Apple Releases Graphics Firmware Update for 17" Unibody MacBook Pro [Archive]

MacRumors

Mar 25, 2009, 05:10 PM

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/03/25/apple-releases-graphics-firmware-update-for-17-unibody-macbook-pro/)

Apple today released MacBook Pro Graphics Firmware Update 1.0 (http://support.apple.com/downloads/MacBook_Pro_Graphics_Firmware_Update_1_0) for all users of the new unibody 17" MacBook Pro released in January.This firmware update is recommended for all 17-inch MacBook Pro (Early 2009) users and addresses the appearance of vertical lines or distorted graphics on the notebook display.Apple's support document (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3498) provides instructions on how to install the update and determine whether it successfully installs. The download weighs in at 770 KB.

Numerous users have reported in Apple's discussion forums (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1924473) and elsewhere problems with lines and distortion on the new models, and this update appears to be intended to address these issues.

Article Link: Apple Releases Graphics Firmware Update for 17" Unibody MacBook Pro (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/03/25/apple-releases-graphics-firmware-update-for-17-unibody-macbook-pro/)

healthyfatboy

Mar 25, 2009, 05:11 PM

Good to see some of the issues solved.

mjstew33

Mar 25, 2009, 05:13 PM

Downloading & installing now.

robeddie

Mar 25, 2009, 05:18 PM

Now if we can get a similar firmware update to fix the 'lines' issue that's occuring with some of the rev. b MacBook Airs ... that would be terrific!

NasserAE

Mar 25, 2009, 05:21 PM

Now if we can get a similar firmware update to fix the 'lines' issue that's occuring with some of the rev. b MacBook Airs ... that would be terrific!

And the flickering and horizontal lines problems with the Unibody MacBook and 15" MBP..

dmmcintyre3

Mar 25, 2009, 05:24 PM

Did it fix it?

angemon89

Mar 25, 2009, 05:31 PM

Say NO to rev A kids.

The Red Wolf

Mar 25, 2009, 05:32 PM

I will jump in and get a 17" non-glossy SSD 2.93 GHz version if it resolves this issue. It's the only thing holding me back.

Thylacine

Mar 25, 2009, 05:36 PM

dagamer34

Mar 25, 2009, 05:40 PM

Never buy first-gen hardware folks. You always pay for that premium with kinks and bugs.

iPaf

Mar 25, 2009, 05:45 PM

Never buy first-gen hardware folks. You always pay for that premium with kinks and bugs.

I don't have any issue with my 13.3" Unibody Macbook! Best purchase ever made...

mjstew33

Mar 25, 2009, 05:48 PM

I don't have any issue with my 13.3" Unibody Macbook! Best purchase ever made...

You also don't have the NVIDIA 9600M... which seems to be the culprit here.

Scottsdale

Mar 25, 2009, 05:49 PM

I was really glad to see Apple responding, but unfortunately it hasn't solved my flickering pixel noise problem when I hook up my 17" Unibody to a 30" ACD with the new Mini DisplayPort to Dual DVI adapter. I truly hope they address that next--it's bad. Here's a pic of what I mean: http://www.repeatpattern.com/snow.jpg

That is just crazy! Go figure, I have a rev B MBA and tried the Mini Display Port/dual-link converter to a 30" ACD, and it was beautiful! It didn't look anything close to that.

Surely there is something wrong with the cable or your MBP??? Is this common with all unibody 17" MBPs?

Crazy!

The Red Wolf

Mar 25, 2009, 05:50 PM

Never buy first-gen hardware folks. You always pay for that premium with kinks and bugs.

Really? Hmm. Radeon 32, Gigabit Ethernet removed after Rev A Cube AKA Trinity. Replaced by a nVidia MX card and TBase 100. Rev A iMac removed mezzanine port and the IR port. MacBook Pro went from the ATI 1600X to the nVidia 8600 which was flawed and not as proficient at Core Image as the ATI card which was supposedly "weak". Often times late rev models have far more dire circumstances than rev As. Oh and as for price premium... Look at the price of an 8 core MacPro over the previous gen... Hmmm, yea you pay more for Rev As? I don't think so.

Scottsdale

Mar 25, 2009, 05:51 PM

You also don't have the NVIDIA 9600M... which seems to be the culprit here.

Can you select the graphics card you want to use when connecting to an external ACD? Does this only happen on the dedicated graphics card (9600)?

commander.data

Mar 25, 2009, 05:52 PM

Wasn't there another Graphics Firmware update before for the other Unibodies that was pulled? Was it ever rereleased?

bob_the_gorilla

Mar 25, 2009, 05:53 PM

Where's the one that solves similar issues with the craptastic 9400M in non-Pro MacBook models?!

(Okay, so the 9400M isn't craptastic, it's brilliant – it's the drivers that suck).

petermcphee

Mar 25, 2009, 05:58 PM

Thylacine

Mar 25, 2009, 05:58 PM

Can you select the graphics card you want to use when connecting to an external ACD? Does this only happen on the dedicated graphics card (9600)?

It happens on both the 9400 and 9600. When I spoke to an Apple tech 2 weeks ago about this problem, he said to wait for a firmware update--so I had high hopes this afternoon!

iSee

Mar 25, 2009, 06:02 PM

Say NO to rev A kids.

Never buy first-gen hardware folks. You always pay for that premium with kinks and bugs.

Except when you don't (says the happy owner of a 1st gen MBP with no problems so far)

Stridder44

Mar 25, 2009, 06:25 PM

Naturally, all the other notebook models with this problem get left in the dust.

Sir Cecil

Mar 25, 2009, 06:28 PM

That was easy enough. Thanks Apple.
Glad I didn't waste my time returning two or three computers, only to end up having to use the very same update as all those who were patient for a couple of weeks.

Mark2000

Mar 25, 2009, 06:32 PM

Never buy first-gen hardware folks. You always pay for that premium with kinks and bugs.

Other than some graphics issues that only occur when you seriously tax the graphics card (1080p movies running for hours, hardcore gaming) the 17" is pretty much perfect. I probably would have never seen the error myself. Plus the fix came within a month of discovery. Hardly a reason to hold back a purchase 6 months to a year.

koh-kun

Mar 25, 2009, 06:33 PM

I never knew about these issues because I never experienced them. I should download the upgrade just in case I guess.

juniesco

Mar 25, 2009, 06:41 PM

And the flickering and horizontal lines problems with the Unibody MacBook and 15" MBP..

I don't have that problem with my mbp. Then again I've only had mines for a few weeks. I hope this doesn't happen to mines:confused:

Bubba Satori

Mar 25, 2009, 06:58 PM

InkMaster

Mar 25, 2009, 06:59 PM

Now if only they would release an update patch so all of us 17" MBP users get a free upgrade to the unibody model :rolleyes:

lukerv4

Mar 25, 2009, 07:23 PM

Now when the hell am i going to get my iMac graphics fixed apple

bartzilla

Mar 25, 2009, 07:29 PM

That's something that I like about Apple v. Microsoft. When there is a problem reported, Apple is able to respond fairly quickly with a patch. This is likely a function of there being one hardware/software interaction problem rather than a billion possible problems caused by multiple interactions between multiple hardware combinations. This is where the tight control of hardware that Apple exercises really pays off.

That would be why they took months and months to own up to the problems with the 8600 in the old MBPs would it? I agree with your overall sentiment, but nobody and no business is perfect not even Apple.

Apple aren't even your special little friend, despite what some people here would believe.

bartzilla

Mar 25, 2009, 07:32 PM

The graphics fiascos with Macbooks and iMacs has become SOP over the last couple of years. So much for the argument about the reason Apple offering so few cards video cards is because Macs "just work". It's to the point where most people expect and accept it. Most amazing example of brand loyalty I've ever seen.

Indeed. People who have this problem should return the product and insist on a full refund if it is not fixed.

So far so good on my 15" MBP though.

NT1440

Mar 25, 2009, 07:40 PM

That would be why they took months and months to own up to the problems with the 8600 in the old MBPs would it? I agree with your overall sentiment, but nobody and no business is perfect not even Apple.

Apple aren't even your special little friend, despite what some people here would believe.

Wasnt that the chip maker who was keeping it hush hush and then was forced to reveal it had been selling defective chips to many makers?

bartzilla

Mar 25, 2009, 07:50 PM

Wasnt that the chip maker who was keeping it hush hush and then was forced to reveal it had been selling defective chips to many makers?

Of course it was. What's your point? Apple held out for ages after the nvidia announcement before admitting they were affected, until round-about the time they were ready to replace the old MBP with the alu-MBP. Dell and HP owned up and arranged to take care of their customers much sooner than Apple did.

It's not a good thing when HP and Dell are schooling you on how to handle customers with faulty computers.

Jayomat

Mar 25, 2009, 07:55 PM

Never buy first-gen hardware folks. You always pay for that premium with kinks and bugs.

soooo true!

bbadalucco

Mar 25, 2009, 07:56 PM

I was really glad to see Apple responding, but unfortunately it hasn't solved my flickering pixel noise problem when I hook up my 17" Unibody to a 30" ACD with the new Mini DisplayPort to Dual DVI adapter. I truly hope they address that next--it's bad. Here's a pic of what I mean: http://www.repeatpattern.com/snow.jpg

I have this same issue, plus it will go "all snow" then back to normal, then flickering. The probelm is it doesn't always do it.

Thing I could take it back? I don't want to bring in an external display and wait forever...I just want to get my money back (its still within the 14 day period).

jjahshik32

Mar 25, 2009, 07:59 PM

I was really glad to see Apple responding, but unfortunately it hasn't solved my flickering pixel noise problem when I hook up my 17" Unibody to a 30" ACD with the new Mini DisplayPort to Dual DVI adapter. I truly hope they address that next--it's bad. Here's a pic of what I mean: http://www.repeatpattern.com/snow.jpg

If your talking about the 30" ACD having green dancing pixels this has been an issue alone to the 30" itself. For the past 4 years I believe no one can solve this issue with the 30" ACD.

I've read numerous threads on this on how people used a different macbook pro, mac pro, changed the graphics card but all shows the same dancing pixels.

I'm afraid its that your 30" ACD has the problem not your 17" uni mbp.

bbadalucco

Mar 25, 2009, 08:02 PM

If your talking about the 30" ACD having green dancing pixels this has been an issue alone to the 30" itself. For the past 4 years I believe no one can solve this issue with the 30" ACD.

I've read numerous threads on this on how people used a different macbook pro, mac pro, changed the graphics card but all shows the same dancing pixels.

I'm afraid its that your 30" ACD has the problem not your 17" uni mbp.

I guess I should have mentioned that by "same" I meant external display...its not the ACD...its a Hanns G 28" screen. I works fine on my other computers???

jjahshik32

Mar 25, 2009, 08:06 PM

I guess I should have mentioned that by "same" I meant external display...its not the ACD...its a Hanns G 28" screen. I works fine on my other computers???

As for your issue, I have no idea about Hanns G screens. It might be the screen itself as well. Try hooking up a different computer to that Hanns G screen and if it shows the same symptoms it means there is something wrong with your Hanns G.

As for the 30" ACD, I know forsure it is an issue of the 30" cinema display itself. I've seen threads on this several times just a couple years back when I was researching on the 30" ACD. I did buy a couple but ended up returning them both due to uneven backlighting on each half side of the display.

The crazy part is that you wont have the dancing green pixels right away. Sometimes it will start exhibiting these issues after months or even years. No one knows why to this day.

robindahlia789

Mar 25, 2009, 08:06 PM

Say NO to rev A kids.

amen, sir

AidenShaw

Mar 25, 2009, 08:10 PM

Say NO to rev A kids.

How do you make a rev B kid?

(without a rev A kid first, obviously)

Goona

Mar 25, 2009, 08:45 PM

Never buy first-gen hardware folks. You always pay for that premium with kinks and bugs.

Yeah that makes a lot of sense, what if I go and buy a rev b and still get problems. You buy when you need.

Goona

Mar 25, 2009, 08:47 PM

The graphics fiascos with Macbooks and iMacs has become SOP over the last couple of years. So much for the argument about the reason Apple offering so few cards video cards is because Macs "just work". It's to the point where most people expect and accept it. Most amazing example of brand loyalty I've ever seen.

Or maybe the whole issue is overblown, I guess all people buying Apple products have drank kool aid and following the cult.

chadder007

Mar 25, 2009, 08:54 PM

The graphics fiascos with Macbooks and iMacs has become SOP over the last couple of years. So much for the argument about the reason Apple offering so few cards video cards is because Macs "just work". It's to the point where most people expect and accept it. Most amazing example of brand loyalty I've ever seen.

Someone at Apple must be getting paid off to keep making the poor choice of going with NVidia over and over again for graphics here lately....

jjahshik32

Mar 25, 2009, 08:58 PM

Someone at Apple must be getting paid off to keep making the poor choice of going with NVidia over and over again for graphics here lately....

Apple is probably getting a huge discount. I guess when Nvidia keeps giving Apple some amazing discounts and keeps telling them please believe me for sure this time that we fixed our gpus, I would probably do the same as Apple.

polaris20

Mar 25, 2009, 09:03 PM

Never buy first-gen hardware folks. You always pay for that premium with kinks and bugs.

Say NO to rev A kids.

You also don't have the NVIDIA 9600M... which seems to be the culprit here.

My 15" Unibody is just fine, thank you very much.

mjstew33

Mar 25, 2009, 10:29 PM

My 15" Unibody is just fine, thank you very much.

Irrelevant. I am talking about the batch of chips used in the 17" MBP's. Not the 15"ers. I do not experience this issue with my MBP 17" antiglare unibody, therefor it leads me to believe it is a certain number of 'books, not all.

gr8tfly

Mar 25, 2009, 11:35 PM

I've had the flash/flicker problem (where you get a black partial or full screen "redraw").

I've consistently been able to trigger it after a sleep/wake cycle. (more info in this thread (http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=7216274&postcount=30)). Usually, it'll happen after just a quick sleep/wake, but it's virtually guaranteed to happen when the machine is left for a while in either full sleep or just display sleep.

I just woke the machine after 1 hr of sleep, and for the first time, NO flash/flicker. Obviously, a single cycle isn't much, but it's looking good.

(of course, Murphy's Law will make me a liar just as soon as I submit this post... ;)

I will post an update to this later with further data, either way.

17" UB MBP 2.66GHz, stock config

chickenninja

Mar 26, 2009, 04:38 AM

in the modern age of graphics an issue with lines on the screen is barbaric. Quality assurance should be ashamed and banished to the far end of the infinite loop.

chickenninja

Mar 26, 2009, 04:42 AM

gallagh76

Mar 26, 2009, 07:43 AM

Can someone make a benchmark of the graphic card before applying the firmware update and one afterwards ?

6sic6

Mar 26, 2009, 09:41 AM

Can someone make a benchmark of the graphic card before applying the firmware update and one afterwards ?

I really like to see some benchmark too. I think they underClocked the GPU of your mbp17 with this firmware

branjosef

Mar 26, 2009, 10:28 AM

I'm so happy with the unibody macbook pros. You know I am a unibody. Been that way since birth. :rolleyes:

Kevenly

Mar 26, 2009, 10:51 AM

My first Unibody MBP 17" had the "matrix" pattern randomly coming and going in the display, as well as ferocious flickering/blinking and sometimes pink vertical lines. A replacement solved it and I've never seen it again.

My first 15" Unibody MBP locked up with a black screen anytime I tried to use the 9600M GT for any game or 3D application. Replacing the computer solved that as well.

Thylacine

Mar 26, 2009, 11:06 AM

I I'm afraid its that your 30" ACD has the problem not your 17" uni mbp.

Hmm, I have no problem at all with my 30" ACD when it's plugged into my 2007 model 17" MacBook Pro, only when I plug it into my brand new 17" Unibody. I think it has something to do with a faulty adapter or a flawed transition to the MiniDP standard. To think we had to wait months for this adapter, then pay $99 for it...

northy014

Mar 26, 2009, 12:44 PM

I don't have any issue with my 13.3" Unibody Macbook! Best purchase ever made...

Agreed... Couldn't have put it better myself. Hell of a lot better than the whitebooks. At least, in my humble...

vasbinde

Mar 26, 2009, 04:17 PM

I guess I should have mentioned that by "same" I meant external display...its not the ACD...its a Hanns G 28" screen. I works fine on my other computers???

I have a HANNS-G monitor as well as a 17" MBP from early 2008. The monitor has had strange flickering and weird lines in the past when hooked up to the MBP. The problem is, for me, easily correctable by wiggling the DVI-HDMI cable I use to connect the MBP with the HANNS-G at the MBP end of the cable

I think that the problem is either caused by a bad cable, or a bad DVI connector in the MBP. Since the problem is so easily fixed just by slightly moving the DVI cable when it's connected to the MBP, I haven't investigated the issue further.

I have attached two JPG images of what it looks like. The one with the pinkish lines is exactly the distortion and fuzziness that occurs with my MBP when the connection is not good. The other is when it looks ok. Keep in mind that the shaded horizontal lines are just because of screen refreshing being captured by the iPhone's camera and are not something that I normally see.

Of course, my situation is not the only situation out there, but hopefully this information will help.

Best Regards,
Eric

vasbinde

Mar 26, 2009, 04:24 PM

Hi there,

Just as a little note about these display issues. If these issues are only arising when the video chips are being stressed at high heat, these issues could be heat related.

As such, an effective experiment, before updating the firmware (which could be designed to lower performance and thus heat), you could try running SMCFanControl.

By using SMCFanControl prior to starting heavy usage (e.g. video-intensive gaming, etc.) and manually increasing the fan speed to the maximum of 6000rpms prior to then, you would have an effective way to keep the internal temperature down and monitor the video stability while this happens. (In fact, prior to encoding a DVD from my collection, or running City of Heroes, I always crank up the fans so that I can proactively keep the heat down and system lifespan up).

At 6000 rpm, the fans will be LOUD, but this would tell us for certain if this is a heat issue.

Best Regards,
Eric