Screen turns black when gaming?

Another Macbook to add to the list. Happens when I play Half Life 2 on Windows XP (SP3). Looping sound and black screen requiring forced reboot.

Its happened a few times now and each time the fans have not been at an audible RPM. Has anyone else noticed this on their macbook?

I was just wondering if maybe the GPU is heating up quickly and catching the fans "off guard", causing a crash due to overheating.

Just downloaded smcFanControl. Will have a play and report back any observations.

Will also ring AppleCare tomorrow and see what they have to say for themselves.

My update:

Yesterday I was at apple trying to get a new MBP. The guy behind the desk had to test the machine. He used a program to stress the CPU. When the CPU was reaching 90 C. degree the fans started to run at around 3k rpm. I told him that I was sure the problem was because of the GPU. He did not have any testing software to heat it over 85º (the temp that hangs the machine in my situation), so he could not reproduce the problem, and no new machine for me.

Back home I was thinking that maybe he had "unstuck" the fans. Connected the MBP to an external display, open WoW and set details to maximum. In less than 10 minutes got the BlSoD.

As someone pointed, the problem is because of the 9600 heating up faster than the CPU reaches the predefined temperature to start the fans. I guess they should control both temperatures (cpu and gpu) independently and trigger the fans whichever was reaching the danger threshold first, but obviously this is not the case.

jmsala, the GPU most definitely heats up. The CPU testing was pointless. When I ran games on the 9600 - and I'm talking old games like 4x4 Evo 2 that don't even begin to tax a modern graphics card - iStat Pro reported my GPU Diode temp as high as 100°Celsius. There is a definitely a heat a problem. Doing a PRAM reset got the fans to come on properly for exactly one launch of one game, after which any subsequent launch of any game inspired no fan ramp-ups. An SMC reset (powering off, removing battery, holding power button for 15 seconds, re-inserting battery, booting up) had the exact same effect. Fans worked correctly for exactly one program run then never again. Combined hardware/software problem I'm pretty sure. I quit using it altogether because I know that those high temps are destroying the hardware even if it isn't blatantly obvious in the immediate.

I keep seeing people talking about stressing the GPU and such which is why I keep reiterating that I only use OS X, have no Boot Camp/Windows partitions and don't use anything like like Parallels. I only have old games like 4x4 Evo 2, Quake 3, Medal of Honor Allied Assault, and more along this line. Games from 5+ years ago that have 64MB or less VRAM requirements. The 9400 plays them all on max settings with only the rarest occurrence of fan ramp up, and never a failure of any kind. But the 9600 GT can't handle any of them without overheating and taking out my display. I don't have ANY modern games save for Flat Out 2 which of courses locks up just the same.

This is not a particular game issue, and as demonstrated on my system this isn't even an issue of putting a heavy load on the 9600. We have heat issues but little reason for the overheating. If the 9400 doesn't get hot (it doesn't) nor fail (it doesn't) when playing these games, and the 9600 overheats and fails on the same game within minutes or seconds, I think we have all the evidence we need of faulty hardware. I think the question now is whether or not it is a bunch of bad chips or, more seriously, a completely bad design that was rushed to market when it shouldn't have been. I don't think there is going to be an easy solution to this.

I don't think it's a fail of design because some other people solves the issue after changing the machine. But of course, there are too many users affected to think that it's just our bad luck...

One of the reasons I payed 300 euros more was for the pro features like dedicated graphics, and it turns out that now I cannot use it. The worst part is that there is no official word from apple after more than one month since the launch of the product and some of these issues are happening since day zero.

I played the Flat Out 2 Demo for about 20 minutes and my fans were really cranking. I had to go so I didn't get the BSOD. I don't have the NVidia graphics card like most do. My computer is at least a year older and a tad slower than others online. I didn't have problems with WOW until recently. I consistently got the BSOD at home and on vacation over the past three months. I could play WOW for hours. I'm running 10.5 and have been since I've had the crashes. I wonder if one of the recent software updates to the system, in the form of a security update may have changed the fan controls or settings?

I have this same blacking out issue on my new 2.8GHz 15.4" MBP (unibody) when using the 9600M GT card, first noticed it happening within the first 5 min of playing TrackMania Nations on XP (SP3) via bootcamp, this happened like 20 frustrating times before i tried the laptopvideo2go idea (posted above by shauny89 (thanks shauny)) this fixed the issue for TrackMania however the quality is a bit jittery at times..

I then tried the FlatOut2 demo to replicate the issue in OS X and hey presto black screen of death within 2 minutes of playing!

Interestingly however, playing Race Driver GRID (awesome game) in XP, before using any graphics driver mods, ran extremely well for hours and hours without any problems even though the MBP was so rediculously scorching hot you could singe your finger tips off above the F1-F7 keys.. I would have thought that GRID would have been much more demanding on the graphics card than TrackMania..

So far I'm convinced its a dodgy GPU, time to call apple...

Well, as I mentioned in my earlier post, there are some games that do not seem to crash even though, as pointed out by the poster above, the machine is almost too hot to touch in places when playing them. This is another reason why heat seems to be only a part of the story.

These games for me are world in conflict, supcom, silent hunter iv, armed assault, bioshock and portal, each of which I played for several hours without any issues at all. In fact, after playing these games for periods of varying duration over the course of several days I have yet to experience a crash in any of them. I played most of them consecutively as well, so the unit was well "warmed up". Indeed, I was very happy with the machine, until I played oblivion which crashed within minutes. A similar issue occurred with half life-2, which crashes after a few minutes (even though portal, another source engine game, does not). The same crash issue occurs with C&C3.

Does anyone else have games that do not seem to be affected by this issue ?

I am hoping this is an issue that could possibly be addressed in the firmware...

Just called Apple Support. They helped me with a different problem but for this one they wouldn't help me because they can't support Windows software.... I had to go to Microsoft support for that. Quite stupid since it doesn't seem to be the Microsoft software that's the problem but the Apple hardware (or Nvidia)..

I tried Call of Duty 4 for the Mac but unfortunately that did work... Today I'll try it again and just crank up the settings and detail to see if that will make the black screen of death appear.

turn on shading and set the resolution to 1440x900. makes my mbp crash within 5 minutes. some other things to check: disable smcfancontrol if you're using it, make sure you've set graphics to higher performance (9600) in leopard.

I did but for some reason in Mac OS X it doesn't get that hot, even with settings to high. It almost seems like the GPU isn't used to its full potential. The MBP gets hot, but you can still touch it. Fans are not even rotating at maximum speed. I tried playing Dead Space in Windows again and already after 5 minutes the fans rotate at maximum speed and the surface above the keyboard is so hot you can barely touch it. After that, again the screen of death.

I'm going to try some other Mac games to see if I can get the problem to occur. Still it's quite ridiculous that customer support does not want to help you and instead refers me to a Microsoft helpdesk since I'm gaming in Microsoft Windows. Quite stupid since it's not the Microsoft software that causes the problem, but the Apple/Nvidia hardware...

*I have big news!*
I returned my MBP last week, so I decided to call my Apple retail store today.
They said my MBP was returned, and Apple said it will be fixed in the very near future with a firmware update!
Since it's a firmware update, it will be fixed in both OS X and Windows.

Also, they don't ship any MBP's anymore with this problem.

I would like to do that but living in Spain is like living in the moon... They give no answers to anything except go to your local store and check with the manager there. In Barcelona where I live there is no official Apple store, so your best bet is to go to your dealer and he sends the thing to apple, something that I cannot do because this MBP is my only tool to do my job.

sigh
I called AppleCare, and they don't know anything about a firmware fix.
Called my Apple store again, they said they talked to the internal technical service of Apple and guaranteed me Apple is working on a firmware fix.

I said that this firmware fix will probably just be a combination of underlocking the videocard + increasing the fan speed, which is basically only a workaround for this hardwareproblem. There are a lot of people who don't have this problem, so seriously: IT'S A HARDWARE PROBLEM, FFS!

They said "sure, we could let the logic board replaced, but then you have to wait more than 3 weeks on you laptop, I suggest you to wait for the firmware fix".

Who should I believe, and what should I do?
I'm SICK of this, I just want a working machine OR my money back!

Hello… Check me in… in this Problem…
I was playing Cod4 and my computer shuts down on me… this happens everytime I TRY to play…
Talked yesterday with AppleCare, I have to install the system again and replicate the problem.

I just hope they will replace the logic boeard for a new one. And this is already a second macbook Pro. The first one was swapped out because of bent chassis at arival.
sigh
at least the new Macbook is a Beast… 🙂

I have this issue too. I can interestingly run FarCry 2 for a few hours no problem but when I try to play Crysis Warhead I can't last even when I force my fans to run at 6200 RPM for more than 15 minutes without getting the BL(SOD).

I'm going in tomorrow to meet with Apple Support at the Apple Store see if I can get a new logic board or if I just got to sit tight till Apple Released their new firmware upgrade.