Q: Lion randomly crashes - black screen

Status update: I've updated my system to 10.7.3 and it has been stable on discrete graphics for about half an hour now. Although it's too early to tell, it's looking good! I abused the system, switching desktops, launchpad on/off, playing various intensive games etc, and it hasn't crashed. before I could crash it within minutes.

but, let's give it a few days, up to a week to make any definite conclusions.

Has anyone else updated? what are your experiences?

I was one of the early people on this ever growing thread. I did update to 10.7.3 today, but I have (knock on wood) not had a single black screen or kernel panic since Apple released the MacBook Pro Video Update on October 24. I have had uptimes of more 20+ days and 30+ days since then, only restarting when updates require it. Until that video update came out, I could run more than a couple of hours without the machine going down, unless I had gfxCardStatus installed and set it to run using the integrated graphics.

Anyway, while I believe that many people are still having problems, the video update did the trick for me.

Same here! Updated to 10.7.3 , played around, so far so good.

Same for me, all in all Lion seems to be running smoother too. Not getting my hopes up though, been down that road too many times

Hi I too just wanted to give an update on 10.7.3,

I have a Macbook Pro 15" Mid 2010 with a 330M NVidia and it hasn't crashed yet. I decided to test it by recording my screen with ScreenFlow while open closing Launchpad, Mission Control, and Photoboth. I also played some games. Seems fine so far.

****... Just crashed on 10.7.3... an hour after boot.

Will deffinetly try to pursue the logic board replacement, there's no other solution. This has to be a hardware thing...

I just upgraded to 10.7.3 and had a crash in less than 10 minutes. Mine is a 15" mid-2010 mbp. Agree with kspes that this gotta be a hardware thing. I just reinstalled lion from scratch 2 days ago!

Try this to crash 10.7.3:

1. Open a document in Pages

2. Save a version

3. Select 'File->Revert Document'

4. 10.7.3 will crash when the system displays older version

This trick does not crash my system, 10.7.3. I have to say, my system has been mostly stable since the video update in 10.7.2, it crashes may be once in a month or so, however, I am not sure if that is related to video graphics issue. My system has already passed the video test from apple last year, I might take my system in again for having that test done this year as some folks have suggested that they got different result with this year's test, may be apple's test has changed as well.

Running the release version of 10.7.3, and my MBP did not crash when I tried that trick sd0084.

However, when you attempt to revert to a previous version of a document, Lion does switch to discrete graphics, in order to draw the "Time Machine"-like interface. I'm assuming that even if you were to try and enter time machine then it would crash as well... am I right, sd0084?

Quick update - one week back I had the logic board replaced on my mid-2010 MBP. Since then no black screen or crash.. keeping fingers crossed! Just to be clear- other than replacing logic board, I did not do any other change to the system (not even in any of the display settings).

Quick question - did you have to bring any proof of purchase of your MacBook Pro to the Apple Store? Or can they verify your ownership of it by checking the serial number or something?

Yes. It crashes when I use Time Machine, VMWare Fusion, Skype (Video call), FaceTime :-(. In fact it crashes when I am using Mail and Safari (both full-screen) -- but that happens not as frequently and predicably as other apps.

I have installed gfxCardStatus and set it to use integrated card and disable switching. MBP doesn't crash though I can feel the difference in performance when I am running VMWare.

That's why I feel that Apple's hardware test is not perfect.

Anyways, steps taken so far:

1. Wipe out the disk -- write all 0's

2. Installed 10.7.2 at Apple's service center (silly thing crashed there but they said that the test didn't report it so they can't help)

3. Installed Video Upgrader

4. Installed 10.7.3 (through Software Update)

5. Installed 10.7.3 via full download

Still crashes. I would hate to go back to Snow Leopard -- it never crashed with it.

They don't need any proof of purchase. They can pull up all the information by serial number. Assuming that no matter from where you purchased your MBP, you must have registered it with Apple. So, dont worry about it.

Thanks FunkyDrug.

I hope they can fix your problem.