Q: Lion randomly crashes - black screen

Faced the same problem too (on a fresh Lion installation, without any additional app in MBP, did not install iLife as well):

1) Crash while using Safari and/or Photo Booth

2) Crash when trying to wake from sleep

3) Crash even when trying to install Lion

Specs:

MBP Mid-2010 2.66GHz i7

02 x 4GB DDR3

02 x 200GB OWC SSD

Luckily, I managed to capture some "crashed" video and send in to Apple Service Provider for proof & repair.

They replaced the logic board within 2 days and my MBP have been busy running, i.e. installing apps, transferring files, etc. for the past 12hrs without any probs.

Previously while it was on Snow Leopard, it crashes as well, but not as often as Lion.

Initially, I thought it was due to infamous i7 heat problem, but am so glad to chance upon this discussion, otherwise it wouldn't prompt me to send in for repair/replacement of logic board.

Big thanks!!

Install the CUDA driver you can get, open the System Preferences control panel, it should automatically tell you there's an update available and facilitate your downloading of it.

This is a page of CUDA available to various platforms. Scroll down to the Mac OS X links.http://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-toolkit-40

What I really wish is that it would alert me when an update is actually available. I just open it and check it manually every now and then when it seems likely there will be some sort of update--like now--with the graphics hand-off problem between the onboard/Intel and discrete/NVIDIA chips. I'm actually getting quite a good test of it today as well. I've been out and about, on battery, on different WiFi networks, thunderstorms, etc. No crash yet. Usually I get an average of one per day, often in the evening. We shall see...

It seems to me (by reading through this thread) that if you did have crashes in Snow Leopard and now Lion, its most likely due to a faulty Logic Board.

But if you had no troubles in Snow Leopard, but experience crashes now in Lion, it is most likely due to a graphics driver.

It could also be that every single 2010 15" MBP has a fatal flaw which will lead to this problem under enough stress, the only factor it seems is time (the exact same situation as the 2008 MBP with the NVIDIA 8600m GPU - it wouldn't be a first for NVIDIA).

To those who had crashes in Snow Leopard, would you kindly tell us how you have used your machine - applications used, games, heavy duty computing etc.?

Also, does the Lion GUI (Mission Control, Launchpad animations) perform adequately using just the Integrated Intel card? Would someone be able to post a video or give insight? Is there any choppiness or lag experienced when using only the Integrated?

If not, then it may be possible to boycott the NVIDIA card entirely and experience satisfactory performance without the risk of killing the computer.

Hi blue_sun I was previously getting crashes in sl but usually just a couple times a week. Regarding mission control etc this doesn't slow down at all with integrated, at least not for me. Yes in theory you could purely use your $2000+ laptop like it's a $1000+ MacBook and only use integrated but why should anyone accept that? External monitors will run slowely, video playback is slower, video editing slower etc. Also good luck selling your machine later on. I like with macs that they retain value to allow selling after buying a new

Model. Noone is going to buy a faulty MacBook pro!

I've just booked mine in yesterday for a mb replacement. Fingers crossed...

Thanks.

Good luck with the replacement, let us know of the outcome.

Just a update. the enginnering department had an emal sent to me and the genius. Here's what it said:

Thank you for your escalation. The panics showing appear to reference the GPU and driver. At this time I would recommend avoiding use of the discrete GPU to workaround this issue. The user may also consider using OS X 10.6.8 at this time, perhaps on another partition temporarily.

Please let the user know that Apple has received reports of this behavior and we are investigating those reports.

Do not repair or replace hardware for this behavior. Keep an eye on the Kbase for more information as it becomes available.

Looks like we're finally getting somewhere, hopefully in a few weeks Apple will have a fix for us.

So after 2 lion re-installs, deleting the windowserver files and resetting PRAM (as well as a few other things) I'm calling it quits.

Backed up and re-installed Snow Leopard and my 15" MBPro is working like a champ - external displays work fine, no problems.. no crashes. (I had all the same crashes that everyone else seems to have had)

It's a bit frustrating for two reasons -

- I went to two Apple Genius Bars and both reps claimed they had never heard of this issue and never to trust forums :/

- My colleague has a nearly identical MBPro 15" / Nvidia 330 GPU (mine has SSD, his does not) and he's never had an issue.. so maybe it really is some sort of bizzare isolated incident and not common to all 15" macbooks with nvidia GPUs?!!

Any way, I'd recommend not pulling your hair out any further -- nothing really works as of yet. Just re-install snow leopard for the time being and wait until apple sorts things out with this issue. Perhaps 10.7.2 or 10.7.3 will fix it?

I’m sure I don’t have the same problems many of you have here. I don’t have the BSOD, BUT my MacBook Pro, i7, 8gb RAM, 2010 crashed multiple times daily for 3 weeks IMMEDIATELY after installing 10.7. It had not crashed once in the previous 15 months. By “crashing” I mean all of my applications would gradually go to a “not responding” mode over about one minute. The only thing that would work would be my mouse / cursor. It would always necessitate a hard re-boot. I couldn’t really point to one thing or another causing the meltdown.

I’ve been watching seven different threads dealing with “similar” issues and have tried almost all of the “solutions”. Haha…read HUNDREDS of posts. This will probably be my only post, so I’ll lay out my observations.

• My wife and I have identical machines…hers is totally cool. I have a bunch of utilities and 3 times as much software installed.
• I don’t think everyone has the same problem even though it might look identical.
• New logic board fixed / didn’t fix…oh no thought it worked…guess it didn’t…WHAT? These are COMPUTERS, not infallible machines. I just switched over from 30 years on DOS / Windows. Apple is still just a computer (still take it over Windows). My last Dell took over a year and 6 bios upgrades before it didn’t crash connecting an external hard drive. There are thousands of possible software combinations…and YES…defective hardware too. I’m 58 and have lost weeks…maybe months of my life to imperfect computers.
• SO…I Repaired permissions, SMC reset, PRAM / NVRAreset, used gfxCardStatus, Fan Conrol, cleared cache, removed all security software, deleted “windowserver”…Nothing worked. (Was too scared to install the Nvidia driver talked about…plus didn’t seem to work except forseveral people.)
• I finally did a Command + R > Disk Utility…and Verified the Disk. OH NO…my hard drive has errors! Did I install Lion on a disk with errors? No one said to “Verify” your disk before installing Lion. I read like 5 different articles!! So I “Repaired Disk” several times until it showed no errors. Nothing…still crashing.
• I resort to calling Apple (got the 3 year plan.) The guy has me do all of the above. I spend 1 ½ hours with him…his longest call ever he tells me. He tells me to re-install Lion, BUT DO NOT RESTORE FROM TIME MACHINE. I hang up and reinstall Lion from the internet (Command + R). I didn’t know it would wipe my disk clean!! I said screw it and restored from Time Machine…hey…I wasn’t going to spend another whole day manually bringing stuff over unless absolutely necessary.
• Is this what people have been referring to as a “Clean Install”? Did you check your disk for errors first?
• It has been 2 minutes now and it seems to be working…Haha…make that 2 WEEKS now. I didn’t want to post until I was sure what worked for me. I have 10.7.1 installed for several days now too. NOT A SINGLE CRASH IN 2 WEEKS!

I will post this into all 7 threads I’ve been following and maybe this will help someone. I hope so. But if it doesn’t I won’t be too surprised because you may very well have a different issue than I had. Good luck! I love my MBP again…

I agree with you "Blue_sun".

I have a 15" MBP I7 2,66 (mid 2010).

Im getting the black screen, the system lock ups and the kernel panics with Lion.

I had alot of graphic related problems under SL.

Heres a related forum thread: https://discussions.apple.com/message/12304669#12304669

I have since I got the computer saved screenshots and recorded vidoes of the problems Ive had.

http://www.klackenstam.com/dropbox/garbled_graphics_mbp_i7_snow_leo

Apple blamed flash and after a flash update the problem almost disappered.

I did however have prolems with small "glitches" in transitions.

When I changed user I got graphic errors in the transition.

The transition when going from window mode to fullscreen in Quicktime the graphic got garbled.

When using Expose the images or windows that were "outide of the screen area (or the part of the images outide of the screen) got grabled.

Im now using Lion and I still get the garbled graphics within the transitions in user change and fullscreen Quicktime.

I also have all the same symptoms as you guys with MBP I7 (mid2010).

I belive that the problem is hardware / firmware related and that it is the same problem some of us were having in SL.

I belive that Apple dont know whats causing our problems.

And that they never located / fixed the problem under Snow Leopard.

I belive that they found a way to hide the problem but that with Lion the issue has reamerged.

I have been in contact with apple about the problem since november last year.

And still no solution.

Today I will try to reclaim the computer.

In Sweden we have a Consumer Sales Act that I hope will help me.

Keep up the good work guys!

Hi,

I wanted to add that I've been seeing similar problems with my early 2008 Macbook Pro.  Either the same problem, or a problem with a very similar manifestation has intensified after upgrading to 10.7.1.  What I see now are frequent crashes of applications such as iTunes and Mail, followed by a kernel panic.  WIth 10.7.0, the Nvidia graphics driver was almost always in the backtrace generated by the panic.  Now with 10.7.1, it's almost as if the system is expecting something in the pagefile that isn't there --- I've attached the most recent crash report.  I"m not sure if these are independent problems or the same thing. 

A couple of notes:

   * I've seen crash logs that seem to point out the Nvidia driver as the root cause, but my laptop is old school.  It only has a single Nvidia 8600 GPU.  

   * More recent crashes I've seen seem to indicate that the problem is with reading back the pagefile(?)  A few months ago, I had the logic board replaced due to the Nvidia 8600 problem.  I've occasionally wondered if the replacement is also faulty, because even in Snow Leopard, I saw black screens when resuming from sleep with the new board.  Also, once or twice, the system would just reboot after trying to re-load the pagefile when resuming from hibernation.

All in all, this is pretty distressing.  I just want a working laptop again, instead of one that crashes (almost every time) when resuming from sleep.

Last crash report:

Interval Since Last Panic Report: 162016 sec

Panics Since Last Report: 1

Anonymous UUID: CCCC5991-5256-417C-914E-198DF5E10A4F

Sat Aug 20 02:47:02 2011

panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff800027dc4a): "NO ENTRY TO DELETE"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1699.22.81/osfmk/vm/vm_map_store_rb.c:118

Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address

0xffffff80956dbd50 : 0xffffff8000220702

0xffffff80956dbdd0 : 0xffffff800027dc4a

0xffffff80956dbdf0 : 0xffffff800027c5cf

0xffffff80956dbe20 : 0xffffff8000273b96

0xffffff80956dbf10 : 0xffffff80002734ff

0xffffff80956dbf30 : 0xffffff800023760e

0xffffff80956dbf50 : 0xffffff800023b3c0

0xffffff80956dbf70 : 0xffffff800023b816

0xffffff80956dbfb0 : 0xffffff8000820057

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task

Mac OS version:

11B26

Kernel version:

Darwin Kernel Version 11.1.0: Tue Jul 26 16:07:11 PDT 2011; root:xnu-1699.22.81~1/RELEASE_X86_64

Kernel UUID: D52AAB80-B2BC-3C6E-BBEA-78BD28064998

System model name: MacBookPro4,1 (Mac-F42C89C8)

System uptime in nanoseconds: 43186331505337

last loaded kext at 43004726659456: com.apple.driver.AppleUSBCDC 4.1.15 (addr 0xffffff7f80832000, size 16384)

last unloaded kext at 43064887113361: com.apple.driver.AppleUSBCDC 4.1.15 (addr 0xffffff7f80832000, size 12288)

loaded kexts:

com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch 66.3

com.apple.driver.AppleHWSensor 1.9.4d0

com.apple.filesystems.autofs 3.0

com.apple.driver.AppleHDA 2.1.1f12

com.apple.driver.AppleUpstreamUserClient 3.5.9

com.apple.driver.AppleMCCSControl 1.0.24

com.apple.driver.ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin 4.7.0b2

com.apple.driver.SMCMotionSensor 3.0.1d2

com.apple.driver.AudioAUUC 1.59

com.apple.iokit.IOUserEthernet 1.0.0d1

com.apple.Dont_Steal_Mac_OS_X 7.0.0

com.apple.driver.AudioIPCDriver 1.2.0

com.apple.driver.AppleSMCLMU 2.0.1d2

com.apple.driver.AppleLPC 1.5.1

com.apple.GeForce 7.0.4

com.apple.driver.AppleBacklight 170.1.9

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBTCButtons 220.8

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBTCKeyboard 220.8

com.apple.driver.AppleIRController 309

com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeDataless 1.0.0d1

com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib 1.0.0d1

com.apple.BootCache 32

com.apple.iokit.SCSITaskUserClient 3.0.0

com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage 2.0.0

com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort 2.1.8

com.apple.driver.AppleIntelPIIXATA 2.5.1

com.apple.driver.AppleFWOHCI 4.8.6

com.apple.iokit.AppleYukon2 3.2.2b1

com.apple.driver.AirPortBrcm43224 500.36.11

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHub 4.4.0

com.apple.driver.AppleHPET 1.6

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBUHCI 4.4.0

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBEHCI 4.4.0

com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM 1.5.0

com.apple.driver.AppleRTC 1.4

com.apple.driver.AppleSmartBatteryManager 161.0.0

com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons 1.4

com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS 1.7

com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC 1.4

com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC 1.5

com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient 166.0.0

com.apple.nke.applicationfirewall 3.0.30

com.apple.security.quarantine 1

com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement 166.0.0

com.apple.driver.AppleMultitouchDriver 220.62

com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothHIDKeyboard 152.3

com.apple.driver.AppleHIDKeyboard 152.3

com.apple.driver.IOBluetoothHIDDriver 2.5f17

com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIBlockCommandsDevice 3.0.0

com.apple.iokit.IOUSBMassStorageClass 3.0.0

com.apple.kext.triggers 1.0

com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothSerialManager 2.5f17

com.apple.iokit.IOSerialFamily 10.0.5

com.apple.driver.DspFuncLib 2.1.1f12

com.apple.driver.AppleAVBAudio 1.0.0d11

com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginFamily 4.7.0b2

com.apple.iokit.IOSurface 80.0

com.apple.iokit.IOAVBFamily 1.0.0d22

com.apple.iokit.IOEthernetAVBController 1.0.0d5

com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireIP 2.2.3

com.apple.iokit.IOAudioFamily 1.8.3fc11

com.apple.kext.OSvKernDSPLib 1.3

com.apple.driver.AppleSMC 3.1.1d2

com.apple.driver.AppleHDAController 2.1.1f12

com.apple.iokit.IOHDAFamily 2.1.1f12

com.apple.nvidia.nv50hal 7.0.4

com.apple.NVDAResman 7.0.4

com.apple.driver.AppleBacklightExpert 1.0.3

com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport 2.3

com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily 2.3

com.apple.driver.BroadcomUSBBluetoothHCIController 2.5f17

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBBluetoothHCIController 2.5f17

com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothFamily 2.5f17

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMultitouch 220.23

com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHIDDriver 4.4.0

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMergeNub 4.4.0

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBComposite 3.9.0

com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIMultimediaCommandsDevice 3.0.0

com.apple.iokit.IOBDStorageFamily 1.6

com.apple.iokit.IODVDStorageFamily 1.6

com.apple.iokit.IOCDStorageFamily 1.7

com.apple.driver.XsanFilter 403

com.apple.iokit.IOATAPIProtocolTransport 3.0.0

com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily 3.0.0

com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily 2.0.6

com.apple.iokit.IOATAFamily 2.5.1

com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireFamily 4.4.3

com.apple.iokit.IO80211Family 400.40

com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily 2.0

com.apple.iokit.IOUSBUserClient 4.4.0

com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily 4.4.0

com.apple.driver.AppleEFIRuntime 1.5.0

com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily 1.7.0

com.apple.iokit.IOSMBusFamily 1.1

com.apple.security.sandbox 165

com.apple.kext.AppleMatch 1.0.0d1

com.apple.security.TMSafetyNet 7

com.apple.driver.DiskImages 326

com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily 1.7

com.apple.driver.AppleKeyStore 28.18

com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform 1.4

com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily 2.6.5

com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily 1.4

Model: MacBookPro4,1, BootROM MBP41.00C1.B03, 2 processors, Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.4 GHz, 4 GB, SMC 1.27f3

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT, GeForce 8600M GT, PCIe, 256 MB

Memory Module: BANK 0/DIMM0, 2 GB, DDR2 SDRAM, 667 MHz, 0x2C00000000000000, 0x3136485446323536363448592D3636374531

Memory Module: BANK 1/DIMM1, 2 GB, DDR2 SDRAM, 667 MHz, 0x2C00000000000000, 0x3136485446323536363448592D3636374531

AirPort: spairport_wireless_card_type_airport_extreme (0x14E4, 0x8C), Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.131.36.11)

Bluetooth: Version 2.5.0f17, 2 service, 19 devices, 1 incoming serial ports

Network Service: Wi-Fi, AirPort, en1

Serial ATA Device: WDC WD7500BPKT-00PK4T0, 750.16 GB

Parallel ATA Device: MATSHITADVD-R UJ-867

USB Device: iPhone, apple_vendor_id, 0x1297, 0xfa200000 / 2

USB Device: Built-in iSight, apple_vendor_id, 0x8502, 0xfd400000 / 3

USB Device: LaCie Hard Drive USB, 0x059f (LaCie), 0x1018, 0xfd100000 / 2

USB Device: BRCM2046 Hub, 0x0a5c (Broadcom Corp.), 0x4500, 0x1a100000 / 2

USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller, apple_vendor_id, 0x820f, 0x1a110000 / 5

USB Device: Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad, apple_vendor_id, 0x0230, 0x5d200000 / 3

USB Device: IR Receiver, apple_vendor_id, 0x8242, 0x5d100000 / 2

Hey wired00 - Im curious to how you got on, did they replace your mac?

Just updated: Lion 10.7.1 doesn't fix the problem

I updated to CUDA 4.0.5 and that seemed to make things worse. Before that I was able to get Mission Control (previously causing crashes constantly before 10.7.1) to work normally and only got a crash (BSOD) once a day or so when my computer was really hot. Now I've had to disable Mission Control again to stay up.

Anyone know if there's a way to rollback the CUDA driver?

Another update, get back my mac from the engineering team. They replaced the memory and claimed the victory. I will see if this indeed fix the problem.