Screen turns black when gaming?

I was suffering the same symptoms everyone describes while playing World of Warcraft. It can happen as soon as 2 minutes into launching the game or as long as after a few hours.

I took my late 2008 MBP back to the Apple store and they replaced it with little hassle. However, the same problems occur with the replacement machine as well. I don't know if it's a bad batch of MBP's and it's possible to get a good one if you're lucky, or if it's a problem affecting all late model MBP's.

After spending 2.5k, it's very disappointing.

I'm having the same issue as you boys while playing a Call of Duty 4 demo on Windows XP SP2. Using the SMCfanControl and switching the fans to 4000 rpm I could play CoD4 for hours without any problem! I think that this is just a driver problem... also, I'm not having any trouble playing on OSX. I hope Apple will fix it with a software patch soon...

Realized after the fact that this is MBP and not MB discussion, so my bad on that. Very frustrating issue. I have seemed to more or less resolved my WoW issue by jacking up my fan speed via smcFanControl to max (6000rpm) setting while playing and the higher rpm setting for general use (4000rpm). Also, I have turned down video and audio settings to min and have stripped away some add-ons. My keyboard (esp under the WASD set) was getting super hot. Oh, I also use a laptop stand (podiumpad) to keep it up off my table an inch or so. I wonder how reliable these fans are and what I may be doing to the lifespan of my MB as a result, and I am NOT happy about turning down my video/audio settings...

I'm having this issue to when playing World of Warcraft. Happens intermittently within a couple of minutes of playing or a couple of hours into. Very very frustrating.

It's really disappointing and I hope someone from Apple will step up and resolve this. It seems like more than a few isolated issues.

My first mac and very likely my last....pity too, i am liking OSX.

Count me in as well.

It's really strange. Since I got my macbook pro I had no problems at all. I could play a game without any problems with both Windows XP and Mac os x (using the 9600m).

But tonight after playing several minutes my screen turned black (flatout 2, mac os x). I still could hear sound but after ten seconds the sound was gone as well. I had to shut down my macbook pressing the power butten for a few seconds.

So, it's quite random I guess. I hope an update will be released soon so I can enjoy my macbook pro without any worries.

Agreed, it's very important Apple fix this both for people with MacBooks and their own bottom line. I know I am planning on buying a MacBook Pro but not until Apple solve this problem to the satisfaction of existing owners. When I mention to other IT people the fact that I'm finally switching to a Mac I keep hearing "are you sure? you should wait until they fix the graphics bug".

Same problem here. I've played WoW for hours w/o a crash and other times I start it up, everything loads and then 2 minutes later, boom! Crash. I plan on calling Apple Support tonight after work and getting an update or more information. I'll post back with my results.

Another one affected.
I am Playing THE sim racing game redline ( http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/redline/) and get a black screen with a repeating sound in the background.
smc fan control with 4000 rpm fixes the problem for me, so i hope for a solution using a firmware-upgrade for the fan behaviour, as we had it several times before already 😉

I have the same issue as the original poster. Has Apple officially responded to this?

Installing Fan Control 1.2 and cranking it up all the way has helped, but now my MBP is quite loud and the upper left fan needed replacing recently.

Even with Fan Control, the BSOD or complete Lock-up typical happens while playing WoW for a couple of hours (2-3) or when I wake up in the morning after a night of running Seti@home. I think the Arabesque screen saver has been running when it happens as well.

has no one heard anything from Apple the last days? What about the people who said they would get a feedback without some days. What did they tell you guys?

I have only seen one person who has gotten the message that there would be a firmware update.

Yup, have this same issue. I bought my new unibody MBP as soon as I could get to the Apple Store after they shipped. So, I have one of the early ones.

Mainly, mine konks out while playing Warhammer Online. My behavior is identical to others. It could take five minutes, it could take five hours, but I'll get the BSOD, sound and have to force restart.

Original video drivers or laptop2go.com drivers make no difference. I haven't underclocked yet, but I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO!

I have speedfan installed on the XP side. It can't control fan speeds, but I use it for temperature readings. I'll alt-tab out of my games to monitor temps.

Normal idling temps: 50-60 degrees C
Game in background: 72-85 degrees C
Right before BSOD: 95-98 degrees C

I even have a pretty nice cooling fan pad thing. It helps a couple of degrees, but not enough to curb the water-boiling temperatures.

A far as follow-ups, I was told in late November that I would get a call back with information from Apple Engineering as to whether this was a patchable firmware/software issue or whether it was a hardware fault. I never got that information. Two weeks later no information was forthcoming and they just replaced my machine without a further word. Note that I had said to them that I would prefer to simply await a patch instead of going through the hassle of setting up a new machine if they were all going to have this problem. I received the new machine today but will not have a chance to open it up and check it out until later. We have to draw our own conclusions at this point since we aren't getting an answer of any kind whatsoever from Apple. In fairness it's certainly possible that they don't know what's going on either.

{quote:title=seppevs wrote:}}
Also, they don't ship any MBP's anymore with this problem.{quote}

BS...I just got mine this weekend and it has the exact same issue.

How could they be shipping MBP's without this problem? If it's something they could fix that quickly then that would mean a firmware update, and everyone would have it by now...

Well, I'm very disappointed. I just now (no more than 2 minutes ago) got off the phone with Apple Care support... the guy had no clue what I was talking about. He said he checked his open cases and other hot issues and no where did he see that Apple is aware of this issue.

He told me to try to create a new user and try gaming under its profile and see if it happened. He had me try resetting the PROM. He also said to try the "Cmd-Opt-Esc" force quit sequence next time it happened. Anyway, just wanted to report my experience.

The fact that this thread has almost 10,000 views (and is currently one of the most popular), should make it obvious that there is an issue. For them to not be not aware of it...is almost disturbing.

That being said, I have been following this thread for a little while now with the same issue being described on my MBP. Tired of waiting for the mysterious firmware fix I read about everywhere, I made a call to Applecare and was unfortunately told the same. I would like to add though, that the service I have received from them thus far has been excellent. I don't feel like I'm SOL, as I most likely would with other companies.

A replacement (my second) should be on it's way to me soon. I will post back if this replacement corrected the issue, and include any differences (rev., firmware, etc.) from my current MBP.