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MacBook Pro freezing with flickering screen

Help!

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...

Can anyone shed any light on this problem?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.4), MacBookPro4,1

Posted on Nov 27, 2010 11:09 AM

76 replies

andyBall_uk

Level 7

20,516 points

Jan 1, 2011 4:57 PM in response to Paul Looyen

Very frustrating

It certainly is - if the hardware test gives a result, head back to apple. Or of you can reproduce the issue on a clean install with as few non-std items as possible - that can save some time fending questions/tests over the 'phone or at the store.

J-pawd

Level 1

0 points

Jan 8, 2011 12:00 PM in response to andyBall_uk

Just checking in... has anyone found the cause of this problem? I'm worried because my MBP is an older model and the Genius bar dudes may not be keen to replace the video card (though I'm certain that's the culprit). I've run the hardware test (via the install CD) and got nothing. Then I did a clean install of Snow Leopard, but still the flickering/unresponsive screen problem occurs. So, I'm back to square one.

HELP!

Jan 11, 2011 10:25 AM in response to J-pawd

I'm having same problem with my late 2007 MBP and GeForce 8600M GT card (yes, I know this is "2008 and later" forum).
There is no way to re-create the issue - it's random.

I was hoping that the 10.6.6 update resolve the problem but no, problem still occurs.
Can someone say is there any sense of downgrading to 10.5?

moffty

Level 1

0 points

Jan 13, 2011 3:26 PM in response to Caesar Schinas

I'm having exactly the same problems as those described here. Random, unrecoverable freezing. Hardware diagnostics show no issues, software is fully up to date. I've tried a complete reinstall of OS-X, and also tried using Windows 7 on a separate partition, but exactly the same problem occurred.

Genius Bar eventually agreed to send my MBP off for repairs. They replaced the solid state drive, logic board (motherboard) and RAM - effectively it's a new machine, save for the keyboard and screen. And guess what? They problem is still there.

I can only conclude that there is something fundamentally wrong with the MBP. I have completely lost faith in Apple.

smokisa

Level 1

5 points

Jan 14, 2011 1:37 AM in response to moffty

@J-pawd
The age of your MBP does not matter as long as it's got the troublesome graphic chipset. Mine was out of warranty, I even think older than 3 years (just), and they still fixed it for free. Just take it in and let them run the graphic card test.

@Horodecki
As many people above had said, try a clean install, if it fixes the issue, then great. If it's still doing it on the clean install, it is more than likely it's a hardware issue.

@moffty
I can understand the frustration but I do think that a statement such as 'I have completely lost faith in Apple' after you had a problem with one Apple product (or even if it was 2-3) is a bit naive. I work in IT - not with Apple products but 'normal' PCs - and the amount of problems we get with HP, IBM, Dell, Sony etc products is very high, probably higher than we'd have with Apple ... should that mean that I should've 'lost my faith' in all these manufacturers? If that was the case I'd be back using pen and paper very quickly!!
If you still have a problem and they 'fixed' it last time, take it back. Give them bo"£$#cking and get them to fix it again. Apple was always good at trying to keep their customers happy, who knows you might even end up with an upgrade or something. Either way, there's always a solution where there is a problem...

Jan 19, 2011 9:50 PM in response to Caesar Schinas

Hi there, I have the same freezing with flickering problem, and I see that the thread is marked as answered, can some one tell me what was the solution for this?

I've read the whole thing and I don't know what was the wining solution for this issue.

Thanks!

Update: They've already replaced the Logic-board twice and the problem still there.
Specs:
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT:

Chipset Model: GeForce 8600M GT
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0407
Revision ID: 0x00a1
ROM Revision: 3212
Displays:
Color LCD:
Resolution: 1440 x 900
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Built-In: Yes
Cinema HD:
Resolution: 2560 x 1600
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Rotation: Supported

Message was edited by: Destructiva

Jan 20, 2011 1:17 AM in response to Destructiva

I'm guessing that this is a software problem, I had my Mac tested with al the hardware test they had, and they changed the logic board twice, my computer is in good shape, passed all the tests and on top of everything it wasn't doing that flickering or freezing until I performed some update, the problem is I didn't noticed which update because I always trust the Apple updates.

I'm sure that this is a software issue.

Jan 20, 2011 3:27 AM in response to Destructiva

The problem, assuming you have the same issue which I started this thread about (some of the people posting here definitely have different problems) then the problem is a faulty graphics processor.

If you take the computer to Apple they will replace the logic board (including graphic processor) free of charge, even if the computer is out of warranty.

Jan 20, 2011 3:28 AM in response to Destructiva

I just noticed that you say they have already replaced the logic board twice - in that case it must be a different issue, I guess. I recommend starting a new thread.

Neeq90

Level 1

0 points

Jan 29, 2011 2:56 AM in response to Caesar Schinas

I've found this issue only happens when on the 4OD website,
however it has worked fine when on firefox. I think it might be because it is still using
a bulky flash player.

Feb 1, 2011 1:43 PM in response to Caesar Schinas

This issue may be related to http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2377
Take your system to the Apple Store / Genius bar and ask them to run a GPT (Graphics Processor Test).

neil321

Level 1

1 points

Sep 14, 2011 4:02 AM in response to Caesar Schinas

I have a 17" Macbook Pro purchased in 2009, I have recently been having exactly the same problem, screen flickering and then freezing with the cursor still able to move in the background, only option is to force a restart but then then I usually have to do a safe restart.

I have found that it does NOT do the above when the battary is removed and power source is plugged in. Around the same time as this problem started my battary status suggested that I should replace my battery 'soon'. My battery has also recently started to run down much quicker.

Could it be that this issue is related to the battery? I notice that most of the people posting here with the above problem have older MBP's, if so have you had battery problems also???

Feb 8, 2013 5:07 AM in response to Caesar Schinas

I've had this problem too - flickering screen then freezing up, I noticed this especially (but not exclusively) when Safari was running and the laptop got a bit hot. This is how I ended up diagnosing my problem:

1) I got the Safari plugin "ClickToFlas" from http://hoyois.github.com/safariextensions/clicktoplugin/ to help identify if this was a flash-related issue. Blocking flash did help reduce the flickerings & subsequent freezes, but not completely.

2) I went into the Energy Saving panel in System Preferences, and changed the setting from "Better Performance" to "Better Battery life" and this COMPLETELY STOPPED THE FLICKERING & FREEZES.

Upon arrival at the AppleStore for my appointment, the guy explained that in my early 2009 17"MBP there are 2 graphics cards, and that changing that setting forces the laptop to use only the lower-spec graphics card rather than both (or was it just the higher-spec one? I can't remember). This meant that the higher-spec one is faulty. Sadly, they did NOT offer a logic board replacement. I was told it would cost 350 GBP (£) which is about 500 dollars! Plus labour I would imagine so I declined as I'm not doing anything that graphics-intensive.

Note to you all: please check your "About this Mac" - More Info - System Report - Graphics/Displays to see if there are TWO graphics cards installed. Just the overview will show you the higher-spec one. Or open the System Information app in your Utilitie Folder and look for the same. My experiences may help you deterimine what's wrong with your graphics card(s)!

Good luck to you all :-)

May 3, 2013 11:37 PM in response to Henk Smit

I also thought I was having troublesome graphic card stching but doing some researching I thought it would really be something wrong with the energy save preferences setting in the plist file so what I did was to delete the energy save manager plist and did a reboot without it in the system and ran a disk permission repair cuz it would suddenly affect the GPU switching then bingo, the troublesome freezing/crashings are all gone, no matter if how much I would switch between the 2 cards in my macbook pro, I think some one who has more skills could have a good look at that plist file and send it to Apple so they could solve this annoying freezings many guys are having with their mac which is really disgusting.

Jan 9, 2014 8:44 PM in response to Seajackal

Hi there,

thanks for sharing this.

I have been having the same issue of freezes, it happens in all different times from start up to simple Chrome browsing.

I have been to Genius bar 2 times for a few hours... first time they did permission repair from their Intranet, they thought it was fixed but it lasted only 6 hours... then I started having same crashes / freezes.

So they told me it was probably the hard disc: I went and bought and installed a new hard drive, and back to Genious bar they re-installed Snow Leopard 10.6.8

I got back and was able to re-migrate from previous hard drive back up: machine runs better but I have experienced 2 freezes already in the first hour of use!!!!

ARGH!

So I figure I should try what Seajackal mentioned... can you please explain how to do that?

My operative system does not have the BETTER PERFORMANCE anymore, I can only uncheck the automatic graphic card switching but that would use the faster card only...

This is a MAC BOOK PRO early 2011: it's a 2.000 euros machine... and I was told cannot replace graphic card since it's glued to the motherboard... or else can replace for the cost of a third of the computer...

Annoying... very frustrating...

MacBook Pro freezing with flickering screen