Q: Lion randomly crashes - black screen

Hi lollo_89,

I'm having the exact same issue here, at about the same frequency. Any chance you can tell me in which store you bought your MBP, and where you got your appointment?

Thanks!

I bought in in Apple's Online Store. I think they sent it from Ireland or Holland. Right now I'm sitting at the Genius Bar in Zurich's Apple Store on Bahnhofstrasse. I'll report in a moment, what the genuis said. Hope it will help you.

So, here are my latest news. The Genius told me, that there is absolutely nothig, that he can do for me. He is not authorized to give me a free reparation, because my system passed the hardware test, which is conducted online (and not acessable for customers). He told me to call Apple Care (again!) and ask them for an exceptional case. So I went straight back home and called Apple Care. I was on the phone for over an hour with this guy, who told me, that he tries everything he can do. I felt really near to a new LB, as he told me, that he will ask his line manager for an exception. As he returned to the call, he redirected me to some technician in Ireland who wanted to speak to me. This one told me to try to set up Lion again, whithout any other programs and try to force a BSOD. She gave me her direct number and said, that as soon as it reappears, she will authorize, that an ASP tests my MBP and looks for the error very intensive until they find it. So I think I'll just use my MBP as often as possible to force a BSOD and then get everything repaired. I really hope, that this will be the end of this long and stressful journey.

Thanks for your support, descriptions and everything!

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone suffering from this bug has the following messages in console. My MacBook Pro froze today while using Safari and this is what the console log says:

11/16/11 10:59:42.487 AM sandboxd: ([196]) DumpGPURestart(196) deny file-write-create /Library/Application Support/SubmitDiagInfo

11/16/11 10:59:42.552 AM sandboxd: ([196]) DumpGPURestart(196) deny ipc-posix-shm apple.shm.notification_center

11/16/11 10:59:42.554 AM sandboxd: ([196]) DumpGPURestart(196) deny ipc-posix-shm apple.shm.notification_center

11/16/11 10:59:42.556 AM sandboxd: ([196]) DumpGPURestart(196) deny ipc-posix-shm apple.shm.notification_center

11/16/11 10:59:42.557 AM sandboxd: ([196]) DumpGPURestart(196) deny ipc-posix-shm apple.shm.notification_center

11/16/11 10:59:42.559 AM sandboxd: ([196]) DumpGPURestart(196) deny ipc-posix-shm apple.shm.notification_center

11/16/11 10:59:42.573 AM sandboxd: ([196]) DumpGPURestart(196) deny ipc-posix-shm apple.shm.notification_center

11/16/11 10:59:42.576 AM sandboxd: ([196]) DumpGPURestart(196) deny network-outbound /private/var/run/mDNSResponder

11/16/11 10:59:42.578 AM sandboxd: ([196]) DumpGPURestart(196) deny file-read-data /private/etc/hosts

11/16/11 10:59:42.580 AM sandboxd: ([196]) DumpGPURestart(196) deny file-read-data /private/etc/hosts

11/16/11 10:59:42.608 AM sandboxd: ([196]) DumpGPURestart(196) deny ipc-posix-shm apple.shm.notification_center

11/16/11 10:59:42.610 AM sandboxd: ([196]) DumpGPURestart(196) deny ipc-posix-shm apple.shm.notification_center

11/16/11 10:59:42.000 AM kernel: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0x6 = Fifo: Parse Error

11/16/11 10:59:42.000 AM kernel: IOVendorGLContext::ReportGPURestart

11/16/11 10:59:42.000 AM kernel: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0x6 = Fifo: Parse Error

11/16/11 11:00:05.000 AM kernel: 00000069

11/16/11 11:00:05.000 AM kernel: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel timeout!

Let me know what you guys find.

Hey Guys,

So I've been following this whole ordeal since day one but I've never posted. After installing Lion my 2010 MBP was going black, forced reboots, sometimes often, sometimes I'd have to wait a day (Once is too much) . Anyway I had done multiple hard drive wipes, reinstalled lion, then back to snow leopard, then back to lion over the last few months. I was overjoyed when they gave the update a little over a month back for this problem, it resulted in less crashes, but crashes none the less.

Well, after the TS4088 came out, I showed it to the Genius bar, they assured me that I could just drop it off, theyd send it out for a new logic board and pixies would come down and dance with me. Well, after backing up my computer for the millionth time I brought it in to drop it off. The admin at my local store came out & tried to get me to sign a paper for a 310 dollar repair.

I reiterated what was told to me by the previous genius and she gave me the run around about not being able to pull up my paper work to prove that (Was I supposed to believe this?) I eventually got her to let me have an actual genius take it. He said they'd take my MBP just have to run one more test.... DUN DUN DUN. Well, for whatever reason, my MAC "Passed" this test (I hadn't seen others addressing this upcoming test till after it happened to me) so they wouldn't take my mac unless I paid the 310 to have it fixed. He tried to tell me it might be because I have different RAM cards (a 2 & a 4) thoughts causing the issue. I'm not a complete computer expert, but I knew my problem was due to the details represented in the TS4088 article.

So, I left that Apple store and went to another one 45 minutes away from me. I got a great technician who I showed the TS4088 article to and HE RAN NO TESTS, found the logic board part, and repaired it IN STORE. Dropped off on Friday night at 8:00pm and returned Sunday at noon!!!!! I loved this guy. It really seems to be a luck of the draw on the person that takes your MBP because this test apple released isn't really taking in all MBP's with actual problems. I lucked out, so what I'm trying to say is to the others turned away, don't give up hope!

So far, absolutely no crashes (knock on wood) My mac has been great. I do feel like I got rid of hiccups after having them for a while, and I'm waiting for them to sneak up on me again. Best of luck guys, I feel for everyone!

In general, if I'm going to bring in a MacBook Pro to The Apple Store with the intention of it getting repaired (hardware), then I will make sure that I already have a backup. On my system, this isn't a problem as my system is hooked up to a Time Machine disk and gets backed up several times a day. On my son's machine, I make sure that he has backups as he backs up on the weekends. In the case of this problem - if you have a genius that will write you up for a free LB replacement, grab it!

On the memory issue - if I had to bring my system in, I'd probably put back the original memory if the DIMMs were mismatched.

It does seem to be luck of the draw at The Apple Store. So maybe going to different stores is a good strategy if that's an option.

Same experience here - no issues since the update.

nevillev wrote:

 

For what it's worth it's now been 2 weeks since I once again upgraded from SL to Lion (10.7.2) and installed the Apple  MacBook Pro Video Update 1.0.

 

So far, touch wood, my 2010 Macbook Prol has been stable.

 

This may still not mean the issue is really gone, since my freeze ups were some time apart - and clearly the problem still exists for a number of people - but maybe this udpate does fix it for a certain set of machines.

I too have the black screen issue on a 15-in mid 2010 macbook pro.  I decided to wait it out for a patch rather than lose my laptop to repair time, but after getting the black screen post-patch I finally bit the bullet and took it in.

I HIGHLY recommend you "practice" causing the error before going to the apple store.  The diagnostic test isn't guaranteed to catch this problem (and didn't in my case). As annoying as it might be, you need to be prepared to prove the error is the logic board by replicating it on one of their partitions. For me, a combination of having a graphic intensive app open to be sure you're switched to the nvidia card (photobooth with weird effects works), and messing around with mission control with motion blur activated (command-M) for about 5 min did the trick.

If you replicate the error on their partition, and the store still won't offer to replace the logic board, I'd say take it to a different store, or try to get it going through one of the other channels. You've got the cited defect and they're on the line for the replacement.

If you can't replicate the problem on one of their partitions (make sure they give you plenty of time to try) it is at least possible your error isn't the board...

I have had a grey screen only once - a couple of days ago - on my Macbook Pro's built in screen. It happened about 2 weeks after I'd upgraded back to Lion with the Apple video update. Otherwise Lion has been stable for me.

Is there any way to recover from the grey screen without having an external monitor?

I tried various things, but in the end I had to hard-reset my machine.

nest18 wrote:

I had, on my end, grey screen on wake-up from display sleep (only on external screen).  You can see a picture I did from it on page 139 of this tread.  This occurs about once a week or so, and can be cured by unplugging the external monitor and replugging it.  Annoying but WAY less than the BSOD, where you have to reboot.

 

Have you tried to close the lid to force sleep and reopen it ?

BTW the update on SL did not cure my grey screen, I happenned to me yesterday ...

Ho well !!

D

I tried that - I closed the lid and waited quite a long time for the machine to go to sleep; but when I re-opened it the problem still persisted. Thankfully it has not happened again (yet).

I still kind've hope that Apple is working on a v2 of their update which will fix the remainder of the issues - but we'll see.

The video update did not fixed the problem. Now – after waking up my MacBook Pro (mid 2010) – I got the black screen. But now the Computer did not reboot automatically ... I had to force a reboot.

I also brought my MacBook Pro to a service provider, but they ran the Apple tests and said that my hardware is fine. So I had paid 70 Euro for nothing – thanks for the repairing Apple! A logicboard replacement would be cost 700 Euro. oO

So Apple can you fix the problem?! It's not ridiculous to get a black screen! -.-

To the community: Do you think a HDD replacement and a fresh Lion installation would be help to fix the problem? Thanks!

Absolutely not. This issue is purely a logicboard failure, for those that said the update is working for then: it's just hiding the issue for a little while longer or making it harder to reproduce. Other people with same model of the laptop never needed any updates to work with their computers, why should we?

Another thing is, the update is basically a stupid driver update, which treats the problem from a much narrower point of view. The problem happens with windows Too. That's why it's hardware.

Here is my update: After another while on the phone with Apple Care, they took in my MBP for a reparation on warranty. They adviced me to bring in my MBP to an ASP and told me to give their contact data to the ASP. So they are now looking for the problem until they find it.

Regards

Sorry, but in Windows I never had a problem. And I trust the Apple service provider that my Logicboard isn't corrupt. With gfxCardStatus I can switch between the graphic cards with no problems.

But sometimes there are these "NVRAM read errors". In my case the logicboard isn't corrupt, this is a Lion/Firmware bug for these MacBook Pros mid 2010.