Q: Lion randomly crashes - black screen

I don't think it has anything to do with high temps. I've brought my machine up from sleep, open a browser to try to pay my bill on Comcast's own site, I get a black screen freeze.

Anyone else have Comcast? Go try to log in to your account with either Firefox or Chrome to see your bill and see if it freezes your machine. Happens to me every time.

Maybe not all, but some. Again, if we're talking about a chip problem, some chips may just perform reliably at different temps. After all, that's often how they grade chips for speed: turn up the clock and the temp till it fails, then dial it back and label it.

In your case I'd bet SMCFanControl wouldn't make any difference.

You are right it doesn't. I've been using it since SL, and this machine has never had problems until now.

Trying the suggestion of deleting the PowerManagement.plist file and seeing what happens.

Has been blacking out on me 3 to 4 times a day now ever since I installed Lion.

Will post back in a couple days if it's successful.

No luck with deleting the PowerManagement.plist file. After about an hour or so I quick looked a URL and bam, black screen. Ugh.

The issue happens 3 times a day with Snow Leopard, and 20 times a day with Lion.  Also pressing the power button once causes my whole system to freeze up.

I am sick of this computer.  Last Mac I ever buy.

to keep you in the loop: after beeing able to show it to my local reseller they had it sent to their technician and I got a call today. They are replacing the logic board. Apple will not pay for it (16 months old MacBook Pro Mid 2010 i7). Luckily I got an extended warranty from my reseller - let's see if they find a working logic board.

OK - after bringing it once to the Apple store, where they insisted it was a software issue, and they wiped my hard drive and claim they "stress tested" the system for 30 mins, only for me to find it crah immediately when I went to the effects tab of Photo Booth, they replaced the logic board.

I picked it up this morning and it is now running beautifully.  I've been running with an external monitor all morning and no issues at all - rock solid.

It now seems obvious to me that this is the solution and Apple must know it by now - the fact that they are not coming clean with this is a real embarrassment.  It wouldn't have been OK for Apple to do this in 1998 when they were practically broke - today when they have $75bn of cash on their balance sheet, its pretty inexcusable.

David

I have the same problems - only I was able to reproduce the crashing 6-7 times in a row yesterday.  I was using iDVD and picked the cinema 7.0 theme and added a .mov file I recently imported... every time it crashed no matter if I did magic or made a new project from scratch.  I tried it with a different theme, and it worked!  I have a MBP mid 2010 i7 processor.  I have had numerous other crashes that have seemed to be much more random.  Many of them also have to do with previewing documents either from the finder or spotlight.  I REALLY hope I don't have to replace my motherboard... that would seem a bit much for a software issue.

Update after logic board replacement... a week of normal work with external monitors etc.. No problems, gradually starting to trust the machine.

Lion 10.7.1 with no tricks.

Ari

So I just got mine back from getting the logic board replaced.  They ended up replacing (with their symptoms in parenthesis)... the logic board (firewire port/device issues), the hi-res display (distorted/blurred/non-focus video), the airport (kernal panic/freeze), bracket (cables/defective) and a speaker (internal speaker - distroted audio/sound).

That's a ton of fixes for a kernal panic issue!  But besides that, and most annoyingly, they put the wrong logic board in!!!!  I was first frustrated with the fact that it sat there for a week while the status said "waiting on part" (couldn't i have waited to send it in until they had the part on hand so that i wasn't without my computer for over a week?) but I finally get it back and "about this mac" says it's a 2.4ghz i5 when my computer was a 2.66hz i7.  even the product repair summary that was sent with the computer says it should be 2.66ghz.  very very frustrating to say the least.

So now I will have to send my computer back in once again and have them put the right logic board in.

this is the same 2010 2.66 i7 that has had 4 hard drive failures and a battery that died all within the first year.

well, guess i'll have to wait to report how the logic board replacement worked.

Archibald Nemesis wrote:

 

So now I will have to send my computer back in once again and have them put the right logic board in.

 

this is the same 2010 2.66 i7 that has had 4 hard drive failures and a battery that died all within the first year.

Archibald, I suggest call apple support first and tell them about all the hardware problems your machine has had in the past and ask for a replacement machine. I had the registered repair shop tell me that *generally* if a machine has had 3 major hardware faults and your covered with apple care, they will replace it. A problem though is the Apple randomness especially with this BSOD issue, maybe you'll get it maybe you won't... can't hurt

So first ask apple support (get put through to a senior/supervisor), they should see your history against your machine record but make sure they're aware of your frustration and displeasure at the hardware and service etc etc

If that fails just take it back to the repair store and demand a replacement there... The fact they'll have to replace your entire motherboard again anyway will help I'm sure. Good luck!

Thanks Wired! 

I actually had just that happen.  Got my call back from the senior person I had been dealing with and he apologized and said I've been through enough and he is gonna send me a new 2011 macbook pro.  He will call me tomorrow to discuss the details of the exchange.

When I bourght mine originally, it was customized to the 2.66ghz i7 w/ 8gb RAM, hi res screen, and 500gb/7200rpm so I'm thinking they better give me the 2.3ghz i7, 8gb ram, and hi-res screen, right?

but is the 7200rpm worth more speed-wise then the extra 250gb you get in the standard 750gb / 5400 rpm drive?

thanks for the response though and finally happy in how this worked out.  well i guess i'll hold out on that until i have my new computer.

Has anyone noticed a common theme with models?  It seems that there are quite a few of you on this forum who have the same model I do - MBP Mid 2010 2.66Ghz i7 processor...

haha great to hear on your outcome

Regarding the 7200 vs 5400rpm drive... Personally I like long battery life (which is why i started using gfxCardStatus back in SL, ie forcing integrated graphics when on battery) and I'd assumed using a 7200rpm drive will chew through more power than a 5400rpm? Should do some research on that though.

One thing, you'll have to mention on here how you've found the newer i7 system. I read they're much faster in *independant reviews*. "reality distortion field" is most likely in effect though!