Screen turns black when gaming?

I would highly recommend anyone who is having this issue return their system to their local Apple store (or wherever you purchased it) for a replacement before your 14 day window expires. I had this issue myself and after returning the machine for a replacement I did not experience the issue again. This has been reported in these forums as well as other gaming forums and the issue seems to be something to do with the 9600M GT chip. My opinion is that it's better to exchange while you can as opposed to keeping the machine and hoping it goes away. Odds are it's a quality control issue with NVidia and I'll be surprised if Apple doesn't end up issuing some sort of recall on the early models to deal with it. This wouldn't be the first time NVidia has shipped defective chips to Apple......

This isn't one of those things I would sit on hoping that someone "figures it out".

Just my $0.02

After trying the latest drivers- searching endlessly- reinstalling xp, and still having the black screen issue... I came across this forum and you guys are right on the money.
Rather than exchanging computers- I had them change out the logic board- and the problem is absolutely GONE. A full week of hours upon hours of gaming since then, and not once has the screen gone black...
I used to get it every hour or so- and it was becoming more and more frequent.
I suggest you go to the apple store and tell them it's happening in OSX, even if it's not- as you DO have a faulty chip.

I am having this issue. I only us OS X, not Windows at all. At first I thought it was just Postal 2, but then it happened with the Eternal Lands Client. Then 4x4 Evolution 2. It only happens with the 9600m GT chip. I can play seemingly forever without a problem on the 9400M. Strangely it only happens when playing games but not when watching movies or doing any other activity. I get a NVChannel(Display) timeout! error in the log if I let the screen sit there a while before resetting. I notice that the screen does not simply go black, the actual backlighting goes out completely as the audio loops. A few times I have been able to continue to adjust sound level and keyboard backlight level after the screen goes out, but usually it's a complete lock-up. I was hoping this was some kind of driver issue that would be solved with the next OS X update, but if all you folks are exchanging your machines or having your logic boards replaced and finding no problem afterwards, I guess it's faulty hardware and I get to wave goodbye to my new machine for weeks. (I don't have an Apple store, I bought from Apple's online store). Although with so many problems I have to wonder what the odds are of getting a replacement with the same issue.

There sure seem to be a lot of random posts about this on various forums, with a Google search. It may be more common than people realize since it seems to only occur during gaming with the 9600M GT enabled. I'm sure there are many people who don't mess around with games at all or don't use the 9600 much.

Incidentally my machine reports that it was manufactured Nov. 5th in Shanghai.

-K

I have the same issue on a brand new MBP late 2008 bought last week; when using an external Apple Cinema Display (23") and if playing WoW the screen will suddenly go dark and the machine will become completely unresponsive; force quit won't work, unplugging the monitor won't work, and only by doing a hard reset (hold power button for 8 secs) will the machine come back to life.

Yesterday also had distortion of the screen while just on the desktop when waking screen from sleep (digital noise/discoloration).

This is all on the faster graphics chip enabled.

Called AppleCare US today and they told me its a known issue and to wait for Software patch. Not sure I agree it is software given the above and will be calling the AppleStore.com sales team for a refund on Monday or an exchange as there is no guarantee it will be fixed before the 90 day support expires.

Hope this info is useful to others having the same issue.

Update: I've just had the machine crash while using the MBP's own screen to play WoW (screen goes black and audio indicates crash as it starts to repeat and no key combinations will unfreeze the mac or start up the screen).

To me this is the clearest indication yet that there is an unresolved hardware issue with the unit and re-affirms my intention to have it sent back.

Can't say I am a satisfied customer considering a brand new £1700 laptop has this serious an issue. This is not up to Apple's usual quality standards and feels like a beta issue that should never have made it to a production run without being addressed.

Thanks for the interesting report, omv. It's reassuring in a way that AppleCare claims to be aware of the problem.

I wonder why, though, if it is something solvable with a patch then why are some of these people reporting perfect performance after an exchange. Surely they are not getting new machines that have been "patched"? Or could they?

Perhaps we could compare graphics card info. It would be interesting to know if there is a difference between the problematic ones and the replacements. Unfortunately those who got replacement machines are problem too busy gaming to come back and check on this thread.

Here's mine.

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0647
Revision ID: 0x00a1
ROM Revision: 3327
gMux Version: 1.7.3

I agree if exchanges are coming back fully functional it does tend to point to faulty hardware in a production run (hopefully not an entire ramp!).

After the screen died while using the laptop's own screen I also definitely swung towards a hardware issue with this unit and promptly rang the AppleStore today to voice my disappointment. Since I am within the 14 day returns period, and aside from the fact that this is clearly a faulty product, they are sending a replacement out to me and I am returning this one.

I'll update the thread when I get the new one through - if it too is a dud and by then there is no software patch or statement from Apple, I will be forced to consider alternatives.

Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to pull off the card info before I wiped the drive but I will post the details of the new machine when it arrives in roughly 2 weeks time (projecting Dec 4th). At least people will then see either that it is a newer revision with no issues or the same and has/does not have issues either way.

Hope others post details as well in mean time and/or Apple come up with a fix.

I received a replacement for my BTO mbp and after testing it for some time with various games, it still hasn't crashed. During the time I was waiting for the replacement to arrive, I had gotten used to running the 'defective' unit with smcfancontrol with the default rpm set to 3000. This setting has prevented the mac from crashing while gaming.

Now this is a separate issue but the screen on the replacement is the LG 9c84 unit as opposed to the Chimei 9c85 one on the previous one. The 9c84 colors are washed out and the blacks are not as black as the 9c85. Need to decide whether to live with running the machine at 3k rpm or swapping it with the washed out LG unit.

There is an issue many users are experiencing. For some reason the fans are working at around 2000 RPM under any condition, even when the processor and the gpu got very hot.

What happens is that the computer gets overheated and locks or disconnects for security reasons.

When using the integrated graphics the temperature is not reaching such high temperatures and it takes longer to overheat.

I'm not sure if this is a logic board problem or a driver/firmware issue that can be resolved with future updates, but it's very annoying that a 1750€ computer has such problem.

I replaced mine and this has the same problem. I'm trying to figure out if this is a defective serie or just my bad luck but after reading this forums I'm not alone in this issue and it's not an uncommon problem (take uncommon with a grain of salt please).

I think you're absolutely right about it not being uncommon. Consider that many people buying these haven't figured out how to switch graphics chips, or haven't bothered to, or prefer the 9400M for energy-saving purposes.. Then consider that many people aren't bothering to game or do anything graphically intensive with the 9600M GT enabled.. And of those that are doing those things and are having the blackouts, only a tiny percentage of them would find their way to an online forum and start asking around. Many would just take their computers back, call AppleCare, or maybe even assume it is a software issue and not think much past there.

The fact that we have quite a few people in this forum who have experienced it, plus you can find posts about in other forums on other sites as well, indicates this is quite potentially a widespread problem. I wish we could get more people posting their 9600GT specs from their System Profiler, both before and after "successful" exchanges, and I'd like to know what SMC version they've got running as well.

I have done a PRAM reset, and had the fan comes on correctly for one launch of a game, but after that first launch the fans don't come back on. I got them working again after a full SMC reset while on the phone with AppleCare, and once again after that first launch where it worked, the second launch of the game it failed.

The people over at MacRumors and WoW think this is a BootCamp/Windows and/or World of Warcraft specific issue. I wanted to enlighten them that it is systemic and not program-specific but I can't post because I am not a subscriber.
I think everyone needs to get together as a whole to compare notes or sound the alarms so the mystery can get solved for everybody. If Apple engineers and we the users can't find the definitive source of this issue then I suspect nobody is totally in the clear, as a software issue could cause it to flare up on the "working" machines as well.

Well I get on my MacBook Pro when using WOW or at various times in Vista via Bootcamp. It's happened 6 times over the last 2 weeks. Thought it had gone away after a PRAM reset or whatever but it happened again just now 😟.

Gonna phone apple support tomorrow if I have time as it's starting to pee me off.

Boot ROM Version: MBP51.0074.B00

Update:

Just spoke to AppleCare UK and they also confirm "Apple are aware of the issue and are investigating. At present we do not know if this is a hardware or software issue and have been advised not to offer customers exchanges until the issue is better understood."

I've also read the posts suggesting this is a thermal issue but I got screen noise/distortion when just waking the machine from sleep and also monitored the fans while playing WoW and they were running at 6000+ rpm consistently.

Ultimately Apple have access to more testing resources and should come up with a fix fairly soon but if my replacement exhibits the same issues when it arrives in two weeks time, I doubt I'll keep waiting: I'll have it shipped back and ask for a re-fund until Apple sort this out and I can purchase a working computer.

Will update once I get the new machine & get it up and running.

Keep phoning AppleCare people - each logged incident bumps this up the priority list at the Apple end.

Message was edited by: omv

I've had the same thing happen to me only while playing Dungeons & Dragons Online in Windows XP via Bootcamp with the graphics turned all the way up. However, I've played World of Warcraft for hours in OS X with no crashes whatsoever. In fact I think this might be a case of both hardware faulting and software faulting. It would explain why some of us are getting the crashes only in Bootcamp while others are getting them in both OS X and Windows environments. I really hope apple tracks this down and issues a firmware/software patch. I truly hope it isn't hardware related.

I think its a driver problem with the fans in Windows. I started my MBP up in OSX and used smcFanControl to turn the fans all the way to max, then I boot camped over onto my Windows XP SP2 partition and ran CS:Source (which had been crashing after about 5 minutes of gameplay) just fine. I only played for about 20 minutes to test it though. I just noticed that when I was playing before setting the fan speeds up, that when in Windows, the fans never started spinning any faster, even when the machine was under heavy load.

Hope this helps a few people get to playing.

This problem is not to do with Windows. It happens whether people are in OS X or Windows. I myself don't have any Windows software. I'm not using Boot Camp, Parallels, nothing of the sort installed, and there isn't an OS X game I can play with the 9600m GT that doesn't quickly result in the black screen of death.

That said, some people have had success using the Laptop2Go drivers in Windows.

I originally thought this was solely a driver issue, but I have come to where I believe there is a hardware component to it.