MacBook Pro 2.6Ghz Logic Board Failure? (pictures)

Hi. I have a 2.6 Ghz (pre-unibody) 15" MacBook Pro. It was assembled in early 2008 and is out of warranty.

Today, while working in Photoshop the screen went all crazy (pics below).



I rebooted it, plugged in my USB drive and with the screen all grainy like this I did a full backup to time machine and the mouse & keyboard still worked. backup completed and then the mouse locked up.

Then, I got a kernel panic and the screen went totally haywire like this.



From my experience, it's clear the hard drive is fine, but the logic board looks completely shot. sites like PBParts say it's about $800 for one but then you do all of the labor which sucks.

I have an apple store appointment in a few hours so with that said.

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Should I just buy a low end 15" unibody for $1699?

Or pay the 800-1200 to get this one fixed from Apple? Remember, it's no longer in warranty.

Thoughts?

Yeah. I heard about that. So since it's a known issue they'll replace it out of warranty?

anyone have an official apple.com page that states this?

Isn't the card part of the logic board? So I'll probably be without it for at least a week knowing the SF apple store back log of repairs.

If it does cost 800 bucks, should i just get a new one?

patrickdunn said:

Looks like your 8600 died. Bring this in with you for reference: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377

"If the NVIDIA graphics processor in your MacBook Pro has failed, or fails within three years of the original date of purchase, a repair will be done free of charge, even if your MacBook Pro is out of warranty."

Click to expand...

Thanks Patrick! Printed. Oh boy. I hope this is what it is.

Just an update. The Apple Store San Francisco confirmed this was related to the NVIDIA GPU. It'll be back in my hands in 5 days! YAY

Thanks everyone.