Blue screen of death ?

In the last month I've had my MBP appear to have a ( Microsoft inspired ? ) blue screen and after a couple of seconds it goes away but all my open programs have closed as if the whole system had crashed and rebooted. Each time it has happened has been after trying to do something innocuous in Aperture - just now it was trying to go to full screen mode on a photo. The only things open were Safari and Finder and maybe iTunes.

Is this a real system crash as it looks ? If so I have to say that I've not had a full system crash on Windows Vista for over 2 years and I give that PC far more hammer than my MBP and never do any maintainence. It is also less well specc'd than my MBP in terms of RAM etc. If it wasn't so funny I'd probably be a bit annoyed

I'm running 10.6.4 and Aperture 3.1 and all software is up to date.

Any suggestions on what I can do as I'm not very knowledgable with Macs ( I was assured that they "just worked" )

Nick

no text here

Nick,
In Utilities folder there is an app called console you look there for crashes.

More than likely you need to repair permissions in the same folder look for disk utility app. Its good practice to run that when you have updates and install new apps. Sometime permissions will get "confused" and point to wrong way.

A couple of others you will hear are clear nvram and single user mode and run fsck. Basically the OS is very close to Linux but I am assuming you are coming from a WinOS background. The Apple site and forum are excellent for getting information. I think there is some tutorials on OSX.

Another thing you can search at the Apple site are users groups that can be helpful plus if you have an Apple store nearby is another place to ask questions.

The small community that I live is nestled between Cleveland Ohio and Buffalo NY has just two computer clubs that have macintosh users and they have been helpful to a lot of people.

Ciao,
Lou Cioccio

I've repaired permissions, so I'll see whether that helps - there were pages of them, but I don't know how bad that is.

Yes I come from a Windows OS background and indeed still run both Mac and Windows machines. What is amusing is that when I asked on here about Macs I was told one of the big advantages was how they didn't need any looking after and yet I'm finding OS-X less stable than Vista

I've not got an Apple store near me and I've found people on here are pretty knowledgeable so this is usually my first port of call for help.

Nick

nick_webster said:

In the last month I've had my MBP appear to have a ( Microsoft inspired ? ) blue screen and after a couple of seconds it goes away but all my open programs have closed as if the whole system had crashed and rebooted. Each time it has happened has been after trying to do something innocuous in Aperture - just now it was trying to go to full screen mode on a photo. The only things open were Safari and Finder and maybe iTunes.

Click to expand...

I would guess you have the Automatic Login for your user account enabled. What you describe looks like your login session crashed. The blue screen you see is the same blue screen you get when you start-up your computer right before the login window appears (or if you have automatic login enabled this blue screen appears just before your account is automatically logged into). If this is what is happening, you should be seeing the same things after logging into an account, like your desktop background appearing, then the menu bar, then items on the desktop, then the menubar items on the right.

I have seen crashes like this (of your login session, not the underlying OS itself) when using fast user switching, essentially when coming back to a logged-in account, this account would have crashed and I would get to login window instead. This has happened under Leopard as well as Snow Leopard (and maybe even under Tiger) but only very rarely, a handfull of times per year, but then I also user fast user switching pretty rarely.

But I second the advice to look with the Console app for error messages in the log files. The tricky thing is separate the wheat from the chaff there, as there are a lot of harmless messages in there as well.

nick_webster said:

What is amusing is that when I asked on here about Macs I was told one of the big advantages was how they didn't need any looking after and yet I'm finding OS-X less stable than Vista

Click to expand...

You will learn, as I did, that what you heard about Macs are all lies. They suck just as much (or just as little, depending on your perspective) as Windows-based PCs. They just look prettier while they're sucking, which is enough for some people. (Admittedly, it's been enough to keep me...but just barely.)

theNEOone said:

nick_webster said:

What is amusing is that when I asked on here about Macs I was told one of the big advantages was how they didn't need any looking after and yet I'm finding OS-X less stable than Vista

Click to expand...

You will learn, as I did, that what you heard about Macs are all lies.

Click to expand...

So, if everything Nick is hearing about Macs is lies, then what you are saying about Macs must by definition also be a lie.

You must be a load of fun at parties.... I've never come across someone as sour as you before. Did you have a rough childhood? Or are you still growing up?

I guess your purpose in life is to balance out BRJR...

But since I am the only person using the laptop then there is never any user switching, fast or otherwise

Looking through the Console messages and finding the crash log it appears to have been a graphics card driver error that caused it.

I'll try to look up on Apple's support pages to see if this is a known problem and for possible solutions.

Thanks for your help,

Nick

nick_webster said:

Looking through the Console messages and finding the crash log it appears to have been a graphics card driver error that caused it.

Click to expand...

How old is the MacBook Pro? It might be the defective NVidia chip issue.

Mike in Kansas said:

You must be a load of fun at parties.... I've never come across someone as sour as you before. Did you have a rough childhood? Or are you still growing up?

I guess your purpose in life is to balance out BRJR...

Click to expand...

I don't go to parties. I have no friends. I am poor. I am stupid. I'm 500 pounds and remain glued to my chair all day long, wallowing in a pool of my own feces, urine, and tears. It's a miserable life. The only thing I have to look forward to are my anti-Mac rants. Please help me.

nick_webster said:

I'm running 10.6.4 and Aperture 3.1 and all software is up to date.

Click to expand...

Do a "Software Update..." so you are running 10.6.5. Aperture is much nicer with 10.6.5 specifically in areas pertaining to use of the graphics card. Don't know if it would help your specific issue, though.

So that shouldn't be the problem - the MBP is 18 months old.

Thanks anyway,

Nick

I think the couple of crashes have been since 10.6.4 so the upgrade may have cured that instability. Seems a bit odd though as I'm not doing anything unusual and only running a couple of applications on it - all Apple software. I would have thought there would be more people having the same problem as me if it were just a compatability issue with 10.6.4.

Thanks for your reply,

Nick

Nick,

Bookmark this site http://www.mactricksandtips.com/2009/01/useful-startupboot-keys-for-the-mac.html

Some helpful tips to print out or save as a pdf file. No matter what nay sayers say about the MacOS I started using MacOS System 7.6 back in 97 by 2000 I gave my WinOS machine to my son. What helped me was that in 97 I updated a computer lab for our parish school that had old PowerPC's to over 35 iMacs all networked in the lab and at the teachers rooms. I had NO Mac experience all Windows only; I have never looked back. I gone through G4 to G5 and now built 3 - Hackintoshes (1- dual core and 2 - quad cores) that ARE rock stable with vanilla kernels. I may actually buy a store bough Mac but I prefer to buy glass at their prices although I guide people to real macs.

Ciao,
Lou Cioccio

Marco S Hyman said:

Marco S Hyman said:

I'm running 10.6.4 and Aperture 3.1 and all software is up to date.

Click to expand...

Do a "Software Update..." so you are running 10.6.5. Aperture is much nicer with 10.6.5 specifically in areas pertaining to use of the graphics card. Don't know if it would help your specific issue, though.

Click to expand...

One approach you can try if you have been having problems is to update the software using the Combo update, rather than through Software Update. This combines all the updates from 10.6.0 up to the latest version and applies them all at one. This will sort out any niggles that might have been introduced to the OS with the sequential updates.

Search on the Apple site for combo update. It is quite a big file.

There shouldn't normally be pages of them, so that may well have helped. Repairing Permissions is probably over-sold in terms of how often you should do it, but it certainly is something to try if you are experiencing difficulties.

nick_webster said:

I've repaired permissions, so I'll see whether that helps - there were pages of them, but I don't know how bad that is.
Nick

Click to expand...

I think this post would have benefitted from you substituting the second word with 'may', then adding "In my experience" at the beginning of the second sentence, and alter the last sentence slightly.

Here, I've done it for you:

theNEOone said:

You may learn, as I did, that what you heard about Macs are all lies. In my experience they suck just as much (or just as little, depending on perspective) as Windows-based PCs. I think they just look prettier while they're sucking, which is enough for some people. (Admittedly, it's been enough to keep me...but just barely.)

Click to expand...

That is a better reflection of what you appear to be trying to say - unless you really honestly believe that your experiences are the same as everyone else's. If the latter is the case, then be prepared for a shock. You are wrong.

theNEOone said:

nick_webster said:

What is amusing is that when I asked on here about Macs I was told one of the big advantages was how they didn't need any looking after and yet I'm finding OS-X less stable than Vista

Click to expand...

You will learn, as I did, that what you heard about Macs are all lies. They suck just as much (or just as little, depending on your perspective) as Windows-based PCs. They just look prettier while they're sucking, which is enough for some people. (Admittedly, it's been enough to keep me...but just barely.)

Click to expand...

applying the combo update over an existing installation of the same version often sorts out small problems in OS X.

If I continue to have ( very intermittent ) problems I'll give that a go,

Nick