Why is my mid-2010 MacBook Pro experiencing a blank blue screen and crashing?

I've had this happen a couple of times so far, not sure what's happening. I think it's related to having an external monitor connected to the notebook.

My regular workflow is to have the MBP log out in the morning so TimeMachine will back up my FileVaulted home directory. I disconnect everything (USB hub, external monitor, power) and tell the MBP to sleep, then close the lid.

I use the system during the day and when I get home reconnect the USB and external display.

Twice in a few weeks I have had the display on the external LCD go white and the built-in display go completely blue, no kernel panic, no displayed errors, nothing. I am forced to power it off by holding the power button and then boot it back up.

Last night it did it to me. It had my email/web browser open and I sat down, touched the mouse, and the displays just jumped to solid white and the built-in to solid blue.

The last time I remember this happening I had Spaces enabled, and thinking there was an issue with the external monitor connected with Spaces enabled (I think the crash happened after the MBP went to sleep overnight, connected to power, and I woke it in the morning to have it go kerplooey) I disabled Spaces and it seemed to be more stable, as I didn't remember it happening for quite awhile.

I opened the window server logs for the time of the crash and only found this (reboot was near 7:15 PM):

Nov 11 16:58:16 [919] kCGErrorFailure: CGXDisableUpdate: UI updates were forcibly disabled by application "SystemUIServer" for over 1 second. Server has re-enabled them.

Nov 11 17:47:54 [919] CGXRunOneEventPass: timed out after 2 events with wait time of 0.010000

Nov 11 17:51:53 [919] [cps/setfront] Failed setting the front application to loginwindow, psn 0x0-0x42042, securitySessionID=0x30c480, err=-13066

Nov 11 18:16:14 [919] [cps/setfront] Failed setting the front application to loginwindow, psn 0x0-0x42042, securitySessionID=0x30c480, err=-13066

Nov 11 19:15:06 [64] Server is starting up

Nov 11 19:15:08 [64] CGXMappedDisplayStart: Display0 : boot screen

Nov 11 19:15:08 [64] CGXMappedDisplayStart: Display0 : no display alias property

Nov 11 19:15:08 [64] CGXMappedDisplayStart: Display1 : no display alias property

Nov 11 19:15:08 [64] GLCompositor: GL renderer id 0x0102261a, GL mask 0x00000003, accelerator 0x00003133, unit 0, caps 0x00000003, vram 256 MB

Nov 11 19:15:08 [64] GLCompositor: GL renderer id 0x0102261a, GL mask 0x00000003, texture units 8, texture max 8192, viewport max {8192, 8192} extensions 0x0000000f

Nov 11 19:15:08 [64] agc_attach: Couldn't find any matches

Nov 11 19:15:08 [64] CGXPerformInitialDisplayConfiguration

Nov 11 19:15:08 [64] Display 0xb40a731: MappedDisplay Unit 1; Vendor 0x4c2d Model 0x254 S/N 1146106418; online enabled (0,0)[1680 x 1050], Rotation 0, base addr 0x102000000

Nov 11 19:15:08 [64] Display 0x4273140: MappedDisplay Unit 0; Vendor 0x610 Model 0x9cc5 S/N 0; online enabled built-in (1680,0)[1280 x 800], Rotation 0, base addr 0x102000000

Nov 11 19:15:09 [64] Display 0xb40a731: MappedDisplay Unit 1; ColorProfile "SyncMaster" (MD5 5b5541a3d03fcd64df8c076c404639d4)

Nov 11 19:15:09 [64] Display 0x4273140: MappedDisplay Unit 0; ColorProfile "Color LCD" (MD5 b4bf6626e15f8f4020f3df9552af76ca)
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Running (currently) 10.6.5, all updates according to the update utility, and I ran the permission fix and disk check after the previous crash. No filesystem errors were detected, although it did change some permissions.
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2010-11-08 17:45:54 -0500: Disk Utility started.

2010-11-08 17:46:15 -0500: Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”

2010-11-08 17:46:33 -0500: Permissions differ on "Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Flash Player.plugin/Contents/MacOS/Flash Player", should be -rwxrwxr-x , they are -rw-rw-r-- .

2010-11-08 17:46:34 -0500: Repaired "Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Flash Player.plugin/Contents/MacOS/Flash Player".

2010-11-08 17:47:10 -0500: Permissions differ on "System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Classes/jconsole.jar", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrwxr-xr-x .

2010-11-08 17:47:10 -0500: Repaired "System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Classes/jconsole.jar".

2010-11-08 17:47:10 -0500: User differs on "System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Home/lib", should be 95, user is 0.

2010-11-08 17:47:10 -0500: Repaired "System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Home/lib".

2010-11-08 17:47:10 -0500: User differs on "System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Libraries", should be 95, user is 0.

2010-11-08 17:47:10 -0500: Repaired "System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Libraries".

2010-11-08 17:50:39 -0500: Permissions differ on "System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Resources/JavaPluginCocoa.bundle/Contents/Resources/Java/deploy.jar", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrwxr-xr-x .

2010-11-08 17:50:39 -0500: Repaired "System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Resources/JavaPluginCocoa.bundle/Contents/Resources/Java/deploy.jar".

2010-11-08 17:50:39 -0500: Permissions differ on "System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Resources/JavaPluginCocoa.bundle/Contents/Resources/Java/libdeploy.jnilib", should be -rwxr-xr-x , they are lrwxr-xr-x .

2010-11-08 17:50:39 -0500: Repaired "System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Resources/JavaPluginCocoa.bundle/Contents/Resources/Java/libdeploy.jnilib".

2010-11-08 17:53:53 -0500: Warning: SUID file "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Admin.framework/Versions/A/Resources/readconfig" has been modified and will not be repaired.

2010-11-08 17:53:53 -0500: Warning: SUID file "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Admin.framework/Versions/A/Resources/writeconfig" has been modified and will not be repaired.

2010-11-08 17:54:07 -0500:

2010-11-08 17:54:07 -0500: Permissions repair complete

2010-11-08 17:54:07 -0500:

2010-11-08 17:54:07 -0500:

2010-11-08 17:54:20 -0500: Verifying volume “Macintosh HD”

2010-11-08 17:54:20 -0500: Starting verification tool:

2010-11-08 17:54:23 -0500: Performing live verification.

2010-11-08 17:54:23 -0500: Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.

2010-11-08 17:55:23 -0500: Checking extents overflow file.

2010-11-08 17:55:23 -0500: Checking catalog file.

2010-11-08 17:55:24 -0500: Checking multi-linked files.

2010-11-08 17:55:24 -0500: Checking catalog hierarchy.

2010-11-08 17:55:24 -0500: Checking extended attributes file.

2010-11-08 17:55:24 -0500: Checking volume bitmap.

2010-11-08 17:55:24 -0500: Checking volume information.

2010-11-08 17:55:24 -0500: The volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK.

2010-11-08 17:55:24 -0500: Repair tool completed: 
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Solution 1:

Although you don’t mention the right MBP model you have (year/model/etc.) I’ve had similar issues that were caused by the graphic card being faulty. This started to happen “one day” and then it happened more and more often, but in random places, which made it hard for me to find out what it was. I ended up in an Apple Store and they had to replace the board (which was still under warranty).

I’d say you take it to an Apple Store for inspection.