Frequent blue-screen in Vista X64 (late '08 Macbook Pro)

My new MBP is crashing constantly if booted into Vista X64 SP1. This is a fresh installation on a new computer, with no other apps installed yet (mostly because I can't run it long enough to do anything). It only started after installing the drivers from the Boot Camp installer on the computer's installation DVD. Hitting the brightness controls seems to cause it to happen instantly.

Did it happen before you installed the Apple drivers from your OEM DVD? or after updating to 2.1?
This is with Home Premium? Ultimate?
What AV software did you install to supplement Vista's?
I wonder if Apple is lagging in getting needed drivers out to support new hardware, like the "late '08 MBP" models.

Similar Messages

S10 RAID configuration = AHCI = Blue Screen under Vista x64

I'm trying to setup a SATA RAID 1 configuration on my new S10 and it's really a nightmare...if I enable the Raid option in the BIOS it enables also the AHCI feature and my Vista x64 (pre-installed on the S10) don't boot, it just show me a blue screen that I don't even have the time to read. If I disable the AHCI option it's ok I can't boot again.
The question is simple, how can I achieve to install an updated AHCI driver for Vista x64 in order to boot and then use the RAID features of my S10 ?
I've tried do download the latest version of the IMSM from Intel (x64 vista version) but it does'nt want to install saying that I haven't the required configuration. My S10 uses an ICH 9 chipset, so I don't understant why I can't install this update.
Please what is the solution to have AHCI and RAID working on an S10 WITHOUT REINSTALLING Vista (I don't have any installation CD and don't wan't to) ???? Note that my system is up to date regarding the ThinkVantage drivers (and windows updates also)
Thanks by advance for your help
Solved!
Go to Solution.

I finally achieve to configure AHCI under Vista x64 on my S10 (but still a problem with RAID..), here's how I did :
- Open registry, go to the Key \HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\msahci
- Set the DWORD "Start" at 0 (it was 4 on my system)
- Restart your computer then Enable immediatly the AHCI feature in the BIOS
- Vista will start without BSOD using it's default SATA AHCI driver. Let it detect & install your AHCI periphals before going to the next step
- Install the latest Lenovo IMSM update for S10 from here : http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-69984.html.
- Restart the computer it should boot without any blue screen, go to the Vista device manager and check that your IDE ATA/ATAPI controller is "Intel(R) ICH9 SATA AHCI Controller".
AHCI is active now, but RAID still doesn't work...here's what I did :
- I backup my main HDD with R&R (after having installed AHCI)
- I restart and enable the SATA RAID in the BIOS
- Restart again, CTRL+I to open IMSM and create my RAID 1 array (2x500GB) under the name "Volume0" (all parameters to default)
- Ok, raid array created, I now boot from my R&R emergency CD and restore my backup
- 3 hours later I reboot...and blue screen again just when Vista starts (seems to be the same BSOD than with AHCI)
- if I disable the RAID option in BIOS the (but let AHCI enabled) Vista boots again and everything seems fine, and it seems that my raid array is still configured for Windows since I see a Volume0 drive in the device manager. But RAID is disabled in the BIOS so what ?
I am lost, I spent 2 full days on these AHCI/RAID problems and nothing seems to work correctly. Each test on RAID configuration needs 3 hours of restoration. I am very dissapointed to see how RAID is complicated to configure on the S10, it's is exactly to avoid this kind of problem that I bought a "workstation" and it's a nightmare.
Hope you can help me, thanks.

Itunes 8 - Connecting Ipod cause Blue Screen on Vista

I just installed itunes 8 over my itunes 7 on Vista.
Now whenever I plug in my ipod nano, I get a blue screen death. 3 times so far. even if it is plugged in on boot, I get a blue screen.
Before itunes 8 I never seen a blue screen with vista since it came out.

I think it's safe to say then that either Apple's USB driver shipped with iTunes 8 is broken on Vista, or it's causing a problem with some other common Vista driver.
Are you guys both using the 64-bit edition of Windows Vista?
Also remember to check with your manufacturers to see if there are updated drivers for other devices on your computers. This may help rectify the problem. For Dell (since one of you has an XPS), go to http://support.dell.com and enter the service tag of your laptop and update any hardware driver that's available for you.

X131e - frequent blue screen crashes

Every few days, my wireless device disconnects or camera freezes (while im skyping) and the laptop goes to a blue screen crash. Once restarted the laptop works fine again but it is really annoying to have a laptop going into a blue screen crash every few days. Any advice? Anybody else experience this?
Thanks

Hi
Welcome to the community.
As per your concern frequent Blue screen appears while freezing the system. To diagnose, I would suggest you to please update the graphics driver and the Bios of your system from the below mentioned web link.
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/default.page?
After this, please restart the system and check if the issue resolved.
Regards,
Sameer
Did someone help you today? Press the star on the left to thank them with a Kudo!
If you find a post helpful and it answers your question, please mark it as an "Accepted Solution".! This will help the rest of the Community with similar issues identify the verified solution and benefit from it.
Follow @LenovoForums on Twitter!

Late 08 MacBook Pro Hard Freezing in Vista - Only Happens when in Firefox??

Hi All,
I know there are many topics for macbook crashes etc but I think that "blue screens" or "freezing during intensive graphics" are among the many different issues out there, caused by different things. Personally I can play games perfectly fine, everything works perfect, all apart from one thing: Firefox.
I want to focus this topic on ONLY users who are finding their Late 08 MacBook Pro hard freezes but ONLY when using Firefox.
By "hard freeze" I mean the whole of vista locks up; no response keyboard/mouse, nothing, even closing the lid does not put it in standby. You physically have to press and hold the power button to restart it.
Out of the dozens and dozens of freezes I experienced on my macbook, absolutely 100% of the freezes occured while I was loading/browsing a page in Firefox. At one point it was happening within minutes of a fresh boot, but I'm right now posting using Internet Explorer, have been browsing for hours, using multiple tabs, and I have not experienced a single freeze.
Please everyone bear in mind, this is NOT a topic about your macbook crashing during 3D gaming, this is JUST about it crashing whilst firefox is active.
Who else here has noticed their computer freezing during web browsing in firefox? Think carefully, are you one of us?
What I don't understand is why only firefox? And how can such a simple single piece of software cause a hardware freeze? It seems very bizarre but it is definitely the cause for me, 100%.
I just want to establish that I am not alone here

@ The hatter:
Just updated my info below btw
Vista is indeed current and up to date, with SP1 with Apple BC 2.1
I've done the sfc /scannow and it didn't find any problems.
I'm running the latest version of Firefox now (3.0.5), but I have been keeping it up to date, and used to run older versions. This doesn't seem to change anything. I run many extensions in Firefox, but as Mr Fusion says he's experienced crashes in both Google Chrome and Safari (I haven't tried them), I doubt that's the issue. However I'll install those browsers and test to see if I get the same results.
Ive run Vista 64-bit for two years and use FF daily, alolng with Opera some, IE7 (and now IE8 beta 2).
Does this mean you are not using a Late 08 MacBook Pro and are using the older model?
Turn off disk cache in Firefox? I usually do, because otherwise Safari and FF do a lot of disk I/O.
Yeah I have Offline Storage set to 0MB, assuming that is the setting you are referring to?
So shouldn't everyone who has a late 08 Macbook pro with Bootcamp be experiencing this problem? How come some of us have and some of us don't?
I think the problem is that this problem is quite intermittant and random. Sometimes I can use firefox for hours and hours without a crash, and other times it'll happen relatively quickly.

Crack in screen (late 2008 MacBook Pro)

Hello everyone,
I have searched the 'net and this forum about cracked screens, and have found a lot of useful information, but wanted to post this and ask a few questions anyway, as I haven't found exactly what I am looking for.
My late 2008 MacBook Pro screen cracked just tonight. The crack begins near the bottom left, in the black border along the bottom, horizontal edge of the screen. From there, it goes up a few cm above the black border, curves to almost horizontal, and then curves and goes back down to the horizontal edge, about 2 inches from where it began. So, it is a very small crack that goes up from the bottom edge, over just a little, and then right back down to the edge. It is barely noticable doing normal work. The crack can not get longer since it goes up and back down to the edge. I suppose the only way it could get worse is to deepen (you can barely feel it) and cause other problems. I tried to take a picture for this thread, but the crack doesn't even show in a picture. My questions:
(1) If I don't get this fixed, what are the chances it will damage the display over time? Will it create lines and/or green/blue/etc. spots or anything else? Could it cause other problems to the computer?
(2) What do you reccommend as the best way to go about fixing this if I decide to do so? I know my local Apple Store will fix it, but I also know they'll charge more than I probably want to spend. Other solutions? Positive experiences?
It kind of saddens me to see it; crazy as that may sound! This has been (still is) a great notebook (I even purchased AppleCare, which I never needed) that went with me through making my first full length film.
Thank you in advance for help concerning this issue.

I uswed to have that problem in my Macbook OPro early 2008, and I ordered an LCD panel, it's a Samsung 15.4 inches LED panel, then I disassembled MBP, involved more than 40 screws and very delicate parts removal and reassemble. It cost me US$ 120 and 2.5 ghours to do.
But if you take it to Mac Service Center, they will change the whole lid and thjat will copst you more than US$ 600

Late 2008 MacBook Pro "blackout" screen flickering - Revised

--NOTE: I have written this thread as a continuation of the following thread, as the solution in it is slightly different from my issue. I apologize to the community for the confusion. http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2230532&tstart=0 --
Many of us Late 2008 MacBook Pro owners have been experiencing a moderate to significant screen flicker when using our MacBook Pros in Better Battery life mode, which uses the 9400 M chip. While I had thought that 10.6.2 had resolved this issue, I have since discovered that it has not. In fact, some believe, myself included, that it has made it worse, as, for me, it has been happening far more frequently.
My screen flicker is like a black frame popping in randomly. This frame does not even last a second, but it does create a "flicker" effect.
These YouTube videos show it best and are virtually identical to mine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNQofnQKrDA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EATI_kh6GOw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qODFFWbiGUI
*Does anyone think that this is indicative of a logic board problem?*
*Has anyone resolved this by going back to 10.5.8?*
I had never experienced this in Leopard.
Thanks.

Hi Luke,
Having the logic board replaced terrifies me, as that could lead to further issues.
I think you've rationalized out the whole situation perfectly, and I do think you're right about the logic board replacement. If the issue were a lot more frequent (or becomes more frequent) and/or is overly annoying then I would have it replaced. The chance that you'd get a bad replacement logic board would be sufficiently small in comparison to the overall pain and frustration that you'd be going through.
What I possibly can do is try to get the issue looked at by someone at Apple. If it is, indeed, a software issue, perhaps they can engineer a fix for you. At the very least we'll know that the issue was brought to someone's attention! They probably will never contact anyone with the outcome, but at least we can say we tried. You should continue to submit the Bug Reports and encourage others to.
--Travis

Late 2008 MacBook Pro - Bootcamp (Vista-32bit) issues

Hey all -
I have a couple issues with my late 2008 MacBook Pro when I use bootcamp to switch to its Vista (32 bit) side. I've never been able to solve these issues myself, so I was hoping I could get some help here.
When on the vista side, when I close the lid the computer display will shut off but the actualy computer will continue to run, and after some time I will no be able to wake it from its sleep.
When I try to turn the brightness down on my screen, it will turn down but then turn back to full brightness a few seconds later.
Scrollng with 2 fingers on the track pad is erratic (I read there was going to be a fix for this?)
The laptop gets so hot to the touch that it is almost painful (I imagine this can't be good for the computer)
It has also become sluggish to the point where even simple games and those on steam won't work without incredible lag. Are there anyways to stop some processes to speed up the vista side?
Like I said, this is all while in bootcamp, not experiencing any of the issues on the OSX side.
Thanks for any help

Would love some help if anyone knows

I have a late 2008 Macbook Pro last updated to Mavericks OS. The screen died and it's not worth replacing. How do I remove the hard drive and use a drive sled to access info I need?

I have a late 2008 Macbook Pro last updated to the Mavericks OS. The screen died and I took it into an Apple store and was told replacing the screen and the hardware to repair everything would cost almost as much as buying a new laptop or a cheaper model. I was told that I can use a drive sled to access data I need on my hard drive. How do I remove my hard drive and use a drive sled to get to the information I need? What makes matters more complicated is I need to update my iPhone and my iTunes/App store purchases. How can I accomplish this?
My wife has a late 2008 Macbook Pro as well, which I am assuming I need to run my hard drive. Is there a way to just access just my hard drive without interfering with hers?
I know this is lengthy. Thanks to whoever looks at this and offers advice/instruction.

the device you need is an External enclosure for a 2.5" (laptop form factor) SATA drive.
A USB-interface enclosure will be slow, but is adequate for this task and for re-purposing as a backup drive later. A firewire-interface drive would be faster, but is harder to find, more expensive, and faster than needed for this purpose.
The drive will mount as an "extra" drive on your wife's Macbook, and you can drag and drop whatever you wish. You could create a separate Account for yourself on her computer, and use Migration Assistant or just copy your stuff over to the new account. Then it would not interfere with her files.

Late 2011 Macbook Pro green pixels on the screen where dark colors should appear.

I have a late 2011 Macbook Pro I bought it new with 4 gb of ram. About 4 months ago i purchased 8 gb of pny ram for this model and upgraded the ram. I followed all of the safety precautions and discharged my static electricity before upgrading. It increased the speed of my mac and helps with certain tasks. About 2-3 weeks i notices my mac froze and strange green black and pink bars appeared on the screen so i hold the power button to shut it down and it solves the problem this will happen about once a month but otherwise my mac works perfect. Now about a month ago I powered my mac on and low and behold The screen was covered in green pixels. I tried rebooting twice and it didn't do anything then i let it sleep for about 5 mins opened my mac and the green pixels were gone. Now my mac is still usable and everything works its just sometimes like once in a while ill get a few pixels and closing and opening my mac fixes it. I was curious if this was related to one another or is my mac just starting to die....

I have been getting green pixels/boxes the last while...
I have noticed it after waking the machine from sleep. Not 100% sure if that is the only time it happens. It goes away after a few seconds, typically.
Any idea what is going on?

Late 2007 MacBook Pro intermittent black screen

I have this very odd issue with an intermittent black screen on a late 2007 MacBook Pro (4GB/320GB 7200rpm) Mac OS X 10.6.8 v1.1
Apologies for the length of the post.
In cycles separated by a few days to a week, the screen will flicker to black, initially very briefly, then for longer periods until it is black continuously, where it stays from a few hours to a couple of days then it flickers to normal, again very briefly then with longer intervals until it is steady and normal. It can then be fine for a week or more.
When the screen is working, it's perfect; no lines, stripes, colour shift or any difference to what one would expect. When it is black, the backlight is still operational (and dimming when on battery power) but there is no image - all pixels are solid black. Shining a torch on/through the screen does not reveal any image. When mirrored, the external monitor shows the brightness adjustment moving up and down in response to the key presses but it has no effect on the internal screen.
My external display (Eizo) is always functional no matter what the built-in one is doing and is completely solid at all times.
There is no correlation to temperature (I have SMC fan control), sleep, restart, fan speed, power source or anything environmental. The MacBook is on a fan stand for most of the time. External connections make no difference. If the fault is present before changing any of these factors, it is there after.
I am aware that this machine has known vulnerabilities with GPU and display issues but none present quite like this. I have performed the usual trawl on the net and I now know more than I ever wanted to about attempts to fix it.
Software remedies attempted:
Resetting PRAM and power manager.
No sleep image file (never used this option). I deleted the old swap files that were there in any case but this unsurprisingly did nothing.
Resetting the display settings via keyboard commands or Sys Prefs.
Screen savers and settings are not implicated.
Nothing whatever in the console logs that I can see.
TechTool Pro gives video RAM a clean bill of health and all other components pass including tests on the HD with TTP and DiskWarrior.
Safe boot and booting from systems on backups seem to have no effect but one safe boot restored the screen briefly - I think it was a coincidence.
I updated the OS from 10.6.6 to 10.6.8 while this fault was coming and going and it made no difference. I usually prepare the machine for updates by running the cron jobs, repairing permissions etc.
In expectation of suffering this fault when the external monitor was not connected, I installed iScreen on the MacBook and use my iPad as a supplementary display and that works well too. Having all three operating, when the internal is functioning, is quite fun.
Hardware tests:
I removed the upper plate holding the keyboard and the interior of the machine was very clean with only some small dust accumulations in the fans, which were removed. There was no sign of any discolouration, corrosion, or other unpleasantness on the PCBs. All connectors and wiring looked good.
Every part of the logic board, cables and connectors were percussed, gently deflected and spray freezed, both while the fault was present and not (machine running) with no effect.
Display back was removed and the LCD board given the same treatment. No changes.
Display cable disconnected at both ends and tested for continuity (probe resistance accounted for) and consistency with a Fluke 87 multimeter - passed OK. On a scope, active signals and power were present on all the pins when the display was working but the fault did not occur during this test, which might have been interesting.
No apparent shorting of the display cable but without removing it this cannot be proved.
Problem not affected by hinge position, pressure on any part of the display, twisting, percussing etc.
Used compressed air to blow out the connectors which were reseated carefully.
After all this, the machine remains in exactly the same state, cycling between operational and black with various flickering stages as it comes and goes.
All I can deduce is that as the external monitor has always been OK, the GPU itself is probably working fine and the fault is more likely in the LCD panel electronics. I doesn't feel like a software issue to me but heck, I don't know what is going on.
Does anyone have any experience of something like this?
Thanks,
Joel.

Thomas,
Thanks for your post and I'm sorry you have suffered the same problems.
My trust levels are not very high because it's clear there is some systemic display problem with this model, which is why Apple are fixing them. As I mentioned, we have no idea if the replacement boards are any different to the originals. From your experience it would look like they are not and my suspicion is that it is very unlikely that Apple made a new batch of these logic boards a long time after the model was discontinued. If anyone has evidence to the contrary, I stand to be corrected.
As you say, the difference between our two faults appears to be that a physical deformation of some part of the machine does something with yours but never did with mine. At one point I felt that a short in the internal display cable seemed like the best explanation for the problem but it looks like it's more complex than that because of the behaviour of our external displays and subsequent strange booting behaviour.
If, as I have read, the soldering of the GPU was faulty and leads to progressive failure of the graphics sub-system, then all kinds of strange behaviours could arise and produce the intermittent problems we have seen. Micro-fractures of the chip interconnects would suggest that tiny movements might change the presentation of the fault. If soldering really is the issue, then keeping the machine as cool as possible will extend the life of the connections. Consequently mine will sit on a fan-stand for the rest of its days, which is no problem because it just had Win 7 installed on it and I don't want to be seen in public with it in that state ;-)
All we can conclude is that a logic board swap fixes the problem for some indeterminate period, so the problem is on that board. Whether it is a design fault with the NVIDIA chip itself or a manufacturing fault with the board is not clear but we can probably forget LCD panels, cables, sleep issues, power supplies and all the other peripheral issues unless there is yet another design issue that causes the GPU to fail.
Are you intending to present your machine to Apple for another go at a fix?

I have a late 2011 macbook pro i want to reinstall os lion 10.7 so when i reboot hold down options key click on recovery hd then in the os x utilities screen it says reinstall mac os x is there any way i can save this download so i can burn to dvd

i have a late 2011 macbook pro i want to reinstall os lion 10.7 so when i reboot hold down options key click on recovery hd then in the os x utilities screen it says reinstall mac os x is there any way i can save this download so i can burn to dvd

steve359 wrote:
Sorry ... I read but was unfortunately distracted from your original post. You have a system that came with Lion. The Lion that is on your system is only for your computer and cannot be downloaded from the app store again because you never purchased it officially through the App Store.
Try this for making an external USB/DVD copy of Recovery on an external disk. internet is still required for reinstall, though, I believe: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4848. But at least you have a separate Recovery Partition if you ever need a fully new and empty internal disk.
Your assumption is incorrect. Although he may not be able to download it from the App store he can download it directly for the Apple servers using the recovery partition on his original drive.
All you have to do is start the install routine and then point the install to an external hard drive. Once the download is finished the computer will reboot to start the install. At that reboot disconnect the external drive so the install can not start. Boot the computer back into the OS on the internal hard drive, which is what will happen automatically once the external drive is disconnected. Then connect the external and copy the files from it that were downloaded. Right click on that downloaded package file and select Show contents. In the contents of that package is a file called InstallESD.DMG. Copy that file out of the package and burn it down to a DVD or USB thumb drive and you now have the Full Lion Installer. I have several of them laying around on different hard drives and 2 USB thumb drives which I have used to reinstall Lion on my 15" MBP.
Sorry OP I should of just typed this out in my first post.

Late 2013 Macbook Pro Retina 13" Thunderbolt to DVI Connection to Samsung 24" - Static screen upon wakeup

Hi,
My Late 2013 Macbook Pro Retain 13" is connected to the Samsung 24" Samsung via Thunderbolt/DVI connector.
Upon wake up from sleep mode, the Samsung monitor displays a static screen.
Any idea what the cause maybe and how to fix it? - Right now I have to unplug and plug back the thunderbolt to fix the issue which I find annoying to do. Any better solution out there?
Thanks alot!
Mznrc

In a word, yes.
The video out capabilities for the 13" and 15" retina MBPs are the same.
Tech specs

Late 2011 Macbook Pro suffers from screen corruption on wake up

My late 2011 Macbook Pro suffers from screen corruption on wake up - once password is entered the screen refreshes and performs OK. As hardware must be OK is there a driver or software fix?
My late 2011 Macbook Pro (running Lion) suffers from screen corruption on wake up - once password is entered the screen refreshes and performs OK.
Do othres sufffer from this? and as hardware must be OK is there a driver or software fix?
Thanks.

Hi I wanted to let you know that the hard drive is bad I am meeting with the apple manager tomorrow since my laptop is no longer under warranty but I had previously brought the laptop in for the same black screen when the warranty was good.. Have any pointers on how to approach them ? I'm seriously disheartened by this especially since my 2006 white MacBook is running like a champ with no problems ever which is why I decided to buy another MacBook but one that was capable of running Lion

Just updated from a late 2008 Macbook Pro and I am getting a blink on my external screen

I just upgraded from a late 2008 Macbook Pro with a AMD Radeon HD 6770M 1024 MB graphics card and I am now getting a blink (black screen) every few seconds.
Anyone know a fix.
Thanks

You could always give it a shot - the only problem that you might run into is that the the early 2011 might not boot when the hard drive is swapped from the 2008 hard drive. Some versions of OS X are simply not compatible between different models.
But it's worth a try...
Clinton

Frequent blue-screen in Vista X64 (late '08 Macbook Pro)

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for