Q: Lion randomly crashes - black screen

When you all get Black screen, is it ALL black or is there any pixels active?

I had a problem with a Mac Mini, which I returned to Apple, where the screen turned black 5-6 times a day, and short lines (1 inch) of coloring pixels where shown only in the left side of the screen All the way down. Could it be the same issue?

I returned the machine(only a week old) and got a new one, and im afraid to install 7.2 update..

I replaced my useless MacBook Pro with a Mac Mini (Mid 2011) model number A1347. I set it up yesterday, installing the 10.7.2 update immediately. I have no problems at all. I think you may have just been unlucky with your first Mini. And to answer your question, with my MBP the screen is black with no active pixels.

Try updating Flash...the NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exceptions you mention are a Flash problem. You can find out what version you have on your computer at this site-- http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/155/tn_15507.html  and update the player at this site-- http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/   If you want to remove it altogether, here is a link as well--- http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/909/cpsid_90906.html 

Flash is really trashy software, and I have noticed issues with it since Leopard...

Jorge Castillo S. wrote:

 

Could it have some relation to the utilization of Safari 5.1? After the reinstallation of Snow Leopard from Lion, I had the NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception and Channel timeout issues after its update. In Lion, I have this error on NVDA(OpenGL) when I use or I had used it in some moment. Could it be related to some set of instructions of Safari 5.1 that uses OpenGL?

 

 

Greetings.

I must admit that I'm becoming increasingly frustrated at Apple's very delayed response to this issue. Apple makes everything involved in this problem that essentially prevents a set of Macbook Pro owners from upgrading their very expensive notebooks to OS X Lion. Nothing 3rd party is required - a fresh Lion install will crash quite easily. It seems very surprising, but yet apparently true, that they did not test their new operating system with this generation of Macbook Pro's. It reminds me of when they released IOS4 and "suddenly discovered" that the iPhone 3G owners couldn't upgrade to it without soon having to downgrade (unofficially) because of severe performance issues. Eventually they sort-of fixed it after a few updates.

My journey to Apple from Microsoft was based on experiences which made me realize Apple products were beautifully made, nice to use, and also robust and reliable. The iPhone made the Windows Smartphones seem archaic in every way - particularly w.r.t. the daily reboots that had been required. The Apple TV (1st gen) did the same for the other digital media boxes of the time. After a series of these experiences I switched notebooks too - to an earlier Macbook Pro. It was rock solid. Apple's premium prices seemed worth it to have equipment that actually worked - all the time - and allowed me to get good use out of it instead of just dealing with issues, updates, and incompatibilities.

Now - some years later - I have an expensive new Macbook Pro that I cannot use in conjunction with my other iCloud-enabled devices because I cannot upgrade it to Lion.

This is a sad step backwards - and hopefully an anomaly; and not a sign of some trend towards poorer testing and support from Apple.

I hope they soon act on their recently announced kb article and provide a fix - whether that's software or a hardware recall.

Is OS X Lion Apple's version of Window's Vista?  I have had to hard power-off my 2009 Macbook Pro several times now after upgrading from 10.6.8 to 10.7.2, especially when opening the lid and coming out of sleep.  Troubling to see this issue thread is 122 pages in and zero response from Apple.  All apps and software show as "up tp date."  10.6.8 worked fine, but I wanted to be able to sync my iPhone 4 and iPad2 via WiFi.  How dumb was I?  Wow. 

Hi Tess888,

Thank you very much for your response.

I tried a clean install of Lion without installing Adobe Flash.After a few hours of use (with Safari), I got the error based onOpenGL registered with the console at the time of freezing of the system. I have been using another web browser from a few days ago and have had no problems. I just want to use the system without fear of a freeze.

I left this question on another subject of discussion with noanswers yet: https://discussions.apple.com/message/16476408#16476408

A greeting and thanks again.

You're very welcome...In my own experiences with Leopard, SL, and Lion, I have only seen this error in relation to something going on with Flash...each and every time I have downloaded the most current version of Flash, the OpenGL errors in the Console app completely disappeared, as well as any freezing and kernel panic issues.  Since Flash is all over the Internet, could it be that some websites need Flash in order to load properly and not cause a freeze or kernel panic in Safari? I only use Safari, so my observations are limited to this browser.

After backing up your system in Time Machine, I would download and install Flash and see what happens...you'll know soon enough if it helps. If it doesn't help, you can always uninstall it with the Adobe uninstaller that comes with the current Flash program...the uninstaller would install in your Apple utilities folder.

Greetings and I hope this helps....

I'm sure this has been talked about in the 122 pages of this thread, but if you go to Photobooth and click on effects a few times, the black screen will be induced each and every time.

Today I went back to the apple store.  the first time I wnet, I could not recreate the problem.  But this time, I showed them the Photobooth trick, and at first, they suspected that it was software related.  So they booted up from an external drive and we did the same thing and the black screen was induced.

So at that point, they agreed that it was hardware related and ordered a new logic board for me, but it would take about a week to arrive.  Plus, once it does, my Macbook (mid 2010 MBP) will be in their shop for about 3-4 days!.  No loaner of course, and I am going on a business trip the following week.  This is not good.

I paid $350 for Apple Care last year.  If I had a car in the shop for a week, they would give me a loaner.  Bit dissapointed.  But at least my MBP will be usable again.  As a baindaid, I've been forcing it to use only the integrated chip.  But performance obvious suffers, and some applications hang for quite some time.  So frustrating.

Hi,

I have beein testing how to get around this problem for some time. No sucess.

Here is the latest test on a MBP i7, 8 GB ram

1. I made a 2nd partiton on my HD and installed a completely clean version of 10.7.1 from a USB stick.

2. I then clicked upgrade and upgraded to 10.7.2 and Itunes 10.5

3. I checked if any other upgrade avaibale - but there was none

4. Went to Photo Booth - no crash.

5. Waited 15 min went back to Photo Booth -  Got the crash.

I dont think its possible to do a cleaner install than this (i.e. no flash, no downloads of anyting but the upgrade).

I did the same test, same result. The only difference was that I did not use a separate partition.

Been following this thread for a while, had the same issues as described: BSOD at login and randomly at normal use, I wasn't able to trigger this with Photobooth though. I succesfully used gfxcardstatus to mitigate the problem, and been running primarily with integrated graphics.

BUT somehow 10.7.2 has fixed it for me; no more freezes or black screens. I stopped using gfxcardstatus all together, and switching graphics cards works like a charm. It's working without issues for more than a week now.

I must add that i didn't have not as many BSOD (and no panics) as some people in this thread and didn't have issues under 10.6.8 or windows7 either.

system details: April 2010 MBP i5 , 8G, 330M 256M

Madam "Good to hear you made same test."

I was reading around in the post and we have

- 13", 15" and 17" MBPs

- i5's and i7's

I am not sure if I am correct that there seems to be more i7's in this problem list.

Now - this would be intersting to compare / see in this list

How many # the persons in the list have...  2010 MBPs

       13"          15"          17"

CD   XX          XX          XX

i5     XX          XX          XX

i7     n/a         XX         n/a

Now its always easy to suggest an idea as this - its a different matter to go though the 1000+ posts and count them.

But it feels (and this is just a feeling) that there are mostly 15" BMPs in the list with problems and it feels that most are i7s....   but not all.

I dont know if it would help to zoom down on a set of computers, if there is such a set. I know about the post on the Apple support http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4086  that states 15". Not 13" nor 17".

If there are people with problems on 13 and 17" is that then the same problem or is it a different problem under Lion.  I dont know.

If someone has the time or know a good way to search the posts to make a table like the above then it would be helpful I think.

Wow.. my system was running quite stable after going back to Snow Leopard. Just 3 to 5 crashes per day.

Now I had to install Lion because I'm developing an application that uses Lion features.

So I formated the disk, installed Snow Leopard and then immediately Lion.

Now my MacBook "Pro" crahes immediately after logging in. I don't even get to see the desktop.

Seriously, ***?!

At least now I have no problem showing the guys in the Apple Store a crash.

By the way, I'm writing this on Windows7 on the same machine. Runs great...

Try booting into safe mode--see if that helps (turn on the power and hold the left shift key immediately, release when you see the grey apple icon and the progress indicator)

if that doesn't let you boot try single user mode reboot and hold command-S just to see if you can atleast boot here-let us know if you can get there

My install of Lion experienced it's first black screen within 30 minutes after I upgraded from 10.6.8. Initially, I thought it was permissions, disk issue, etc... I NEVER had the screen go black with Snow Leopard.

The screen would go black randomly and I believe the laptop would lock up. I say this because I could hit the volume buttons and I couldn't hear the "Quack" sound. I could also close the lid and the sleep light would not engage.

The black screens persisted over a month of use and it seemed very random. Scrolling though my Time Machine backups seemed to make it occur the most consistently.

I finally formatted the drive and reinstalled Snow Leopard from my pre-upgrade Time Machine backup. I haven't had a black screen in a week.

Here's my computer information for those that care.

MacBook Pro (Mid 2010)

2.66GHz i7, 4 GB

Manufactured March 2010