Macbook Pro screen glitches, 3 beeps, NOT THE RAM

Same here.

i plan to do a few tests soon.

1: Swap in the other piece of ram that I am now not using. To see if it was working properly. (I reckon it was though)

If it is o.k. then.

2: I will place the ram in the bottom slot only and see how it goes.

If that is o.k. then.

3: I will put the 2 pieces of ram back in but i will get an piece of insulated plastic of some sort to go in-between them to make sure they don't touch.

This will answer a few questions for me.

Let me know how that goes. I would be interested in what the insulatd plastic will do

It will let be sure if my theory of the 2 pieces of ram banging to together causing freeze is correct.

I am having the same problems with my MacbookPro from Fall 2011, and it is so incredibly frustrating. My laptop suddenly and randomly shuts down--up to 15 times a day, with the lovely 3-beep sound. Sometimes the shutdowns dealt with pressure (e.g. lifting my laptop off from the bottom), other times, it would completely shutdown for no apparent reason.

I brought it to the Genius Bar, and it passed all of the extensive testing that they can possibly perform. They told me that "it's functioning as if it's new", but yet the problem persists. It actually became worse when I brought it home that day--now my laptop won't even start up.

I am relieved that I found relevant and recent users who share the same problem--because the workers at the Genius bar seem to not believe me when I say that my MBP isn't working (but I'm NOT relieved that this problem exists!!!). How should I solve this??? Maybe I will try taking our the RAM. Do you suggest I do the flat rate $310....would they even be able to fix it...if the folks at the Genius bar can't identify the problem in the first place?

Open it up and take out the bottom ram and try it. Dont pay any $ to anyone yet.

So after doing a few tests here is my conclusion.

both pieces of ram are fine.

3 beeps of death when either piece of ram was in the problem slot. This is the piece closest to the keyboard. So when back is opened it is the bottom slot.

1 piece of ram in again in top slot. MBP going again.

My Conclusion is that the connection between logic board and ram slot is faulty. So this is the reason that Apple replace a full logic board.

Serious fault with them if so many have this problem.

MY short term solution now is too upgrade ram to a bigger size and hope for the best.

Hopefully the top ram slot doesn't fail anytime soon.

Overall this is poor from Apple. Obviously a design fault that we pick up the bill for???

Thanks neilcol. Will give it a try with bottom slot empty... (after trying nearly all possible solutions; replaced disk drive, replaced ram, did smc and pram reset, osx upgrade) Strangely, hardware diagnostic test and memtest reported no issues.. Just hope this one works.

Apple should recognize this problem, include 13" mid-2012 MBP's to Apple Repair Extension Program and replace faulty logic boards.

This seems to work. Four days without horizontal lines, fingers crossed.

I Am running fine also. I have purchased a new 8gb of ram and am running off that now. No probs now at all.

It's a bit of disgrace that so many are affected by the same problem.

Hope my MBP doesnt develope the same issue with the top ram slot.

main thing for now is we are back in action.

Did a search of this issue today after having this problem for the last 3 months. Same screen issue going crazy when picking up my laptop (works fine when sitting on a table) and then it freezes and then turns off. This morning was the first time it had not turned back on and got the 3 beeps with silence then 3 more beeps. Even though I'm bummed others are having the same issue I'm glad to know I can point the Genius Bar to this thread at my appointment later this week. Mid 2012 MBP 13'' with Qty 2 4GB sticks for a total of 8 GB. I had to replace the battery in the machine last year and replace the frayed power cable. Very odd experience so far with this machine. Of course it is out of warranty too.

Just had the same thing happen to my MacBook Pro. It's a 13" mid 2012 with 2.5 Ghz (the logic board is MLB, 2.5Ghz). I was running fine this morning then the screen just corrupted (as per everyone else's screenshots). I tried to reboot and got the 3 beeps issue. Had to do a 10 second power button + cmd + ctr + shift. It then restarted but since then it's barely usable. It's only 16 months old!

Took it straight to the Apple Store (as it's my work machine and I need it urgently). They couldn't even run their test suite without it crashing. They're going to replace the logic board as it looks like a GPU issue. The quote is 4,486 HKD which is a 580 USD!! That's over double what some of you guys have been reporting. Whilst I'm obviously annoyed that this seems to be a general hardware issue with MacBooks and Apple should be recalling them, I'm even more annoyed that I'm getting charged > 2x for a repair. The cost of living out here certainly isn't 2x that of the US (if anything many things are cheaper!). Plus the components are likely all manufactured in China anyway!

I'll be lodging a complain for sure about the price. I wonder if there's anything we can do about the fact lots of people are facing the same problem. Any ideas on a head count for this? And what sort of head count actually embarrass Apple enough to do a recall?!

I brought my machine into an Apple store yesterday and they were unable to find anything while running their tests. I'm going to try and change out the ram to see if this is an issue. Really it seems to me the ram is fine however there must be a loose connection somewhere as this issue with screen lines and shutting down only occurs when I move or pickup the laptop. Very strange, I'm using it now and typing on it just fine on a table.

Confused and a little bummed.

Replaced the RAM in my machine and have not been able to replicate the screen freezing, grabbed 2x8gb PNY Sticks (replaced the Samsung memory I had in there). If the issue comes back I'll let you know!

Hi, rutheone

how is your macbook? did the problems happened again or everything is fine until now?

Having the same situation here. Macbook Pro 13" mid 2012. 8GB of RAM, i7 2.9GHz and 1TB HDD.

Really upset. Screen freezes and this weird lines show up just like this print screens.

Yesterday i changed the 2x4gb sticks to new ones. Until now, nothing happened but i hate this random issues. I can't know if it's fixed or isn't. I guess all i can do is wait to see.

Sorry for any mistakes in the text, not a native speaker.