MBP13‘3 and External Monitor Problem (screen goes pink/ laptop hangs)

For those who had the issue solved after changing memory modules, could you share which brand/module that works fine?

ChrisNH wrote:
... has anyone simply used one cable to go from their MBP to the external monitor?

Yes... I am currently using a display port cable and monitor which requires no adapters. Problem still occurs.

Problem occurs with all external monitors and has nothing do to with cables or adapters.

It's really starting to sound like a bad RAM issue, but the logic of it makes little sense to me. I understand that Nvidia GFX cards use a portion of the RAMs available memory, but I would think any RAM that passed standard QA should be well with the tolerance of the GFX card.

It also amazes me that if the problem really is the RAM, how it could go undiagnosed for almost six months now.

I upgrade to CM3X8GSDKIT1066 from Apple standard 4GB memory.

This seems to work for me.

@Chiehkal,

Apple upgraded my RAM, so I don't know what brand it is. In the System Profiler it says:


Memory Slots:

ECC: Disabled

BANK 0/DIMM0:

Size: 4 GB
Type: DDR3
Speed: 1067 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0x80CE
Part Number: 0x483634353155363446373036364700000000
Serial Number: 0x00000000

BANK 1/DIMM0:

Size: 4 GB
Type: DDR3
Speed: 1067 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0x80CE
Part Number: 0x483634353155363446373036364700000000
Serial Number: 0x00000000

Remember: The RAM per se might not be the cause of the problem. It might be something between the graphics chip and the RAM, but only the RAM is user-replaceable. But I'm no electrical engineer.

Hey folks,

An update from post a couple of months ago. I had my MacBook Pro 13" replaced in mid-September. I am happy to report that I have not had a problem since.

I've seen others posting recently about referring Apple folks to this thread. From my first contact with Apple (through Apple Care phone support), I referred to this thread and had the problem escalated. The customer service people I talked to first said Apple was aware of the problem and looking into it. I called back 3-4 weeks later, and they said they were still working on it, but would replace my machine. They did, and so far so good.

If anything changes, I'll repost.

Good luck to everyone with this frustrating problem!

Hi guys,
i'm back again. After 8 weeks of using my MacBook hooked up to the beamer and working flawlessly every evening for hours, it happened again two days ago. Last night it froze two times within a couple of minutes. So deleting the folder "System Configuration" and performing an SMC-reset (as the Apple technician told me to) didn't do the trick.
I have been following this thread in the meantime as if i knew it would happen to me again. I guess i'll call the tech guy again tomorrow.

@Chiehkai
I used kingston ram modules PC8500 DDR3 1066MHz cas7 it costs around 150 dollars and they work just fine.

any experiences with the update 10.6.5 so far?
its only hours, but no freeze so far here with my external display..

blackmade wrote:
any experiences with the update 10.6.5 so far?
its only hours, but no freeze so far here with my external display..

This is NOT an OS/software issue and 10.6.5 will not matter. The problem occurs in bootcamp running windows and is clearly either hardware related or firmware related.

@ pzane:

You are right about the thing that it's not an OS of software issue, so it's is not likely this update fixes this problem.

The statement it is a bootcamp/windows problem is not true as far as i understand.

Most of the solutions (so far) are motherboard/memory related, so i think the problem is the mobo (or more specific, the onboard graphics cart) is using the standard apple memory wrong.

Software updates will not fix this imo.

Rheptor wrote:
@ pzane:

You are right about the thing that it's not an OS of software issue, so it's is not likely this update fixes this problem.

The statement it is a bootcamp/windows problem is not true as far as i understand.

Most of the solutions (so far) are motherboard/memory related, so i think the problem is the mobo (or more specific, the onboard graphics cart) is using the standard apple memory wrong.

Software updates will not fix this imo.

Re-reading my post, I wasn't 100% clear. I wasn't saying this issue is related to bootcamp, but rather that it occurs in bootcamp as well as OSX meaning that an OSX update probably won't matter.

There is definitely something not right with the overall hardware configuration. Using an external monitor also causes HUGE amounts of latency on the USB bus; certain keyboard functions are almost non-responsive when it's nearing time to crash. Unplugging the external monitor seems to eliminate the latency.

I still wonder if this something that could be addressed at the firmware/efi level.

Well I hate to say this, for fear of jinxing it...but since updating to 10.6.5 48 hours ago, I have been using my MacBook Pro (no change of RAM, no new logic board) extensively, connected to my Dell monitor -- and not running it in clamshell mode. So far, not one problem.

Since others have given cogent reasons why the update to 10.6.5 should make no difference, I'd like to know if anyone has had our problem since updating?

Yes, and happened twice. The first time with Dell external monitor, no clamshell mode -- it gave me pink screens. The second time, without external monitor, it gave me a white screen.

I have updated to 10.6.5 and still have the same problem. I'll get in touch with Apple support again tomorrow.

Well what do you know! I had sort of ruled out memory error as responsible for my issues, because I ran the Apple hardware test early on in the diagnostic differential without producing errors. But today I decided to try Memtest86+, and errors popped up after running it for 5 seconds! This does not necessarily mean that the memory modules are faulty, it would actually be kind of strange with so many people experiencing bad memory modules almost only in one particular model, the 13" MBP.
It seems that people are starting to experience similar problems with the new Macbook Air models, that share one crucial component with the 13" MBP: The Nvidia MCP89/ Geforce 320m Media and Communications Processor (MCP). It is a single chip that houses among other things the integrated graphics controller, the IO controllers (In-Out controllers like USB, PCI Express, S-ATA etc) and the memory controller. When I said that it was not necessarily the memory modules that were responsible for the errors that occured in Memtest, there could also be other causes, like a faulty or badly configured memory controller. If you change memory modules and errors disappear, you would easily blame the modules, but it could also be caused by a myriad of other things, like faulty voltage tolerances in the memory controller or the memory modules, wrongly configured firmware (EFI) etc that somehow only produce errors in certain types of memory.
Now, as I have spent way too much time at work trying to troubleshoot this issue, sending my MBP away for service etc, I am going to ask my boss for permission to upgrade the memory to 2x 4GB, and see if that makes the crashes go away by exchanging the RAM. If the crashing stops I will ask to have the memory modules replaced and keep them as spares, if crashing persists, I will have to return the entire MBP.

If you are able to download Memtest86+ and burn it to a CD, you could try booting from the CD and running Memtest yourselves; hold alt at startup with the CD in the drive, and choose to start from the CD. Memtest starts automatically, and should be run for a few passes, or as long as you like really, the longer the better unless it starts throwing errors immediately.
http://www.memtest.org/

Message was edited by: Houd.ini