Q: Lion randomly crashes - black screen

Okay UPDATE:

Just got a phone call from the Apple Store and they've replaced the logic board again. And they ran extensive tests on it all day. And the lady said she wasn't very happy with the results,it still keeps giving them errors. So because of that, they're replacing mine with the 2011 model.

Good for you...after 3 trys by Apple, you really do deserve a new computer. In a way, the third logic board replacement really did fix all of your problems. Enjoy your new computer...

I'm also getting the random black screen on my white MacBook (early 2009), NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256 MB, Lion 10.7.1.. Grrrrrrrr.....

Im having similar experiences with a 10.6.8 machine. 2010 MBP with 8gb Ram. Nothing special running, seems to happen at times of mouse acutation after moving to a window. I don't have it locked down to one video or the other, and have tried running the gfxmonitor app mentioned to see if I could fond some rhyme or reason to it. I removed the program after finding that it really had no bearing on it.

About 3 weeks ago it blacked on me every 3-4 minutes to the point of being almost unusable. I ran techtool on it from a bootable DVD, and ran a permissions check/repair. It didnt do it again until yesterday, then again 3-4 times in about 15 minutes.. Techtool again, and got through the night.

I'm inclined to beleive it's software, but......

Really quite frustrating, and Im not even on Lion..

I was leaning toward to believe it was a software issue (after all, how come 10.6 gave me no problem at all until I updated it to 10.7.1). But then after waiting and reading about 2 more weeks of replies here (more than 1000 replies already! Apple still didn't say anything, how disappointed!), I decided to take my machine to a nearby Apple store. "Unfortunately," when the genius asked me to reproduce the problem, my computer seems to be perfectly normal...... well, the genius then said he will do an extensive diagnostic test which will last more than 6 hours, so I deposited my machine with them. And in the afternoon I got a call from them saying it was my hard drive. I can't believe it because from the thread and my experience, I never had any problem with my hard drive. So I talked to them and they asked if it's 3rd party SSD, I said yes, and they said that's why the diagnostic said it was faulty and now they know it's "false positive." So they are going to rerun the test again.....  

My question is, how come they can't just pulled up the internal kernel report to see the machine did crash several times before and need to ask me to reproduce the problem? I already told them it's really random. I meant it sounds very "unprofessional" ...... Second question is I don't know what kind of diagnostic tools they are running, but if that tool deems all the third party peripherals as faulty, then that's a crap..... =.= 

Anyway, I will keep my fingers crossed and hope they do acknowledge the problem and do the replacement.

Will keep update.

BTW, my machine is mid-2010 MBP 15" i7 2.66Ghz with 8gb ram and 128gb SSD.

You can have them simulate the crash (kernel panic) by doing the following:

if you have GFXCardStatus installed, do the following, from a cold reboot, switch your graphics adaptor to use NVIDIA (Discrete Only) then run some graphic intensive applications (a game or watch a movie) for sure that will crash it.   The crash does not occur at all for me when i am using the Intel (Integrated Mode only)   We have almost the exact same spec of MBP 15" i7 mid 2010 8GB ram, but am still using the 500gb drive.

So after taking time off from reading this thread and coming back today after almost 2 months, there appears to be not clear solution or resolve for this problem. 

Sad that my warranty has already lapsed, that i cannot get my mbp replaced as some of you lucky ones have been able to do so

hey guys thought this might b a litle help... i have spoken to apple support and got me to do fresh install of Lion on an external HDD. Once i finsihed instalation i did mac update. At this point i have not installed no additional software other then Lion. I could almost get my MBP to crash everytime by opening up photobooth. so as a test i opened Photobooth and went to 2nd page of effects. Once again my mac crashed. So from what i belive has NOTHING to do with software incompatibilty. But possibly Hardware incompatible with Lion. I am yet to contact apple back with what has happened. Hope this has been some help to you all..

Cheers

Ahh yeh its the same steps i had to take... fresh install on external HDD, no extra software installed... produce crash etc. I know the technicians at the authorised repairer i used actually had fresh HDD's ready with all different versions of OSX he'd just plug it in produce the crash then know full well its nothing with any software i could have installed. it resulted in a MB replacement. Good luck i hope you get working replacement too!

Having the same issues as the rest of you i left my 15"MBP (mid 2010) I7, 2.66 at the licensced Apple repair center here in Stockholm this monday.

Still waiting for them to get back to me.

Im getting the BSOD / kernel p randomly.

I have also experienced that my NVIDIA card after a couple of hours isent recognized by different applications.

Under preferences / performance in Photoshop CS 5.5 sometimes none of my cards are listed.

With automatic graphic switch: http://www.klackenstam.com/dropbox/3.jpg

Without: http://www.klackenstam.com/dropbox/1.jpg

Im also getting weird garbled graphics in Photoshop (look at the right image):

http://www.klackenstam.com/dropbox/2.jpg

http://www.klackenstam.com/dropbox/2809.jpg

I have experienced some BSOD / kernel p under Snow Leopard but since I upgraded to Lion they appear more often.

The graphic problems in Photoshop has been around since Snow leo.

Ill keep you posted.

Woohoo after this long expensive back and forth travel to the Apple Store, they've replaced my 2010 2.66ghz i7 with the 2011 2.2ghz quad i7! woohoo! Finally!

Just out of interest – did anybodywith Mack book pro i7 (512 MB Nvidia chip) get a logicboardreplacement that actually fixed the problem?

Btw – what's the story with thissilly logicboard replacement policy anyway? Would it not be ten timescheaper to just replace the notebook? My mac book is in excellentcondition and I'm sick and tiered of getting another logic boardreplacement. This is probably the worst service experience I have ever had.  Seriously – I had less problems with my Hachintosh that cost only a fraction of a  Mac Book pro ….

Hey, my 3 logic board replacements didn't solve the problem. That's how I got my replacement. And yeah replacement seems cheaper because if I add up all the repaid receipt that they've given me it totalled to about £1400.

BUT apparently, I can't tranfer my Apple Care on this new replacement, is this true?

Since many of the people on this forum have the same configuration MBP--- 15"MBP (mid 2010) I7, 2.66 --- perhaps it would be a good idea for everyone to mention the purchase date / month to narrow down this problem more specifically, so you don't have to jump through hoops to get a new mother board or the proper service. Obviously not everyone is having a problem, otherwise this forum could not contain the huge numbers. I have the 15"MBP (mid 2010) I7, 2.66, 8GB ram, purchased the end of April, 2010. I had problems for a while with BSOD, kernel panics...etc, etc when I first installed Lion, but everything's OK now...

17in, I7, 266, 8Gb (4 upgraded to 8), bought on May 28, 2010.

I also had lots of kernel panics, black screens, and in general issues with the discrete card, and they "magically" went away. Only one crash in the last month or so but still don't feel safe about it....

15in, i7, 2.66, 8gb, bought in Aug 2010...10.7.1 crashes/BSOD getting worse. I basically cannot put my computer to sleep. I shut down now...also mine will crash while asleep (i can tell because when ok and asleep it is cool to touch, when it crashes while asleep it is burning hot)...why the thing crashes in the middle of sleep is perplexing...cannot give to apple until I can get a replacement computer so I bought an Air and will then give to apple to fix...