The panic reports from these systems show the familiar model identifier "MacBookPro6,2" (the 15-inch mid-2010 MacBook Pro), and show the last kernel extensions being accessed before the crash as the graphics drivers for the Nvidia GPU. This time, instead of displaying black screens, the systems are largely experiencing kernel panics where the system's screen fades to gray with a message stating the system will need to be restarted.
While the software fix has kept this issue relatively silent, it appears in the latest updates to OS X 10.8 may have undone it a bit, causing these systems to experience graphics-related problems again. (Click for larger image.)Īpple eventually issued a software fix for the problem, but this appeared to be more of a workaround than a true fix. If this identifier is "MacBookPro6,2" then your system may be affected by this bug. You can check the model identifier here in the System Information tool. This issue affected a number of people, and because some users were able to overcome the issue with a logic board replacement in their systems, it was suspected of being a hardware-related issue. When Apple released OS X 10.7 Lion in 2011, a number mid-2010 model MacBook Pro owners found their systems inundated with crashes and graphics-related errors in which the system would show a black screen and freeze, requiring a forced shutdown and restart of the system.
A graphics related bug that affected MacBook Pro systems upgraded to OS X 10.7 Lion has resurfaced for a number of people who have upgraded and subsequently updated their systems to Mountain Lion.