2011 MBP 17 so far (mini review)...

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Khazul
Posts: 3185
Joined: Wed Feb 23, 2005 5:19 pm
Location: Reading, UK

Re: 2011 MBP 17 so far (mini review)...

Post by Khazul » Sun Mar 20, 2011 3:46 am

@steko - thanks - SMC reset did nothing, will try clearing other stuff ot as well. Part of me thinks the lockup are an AMD GPU driver issue. Ableton Live forces the MBP to switch to the radeon GPU. If I force Live to work with only the intel GPU, then its UI is less responsive, and overall audio performance is not quite as good.

@swan - yes - my PC is definately more responsive, but Im not sure it can reliably handle the same audio load as I can throw at Live on the MBP (using same audio interface). For stress testing, Im using the live perf test on 64 tracks. No dropouts.

Anyway - for now I seem to have found a fan control utility that is having the desire effect making the machine useable until this gets sorted ot properly (software updates or total replacement or hatvere end up happening).
Last edited by Khazul on Sun Mar 20, 2011 11:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
Nothing to see here - move along!

nowtime
Posts: 1566
Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2007 7:24 pm
Location: Homefree

Re: 2011 MBP 17 so far (mini review)...

Post by nowtime » Mon Mar 21, 2011 2:57 am

Appreciate the heads-up on this heat issue. I was recently convinced to NOT wait for next year's redesign and to buy the current quad. But i will watch this and wait until it is resolved.

dazzer
Posts: 1240
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2005 10:24 am

Re: 2011 MBP 17 so far (mini review)...

Post by dazzer » Mon Mar 21, 2011 5:00 am

Here's a link to the huge thread on Apple forums

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jsp ... &start=540

Last post at the moment from Mike282 claims:

"There is a confirmed way to avoid freezing w/o 3rd party software:

Go to: System Preferences > Energy Saver > and UNCHECK "Automatic graphics switching"

Bingo, no more freezing!"

No idea if it works or not...

Khazul
Posts: 3185
Joined: Wed Feb 23, 2005 5:19 pm
Location: Reading, UK

Re: 2011 MBP 17 so far (mini review)...

Post by Khazul » Mon Mar 21, 2011 12:01 pm

Ableton Live will trigger a switch to the AMD GPU, and apparently for some good reson as live's audio performance especially UI responsiveness is noticeably better with the AMD GPU. Also you need the AMD GPU active if using an external monitor.

I must admit, Im a little surprised by the performance difference - wouldnt have though there would be much difference to 2D rendering unless OX is like windows 7 and using 3d rendering for nearly everything now.

The best temporary fix Ive found is something called Fan Control (not smcFanControl however as that just seems to mess up the max speed of the fans). Using that Ive been running it with heavy audio load and even had Starcraft2 running without any problems.
Nothing to see here - move along!

glitchrock-buddha
Posts: 4357
Joined: Fri Oct 14, 2005 1:29 am
Location: The Ableton Live Forum

Re: 2011 MBP 17 so far (mini review)...

Post by glitchrock-buddha » Mon Mar 21, 2011 2:54 pm

Wow, I read through most of that thread on the apple forum and it seems like this problem affects pretty much every high end macbook pro out there.

I was going to order a new 15 inch last week but didn't get around to it. I think I'll wait a while to see if a firmware update fixes the problems before ordering. I'll just stick with my C2D in the meantime. Was really looking forward to the quad core though.

Keep us posted!
Professional Shark Jumper.

steko
Posts: 3411
Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2009 8:29 pm

Re: 2011 MBP 17 so far (mini review)...

Post by steko » Mon Mar 21, 2011 4:23 pm

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread. ... st12197298

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

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another idea: the new MBPs boot the 64 bit kernel by default. You could try switching to the 32 bit kernel. (bootcamp - 3rd-party extensions)

Switching to 32 bit kernel mode: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3773

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4287
Rahad Jackson wrote:My Awesome Mix Tape #6

steko
Posts: 3411
Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2009 8:29 pm

Re: 2011 MBP 17 so far (mini review)...

Post by steko » Mon Mar 21, 2011 9:29 pm

Rahad Jackson wrote:My Awesome Mix Tape #6

glitchrock-buddha
Posts: 4357
Joined: Fri Oct 14, 2005 1:29 am
Location: The Ableton Live Forum

Re: 2011 MBP 17 so far (mini review)...

Post by glitchrock-buddha » Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:30 pm

It appears to have fixed the problems for everyone on the apple discussion page. Good news indeed.
Professional Shark Jumper.

JuanSOLO
Posts: 3236
Joined: Sun Jul 15, 2007 8:21 am
Location: Shreveport LA, sometimes Dallas/Ft Worth TX

Re: 2011 MBP 17 so far (mini review)...

Post by JuanSOLO » Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:35 pm

I'd love to know if people who already bought the new MBP, are finding the issues resolved by the update.

Breaks Dude
Posts: 133
Joined: Fri Feb 11, 2011 11:55 pm
Location: Somewhere Warm
Contact:

Re: 2011 MBP 17 so far (mini review)...

Post by Breaks Dude » Tue Mar 22, 2011 12:14 am

JuanSOLO wrote:I'd love to know if people who already bought the new MBP, are finding the issues resolved by the update.
http://www.dailytech.com/New+MacBook+Pr ... e21184.htm

Update: Monday March 21, 2011 6:00 p.m.

Late today Apple rolled out an update to OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard", which included a number of updated features and fixes. A special version of the update was crafted for the early 2011 MacBook Pros (discussed in this article). While ostensibly to fix other issues, many believed that this update would fix the freezing problems.

It appears it did not, at least not for all those afflicted. Writes one user on the MacRumors forums:

this still does not fix the issues on the new MacBook Pro 2011 models (15" 2.3ghz) - just tested on the two machines we have here. Still they are getting too hot, constantly the fans are blowing (testing with Transmission/Bittorrent downloading the Ubuntu DVD). Also we had two freezes already (only under heavy load). I am posting updates on our findings to our blog ( http://j.mp/dLSqgy ) - and we are still waiting for replacements from apple.

Users are also reporting that the update fails to fix another crucial problem, blackouts when connecting to Apple's 24-inch Cinema Display. Writes another user:

Still experiencing blackouts. No graphics glitches but definitely got 2 blackouts post update...albeit less frequent. Back to the drawing board i guess.

In fact, the update seemed to cause crashes/freezes when using Apple's iTunes. Writes one user:

I'm on a new Macbook Air (13" maxxed out) and the update seems to be causing iTunes to freeze the whole system - clock, mouse, keyboard, etc. It happens about 5-6 seconds after I launch iTunes. I can start a song, and it will continue to play after the system locks up, but otherwise I'm stuck with a hard reset. I tried clearing the preference files in \Users\[me]\Library\Preferences, but that didn't help. I repaired disk permissions before and after the update. Any suggestions?

Adds another:

Since the update I've had 3 crashes with iTunes.
2011 15" 2.2 MBP.

Not sure its related to the update, but in the space of just over a year, I've never had a crash with iTunes on MacOS

In other words, it appears that the update not only failed to fix existing issues, but caused additional ones.

glitchrock-buddha
Posts: 4357
Joined: Fri Oct 14, 2005 1:29 am
Location: The Ableton Live Forum

Re: 2011 MBP 17 so far (mini review)...

Post by glitchrock-buddha » Tue Mar 22, 2011 1:10 am

Breaks Dude wrote:
JuanSOLO wrote:I'd love to know if people who already bought the new MBP, are finding the issues resolved by the update.
http://www.dailytech.com/New+MacBook+Pr ... e21184.htm

Update: Monday March 21, 2011 6:00 p.m.

Late today Apple rolled out an update to OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard", which included a number of updated features and fixes. A special version of the update was crafted for the early 2011 MacBook Pros (discussed in this article). While ostensibly to fix other issues, many believed that this update would fix the freezing problems.

It appears it did not, at least not for all those afflicted. Writes one user on the MacRumors forums:

this still does not fix the issues on the new MacBook Pro 2011 models (15" 2.3ghz) - just tested on the two machines we have here. Still they are getting too hot, constantly the fans are blowing (testing with Transmission/Bittorrent downloading the Ubuntu DVD). Also we had two freezes already (only under heavy load). I am posting updates on our findings to our blog ( http://j.mp/dLSqgy ) - and we are still waiting for replacements from apple.

Users are also reporting that the update fails to fix another crucial problem, blackouts when connecting to Apple's 24-inch Cinema Display. Writes another user:

Still experiencing blackouts. No graphics glitches but definitely got 2 blackouts post update...albeit less frequent. Back to the drawing board i guess.

In fact, the update seemed to cause crashes/freezes when using Apple's iTunes. Writes one user:

I'm on a new Macbook Air (13" maxxed out) and the update seems to be causing iTunes to freeze the whole system - clock, mouse, keyboard, etc. It happens about 5-6 seconds after I launch iTunes. I can start a song, and it will continue to play after the system locks up, but otherwise I'm stuck with a hard reset. I tried clearing the preference files in \Users\[me]\Library\Preferences, but that didn't help. I repaired disk permissions before and after the update. Any suggestions?

Adds another:

Since the update I've had 3 crashes with iTunes.
2011 15" 2.2 MBP.

Not sure its related to the update, but in the space of just over a year, I've never had a crash with iTunes on MacOS

In other words, it appears that the update not only failed to fix existing issues, but caused additional ones.
That's strange since every person who's installed the update so far from that 60+ page thread on the apple forum has said that the update solved the problems.
Professional Shark Jumper.

Khazul
Posts: 3185
Joined: Wed Feb 23, 2005 5:19 pm
Location: Reading, UK

Re: 2011 MBP 17 so far (mini review)...

Post by Khazul » Tue Mar 22, 2011 2:54 am

Touch wood, I havn't had and freezes since installing the update and removing all 3rd party fan control stuff, and itunes is quite happily sending audio to the apple tv box and local sound.

Been running some quite cpu heavy projects through live and logic and left the live perf test project looping over 64 tracks (select all tracks and duplicate 7 times) for 15 mins- that used to cause a freeze in seconds.

Even the iPhone remote app has finally started talking to itunes on the MBP 8O
Nothing to see here - move along!

glitchrock-buddha
Posts: 4357
Joined: Fri Oct 14, 2005 1:29 am
Location: The Ableton Live Forum

Re: 2011 MBP 17 so far (mini review)...

Post by glitchrock-buddha » Tue Mar 22, 2011 3:05 am

Khazul wrote:Touch wood, I havn't had and freezes since installing the update and removing all 3rd party fan control stuff, and itunes is quite happily sending audio to the apple tv box and local sound.

Been running some quite cpu heavy projects through live and logic and left the live perf test project looping over 64 tracks (select all tracks and duplicate 7 times) for 15 mins- that used to cause a freeze in seconds.
Good lord! 64 tracks in the live performance test?
I get about 18 on my core2 duo mbp!

Shit, time to order one of these puppies. I'll finally be able to use alchemy and aether together as much I'd like. ;)
Professional Shark Jumper.

steko
Posts: 3411
Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2009 8:29 pm

Re: 2011 MBP 17 so far (mini review)...

Post by steko » Tue Mar 22, 2011 3:19 am

Image
Rahad Jackson wrote:My Awesome Mix Tape #6

McQ714
Posts: 1851
Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:12 pm
Location: Orange County, CA

Re: 2011 MBP 17 so far (mini review)...

Post by McQ714 » Tue Mar 22, 2011 3:23 am

Khazul wrote:Touch wood...

the expression is "knock on wood". at least, that's what we say in the states.

touching wood seems like something entirely different.

Post Reply