2011 MacBook Pros Crashing Under Load?

[emaja]

When a Mac release has problems it's news - sometimes even reaching the NY Times and WSJ, and certainly lights up all the enthusiast sites. Especially since Apple computers are the prestige products in the PC world. And is more easily identifiable since Apple only has a few major SKU's in release at any given time (with fewer custom options for most of them than Dell or HP, etc.).

It also has to do with expectations. Apple has done a masterful job of getting their message out where Microsoft's ads seem like damage control.

For the record, Win7 is pretty darn good and give OS X a decent run for the money. I have just chosen Macs.

 

[netcastle]

When a Mac release has problems it's news - sometimes even reaching the NY Times and WSJ, and certainly lights up all the enthusiast sites. Especially since Apple computers are the prestige products in the PC world. And is more easily identifiable since Apple only has a few major SKU's in release at any given time (with fewer custom options for most of them than Dell or HP, etc.).

I made this point earlier for all the windows blowhards who pollute this forum. Everybody expects windows based pc's to have issues. So when they do (and they most certainly have a lot of them) no one gives a ******.

 

[inlovewithi]

How come Macs and Iphones always seem to have a new problem, defect, every week, yet fanboys act like they are immune to problems??? Seriously?

 

[calderone]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A293 Safari/6531.22.7)

This issue affects the entire 6750M equipped lineup. The people reporting no problems are reporting falsely (think having multiple apps open means it is fine), are doing the tests wrong or are in denial.

I have tested 30 machines spanning different build dates, all of them have the issue.

I'm not in denial and I followed the crash test to the tee. I haven't had any problems. Not a single one. I push this thing hard. Maybe those of us who aren't having problems are the lucky ones then.

I certainly don't mean to understate the issue for those of you who are having problems, but I can tell you I am not a liar. I think its a little immature for you to insinuate that those of us not reporting problems are.

Seriously, 30 machines? Really? C'mon.

Yes, 30.

 

[mBox]

How come Macs and Iphones always seem to have a new problem, defect, every week, yet fanboys act like they are immune to problems??? Seriously?

haha funny you had to ask that considering your on a mac forum
just topic of the day folks...these arent the droids your looking for

 

[Edmonal]

I got a virus today, Windows 7. Luckily I'm not stupid enough to extract it. I do, however, browse sites that can get you infected. Most people wouldn't have this issue and would never see a virus.

I'm not sure why you think Windows 7 is virus free, far from it. I've had at least 3 detections in the past 6 months. Quite simple to manage malware, considering the latest apps do a great job detecting / quarantining threats.

The things you speak about stability, though, are true. Just as stable as OSX. In fact, I had more system instabilities with my iMac. I never have had a blue screen or any type of system instability on my Windows 7 machine.

Depends on the A/V software you're using. Most of the small players will show a lot of viruses, but the bigger A/V weed out a lot of the false positives. Also newer viruses execute in memory after visiting a rogue website, so it becomes harder for the A/V software to respond to that.

As for stability in Windows 7, it really depends on hardware/driver configuration. There's still an issue with Microsoft documenting their APIs for hardware vendors, and hardware vendors taking the due time and care to write proper drivers. I still have to reboot the Windows 7 box on occasion, which is more often then I boot the OS X box, on the other hand my Debian box never needs a reboot.

 

[gohanmzt]

Quote:
Originally Posted by lilo777 View Post
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)

that's impressive. Have you turned it on yet?

I can top that. I built a windows 7 PC 5 months ago, turned it on, and it has been running 24/7 since then modeling and rendering in Maya, photo retouching in Photoshop CS4, website design in Dreamweaver, music playing in the background and it hasn't crashed, frozen, catched a virus or slowed down.

 

[illi4ever]

no problem whatsoever on my MBP 17"

 

[mBox]

I can top that. I built a windows 7 PC 5 months ago, turned it on, and it has been running 24/7 since then modeling and rendering in Maya, photo retouching in Photoshop CS4, website design in Dreamweaver, music playing in the background and it hasn't crashed, frozen, catched a virus or slowed down.

really in Maya? must be low polies cause I can crash a BOXX 8400s with an NVIDIA 5600 and 16GB of RAM in Windows 7 64bit edition But then, I feed Maya 2011 with 1.5mill polies for breakfast
Seriously though, if your not crashing it then consider yourself lucky or your not putting that app to its potential.

 

[Blipp]

Only with video games

I've only gotten crashes while playing games but not at all using Handbrake, Compressor or FCP.

Up until now I've just attributed the locking up on the games themselves needing to be patched but I'll need to try this force crash method when I get home.

 

[omenatarhuri]

Civilization 5 has crashed twice on me when exiting. Very bad, in fact so bad that even pressing power button down for 5 seconds or so didn't shutdown, just an odd click sound.

It runs bloody hot when playing. 2.2ghz - 6750.

It's hard to see how Apple would go about fixing this... at least without decreasing voltages/frequencies, or even further increasing the propellor speed (please no!).

 

[LarryC]

You're also not supposed to buy a car built on a Monday or Friday.

My dad was a mechanic too and said, "Sometimes you just get a piece of *****."

Apparently that information used to be listed somewhere around the door on a metal plate or sticker. I'm pretty sure that they don't offer that information any more though. Too bad.

I think your Father was correct about that. Sometimes you do get a lemon! It just happens.

 

[mrwonkers]

2.2 i7 6750 MacBook Pro

yes > /dev/null &
for a total of 8 times, once per logical core
Discrete 6750M running

My MacBook Pro FAILS

yes > /dev/null &
for a total of 8 times, once per logical core
Discrete Intel HD Graphics 3000 running


My MacBook Pro PASSES

So I'd say its a software issue hopefully....
The last day in my 14 day return window is in 2 days.....

Hmmm I really like this MBP but if this could be more than a software issue maybe I should return it now........... ****


UPDATE:
After installing the 10.6.7 update for 2011 MacBook Pros :

yes > /dev/null &
for a total of 8 times, once per logical core
Discrete 6750M running

My MacBook Pro PASSES

yes > /dev/null &
for a total of 8 times, once per logical core
Discrete Intel HD Graphics 3000 running


My MacBook Pro PASSES


So it looks like Apple have sorted this issue out very quickly, I am very happy that I don't have to return my newly purchased MacBook Pro.

 

[hammie14]

2.2 i7 6750 MacBook Pro

yes > /dev/null &
for a total of 8 times, once per logical core
Discrete 6750M running

My MacBook Pro FAILS

yes > /dev/null &
for a total of 8 times, once per logical core
Discrete Intel HD Graphics 3000 running


My MacBook Pro PASSES

So I'd say its a software issue hopefully....
The last day in my 14 day return window is in 2 days.....

Hmmm I really like this MBP but if this could be more than a software issue maybe I should return it now........... ****

100% the same on my 2.3 I7 15" (Formatted and reinstalled OSX too)

 

[Benzyl]

This is looking more like a software issue then a hardware issue from my testing. I have been running Prime95 (CPU Torture Test), X-Plane Demo (Flight Simulator) and World of Warcraft in various configurations on both OSX and Windows and I cannot get the Windows Bootcamp to fail during nearly identical tasks. These same tests I can make the Mac fail over and over again.

Hardware:
Macbook Pro 15" 2011 ATI 6750M GPU

If you would like to replicate my testing:
Download and Install:

1. Prime95
2. X-Plane
3. Temperature Monitor


1.Start up the temperature monitor to get some baseline numbers
2.Start the Prime95 in CPU torture test mode
3.Record the highest temp after a few minutes of running Prime95
4.Start the X-Plane Demo and fly around, you will probably freeze up pretty quickly.

I have found switching applications with Spaces or just Command-Tab also increases the chances of a freeze.


The nice thing about Prime95, X-Plane and Warcraft is they are available for both Windows and Mac.

I tested both Wow And X-plane with and without Prime95 running on my laptop running a bootcamped Windows 7 64-bit and could not get the machine to crash or lock-up. Doing the exact same tasks on the Mac I can reproduce the error consistently. Since the machine is working as expected in Windows it is an OS or Driver issue not a hardware flaw.

Since the failure occurs most often when switching the foreground task it also points to a software limitation.


I will try to post my full testing results soon.

 

[calderone]

This is really easy.

All you need to do is:

1. Open Photobooth
2. Launch Terminal
3. Input yes > /dev/null
4. Repeat number 3 up to 7 more times

Failure will likely be swift.

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

This is really easy.

All you need to do is:

1. Open Photobooth
2. Launch Terminal
3. Input yes > /dev/null
4. Repeat number 3 up to 7 more times

Failure will likely be swift.

We just halted our new deployment. 25 out of 25 failed.

 

[Benzyl]

This is really easy.

All you need to do is:

1. Open Photobooth
2. Launch Terminal
3. Input yes > /dev/null
4. Repeat number 3 up to 7 more times

Failure will likely be swift.

I cannot get it to lock up or crash running prime95 or the yes test by itself even if the CPUs are in the 97-99 degrees Celsius range for over an hour if I don't run a graphical application at the same time. I only get the problems when I try to push the ATI card at the same time as I am pushing the CPU. I guess the Photobooth pushes the videocard enough to cause the issue in your test. I can get failure running just high end games after 15-20 minutes, but if I run the yes test or Prime and run a game at the same time the failure happens quickly. Sometimes the game doesn't finish loading before failure.

I don't know if that indicates a cooling issue with the CPU on some machines, or if it is a hit or miss kind of thing with the CPU handling large amounts of heat. I do think there is definitely a issue with the AMD GPU and Mac OSX.

 

[nSchmidt]

Issues here. It's happened running handbrake and running Civ 5 under Steam.

I'm running 2.3 Quad 15inch. I've had about 5 or 6 freeze ups.

I can induce the freeze up by just encoding with a movie with handbrake and watching HULU in Safari. I can also induce it by rendering a movie in iMovie and watching something with heavy flash.

It's super annoying, the mouse still moves around, but I can't click on anything and the fans spin really fast and loud.

 

[Steve121178]

How come Macs and Iphones always seem to have a new problem, defect, every week, yet fanboys act like they are immune to problems??? Seriously?

This is the heart of Fanboy Central. It's good entertainment.

 

[JTToft]

This issue affects the entire 6750M equipped lineup. The people reporting no problems are reporting falsely (think having multiple apps open means it is fine), are doing the tests wrong or are in denial.

- Being one of the apparently few people who have not had serious issues with these machines, I can report that I have performed the suggested tests (except the Xcode one) multiple times. I managed to get mine to crash one time that was definitely because of the yes > /dev/null & command (I ran the command 9 times). I have, before this one instance (and after), done the same thing 10-15 times, and I only managed to crash it once. Statistically, that is negligible evidence, I think.

I will still be happy to perform other tests, if you recommend any!
As long as they are not too inconvenient. Just let me know.

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

- Being one of the apparently few people who have not had serious issues with these machines, I can report that I have performed the suggested tests (except the Xcode one) multiple times. I managed to get mine to crash one time that was definitely because of the yes > /dev/null & command (I ran the command 9 times). I have, before this one instance (and after), done the same thing 10-15 times, and I only managed to crash it once. Statistically, that is negligible evidence, I think.

I will still be happy to perform other tests, if you recommend any!
As long as they are not too inconvenient. Just let me know.

We just had a machine running FCP and some third party plugins KP. Did the same actions on an older MBP and it ran perfectly fine.

 

[CANEHDN]

My brother is having the issue. When he plays starcraft and quits the app, 90% of the time the system will freeze. He has the 17" model. Just got it last week.

 

[WillEH]

I did exactly what the instructions say and my computer froze, and the my temp reading before it crashed when up to 92! so yeah, hope this helps a little..

 

[35g700]

So much for that old phrase that "Macs just work"

It sounds like the issue is when the OS has to switch graphics chips which could very well be a driver issue with the new AMD GPU's and the new style Sandy Bridge GPU's, AMD/ATi has never had as good of driver support as nVidia. I wonder if the problem occurs in Windows or Linux. I hope it's simply a driver issue or their could be a recall.