I've read endless threads about this issue, but there is something I haven't found yet and I hope somebody could suggest something.
For what I've read so far, a considerable amount of MBPs manufactured during 2010 has a latent problem in the hardware that crashes the system.
This problem has emerged usually after upgrading the OS to Lion or latter versions.
Question 1:
it's not yet clear to me what it is bugged. Is it the GPU (Nvidia GeForce 300M) or the logic board? I've heard that many people had the logic board changed. I suppose a 'logic board' is the 'mother board', right?
Question 2:
I'm the owner of a MBP manufactured in 2010, but I haven't upgraded the OS so far, so I'm happy with my Mac. But now I need to upgrade, and I'm afraid I could have a bad surprise.
Is there a way to detect if my laptop is affected by this hardware bug before upgrading the OS? Maybe a testing tool to examine the hardware under stressing GPU switching? If anybody can suggest a proven test to run on Snow Leopard, I'll be grateful.
Question 3: being that a hardware related issue, it's not possible to be fixed by software patches. Why has it been latent on many Snow Leopard OS powered machines, then?
Thanks for your help
Best Answer
I am posting this answer to 5 similar questions. I tried everything from the Kext changes to the Github patch. I also tried to use Gfx. However, here's what worked for me. The latest version of Gfx doesn't set the MBP to use the Integrated card permanently. However, GFx version v1.8.1 does. Open it and set it to use Intel.
I have not had a GPU panic for 2 days. I also disabled SIP and installed the Github patch, but I still had Panics after that (however, this might be a solution thats GFx only, or maybe the patch also helped. Try Gfx 1.8.1 first)