UPDATE: OS X BSOD ‘Superbug’ : gfxCardStatus v2.0 Results Promising

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Results from our initial thorough testing of gfxCardStatus version 2 in response the OS X BSOD ‘superbug’ are very promising which means that we now have a fully working and documented solution which has been documented previously.

Although not ideal this will no doubt come as a relief to many MacBook Pro mid-2010 model owners who are currently experiencing the disabling OS X BSOD bug.

Tests show that after multiple reboots the “Integrated only” option continues to work with each reboot, unlike the experience we had with gfxCardStatus v2.2.1 in testing.  The developer has put this down to the updated gfxCardStatus ‘triggering’ a defect related to the nVidia graphics card which in turn triggers the OS X BSOD.

One thing that is key to note from our testing of v2.0 is that even with the ‘run at startup’ option enabled, gfxCardStatus doesn’t appear to actually start upon booting and therefore it is necessary to run the application explicitly by double clicking it in the Applications folder (or an alternative location where you have copied it to, if not to Applications).

This problem is however fairly minor compared to the consequences of not using it, so I’m sure we can live with temporarily.  It would be advisable that users pin gfxCardStatus to the dock to serve as a reminder to start the application upon reboot.

To make life easier, so that the application is just ‘click and run’ for the purposes of what we need it to do some default settings should be changed (which then will obviously, not subsequently require resetting first time).  These settings changes are necessary to prevent the nVidia card being used in anyway or the ‘dynamic switching’ function becoming inadvertently activated.

Firstly, you should notice an ‘i’ at the top of your display – this may display as an ‘n’ in some circumstances, or may appear as a ‘d’ which means that the nVidia card is currently in use.  The ‘i’ refers to the Intel card.  After we change the settings, you want to verify that the ‘i’ is definitely showing, otherwise something has gone wrong.

Firstly, click on the ‘i’ and then select ‘Intel only’ from the menu:

Then we need to click on the ‘i’ again and select ‘Preferences’:

On the preferences menu you should ensure that under the ‘Switching’ category, ‘Restore last used mode’ at startup is ticked, ‘Use power based switching’ is unticked, and both of the ‘Intel’ buttons have been selected at the bottom.  You preferences should now look the same as those below:

And there you go, you’ve now got gfxCardStatus all set up to banish the OS X BSOD superbug!

Don’t forget, always remember to start up gfxCardStatus after a reboot if it fails to start itself!

With Mac OS X Mountain Lion due out later this month many MacBook Pro mid-2010 model users will be hoping that the long anticipated fix to the OS X BSOD superbug will be included with this release.

Link: gfxCardStatus v2.0 download.