My MacBook Pro crashes to black 3 to 4 times per week

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Level 1

8 points

My MacBook Pro crashes to black 3 to 4 times per week

My MacBook Pro, circa 2010, crashes to a black screen 3 to 4 times per week, but can also crash twice in one day. It's Mac OS X, version 10.6.8, 2.66 GHz Intel Core 17, 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3.

It doesn't restart itself, and I don't hear any beeps. It also doesn't shut completely down -- just goes to a black screen. I have to hold the power button to shut down, then restart. An error log comes up at the restart asking if I want to report the problem.

Should I take it in, or is there something else I can try? I've been running MacKeeper, but that doesn't help much.

Thank you!

MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2010), Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Mar 6, 2014 11:52 AM

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Answer 1

Melophage

Level 5

7,213 points

Mar 6, 2014 6:27 PM in response to MHoeck

MHoeck,

some 15-inch Mid 2010 MacBook Pros are known to have a defect in their NVIDIA GPU; the presence of the intermittent black screen on yours suggests that your discrete GPU might have this defect. Apple had a gratis servicing program for this defect for three years from the date of purchase; they still offer the servicing, but it is no longer guaranteed to be gratis. If you have an Apple store nearby, you might consider making an appointment with them to have them run a video hardware test on your MacBook Pro, to see if its NVIDIA GPU has the defect.

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Answer 2

MHoeck Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 6, 2014 11:49 PM in response to Melophage

Thank you Melophage. I was aware my 3-year warranty was over as I had used the phone service under that warranty for other glitches. Thanks, I'll take it in.

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