Mbp Snow leopard freezes on grey screen

[scheerder]

hello,

I have had a string of bad luck with my mac, a couple of days ago the screen started flickering and my mac froze (could still move trackpad mouse, not click). It started up fine again.. It did this a couple times more (had to restart pressing power button). Then it froze evereytime I put the power cable in it. I solved this problem with an PRAM reset.

But now it still freezes up, the screen will start flickering and i can only move the mouse. When i try to reboot it gets stuck on the grey screen. only once every 20 times Ill get into the os.

I have tried a pram reset, holding the power button, safe mode, hardware test (no probs found), starting up without external devices.

It wont boot from the cd if it is stuck on the grey screen...

Could someone may be tell me what to do? thinking about bringing it to the store tomorrow ...

greets,

Tim

 

[slagnman]

Same issue here

The same thing is happening to me. I just got snow leopard a week ago and everything has been fine up until the other day when it started freezing up on me like you described, except it has gotten to the point where it won't even boot up. It turns on a gets to the first loading screen with the spinning wheel and a grey screen comes down from the top and another screen pops up saying "you must restart your computer, hold down power until computer turns off and then turn back on" in like 5 different languages. I cannot get past this screen anymore.
I've tried starting my Mbp without the battery in it, plugged in, but it still won't go past that first screen. I'm thinking it's my logic board..

 

[scheerder]

Hi,

I think I have some good news for you, it depends if you have the same mac as i do though! It was a faulty Nvidia Chip they do a test at the store and find it.. the motherboard gets replaced and it's for free because apple overtakes warranty for the first three years!..hope this helps you!

 

[Huntn]

Looks like a trip for me to the Apple Store. I installed Snow Leopard 3 days ago, worked fine until this morning, now I get stuck on the grey screen, eventually the Apple is replaced by circle with a slash through it. Took out battery, hit start button, then did a PRAM reset (CMD OPT P R) on start, no help. Ironically I can still boot into Vista via boot camp where I am now posting this message. -_-

 

[kattierney]

Hi,

I think I have some good news for you, it depends if you have the same mac as i do though! It was a faulty Nvidia Chip they do a test at the store and find it.. the motherboard gets replaced and it's for free because apple overtakes warranty for the first three years!..hope this helps you!

Do you know if this test can be done even if the computer can't be turned on, or if it is expensive to do this test?

I think i've the same problem. I have a 3 year old macbook pro (model no. A1226) with a NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processor (acknowledged faulty piece? http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377). I recently (oct) had the macbook pro dropped in for warranty service (faulty disk drive) while out of the country and they replaced the optical drive, the hard drive, reinstalled the OS and restored data. I have not been able to use it until now however and it had just run out of warranty (10 days).

• When browsing the internet the screen started flickering and then everything froze. I had to power off and try to restart it again.
• After a few attempts i was able to log in and run a verify permissions (lots of issues showed up) and repair permissions, and then verify and tried repair - it said there was no need to repair.
• It worked ok for a day and then the problems started again.
• I tried resetting the PRAM (Command, Option, P, R) but it just froze at the usual point during loading
• I tried loading in safe mode - usually still doesn't get past loading screen.
• It let me in twice more but then started freezing immediately, now i can't do anything with it.
• I've tried all of these with battery in/out, and power cord in / out

If it's likely the video card i'd like to try and get it replaced, rather than messing about with loading from startup disk / time machine or other options suggested on various forums. But if not, i'd rather not pay lots for servicing where they spend ages just getting the computer to start. I can't afford to spend too much on it either way.

Any help or advice would be appreciated,
Kathleen.