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

Well. I've been montitoring this thread hoping for a solution and we've not seen one yet, though replacing RAM is on the list of things to try. I have been working without an external monitor OR with just an external monitor (clamshell closed) and not had any problems and waiting out a resolution.

THEN, I updated to 10.6.5 not expecting a resolution but just to do it... and now i'm crashing WITH the clamshell closed running an external 23" Cinema Display. YAY!!! This has never happened before and it just happened 2x in about 20 mins.

The funny (really not funny at all) thing is that my crashes predominantly happen when FTPing with Panic's Transmit app. But not all the time. Certainly not their fault (they are a very stable/mature app) and certainly not ram intensive operations. so what gives?

I don't even have the time to deal with this crap, let alone have them take the machine for a week. UGH!!!!

All,
Since my previous post, I have some news.
Earlier this morning I connected my MPB 13 to a brand new Philips 24' HDMI Full HD monitor (model 244E) via display port -> VGA. Since installation I have been using both the external monitor (at 1980*1080, 60Hz) and the MBP monitor (at 1280*800) and after 4 hours I have been experiencing no hangs at all. Everything works smoothly.
I have updated OSX to the most recent version (10.6.5).
I am not sure as I am not and engineer but I am wondering whether the glitch may have something to do with the refresh rate and resolution of the external monitor.

I had the same problem, but it occured to me *only when using an external monitor* not with a projector.

For both I use the mini display port to DVI adaptor,
and
for the beamer a DVI to HDMI cable,
for the external monitor a DVI to DVI cable (monitor is Samsung Syncmaster 940BW).

I then did a PRAM reset and

i unchecked "Automactically reduce brightness before sleep" (or whatever this is called in english - I have my os set to german) in the energy saving settings

--> i somehow have the feeling that's what solved the problem because my macbook used to crash after ~10 minutes usually and that was the sleeptime i set for the display...

i also unchecked "automatically adjust brightness" in the monitor settings.

Since then I am running fine without any crashes since >30 minutes (used to crash after 10 mins before that)

well what can I say.
Crashed after 1hr 15mins...

Update: I had the reseller replace my RAM modules, ran Memtest86+ for half an hour without errors (it reported errors in 5 seconds with the old RAM), stopped receiving error messages in Finder that I originally thought were due to file rights/ownership when copying large folders via LAN. Looks a ok so far, hard to say exact with the screen crashing as that was impossible for me to reproduce in the first place.

Houd.ini wrote:
Update: I had the reseller replace my RAM modules, ran Memtest86+ for half an hour without errors (it reported errors in 5 seconds with the old RAM), stopped receiving error messages in Finder that I originally thought were due to file rights/ownership when copying large folders via LAN. Looks a ok so far, hard to say exact with the screen crashing as that was impossible for me to reproduce in the first place.

Thank you Houd.ini!!! I have a spare set of ram that I will try tonight and run memtest to confirm.

Everyone... please start running memtest as well to see if everyone is getting errors. Stop messing with OS updates, installing/uninstalling applications, resetting pram/vram, etc. Those options will only waste precious time.

It's starting to seem very clear that Apple is either shipping bad memory modules or that some other cause is creating RAM errors. On any stable computer in the world, you should be able to run memtest for _thousands of hours without a single error_. To have errors being thrown within seconds is extremely concerning and very likely a root cause of our problems. The RAM modules may not be physically bad, but any compatibility issues between the RAM and memory controller that throw errors is a sure sign that something is amiss.

Ran memtest86+ last night for 5-6 hours... not a single error... SIGH!

I ran Rember with no issues last night (1 loop) but couldnt figure out how to run memtest+. can someone explain how to do it. Which download am I supposed to use?

thanks

Fish

FishNYC22 wrote:
I ran Rember with no issues last night (1 loop) but couldnt figure out how to run memtest+. can someone explain how to do it. Which download am I supposed to use?

http://www.memtest.org/

Download a pre-build ISO and burn to a CD/DVD. Then just bootup your macbook holding down the Alt key and select the CD drive. Once it's running, you'll probably notice there isn't keyboard support, but that's a minor issue. Just let it automatically run a few passes and then hard reset when you're done.

When I ran my test, I wasn't connected to an external monitor. Since it's running in just a shell of an OS, I'm not even sure if the display port would be active. I will try running memory diagnostics in OS X and Win 7 later today. The disadvantage is that these won't be able to test every addressable block of memory, but the additional load/stress be required for errors to start showing up.

Hey thanks for the tips. I actually had tried that but when I tried booting to that DVD it didnt work. I'll give it another shot. Thanks!

I tried again to burn the DVD. I used TOAST and burned a ISO9660 disc with no luck.

Just to confirm, I downloaded:
Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.gz) and unzipped it

I'm burning its full contents to disc
/README.TXT
/BOOT/BOOT.CAT
/BOOT/MEMTEST.IMG

is that correct?

Ok. sorry I figured it out. Didnt notice that the machine quickly unzipped and and mounted the iso. I was burning the drive contents vs the iso file itself. I redid it and got it working...

...and WOW.. Massive errors right off the bat. I let it run for a few minutes. I didnt think it was worth letting it go, and it pained me to watch it.

Here's a screenshot:
http://bit.ly/mbpMemtest

I read that the bad ram would show up right away but I didnt expect so many errors. Guess i'm headed to apple... with my memtest disc....

did some more research: There may be issues with memtest on certain models MBPs...
http://forum2.x86-secret.com/showthread.php?t=46705&langid=1

Nice screenshot Fish. That's exactly what I was expecting.

I did see that thread you mention, but not sure it's an issue. I was able to run multiple passes without a single error on my mid 2010 13" which leads me to believe that every block of RAM in my machine is writable. The EFI isn't causing false errors on my machine.


I would be shocked if you didn't actually have bad ram modules, but I'm also starting to think defective ram isn't the issue. It may still be a RAM/memory controller issue, but at least we know apple isn't shipping out bad DIMMS.

Whats odd is the screenshot shows that I have an i3/i5 machine but I actually got the i7 15". But they have the speed right (2.66). Probably doesn't matter anyway.

I'm not sure I understand what it means that all blocks of ram in your 13" is writable. From how fast those errors were adding up I'd think NONE of my blocks were writeable. What does that mean?