M2 MBP 16GB / 1TB severe crashes - screen shows strange patterns

[maccan]

Hi,

My M2 MBP with 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD crashes with half the screen showing colored dots, half the screen still ok (see attachec image).
After this the machine cannot boot correctly at the first attempt, however recovers after trying a couple of times.

The HW Diagnostic test reveals nothing!
No crash-report available.

Does anybody experienced something similar?
Most likely a HW failure...

Best regards

 

[Tsjoolder]

Connect it to an external display: if it behaves correctly there, it is either the display flat cable (did you stress the hinge?) or the SoC (which contains the GPU).

 

[maccan]

Connect it to an external display: if it behaves correctly there, it is either the display flat cable (did you stress the hinge?) or the SoC (which contains the GPU).

The problem occurred several times in the last couple of months! It was always related to GPU intensive tasks like Blender rendering.

There was no mechanical impact/stress on the hinge.

 

[Tsjoolder]

There was a well known issue with nvidia mobile GPU’s many years back where bad BGA solder would cause issues as the machine got hot under load… looked very similar to this: https://www.badcaps.net/forum/troub...lets-and-mobile-devices/83833-nvidia-bumpgate

What happens if you run an external display or connect one when the screen gets garbled?

 

[Bigwaff]

GPU intensive tasks like Blender rendering.

Are you using the latest version of Blender? Have you checked the Blender support forums?

 

[maccan]

There was a well known issue with nvidia mobile GPU’s many years back where bad BGA solder would cause issues as the machine got hot under load… looked very similar to this: https://www.badcaps.net/forum/troub...lets-and-mobile-devices/83833-nvidia-bumpgate

What happens if you run an external display or connect one when the screen gets garbled?

Thanks you for this!

I'll try with an external display as you suggested as soon as the event happens again. Try to force it by running GPU intense tests.

Best regards!

 

[maccan]

Are you using the latest version of Blender? Have you checked the Blender support forums?

Thank you for this hint!

I was using Blender 3.6. Did not consult the Blender forums yet.
I could reproduce the situation within Blender with external monitor connected. This time the situation was in so far different as I got the message on the second monitor "Your system has run out of application memory".

Could it be that the shared memory model (memory shared between GPU and CPU) somehow can cause system crashes like this? On UNIX systems physical memory eaten up completely forcing the system to swap. However if swap space is available (as it is) it may result in performance loss but not in a system crash.

Anyway:
I updated to Blender 4.0.2 and the problem caused by Blender seems to be disappeared.

Now I have some mixed feelings about the stability of the machine. Could still be HW. Will perform extensive stability tests...

Best regards

 

[maccan]

Did some stability/stress tests with Blender 4.0.2:
After 30 Minutes of rendering, the MBP crashed with some "cracking noise" (sound like electronic shortcut / insulator brackthrough). The MBP screen as well as the attached external screen both showed the same picture, similar to that attached to the initial post (see above). The machine is completely unresponsive! After a few seconds the machine rebooted successfully. Could reproduce this behaviour one more time.

My conclusion so far: It must be some HW problem.
The funny thing: HW diagnostics does not tell you anything...

Best regards

 

[iMacDragon]

It's probably an edge case that doesn't reveal itself till machine is under stress, the regular HW diagnostic probably doesn't push everything together at same time in a way that triggers it.

 

[maccan]

It's probably an edge case that doesn't reveal itself till machine is under stress, the regular HW diagnostic probably doesn't push everything together at same time in a way that triggers it.

Could well be so!

Regards!