10.8.3 Forcing Discrete Graphics With Dropbox and others

I also have a 2010 MBP, 15 inch with i7 2.66. My problems started by the time of Snow Leopard, it was ok with Lion and now with ML it came back.

The first screenshot is taken with my mobile phone, using SL at the time.

The second screenshot is taken inside Mac OS while I had that scrambled graphics. As you can see it is blank.

The 3rd one is taken during a resize window of Excel with the latest update to Office 2011 in ML.

In Denmark there is no official Apple Store, just premium resellers. I went to one of them, they tested it shortly, they could see scrambled graphics on the screen. Recommended to hand it in for service, but it takes 8 to 12 days to stay in service. No way. And funny thing, they tested using a fresh copy of 10.8 and after telling the computer to shut down, the screen showed a ghosting effect, which never ever happened during 2 years and a half since i got the mac. Weird.

The problem is with the Nvidia and the Intel cards.

on my mid-2010 15" 2.66 8GB 240 OCZ-agility 3 SSD, it's either twitter or trim enabler that set off the gt 330m. both are updated to their current versions (twitter 2.3.1) and (trim enabler 3.0) as is os x (10.8.4)

as a side question and i'm sorry for asking this here but do I need to have the patch active at the expense of triggering the discrete GPU. Thank You and sorry for the question, i don't fully understand how trim works. 😝

This is how it's going to be now. The worst example is actually the built-in dictation feature. Once invoked, it will switch the machine to the dedicated GPU and will continue to use it unless you kill the process manually from Activity Monitor.

I have been reporting this bug to Apple (I also have a mid-2010 MPB), and after months of silence finally got a reply to the effect that this behavior is now the norm.

See, according to this technote: http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#qa/qa1734/_index.html%23//apple_ref/doc/ uid/DTS40010791, allowing OpenGL apps to utilize the integrated GPU is only supported on machines shipped in early 2011 and later. According to Apple engineers, the fact that mid-2010 machines could take advantage of this feature was a bug, which has now been fixed.

What this means is that mid-2010 MBP owners can say goodbye to the power saving integrated GPU, along with the associated extended battery life and a system that generally runs cooler.

In some situations, it is probably wiser to disable the "Automatic graphics switching" option in System Preferences > Energy Saver and forget that you system shipped with two GPUs.

It seems that the further into Mountain Lion we get, the more exposure the faulty NVIDIA mid-2010 MBP issues are showing up.

See http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4088?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US - in its attempts to fix other graphic issues, Apple may have exposed more 'bad' mid-2010 NVIDIA models.

Clinton

I had the logic board replaced under an extended warranty program Apple implemented because of an issue with the mid-2010 15'' MBP. I remember having issues with it when they first released this model, then they eventually went away with subsequent updates, then resurfaced when I was recently forced to update to ML ( just to install a Numbers, even though I already had a trial version installed and just needed a license, but that's another story).

I came to this thread because I read about compatability issues with 10.8.3 and wanted to check these boards before updating and I am glad I did. I was going to try and show you all where I found the page showing the extended warranty for mid-2010 macbook pro's but cannot. The page looked exactly like this one (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4088?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US) except the solution was to have the logic board tested and replaced if needed. Mine needed to be replaced and was, but the "genius" at the store did not know anything about Apple's extended warranty for this issue, and he took some convincing. It does not show up on their lists of issues at the Genius Bar. I am wondering if Apple created this new update with that in mind, and changed the solution to the problem to avoid replacing logic boards as more people finally upgrade their mid2010 MBPs to ML.

To quickly explain the problem I was having before I replaced the logic board.. I was having garbled video and other grapics in Safari after updating to ML. I rememebered that when I first bought the computer I had a similar issue and turning off graphics switching (ie running the discrete graphics all the time) solved the issue. This time around however, it caused my MBP to restart constantly. Every few minutes to be exact, and one time it restarted 5 times in a row. Luckily, one of the times it gave me a few minutes, I found a thread that reminded me about the graphics issue (the only change I had made before it started restarting constantly) and I turned the graphics switching back on. This stopped the problem. Then I found the article (like the one I linked above) that mentioned faulty logic boards for this model and took it to Apple to have it replaced. I will continue to look for the original post but I am pretty sure it has been ammended. Take a look at this post. Read how the OP makes reference to a recall and having "it replaced" but the linked article makes no mention of a recall or replacing a logic board. Shady Apple!

I have also found this: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4235372?tstart=0 which leads me to believe they are using this update to avoid replacing logic boards. And this https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4193318?tstart=0

Has anyone considered...

Mid-2010 15" MacBook Pros - the bad NVIDIA GPU

If you're having frequent kernel panics with your 15" mid-2010, or intermittent screen problems, the problem is, more than likely, the faulty NVIDIA GPU found in a number of those machines.

Here's just a sample of a kernel panic log that points to the faulty NVIDIA card:

Kernel Extensions in backtrace (with dependencies):          com.apple.GeForce(6.4.0)@0x82ac4000->0x82b7afff             dependency: com.apple.NVDAResman(6.4.0)@0x834a0000             dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(2.2.1)@0x82fd3000             dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.6.5)@0x7a802000             dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(2.2.1)@0x8301b000          com.apple.nvidia.nv50hal(6.4.0)@0x83c05000->0x84019fff             dependency: com.apple.NVDAResman(6.4.0)@0x834a0000          com.apple.NVDAResman(6.4.0)@0x834a0000->0x8378dfff             dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.6.5)@0x7a802000             dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(2.2.1)@0x82fd3000             dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(2.2.1)@0x8301b000

Here's the "official" Apple take on the issue - but the very real kernel panics need not be preceded by 'Intermittent black screen or loss of video'... in fact, you might not experience any video problems at all. Although video problems can certainly be a portent of things to come…

So what can you do? Print out a copy of your kernel panic and a copy of the Knowledge Base article and take them, along with your machine, to your local Apple Store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider. They should be more than willing to install a new logic board at no cost. I have no idea why this faulty GPU is making the headline here on the MacBook Pro forum so often now - could it be because Mountain Lion is just bring the issue to a head more readily? I don't know - I only know that we're seeing more and more of these kernel panics of late.

Good luck,

Clinton

here's a nice blog entry that summarize the facts:

http://www.jackenhack.com/battery-draining-applications-macbook-pro/

I really hope that Apple will fix that "problem". Please write feedbacks to apple!!!

Here:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/

Dropbox have, now, released a new stable build, 2.0.4, that incorporates the fix for the graphics problem. That's one app fixed. 🙂

And, yes, mercer77. Apple's own software has problems, too. You may have noticed that Dictation forces the discrete GPU, too. All we can do is bug Apple about it. Maybe they'll get on the ball...

For those with a Mid-2010, 15" MacBook Pro (6,2), print out this article and take your Mac to an authorized service center. You need a new logic board.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4088

There was a post early on about this, but it seemed to dismiss the issue, or Apple has since changed the article.

If you have a bad GPU/Logic board, which is highly likely, no update will ever fix the problem.

I just had the same thing done. I had similar problems as well, Skype stopped working, as well as outputing to external monitors for movies and such. Photobooth and iMovie resulted in the same problems as well. With the updated gfxCardStatus I was able primarily stay on Integrated, but for progams such as what y'all are mentioning, there was nothing that could be done, and my computer crashed 3 out of 5 times.

At Apple they informed it was a kernel panic and they have a fix (same link James listed) that is applicable for up to 3 years from the purchase of the computer. Being that we are nearing that point, I would encourage all of you to back up your data and have apple make the fix.

They first run a program to see if it is software or hardware based. If it is software based, Mountain Lion OSx is resinstalled, else the logic board is replaced (my case). I had my computer totally wiped but returned to me within 3 business days, and I went to an Apple Store in Miami (super crowded).

Here again is the link to the guarantee. Thanks for all of your help, it was reassuring knowing others were having the same problem.

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

Mid 2010, i7, 17'' Same problem.

I'm pretty sure on 10.8.2 Dropbox 2.0 still used my intel card on my MacBook Pro.

I'm downgrade Dropbox to old version, and problem gone... But Dropbox have auto-upgrade 😀

clintonfrombirmingham wrote:

It seems that the further into Mountain Lion we get, the more exposure the faulty NVIDIA mid-2010 MBP issues are showing up.

Keep in mind that the problem is with the "incomplete [Intel HD Graphics] driver" (to quote Apple), not the NVIDIA driver.

But for what it's worth, Apple believes it's addressed the issue and fixed the bug that allowed OpenGL apps to use the integrated GPU. Now all is hunky-dory—the way it's supposed to be.

Has anybody tried the new version of Dropbox's app? (Looks like it was released a few days ago):

http://www.macworld.com/article/2030664/dropbox-2-0-revamps-menu-bar-interface.h tml

What stood out to me was this line: "a bug that enabled discrete graphics chips on Mac laptops has been fixed".