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

I did not get a chance to take the laptop to the "Genius Bar" yet. Strange though, I have another identical 13" MBP purchased from the same batch that does not have this issue...

same problem... month old 13" mbp... extended screen w/a samsung display... all of the sudden the laptop goes pink and monitor goes blue and both are unusable until hard restart. going to try a p-ram reset.

Good news everyone,
I've sent my MBP to the ASP last wednesday and i got it back today,
It says that they have my logic board replaced,
not surprising hum.

Hi Alan,

is the problem gone with your new logic board?

- Marc

I am in a hurry today so i can only managed to take my MBP from the service center,
on the receipt they said something like they have replaced the board, and tested ok.

I'll try it when i get home.

I think i have the issue resolved.
The issue doesn't happen again.

does this mean a hardware recall for all mid 2010 MBPs? i surely hope not. i mean will the logic board replacement fix the issue for all the users here?

i still haven't tried mine with an external display, but with all that's posted here i doubt that i will be spared.

Can anyone tell me whether your info is the same as mine? (Replaced logic board)

You can check those info from the system profiler.

Graphics/Displays
NVidia Geforce 320M
Device ID: 0x08a0
Revision ID: 0x00a2
ROM Revision 3533

Same

i just compared your settings to mine and mine are the exact same... and mine crashes anytime i am plugged into my external screen.

Same here (on a crashing MacBook)

Just to add to this discussion. I just received my new macbook pro (15" i5/2.4) and I'm having similar issues only with external displays thus far. The symptoms: 1) screen will produce a random jumble of pixels that flicker in a checkerboard pattern across the screen. 2) mouse turns into a spinning beach ball. 3) computer is unresponsive except to hard reset. I have not tried waiting for it to return beyond about a minute. I have also only tried this with automatic switching turned off.

The issue only happens when I have an external monitor hooked up, and it will happen within 5 or 10 minutes of having it plugged in. I have been using my computer for some time now without the external monitor (with automatic graphics switching turned both off and on), and I've had no problems.

My prediction is that plugging in an external display with automatic switching turned off (i.e. the discrete unit always on) will produce the same error. I can't try this just yet, as my computer is in the middle of something important, but I will report on it later.

So what does this suggest? Hardware problem stemming from mini display port? Or could it be software related?

Okay, I had some time to test a little more. I plugged in the external monitor, turned off automatic switching, and eventually (though it took a while longer this time, ~10 mins) the problem returned.

Right now, I am on JUST the external monitor (laptop shut with external keyboard attached) and so far no problems after (30 mins of usage which is usually enough time for it to come).

Likely candidates for my problem thus far: 1) software glitch due to extended monitor space, 2) hardware issue due to driving card too hard (heat death), with the assumption that I've only driven the card hard with the extended monitor. To test theory two, I need to run the computer without or only on external monitor while running something graphic intensive. Eventually, the problem should hit me even in this scenario. I have some doubts about the heat theory because the laptop doesn't appear to get too hot, but a hardware problem doesn't necessarily mean its a heat problem. Will write more when results are in.

Right now, it's looking likely that I will turn this machine into an apple store for repairs.

I have a similar problem, but not quite the same. I have the 13" Macbook Pro, bought last summer, running OSX 10.5.8. I just bought an external monitor, and when I plug it in via a mini displayport to dvi connector my macbook freezes. Unlike most of the complaints here, the screen looks fine besides being frozen - no color tints or weird pixelation. If I do a hard restart while the monitor is plugged into my macbook, it will start back up fine and the external monitor works and there is no freezing. Any suggestions? The monitor is the NEC P221W if that matters.

Took the computer to the Genius Bar today and could not replicate the problem there...very frustrating. Before that, the longest my laptop could go with an external monitor was about 20 minutes, with 10 being typical. We sat there for 45 minutes while pegging both the GPU and CPU...no problems. Anyway, after failing to replicate the issue, they wanted to run hardware tests, but I couldn't leave my computer there for the time being, so I'll have to go back again.

Just as a note: in store, we only tried apple monitors. All the monitors I use at work and at home are non-apple. When I got back from the apple store, I checked to see if the problem is still there; it is.