Mid 2010 MacBook Pro crash - screen goes black

Just want to chime in and say that I have had this exact same problem since probably February or March 2013. I guess it occurred the most during the summer months when I was working on an important project building 3d models in maya. I got in the habit of saving every 5 minutes. I just woke up the machine this morning and barely touched the trackpad when this happened again. Honestly it only happens once a week or so but it's a ridiculous thing to worry about my machine freezing when barely touching it. I could understand if it only crashed while running it too hot but barely breathing on it seems to set it off sometimes. I'm very hesitant to bring it to an apple genius to have to spend hours of my life trying to convince them to help me fix it. Maybe if I bring a thick stack of printouts of other users' complaints that might help. Anyway, thanks for posting so much information on this issue. I guess I'll back up my hard drive and schedule an appointment...

Same issue. Do you guys know how to make Apple take responsibility?

I did schedule the appointment and took my MBP to the Genius Bar. The guy looked it over and ran tests and recommended a logic board replacement for several hundred dollars. I then mentioned this thread and that I thought it was a known issue. After hearing that he ran another more specific test. Within seconds a big red banner with the word FAILED appeared across the screen. This meant that they would repair it for free. Took about two days. My laptop runs like new now.

Thanks for the reply.

This is a well known issue indeed:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4088?viewlocale=en_US

I'm going to tallk again to the Technical Support guys and I hope they will repair it for free. And I also hope Apple Spain will apologise for hiding that information from me and trying to avoid any responsibility. I'm very dissapointed, to say the least.

When did you purchase your MBP? Were you outside of the 3 year period? I just got back from a Genius bar appointment and they said because mine was purchased in June 2010 (i.e. more than three years ago), it might not be covered. I say "might not" because I wasn't able to leave it with them for the few days they said they needed to fully diagnose it, but were doubtful that it would be covered if it were this known issue. Before I make a plan to send it into Apple, I was wondering if you could offer any insight on your circumstance and advice on how to get a successful resolution like yours. Thanks in advance.

Hi guys,

This is himalaya from micro online in sydney , australia.

the issue you all are facing related to BDOS, Freeze , no boot, black screen. its all related to graphic card for the model 2010 15inch.all these randon issue have will go away after reflow.

This whole production of macbook pro series of 2010 15inch have this issue which is related to NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M graphic card, which needed to be reflow.

I Have fixed 9 of them in last 6 month and 17 of them in last 1 year. some poeple use the heating gun, for them chances of damaing the board is high and fix last for short time only. Here , i use machines to reflow which is more reliable and accurate and maintain the temperatures according to my experience.

if you looking for right resolution of this issue .. visit my website www.microonline.com.au and fill a quickquote form.

or e-mail me on info@microonline.com.au

Thanks