My trusty MacBook Pro (MacBookPro4,1) has suddenly started freezing. It seems do it at random times, when I am not doing anything which should be particularly taxing (eg it often freezes when I am sitting reading a web page, and the computer is basically doing nothing).
The symptoms are as follows :
The computer is behaving normally, and then at a seemingly random moment, the screen suddenly starts flickering very rapidly. Sometimes it also has areas with patterns of black, grey, or white squares, each square being about 4x4 pixels.
The computer also freezes completely - except that the pointer will still move, which seems a little odd.
The computer does not react to anything I do except to move the pointer when I move my finger across the trackpad. The pointer moves much faster than usual.
Sometimes, if I wait long enough, the screen will stop flickering, and sometimes the pointer speed will return to normal. But the computer never unfreezes.
Looking at the Console, I see that there is a continuous stream of error messages from
com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[277] - three error messages repeating over and over, the whole time the computer is on.
Message 1 : +(org.freedesktop.dbus-session[413]) posix_spawn("/opt/local/bin/dbus-daemon", ...): No such file or directory+
Message 2 : +(org.freedesktop.dbus-session[413]) Exited with exit code: 1+
Message 3 : +(org.freedesktop.dbus-session) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds+
I have no idea whether these errors are relevant to the freezing/flickering problem, nor whether they were already happening before the problem started to occur three days ago.
The following points may also be worth noting:
* I am running my MBP from a Kensington 12V power supply rather than the Apple 240V brick. But it has been working fine from the Kensington supply for a couple of years now...
* I upgraded the memory when I first bought the machine. IIRC, it is Crucial RAM.
* The freeze has always occurred while Firefox has been open. But that is probably because I always have Firefox open...
Just got back from the Apple authorised service center. They run GPT (graphic processor test) which took 3 minutes and got the confirmed error code that the graphic is dead or on-it's-way-to-be-dead (stupid nvidia), so they were able to immediately book it in for a FREE graphic chip (read motherboard) replacement!!
If your screen is flickering and system is freezing (and I mean the whole screen, not just Safari window when you play flash) then don't waste your time, find the closest authorised service and take it in for this test. Most of them won't charge you for the test (not sure if they are allowed to charge) and will get the whole thing sorted for you for free (providing the MBP is from a certain time period). The graphic chip I had was nvidia 8600GT - it was recognised by both Apple and nvidia as a 'problematic' chipset.
Good luck everyone. I will update you all once the repair is done (in a day or two)!
I'll start with a summary of the problem as it stands:
* The problem is getting worse - the computer freezes more and more often.
* The graphics are corrupted much more than before.
* The issue often occurs as soon as the Apple logo appears upon startup, before the progress indicator even appears.
* The flickering doesn't always happen, and when it does it starts and stops.
The graphics are almost always (always?) corrupted to some extent, sometimes just a few pixels and sometimes the whole screen.
* The cursor still moves, even while the computer is frozen, the graphics are corrupted, and the screen is flickering.
When (only when) the screen is flickering, the cursor moves about twice as fast as usual.
* Sometimes an area of corrupted graphics follows the mouse around the screen.
* The cursor sometimes changes to a spinning beachball a few seconds after the freezing.
* Occasionally the pattern of corrupted graphics changes after a while, but usually not.
* I thought at one point that the issue only occurred when the computer was plugged in, but it has now also occurred many times when running off the battery.
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In the past, the system has never shown a problem report after I turned it off and on again due to this issue.
Today, however, it has done so twice.
I will attach the problem report in another message, in case it sheds any light on the issue.
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I have now managed to copy all my stuff off the computer, between freezes, and I'm wondering what my next step should be...
As I see it, my options are :
* Reinstall the operating system and see if the problem persists.
* Take the computer in to an Apple Authorised Retailer and see if they think it's the graphics card and will therefore repair it. This might be difficult because I'm in Spain and my Spanish vocabulary doesn't include such terms as "Logic board", etc... 🙂
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task
Mac OS version:
10F569
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 10.4.0: Fri Apr 23 18:28:53 PDT 2010; root:xnu-1504.7.4~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: MacBookPro4,1 (Mac-F42C86C8)
probably the graphics card, an apple store would have the software to check - but I see parallels & com.google.driver.Gild so even tho it gave problems in safe mode, you still might like to try w/o those, or with a clean install.
I'm sure we can find a spanish version of the graphics/logic board program page.
Thought I would post again seeing as I was having the issue with the flickering screen/freeze up of system/movable mouse pointer problem on my MBP 5,5.
I took it to the Apple store last week and the Genius dude put it through various hardware tests that all came up without any faults.
I couldn't recreate the problem in-store (typically) and we came to the conclusion that perhaps the best thing to do was to delete the HDD and reinstall Snow Leopard fresh from DVD boot up, once installed, set up as a new user and then just drag back the folders I needed, it's been a bit of a hassle having to drag folders back and dig down into my saved backup's library for database information iCal, Address Book, Bookmarks etc etc but ever since I did this I've not had a problem at home and that even after I was able to intentionally create the flickering/freezing.
The main reason for not restoring from backup and manually dragging folders back was so that I wouldn't bring back any bugs/issues from the back-up.
This seems to have worked for me as no matter what I do I can't seem to re-create the issue.
Just my 2 cents, perhaps it's worth giving it a go....?
@bullett007
How long has it been since you've done the re-install? I had my running for 5-6 days without any issue at all, and I mean I tortured it in order to re create the issue and it all worked perfectly fine. Then one evening it just started flickering again, this is when I took it in for repair. 🙂 I know the feeling when you take it to the service dude and then your computer behaves like there's nothing wrong with it! 🙂
Although flickering/freezing can be caused by other things but the graphics chip, if you have 8600GT nvidia, wait for it to start freezing, then run over to the Apple store and get it tested. 😀
Although flickering/freezing can be caused by other things but the graphics chip, if you have 8600GT nvidia, wait for it to start freezing, then run over to the Apple store and get it tested
It's been just under a week at the moment and there hasn't been an issue, to add I can't re-create the problem anymore like I could so things are looking up at the moment. The other beautiful thing about the whole wipe clean/fresh install thing is the fact it's running so much quicker now.
It's beautiful. 🙂
Remember though that I don't have the 8xxx graphics card, but the GeForce 9400M.
I have exactly the same problem, very frustrating.
I'm running 10.6.5 on a late 2008 Macbook Pro 2.4 unibody, with 9400M / 9600GT graphic cards. Complete freeze up on 4od, flickering screen and forced to hard reboot. I'll keep an eye out for any solutions.
I still have the same flickering problem. I'm convinced its the graphics card for one additional problem. If/when it flickers and becomes non-responsive while watching a video on youtube or quicktime, the sound/video keeps playing despite the frozen screen!
Took the computer in to the local Apple dealer last week, and I just got an email to say that they have fixed the computer. Won't get the change to pick it up until next week; but it sounds good.
I also I am having this problem and only occurs when in Aperture. Obviously its higher use of the graphics card precipitates the fault. Very frustrating