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

Me too!

Using a mid 2010 13" MBP with a xingling (DX) mini displayport to DVI adapter it used to crash with less than an hour, and it didn't matter if it has high or low load, it always crashed.

I did the EFI upgrade yesterday and it is running very well with the same adapter/cable and usage it was before.

I'll leave it running all day today praying to dont crash anymore... ():-)

As for me, it's already been 2 days I'm working on extended desktop with my 21" monitor connected with VGA adapter.
I'm plugging it in and out, put my computer on sleep, and then starting again to work on dual-screen, etc. (so normal use!) and still no crash.
Let's hope this is the end!

Are you still having the problem? I have not had the problem once since updating to 10.6.5.

OK, 24 hours and going strong. I plan to leave everything on for another 24 just to be sure, but I must say that this seems to have worked so far. The good news is that Apple seems to have been aware of the problem and to have been working on it in order to provide the update. The sad news is that they didn't think to just let us know they were working on it. I think that would have allayed a lot of our concerns.

"Happy to report that I uploaded the firmware update as soon as I saw it and I've been running with an external Viewsonic 19" monitor connected via Apple mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter and with the internal monitor for seven and a half hours. Best result ever before this update was maybe 4 hours before a crash! So I am pleased . . . so far. I plan to leave everything running all night long and I'll report the results tomorrow. Wish me luck . . . "

After several days with no problem, it's back, repeatedly. And no fix has been offered for the 15" MacBook Pro, only for the 13".

Why?!

I took my 15" to the apple store again. This time they agree it's probably ram and or the logic board. They plugged it into an external monitor and ran a stress test and it died quickly.

They ordered ram which wasnt in stock. Headed back there wed to have the ram replaced. They will then do another stress test. If it dies again they are gonna replace the logic board.

Will post back results.

Hey,

I sent my Mac to reseller, and they changed RAM memory to new one. I tested my computer during this weekend, and I didn't notice any strange behaviour including problems with "White screen".

Regards
Łukasz

Remember: The key difference between the MBP 13" and the larger models of the same generation is, on those models the NVIDIA graphics processor has its own video RAM, only the on-board Intel GPU shares RAM. On the MBP 13", the NVIDIA GPU shares RAM. Any hiccups between the GPU and other circuitry on the mother board might not have shown up in (Apple's?) testing, whereas one would expect that Intel had ample opportunity to test its on-board GPU very extensively with the other on-board components.

So: Perhaps the same symptoms on the larger models have very different causes than on the 13" model.

I have this problem since I purchased my computer, 6 weeks ago.
I installed 10.6.5 and the new EFI update - didn't help.

The only thing the "solves" the problem for me is using ONLY the external monitor (turning off the laptop's monitor).

I have installed both the 10.6.5 update and the firmware update, and have been running in dual disply mode with a Dell 22" on DVI all morning. I'll see if I can get through the day (I didn't used to be able to pre-updates).

So, after four genius bar visits and a couple months of frustration. I think I have finally got resolution to this problem, and so far my computer is working wonderfully. One caveat; my computer is a 15" model, and the crashing problems had extended far beyond using an external monitor. I could no longer watch videos, use graphics programs (photoshop, iphoto), play any video games, even visit some flash intensive websites without the black screen of death and having to hard restart my computer. My computer was getting practically unusable beyond just the monitor issue.

This last genius bar visit, I described the symptoms, the guy hooked up my computer to an old 17" viewsonic monitor with the mini displayport adapter. Within about a minute and a half, it crashed. While running diagnostics, it managed to crash 3 times with the monitor still hooked up. He made some notes, and then told me we where sending it out to the apple repair depot where they could better test and fix the computer. Apple shipped me a box, I stuck my computer in it Friday afternoon and dropped it at FedEx, and then received my computer back by 10am monday morning. I was pretty blown away at how fast it came back to me, and a little concerned they didn't do anything. But, according to the repair summary, they replaced my logic board, thermal assembly (read's "Thermal Assy" on the summary... so I'm not completely sure that's what it is) and two fans.

The computer has worked flawlessly all morning using the external monitor with the extended desktop, heavy graphics and videos. Nothing has made it fail yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it continues to work this well. I think that though I had similar issues to many people in this forum topic, my crashes pointed to either an extreme version of the issue that everyone had here or a different issue altogether that had similar symptoms. I couldn't even access my time machine back up through the time machine interface because of the graphic stuff happening there I guess. All that to say, being able to get this out to the repair depot made the difference for me. So I'm cautiously optimistic now that my computer is fixed. We'll se how it goes for the next couple of days.

Hey rbrogan, Thanks for the heads up. i'm also having issues beyond external displays on my 15" machine. I am bringing it on wed to have the ram replaced as a quick and easy first step. Then from there the logic board which it could very well be.

had they replaced anything prior to that last visit when you sent it to be repaired? just curious.

thanks

I have been having the same problem on a brand new MBP as well. I've been to the Genius Bar several times, and they finally sent it off last week. I got the computer back on Thursday (new logic board, hard drive, display panel and case), and it started again the next day. Any answers would be extremely helpful. I'm getting ready to take it back to the store today.

I updated the new firmware two days ago, but it did not help. after connecting to my 22-inch Samsung LCD monitor for about 3 hours, the laptop just hang 10 minutes ago, the same behaviour as before: both screens are white or grey, the whole machine is frozen. So I don't think the new firmware fixed this issue. Currently it seems the only solution is using the external monitor only and leave the laptop closed.

A further update on the use of MBP 13' connected to external monitor (Philips 24' Full HD, HDMI) via mini display port-> HDMI, in dual screen mode.
I have been testing this environment for two weeks, with an average use of ten to twelve hours a day. It works perfectly! No more hangs (nor freezes after waking up from sleep mode).
I have updated the MPB to the new firmware (as per this week release) and the system continues to be stable.
Apparently, the HDMI connection can be a solution without the need to replace RAM banks.