How to fix a graphics kernel panic problem on a 15" 2010 MacBook Pro

The MacBook randomly and suddenly reboots without any warning. It then sometimes reboots during startup and takes a few attempts to boot fully. Here's the story of how we fixed the issue once and for all. Spoiler alert, it wasn't a software fix...

The 15" 2010 MacBook Pro shipped with dual graphics processors:

• NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M with 512 MB of dedicated GDDR3 memory

• Intel HD Graphics with 256 MB of RAM shared with the system.

The MacBook then automatically switches between processors for better graphics performance or battery life depending on software use.

A software fix

A free software utility called gfxcardstatus allows the user to control which graphics processor to use so we installed it in case we had an issue with one of the graphics processors.

We separately ran both the Intel and Nvidia processors continuously, trying to provoke a reboot by running YouTube videos at the same time as running Geekbench and opening Apps like Maps but it handled it without issue so we strongly suspected the issue may well be to do with when the Mac dynamically switches between the onboard Intel and Nvidia graphics processors and not the processors themselves.

Some further online research confirmed this is a common issue with these MacBooks whereby when switching between the graphics cards, sometimes a kernel panic occurs causing the system to immediately reboot.

switchGPU

Continuing with software options for a fix, we downloaded switchGPU. Whilst setting it to be a startup application for my user, I also removed the gfxcardstatus startup item as switchGPU loads a version of gfxcardstatus for you.

We're now pretty sure the problem is when switching graphics processors so using gfxcardstatus we pinned the graphics to use the Intel processor and disabled hardware acceleration in Chrome, Teams and Slack so the Mac wouldn't attempt to switch over to the Nvidia graphics (even though we've selected Intel only graphics via gfxcardstatus the Mac still attempts to switch graphics processors depending on the application we use). Aaaargh!

Disabling the Nvida card by updating the Firmware

There seem to be a few references to this procedure online but it’s very involved and requires booting from a command line linux and editing files etc. Seems risky and requires booting into Recovery Mode (need to boot from an installer USB as recovery mode isn’t installed - see video below). We didn't try this option but here's a YouTube video that can tell you more https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XDK7G2pTHs

So, we're still getting kernel panics and gfxcardstatus (or switchGPU) isn't keeping the issue at bay so we decided to investigate a hardware fix.

The hardware fix

Following some more online research we found a supplier here in the UK that can fix the exact problem was are suffering from by changing the C9560 Tantalum Capacitor on the motherboard that is causing the kernel panics when the capacitor accidentally shorts out when switching graphics processors.

We sent to MacBook to Gavin and his team at MacUpgrades and they replaced the capacitor and sent the MacBook back about a week later.

The problem has now been completely eliminated and the MacBook happily switches automatically between graphics processors depending on application load.