Aug
08
2011
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NVIDIA drivers giving 2010 MacBook Pro owners Lion upgrade headaches

Users of last year’s MacBook Pro models with NVIDIA GPUs are finding the upgrade to Lion to be far less than perfect. Problems in the NVIDIA graphics drivers that shipped with OS X 10.7 appear to be at the root of kernel panics and system freezes that leave an affected MacBook Pro with a blank black screen. Though Apple wouldn’t confirm the issue directly to Ars, support engineers appear to be actively investigating the issue. For now, rolling back to Snow Leopard appears to be the best option.

Numerous reports of crashes have filled an Apple Support discussion thread that sprung up July 20, the same day Lion became available via the Mac App Store. Since then, several crash reports posted to the discussion show a clear pattern of crashes happening in drivers for the NVIDIA GT330M that shipped in 15″ and 17″ Arrandale-equipped MacBook Pros with switchable Intel and NVIDIA graphics.

Some symptoms of the problem include repeated kernel panics, a screen that suddenly goes black, or the inability to wake from sleep. The specific cause isn’t clear, but a variety of graphics-related functions seem to trigger the problems, including switching on the NVIDIA GPU, switching to internal or external displays, and running certain GPU-intensive operations in various applications. In some cases, a black screen can recover by switching between internal or external displays. Some users have also reported success in using the open source utility gfxCardStatus to force a system to use the integrated Intel graphics and/or disabling sleep to prevent the problem from happening.

The problem apparently affected Lion during its beta testing by developers, and users are frustrated that the issue made it all the way to the shipping version of Lion.

Apple did not respond to our request for comment on the matter, but several users said that support engineers are actively investigating the issue and collecting crash reports from users that contact Apple Care.

Aside from the aforementioned method of forcing a MacBook Pro to use the Intel IGP with gfxCardStatus, which doesn’t appear to work in all cases, reinstalling Snow Leopard unfortunately appears to be the best strategy to alleviate the problem until Apple has a fix ready.

UPDATE: A commenter noted that Apple Care support technicians have offered another solution which appears to have permanently solved the problem on his machine. Navigate to ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/, delete any files that contain “windowserver,” and reboot the machine. The procedure may need to be repeated if you regularly connect to an external monitor once it is also connected.

Note that the user Library folder is hidden by default on Lion. You can get to it by holding down the Option key in the Finder’s Go menu, use the Go To Folder command and paste in the full path, or use Terminal to make your ~/Library folder permanently visible.

Source: Arstechnica.com

Written by BitWise in: Uncategorized | Tags: , , ,
May
31
2011
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Apple offers free bottom case replacement for white MacBooks

Apple has a new program to help unibody white MacBook owners with problematic bottom plates.

The MacBook Bottom Case Replacement Program does just want it says—gets the user a replacement bottom cover if the soft rubber coating separates from the aluminum plate.

When Apple introduced the unibody white MacBook in October, it got rid of the usual rubber bumpers that adorn the bottom of most Apple notebooks. Instead, Apple covered the bottom plate in a skid-resistant soft rubber, the same material used on the bottom of the Airport Extreme and older generation Mac minis.

We hadn’t heard any problems with this rubber coating, but according to Apple, the rubber—applied with an adhesive to the aluminum base of the bottom plate—can become separated “under certain circumstances.” If this happens within a period of two years from the date of purchase—regardless of warranty status—Apple will replace the bottom plate for free.

Apple noted that the problem can affect white unibody MacBooks made between October 2009 and April 2011; presumably whatever cause is behind the problem has already been addressed in manufacturing. Users experiencing the problem can either take the affected machine into a local Apple Store to have the bottom plate replaced by a Genius, or can simply order a replacement part online, complete with screws and a Philips driver. (Speaking from experience, it’s a pretty easy replacement.)

If you believe you have paid for a similar repair that would have been covered by this new program, you can contact Apple to arrange a refund. Apple said that it will continue to monitor the situation and may extend the program as needed.

Source: Arstechnica.com

Written by BitWise in: Uncategorized | Tags: , ,
Mar
21
2011
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New MacBook Pros freezing under heavy load?

Apple may have dodged the big Sandy Bridge problem with its new MacBook Pros, but it looks like it may now be experiencing some growing pains of an another sort. As evidenced by a 44-page and growing thread on Apple’s official support forums, a number of users have been seeing their 15-inch and 17-inch MacBooks freeze up when they’re under a heavy load — encoding a large video file, for instance. That problem seems to be related to the laptops’ new AMD graphics, as switching them to integrated-only seems to “fix” the problem for most users, although obviously at some considerably expense to performance. While Apple isn’t offering much publicly at the moment, a user that spoke with customer service said that Apple seemed to be aware of the issue, and that they suggested it was a firmware or driver-related problem, and not an actual hardware issue. Unfortunately, there’s still no indication as to when it might be fixed. Let us know in comments if you’ve run into some similar issues.

Written by BitWise in: Uncategorized | Tags: ,

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