Q: Lion randomly crashes - black screen

I have a new (my second in two months) 13" MB Pro, both with Lion pre-installed, running Office 2011. Both lock up in Sleep, and the trackpad acts like an etch-a-sketch. Costly in time, money, and emotional drain.

I don't really do gaming at all, and most of my usage is confined to intensive graphics applications...for a free trial, however, you you don't have anything to lose...

http://9to5mac.com/2011/11/02/mactech-declares-parallels-7-the-virtualization-pe rformance-champ-on-the-mac/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=F eed:+9To5Mac-MacAllDay+(9+to+5+Mac+-+Apple+Intelligence)

Moy2 wrote:

 

He does gaming on the Windows BootCamp partition and I don't think that you can get native graphics performance on any of the VM products. BTW, the company that I work for makes VM software.

 

I also use a MBP 13" 2011 with 8GB of Ram and a 256 GB SSD drive, and it's used with Office for Mac 2011...It's not my personal computer...I thnk it came into the office here around July..these MBPs do not have descrete graphic cards, just the AMD, so I don't know what your problem could be...I also noticed that you're running your word document in compatibility mode...when we pull up older documents in word at the office, we resave them to the new .docx format and then proceed to edit them...not trying to fault find Word or anything you're doing but just trying to figure out what's going on...the 13 incher is the newest member of the computers here, and it's the fastest of all, especially with the SSD drive...I have no idea what could be causing your difficulties...

Jerry Kaiser wrote:

 

I have a new (my second in two months) 13" MB Pro, both with Lion pre-installed, running Office 2011. Both lock up in Sleep, and the trackpad acts like an etch-a-sketch. Costly in time, money, and emotional drain.

Two days running and still stable. Only operating system in. No heawy grapichs use yet, though. I try to find some kind of grapfich test in order to stress the graphics card.

Please note that this unit is mid-2009 so it can be whole different issue after all even though the symptoms are the same than discribed in this forum.

-w-

Thanks Tim.

I would go with your advice. Better i try to claim. I didn't have a problem at all before Lion upgrade. My board would be more expensive (2.66 GHz).

I am quite surprise Apple Store replaced the motherboard for you!! In Singapore, we do not have a Apple Store and I could only bring my expensive brick to a AASP. They ran the diagnostic and say it is not the issue as Apple has released on their website TS4088. They told me it is the motherboard that is giving the problem but graphics cards is working perfectly fine!! If that is the case how would Apple replaced the motherboard for your set. It looks like there are some inconsistency in the way this matter was handle.

In my life of owning a PC, apple got the shortest lifespan of 1 years plus. Windows rocks, 10 solid years!

I guess i have to downgrade to SL and test. If it crashes occasionally, that would means there are problems with Lion installed because it crashes all the time and the video upgrade is only able to reduce the frequency of crashes!!

Will keep you guys updated!!

Same here in Valencia, Spain:

while the Apple Store is in construction the authorized provider ran the tests and concluded my MBP is not to qualify for the extended warranty. They said, the configuration was relevant, but this ominous Apple test program had not resulted in any error or malfunction of any component. And they of course are not going to pay out of their own pocket for the new logic board. I'll wait for more news from them till tomorrow as they are still trying to reproduce the BSOD and wanted to send me their quote. After that I will likely contact Apple and probably get unfriendly.

I'm really p**ed off...

I'm in Singapore too. However, I sent it in to Sapura (Funan) and I showed them videos capturing the BSOD, happened during Lion installation, after installation (without any 3rd party apps) and during usage.

They replaced my mainboard within 3 days, but that was few months ago and before Apple acknowledged the problem.

Anyway, I seldom use the MBP now as I've "upgraded" to the new iMac + MBA.

Is your mbp under warranty during the BSOD? I'm out of it and they can say you don't qualify after diagnostic test shows otherwise. That's what happened to most users in this forum and myself. I'm totally lost.

If showing video helps, i can reproduce BSOD easily. It crashes on login, surfing internet, finders window open, using office, etc... basically everywhere. I remembered in their product advertisement, they talked about experience in using their product. What is the experience are they refering to? Crashing and not solving?

Confidence is lost in apple products because it's not reliable. The quality is just not there.

Well I got my MBP back... the logic board was replaced and everything seems to be working fine. No black screens, after running photobooth (which would crash it earlier), connecting/disconnecting to external monitors, etc. So its seems the repair works.

Of course I had to pay for it because Apple insisted that my computer passed the diagnostic that they were testing for extended coverage. After a long conversation with their senior staff, it just seemed pointless arguing.

Well, I think you should call up Apple Customer Relations as you were charged for a repair that was supposed to be free as stated on the article. This is a clear example that even providing clear evidence on the issue is not enough to convince the Apple so-called "Geniuses" that this black screen issue does exist.

Yes, mine is under warranty cos I bought APP for my MBP.

It's a pity Lion came out where most 1st year warranty would have expired and if there's no APP, then tough luck.

I've been experiencing the same issue. My workaround so far has been to run GFXCardStatus in integrated only mode.  Once I saw the Apple article though I made an appointment with the Geniuses. My MBP is out of warranty too.  I simply printed out the article that Apple posted, had the Genius read it, turned on my MBP, switched GFXCardStatus to Discrete only and played around for a minute and it happened right in front of him.  Even though the diagnostics test came back without any issues, he clearly witnessed it.  As he was hooking everything up to run the test it did it as well. They are ordering the part and it will be fixed free of charge. My Genius was awesome and apologized a hundred times for the inconvenience this is causing. Maybe these steps will help you to convince them...

I've tried that... Apple Customer relations responded the same way.

I think the people who find genius bars willing to repair the computer for free regardless of the diagnostic--that's a local, random thing. If you just happen to go to the right place, at the right time, and deal with the right manager/tech staff. But anything more than that--say calling Apple Care--they are not going to budge on that test. As far as they are concerned the test's results are all they are committed to go by, and no matter what you tell them, they will tell you that "something else" was wrong with your computer that is not covered by that service bulletin.

Anyone who gets a different response locally is lucky.

vea1083 wrote:

 

Well, I think you should call up Apple Customer Relations as you were charged for a repair that was supposed to be free as stated on the article. This is a clear example that even providing clear evidence on the issue is not enough to convince the Apple so-called "Geniuses" that this black screen issue does exist.

Dear all mid 2010 MBP owners,

after installing the fix pertaining to BSOD after upgrade to Lion, I haven´t got any BSOD running my MBP for two days straight. A sign of relief.

But unfortunately, another problem has manifested.

everytime I ran video extensive applications or just browsing website with flash video. The temperature sours to a 100C temperature in a matter of minutes.

Has anyone had the same issues after applying the fix that Apple itself promulgated.

Surely what Apple gave to users as a fix is just TEMPORARY.

Very disappointing...

Now people in the authorized Mac Service Center here in the philippines is telling me that my macbook is working fine and they did not find any problems with my macbook pro.

Apple service tech also told me that the temperature is within temperature limits.

Of course it does, because they are testing my MBP in an airconditioned room.

They want to tell me that I can only use my MBP inside an air conditioned room.

If that will be the case, there´s no point using a very expensive piece of equipment with limited functionality.

my warranty is already expired and it is very difficult to explain to these tech guys that there is something wrong with the video card...