Macbook Pro screen glitches, 3 beeps, NOT THE RAM

Thanks for the suggestion, but once that RAM slot goes there is no easy fix and a different RAM configuration will not help.

I'm still running with 8gb in one slot but if you can believe it, my hard drive crashed yesterday with clicking sounds

This has been the most unreliable computer I've ever owned:

-Bad Sata cable

-Bad logic board (1 ram slot)

-Bad hard drive

All within 3 years. That is crazy.

I have the same problem too I narrowed it down to applying pressure to the bottom left hand corner of the laptop from the bottom. I always grab my laptop with my left hand and if it up. I noticed while moving it from my desk that the lines immediately appeared and the computer froze. Bounced it lightly while holding it in that position and the lines came back with every light bounce. So I'm assuming like igbee, I'm having the same problem, bad SATA cable, and now a shot logic board with one working RAM slot. I will be scheduling my appointment with the Geniuses tomorrow and plan on paying out a small fortune to fix this.

Looks like my issue has resurfaced after swapping the RAM chips. The issue stopped for awhile but I think any hacks involving the RAM will only be temporary. Mid 2012 13" MacBook Pro: i7 2.9 Ghz.. $1350. It would've been only four years this December. Thanks Apple.

Hi guys. Have been having this same prob for months. Mbp would randomly freeze. With or without touching it. Same screen as pictures on this thread. have been round the bend for answers. I had the same problem if you tapped the computer anywhere it froze. I had the 3 beeps of death. Not waking from sleep. No explanation.

Tonight I have taken out the bottom ram. And I think that is the problem. Further tests needed. But for the first in a long time I am optimistic. I will keep you posted if any further probs. But assume my silence as prob fixed. Here's hoping. I am only running on 2gb on Yosemite. Slow at times but it's going. Thanks for all the comments.

SAME THING HERE

13" MacBook Pro

will Apple do something about this issue

Hey guys so I originally was running my mid-2012 Macbook pro 13 with one 8gb ram stick to avoid the crashes but I may have figured out a semi-fix for it. I also wanted to wait a couple week before posting this just in case anything went wrong but so far the crashes have now occurred MUCH less than before.

NOTE: The crashes still happen from time to time but less often almost random now and they also NO LONGER happen when pressure is put on the bottom.

Heres what I did, I wanted to see if I could put something in between the bottom cover of my macbook and the motherboard to lessen the pressure. I read somewhere (but it got deleted so i can't provide the link) that someone put a coin there and it fixed the crashes from pressure. But I didn't want to put ANY metal since that could risk shorting the motherboard, so I decided to use small foam pads with adhesive on them that my father had laying around.

**I apologize I don't really know that they're officially called**

I placed one right above the battery towards where the ram is located, right where the pressure would cause crashes.

PICTURES:

So now the crashes are no longer caused when pressure is put on the bottom of the Macbook which was a real problem for me since I needed to commute to and from school with it in my backpack. And now I can run TWO sticks of ram (16gb total) without fearing that it crashes when I move it.

BUT like I said the crashes still happen from time to time and I still can't quite figure out why they happen.

Heres my experience with crashes now:

• I did had an incident where I put it to sleep and woke up in the middle of the night hours later to the 3 beeps of bad ram, I shut it down and had to wait for it reboot. Only happened once.
• When unplugging it from a my external monitor (third party) and opening it up at school it would occasionally restart but NO 3 BEEPS. Happened about 2-3 times.
• Would screen glitch and restart when playing a youtube video in 1080p, but again no 3 beeps. Happened once.
• And finally my personal favorite, just randomly restarting. Happened 4 times but no 3 beeps so it restarted right away.

I know its not a perfect fix but it GREATLY reduced the crashes for me since it was happening every time I would move it. Ive had this like this since roughly 3 days after my last post on this thread. I also made weekly checks to make sure everything was still running normally, and I haven't noticed any overheating from it as well. But this has made my Macbook a lot more usable than it was a month ago.

I hope Apple acknowledges this issue soon and fixes it, but in the meantime I hope this helps everyone at least a little!

I don't know???

Good idea. I thought my ram was banging together which was causing the problem though??? I left top ram in only. No barcode freeze since???

Right update.

Running with 1 piece of ram 2gb.... not enough i know. But I have had no barcode screen freezes (as i call them) I can move laptop again. Have tested it out fairly rigorously.. within reason. No crash. Also fit to bend laptop and lift and carry.

Also able to close lid and laptop goes to sleep. Also wakes up fine again??

BUT. last night using firefox (Facebook and youtube) out of the blue. grey screen. and restart. (twice in a row). started up again as normal. No probs since.

This could simply be a ram issue. As firefox is a memory hog and I only have 2gb installed. Though on crash report a lot of graphics talk in the kernel panic. as posted below??? Any help on this greatly accepted. Thanks

Kernel Extensions in backtrace:

com.apple.iokit.IOAcceleratorFamily2(156.16)[1259B80F-E4C5-3BC9-BED5-65B42289E8 C0]@0xffffff7fad010000->0xffffff7fad07efff

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.9)[BDA92C3B-AD86-33E5-A7F1-1603465350A7]@0xffffff 7fab524000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(2.4.1)[8922721D-5517-3883-BD3A-57422D0244A0]@0 xffffff7fabf79000

com.apple.driver.AppleIntelHD4000Graphics(10.0.6)[2FAAFF77-B91A-369B-8BDC-8D376 8B16510]@0xffffff7fad08d000->0xffffff7fad0e8fff

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOSurface(97.4)[A4AE35B7-0C17-38F2-AD0D-A4C4B40196FB]@0xffffff7 fabe28000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.9)[BDA92C3B-AD86-33E5-A7F1-1603465350A7]@0xffffff 7fab524000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(2.4.1)[8922721D-5517-3883-BD3A-57422D0244A0]@0 xffffff7fabf79000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOAcceleratorFamily2(156.16)[1259B80F-E4C5-3BC9-BED5-65B42289E8 C0]@0xffffff7fad010000

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: firefox

Mac OS version:

14F27

Kernel version:

Darwin Kernel Version 14.5.0: Wed Jul 29 02:26:53 PDT 2015; root:xnu-2782.40.9~1/RELEASE_X86_64

Kernel UUID: 58F06365-45C7-3CA7-B80D-173AFD1A03C4

Kernel slide: 0x000000002aa00000

Kernel text base: 0xffffff802ac00000

__HIB text base: 0xffffff802ab00000

System model name: MacBookPro9,2 (Mac-6F01561E16C75D06)

I wonder if anyone has an idea why the logic board is failing in this way?

I have read about some people putting their logic boards in the oven to reflow the solder. http://ales.io/2014/03/09/how-to-bake-a-mac.html

But is it something to do with the rigidness of how the logic board is affixed to the case....as indicated by ojumpmantwenty3's attempts to fix his Macbook Pro. I know I have read on other threads that loosening the screws around the RAM provided improvement, but this did not work for me.

Not sure the logic board is my prob... It seems to be the ram connectors. Think they are too loose and are banging into each other or into either the top or bottom of mac. Since i remove bottom piece of ram. I haven't had the issue. I think mac engineers just say its the logic board when they haven't got a clue whats wrong...

Well, I was meaning that the RAM is connected to the Logic board and there is no way to fix those connectors without replacing the whole board.

Yeah. Understand you. Bad design. Or trying to be too good a design with very little connected parts that come loose??? Has led to this.

Took mine into genus bar. They said in most cases it was the logic board but it could also that the RAM needs to be reseated. Flat rate repair for the logic board is the best option ($280 for me). I'm not happy about it because it's basically the same issue as the recall program for the other Macbook Pro's but what can you do...

I've had supreme bad luck with apple products lately.

I too had to take out the bottom RAM stick and now my MBP seems to be working as if there is nothing wrong at all. What I found weird is that when I had 2 RAM sticks in the laptop would malfunction when I would pick it up, and now with only one RAM stick it doesn't do anything. Also when both RAM ports were being used I would occasionally get the freeze and restart. So based off of everyone else complaints and my experimenting with mine, it is clear to me that there is an issue with the RAM connection to the logic board, something has come loose or undone. It's obvious that the issue is way bigger now and Apple should certainly offer a recall or a discounted repair.