Resolved Macbook Pro 2015 with OSX El Capitan 10.11.4 system wide freeze (Read the details)

[velcrovan]

Just saw the story on MacRumors. I am an exact fit with this problem: 2015 rMBP, been locking up on a daily basis starting with 10.11.4. Wife with MB Air has updated to 10.11.4 but no issues.

It’s almost always while I’m scrolling in Safari using multi-touch, but I’m job hunting these days so that’s like 90% of my computer usage.

 

[cherrybombaz]

I've been having the exact same freezing issues. About once or twice a day everything will lock up and I have to force a reboot. I have a 2015 MacBook pro 13". I've tried reinstalling os x and disabling flash but neither have fixed the issue. I've experienced crashes on the beta too so that doesn't seem to fix it for me either.

This is pretty ridiculous; I can't remember the last time my windows machine has frozen like this, but crashes on el Capitan are a dime a dozen.

 

[Evin-China]

My macbook pro 2015(early OS X 10.11.4) also have the problem that you described, and on 11th May. My macbook pro 's screen started flash until i turn off the system and restarted it ,now it's fine.

 

[kjwamlex]

I have Macbook Pro Retina 2015 13", and I often experience freezing issue too on OS X 10.11.4. I once got Macbook Pro replaced for this issue, and it still happens. This is definitely OS issue. This often happened also when I had Xcode open. sometimes when Safari was closed and working on Pages and when display resolution was changed. I think the issue is related to System Framework.

 

[SD-B]

Taking place this end as well.

Am not even using the El Capitan update yet.
Nor have changed anything.
Was just about to finally update this morning.
Not aware of what was taking place, I could not get into my email, although i could calendars etc.
Concerned, I changed my password.
It said it was accepted but I still can't get my email and its locked me out of my home network for streaming to the TV etc.
Can still access Netflix but that's it.

Nor will it recognize the new password on either of my cell phones-yet to try two ipads but i know they won't work either.
My email just stopped responding as of sometime overnight.
Also not letting me change the password in my mail settings on mail app on the Mac.
I was able to change it at icloud.com but I can get in to everything but email.

I am on a 27" retina iMAC using Yosemite still at 10.10.5

So it would appear it's everyone?
Not just MBP users?

Or Apple is overloaded ATM?

 

[kjwamlex]

Also, I experienced iMac 2013 Late 27" stopping in the middle of booting progress on El Capitan. My Macbook Pro also did this too.

 

[oliversl]

Try disabling force touch, run apple hardware test.

 

[kjwamlex]

Try disabling force touch, run apple hardware test.

You can never do that. Macbook Pro 2015's trackpad is a hard surface.

 

[jwwetzel]

Holy cow I have been working with Apple Support for 2 months trying to solve this issue. I have driven 4 hours to the closest Apple Store which did nothing, I reinstalled the operating system which did nothing, I reformatted and reinstalled which did not help.

I am beyond disappointed. There is no way I will ever be buying one of these ever again. This has been the most frustrating experience I've ever had with a computer and a company.

I have the early 2015 Retina Macbook Pro.

My system freezes occur randomly, and not always in Safari.

 

[blasto2236]

Add another to the pile here. This has been happening to be about once per day. Twice yesterday. I am using a 2015 rMBP, as most here seem to be.

I am almost always using Safari. I produce a comedy festival and am currently reviewing our video submissions, so I have been churning through about 300 YouTube videos. I use my Mac often throughout the day for other things and don't encounter the issue, it is always when opening a new tab/loading a new video in Safari.

I've also been encountering an issue with Safari lately where it refuses to load certain videos past the first few seconds. My network connection is great, and loading the same youtube link in Firefox, the video plays just fine. I'm sure these issues are unrelated, but because of this I am going to be using Firefox exclusively for a few days and see if that alleviates the problem.

 

[EvanHelpme]

I've seen this frequently on my 13" MBP too. No obvious pattern of which app I'm using, and I have noted the graphics driver related log messages. I thought I had some sort of hardware issue until I saw this thread...

 

[jgbr]

My 2013 15 MBP suffering from this

 

[SRLMJ23]

I just bought an Early-2015 13" rMBP about a week ago, the first night after I had got all my settings set the way I like them and all that, I then updated to 10.11.4. After that, later in the night I was on a website, which I cannot remember which one, but I experienced the system wide freeze. Had to force a shutdown and restart and since then it has not happened. So it has been actually a week a two days since it has happened.

I did as the OP requested and reported this to Apple with a link to this thread as well. Hopefully they come out with an update soon!

 

[appleofmy"i"]

Wow this really blew up. Hope we see a fix now.

 

[hoggis]

My 2015 5k iMac is crashing when browsing as well. Only crashed twice so far. Hopefully this gets fixed soon

 

[HurricaneRozz]

Two months later and we just now finally have a write up about this issue? lol.......no words..

 

[sandbridge]

Early 2015 13" MBP / 3.1-i7 / 16mb / 1tb / 10.11.4 / AppleCare. Similar problems, different story. Mine was locking up and eventually self-rebooting so frequently that Genius Bar took it in for a logic board replacement a couple of weeks ago.

They did this, despite a clean hardware diagnostic at the bench, because I replicated the problem (twice-over) in front of them and because mine was a "looper"-- i.e. it had just been in one month prior for an i/o board and cable replacement. Interestingly, it never registered a console log crash upon these freezes. They think that this is because the crashes occur so suddenly and catastrophically that the system doesn't even have time to log.

Since my MBP came back from repair, it is very noticeably improved, but still not 100% right yet: now just 3 freezes in 2 weeks, one with a console log entry. This is encouraging and discouraging. It means that the new logic board is materially different than my old defective (?) one. But it also means that whatever was triggering the problem is not gone. Complicated and frustrating. (edit: forgot to say that upon returning from repair the tech noted they surmised a defective memory bank despite clean Genius Bar diagnostic, thus the logic board replacement.)

I should add that yes, of course, I've reinstalled OS X already. I also keep regular redundant data backups. System is keep very clean, with few extensions or startup items. No unusual applications.

In my case the problem seems to occur more often when running on battery power. This is an inconclusive piece of evidence, as battery power also affects how OS X utilizes graphics, processor, etc.

 

[mugtastic]

my early 2015 13" macbook pro has been doing this for the past few weeks as well. complete random freeze fixed by reboot. glad to see the headline about it - hope its fixed soon.

 

[PeterjMcM]

I thought i was because Opera. I uninstalled it, then i switched to chrome and it never happened again.

My MBP 13" Early 2015 freezes when i click on a link, switch tabs, etc. but I still can move the cursor. Plus, it recovers from it as soon as i switch to left/right desktop space.

 

[Antonnn]

That is not true.

I said "most likely". I read every post on this thread and others for almost two months now, almost every time someone mentions this happening on an older device it's an issue that either started before 10.11.4 or just beachballs and hangs for ~30 seconds that always recover.
There are way more mac computers in circulation than the latest 2015 versions, yet, 65%-75% of users voted that this issue affects their 2015 machines which is the bug discussed in this thread and the reason I created the poll.

Your issue also seems to be different although you have a 2015 iMac:

"So, so far 10.11.5 PB3 and PB4 have not yet been freezing for me, which is great, the problem is that with PB3 it introduced a new bug for me that is still present in PB4. My monitor on my iMac turns of from time to time, and it is impossible to turn it on again AND this only happens while using Safari, when using any other of my 10-15 programs i usually use, those have never invoked a black screen".

I also said earlier if apple engineers focus their efforts on one hardware that is mostly affected "rMBP 13 2015" the issue should be solved for everyone if it's the same bug. It is easier to debug and pinpoint the issue if they test it on one hardware than look at a dozen similar issues.

Also, glad to see the mods finally published this, and I'd like to thank them for that, although it's a little too late.

 

[blasto2236]

I said "most likely". I read every post on this thread for almost two months now, almost every time someone mentions this happening on an older device it's an issue that either started before 10.11.4 or just beachballs and hangs for ~30 seconds that always recover.
There are way more mac computers in circulation than the latest 2015 versions, yet, 65%-75% of users voted that this issue affects their 2015 machines.

I also said earlier if apple engineers focus their efforts on one hardware that is mostly affected "rMBP 13 2015" the issue should be solved for everyone if it's the same bug. It is easier to debug and pinpoint the issue if they test it on one hardware than look at a dozen similar issues.

Also, glad to see the mods finally published this, and I'd like to thank them for that, although it's a little too late.

I know for me, it's easy to tell what's happening on the 2015 model because the Force Touch trackpad shuts down. Oddly though, last time it happened to me, the audio from the video I was watching still played in the background, indicating that while the trackpad and keyboard were not responding, the system was still functioning in SOME capacity. Very strange.

 

[Bill St. Clair]

I have a 27" iMac bought in the fall of 2011. Since the 10.11.4 update, it has not been randomly freezing, but it often beachballs on awaking from sleep, and I cannot log in without power cycling.

 

[anestis84]

Hello guys i bought a MacBook pro early 2015 retina about a month ago and i've been experiencing the same problem....my mac freezes to death and no respond till i make forced shut down....

 

[Dr. James]

Hello guys i bought a MacBook pro early 2015 retina about a month ago and i've been experiencing the same problem....my mac freezes to death and no respond till i make forced shut down....

Welcome to the club.

 

[JesperA]

I said "most likely". I read every post on this thread and others for almost two months now, almost every time someone mentions this happening on an older device it's an issue that either started before 10.11.4 or just beachballs and hangs for ~30 seconds that always recover.
There are way more mac computers in circulation than the latest 2015 versions, yet, 65%-75% of users voted that this issue affects their 2015 machines which is the bug discussed in this thread and the reason I created the poll.

You gonna ignore the 25-35% of the non 2015 Macs and tell them they "most likely" have another issue even though i´ve seen alot of non 2015 Mac users have the very same freezing issues, what a weird stance. Don't ignore people on older hardware just because a very small percentage of users misunderstood the issue and reported beachballing instead of complete system freezes, those beachballing issue have been around since before Mavericks. Also, the percentages fits pretty good with the sales statistics so percentage wise the freeze issue affect an even range of Macs, also, people with older hardware maybe doesn't bother updating to newer OS X release as fast as people with newer hardware, there is alot to consider before ignoring non 2015 people that have this issue.

Also, there is no evidence this is an hardware issue at all, could just as easily be a pure software issue.

Your issue also seems to be different although you have a 2015 iMac:
"So, so far 10.11.5 PB3 and PB4 have not yet been freezing for me, which is great, the problem is that with PB3 it introduced a new bug for me that is still present in PB4. My monitor on my iMac turns of from time to time, and it is impossible to turn it on again AND this only happens while using Safari, when using any other of my 10-15 programs i usually use, those have never invoked a black screen".

No, i don't have a 2015 iMac and my issue was the very same freezing BEFORE PB3 and PB4, PB3 and PB4 fixed the freezing bug but introduced a NEW bug for me, the keyword is "NEW", before PB3 and PB4 i reported the very same freezing as everyone else, the reason i wrote about the new bug, is, as a stated in that very post that the new bug happened EXACTLY at the same points that my previous freeze issue did (scrolling in safari after about 30 minutes of usage)

I also said earlier if apple engineers focus their efforts on one hardware that is mostly affected "rMBP 13 2015" the issue should be solved for everyone if it's the same bug. It is easier to debug and pinpoint the issue if they test it on one hardware than look at a dozen similar issues.

Actually, it is the other way around, if the bug is reported on several different hardwares the developers can more easily find a common denominator and deduce the problem area, developers does not limit their debugging to a single item but rather a system or sample size as a whole. If they blindly just focus on one hardware they miss the common denominator that could give them a clue about the origin of the issue. And why should they focus on one type of hardware if it turns out it was a software issue instead? Then they would miss the bug completely.

I´ve seen so many speculation in this and other threads, some claim it to be a graphic driver issue (they argue the same way you do, "lets just focus on my hardware and ignore everyone else on completely different hardware with the same issue"), some claim it to be a Broadwell issue with the very same argument.

The closest speculation is an issue with the "WindowServer", Safari have had problems with WindowServer before on other releases of OS X, most had problems with Safari causing the freezes and some others on other apps, all of witch the common denominator is WindowServer, if WindowServer crashes without being able to restart itself OS X would experience the very same symptoms that we all have reported on. If WindowServer did broke in 10.11.4 and Apple fixed it on 10.11.5 PB4 and the upcoming GA, the freezes will be fixed for everyone no matter what hardware they have experienced the issue on.