Thanks for posting this, currently started using chrome to see if the problem continues but will consider this if it gets worse. Hopefully Apple patches soon.
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Resolved Macbook Pro 2015 with OSX El Capitan 10.11.4 system wide freeze (Read the details)
- Thread starter Antonnn
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We never know. They bring out a beta every two weeks or so, and after 5-7 of them it's suddenly the release.
My Late 2013 rMBP 15" stared to freeze too, but only when using two screens, external and laptop screen together. OS X is always using Nvidia instead of Iris Pro 5200 with two displays.
Freezing is related to WindowServer, that seems to be going to some sort of backup mode.. I think there's a bug in Metal and on specific circumstances is crashes and goes in to a loop.. maybe there's a bug in a video memory handling in Metal.
With 10.11.4 my Parallels Windows 8.1 virtual machine sometimes think that my external 1920x1200 display is a 4k display and starts to scale it wrong. Have to reboot OS X (restarting Parallels wont help) and then it goes back to normal.
Freezing is related to WindowServer, that seems to be going to some sort of backup mode.. I think there's a bug in Metal and on specific circumstances is crashes and goes in to a loop.. maybe there's a bug in a video memory handling in Metal.
With 10.11.4 my Parallels Windows 8.1 virtual machine sometimes think that my external 1920x1200 display is a 4k display and starts to scale it wrong. Have to reboot OS X (restarting Parallels wont help) and then it goes back to normal.
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My iMac on 10.11.4 freezes randomly when waking display from sleep. I just get the beach ball and the notifications that should be grouped like "4 new mail" are listed as four separate entries leading me to think that it has something to do with Notification Center waking up. NOTE: the computer is not going to "sleep" I am only turning the displays OFF
FWIW I'm getting the crashes and beachballs with a late 2013 Retina MBP 13". It seems like it's tied to certain web content - I haven't had trouble with Youtube videos as others have, but certain news sites (especially the ones that have kind of terrible layout and a lot of annoying ad pop-ups and kind of generally click-bait construction) seem to trigger it more than anything else. In fact I don't think it's ever happened outside of that - none of the sites I routinely use, none of my business applications, Facebook, etc - none of them seem to cause the problem.
EDIT: BTW it doesn't seem to happen on my fiancé's MBA.
I brought my iMac back to the Apple store. They claim to have no issues with any of the computers there freezing wit 10.11.4, and no customers with the issue. I have spoken to two genius bar people about this, same answer. Anyways, they are doing the long diagnostic test that take a few days. He mentioned that, anytime there is a software upgrade, anyone who has issues blames the software upgrade, so it's more correlation than causation. I understand this is usually the case, but not true here. How many people have fixed this issue completely by going back to 10.11.3?
Just got back my late 2015 iMac Retina 5K from my local support. I had wiped out the machine and I had specifically asked to revert to a previous version of OS X. They brought it back with the same version of El Capitan, 10.11.4, and they have replaced the logic board, so basically I'm waiting for it to freeze any time. Not a great way to live and work.
Interesting, they suggested that my iMac would likely just need a new logic board as well. Let us know if they actually fixed the issue with this.
If it's a hardware issue how is that after downgrading to 10.11.3 I haven't experienced any problems? The only way for them to fix this with from a hardware perspective is to change the logic board to a non-Broadwell one.
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I had no problem with my MacBook Air since I bought it in May 2015. I used it since Yosemite (10.10.2) up to El Capitan (10.11.3) and NEVER experienced any problem. Suddenly with 10.11.4 the computer starts freezing unexpectedly. I downgraded to 10.11.3 from a TM backup, and here I am, enjoying my Mac without any more freezing issues. I think that Apple doesn't exactly know what's happening so they're denying the issue, because it wouldn't look very good to admit it. They can't just don't know about it at this point.
So they would rather replace the logic board than downgrade to 10.11.3?
That's bizarre.
So in the absence of a product recall, perhaps a class action law suit might make them fix it instead.
That's if it is a hardware problem.
But is isn't.
Downgrading to 10.11.3 fixes it which makes it a software problem. You don't need apple to fix it this way. You can do it yourself. And no new logic board needed.
Apple need to admit it is a software problem and issue a fix via supplemental update to 10.11.4 so that we don't have to wait for 10.11.5.
That's bizarre.
So in the absence of a product recall, perhaps a class action law suit might make them fix it instead.
That's if it is a hardware problem.
But is isn't.
Downgrading to 10.11.3 fixes it which makes it a software problem. You don't need apple to fix it this way. You can do it yourself. And no new logic board needed.
Apple need to admit it is a software problem and issue a fix via supplemental update to 10.11.4 so that we don't have to wait for 10.11.5.
I agree it's bizarre. However, to say that I can fix this myself is not quite accurate. Correct me if I am wrong, but without a Time Machine backup, there is no way to get a secure version of 10.11.3.
It's mixed. Some say 10.11.5 beta 3 fixed it. Some say the freezes still occur in this beta.
Rather than "correct" you I would offer some advice.
Of course you can still get 10.11.3 from unauthorised sources. Just google it.
Apple don't allow you to get older point releases from the mac app store. You can get the last point release of older versions from the purchases tab in the mac app store provided you have already purchased them. There are 2 exceptions to this though. Even if you never purchased lion or mountain lion before, you can still purchase these now and download 10.7.5 and 10.8.5 even if they are not in your purchases tab.
Of course we want to avoid having to download them from unauthorised sources.
So what I do is for EVERY point release (as well as some builds that come after a supplemental update) I download the official FULL installer from the mac app store and store it on an external hard drive as well as burn it onto a blu-ray. So I have 2 backups of these installers in case I have to downgrade.
So I have ready access to all the full installers for every point release - official versions too.
You may never need them. But when you do, you are glad you already downloaded it and kept it.
It seems extreme. But what are the options if apple remove these from the mac app store?
1. Download from mac app store and archive them yourself.
2. Download it from an unauthorized source.
Obviously option 1 is better.
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No. Definitely not. This is never the purpose of a beta. The purpose is to help apple fix bugs and develop your own apps for new unreleased versions to get them ready in time. It would be far better if apple release a supplemental update to 10.11.4 rather than make people wait for 10.11.5 - or be tempted to install a beta as a potential fix.
You do realise that installing a beta may introduce more bugs don't you?
And although we might be right to complain about bugs here in this thread for the public release of 10.11.4 - when it comes to betas, you would have no reason to complain. Bugs are expected in betas. In this case we just make bug reports to apple.
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You are correct. If you did not previously save the older installer, there is no secure way to get one now.
Another word of advise for those who do archive full installers of every point release onto an external hard drive.
Disconnect the hard drive whenever you download a new one.
One dangerous phenomenon exhibited by the mac app store - which it does without warning is that if the hard drive is still connected sometimes it detects an older version on the hard drive and replaces it with the new one instead of downloading the new one to the Applications folder as you would expect.
I found that out the hard way and had to retrieve the old version from a time machine backup which luckily had copied it too.
I took it one step further too and burn them on blu-rays. I'd like to see apple try and replace that!
Disconnect the hard drive whenever you download a new one.
One dangerous phenomenon exhibited by the mac app store - which it does without warning is that if the hard drive is still connected sometimes it detects an older version on the hard drive and replaces it with the new one instead of downloading the new one to the Applications folder as you would expect.
I found that out the hard way and had to retrieve the old version from a time machine backup which luckily had copied it too.
I took it one step further too and burn them on blu-rays. I'd like to see apple try and replace that!
Hey guys, good news.
I just talked with an engineer from Apple and they personally have been having the same issues on their own Macbook Pro! This has been reported to the software engineers and should get feedback within 24hrs.
Until then it is recommended to go back to Yosemite using internet recovery mode.
I just talked with an engineer from Apple and they personally have been having the same issues on their own Macbook Pro! This has been reported to the software engineers and should get feedback within 24hrs.
Until then it is recommended to go back to Yosemite using internet recovery mode.
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