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Stuncle Eve · Nov 24, 2008, 09:50 PM

Got my new MacBook 2.4 on the weekend & am very happy with it so far, except...

I was doing a SuperDuper backup at the end of the day, everything was going well, when suddenly the screen froze up with 5 horizontal bands of "static" streaming across. No keyboard, no mouse, no trackpad, so I powered down & then powered up again, & things seem okay for now.

(If I could figure out how to insert the photo I took of it, I would do so; maybe someone could let me know...)

Anyway, does anyone know what would have caused this?

I'm running 10.5.5, & have 4 GB of factory RAM.

Thanks.

Stuncle Eve · 05:35 PM

This is what it looked like:

Any ideas? Anyone?

Fixed your photo. Links to a photo must end in an extension such as .jpg, .png, .gif etc. To get the link for your picture, ctrl + click and 'copy image location' or 'copy image address'. --seanc

Stuncle Eve · Nov 25, 2008, 06:50 PM

still no photo. Forget it.

Stuncle Eve · Nov 26, 2008, 04:02 PM

I seem to be the only one replying to my posts, but what the hey...

My MB froze up again, twice since the first event. Once with no "static", the second time it looked just like the first time.

It also completely disabled Bluetooth - I couldn't get it to recognize either of my BT mice, & it wouldn't even let me put the BT icon in the toolbar. Resetting the PRAM fixed that problem, but I'm just waiting for it ti happen again.

There are some folks over in the Apple forums having the same issues, & it seems to be related to RAM.

Any ideas? Anyone else having this problem?

Cold Warrior · Nov 26, 2008, 04:04 PM

if you think it's RAM, try taking it down to 2 GB.

Stuncle Eve · Nov 26, 2008, 05:48 PM

If it works with 2 GB, what does that say about Apple's claim that it can handle 4GB?
Hmmph.

Will report.

(and thanks to seanc for fixing the photo!

)

Cold Warrior · Nov 26, 2008, 05:52 PM

appleinsider also has a story today about graphics problems

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...ook_lines.html

polendo · Nov 26, 2008, 08:40 PM

Hopefully is a driver thing. When I had problems with PC drivers it usually made the PC reboot or a complete screen freeze. Haven´t seen that kind of distortion before either on a Pc or a Mac.

Grenise · Nov 26, 2008, 09:11 PM

That looks very serious, if you are under warranty, i would suggest sending it to apple for a replacement. probably a faulty logic board.

Stuncle Eve · Nov 27, 2008, 12:55 PM

I went to my Mac store yesterday & showed them a photo of the "screen event", a couple of techs huddled & suggested that it might be a software issue, recommended that I re-install the OS & see what happens. Did an archive/install, which went well, but the machine froze up in the middle of Software Update. Restarted, finished the update, and we'll see what happens today. I brought the original 2GB of RAM to work with me, so if (when?) it happens again I'll swap it over see if that changes anything.

Kind of annoying.

polendo · Nov 27, 2008, 01:05 PM

Archive and installing just installs again OSX.. but if the video driver is still screwed from the factory then the problem will resurface. I do not see how this procedure will benefit at all this situation. I would suggest to start discarding problems, like reinstalling the original memory and use it all day long to see if you could recreate the problem. If the problem persists I would certainly return that laptop.

Cold Warrior · Nov 27, 2008, 01:12 PM

You could also boot into safe mode to see if it persists.

Stuncle Eve · Nov 27, 2008, 03:46 PM

I didn't think archive & install would do much either, but I can at least tell them that it has been tried.

I'm also noticing an intermittent black flash on my external monitor.

Getting more annoying.

polendo · Nov 27, 2008, 05:44 PM

What´s the temperature like where you are?

Stuncle Eve · Nov 28, 2008, 12:54 PM

Same thing happened again yesterday, so I have replaced the 4GB of RAM with the original 2GB and will see what happens.

I'll be bummed if it works fine with 2 but not 4.

I'll keep you posted.

Stuncle Eve · Dec 2, 2008, 03:36 PM

It's been four days since I did the swap, and no freezes, no problems, so it's looking like it was a bad RAM issue. I'll give it another couple of days to make sure & then take it (the old RAM) in for replacement.

Fingers crossed...

Stuncle Eve · Dec 10, 2008, 07:53 PM

Problem solved - bad RAM.

I ran it for a week with the original RAM re-installed, no issues at all.

Went to my Mac store & exchanged the 2 2GB sticks for some new ones, put them in, & everything runs perfectly.

I'm a happy guy.