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dvaz2000

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 26, 2006
2
0
I have now had my MacBook Pro 2.16 for 5 days and was wondering if people are having problems with their computer freezing. Mine has frozen up 6 TIMES! Three while I was using iPhoto! I can't force quit, in fact I can't get the computer to reboot. The light for sleep mode just flashes repeatedly. I ran the system disk one time and that allowed me to reboot. I used iPhoto for another 30 minutes then it froze again! Now it won't do anything! This is my 6th Mac, my 4th "Power" Book. So far the Intel Mac doesn't look good. Reminds me of a Compaq i mistakenly purchased in 1998!
 
Suddenly working again

Thanks guys for the advice. It suddenly started working again. I am wondering.....it seems to run fairly hot temperature wise and that is when it freezes. I will try to run it again today and see if the same thing happens....if so will probably need to send back.
 
New Macbook Pro freezes; And (my) Macbook Pro doesn't read black memorex cds

Similar issue here. I have a brand new MBP 15 " 2.2 GHz with an upgrade to 160 GB at 7200 rpm.
One of the first times I ran Safari I had the freezing problem. It has since happened throughout the week approximately 4 times with only Safari open (with a strong internet connection) and I had to force shutdown each time.

I have another issue, this one with my cd drive, it won't read black memorex cds. I tested the cds on a friends imac and they work fine so it appears to be a drive issue and Apple is taking the computer back.
I'm thinking of getting a desktop because I fear the freezing issuse will continue if I get the same spec's on the same MBP model. You never know and I'm not that tec savy to look into the log file whatnot to investigate the cause of the problem.
 
Thanks guys for the advice. It suddenly started working again. I am wondering.....it seems to run fairly hot temperature wise and that is when it freezes. I will try to run it again today and see if the same thing happens....if so will probably need to send back.

If that happens ever again, call Apple first. Let them know so that if anything worse happens later, they'd know it. (Once you call them, you're in their SYSTEM. :eek:) Particularly, if you have Apple Care, it's a must. Let them know.

Cheers. :apple:
 
Hmm.....

MacBook Pro Freezing....
Mac Pro & Power Mac Forum...

Just kidding.... I know people make mistakes, I don't want to sound like the wannabe moderators that comment on everyone's repeated or misplaced thread, but has nothing worthwhile to add.

There are two types of technology... the ones that work perfectly, and the ones that are a horror and obviously defective. I wouldn't wait or try to fix anything if your light is flashing repeatedly, or even if you fixed it. If there is an Apple Store near you than take advantage of that warranty and send it back.
 
I'm also having the same problem. It's only happened two or three times though, but even that's unaccepatable. I wonder if this is related to the airport kernel panics people have ben mentioning. There's no particular program that makes it happen (VLC and Safari have both done it...) The mouse won't move. If there's sound playing, it stutters until I hold down the power key.

I hope this is a software issue.
 
This isn't a kernal panic though... Just a hard freeze. It's cost me my work a few times now. Wondering if I should return it...
 
Okay Sonic, well check Console all the same. If it's a problem caused by a third party app or device then returning the machine won't help at all.
 
My work MacBook Pro is freezing too. Random freezes where the cursor hangs and you can't do nothing but a hard reset. I have completely reinstalled the OS, cleared the PRAM, replaired the disk with Disk Utility and checked the hardware with the Apple Diagnostic tool and Tech Tool Pro. Many people are complaining online but no one seems to have a fix.

Thank god I don't have this problem with my home system that I bought myself. But it is truly embarrassing to have a Mac freeze in a room of Windows users.
 
Mine has frozen several times (only a week old) as well.

Twice when I was plugging in an external monitor and USB keyboard / mouse combo.....
 
I too have the 160GB 7200RPM hard drive upgrade and am running 2 1GB sticks of memory (Samsung brand).

I am on the phone with Apple support and they don't seem to have any ideas.
 
I had the same problem with my brand new Santa Rosa 15" MBP freezing periodically. Since getting it, I had never had more than 7 days of uptime, with 4 or 5 being the norm. The machine would freeze with only the mouse still responding. But nothing else would work. I couldn't switch apps, couldn't quit anything, the Finder wouldn't respond, and the machine wouldn't recognize mouse-clicks or keyboard input. It would just let me move the mouse back and forth... and nothing else.

A closer look at the logs showed that the WindowServer was crashing. And it appeared to be related to having an external monitor plugged in. Of the 5 freezes I've had, all but one of them was while my external monitor was plugged in and the machine set to Extend Display. The other time the machine froze, the monitor wasn't plugged in at the moment, but it had been earlier. The Crash Logs showed that even though the monitor wasn't plugged in, CoreGraphics wasn't "releasing" it properly... leading to a crash of the WindowServer.

After looking at the logs and researching it, the conclusion me and another Mac tech came to, is that the NVIDIA drivers that ship with this generation of the MBP are a bit on the buggy side... leading to the conflict with an external monitor. Since I stopped using my monitor, my machine has been running without a hitch, freeze, or hiccup of any kind.

Your mileage may vary...
 
Interesting, I too have the Santa Rosa MBP but my system freezes totally, I can't do anything. Everything is displayed on the screen but the mouse arrow is frozen on the screen. There isn't one key command I can do to bring it back other than pressing the power button and doing a hard crash of the system.

The freezing of my system happens with an external monitor and utilizing only the laptop screen. It is very inconsistent.
 
Interesting, I too have the Santa Rosa MBP but my system freezes totally, I can't do anything. Everything is displayed on the screen but the mouse arrow is frozen on the screen. There isn't one key command I can do to bring it back other than pressing the power button and doing a hard crash of the system.

The freezing of my system happens with an external monitor and utilizing only the laptop screen. It is very inconsistent.

There is one other obscure issue I've found can cause this behavior... especially when the mouse has stopped moving too. That seems to be the difference between that and the issue with the external monitor.

Are you running VMware or Parallels? And if so, do you have FileVault turned on? And if the answer is yes to the above two, is your virtual machine files in your Home folder? If so, that's the problem. Neither of those programs play nice with FileVault. Your virtual machine files have to be outside of your Home folder... or else it will be one hard crash after another, and usually ones a lot worse than the external monitor issue.
 
My work MacBook Pro is freezing too. Random freezes where you can't do anything but a hard reset. I have completely reinstalled the OS, cleared the PRAM, repaired the disk with Disk Utility and checked the hardware with the Apple Diagnostic tool and Tech Tool Pro.

I have exactly the same problem. I have gone a bit further by using Disk Warrior and ensuring everything is completely up to date. I have noticed as of late that the freeze is occurring more when the monitor goes dark into monitor sleep mode and then when I try to use the computer again I get the spinning ball of death and can't actually make any changes to my programs. The cursor still works though; the machine would freeze with only the mouse still responding. But nothing else would work. I couldn't switch apps, couldn't quit anything, the Finder wouldn't respond, and the machine wouldn't recognize mouse-clicks or keyboard input. It would just let me move the mouse back and forth... and nothing else. I have combed the net and repair manuals looking for a fix.

I speculate that it might be a problem with firmware or SMC or some other default settings that wouldn't be corrected by re-installing OS as that did not fix the problem. I am getting desperate :eek: Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I have a MacBook Pro 17 purchased exactly one year ago. This is my first Mac since the 90s and as such I am a bit of a newbie on Terminal and any internal coding so if you could keep that in mind :)

Some additional information:

- when I have to do a hard shut down, I have a very hard time re-starting the computer i.e., I have to reset pram, go into single user mode, use install disk, and so on until at some point the computer recognizes the hard drive and finally re-starts
- I have not been able to use Open Firmware since this problem has started
- I have prepared a firmware update disk to re-install firmware (I do have the latest version already installed), however have not been able to emulate the correct conditions as described by Apple in order to carry out the re-install
- The computer heats up quickly when in this stasis mode as it looks like cooling system is not being controlled properly and/or working
- When I do get the computer to work everything works great until the next freeze up (can be several days later) happens again
- This started happening Sunday Sept 17th
 
Same problem

Has anyone called Apple on this? I'm glad to see I am not the only one with the problem. Also, has anyone reinstalled and run on a previous version of the OS X to see if that fixes the problem?

I have the exact same problems with my MBP. I did not buy AppleCare and I am now out of warranty. I think my problem started with 10.4.10. I originally thought it was my external monitor that was causing some sort of heat problem but I still have the random lockups without the external monitor. It seems to come in batches too. I might lock up 5 times in a day and then not have a lockup for 2 weeks. Most, but not all, of my lockups have been when I minimize an application right when the genie effect kicks in. I've also had it happen a number of times when the Parallels cube spins. I don't think mine is related to heat. I think it has something to do with the video drivers. I hope Apple addresses this soon (maybe Leopard or 10.4.11???). Otherwise, I am going back to Windows.
 
Mine is locking up every morning now when I plug in the external monitor at work. The only other time it has happened is when I'm playing world of warcraft. (which is video intensive)
 
MPB Freezing when plugging in external monitor

I had the same problem with my brand new Santa Rosa 15" MBP freezing periodically. Since getting it, I had never had more than 7 days of uptime, with 4 or 5 being the norm. The machine would freeze with only the mouse still responding. But nothing else would work. I couldn't switch apps, couldn't quit anything, the Finder wouldn't respond, and the machine wouldn't recognize mouse-clicks or keyboard input. It would just let me move the mouse back and forth... and nothing else.

A closer look at the logs showed that the WindowServer was crashing. And it appeared to be related to having an external monitor plugged in. Of the 5 freezes I've had, all but one of them was while my external monitor was plugged in and the machine set to Extend Display. The other time the machine froze, the monitor wasn't plugged in at the moment, but it had been earlier. The Crash Logs showed that even though the monitor wasn't plugged in, CoreGraphics wasn't "releasing" it properly... leading to a crash of the WindowServer.

After looking at the logs and researching it, the conclusion me and another Mac tech came to, is that the NVIDIA drivers that ship with this generation of the MBP are a bit on the buggy side... leading to the conflict with an external monitor. Since I stopped using my monitor, my machine has been running without a hitch, freeze, or hiccup of any kind.

Your mileage may vary...

This is almost exactly my experience with a 2.4GHz 17" MBP. The screen was entirely locked up and the system totally unresponsive to any key input. I had to do a hard power down. But I could rsh into it and ps showed that the windowserver was chewing up 90% of CPU cycles. The lockup occurs exactly when I plug in the external monitor cable. Also, I got a lockup when I put the lid closed and then pulled out the cable after a lecture. Hope the patch comes soon. My MPB froze at the beginning of a lecture to representatives from Google, Semantec, CISCO, and other luminaries, and it didn't do Apple much for PR.
 
Yeah I'm having the same issue. My 17" 2.4 MBP is not even two weeks old, it frozen on when I tried to give a presentaion for my college writing class. as soon as i pluged in the projector it froze, but when i tested it again in my room with my display from my windows box it worked fine. Now this morning I was just watcing a movie in vlc and it froze on me. I'm going to give apple a call this weekend to see what the probelm is. The video driver issue sounds plausible. I'll update with what apple tells me.
 
Any luck, sfurino?

I have the same problem!!
I have had my MacBook pro 2 weeks and it usually crashes when I connect the cable for a projector.... usually with a room full of people waiting for me to present. Bummer!

Any answers from Apple?
 
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