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Anyone seen a Macbook Pro do THIS before??

quantum003

quantum003

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 27, 2009
542
0
Superposition
Hi,

A local Mac seller has been pushing this odd Macbook Pro for several weeks now (fixer upper special! I dun't know how ta fix it... but I'm sure you can. Garsh).

photo3e.jpg


At first I thought maybe the MBP was just running Spaces in overdrive, but from what I understand the screen is ALWAYS split into four identical quadrants like this; when the computer boots there are 4 spinning circles and 4 Apple logos. Notice the two displays on the right side are cut off a bit more than the left side images.

Is this a graphics chip failure or what? I've heard some models of MBP had problems like this. Repeated Google searches have not turned up any info on this problem.

Thanks.
 
It looks as though that laptop has a defective GPU; it needs a new logic board. I would stay far, far away. Then again, who wouldn't want a 4 in one deal! :p (before the chip dies of it's mutant defect)
 
That actually looks really funny, probably would be a good collector's item, if the graphics chip wasn't going to die, but yeah it is a defective graphics chip, the only way to fix is to replace the logic board I am afraid, and unless you want to drop the cash for that repair I would stay far away, unless Apple's warranty can fix it, in which case I say go for it because then you can just get it fixed for free and bam you have your self a brand new MacBook so, it might be worth looking into. (In terms of warranty info of course).
 
While I haven't met this guy in person I can tell he's trouble just in the dealings I've had with him. He buys new Macs, Intels only, and then turns them around and immediately flips them for double what he just paid. I've heard accusations that he shakes down starving students for their laptops...

We've talked on the phone and the really baffling part is that he seems to know absolutely nothing about Macs. :confused: But I'm willing to bet he's savvy enough to have looked up the serial number to see if it's still under warranty.

Have enough of the GPU's in those MBP's turned up lame for Apple to offer an extended warranty on them yet? Apple's usually really good about that...
 
Sounds REALLY shady. When I sold my Powerbook G3, I listed it on eBay as "For parts or repair," stating several times that it was a broken machine I couldn't fix.

I took photos of all the problem areas on the machine, and clearly stated exactly what it was doing up until it failed.

Someone bought it, then turned around and filed a claim against me because he wasn't able to quickly repair it, and sell it at a profit. :rolleyes:
 
quantum003 said:
Have enough of the GPU's in those MBP's turned up lame for Apple to offer an extended warranty on them yet? Apple's usually really good about that...
Click to expand...

Apple's been offering a two year extended warranty for a couple of months now. Maybe even a year since this fiasco started.
 
electroshock said:
Can I ask the obvious question? How do we know this isn't a Photoshop job?
Click to expand...

Why would anyone photoshop their MBP looking like that and then try to sell it for pennies on the dollar? :confused: I'd post a link to the ad where's he's selling it for $700 but I'm not sure if we need people from the forum sending him emails asking about it...

Thanks for the info on the extended warranty... it's tempting to pick it up and try to get it replaced, but this guy's just really shady and I'd prefer to avoid completely. We went back and forth via text a few times and he said he'd sell it to me for $400 and throw in a bunch of software... but he couldn't go any lower because that's what he paid for it and didn't want to lose money.
 
An update to this story... the guy now claims that the MBP works perfectly with an external monitor. Doesn't that suggest that this is an LCD/ screen issue and not a logic board/ GPU defect?
 
quantum003 said:
An update to this story... the guy now claims that the MBP works perfectly with an external monitor. Doesn't that suggest that this is an LCD/ screen issue and not a logic board/ GPU defect?
Click to expand...

No, not really. Since you can run both an external monitor, and the built-in LCD as separate displays, it would suggest that there is something wrong with the logic that handles the built-in LCD, but it is still on the logic board.

When I had my logic board swapped out due to GPU issues, the "Genius" stated that Apple was replacing them regardless of the warranty status. I didn't really care because my in still covered under Apple Care.

-jt2
 
maybe im too new to the mac world, but is logic board the macs name for motherboard?
 
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