Q: Lion randomly crashes - black screen

I also got a mid-2010 15" 2.66GHz Core i7 Macbook Pro here in Portugal and I installed Lion last month. I started having the black screen issue almost immediately. Things like opening iPhoto, browsing on safari, itunes, made my macbook pro screen go black.

Then I tried to use the gFX fix and use the integrated graphics mode only. That made my mac work better, and the black screen issue only appeared once or twice a day.

But that seemed unhealthy for my mac. So i did a fresh new install of Snow Leopard again and it's working as it should be.

I just hope they fix this issue quickly and acknowledge that they made a mistake, and if needed, to order a substitution of all graphic cards from this model.

Everyone having this problem should be taking their machine to apple for motherboard replacement. Do not wait for a "fix", it will probably never happen. As many people have said, Apple haven't even bothered to send a memo to all staff on support telling of the issue.

It is a hardware problem. Some people experienced the issue in Snow leopard but it mostly manifested in Lion. Apple have stated its probably because Lion taxes the GPU more than SL. Rubbish answer but thats all we have.

If after motherboard/GPU replacement your still experiencing issues then take it for replacement AGAIN as they've just replaced your MB with another faulty GPU...

I have the same problem with my MacBook Pro.  My specs are:

Processor  2.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Memory  4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

Graphics  NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 256 MB

I think it is the Graphics Card.  Someone told me they had the same problem and that was the source..

I've read some of your previous posts, and for sure you had a hardware issue. In my own case I believe the black screen of coma to be driver related, but I'm no expert. I have never had a kernal panic in Lion and only experience the black screen coming out of sleep, which is notorious for making driver problems worse. I would send my computer in to Apple, but I think it would just take a nice trip and come back the way I sent it. I have run Photoshop in batch processing, Aperture and Photoshop together doing editing jobs, DxO as well, while surfing on the Internet with Chrome and Safari and collecting my mail. I was really pushing things with processor utilization and graphics switching and noticed not one flicker or problem. I've also done the photo booth test with no issue. When all the work is finished and the computer goes into sleep mode, things are also fine. But. wake the computer up, and then the black screen occurs...but only every other day, or week, or whenever it feels like...maddening!!!!! By the way, I have the 2.66 i7 with 8GB of ram, NVidia 330M with 512 MB, and a 7200 rpm HD.

Thanks for that.

In regards to this problem, I'm thinking it is purely a driver issue.

There is no way Lion stresses the GPU so much more that it causes failure of the discrete graphics.

What about all those people that game using bootcamp, this is a lot more stressful than simple Lion animations. I've not once heard of this problem from them.

wired00's recommended course of action is the way to go.

Two weeks ago I contacted Apple South customer care and had a case opened. The case was escalated to a senior advisor, and eventually to Customer Relations. Customer Relations arranged for an authorised service centre to pre-order a logic board. I took my Macbook Pro in last Friday afternoon and got it back on Saturday morning, just in time for my business trip on Monday.

I am happy to report that the new logic board is rock solid. No crashes whatsoever regardless of what I throw at it. In my case it is clear that it was a hardware fault that Snow Leopard occasionally bumped up against, but which Lion frequently tripped over.

wired00 wrote:

 

Everyone having this problem should be taking their machine to apple for motherboard replacement. Do not wait for a "fix", it will probably never happen. As many people have said, Apple haven't even bothered to send a memo to all staff on support telling of the issue.

 

It is a hardware problem. Some people experienced the issue in Snow leopard but it mostly manifested in Lion. Apple have stated its probably because Lion taxes the GPU more than SL. Rubbish answer but thats all we have.

 

If after motherboard/GPU replacement your still experiencing issues then take it for replacement AGAIN as they've just replaced your MB with another faulty GPU...

Digitus,

Does your new logic board have the same graphic card (nvidia)??

There is no way Lion stresses the GPU so much more that it causes failure of the discrete graphics.

 

What about all those people that game using bootcamp, this is a lot more stressful than simple Lion animations. I've not once heard of this problem from them.

I could see how one might draw that conclusion, but as I understand it, Lion's expanded usage of OpenCL could indeed be utilizing the GPU in at least *different* ways compared to the UI implementation in Snow Leopard. 

In any case, keep in mind that the problem may not be triggered by simply working the silicon harder than a 3D game/etc.

I visited apple store in Rotterdam last friday, and the guy there told me they are aware of the issue and the software fix is coming in a week or two. Also he was aware of the problem (I was 7th person reporting the issue that week).

Aright, i have been having this issue for the past two weeks. Worst part was that i was travelling for work when this started happening. Now it's to the point where i could not use my 15" mid 2010 MBP without an external monitor. After reading several forums and trying to figureout what work worked and didn't work. I was successfully able to get my MBPscreen working again! This re-assures me that it is definitely a software issue! (at least for me) This is very exciting because no service time is required. *thumbs up* just an update is required from Apple!

Here is what i did...

1) Removed the "windowsserver" filesfrom... ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/

2) Shutdown normally

3) Unplugged external monitor

4) Did three SMC resets

5) Unplugged the power adapter

6) Did three PRAM & NVRAM resets

7) Powered up normally

i know three resets might have been overkillbut this was out of pure frustration as this MBP is my bread and butter! It hasonly been five minutes but since I got my screen working again; and i'm notsure how reliable this is but at this point i hope to help others experiencingthe same issue until the fix comes out!

Give it a go and let us know how you makeout.

P.S. I didn't have an account and i don'tusually post things; but this success story (if only temporary) had to beshared!

Cheers,

BXL

If you can Screen Share your mac or use an external display, the following fix worked for me:

Download App - http://osxdaily.com/2009/09/28/adjust-screen-brightness-from-command-line/

Extract to downloads

Run Terminal

type "~/Downloads/"

press enter

type "chmod 7777 brightness"

press enter

type "./brightness 0; ./brightness 0.1; ./brightness 0.2; ./brightness 0.3; ./brightness 0.4; ./brightness 0.5; ./brightness 0.6; ./brightness 0.7; ./brightness 0.8; ./brightness 0.9; ./brightness 1;"

if this doesnt work immediately press the up arrow and enter

do this until it works,

if it doesnt work after repeating this say 20 times, it's probably not going to, but it fixed it for me

Ive done exactly what you did, and also worked for me. the tree rest of smc an nvram ( i didint count them, it was a moment of dispair) and now the macbook works perfectly, but im worried when thinking that may be a hardware issue, My macbook pro stil is cover by warranty, . I gonna stay with SL for while.  Thanks for confirm and share your solution.

I visited apple store in Rotterdam last friday, and the guy there told me they are aware of the issue and the software fix is coming in a week or two. Also he was aware of the problem (I was 7th person reporting the issue that week).

Thanks for sharing the this information. I've heard similar talk from some technology pros that I know.

Hello everyone. Same probem here. Frequent system freeze, fan runs very noisy and system halt while typing initial password. Do you think my problems (never had with SL) are hardware or software?

My specs:

Processore  2,4 Ghz Intel Core i5

Memoria  8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3

Grafica  NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 256 MB

Monitors Hi-RES (BTO) 15-pollici (1680 x 1050)

Thanks

Me, too! I JUST GOT a brand spankin' NEW Mac Pro, and it keeps crashing. I haven't even put ANYTHING on it yet -- not even my e-mail! Fortunately, I have the full warranty plus APple CAre, so I'm checking this out with Apple ASAP, especially that board possibility.

Processor:  2 x 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

Memory:  16 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC

Graphics:  ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024 MB

Software:  Mac OS X Lion 10.7