OS X Lion Ships With Faulty NVidia Drivers

[asifnaz]

TeaCurran writes with this mildly ranty objection to the most recent Mac OS X update; several friends who have made the leap on their MacBook Pros have various other complaints, too, including system slowdowns that resemble crashes (except that their pointers still work) and recurring black screens for some configurations (with or without the kernel panics TeaCurran mentions) — what's been your experience?

"Apple OS X Lion shipped with new NVidia video drivers that are causing anyone with a mid 2010 Macbook Pro to get a kernel panic every 5-10 minutes. Apple knew about the issue before shipping lion, hasn't responded to the issue, and is censoring posts in their support forum that mention words like 'boycott' and 'petition.' NVidia has responded that the drivers are the responsibility of Apple so they won't deal with the issue. How a major hardware manufacturer can ship such a faulty product without getting much press about it is completely beyond me."

http://apple.slashdot.org/story/11/0...NVidia-Drivers

[Macsavvytech]

Originally Posted by asifnaz

TeaCurran writes with this mildly ranty objection to the most recent Mac OS X update; several friends who have made the leap on their MacBook Pros have various other complaints, too, including system slowdowns that resemble crashes (except that their pointers still work) and recurring black screens for some configurations (with or without the kernel panics TeaCurran mentions) — what's been your experience?

"Apple OS X Lion shipped with new NVidia video drivers that are causing anyone with a mid 2010 Macbook Pro to get a kernel panic every 5-10 minutes. Apple knew about the issue before shipping lion, hasn't responded to the issue, and is censoring posts in their support forum that mention words like 'boycott' and 'petition.' NVidia has responded that the drivers are the responsibility of Apple so they won't deal with the issue. How a major hardware manufacturer can ship such a faulty product without getting much press about it is completely beyond me."

http://apple.slashdot.org/story/11/0...NVidia-Drivers

Odd that this is first I have heard of this, I am willing to bet this is not a problem with Lion there haven't been enough posts complaining about it and my old 2010MBP is running Lion fine...
Could be wrong but how it can be lion if it only affects some...

[bigjobby]

The only problem I had with my Lion upgrade and graphics was that it was needlessly switching to NVidia but this isn't an NVidia driver problem and I didn't experience any kernel panics. No problems with a clean install though.

Only switched back to SL on my 2010 MBP because Lion was emptying the battery tank much quicker.

[bolen]

My friend has the 2010 MBP with 320m, if anything Lion makes the graphics much better than SL.

He had major, and I mean MAJOR, graphics glitches and weird things happening in games in SL. In Lion they're all fixed, all is normal and fine now. He's very grateful for Lion I tell you.

[Ljohnson72]

I have a Mid 2010 MBP and haven't had a single kernel panic while running Lion.

[smj996c]

Originally Posted by Ljohnson72

I have a Mid 2010 MBP and haven't had a single kernel panic while running Lion.

+1 further I run on an ACD at home and have used it on different projectors (using Mini Dvi to VGA conversion) whilst doing keynotes since upgrade - no display issues what so ever.

[DoubleFelix]

I'd just like to poke in and say that my mid-2010 15" MBP has had about 5 kernel panics in the several weeks I've had, all caused by the graphics driver.

[zerbitx]

I've had over 60 kernel panics since upgrading my mid 2010 15" MBP, all with this backtrace

Kernel Extensions in backtrace:
com.apple.NVDAResman(7.0.2)[7E65ECA2-D3A1-35F8-B845-C975FB531E7E]@0xffffff7f808f2000->0xffffff7f80bc8fff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.6.5)[95ABB490-3AB5-3D5E-9C21-67089A9AE6A1]@0xffffff7f8087e000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(2.3)[E99C8907-946D-3F1A-A261-4C0F2D5D0451]@0xffffff7f808e0000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(2.3)[897EB322-FD55-36D7-A68E-9E9C34A74A84]@0xffffff7f808a8000
com.apple.nvidia.nv50hal(7.0.2)[2E84958C-1EEC-316B-9F7A-68C368F83476]@0xffffff7f80bc9000->0xffffff7f80eeafff
dependency: com.apple.NVDAResman(7.0.2)[7E65ECA2-D3A1-35F8-B845-C975FB531E7E]@0xffffff7f808f2000
com.apple.GeForce(7.0.2)[18E50F21-1E7F-3FFE-B298-7CD7A11879F8]@0xffffff7f8177d000->0xffffff7f81839fff
dependency: com.apple.NVDAResman(7.0.2)[7E65ECA2-D3A1-35F8-B845-C975FB531E7E]@0xffffff7f808f2000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(2.3)[E99C8907-946D-3F1A-A261-4C0F2D5D0451]@0xffffff7f808e0000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.6.5)[95ABB490-3AB5-3D5E-9C21-67089A9AE6A1]@0xffffff7f8087e000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(2.3)[897EB322-FD55-36D7-A68E-9E9C34A74A84]@0xffffff7f808a8000

[conduitstudios]

I have also had 50+ kernel panics since upgrading to Lion. The Apple store told me to reinstall Snow Leopard. After doing that I am still experiencing the occasional kernel panic/black screen, but not nearly as much as with Lion... still this makes it very hard to work. Waiting at the Apple Store now to see what they are going to do.

[yusukeaoki]

2011 MBP 2.2GHz running 10.7 and got 5 kernel panics in July.
We better see an update soon.

[ayeying]

No KP using Lion here. I'm running an nvidia card

[LincolnsiPod]

I have no kernel panics, but plenty of login freezes on my mid-2010 MacBook Pro. Only thing that stops it is disabling automatic graphic switching. Gee that couldn't mean that it could be video driver related, could it?

I had nothing but love for Apple after owning my first MacBook for a year and not experiencing a single freeze or crash until Lion came along. The panda is sad now.

[MBHockey]

Originally Posted by LincolnsiPod

I have no kernel panics, but plenty of login freezes on my mid-2010 MacBook Pro. Only thing that stops it is disabling automatic graphic switching. Gee that couldn't mean that it could be video driver related, could it?

I had nothing but love for Apple after owning my first MacBook for a year and not experiencing a single freeze or crash until Lion came along. The panda is sad now.

I had my first problem with freezing on Lion (2010 15" MBP) yesterday right after I installed 8 GB of crucial ram. I thought it was a ram issue, but after some googling system log entries related to the nvidia card when my computer became unresponsive it pointed to the automated graphics switching. Since i turned it off i haven't had an issue at the login screen. I guess the ram is okay.

[rev.b]

No freezes whatsoever with my mid '10 MBP 330M.

[LincolnsiPod]

Originally Posted by MBHockey

I had my first problem with freezing on Lion (2010 15" MBP) yesterday right after I installed 8 GB of crucial ram. I thought it was a ram issue, but after some googling system log entries related to the nvidia card when my computer became unresponsive it pointed to the automated graphics switching. Since i turned it off i haven't had an issue at the login screen. I guess the ram is okay.

That's the only consistent thing I've seen, that disabling AGS resolves the issue. I'm convinced it's a driver issue and instead of fixing it Apple gave us the finger. Nice.

[Mr. Retrofire]

Originally Posted by LincolnsiPod

That's the only consistent thing I've seen, that disabling AGS resolves the issue.

And the kernel controls the AGS. So it is a kernel problem, and not a driver issue. They updated the kernel even in the 10.7.1 release which speaks for itself (10.7.0 kernel was pretty buggy).

[raymondu999]

Hey guys. Could my issue here: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1213942 be related to this?

[kockgunner]

It seems like this issue: https://discussions.apple.com/thread...art=0&tstart=0

I've had these black screen crashes since 10.6.7 or 10.6.8 a little over a month before lion came out though like many others on that thread so no one knows if it's a driver problem or a mass hardware problem. However, back then it only happened 2 or 3 times, but after Lion, it can happen as frequently as every 20 minutes.

Using gfxCardStatus to lock into the Intel chip solves the crashing/kernel panic/black screen issue.

I really hope Apple releases a fix because it's extremely unacceptable to leave all these users hanging. I have a 2010 MBP and I can't use the nVidia card so basically, I have an oversized Macbook Air (not even, since the MBA's beat 2010 MBP on performance tests)

[MBHockey]

After I installed 10.7.1 yesterday I rebooted a few times with automated graphics switching on -- on the second reboot it froze up at the login screen. So even though I've heard that Apple provided new nVidia drivers with 10.7.1 it doesn't seem to have fixed the login freeze issue (for me at least).

[Mr. Retrofire]

Originally Posted by MBHockey

After I installed 10.7.1 yesterday I rebooted a few times with automated graphics switching on -- on the second reboot it froze up at the login screen. So even though I've heard that Apple provided new nVidia drivers with 10.7.1 it doesn't seem to have fixed the login freeze issue (for me at least).

Thanks. Good to know. I'm still on 10.6.8, because Lion has so much problems and does not offer much more than SL. It is a bit ironic that Windows 7 on my Mid-2009 MBP had a similar "freeze" issue at the login screen from time to time.

[wikus]

What do you guys have to say about THIS problem?

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1203042

[spikerk96]

I had 81 critical shut downs in 2 days. Macbook pro 15 I sent to apple through an inshore frys warranty. They stated they could not find a problem. I have had it back two days and have had the same problem 4 more times. If there is a fix out there please respond.