Q: Lion randomly crashes - black screen

If it's out of warranty then it didn't come with Lion. Always a risk when using old equipment. Don't be cheap, if you've had your computer more than 4 years, upgrade to a new one. You'll find Mac's retain their resale value much better than Windows/Linux machines.

My system is almost four years old and I don't see why I couldn't keep using it for another four. My daughter's system is 4.5 years old and runs just fine too. Computers should be usable for ten years - they might be too slow at that time but they should still work.

im using a Macbook pro 17 inch mid 2010 model

it Crashes even when i use Bootcamp APPLE NEEDS TO FIX THIS EVEN IF WARANTY IS EXPIRED THIS IS A FAULTY NVIDIA CARD

There's no need to crash it "on demand" in front of them (or at least I didn't need to). I crashed my laptop the typical way by running Batman Arkham Asylum on OS X and the video card crapped out as the faulty ones described in the TS article do, and I took it in and showed them after it crashed and I left it running without restarting and my "genius" said it qualified and if it fails their video tests they will replace my lb with the new updated one they have to address this issue with the mid 2010 MacBook pros. I guess it failed because 3 days later I got the call saying it's ready and ever since It hasn't crashed on Lion or Bootcamp especially through extensive gaming. People, stop hoping for a software fix cause it's not going to help and it's not going to come. Apples way of addressing this issue is the TS article they have stating that If your Mac is a mid 2010 15 inch i5 or i7 MacBook pro suffering from "intermittent" black screens during the use of the dedicated nvidia card (GeForce 330M I believe), your warranty regarding this issue is extended 2 years past the manufacturing day (aka mid 2012) and Apple will replace your faulty logic board with the newer updated model that does not suffer from this issue for free. Simple as that. There is no reason to continue posting your storys or symptoms because we know and have heard them a thousand time over. Just print out the article on Apples site (it's been posted here many times) and show the apple "genius's" your problematic Mac and explain to them what the issue is. Having screen shots of the kernel panic reports is always a plus as is being able to force them, but they are not neccesary reinforcements (unless your "genius" is clueless or a total douche.)

"Apples way of addressing this issue is the TS article they have stating that If your Mac is a mid 2010 15 inch i5 or i7 MacBook pro suffering from "intermittent" black screens during the use of the dedicated nvidia card (GeForce 330M I believe), your warranty regarding this issue is extended 2 years past the manufacturing day (aka mid 2012) and Apple will replace your faulty logic board with the newer updated model that does not suffer from this issue for free"

i have a Macbook pro 17-inch mid 2010 and the 1 year warranty has expired obviously and its suffering from this problem also with the 330m Video card where do you find this apple article so i can show the people at genius bar  as you mentioned.

support.apple.com/kb/TS4088 is where it is located. It specifically addresses the 15 inch one, I don't know if it would apply for the 17 inch one. I would go in and ask or call to check.

I installed the update and retried to reproduce the issue and again it showed. The screen went black.

We should ask for refound or free repair.

These are my settings.

Nombre del modelo:          MacBook Pro

Identificador del modelo:          MacBookPro6,2

Nombre del procesador:          Intel Core i7

Velocidad del procesador:          2.66 GHz

Cantidad de procesadores:          1

Cantidad total de núcleos:          2

Caché de nivel 2 (por núcleo):          256 KB

Caché de nivel 3:          4 MB

Memoria:          8 GB

Velocidad de interconexión del procesador:          4.8 GT/s

Versión de la ROM de arranque:          MBP61.0057.B0C

Versión SMC (sistema):          1.58f16

The problem isn't in the free repair. according to the TS article, apple should repair your logic board for free.

the problem is that apple randomly doesn't acknowledge the issue on a per-user basis even though they are able to reproduce the issue in front of them. if your laptopt doesn't fail the apple official test for this issue, you're screwed... and that's what we should focus on, apple should repair all affected mbp's.

I get it and I couldn't agree more. Instead of the support.apple.com/kb/TS4088 SW fix they should open a replacement plan for all afected users, by acknowleging the problem as theirs. There must be something we can do to put some presure on them.

It is considerably easy to reproduce the issue so the test is rubbish if doesn't apply for all affected macs.

Anybody knows if there is a international legal instrument we could use to demand our rights as consumers?

As unlikely as you may think Apple does have a separate test they use to test for this issue that from what I understand works pretty well. I do think the article needs to be amended though to address all 330m macs. It's not so much a "free repair" as it is really a recall and replacement of the outdated logic boards.

I thought I wouldn't need to post here again, but my repaired computer is having problems again. I have the newer updated logic board number and it was working for a couple of weeks without problems. However, sometimes it will go to sleep and won't wake. The LCD is still on but the backlight won't turn back on. The second problem is that the computer will 'hard freeze' (as I've come to learn it's called). The computer suddenly beachballs and suddenly everything is not responding. The whole computer is frozen and the only thing moving is the cursor. Sometimes even the cursor freezes with it. The only way to get out of the problem is to reboot.

I had the exact same 2 symptoms above on my 2008 Macbook Pro with the 8600M GT which was replaced with this 2010 MBP under Apple Care. It seems I can't escape these graphics problems with Apple products. I've emailed Apple and hopefully they will respond.

I sometimes have the problem where the backlight won't come on and this is in my 2008 MBP. The workaround for me is to close the lid, wait two seconds and open it and that usually takes care of the problem.

I have not had the hard freeze issue.

I had the motherboard replaced recently for the backlight issue but it still happens - my guess is that it is an Operating System bug.

My son had his logic board replaced for the mid-2010 problem a few months ago and has had no problems since then.

i took my macbook pro 17-inch mid 2010 with the 330m video card  to the genius bar and i explained to them the problem and showed them the article :

support.apple.com/kb/TS4088

they said we can see that your video card has failed a few diagnostic test we did on it but the article says 15-inch MBP and not 17-inch MBP so we cant help you .

this is pizzin me off badly ! its the same FAULTY VIDEO CARD  17-inch or 15-inch

Wow, that's absolute bs. If it weren't for Job's unfortunate passing, I'd be writing a letter.

someone showed me this link :

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20099875-263/os-x-lion-black-screen-bug-lik ely-from-hardware-malfunction/?tag=mncol;title

even these guys realized it