MBA 13" - Total freeze

B

bp1000

macrumors 65832
I've had several total freezes; screen is still on, mouse cursor doesn't respond, caps lock key doesn't light up, it's a complete freeze requiring a hard reboot.

I've waited to no avail, it has happened in Safari, Finder, Terminal, Chrome... in total it has happened 5 times in 5 weeks.

I'm a heavy user around 8 hours a day and i don't believe it is the flash bug, unless the flash bug can happen at any time.


I assume i'm right in thinking, this isn't normal right?

Applecare had me repair my permissions in the disk utility. Several issues were found and repaired on the permissions. Now i'm just waiting for it to happen again.

They also told me to re-install Lion if it happens again. In your experience, would this cure it given my symptoms or do you think it is a hardware problem?

I've scanned the HDD, fine and i ran memory test, fine... however i ran in OS X so it didn't test all the memory.

//
2011 MBA - i5 1.7ghz
 
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Which incarnation of the MBA 13" is it? Personally, unless it's the 2011 version, I would live with Snow Leopard until the whole cloud thing is well bedded in. I know this is probably not helping much but I have had all sorts of problems with Lion on my 2007 MacBook Pro.

Here's my experience to help you decide if you really need Lion at this stage. And before I say that, I pre-qualify by saying I love Lion on my 2011 MacBook Air. Particularly I really love gestures and new Mail! Really many of the new features of Lion are very neat.

That being said, upgrading my mid-2007 MacBook Pro (4GB RAM, 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo, 15") was not necessary in my opinion (and would have probably saved me $180 for a repair that was required after damaging my hard drive, probably by 'stressing' it too much with the dual partitions required by Lion (but they two issues may not be linked so not making too much of a deal out of that). What I am going to say though is this: Do you really need Lion?

Firstly gestures requires an up to date trackpad to make full use of. Secondly AirDropdoesn't work on machines that are that old. I am not an iWork user soVersions is not something that affects me a great deal. To boot, it now appears that Snow Leopard will support iCloud so what is the point of Lion on a pre-2008 MacBook Pro?

I thought I'd share my experience if you have an older machine if it helps. Good luck
 
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It is Lion / 2011 MBA version, i5 1.7ghz.

I would have thought if it's lion more people would have the issue?
 
The same happened to me tonight. It's the first time. No logs, no crash info... I have Lion on two other machines, this is something MBA related.
 
My brother is having the same problem with his 13" i7 256 SSD.

He will return his one to apple and wants a new one on monday, he has like a freeze everyday, even more often than only 1 time...
 
Unfortunately mine is a work laptop with all my config and settings on it.

If i take it back to the store, being 30+ days old they will send it off for repair, i could be without a work computer for ages. I have other laptops but it will be a pain getting everything set up again.

I was hoping i could solve it by applecare's suggestions of permissions and re-install.
 
Yep, if it's 2011 or 2010 MBA, it really shouldn't be doing that. But actually, it's very easy to restore from back-up if you use Time machine. Back your laptop up using Time Machine, take it in for repair and you will probably be nicely surprised as it may be fixed on the spot. Besides, if it's really freezing as frequently as you say, then I am sure Apple will just replace it for you...Good luck
 
I am having the same bug as you stated above. I did the long hardware Test with nothing being found. I reinstalled now without any 3rd party Applications afterwards. Still on 10.7 and not 10.7.1. Will see if the freezes continue. If they do so, its a hardware related bug which can't be found with a hardware test. Its still bad, because it will take time for them to find the bug. I guess I will be alone without a macbook for several days anyway.
 
This is baffling. I'd have to guess there is some hardware malfunction. Apple makes the hardware and they make the software. Eliminating 3rd party apps, one would think a problem like that would happen to most people.

Maybe a bad memory chip, intermittently failing? I'm just guessing.
 
Cynicalone said:
Bad RAM causes a kernel panic.
Click to expand...

Well, there's different degrees of bad. Or maybe a bad sector on the SSD (can they get one of those?). My point was it is likely hardware related. It's the only explanation I can come up with why two computers manufactured to the same specs and loaded with the same software behave differently.

Either that or the planets just aren't aligned right... :cool:
 
I did not have any freeze yesterday. I have installed flash, istat menus, dropbox and 1password. I really start to think that adium did cause this. Ill install it later today and see if it returns
 
Another freeze just occurred, while I was trying to sync my iPhone with my iTunes library. I still hope its iTunes related, but I now really doubt that it is a software error.
 
You are having freezes in different programs to me, but freezes of the same type.

It either has to be hardware or OS related.
 
I think so, too. But that kind of problem is always hard to find for a service provider, as it does not happen every few hours but like 1 time in 2 days :/
 
I've had about 2-3 freezes of this type, but never while I'm actively using the machine. It's generally when I leave it running overnight, I'll come back and it's frozen. I haven't really thought much about it as it doesn't occur often enough for me (knock on wood) for it to be a terrible inconvenience - I've just chalked it up to Lion/2011 MBA issues.
 
My first MBA (i7, 256GB) froze like this. I think around 3 times in 2 weeks, but it was really fine the first week or so.

My second MBA (i5, 128GB) had yet to freeze, but I only used it lightly for a week or two. Atm, it is going back to Amazon due to a screen issue.
 
Cynicalone said:
Bad RAM causes a kernel panic.
Click to expand...
Bad RAM is just one of many things that can cause a KP. Good RAM and bad software can easily do the same thing.

bp1000 said:
I've had several total freezes; screen is still on, mouse cursor doesn't respond, caps lock key doesn't light up, it's a complete freeze requiring a hard reboot.

I've waited to no avail, it has happened in Safari, Finder, Terminal, Chrome... in total it has happened 5 times in 5 weeks.

I'm a heavy user around 8 hours a day and i don't believe it is the flash bug, unless the flash bug can happen at any time.


I assume i'm right in thinking, this isn't normal right?

Applecare had me repair my permissions in the disk utility. Several issues were found and repaired on the permissions. Now i'm just waiting for it to happen again.

They also told me to re-install Lion if it happens again. In your experience, would this cure it given my symptoms or do you think it is a hardware problem?

I've scanned the HDD, fine and i ran memory test, fine... however i ran in OS X so it didn't test all the memory.

//
2011 MBA - i5 1.7ghz
Click to expand...

I hate Lion but I'm inclined to help you troubleshoot this properly, to do that I need more information from you OP. Is your machine "stock" or did you make any changes on your own like installing 3rd party RAM? If it's completely by Apple then read on. If you installed 3rd party RAM, then try to restore it with the RAM modules that shipped with your MBA.

First I would suggest finding out where the problem lies by first determining where your problems don't occur.

1. Backup all 3rd party apps you bought to include whatever data on your machine.

- If at all possible I would suggest that you do a complete factory restore on your MBA once all your data has been properly backed up. This way you have a "clean slate" to work with before you go onto step 2.

2. Do you encounter your issues with the MBA in completely "straight out of the box" condition with its software? This means no programs other than what ships with the MBA. If the answer is yes, I would suggest you take it back to Apple to have them look at it. If the answer is no, then install 1 app at a time and re-test your computer to see if the MBA stays issue-free.

As soon as you run into the first signs of your issues, stop and look back to the last thing you did. Perhaps it was an app or what not that you recently installed and start by removing 1 app at a time until the issues are gone.

You should be able to isolate what might be causing your symptoms however it's also possible that something's legitimately wrong with your MBA (hardware wise).
 
I know you wanna help but did you read all the posts before? He already did that :)

Its a brand new 13" MBA with 256 SSD and the i7, he has it for 10 days now. Had even because he brought it to a apple reseller today.
 
litchblade said:
I know you wanna help but did you read all the posts before? He already did that :)

Its a brand new 13" MBA with 256 SSD and the i7, he has it for 10 days now. Had even because he brought it to a apple reseller today.
Click to expand...

Yes I read everything and there's no clear indication that he did all that.
 
Yes I did all that and wrote so before. But still thank you for your help, appreciate that. I do now think that my left USB is faulty, as it crashed today morning when I synchronized my iPhone for the first time.
 
Hyper-X said:
Is your machine "stock" or did you make any changes on your own like installing 3rd party RAM?
Click to expand...

You can't install your own 3rd party RAM on the 2011 airs? Hardware change wise, I think one can only really replace the thermal paste and SSD.
 
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