WORKED FOR ME : MacBook Pro mid 2010 black screen problem

Question

Level 1

0 points

WORKED FOR ME : MacBook Pro mid 2010 black screen problem

Hello

Good news 'til now :

Like for some mid-2010 macbook pro owners, I started to have a recurrent (daily) problem : when I was using the trackpad to do something in Opera, Safari or QuickPick (Launchpad clone), I had very often seen suddenly my laptop seem to turn off but not really (the screen turned off, no key to bring it back, power button disabled, it was like sleep mode but without typical sleep mode light and with nothing to do to wake it up, even the caps lock key didn't worked anymore). Each time I was forced to turn off by maintaining the power button.

The problem could occur three times a day or more.

I'm on 10.6.8.

I installed the Video Update 1.0 for mid-2010 macbook pros you can find on the Apple site. It seemed to solve the issue for one day, maybe two but it used to reappear the same way as before. Repairing permissions with Disk Utility changed nothing to that. I disabled hardware acceleration in Opera Preferences, zoom feature in QuickPick, disabled graphics cards switch in OS X Power Saving Preferences. Useless.

Then I remembered I used a software when I encountered other problems with my 2006 macbook pro. It's called Kext Utility (very easy to find on the web). It specifically repairs the kernel files structure and updates the kernel files cache. The problem I describe is actually related to a kernel panic. So I re abled the graphics cards switch and by caution I overwrote the Video Update 1.0 by reinstalling it, the laptop rebooted to finish it, and right after that I launched Kext Utility (it takes about one minute to repair and update). Since that the problem totally disappeared. I don't risk to re abled either hardware acceleration in Opera or zoom feature in QuickPick but I probably will now I know how to get rid of this very inconvenient problem.

Hope it will work for you guys

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

Posted on Nov 4, 2014 4:34 AM

Reply

Answer 1

choup69 Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 6, 2014 1:18 AM in response to choup69

For those who use QuickPick, I've just reenabled the zoom feature (Preferences > Show/Hide Option) and the problem is back very quickly. It's gone as I disable the zoom again. So I advise you to keep this option disabled if you've got the same problem as me.

I haven't reenabled hardware acceleration in Opera, no problem with Opera up to now.

Reply

Answer 2

choup69 Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 7, 2015 4:18 PM in response to choup69

It definitely seems to be softwares related. Some of them make demands on an hardware particularity (I guess) that cause the kernel panic. The problem hasn't reappared with QuickPick (zoom disabled) but it still happens sometimes with Opera or Safari. Nowadays I use Firefox and update after update the problem becomes very rare.

Reply

Answer 3

choup69 Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 11, 2016 11:50 PM in response to choup69

It's simple actually, it's the too famous defected graphic card in MBP mid 2010 models that causes the problem and kernel panics. But they effectively depend on what software is being used, some don't lead to panic and black screen, some do, depending on what graphic ressources they requires. The unique way I've found to prevent me totally from this problem is called GfxCardStatus : set it to Integrated Only (ie Intel Graphics). I use the 2.1 version that allows to launch GfxCardStatus in Integrated Only mode each time OS X starts. The 2.1 version works under 10.6.8 but as the developer mentions it could be harmful with newer systems like 10.8 or newer, so he removed this start up option in the last versions of his software. In those ones you can switch graphic cards manually however and still add GfxCardStatus in launched applications at startup in OS X Preferences. Be careful if you run recent OS with this app, read developer sites, but recent mb pros may have not this gpu default anyway.

Reply