

2011 MacBook Pros Crash Under Load - GeneralMaximus
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2768351

======
modoc
I had the same issue. Instantly cured it by disabling the "Automatic graphics
switching" option. Hopefully there will be a better fix forthcoming, but for
now it's pretty easy to solve. Even with that headache, this is by far the
best laptop I've ever owned. Amazingly fast.

~~~
Maci
Same here, it would appear Apple is a bit too aggressive with it's power
management and it's confusing the living daylights out of the ATI driver when
it's on automatic.

Switching manually works a treat sofar...
<http://codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus/>

~~~
nikster
Good to know, thanks. I'd only ever run it in manual mode anyway. How is the
computer supposed to know whether power or speed is more important at any
given time?

~~~
Maci
It doesn't really, anything using OpenGL / CoreGraphics triggers discrete
graphics.

~~~
bcrawford
Even silly things like the mail client Sparrow. I had to use gfxCardStatus to
get anything more than 2-3hrs of battery life because my mail client is trying
to get "fancy" on me.

------
sipefree
They're STILL replacing the old Macbook Pros with the dodgy Nvidia graphics
cards from years ago, for free.

I wouldn't be too worried about this.

~~~
patrickod
What particular model of MacBook Pro are you referring to? Those with Nvidia
GeForce 9400M ?

~~~
derefr
The early-2008 models, with the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT.
<http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2377>

~~~
Tyrant505
Mine is still rockin, same vid card... best machine I've ever bought! (first
mac)

~~~
gtani
Mine works, doesn't exactly rock, more like generates huge amounts of heat.
This after a Powerbook g4 that needed 4 or 5 logic board transplants, and a
plastic macBook (core 2 duo) that was dog slow.

------
uptown
Somewhat off-topic, but I trust the judgement of those here. I'm in the market
to buy one of these. I was wondering whether current owners feel the extra 2MB
of L3 cache justifies the price-bump of the 2.3GHz processor.

~~~
zdw
Depends on whether the code you're running will use the extra cache. In some
HPC and gaming circumstances, people write in assembler to make sure a code
loop or the data structure being worked on fits totally within the L1 or L2
cache of the processor, which can provide a huge performance improvement.

But, for standard use without such specialized workloads, $250 a minor
clockspeed and cache improvement doesn't make much sense.

You'd probably get a much bigger boost from adding a SSD or going up to 8GB of
RAM in the machine. I'd buy these aftermarket - RAM especially is a good deal
as you can get 8GB of DDR3-1333 for less than $90 -
[http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148...](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148345)

~~~
reitzensteinm
Definitely second getting an SSD instead. It's the single biggest upgrade you
can do to a PC today, especially for laptops. If you can live with 128gb of
storage, a RealSSD C300, the current performance king (although check
Anandtech for updates, this is changing all the time) is $264 from Newegg:

[http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148...](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148348)

This thing will do 30,000 4k writes a second, which is orders of magnitude
more than a 2.5" mechanical.

~~~
dvdhsu
I would actually give the SandForce drives a try. They have better garbage
collection. TRIM is coming in Snow Leopard, but it is always nice to have good
garbage collection on the hardware.

SandForce wins right now in $/gb, and 4K writes. It loses in anything that is
limited by the SATA2 bus, such as sequential transfers.

~~~
irons
The stories about TRIM coming in Lion also pointed out that so far it was only
supported on Apple's own SSDs.

Also, the major problem with Sandforce drives on Macs is that their firmware
can only be updated a) under Windows, in Boot Camp, and b) with an MBR-
formatted disk. That is bullshit.

[http://eshop.macsales.com/Customized_Pages/Framework.cfm?pag...](http://eshop.macsales.com/Customized_Pages/Framework.cfm?page=sf_firmware.html)

------
maqr
Same issue here. Just got a MBP a few days ago, and I've had this happen twice
while compiling in Xcode. It's not your average crash though. It's not a
kernel panic. iTunes streams keep playing, so I know the wifi card is still
working fine. It wouldn't surprise me if it's an ATI issue.

------
parasubvert
My 2010 17" model will get corrupted graphics and eventual a full kernel panic
due to issues with automatic graphics switching that are usually triggered by
Safari+Flash. Uninstalling Flash, turning off automatic graphics switching, or
just using Google Chrome for Flash sites fixed that.

My first-gen 2006 Macbook Pro used to crash under heat/load as well, which was
suspected due to misapplication of thermal paste. I sent it into Applecare a
couple of years later and they took care of it (even replacing my scuffed up
shell).

~~~
TechNewb
Chrome was causing my 6-core mac pro w/ Nvidia Quadro 4000 to have kernel
panics a while back, but it seems to be working fine now.

------
ramanujam
I had the 13" 2010 version and got bumped up for the free exchange since i was
in the one month window and got the new 2011 version.

I noticed that when i started Parallels and opened my second windows VM
instance everything came to a stand still and i had to restart. I also saw
someone in the Apple discussion threads mentioning a similar issue while
running Vmware fusion. I will try the 'Automatic graphics switching' and
hopefully it gets better, else back to the Apple store!

~~~
lamnk
Huh? Since when can the 13" model switch graphic cards ?

------
ZipCordManiac
You used to be able to trust Apple for manufacturing quality. I now build my
own for any work machines and only keep an iMac around for casual
browsing/music/video. How the hell did this slip past basic TESTING ? This
isn't the first manufacturing blunder that has been swept under the table with
Apple, and it won't be the last. If you put down over $1000 for a computer, it
should work.

~~~
rtaycher
Obligatory a mac is a pc comment.

------
jason_slack
I have a 13-inch 2011 MBP, i7 Model with 8gb of RAM.

I am running 3 simultaneous video encodes that takes 3 Apple Keynotes and
encodes to .mp4, .3gp and .ogv from a terminal + Playing 3 other Keynotes in
Quicktime + Random music in iTunes + Playing The Social network all at the
same time for the last 35 minutes and I am running fine.

Can I run any test for anyone to help out?

------
derefr
Is this just the new MBPs (the ones with Thunderbolt) or does it also apply to
the batches of the previous model that shipped in early 2011?

~~~
CornishPasty
I think the ones shipped early this year are referred to as 2010 models.

------
larrycatinspace
I just got my 2011 15" - opened it up to put a new SSD in it and found that
the heatsink/fan combo off to the back corner was missing all the screws that
would have secured it. I bet this doesn't help. I have yet to run into any
issues but haven't done anything to stressful with it.

Anyone else with issues going to pop theirs open?

------
davidedicillo
I already replaced this model once. Got the replacement and and had 1 freeze
so far but none after I switch to discrete only

------
Geee
They could try downclocking for temp fix.

~~~
Stormbringer
Sounds like its graphics, not cpu

~~~
wmf
Exactly; downclock the graphics.

~~~
celalo
so down-clocking means, losing a bit of its power?

------
sycren
Im having the exact same problem though with a 2007 mbp though so it could be
a software update that I installed

------
l0nwlf
Mine is 2009 model and I have yet to face this issue. Although my Optical
drive died this January and it throws out DVDs when inserted but that is the
only problem I have faced so far.

EDIT: Was just stating that 2009 MBPs have no such issues IMHO.

~~~
joelhaasnoot
Seems like all the reports are on the _2011_ version, with isolated incidents
on the 2010 version. 2009 is mentioned nowhere.

~~~
azim
My Fall 2009 model overheats and locks up and crashes when playing games like
Starcraft 2 or Left 4 Dead 2. That's not to say every notebook from 2009 had
cooling problems, but some certainly do.

~~~
watmough
Why don't you return it? This would be an intolerable problem for me.

I don't expect to see any kind of lockups or grey-screen, ever. It just
shouldn't be part of owning any computer, especially a mac.

