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

I've been doing this the past few days and haven't had any freezes except during a restart for the last software update (I believe it was a security update). Other than that blip, my 13" has been much more stable than with both monitors running, which would consistently freeze up within a few hours.

You know it took Apple quite a while to admit a video card issue with the older MBPs ( http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2377)…it might take them a while this time around as well.

I may be in the minority here, but things are working fine on my end. I got a 13" MBP in mid-August 2010 and an ASUS 24" monitor with DVI & HDMI (chose DVI). I put the MacBook Pro into a BookArc so it 'stands' in a vertical position. I have the Mac Bluetooth keyboard & Magic Mouse and everything is working flawlessly. I simply put the MB to sleep when I'm done & wake it up when I want to use it. I don't know if people are having these problems with essentially the same set-up that I have; it would be good to know.

Our school purchased about 50 ea. 13" MacBook Pro and about 70 15" MacBook Pro this past summer (Mid-2010 models).

All of our instructors use projectors or external monitors...

I haven't heard of a single problem with the 15", but I've got 13" machines dying all over with this video issue. Doesn't matter if it's high (24" monitor at 1920 x 1200) or low (Projectors at 800 x 600), the problem is pretty consistently happening on a few of the 13" machines. Most of our users switched over from PCs, so they're used to crashing... there may be many more that I'm not hearing about.

The update didn't do a thing. Swapping machines didn't do a thing (we have spares... but they might be from the same "batch" of machines).

Ugh.

Please, Apple... I need this fixed. We're finally getting people on board with Apple stuff and this is happening. 😟

Genius bartender reproduced the problem in 2 min.
It was a bad graphics card/logic board.
Walked out with a brand new 15" MBP (it was less than 30 days old) which is working fine to date.

ChrisNH, the problem seems to be specific to using both monitors (i.e. with the MacBook Pro open, not closed).

Jamie, in case you didn't know, Apple does not actively read these boards. It's here for users to help each other. If you really need help you should talk to Apple directly.

I bought a new mid 2010 MacBook Pro a couple of weeks ago, and only connected it today to an older Xerox monitor. I have a mid 2008 MacBook Air, which I used w/ the same monitor, and never had any major issues. Now, I had two different ones. At first, everything was fine, but I wanted to adjust the resolution. I got a warning that the screen might go black though! And it did. However, it never returned to normal, although the warning said it should after 15 sec or so. The external stayed white, and the main laptop display stayed black. When rebooted, all was back to normal. I tried the second time, and this time everything was OK, but after a couple of minutes of work, both screens turned grey, and I had to reboot again. No fix yet, huh?

An update from post from three weeks ago. In that post I said I had talked with Apple Care, they said Apple was aware of the problem and working on it. They said to call back in about 3 weeks. So I did. Apple hasn't figured out a thing, but they are replacing my machine. When I get the new one, I'll let you all known if I still have the same problems.

Just spend 30mins on the apple support help line. They told me to go to the apple store but their earliest appointment is Saturday (3 days from now). Sick of rebooting my machine. Wish they can give me my money back so I can buy a PC.

I think it might has something to do with the bluetooth. It seems to happen to me only when when I am using dual screen and my bluetooth mouse. Can anyone confirm this?

nope. it has nothing to do with bluetooth.

i want to tell you the facts i figured out by now:


- problem occured by using 3 different miniport to dvi adapter

- it seems that when i`m putting down resolution of my external screen to a very low number, system
doesn`t freeze


- when closing the macbook pro and working only on external screen everything works fine

- when using a imac as external screen the problems doesn`t occur, you connect both devices without any adapter via miniport

- the freezes are not triggered by any software apps, i booted with my installation dvd and did a reinstall of my system with my external screen connected and it crashed within the installation

- apple has no clue about this issue, even professionals at apple care cannot find conspicuous things on affected computers

i`m trying to get a new logicboard, but i don`t know if that fixes the issue.
poor thing apple!

Message was edited by: blackmade

Message was edited by: blackmade

I have a brand new Macbook Pro 13. I also bought a Mini DVI-to-VGA Apple adaptor to connect my Mac to an external monitor (Sony HS73 19 inch) which I have been using for years with my old Mac (PB 12) with no problems whatsoever.

The same above problem happens to me when my Mac is connected to the external monitor.

It has not happened yet when I am using only the Mac's own laptop screen.

My computer freezes and so does the external monitor. I get a grey screen on the Mac and a purplish screen on the external monitor. Or sometimes both go black.

Then I have to do a hard restart.

The timing is random, sometimes after many hours.

It doesn't seem connected to what I am doing at the moment because many times it has happened while I was away from the computer.

I did notice it happens more quickly when I have my external monitor resolution set to 1280 x 1024. I now have it set to 1280 x 960 and it happens less. But it still happens, after several hours.

I'll agree I saw it happen more often with my mighty mouse bs magic trackpad. System logs showed mouse related errors just before some crashes. Open console and see if you also have said errors prior to the crash. Either way, it's not the ultimate issue, and getting a new logic board did it for me!

did everybody who has a new macbook or logic board resolve the problem?

Well, I have an insurance that gives me the opportunity to swap my MBP to a new one as soon as I have a problem. I already got a new one 2 times because of this problem, and I still have it!
So new MBP, probably new logic board, and still the same problem!