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

Sorry to hear that. I went to the store twice and couldn't replicate my problem. I even lugged in my monitor for the second trip.

Do you know how long they tested it for? My guess would be not very long; the Geniuses have little interest in finding a problem. My next plan is to take my computer down for an appointment, sit and leave it on and attached for as long as it needs to break.

BTW, you can place a bug report here:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

If it is software related, then we should make Apple aware of the problem as loudly as we can.

I miss my screen real estate 😉

Another bit of information to add: my co-worker just bought an i7 15" MBP; she has no problems with an external monitor (same model as mine). So, this puts more evidence towards a hardware issue. Unless having the extra video ram somehow magically makes the problem go away. (shrugs)

Today Screens an Lap and external monitor turns white again. Now white, not pink or/and blue. It happens last a week or two ago. Since that i've used the Laptop everyday for at least 8-10 hours a day in work. Weather was hot here and i've had no problems, whatever i did with the laptop. And tomorrow suddenly the screens turns white. Don't know what it is.

Hey all,

I've been posting in this monster thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11907554

The issues seem related to me, even though some people get the freeze without an external monitor, and some only with an external monitor.

I discovered something interesting about my laptop after it "freezes:"
The computer is not truly frozen. I turned on rlogin on my computer, plugged in the external monitor, and waited for it to break. Then I went over to another computer and SSHed into my machine. Everything was working fine remotely. So somehow, it's just the displays that are being affected.

Anyway, I took up the issue with AppleCare again, and when they saw that I had been to the Apple Store twice, they believed that I had a problem. The first rep asked if I wanted to send to a depot or exchange the machine, I said exchange b/c I was afraid the depot would not be able to reproduce the problem. So, I got bumped to a person higher in support, and he was great. He worked with me very carefully on the issue, and I pointed him to the photos that I took and put up on photobucket. He sent over the details and photos to Apple engineers. I got a call back from him the next day saying that they have no idea what the problem is and that they want the machine back for an "autopsy." Therefore, I'm getting an exchange. My machine is custom-built, so this will take a little longer than just a simple repair, but I don't mind the wait.

My advice is to be patient and nice with your AppleCare reps, it will get you a lot farther. Nevertheless, stay firm in what you want; you deserve to get a laptop that works. Good luck all.

i bought my macbook pro in the netherlands and am also facing this issue. The bottom line is that its evident in post 2010 spring macbook pros with the new n vidia graphics card. Since lots of people (me included) are facing this in a 13 inch pro, it cannot be an graphics switching issue. By the looks of the stack trace, it seems like an graphics driver problem. If anyone from apple bothers to read these forums. Please acknowledge this issue. Just because some of us can't seem to recreate it doesn't mean it doesnt exist.

I left my MBP at the apple store, and they were not able to reproduce the issue on mine either. I'm stumped.

I also was having this problem (screen blanking one, not the garbled display, after usually about 20 mins or so) on a new MBP 13". I took it back to the store and we transferred an image of the machine to another new MBP 13" using the firewire transfer tool when you start OS X for the first time. The new machine works perfectly, so this very much seems like a hardware issue to me.

I don't think the type of external display makes any difference. I am using Apple's 24" LED Cinema Display and I'm having this problem.

Well after exactly one month of working fine, my computer froze again today. I figured it was unlikely the 10.6.4 actually fixed anything, especially since it didn't make a difference for anyone else. So I guess it was just coincidence after all.

Some things worth noting:
• This time my external display went black, built-in display was a very dark purple.
• Like both I and "Fake Brain" noted, it's sometimes possible to connect to the computer via SSH when this happens. This time I was not able to connect though, it was totally unresponsive.
• My computer has been running a bit hotter lately. I checked the CPU temp after restarting, and it was at 167°F. It's been dropping down since, and it's now at 128°F. I'm inclined to think the high temp is related to the freeze.
• Nothing useful in Console, the log is just blank between the freeze and when I did the forced reboot.

I guess it's time to take this thing in.

Well, I received my replacement MBP yesterday, and so far so good. I've been using it exclusively on extended desktop with no hiccups. I watched a few 1080p movie trailers on a 24" Dell monitor and ran some test software from nVidia's CUDA SDK.

For anyone coming to this thread with this or a similar problem, it is likely a hardware issue---symptoms may vary between 13" and 15" MBP's since 15" have the intel HD integrated. You may have some difficulty reproducing it in an apple store, so if you have already visited one, then call AppleCare again and let them know the score.

Hi all,

I bought my MBP in Portugal and I have the same issue when plugged into a Samsung SyncMaster. One both screens went purple, another time they went pink, and the last time they went white.

Sometimes it takes 2 hours... sometimes more...

I hope Apple solves this issue...

After speaking with the Lead Genius @ the apple store. She gladly exchanged my unit for a brand new one.

I haven't had the problem since. I've been on it for 2 weeks straight and no more problems.

I conclude it's hardware based.


(If you take it to the apple store, i suggest having the mac in the frozen state. That's how I did it, and it was burning hot. The light was on, no inputs worked, screen was blank. Might convince your genius to reconsider not taking you seriously.)

It looks like you guys have exactly the same problem as I have.
My guess is that it's really a software problem as I could show the bug to the tech at the Apple Store 4 days ago and they changed my one-week-old MBP to a brand new one by thinking it was a hardware problem.

Now that I'm running my new machine, the problem starts again (always when I'm using extended desktop to the external monitor)...

I just hope Apple will fix this issue on the next update.

Count me among the afflicted. Just bought a new Samsung external monitor today and within minutes I was having the light purple screen of death. Very frustrating. Booked my call with Apple for tomorrow. I will advise...