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***Warning*** MacBook Pro (2010) and OS 10.9

Plutonius

Plutonius

macrumors G3
Original poster
Feb 22, 2003
9,032
8,404
New Hampshire, USA
I finally decided to upgrade my Mac Pro and MacBook Pro (2010) to OS 10.9 since 10.10 is coming out soon. Unfortunately, I discovered too late that upgrading my MacBook Pro (2010) to OS X 10.9 was a costly mistake. After upgrading, I started getting GPU panics, causing the MacBook Pro to restart, I did a web search and found out that the MacBook Pro (2010) had a known documented hardware fault in the graphics on the motherboard and that OS 10.9 was causing GPU panics for many people after an upgrade. In all the cases, downgrading back to the original OS did not help. After going to an Apple store, the only recourse I had was paying $310 to get a new logic board installed.

The regular hardware test Apple runs does not catch this problem but the Apple VST test will indicate if your 2010 MacBook Pro has the hardware fault (i.e. if you really want to install OS 10.9, go to an Apple store and have them run the VST test. If it fails, do not upgrade).
 
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Eithanius

macrumors 68000
Nov 19, 2005
1,541
412
Plutonius said:
I finally decided to upgrade my Mac Pro and MacBook Pro (2010) to OS 10.9 since 10.10 is coming out soon. Unfortunately, I discovered too late that upgrading my MacBook Pro (2010) to OS X 10.9 was a costly mistake. After upgrading, I started getting GPU panics, causing the MacBook Pro to restart, I did a web search and found out that the MacBook Pro (2010) had a known documented hardware fault in the graphics on the motherboard and that OS 10.9 was causing GPU panics for many people after an upgrade. In all the cases, downgrading back to the original OS did not help. After going to an Apple store, the only recourse I had was paying $310 to get a new logic board installed.

The regular hardware test Apple runs does not catch this problem but the Apple VST test will indicate if your 2010 MacBook Pro has the hardware fault (i.e. if you really want to install OS 10.9, go to an Apple store and have them run the VST test. If it fails, do not upgrade).
Click to expand...

Yes, my 2010 MBP just survived a GPU disaster with a logic board replacement. It was working fine on Snow Leopard, but once I started on 10.8 and even 10.9, GPU started to screw up, and it got worse. GPU panic was easily reproducible by just launching Mission Control with Microsoft Word active.

Took the case to Apple and they were willing to replace it for free despite ACPP expiring a year ago.

While Apple insist it was a hardware issue. I believe it's a combination of hardware and bad programming on 10.9...
 
Plutonius

Plutonius

macrumors G3
Original poster
Feb 22, 2003
9,032
8,404
New Hampshire, USA
Eithanius said:
Yes, my 2010 MBP just survived a GPU disaster with a logic board replacement. It was working fine on Snow Leopard, but once I started on 10.8 and even 10.9, GPU started to screw up, and it got worse. GPU panic was easily reproducible by just launching Mission Control with Microsoft Word active.

Took the case to Apple and they were willing to replace it for free despite ACPP expiring a year ago.

While Apple insist it was a hardware issue. I believe it's a combination of hardware and bad programming on 10.9...
Click to expand...

You were lucky. Apple is charging me $310. I'm not happy since it was a defect from, the start, I could have happily stayed with OS 10.8, and I wasted lots of money on Applecare.
 
sualpine

sualpine

macrumors 6502
May 13, 2013
497
513
Plutonius said:
You were lucky. Apple is charging me $310. I'm not happy since it was a defect from, the start, I could have happily stayed with OS 10.8, and I wasted lots of money on Applecare.
Click to expand...

I see nowhere that you reproduced the issue after a clean install.
 
E

Eithanius

macrumors 68000
Nov 19, 2005
1,541
412
MisterMe said:
Software cannot damage hardware.
Click to expand...

I didn't say software can damage hardware, I said software has the ability to trigger a fault on an already damaged hardware...

How else would it explain why Mission Control alone on a forced dGPU environment couldn't trigger a kernel panic, but by adding Microsoft Word into the equation, it can...

And... on Snow Leopard, I can't trigger any kernel panic at all with the above scenario... Because Snow Leopard does not have Mission Control...

Can you explain that...?
 
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dyn

macrumors 68030
Aug 8, 2009
2,708
388
.nl
There is a huge difference between MBP 2010 and MBP 2010. You need to differentiate between 13" and 15" since they do not have the same gpu or cpu. The 13" has a Core 2 Duo and the Nvidia Geforce 320M but the 15" uses a Core i5 with the Intel HD graphics and the Nvidia Geforce GT 330M. ALso, are we talking about a MacBook Pro bought in 2010 or the mid 2010 model?

When searching for the problem I find it to be the 15" MBP 2010: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4088 It also shows that the problem exists before Mavericks was even announced.
 
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antoniojlozano

macrumors newbie
Dec 4, 2014
1
0
workaround

Hi. I've got a macbook pro mid 2010, affected by this issue. After a long search, i thin i found a workaround to avoid pay a lot of money for an old laptop repair (no warranty).
This issue is avoid the mac to use the nvidia chip, yes i know, you lost this funcionallity, but u get one stable equipment.

As super user (sudo su -) go to /System/Library/Extensions
Move the files/directories named NV*.kext and GeForce*.kext to a new backup directory.
Reboot the system.

in my case my laptop doesn't reboot or GPU panic for 5 days.

I hope this help others.
Good luck frm Spain.
 
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