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Defective nVidia GPUs?

kingcrowing

kingcrowing

macrumors 6502a
May 24, 2004
718
0
Burlington, VT
One of my friends just got a Penryn from Apple and she's having no issues. I work for my University's tech department and I've never seen this issue and we sell hundreds of MBPs every year, that doesn't mean it hasn't happened but not EVERY machine is having a problem like some people are saying. It seems that quite a few people are having the issue but not everyone. I think the current gen MBPs seem great, I'm ordering one next week, but people will find something wrong with every generation. If you don't believe me look at the past threads, I've been here for close to 5 years and nobody has ever said this is the 'perfect' revision/generation, someone will always have an issue, but look at the non-problem related threads and you'll find hundreds of happy people here with MBPs, MBs, etc so if you're looking to buy one now, don't let this deter you or you'll always be waiting to buy a new computer... Just do it!
 
Z

zender

macrumors newbie
Jul 5, 2008
2
0
from my experience the latest macbook pro has been just amazing, i use it a lot and i also game on it as well, all good

also, my opinion and advice to people thinking about getting a new mac, and i have learned this from personal experience...

its always best to buy the last revision of a mac before they introduce a new version with a new chip, i would never buy a new mac revision a......

always wait for the introduction of a new chip, and buy the last revision before it
always worked for me
 
J

jjahshik32

macrumors 603
Sep 4, 2006
5,366
52
So far no issues on my 17" mbp runs very cool and no problems at all.

After seeing the 8500M GS the blame I feel more at peace though.
 
Gymnut

Gymnut

macrumors 68000
Apr 18, 2003
1,887
28
My Santa Rosa MBP's graphic card died a day short of a year and had to be replaced. I had a feeling it was the graphics card when I was met with a garbled screen followed by repeated kernal panics and the Apple Genius tech didn't even turn on my MBP when I showed him the log report I managed to print out after one successful restart before the screen went haywire and was followed by another kernal panic.
 
C

conorkirk

macrumors newbie
Jul 6, 2008
1
0
Maybe an Apple nVidia driver update would also bring the 8600M to the same performance as it on Windows. :mad:
 
J

jjahshik32

macrumors 603
Sep 4, 2006
5,366
52
conorkirk said:
Maybe an Apple nVidia driver update would also bring the 8600M to the same performance as it on Windows. :mad:
Click to expand...

But that's the thing.. there is no immediate update so Apple knows its not the 8600M GT cards that are affected.

Its the 8500M card that's defective but have a feeling its more like 8400M/8500M. :D
 
C

CoolHand777

macrumors newbie
Jul 7, 2008
9
0
Dead MBP...

My exactly one year old MBP died last week. I put it to sleep at night and it didn't wake in the morning. The display was dead. It has always run very hot, maybe it was the GPU. Apple was nice enough to take it under warranty even though my one year was up by a few days. Also, even though it was essentially inoperable, I was able to boot it as a Firewire disk, then xfer all my data and then wipe the disk before taking it in, so that was good. They will repair or replace. I wouldn't like to get another one with a defective GPU and have it fry another year down the road. My old Ti-Powerbook that the MBP replaced, was one cool-running laptop that I used for almost 5 years. It still works too! Why can't Apple make hardware like that anymore?
 
J

jjahshik32

macrumors 603
Sep 4, 2006
5,366
52
kabunaru said:
PowerPC Macs = Have superior hardware in terms of quality and were built to last.
Intel Macs= Have standard PC hardware.
:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

You have to take into consideration that PPC probably ran alot cooler compared to the intel because it was really slow.

I'm glad apple went to intel, there are pIII laptops that still runs fine out there and even PI and PII.
 
J

jjahshik32

macrumors 603
Sep 4, 2006
5,366
52
CoolHand777 said:
My exactly one year old MBP died last week. I put it to sleep at night and it didn't wake in the morning. The display was dead. It has always run very hot, maybe it was the GPU. Apple was nice enough to take it under warranty even though my one year was up by a few days. Also, even though it was essentially inoperable, I was able to boot it as a Firewire disk, then xfer all my data and then wipe the disk before taking it in, so that was good. They will repair or replace. I wouldn't like to get another one with a defective GPU and have it fry another year down the road. My old Ti-Powerbook that the MBP replaced, was one cool-running laptop that I used for almost 5 years. It still works too! Why can't Apple make hardware like that anymore?
Click to expand...

Which model was it.. is it the 2.2ghz model?
 
BenRoethig

BenRoethig

macrumors 68030
Jul 17, 2002
2,729
0
Dubuque, Iowa
kabunaru said:
PowerPC Macs = Have superior hardware in terms of quality and were built to last.
Intel Macs= Have standard PC hardware.
:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Tell that to us Icebook owners. Mine is on its 4th logic board. The G5 iMac were also known for their problems. Lets revise this a little.

Pre-Ive Macs= Built for practicality and quality
Ive Macs= designed to look great but push the thermal envelope to a fine line.
 
T

Teej guy

macrumors 6502a
Aug 6, 2007
518
2
My motherboard had to be replaced as well. You'd turn on the computer, it would be running, you could put in a password and hear the Windows login sound, but there was no video output to the screen or even out of the DVI port.

However, I don't care, because they replaced an SR 2.2 128MB V-RAM board with an SR 2.6 512MB V-RAM one :D

It definitely convinced me to buy Applecare though, I'll be doing that shortly before my year is up.
 
J

jjahshik32

macrumors 603
Sep 4, 2006
5,366
52
From my constant researching the affected gpu sounds like so far the 2.2ghz mbp with the 128mb vram gpu for the mbp and the dell m1330 and 1530 with the 8400M GS GPU cards are affected as well.

And with the announcement of the 8500M Series, yet there arnt many laptops with this gpu installed.. I think from ASUS and duno the other brand had them.. maybe over seas had more of the 8500M than here in the US, such as Europe and Asian perhaps?
 
J

jjahshik32

macrumors 603
Sep 4, 2006
5,366
52
So what now.. wait until gpu fails or sell now and try to scrounge up as much dough for the next batch of mbp.
 
I

iCries

macrumors regular
Jul 9, 2008
111
0
jjahshik32 said:
So what now.. wait until gpu fails or sell now and try to scrounge up as much dough for the next batch of mbp.
Click to expand...

I'm going to sell mine and buy the new one, hell even if the old one doesnt get sold I'll get the new one, I'm fed up with this crap version.
 
J

jjahshik32

macrumors 603
Sep 4, 2006
5,366
52
iCries said:
I'm going to sell mine and buy the new one, hell even if the old one doesnt get sold I'll get the new one, I'm fed up with this crap version.
Click to expand...

I'm with you, currently trying to sell it and going to wait for the newer mbp.

Now that I think about it, do you think all the OEM vendors told Nvidia to keep their mouth shut about the specific laptops/gpu having issues so that it can be more complicated than it seems?

This could help oem vendors with exchanges/repairs/replacements. That's where the higher rpm of the fans come in from some of the oem vendors instead of announcing the specific gpu so it wouldnt be needed for the oem to recall all of the laptops that they sold?
 
I

iCries

macrumors regular
Jul 9, 2008
111
0
jjahshik32 said:
I'm with you, currently trying to sell it and going to wait for the newer mbp.

Now that I think about it, do you think all the OEM vendors told Nvidia to keep their mouth shut about the specific laptops/gpu having issues so that it can be more complicated than it seems?

This could help oem vendors with exchanges/repairs/replacements. That's where the higher rpm of the fans come in from some of the oem vendors instead of announcing the specific gpu so it wouldnt be needed for the oem to recall all of the laptops that they sold?
Click to expand...

I really dont know, I think both parts are negotiating, and Nvidia just showed that its newly found arrogance over the past time has made them sink to new lows, blaming the customers/oems, I have never seen this before, lol.

Obviously Nvidia cant do much besides replacing the parts and reimbursing the oems which will reimburse the customers, but I think Nvidia is trying to stall and make it seem like a small outbreak when it is in fact a general design defect so they can try to make the OEMs take part of the hit also, and most importantly I dont think they want to make a announcement where they show that they are in fact behind the problem; because that will just give them a much larger hit to they're stocks.

Im generally bored atm with the notebook industry because there really isnt anything that is special out now or coming out soon also, I mean the new GPUs from nvidia barely give any performance gains, if Apple opts for the highend ATi cards it would surely be very nice for MBP buyers but still there's nothing really special right now, I dont think we will see anything revolutionary when it comes to notebook performance until atleast 2 years from now.

I just feel general disappointment, I think its really likely that we might see some cheap **** card from Nvidia in the next MBP, I really hope we don't, but they're cheap and Apple certainly likes buying cards for 200$ and making it an 1000$ upgrade for consumers who want dedicated graphics. Secondly, if my work didn't require Mac OSX I would never opt for an mac, I love Apple, I love their designs, the OS, but it just doesn't justify the price tag. It's really funny to see friends of mine buy DELL XPS 1730 which is maxxed out for the same price of a midrange MBP which used a 2 year old GPU, while they get more memory, SLI 8800M GTX, more storage, etc.

And at the same time, I'm a huge home entertainment geek, I got a big flat tv etc and the MBP just doesn't work as good with my entertainment needs as a midrange xps or even a inspiron, it's really sad, but the fact that I paid 4k$ for an outdated machine which is as hot as a frying pan, just constantly makes me depressed. Oh well.
 
J

jjahshik32

macrumors 603
Sep 4, 2006
5,366
52
iCries said:
I really dont know, I think both parts are negotiating, and Nvidia just showed that its newly found arrogance over the past time has made them sink to new lows, blaming the customers/oems, I have never seen this before, lol.

Obviously Nvidia cant do much besides replacing the parts and reimbursing the oems which will reimburse the customers, but I think Nvidia is trying to stall and make it seem like a small outbreak when it is in fact a general design defect so they can try to make the OEMs take part of the hit also, and most importantly I dont think they want to make a announcement where they show that they are in fact behind the problem; because that will just give them a much larger hit to they're stocks.

Im generally bored atm with the notebook industry because there really isnt anything that is special out now or coming out soon also, I mean the new GPUs from nvidia barely give any performance gains, if Apple opts for the highend ATi cards it would surely be very nice for MBP buyers but still there's nothing really special right now, I dont think we will see anything revolutionary when it comes to notebook performance until atleast 2 years from now.

I just feel general disappointment, I think its really likely that we might see some cheap **** card from Nvidia in the next MBP, I really hope we don't, but they're cheap and Apple certainly likes buying cards for 200$ and making it an 1000$ upgrade for consumers who want dedicated graphics. Secondly, if my work didn't require Mac OSX I would never opt for an mac, I love Apple, I love their designs, the OS, but it just doesn't justify the price tag. It's really funny to see friends of mine buy DELL XPS 1730 which is maxxed out for the same price of a midrange MBP which used a 2 year old GPU, while they get more memory, SLI 8800M GTX, more storage, etc.

And at the same time, I'm a huge home entertainment geek, I got a big flat tv etc and the MBP just doesn't work as good with my entertainment needs as a midrange xps or even a inspiron, it's really sad, but the fact that I paid 4k$ for an outdated machine which is as hot as a frying pan, just constantly makes me depressed. Oh well.
Click to expand...

lol, i'm a huge entertainment system guy too. Just got a 52" sony bravia xbr4 6 months ago using b&w 685 speakers as my main (had the 805S and htm4 as center piece but sold them) these little speakers packs a huuge punch heh great for the price !!

Also I d/l movies and use a popcorn hour to stream or 1080p movies with full dts movies on my 1tb drives to stream .wmv movies with aac3, aac, dts, 1080p to the xbox 360 using connect360(app on a mac) to stream from my mac to my xbox360 to the bravia for movies and ps3 to play games and modded 360 for everysingle game I have d/led helps too. :D
 
I

iCries

macrumors regular
Jul 9, 2008
111
0
jjahshik32 said:
lol, i'm a huge entertainment system guy too. Just got a 52" sony bravia xbr4 6 months ago using b&w 685 speakers as my main (had the 805S and htm4 as center piece but sold them) these little speakers packs a huuge punch heh great for the price !!

Also I d/l movies and use a popcorn hour to stream or 1080p movies with full dts movies on my 1tb drives to stream .wmv movies with aac3, aac, dts, 1080p to the xbox 360 using connect360(app on a mac) to stream from my mac to my xbox360 to the bravia for movies and ps3 to play games and modded 360 for everysingle game I have d/led helps too. :D
Click to expand...

awesome ;P
ye I dl a lot also :p when they make the high def formats consumer price friendly then them and me can talk business. :p
 
S

Setmose

macrumors regular
Nov 7, 2007
169
1
Jerusalem, Israel
Here's A Ray of Sunshine in the Dismal Story: Apple's Cash Position

Apple's cash position as of Feb. 2008 is 18+ Billion Dollars:

http://www.financialweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080225/REG/259088503/1022/opinion

This is exactly the type of contingency that Apple has kept the cash around for. According to analysts, Jobs is *very* cautious, and has always wanted to be in a nimble position to fix supply problems. And this looks to be the mother of all supply problems.

Expect Apple to step up and do the right thing. If it means a big recall on MBP, an Apple flagship product, I think they will do it. With the expanding battery they took back a lot of units, and appropriately laid the blame at the vendor's door.

Nvidia has initially earmarked 200 Million to make things right. That seems tiny compared to the reported scale of the disaster. Whether Apple gets their money back from Nvidia who knows, maybe just some of it. But Apple could easily write down 800 Million and look like heroes to their customers and in the industry.

This is the time Steve.

-- Worried Owner of April 2008 Manufactured MBP

Post Script

Nvidea has another financial report coming out Aug. 12, and analysts are expecting much more disclosure or Nvidia is going to be punished in the stock market to the point of extinction.

My question is: If they are slowly releasing information, and "knew about it for some time" did they do anything to correct it? Is there a time-wise cutoff for the bad chips, after which they started to make good ones? Or are all bad chips, still in bins, still being assembled into notebooks today? That would be hard to believe. Or not.

I don't want a mother board replacement until I'm certain that a good GPU is soldered on there!!
 
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