Q: Lion randomly crashes - black screen

Agggghhhh! again, and again...panic panic! Please apple, you are not microsoft, don´t act like that and open a new replacemente program. In apple the don´t want to change our boards, it´s a lie that the would replace it if you have randomly freezes! They pass a hardware test and thay says everything is ok, but the laptop still crash when changing form one card to another. Are they blind or just liars? Open a real replacement program! now, please!

Wow, I can't believe this thread is now 151 pages long. In any case, I have a mid-2010 15" MBP and I started having the BSOD problem after updating to Lion. I took my MBP to the Apple Store and the Genius said I wasn't qualified for the replacement because I did not fail their software tests. I then spoke to the manager who agreed to send my MBP in for a fix for free. I guess I was blessed to find someone compassionate.

In any case, Apple replaced my logic board and even my hard disk. They also did something to the thermal paste.

However, when I got my MBP back, Snow Leopard (not Lion) was installed. But I never had a BSOD again. I'm too chicken to install Lion again because things are working well in Snow Leopard. And in any case, I didn't see much benefit to Lion anyway. Things were a little bit slower with Lion, I think.

So without installing Lion, I can't say for sure if the logic board replacement fixed the problem but I'm thinking it did.

My tip is that when you go to the Apple store and they say you don't qualify because you didn't fail their software test, tell them that you know that Apple has replaced many MBPs that didn't fail the test either.

I'm disappointed that Apple hasn't been more liberal and just fix all afected MBPs, whether or not the test was passed.

Aperture User 1837 wrote:

 

 

However, when I got my MBP back, Snow Leopard (not Lion) was installed.

Lucky!

I hope you also asked for a refund on the money you wasted purchasing Lion.

I got my logic board replaced today. Please see far below for my original story up to this point.

I dropped my MBP 2010 i5 off yesterday at the Valley Fair (San Jose, CA) Apple Store and got it back today with the new logic board installed.

Item Number: 661-6360

Description: MLB 2.4GHZ

After I dropped off my MBP I'm not sure if they continued to test it or not. Since they already ordered the part, they may have just installed it no questions asked. After playing around with my computer for a couple hours without GFXCardStatus, it is now working without the BSOD issue. Thank goodness!

Bottom line:

You have to be persistent. If the your MBP passes the Genius Bar video tests, keep complaining that the tests are not sufficent. Try to show them the BSOD personally by opening graphic intensive apps in front of them. If they deny you, try to talk to a manager (maybe even show them this thread) ! If they keep denying you go to another Apple Store genius bar. There is definitely a solution, you just have to be persistent enough.

Good Luck!

Below is my original story from my post on Nov 13th:

I have an MBP purchased in April 2010. I installed the video update, and my Macbook Pro still crashes. I went to the genius bar yesterday, and my MBP passed the video test that was meant to test the TS4088 issue. They were telling me that there's nothing they can do for me since I passed that test, and that test came from the engineers. I told them that my MBP still crashes and that their test isn't complete. He again said, there's nothing they can do. So I was playing around with the MBP (hoping that it would crash so he could see it first hand). I didn't know if I could replicate it since it crashes randomly. I started opening graphics intensive applications - iPhoto, Photo Booth, Safari start screen. After a minute or so it crashed, so they were able to see first hand. They said they would take it and do some additional tests. They ordered a new logic board, and if they can see the issue, they will replace it for free. Hopefully they will realize that there is still a problem!! Apple has still not fixed this problem yet!!

Granite Apple wrote:

 

Same experience here - no issues since the update.

Scratch that.  No issues running OSX since update.  I've had several BSODs running windows 7 under bootcamp on this machine.   I just started using bootcamp on this machine so not sure if this is related or a totally different issue...

I was hoping to find a solution on this discussion forum - however, it is over 150 pages long and still growing. 

My Macbook/OS X used to be the most stable OS that I have ever used (aside from DOS) in my 25 year IT career, however, OS X is starting to feel like Windows Vista (ouch).

I upgraded my 2007 17" MBP to Lion and had crash after crash - Chrome, Mail, Firefox, Mail, did I say Mail?  Very frustrating.   I decided to upgrade to a nice shiny new 15" 2.5ghz MPB - preloaded with Lion.  With this "pristine" new laptop in my hands, I decided NOT to migrate my old apps... I decided to do things the hard way and install all of my apps fresh... to make sure that I was not the "bad guy" bringing over junk that might not be compatible with Lion. 

Well, you probably know where I am heading with this - my "smart" approach here was a waste of time:  During the first few hours of using my new MBP, it froze on resuming from sleep... the rainbow orb of death.   Had to completely hard power-down and restart.  I went into a panic, eyes twitching and all, and scoured the web looking for issues... I was amazed at the volume of sickening accounts that were exactly the same or nearly equivalent to my experience.  I decided that I would switch to dedicated graphics becuase of the known issue with graphics switching... took my battery life down to a little over an hour (again, on a BRAND NEW MBP - touted to have 9+ hours of battery life??).  

I went for a few days without crashing and just a few minutes ago, it crashed again after resuming from sleeping.... which subsequently led me to this forum where I was met with a dozen recommendations and no real solutions - solutions which should be coming from Apple. 

Surely droping a cool billion on this problem would be money well spent... 69 billion is still a pretty good savings account. 

Not to be overly dramatic here, however, I am pretty heartbroken at this point - have been very spoiled by my MBP and OS X up until this point.  If I felt that downgrading was a feasible solution, I would do it.  However, the thought of running 10.6 on a late 2001 high-end MBP really leaves a bad taste in my mouth. 

Same problem here.

The problem started to show up only when I upgraded to Lion, *never* had this problem with Snow Leopard, so it's hard to think that it's a HW problem, isn't it?

My setup

MacBook Pro 6,2 (Mid 2010)

NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 256 MB

OS X Lion 10.7.2 (11C74)

I just created a request on Express Lane, waiting to be contacted from Apple

https://expresslane.apple.com

ps. I noticed that some Apps make it crash more easily, Mac App Store is one of those

man, they're fast!

they called me, and guided me through a standard procedure to make a hw/sw check and then to repair disk errors.

i followed these steps:

(this is just FYI, I think you'd better call Apple)

1) do an SMC reset

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

tl;dr: quit all apps, turn off the mac, remove anything connected, leave only the power supply, press SHIFT + CTRL + ALT (Shift-Control-Option) + power button at the same time

2) do a PRAM and NVRAM reset

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

tl;dr:quit all apps, turn off the mac, turn on the mac, press simultaneously CMD+ALT+P+R (command-option-p-r). Your mac keep on rebooting and making the gong sound. Let it run a couple of times.

3) repair disk errors and permissions

Turn on the mac, press simultaneously CMD+R, keep them pressed.

You should be in recovery mode, and see a window for choosing your language.

Choose disk utility.

Select your drive on the left (not the physical one with the size), click 'repair disk'.

Once it's completed, click 'repair permissions'

Hopefully this should have fixed my problem, as long as it should be a sw problem, not an hw problem

Hey all,

finally, a long fight is won I just received the message from my local service provider that the apple video system test failed and they ordered a new logic board (I don't know, which number, but for sure, I will ask them).

I found another way to reproduce the BSOD very simple (which in fact helped to produce the BSOD on their system!). Open a PDF file with the standard apple application (it is called "Vorschau" in german). Zoom in so that you can scroll left to right and up to down. Just do this (scroll in each direction) and it might crash after a few seconds... For my MacBookPro it crashes absolutely every time doing this!

@h.tamina

thank you for the tip to reproduce the problem, it works.

This means that i still have the problem 

Time to go visit an Apple Store

h.tamina wrote:

 

Hey all,

 

finally, a long fight is won I just received the message from my local service provider that the apple video system test failed and they ordered a new logic board (I don't know, which number, but for sure, I will ask them).

 

I found another way to reproduce the BSOD very simple (which in fact helped to produce the BSOD on their system!). Open a PDF file with the standard apple application (it is called "Vorschau" in german). Zoom in so that you can scroll left to right and up to down. Just do this (scroll in each direction) and it might crash after a few seconds... For my MacBookPro it crashes absolutely every time doing this!

Hi,

I was wondering if you showed them the failure in person to the service providers or you told them how to reproduce the issue?

I am going to try this on my MacBook Pro later today.

Hi,

I showed them the failure direct in their office. First using my system (a fresh OSX Lion with current updates) and then they started with their system (from network) and reproduced it. Today I received the information that the video test failed and they ordered a new logic board for free

h.tamina wrote:

 

Hi,

 

I showed them the failure direct in their office. First using my system (a fresh OSX Lion with current updates) and then they started with their system (from network) and reproduced it. Today I received the information that the video test failed and they ordered a new logic board for free

Hello Again,

I tried your reproduction method and my MacBook did not crashed after being a minute playing with it, hopefully this means that my hardware is not defective. Again thanks for your assistance.

Hi Everybody...sorry to see this forum still going on and on...this is my last post here since I've been stable in Lion for three months now...mid MBP, i7, 8G Ram, 330M, 512 MB NVidia like many of you here...the only thing I had to do was exchange a defective Magic Mouse (compliments of Apple)...no LB replacements or any other heroic measures were necessary,,,But I have learned one important lesson from my early difficulties with Lion...don't be one of the first to adopt a new operating system...wait a few months. It's no fun being on the bleeding edge...I wish all of you the best of luck and hope all your problems get resolved soon.

I had my logic board replaced two days ago, and it's crashed twice each day since.  Thanks Apple for still not fixing my problem after nearly six months!