Q: Lion randomly crashes - black screen

my experience today at the Apple Store (Le Gru, Turin, Italy):

1. showed them the KB article http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4088

2. they run their diagnostic tool, which reveals my MBP qualifies for the Video Test

3. during the test, a big text appears on the screen: FAILED

4. the genius agrees that the logic board should be replaced for free

and do you have the MBP 17-inch or 15-inch ?

i'm sorry for your situation, I have a 15-inch mid 2010 MBP

Hey Guys

I have the same problem for a couple of months now. And it really *****.
(MacBook Pro 6,2)

But right now I found a relibale way to reproduce the problem:

.) Move the cursor quickly left and right on the Dock for a couple of times.

.) Then change the focus to Mail and click on a newsletter mail with images that have to load from the internet.

Tada: black screen

I hope I can find somehow a pattern to isolate the problem.

Can someone with the same error confirm this methode?
Thanks a lot.

Well its been 6 months now and I still have a macbrick pro. My mac has now been with the local store a month while it gets assessed etc (yes xmas holidays affected this but it was dropped off on the 8th of december).

This now has my tally at:

8 hours on the phone trying to get this sorted,

46 days without my mac with the various times its been in for service and assessement

6 months and counting without a useable computer

oh and 4 logic boards failed

And what did apple come back with, oh they will approve a 5th replacement logic board but no replacement laptop, this is beyond a joke, so the store are now seeing if they can escalate to get it replaced because they agree 5 replacement logic boards is a joke.

I can honestly say I am over this and to those saying just get your logic board replaced and stop whining. IT DOESNT ALWAYS WORK SO WIND YOUR HEADS IN. its not helpful to those of use still left with bricks trying to fight a company with no ears....

Are you sure you're referring to the same issue we're discussing on this thread? Everyone who has received the new logics boards designed for this issue have had nothing but positive things to say about the fix. This thread is about a faulty video chip in these 2010 MacBook pros, not about someone's Mac becoming rendered completely unusable (aka "bricked") for some unforseeable reason.

Did you get the new rev number of the logic board? We had the logic board replaced once and it was the old rev. We had it replaced again with the new rev and it has been running fine for a few months. I would hope that Apple is using the new rev in all replacements but I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't everywhere in the world.

i have not been told what rev i have got that most recently failed by the store and right now I could care less, its been six months with this pos machine not working, the time for a resonable fix is over

yes i have the same issue as posted here video crashes at the drop of a hat, hence why i call it a macbrick pro, because something that crashes five times just trying to import photos is as useful as a brick, all its worth using it for is throwing at things (and even then I suspect it would bounce off rather than actually break anything).

Yes I am techy but so you would you be after 8 hours on the phone over a six month period just trying to get the machine you spent alot of hard earned cash on to actually work. It shouldnt take this much fight.... Hence why now the store are fighting on my behalf or replacing it themselves as per our local consumer laws.

The thing about tech is that you can expect failures like this from time to time on complex equipment. I would expect Apple to handle it better but the level of customer service varies from store to store. We have a spare MacBook Pro - if someone has a unit out of service, they just use the spare while there's is in the shop.

I finally took my machine (15" mid-2010 MacBook Pro 2.66 GHz Core i7) into an Apple Store (Chicago, North Michigan Avenue) a few weeks to get this repaired. I showed the tech the Knowledge Base article and described my symptoms, and he immediately knew exactly what was wrong (he had had a machine with the problem himself, and had been to a training meeting about it). He started running the test but before it found anything he started putting in the order for the new logic board. I was very impressed with the service.

Then everything went to ****. A few days later I got a call from a different tech saying they could not replicate the problem. I explained everything, but he said they couldn't complete the repair till they could replicate the problem. He said he would keep trying and then call me back if they couldn't find it.

A few days later I got an email from Apple saying my repair was complete, so I went into the store. Turns out they decided not to do anything. I asked what my options were, and was told that basically they can't do anything.

So I went home and wrote Tim Cook a ******-off email about how I was very disappointed and frustrated by my experience trying to get a known, acknowledged problem repaired, and how as a Mac user for 26 years who has bought literally dozens of Macs, this was the biggest Apple has ever disappointed me. I got calls the next day from the Genius manager and store manager at the NMA store, who said they would perform the repair.

My machine is now repaired and has run flawlessly so far in the day and a half since I got it back. So while the hardware fix seems to work, it may require a little arguing to actually get it.

i am very new to Apple and this was my frist Macbook pro 17-inch (mid 2010) and i dont really know who i can contact to explain  this issue i am having with the faulty video card. They didnt want to repair it because the article was for 15-inch MBP but my MBP gets a black screen for youtube or even google maps street View its ridiculous.

does anyone know who i can contact ?

Just wanted to post this out to all of you who are experiencing what I have now resolved.  I posted back around Christmas 2011 re my issue with black screening in Lion.  Based on this user forum and other research I was initially not confident in following up with Apple directly - in part largely due to not wanting to lose the use of my work tool for an 'indefinite' period of time.  For me no MacBook = no pay.

However, based on a few responses to my posts I decided to stop 'whinging' and pursue the remedy offered by Apple via their website article referenced in these many threads: TS4088.  I have had a very positive experience and wanted to share it with you all.

I note that I am in New Zealand where we have to deal with Apple indirectly via dealers.  Here are the steps I took to successfully resolve my issue:

1. Update all software on MacBook Pro.

2. Install software update from Apple recommended as a possible fix to the issue.

3. When 2 above did not remedy the issue, as per article TS4088 http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4088, I contacted Apple directly and logged the issue.  I advised that I had extensively researched the issue, understood the process and needed to progress the remedy based on TS4088.

4. 24 Dec 2011, after numerous calls to dealers (note: very bad time of the year to get any help!); I managed to find one at 15:00 who said they would run an indicator diagnostic ('Apple Tool Kit Video System Test') if I could get into them before business closing at 17:00.

5. Made the 17:00 deadline, diagnostic test (10 mins) 'failed' and was now logged as an issue for followup.

6. With retail being closed for the Christmas/New Year period I did not have a hope of a resolution until at least the week of 4th Jan 2012.  I explained that I was desperate to get my computer back in my hands for commencement of my business 9th Jan 2012 but was advised that due to a delay in sourcing the part; the fix may be a week plus.  I was able to retain my laptop until the supply of the part (I expected to wait a week).

7. Within 2 days I had a communication to confirm supply of said part, dropped in my MacBook Pro and the wonderful team at Übertech in Parnell, Auckland had the logic board replacement completed and back in my hands overnight! VERY HAPPY!

So a couple of things I wanted to post here. 

Firstly, that Apple does have a remedy and this (so far) appears to have fully resolved my issue.  I had a very positive experience in dealing with Apple (over the phone) and 'indirectly' via the NZ dealer.  My only issue is that I would have expected Apple to have told me about this known issue rather than leaving it up to me to dig around for hours and followup with the remedy.  A simple email from Apple to tell me that IF I was experiencing blank screen issues based on an upgrade to LION; that I should go to my Apple dealer and have them check for a POSSIBLE faulty part as per TS4088 (yes - tell the customer where to source the information!). So for Apple, I expect this posting is a learning opportunity of how to streamline the process and offer exceptional customer service now.

Secondly, that Übertech totally exceeded my expectation in terms of service delivery.  They turned a bad situation for me into one that was palletable with efficient follow-up and very good direct communication in the medium I specified.  As a result I feel compelled to 'blow the horn' on their behalf and recommend them to any Auckland-based MAC customers.  I will definitely be sourcing my Apple product through them in the future.

I went to the Apple Store again and my freezing issue is still there even with a clean restore (wiped hard drive and installed everything from scratch). Even if you have a new logic board, doesn't mean your computer will be as when you bought it in 2010. Lion really did something I guess. My new freezing problem is even worse because I can't control when it happens. With the black screen issue, I can at least force Intel graphics. I want my old logic board back! Gosh. I'm sad to say this, but really might be my last Mac.

Thanks everyone for sharing information on this forum, specially the "TS4088" apple post info. This helped me to get my logic board replacement ordered - for free. I am having very same issue on a MBP mid-2010.

After going through the posts on this forum, I went to a local Apple store and explained them the issue. At first, they were not supportive as I could not reproduce it there, and I was asked to pay the price if I would like to replace the logic board. They totally bounced me when I referred them to this thread saying it is not Apple approved solution. Then I showed them Apple's "TS4088" post, after which they agreed to run the video test, but again said if test turns negative they could replace the board and I still will have to pay the price as MBP is out of warranty. Well, I remembered the last para on "TS4088" post which mentions the extended warranty for this part, and after insisting to review that they agreed to replace it for free if test turns negative. The video test flashed a big "FAILED" message just in few seconds after launching. So they ordered the part for me and they are going to call me in once they have it. I am hoping the issue will get resolved after this replacement.

Thanks again for sharing the information. I will try to reply later if the new part works well.

I am unsubscribing from this thread, yesterday I went to my local Apple Store to run the TS4088 test with a genius. My system got a clean bill of health so as a result, I will trust that my hardware is in perfect condition. However, I still have some graphics related issues such as freezes at log in and sometimes browsing Safari in all of them a very annoying "DumpGPURestart" message appears in the Console.log. I really hope that Apple fixes this issue and wish luck to anyone that has suffered from this issue with their 2010 MacBook Pros. Let's hope that Apple addresses these shortcomings with future versions of OSX.