MacBook Pro Mid-2010 15" Frequent Kernel Panics

I have kernel panics very similar to the OP. This has been happening on my macbook, which is a refurbished 2012 15", ever since I got it a month ago. I had the logic board replaced and the panics continue.

Same issue here. Mid-2010, Model 6,2. System crashes and reboots, or screen just goes black. Panic Report says GPU issue. Apple says motherboard failure and offered to sell me a refurbished motherboard for $310. It seems that Yosemite requires more resources than the GPU can deliver, and the crash is triggered when the system tries autoswitching between the motherboard processor and the graphics processor. One fix is to go into EnergySaver and disable automatic graphics switching (which consumes more battery power, unfortunately). I plan to also wipe the hard disk, reinstall Mavericks, and not upgrade to Yosemite. If that works, I'll just stick with Mavericks until the time comes to buy a new laptop. (Alternatively, the OS after Yosemite is supposed to be more efficient, so it may make this problem go away; i.e., it may be possible to upgrade immediately to Yosemite, then upgrade to the next OS.)

I think we should all push for Apple to extend their board replacement program to include mid-2010 systems — the graphics problem seems to have been caused by Yosemite bloat.

I completely agree with you LouCasa. I am having the exact same issue here with my mid-2010 Macbook Pro...GPU panics constantly now, at least 2-3 times a day, and it started after upgrading to 10.10 (Yosemite). I just recently downgraded to 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) as a test, and it's been running fine for several weeks now, no crashes at all. I can't believe that most immediate responses are to replace the motherboard. Yes this model and pretty much any model from 2010 - 2014 has been reported to have GPU hardware problems, big fail...but I believe mine to be fine, at least for now. I hope apple fixes this issue, predicting a video driver problem. For now Snow Leopard is solid. I'm going to upgrade to Mountain Lion soon and see how it performs. I will report back if I get any GPU panic shut downs.

I also noticed that in Yosemite, my fan speeds would stay at the constant minimum 2000 rpm, and when the computer heats up, and I am running more video intense applications, the fans speeds stay the same and do not increase. This leads me to believe there is clearly a driver problem with Yosemite and this model. The fan speeds should increase along with the increased temperatures, but they do not. Now while running Snow Leopard, my fan speeds are automatically adjusting themselves again, and having no problems at all.

Also note that I clean out my fans regularly, and have even repasted my the CPU and GPU with good quality thermal paste.

Most times I see GPU's fail is that a person has never cleaned out their laptop and there is a huge build-up of dust in the fans, causing overheating.

If somehow I were to now have a GPU hardware problem then I blame Yosemite for sure, maybe the new OS stressed my video card so hard that it is now beginning to fail. I am not sure...who knows.

I really hope Apple receives a lot of complaints about this. I'm just going to stick with an older OS for now, and also I won't be buying another mac in the future, for several reasons:

1) My previous Macbook Pro (2008) I had to bring in for service 6 times for motherboard / gpu / fan / heat issues.

2) With the newer models today, you cannot upgrade hardware, everything is now built-in to the motherboard, including hard drive, ram, etc. So if you run into any hardware problems at all, your looking at replacing the motherboard. This should not be legal, we should be aloud to upgrade our ram and hard drive. Why does a laptop have to keep getting slimmer (runs hotter, and less ports) and have less hardware that can actually be replaced. People are going to be getting into serious costs on repairs when they have a minor hardware issue and they're warranty has expired.

3) Just to contact them for any phone support once your warranty is up, it costs $35. Not worth it for me, absolutely ridiculous! All other computer companies I have dealt with at least I will be able to get through to someone over the phone who can assist me with my issues or complaints.

4) Their MagSafe adapters are faulty, I have had to buy a few, and I handle mine very carefully. Just look at the horrible rating on the website for the adapters, its horrible. Very poor design flaw. I do like the magnetic port, but the construction of the adapter at the tip is poorly done. There should be a small tab built in so that you can pull it off without pulling at the cord which bends it overtime.

Apple needs to stop being lazy by blaming the hardware... This is a driver issue and Apple just don't want to code a fix...

You've all been asking "what about Windows?"...

When running Windows 8.1 the gpu will encounter the error but the whole OS doesn't shut down, the screen just goes blank for a few seconds and then comes back just fine followed by a balloon notification stating that the nvidia graphics driver has crashed and recovered from the error.

The fact that this gpu error is not a fatal error in Windows just proves that it's a driver issue and not hardware, or at the very least, it can be fixed with a driver update instead of an entire hardware replacement.

It seems that Apple is just taking the easy way out by blaming the hardware and saying replacements are needed instead of actually looking into the error and coding a fix for it.

You sound like you work for apple my friend. A GPU problem that appears on everyone's (including my machine) machines after a Yosemite's upgrade, does look like a very clear, obvious apple software ****-up.

Just disable that GPU (Most likely the discrete one), with the use of a utility out there, and your problem will be solved...

At least until apple will decide to fix this.

However, I'm 100% sure they won't ever fix this with their software updates.

I mean think about it:

Apple has this AWESOME hardware.

They have you HOOKED on their iCloud and i-What-Not. Right ?

Now you HAVE to go Apple.

If they have a new product, that they want more money for, you won't expect then to fix your OLD product so that you end up paying.. probably NOTHING instead of paying another $1k for an upgrade or ever $3k at least for their new product ? Right ? That drives than right out of business.

So... why not get $300 per each 2010 mid MBP owner.. Right ? I mean... if you had a choice as a business owner, what would you do?

I'm typing this from my Mid 2010 Mac Book Pro, with Ubuntu installed on it.

It's working GREAT ! Even with some neat Steam games on too!

Perhaps you should do the same 😉

The problem is a documented flaw in the Nvidia GPU. You can continue hoping for a software update, but there won't be one as you don't fix a hardware flaw with software, especially on 5-year old hardware.

Perhaps you should do the same 😉

No need. I replaced mine under the extended repair program and it runs Yosemite flawlessly. It demonstrated the problem only after upgrading to Lion.

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The Configuration.plist is restricted for overwrite, even login as root user. How did you able to write it?

Even after replacing my logic board I had problems with Yosemite. WindowServer always crashed in sleep mode with the power adapter connected. Upgrading to El Capitan has fixed that issue.

I have just taken my 2010 MacBook Pro with the bad GPU into an Apple Store and they agreed to fix it, even though the repair program ended in March this year. I would urge anyone with the same issue to at least ask Apple if they will still fix it, they might not, but there's no harm in trying!

Update: someone has pointed out that under UK consumer law you are entitled to a repair up to 6 years from the original purchase date, I believe this is why I was offered a free repair.

Just went in to the store. 2010 15" MBP same thing flat rate $310.00

You don't have a cutoff on a device that's defective because of your coding negligence.

Thats like having a cutoff on a car with a safety issue.

Sorry Apple I'm out ... your loss. Very nice products but there are too many nice alternatives to Apple at almost half the cost.

I refuse to spend $300.00 on a duct tape repair of a 5 year old laptop.

You should be ashamed. your coding has exposed its own flaws and you wont help your customers out.

My wife wanted a new MBP for her birthday and we were looking at an I Pad mini for my son. Walked right out of the store!

Samsung will do just fine in my house.

Cancelling I cloud as well. I'll buy a NAS instead.

OK, ladies and germs, I have had the same problem.

Until recently, I never knew this MBP 6,2 mid-2010 would be a clunker, but it had shown problems before, but not like this. I too, have had the GPU panic, the screen just goes blank, it gives me the grey screen message that the computer has problems and restarts.

It had been doing it for a while now, ever since I upgraded to El Capitan, but not before.

Before, it used to slow down and freeze and not much more, but definitely would be slow in running a few things. Now it would just go blank. I used to have to run Permissions repair all the time as the same problem kept coming up - but never a mention of the GPU panic in any of the messages. But obviously there's something there, and since I upgraded to El Capitan, it got worse, to this point of going blank and restarting all the time.

The other day I decided to try the various methods mentioned here, but I'm not a programmer nor am I technical enough to start messing with Xcode and such, but I decided to just run ONYX and see if that would help. http://www.titanium.free.fr/onyx.html

Instead of just running the Automation, I decided to carefully run each segment one by one, making sure I cleaned everything including the Error logs and so on.

I then ran Automation again to make sure, and then let it restart.

Voila. So far, I have had no problems for an entire day. Strange, isn't it? And for two days now it's been quite stable and behaving. I haven't had to be really careful and jumpy that it might go blank while I was doing something important. I guess the new Disk Utility doesn't do enough.

I thought I would contribute my 2cents.

OK. I spoke too soon.

But I think I found a glitch.

It happens only when I have STICKIES open. I use Stickies down the left side of the screen, I have several stickies with some notes, and when I have them open and then I try to use the notes while I am also on Safari, it crashes. But when I have Stickies off, as I am on Safari like I am now, the computer works like normal. Weird, isn't it? I had noticed it before, while I would be looking at some notes it would crash, but I clearly noticed it this time for sure, as I had not opened Stickies since I last wrote on here about what I thought I was experiencing.

So there must be something wrong here with El Capitan, Stickies and the GPU glitch.

Plenty of people see this problem without running Stickies. If it only happens when you run Stickies, you're lucky--you can use another note-taking application, though I'm not familiar with those apps and so I can't recommend an alternative.

i have MBP mid 2010 330m , i remove the internal fan and use external fan,it won't crash anymore, i think the fan Interference the signal in vram

This doesn't appear to work with Sierra. The file you are supposed to edit doesn't seem to exist anymore.