New 20" ACD...system keeps crashing

[DrWhiteFPS]

I have a mbp that I bought this spring...I just picked up a 20" ACD from the apple store. Working great but my system keeps crashing. I also have installed aperture and adobe lightroom trials - this may be contributing. When I am working with one program or the other, my mbp will freeze up. I try to close the program and it won't "force quit", so I have to turn the machine off...

anyone have any insight?

 

[Elven]

Do you have all updates? also are you running the ACD in clamshell mode or with the MBP open?

When I run my MB through my 20' Samsung I always run it in clamshell and plug my Aluminum keyboard into the usb, and wake it that way, never a problem in any application.

Leaving it open could be stressing the MBP, but since I don't own one I cannot be 100% sure.

 

[CWallace]

I doubt the ACD is the source of the problem, so I'd look at the software you installed.

 

[kolax]

Freeze up as in OS X freezes up or just the application you were working on?

If you are running CPU demanding software, it is a bad idea to shut your MBP lid. When I use my external monitor, I leave the lid open (and have the external monitor as the primary) just so the heat can follow through the keyboard, rather than creating an oven like effect with the lid closed.

Check your temperatures (iStat Widget is great) and see if your MBP is close to dangerous temperatures.

 

[rpaloalto]

Both aperture and adobe light room are very memory intensive. You may have some bad memory. That is now showing up when you use memory hungry programs. Run Apple hard wear test or memtest

http://www.memtestosx.org/

and call apple. The mbp should have no problems with the 20 ACD

 

[cluthz]

Could be yout mbp has one of the faulty 8600m graphic cards.
Mine started crashing when I hooked up my screen, never without.
A few weeks later I got my gfx diagnosed faulty

 

[DrWhiteFPS]

Hey everyone - thanks for the replies. I am running the ACD with my mbp "open", so that I have an extended desktop.

I will try the software dx....

also - just the software program crashes - either aperture or lightroom. I'm not running them both at once, but I have other programs open.

 

[DrWhiteFPS]

also...i noticed that i had the most problems when i had espn 360 running in the background as well. so it might be a memory issue...

 

[DrWhiteFPS]

So I downloaded iStat. My temps are pretty good ~ 70. The thing that I noticed is that in memory I only have about 250mb of the 2gb available.

I wonder if I should upgrade my RAM to 4gb?

Also, I installed memtest and it found nothing wrong...

 

[LeoFio]

I would definitely consider upgrading to 4 Gigs of RAM, especially if you will seriously using aperture and lightroom.