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

[valemmrich]

I've experienced the freezing issue with my new Macbook Air 13" (2015) under 10.11.4 as well. Happened once a day. I updated to 10.11.5 yesterday and so far my system seems to be more stable, ie no freezes yet. I'll report if it comes back...

EDIT: I just called Apple Support (Germany). They told me that they don't officially (whatever this means) know this bug. However, they recommended to do a SMC and a NVRAM Reset. Don't know if that helps some of you. I personally still didn't freeze on 10.11.5

 

[vmachiel]

Right, I know it wasn't specific to a browser, it was a graphics driver/framework bug, which is something that tends to get stressed by the hardware acceleration routines in ALL browsers. In other words, the point was to not "poke the bear", by turning off hardware acceleration.

But anyway, glad that it's fixed for you.

I see. Well, not being allowed to poke the graphics bear ain't good enough, so I'm glad 10.11.5 is out

 

[max pl]

i froze twice yesterday on .5

 

[Grimsy]

i froze twice yesterday on .5

Seems legit since the latest 10.11.5 beta still had the freezing issue. No reason Apple fixed it in the final build.

 

[n-evo]

I've had it happen twice on v10.11.4. I did a PRAM reset and it hasn't occurred so far.

 

[vmachiel]

i froze twice yesterday on .5

Smasher of dreams! You sure it was related to the bug? What machine do you have?

 

[macuser151515]

Since 10.11.4 was released, my machine has had serious problems. One app will hang, then another, then the entire system will freeze and only a hardboot will restore it. I have had multiple calls to Apple and was escalated to a senior advisor, who told me that they were working on it and had me run diagnostics. Yesterday, my Mac automatically updated to iTunes 12.4, and, strangely, I have two entries for it in the update screen of the app store window. The new iTunes hung the entire system, although its hard to know if that is just a result of the 10.11.4 problem. I am making some extra back ups of the system and will update to 10.11.5 when they are done. I really hope that this solves the problem!

If anyone has any thoughts about this, I would love to hear them.

 

[superuser1]

Since 10.11.4 was released, my machine has had serious problems. One app will hang, then another, then the entire system will freeze and only a hardboot will restore it. I have had multiple calls to Apple and was escalated to a senior advisor, who told me that they were working on it and had me run diagnostics. Yesterday, my Mac automatically updated to iTunes 12.4, and, strangely, I have two entries for it in the update screen of the app store window. The new iTunes hung the entire system, although its hard to know if that is just a result of the 10.11.4 problem. I am making some extra back ups of the system and will update to 10.11.5 when they are done. I really hope that this solves the problem!

If anyone has any thoughts about this, I would love to hear them.

I've experienced this exact problem multiple times, and I described it in a post on page 24 of this thread. It seems to be worst when I'm watching videos and multitasking heavily, but it's difficult to be certain. My machine is a 2015 rMBP and I use external monitors and bluetooth peripherals almost constantly. Are there any similarities between our setups?

 

[Vermifuge]

I've experienced this exact problem multiple times, and I described it in a post on page 24 of this thread. It seems to be worst when I'm watching videos and multitasking heavily, but it's difficult to be certain. My machine is a 2015 rMBP and I use external monitors and bluetooth peripherals almost constantly. Are there any similarities between our setups?

I use safari as my every day browser and do NOT install flash. The more video content I watch the more unstable Safari gets. Normally it results in Safari becoming erratic. Page elements won't display until ultimately videos will not load or Safari starts to hang (Beach ball) a lot.

At it's worst it seems Safari will hang the whole system to the point I have control over nothing. I can hear Teamspeak working in the background as friends talk but the computer does not immediately respond to keyboard, trackpad or mouse input. After ra period of time (1+ min) the system will return to normal operation. Once it is free all my previous input is played out as if it were stored in some sort of buffer.

2015 15" rMBP /w 16 GB RAM

 

[Dr. James]

Antonn, I really hope you're right and this has been fixed...

 

[daveariordan]

Has anyone had the sudden freeze issue with a Macbook Pro Retina Display early 2015 after upgrading to 10.11.5? So far I haven't had any freezing yet.

 

[max pl]

Smasher of dreams! You sure it was related to the bug? What machine do you have?

Late 2013 15 MBPR.

Not sure why OP states this has been resolved...

I just did a PRAM reset so I'll monitor to see if it reoccurs.

 

[JesperA]

Seems legit since the latest 10.11.5 beta still had the freezing issue. No reason Apple fixed it in the final build.

For alot of people the last .5 PB version the freezing issue was fixed or minimized, for me, the freezing started again when updating to the GA version

 

[gm22]

I updated to 10.11.5 beta and then GA version and still have the same freezing issue. Thus the problem is not fixed!

 

[daveariordan]

I updated to 10.11.5 beta and then GA version and still have the same freezing issue. Thus the problem is not fixed!

what model do you have?

 

[Dr. James]

Still no fixes here with 10.11.5...

 

[Antonnn]

Still no fixes here with 10.11.5...

James, are you saying that you are still having this issue in 10.11.5 build number (15F34)?
You've been here since the beginning pretty much, I've seen so many people confirming this was fixed both here and over at the apple forums.
Do you have the 15'' or the 13''? Just checked the votes, you have the 13''.
Does the issue manifest in the same exact way as the videos or did it change?

I am making some extra back ups of the system and will update to 10.11.5 when they are done.

Yes, update first, update us later.

I updated to 10.11.5 beta and then GA version and still have the same freezing issue. Thus the problem is not fixed!

Quoting you from the other thread:

"If I restart and the background of the login screw has "strange" lines around the borders of the images I no immediately that the computer will freeze when I try to login. If I continue rebooting the computer multiple times until this "strange" lines are gone, the computer start-up fine. I thing it has to be a graphic card issue."

What model do you have is it by any chance a 2011-2013 macbook pro? Those "strange" lines are they like this? or like this? or like this? If so I have bad news for you, or good news since I know the issue.

I've experienced this exact problem multiple times, and I described it in a post on page 24 of this thread.

Yes your Problem Nr. 1, was the same as ours. Did you update to 10.11.5?

Not sure why OP states this has been resolved...

Hm, you had your macbook serviced a while ago, and you are having these freezes since before 10.11.4, you are also having beachballs before your computer freezes, sounds to me like you might need to look into this further, I would install yosemite and see if it still happens (or a backup of 10.11.3), just to confirm this is a software issue, if it still freezes under yosemite or 10.11.3, which from your earlier messages back in March it was, something might be wrong on your board.

 

[nihil0]

I have iMac 27" late 2013 model which I bought refurbished in October 2015 with Yosemite installed. It has internal 1 TB 7200 RPM HDD so I am using OCZ Vertex4 SSD in external USB 3.0 enclosure. I had no problems with that when using Yosemite but after I installed El Capitan in December 2015 I am experiencing random freezes while using Safari, Photoshop and Illustrator. As far as I remember I always have Safari opened when using other apps so I can be in touch with ppl on FB and such. Those freezes usually happen once in one or two weeks. Update to 10.11.5 did not fix that. I was told that it can be issue with external enclosure as USB 3.0 connection is not recommended to be used as system disk. Once I had to reformat it and reinstall from TM backup because it all went corrupted Does someone here have same configuration? Or maybe using ThunderBolt external drive instead as to confirm whether this error can do something with external drive? Thanks.

 

[linus303]

For what it's worth - I am experiencing the same system wide freezes. I am running a Macbook Pro 13'' Retina Early 2015, 8GB Ram, 512GB SSD attached to a Dell U2715H and a 3TB USB3 HD. No Problems whatsoever up until OSX 10.11.4. Version 10.11.5 did not fix the problem for me, I already encountered two crashes again. Clean install and a PRAM reset did not solve the issue either.

This is getting pretty darn frustrating, especially since there is no fix in sight. Will post the logfile next time it happens.

 

[gm22]

what model do you have?

2014 MacBook Pro 15" with 16gb. 1Tb ssd.

 

[vmachiel]

For what it's worth - I am experiencing the same system wide freezes. I am running a Macbook Pro 13'' Retina Early 2015, 8GB Ram, 512GB SSD attached to a Dell U2715H and a 3TB USB3 HD. No Problems whatsoever up until OSX 10.11.4. Version 10.11.5 did not fix the problem for me, I already encountered two crashes again. Clean install and a PRAM reset did not solve the issue either.

This is getting pretty darn frustrating, especially since there is no fix in sight. Will post the logfile next time it happens.

Was it a crash as in, black screen or a freeze as in, everything stopped moving?

 

[dmnc]

Since I updated I haven't encountered any freezing. I upgraded from 10.11.3, maybe that has something to do with it? I don't think so...but maybe.
I had a little hiccup connecting to my tv (black screen) but it was resolved by putting the Mac to sleep and waking it up.

 

[linus303]

Was it a crash as in, black screen or a freeze as in, everything stopped moving?

A freeze as in beachball first, clicks from the trackpad stop working, system becomes completely unresponsive. Only a hard shut down solves it. Basically what the thread starter described from the beginning. I cannot see 10.11.5 fixing it at all.

EDIT: I haven't had any freezes during the times I used my MacBook without an additional screen attached. That doesn't mean anything tho, as the issue appears to be completely random, might have just been lucky.

 

[StefanDesu]

Update 4:
The issue has been silently fixed in 10.11.5, install the update now.

OP added this to the original post. Could you elaborate on that? Many people still experience freezes, but maybe you're right and those are all different issues.

I think I had the same freezes as you where nothing worked anymore, though the system was still running, only the WindowServer became unresponsive. I went back to 10.11.3 which fixed the issue for me, but I might try to update to 10.11.5 now...

 

[Tricon]

Hello everyone. I have been following this thread with interest and sympathise with everyone who has been suffering these problems. Has anyone considered other factors such as 'dirty mains' / 'dirty power'? There are many external factors that can cause computers to exhibit these issues such as electricity spikes caused by heating boilers switching and fridge freezers, washing machines and kettles. There are also many threads on the web about mobile phones causing these crashes or even wi-fi routers being placed too close to the computer. There are many things to try and eliminate all the potential causes. You could purchase a mains spike counter or mains filter. Dirty mains can be caused inside the home and can come directly from the PowerStation. I feel your pain and just think that there is more some people could do other than wait for the magic OSX update that may never come. It has got to be worth getting a mains power filter as a start.