MacBook Pro: light blue screen while closing programs

Good idea, because this problem started with EFI firmware update 2.2.

However the article that you quote says, "Note: This CD cannot be used to return an Intel-based Macintosh computer's firmware to a previous version if a successful update has already been performed."

I understand that there is a control in the updater software which stops users reverting to an earlier version of the firmware.

What we need is for Apple to create an EFI firmware update that undoes whatever it is in 2.2 which is causing the problem. They could do that very easily just by relabelling the original EFI Firmware as a later version, but then it wouldn't solve the Thunderbolt problem that 2.2 was meant to fix.

This problem only affects MacBook Pro owners who bought in early 2011 before the release of Lion and for whom battery life is a critical issue (otherwise turn off automatic graphic switching). I suspect that Apple reckon it is cheaper to replace their MacBooks if they make sufficient fuss than to get a team to rework the 2.2 update so that it works for this small group of users.

My sons early 2011 MBP has this problem. I called Apple and did all they said, and the issue was not resolved.

They said take it to an Apple Store which we did.

The Genius(?) tested the machine and said it was not a problem with their HW or SW, the problem was caused by code that Migration Assitant (their program) had brought over from his eMac and that we should wipe the HD, install the OS from scratch, install only Intel apps from scratch, and then restore his data.

I told the Genius(?) he was full of doo doo and that I expected Apple to supply a SW update to fix the problem, I will die of old age before Appel fixes the problem they have caused :-(

I like Apple a lot less now than I did in the Good Old Days™

Maybe there is a problem because of the actual installation of the firmware. In which case it will be good to perform a restore.

Though sadly they haven't made a firmware restore image for our macbook pro's yet (there is only some for the older macs.

By the way what exactly is a firmware restore? Does it just fix the firmware or totally reinstall it?

I have updated all my software. No more power pc apps. I've installed the early Feb security update and updated Firefox to 10. Since I updated Firfox I haven't had a blue screen on closing programs, even before the security update. It's been over a month. The new Firefox uses the HD 3000 graphic card, not the AMD card. I turned on auto graphic card switching and rebuilt my startup cache by doing a safe mode startup. I've run programs that use the AMD card and still no blue screen. I think Firefox for me may have been the cause. It may have left something in the background even after you quit it. I'm getting AppleCare before my warranty run out just in case. Cross my fingers it doesn't return.

If Firefox 10 doesn't use the AMD card and you mainly get the problem when using Firefox, then I am not surprised that you haven't had the blue screen recently. I use Camino, not Firefox,(although they use the same Gecko rendering engine.) My problem mainly occurred with Final Cut Express. As I said in an earlier post, I only get the blue screen if the system is busy when I quit an AMD card using application. If I wait until all is quiet and then quit Final Cut Express I don't have the problem.

Incidentally, how can you check if an app uses the AMD card? I have just been assuming that any app that uses graphics would call up the AMD card automatically.

Go to the System profiler application, click on graphics, and whichever graphics card has "Color LCD" and a few more details under means it is the current one in use. Open up Final Cut Express, switch to System Profiler and press Cmd+R (this refreshes the page). Watch and see how the AMD graphics card has the words Color LCD under its info.

Thanks. That explains mrlou's observations. Camino doesn't use the AMD card, neither (to my surprise) does Quicktime Player 10. My one remaining Power PC app (Palm Desktop, which I like for the diary) and Final Cut Express use the AMD card. Not only that, but once I have used Palm Desktop quitting it sometimes doesn't stop the AMD graphics card running. So, if you have no Power PC apps and you don't use apps like Final Cut (or the earlier version of Firefox), you would probably never encounter the blue screen.

Further observations: Quicktime Player 7, like Final Cut, uses the AMD card and Camino calls up the AMD card when Flash animations are present in the page (even if Flash is switched off in Camino Prefs) whereas Firefox 10 does not.

Macbook Pro EFI Firmware Update 2.7 is now released. Time to check if it resolves the issue.

OS X Lion 10.7.3 or later, won't help those in this thread who are all running 10.6 :-(

I've used iphoto, iMovie and other apple apps that use the AMD card all at once to test if the blue screen on quitting an app would occur multiple times since I updated Firefox with no problem. I've always said the blue screen problem is caused by a combination of firmware, software and hardware. Apple still needs to come up with a fix to prevent the problem if they want automatic graphic card switching to work in 10.6.8. Apple has moved on to Lion which doesn't use power pc apps and no blue screen problem.

Hello everyone.

I'm an Apple user from 1997.

I have a 15 inch MacBook pro bought in April 2011 running 10.6.8. I've also been experiencing this problem over the past few weeks. I get the blue screen sometimes when I quit an application like Photoshop CS5, or any other application (I don't have Firefox or other browser installed, I only use Safari). It isn't happen with a specific software, it is a ramdon problem.

I'll try to do the up date today! Thank u.

The firmware update is only for Lion unless there is another one for 10.6.8 not listed yet. You may have some other app that you use that runs in the background or is in your startup cache that triggers the blue screen. Do a safe mode startup by holding the shift key down at startup, then do a re-start to rebuild the startup cache.