Q: Lion randomly crashes - black screen

kkiran wrote:

 

If this might help someone :

 

I never experienced the black screen with a specific app. Everytime I had a KP, it was when I was doing an expose operation : boom, black screen! It did not randomly black screen due to an app but the infamous 4/5 finger swipe up!

The swipe gives me a crash too. To simulate the problem i basically open iPhoto, swipe spaces, close iPhoto, swipe spaces, open iPhoto, swipe...

i get a crash in a minute doing that.

kkiran wrote:

 

If this might help someone :

 

I never experienced the black screen with a specific app. Everytime I had a KP, it was when I was doing an expose operation : boom, black screen! It did not randomly black screen due to an app but the infamous 4/5 finger swipe up!

Oh, and just to make it clear: i don't have a problem specifically with iPhoto. The crash may happen with any application which does something more "graphical" than usual. It could be opening a PDF. It could be launching Mission Control. Anything.

I just gave the example of iPhoto because it's a simple one, and it "works" for me.

We bought a 17"  MacBook Pro in June.  Within 2 weeks Apple replaced the logic board, due to our complaint about the "black screen."  Our "black screen" was random and did one other odd thing.  The cursor still functioned but became a mini eraser and allowed us to erase down to the logins where we could enter our passwords and start over.

Apple called it a hardware issue, hence the logic board fix.  The machine began to break down, keys failing and more glitches.  They tried to replace the machine but it happens that no more 17" versions exist, literally and "corporate" said give them a new machine. 

We now have a 15" Retina with all the bells and whistles.  Apple "geniuses" migrated our data to the new machine.  We asked if the old issues would reappear, I.e., the "black screen."  No way, we were assued.

Well, here we are and in our firstweek with the Retina the "black screen" reappeared.  It does no damage but worries us that the issue preceeded our former troubles.  Has anyone experienced this bizarre, black, eraser screen?

Is this an Apple "Stuxnet?"

If apple was a wonderful company, you wouldn't have to go to different apple store because everyone would have been wonderful including the customer support.

In my country, going from store would means paying for the admin charge of $100+ per store to get the mbp tested and slap with getting an answer of nothing is wrong with your mbp.

sspm wrote:

 

If apple was a wonderful company, you wouldn't have to go to different apple store because everyone would have been wonderful including the customer support.

 

In my country, going from store would means paying for the admin charge of $100+ per store to get the mbp tested and slap with getting an answer of nothing is wrong with your mbp.

call Apple Support on the phone and ask if you'll have to pay $100+ just to get the machine tested. You shouldn't have to pay for testing.

mollyfeather wrote:

 

We bought a 17"  MacBook Pro in June.  Within 2 weeks Apple replaced the logic board, due to our complaint about the "black screen."  Our "black screen" was random and did one other odd thing.  The cursor still functioned but became a mini eraser and allowed us to erase down to the logins where we could enter our passwords and start over.

 

Apple called it a hardware issue, hence the logic board fix.  The machine began to break down, keys failing and more glitches.  They tried to replace the machine but it happens that no more 17" versions exist, literally and "corporate" said give them a new machine. 

 

We now have a 15" Retina with all the bells and whistles.  Apple "geniuses" migrated our data to the new machine.  We asked if the old issues would reappear, I.e., the "black screen."  No way, we were assued.

 

Well, here we are and in our firstweek with the Retina the "black screen" reappeared.  It does no damage but worries us that the issue preceeded our former troubles.  Has anyone experienced this bizarre, black, eraser screen?

 

Is this an Apple "Stuxnet?"

i can't decide if you're lucky or not.

but it seems your problem is of a different kind...

Thanks to everyone who replied. So this evening after work,after having done the reinstall again last night, I tried what you suggested with iPhoto. Wouldn't you know, after about ten times it happened again! This time I took it back to the store without restarting it, brought the ts 4088 article AGAIN, and was even more insistent this time that they look into it.  There weren't any "geniuses" available at the time, so I dropped it off and someone should look at it for the fourth time in the next day or two. I'll keep you posted. I really hope it gets taken care of, otherwise The next closest store is 45 mins away.  And yes,  I am located in the US.

Updated to ML and after hours of hard "work", I couldn't manage to reproduce the crash, so here I am.

It would've crashed like 1234 times if I haven't done the update...

Therefor, of course, I'm confused yet again; even though I'm a hw and sw engineer and a Cuda developer.

My heart says it's insanely great, but brain says it's just insane.

So what about you guys, did ML stopped the crashes, or have I just tossed heads for a million times in a row?

Well, if it is the latter, then I don't really understand why Apple replaces logic boards for a "simple" concurrency bug...

Nevermind I was just too lucky, I had the crash just now. Same thing, with all the spotlight indexing and stuff. Well they had the courtesy to add a new crash screen though, so that's new.

Let's see how fast they can replace my logic board, in Turkey...

fml

this might sound stupid as ****, but I rather ask:

1: I bought the computer in vienna, with my friend. both of the machines experince TS4088 issue. the problem is : we have only 1 year warranty. does this issue exted that for the LB?

2: my machine has already been repared for the water damage. keyborad/trackpad block has been replaced, LB was tested as not affected by the damage. but I have a strong feeling they will just tell me the LB was damaged by water (it took me going to 3 servicies to convince them to run proper tests for the water incident, originally they wanted me to replace like the whole comupter. not for free, of course). If the LB was okay even if the water was clearly there , you think it is possible to apply for the KB TS4088 issue?

note: we do not have an official apple store with all the geniuses and warm customer support over here so I rather be prepared in any case before going to the service

thank you

quick update:

they'll replace my LB. took to another store the second time, and they were actually quite efficient. now i have to wait about 10 days for the new LB.

michal.janak wrote:

 

this might sound stupid as ****, but I rather ask:

 

1: I bought the computer in vienna, with my friend. both of the machines experince TS4088 issue. the problem is : we have only 1 year warranty. does this issue exted that for the LB?

 

2: my machine has already been repared for the water damage. keyborad/trackpad block has been replaced, LB was tested as not affected by the damage. but I have a strong feeling they will just tell me the LB was damaged by water (it took me going to 3 servicies to convince them to run proper tests for the water incident, originally they wanted me to replace like the whole comupter. not for free, of course). If the LB was okay even if the water was clearly there , you think it is possible to apply for the KB TS4088 issue?

 

note: we do not have an official apple store with all the geniuses and warm customer support over here so I rather be prepared in any case before going to the service

 

thank you

if i were you, i wouldn't mentiont the water incident (even though they can check it on their system, of course) and ask them to see if your machine applies for the TS4088 recall. They have an specific test for that, and i think it doesn't matter what happened before to your machine if the test fails.

For everyone: you've gotta make sure they run the TS4088 test. Gotta explain it's not an ordinary kernel panic. If possible, show the crash happening in the store. I know in some assistances people are really bad at listening what you're saying, so you gotta be persistent and make sure they fully understand the issue.

An easier way to reproduce the error: just log in Skype and make a Video call.

I have this problem even with Mountain Lion. Got my LB replaced once before. Not sure what should I do now. The waranty was expired, can I get it replaced for free now?

thanks, but I just figured

"This worldwide Apple program does not extend the standard warranty coverage of the affected MacBook Pro."

so, if I only had 1 year warranty...then game over

michal.janak wrote:

 

thanks, but I just figured

 

"This worldwide Apple program does not extend the standard warranty coverage of the affected MacBook Pro."

 

so, if I only had 1 year warranty...then game over

What are you talking about? the TS4088 recall is valid for 2 years starting from the date you bought your computer. And there's people who got a replacement even though it was past the 2 year limit.