10.8.3 Forcing Discrete Graphics With Dropbox and others

Cerebro wrote:

I don't use any of the other applications mentioned in this thread, so I can't, personally, comment on them.

Try choosing Edit > Start Dictation in any application that supports text input. (You need to enable Dictation first in System Preferences > Dictation & Speech.)

Sometimes h.264 1080p videos played in QuickTime Player X force the system to use discrete GPU.

MBP 15" mid-2010, same problem as everybody else. Dropbox, bartender, spotify… they're all using the NVidia card 24/7 now, warming the left side of the case.

I sent a feedback both to Apple and to the 3rd party developers, I hope someone will fix it.

I have mid 2010 MBP as well, and have the same issue with Drop Box and battery health stats. I contacted fiplab who told me this was a bug in 10.8.3 and they expected Apple to patch it.

Mid-2010 15" MBP here. Same issue. Lots of apps (Reeder, Growl, Osfoora, Sparrow) forcing discrete graphics.

This is a major issue. Warming the case and definitely hurting my battery life.

Same here. Mid 2010. Dropbox, Barender, Fantastical and Growl are running on GPU now... Hope there will be a fix soon.

Peak Apple!

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

if this is the truth.....the only solution is back to 10.8.2😟

Dropbox are on top of things, according to their latest update. The "discrete graphics" bug isn't resolved, yet, but the post tells us that they ARE aware of it and ARE working to resolve it. This post also explains how to downgrade to the last v1 release (1.6.18) and disable the auto-updating feature, which should be useful to to anyone who needs a fix, immediately.

O.K. went back to 10.8.2 after a major crash today.. couldn't even get back into Mac OS anymore.. 😟 repair.. diskcheck nothing worked so..

Happily I had a backup from before 10.8.3 and was able to restore. everything runs fine now.. even cool! 😀 so.. no update to 10.8.3 for me..

@Apple: please help the people enjoy their macbook instead of braking it ant tell everybody you fixed it..

Apple doesn't read the discussions.

Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem solved sooner.

Feedback

Same problem here.

MBP 2010 i5 and 10.8.3.

Same Problems here on my MBP 6,2 from 2010 with 10.8.3

I hope they solve the problem, i have write an feedback report direct to apple...

Same problem here, mid 2010 macbook pro just upgraded to 10.8.3.

I gave up using Google Chrome on OSX a year or so ago because that always forced discrete graphics and killed the battery. Now with dropbox doing it the macbook will always run hot. Needs a fix soon.

Just a question:

Why does everybody with this problem using a 2010 MBP with 15''?

13'' does not have discrete graphics ok, but 17'' has one!? Nobody here is using a 17'' MBP, as far as I can see...

And why only the 2010 ones? Is it just the Nvidia 330M?

Do we may all have the same Prozessor installed? I've an i5 with 2,53 GHz.

I'm just wondering why our hardware is just the same, and we're all facing the same problem...

(I just recognized that Hiss is also using Nvidia card, I don't think this happend before 10.8.3!?)

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