I recently bought one of the new Macbook Pros (2.5 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 128 SSD), and it runs great, except for when I play any graphically intensive game (notably Age of Empires III and Portal in Windows). Every time I try to play, there comes a point where the screen suddenly goes completely black (turned off), and everything becomes completely unresponsive until I reset. The system does not crash, because I can still hear iTunes and/or the game audio playing, but nothing responds. I don't think the issue has to do with overheating, because sometimes this occurs within a minute or two of loading the game, and before anything gets very hot. Has anyone else been having this sort of problem, or have an idea as to how I could fix this issue?
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New MBP Gaming Issues
- Thread starter aaeyers
- Start date
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This shouldn't matter, but just curious of your gaming situation. Is your laptop on your lap, or on a desk / table when you are playing these games, and have you installed any system tweaks on your new MBP's windows install (other drivers, or control software) ?
I run Portal and Matrix Online with my MBP and haven't had any issues.. yet.. but I have read reviews from many sites touting the gaming abilities of these new systems, and no (that I have seen) reports of system crashes from those media tests.
I run Portal and Matrix Online with my MBP and haven't had any issues.. yet.. but I have read reviews from many sites touting the gaming abilities of these new systems, and no (that I have seen) reports of system crashes from those media tests.
here is what i have done so far...
new unibody MBP 2.4ghz:
- ran boot camp / partioned 31GB fat32 drive for Windows
- installed XP SP2 32bit
- installed boot camp drivers
- updated 9600m gt drivers with the laptopvideo2go nvidia 180.143 drivers
no smc controller or any driver updates or windows updates
new unibody MBP 2.4ghz:
- ran boot camp / partioned 31GB fat32 drive for Windows
- installed XP SP2 32bit
- installed boot camp drivers
- updated 9600m gt drivers with the laptopvideo2go nvidia 180.143 drivers
no smc controller or any driver updates or windows updates
Agreed.
That is important and could be a huge portion of your problem. Weren't there also windows specific OpenGL updates released after SP2 came out ?
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I am noticing crashes in windows vista ultimate 64 bit on my 2.53 ghz 08 late mbp. I was getting complete lockups that I would have to hold the power button down to resolve. I've played around with different drivers from laptopvideo2go.com but I'm still testing. I think there is just a problem from the apple driver side of things. I now get an error saying I am missing am "sm bus driver", "coprocessor driver", and "Ethernet" driver which is strange because it's a fresh install.
I've tried searching the web, I'm guessing this is an update apple has to fix. Once I ignore those errors, everything generally runs extremely fast on vista 64 bit. I'm actually surprised. I basically just use vista for games and haven't had as many problems after gettig rid of the original video driver and putting the 3rd party one on there. It helped but didn't completely solve it. Oh and now I can't access nvidias control panel after updating but I guess it's no big deal :-/
No problems with leopard though! I blame apples bootcamp drivers honestly. It actually makes me wonder if they don't try that hard on the windows drivers to make osx look even better ;-)
aaeyers said:
I am noticing crashes in windows vista ultimate 64 bit on my 2.53 ghz 08 late mbp. I was getting complete lockups that I would have to hold the power button down to resolve. I've played around with different drivers from laptopvideo2go.com but I'm still testing. I think there is just a problem from the apple driver side of things. I now get an error saying I am missing am "sm bus driver", "coprocessor driver", and "Ethernet" driver which is strange because it's a fresh install.
I've tried searching the web, I'm guessing this is an update apple has to fix. Once I ignore those errors, everything generally runs extremely fast on vista 64 bit. I'm actually surprised. I basically just use vista for games and haven't had as many problems after gettig rid of the original video driver and putting the 3rd party one on there. It helped but didn't completely solve it. Oh and now I can't access nvidias control panel after updating but I guess it's no big deal :-/
No problems with leopard though! I blame apples bootcamp drivers honestly. It actually makes me wonder if they don't try that hard on the windows drivers to make osx look even better ;-)
I'm not surprised that I've had some crashes in Windows, because I haven't updated any drivers or anything, but I was not expecting to have repetitive crashes while running Age of Empires III in OSX. I expect there will be a driver update from Apple pretty soon though.
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I wouldn't change anything if I were you. I'm only changing mine to try and stop any crashing. Which drivers are you using again, stock? I don't know why those gave me problems =(
masse said:
I wouldn't change anything if I were you. I'm only changing mine to try and stop any crashing. Which drivers are you using again, stock? I don't know why those gave me problems =(
I have this exact same issue while Running OSX and playing WoW.
I thought it was a bug in the game as it was very random and did not seem to be related to heat. It is very annoying at times. Sometimes it will happen every 2-5 minutes. Sometimes I can go an hour and not see it.
I thought it was a bug in the game as it was very random and did not seem to be related to heat. It is very annoying at times. Sometimes it will happen every 2-5 minutes. Sometimes I can go an hour and not see it.
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yeah, it must have something to do with the new chipset or 9600m drivers. Don't worry though, it's almost a guarantee that it's just a driver issue which will hopefully be completely fixed soon. I'm optimistic about it at least. I'm still happy with both operating systems but would love it if vista wouldn't crash.
Anyone on the fence about vista shouldn't worry though. This will get fixed soon (I hope) and get 64 bit if you have 4gb of ram or more, otherwise get 32 bit. 64 runs fast on the new mbp's.
aaeyers said:
yeah, it must have something to do with the new chipset or 9600m drivers. Don't worry though, it's almost a guarantee that it's just a driver issue which will hopefully be completely fixed soon. I'm optimistic about it at least. I'm still happy with both operating systems but would love it if vista wouldn't crash.
Anyone on the fence about vista shouldn't worry though. This will get fixed soon (I hope) and get 64 bit if you have 4gb of ram or more, otherwise get 32 bit. 64 runs fast on the new mbp's.
If these are just driver issues then why is it that the same problem occurs in OSX with Apple drivers and in Windows with laptop2go nvidia drivers that are not from Apple?
I would think that something in the new video cards is not working as planned. Maybe some updated drivers will fix the problem but it sounds like its a bit more complicated that just driver issues.
Those drivers likely share some (if not most) of the same code, so It is still likely that it is still a driver issue, especially this early on.
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good point actually :-/. I was thinking it was just a driver issue because I'm only having problems on the windows side of things (on the 9600m). Now I'm realizing I'm using the 9400 in osx which could explain why I'm not having problems in osx. Could it be something with the 9600 ? I wonder if I just happen to have a bad machine... Everything seems to run
well except of course the random lock ups that happen almost daily for the past week in vista 64 bit.
MVApple said:
good point actually :-/. I was thinking it was just a driver issue because I'm only having problems on the windows side of things (on the 9600m). Now I'm realizing I'm using the 9400 in osx which could explain why I'm not having problems in osx. Could it be something with the 9600 ? I wonder if I just happen to have a bad machine... Everything seems to run
well except of course the random lock ups that happen almost daily for the past week in vista 64 bit.
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hmmm, what drivers are you using? Do you get a driver error saying that:
1. SM Bus driver missing
2. Coprocessor driver missing
3. Ethernet adapter driver missing
All I did was install vista ultimate 64 bit, installed firefox, AVG anti virus, lavasoft anti spyware. I ran the spyware program and got rid of the spyware that came with vista (I think around 18 I removed). I was getting lock ups where I had to hold the power button down to shut down so I updated my video drivers to laptopvideo2go ones and it seems to be a little more stable. It isn't totally fixed either though, any suggestions? Should I just reinstall vista?
Jatku said:
hmmm, what drivers are you using? Do you get a driver error saying that:
1. SM Bus driver missing
2. Coprocessor driver missing
3. Ethernet adapter driver missing
All I did was install vista ultimate 64 bit, installed firefox, AVG anti virus, lavasoft anti spyware. I ran the spyware program and got rid of the spyware that came with vista (I think around 18 I removed). I was getting lock ups where I had to hold the power button down to shut down so I updated my video drivers to laptopvideo2go ones and it seems to be a little more stable. It isn't totally fixed either though, any suggestions? Should I just reinstall vista?
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haha... I don't know who else to blame. I waited forever to get this mbp now it seems like the past week has been nothing but troubleshooting to try and fix random things that don't
work. Vista flies, then will sometimes lock up. With the stock drivers it would happen when I went to a website and scrolled down the page. So far this hasn't happened with updated drivers. I'm using 175.26 I think... I can't remember, I'll find out when I get home
MowingDevil said:
Now thats gotta be first. Blaming VISTA crashing on APPLE!
haha... I don't know who else to blame. I waited forever to get this mbp now it seems like the past week has been nothing but troubleshooting to try and fix random things that don't
work. Vista flies, then will sometimes lock up. With the stock drivers it would happen when I went to a website and scrolled down the page. So far this hasn't happened with updated drivers. I'm using 175.26 I think... I can't remember, I'll find out when I get home
To the guy running the new 180 beta drivers, what type of performance/3DMark scores and stability are you getting. I'm pretty happy with the stock boot camp drivers on XP, 5850 3dmark, no stability issues, but was wondering if the update would net me a few fps.
Same here...I've installed the 180.143 drivers with the modified INI and had nothing but lockups with XP 32bit, now im back on stock boot camp drivers and so far no problems with gaming with the 9600
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hmm, if you get a chance, go to a website and start scrolling with an external mouse. That would lock mine up (although I do use vista 64 bit).
I've had a few lockups in osx as well, but I've been using the 9400 lately. Have you had problems in osx with the 9600?
jho86 said:
Same here...I've installed the 180.143 drivers with the modified INI and had nothing but lockups with XP 32bit, now im back on stock boot camp drivers and so far no problems with gaming with the 9600
hmm, if you get a chance, go to a website and start scrolling with an external mouse. That would lock mine up (although I do use vista 64 bit).
I've had a few lockups in osx as well, but I've been using the 9400 lately. Have you had problems in osx with the 9600?