. I'll download whatever software or test suite does it. Hopefully it's just a software issue for those involved, but seeing how my machine gets a beating without issue, it seems unlikely.
Click to expand...

Go to: http://mbp-freeze.wikispaces.com/

See "how to re-create the crash."

37 pages on the apple forums - everyone who's tried it seems to have the issue.
 
I haven't noticed anything (see below in my sig) but I always keep mine bellow 65° C with SMC fan control I don't normally need more than 4000 Rpm either
 
Rodimus Prime said:
my guess is it is the same crap that been a problem for a while. That is Piss poor application of the thermal paste.
Click to expand...

It doesn't seem to be temperature related - disabling automatic graphics switching (which generally makes the temperatures hotter) seems to solve it for most (but clearly not all) people.
 
Bonch said:
Oh well, should have bought a PC.

Just kidding, calm down.
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I built my own PC 3 months ago (I do not do laptops for I get them for my job). It has not crashed or frozen even once. Obviously - no viruses (it's Windows 7)
 
Why is it only the new range that seems to be having all the problems?

Home Sharing, Locking up? Why wouldnt the older models have these same problems?

Is it because of the new i7/5/3's?
 
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