Machine: Mid-2010 15" MacBook Pro, MacBookPro6,2
It was the base model with the 2.4 GHz i5, 4 GB ram, nVidia 330m, and 320 GB hard drive.
I've upgraded it to a 8 GB ram and a 512 GB Samsung 830 SSD.
From day 1, this was run in clamshell mode in a hengedock 99% of the time. I was worried about overheating, so I've always manually set my fan speed to be at least 3000 rpm with SpeedFan, etc.
It never crashed until maybe Lion or Mountain Lion. Even then, it was a rare occurrence. It started crashing weekly-ish with early Mavericks. Since then, I've been getting GPU panics nearly daily. Sometimes I get 6+ panics an hour, sometimes it runs for 6hrs. This is incredibly annoying. I missed out on that GPU recall advisory, and can't even check if my machine would have been eligible anyway.
Apple Hardware Tests (the DVD in the original box): passed short and extended tests
Genius Bar Apple diagnostics and VST test: Apple diagnostics reported that my SSD failed SMART testing; passed VST
So I checked my SSD's SMART status at home (short and long tests), and it passes again.
Formatted and did a clean install of El Capitan onto the Samsung 830
Reran Apple Hardware test: passed short and long
Swapped in my old SSD (Intel 320) and the original 4 GB Apple ram.
Apple Hardware test and SMART tests: passed both short and long
Throughout this, it still restarted randomly.
I originally paid the premium for the 330m for games. But right now I don't have the time to play games anyway. I've read that some people have had success by disabling the dGPU with GFxCardStatus. I would be totally fine with that, except that I can't disable my dGPU right now. For some reason, OS X insists on using the dGPU when connected to an external monitor. (Which is basically all the time).
I'm at a total loss here for what part is responsible, but I'm inclined to place blame on the dGPU. (and this is coming from a guy who used to build and troubleshoot his own computers in the Win98 through Windows 7 era). At this point, all I want is for my computer to just work and not restart itself randomly. Ideas?
It was the base model with the 2.4 GHz i5, 4 GB ram, nVidia 330m, and 320 GB hard drive.
I've upgraded it to a 8 GB ram and a 512 GB Samsung 830 SSD.
From day 1, this was run in clamshell mode in a hengedock 99% of the time. I was worried about overheating, so I've always manually set my fan speed to be at least 3000 rpm with SpeedFan, etc.
It never crashed until maybe Lion or Mountain Lion. Even then, it was a rare occurrence. It started crashing weekly-ish with early Mavericks. Since then, I've been getting GPU panics nearly daily. Sometimes I get 6+ panics an hour, sometimes it runs for 6hrs. This is incredibly annoying. I missed out on that GPU recall advisory, and can't even check if my machine would have been eligible anyway.
Apple Hardware Tests (the DVD in the original box): passed short and extended tests
Genius Bar Apple diagnostics and VST test: Apple diagnostics reported that my SSD failed SMART testing; passed VST
So I checked my SSD's SMART status at home (short and long tests), and it passes again.
Formatted and did a clean install of El Capitan onto the Samsung 830
Reran Apple Hardware test: passed short and long
Swapped in my old SSD (Intel 320) and the original 4 GB Apple ram.
Apple Hardware test and SMART tests: passed both short and long
Throughout this, it still restarted randomly.
I originally paid the premium for the 330m for games. But right now I don't have the time to play games anyway. I've read that some people have had success by disabling the dGPU with GFxCardStatus. I would be totally fine with that, except that I can't disable my dGPU right now. For some reason, OS X insists on using the dGPU when connected to an external monitor. (Which is basically all the time).
I'm at a total loss here for what part is responsible, but I'm inclined to place blame on the dGPU. (and this is coming from a guy who used to build and troubleshoot his own computers in the Win98 through Windows 7 era). At this point, all I want is for my computer to just work and not restart itself randomly. Ideas?