Hi all!
I would like to ask advice from someone more knowledgeable on Mac hardware than me. My MacBook Pro's graphics card broke down in what seemed to be the known Nvidia problem. A test turned out it wasn't, and unwilling to pay the hefty price for a new logic board I am now in search of other options. Here's the complete story, skip to the end if you think you know enough:
Now, based on the fact that I did manage to use it normally for those two boots, I suspect that the failure springs from someplace peripherally, possible mechanical and related to temperature, and a fix might be possible. All I know is that the MBP was cold when it worked again, and for one of the two boots I was holding down the 'T' button when booting, for Target Disk Mode.
Other details:
I am really hoping that someone can give me advice on what to try next, before I discard my dear old MacBook Pro that still seems to be working so well, except that it's screen stays dark
Thank you!
-Bastiaan
I would like to ask advice from someone more knowledgeable on Mac hardware than me. My MacBook Pro's graphics card broke down in what seemed to be the known Nvidia problem. A test turned out it wasn't, and unwilling to pay the hefty price for a new logic board I am now in search of other options. Here's the complete story, skip to the end if you think you know enough:
A week and a half ago, a hardware failure hit my MBP. It displayed all the symptoms of the known problem with the Nvidia 8600 graphics card. I took it to the repair shop, and without actually assuring me that this was the issue, they did tell me it was highly likely.
I took the MBP home to make a Time Machine backup, and in the process of doing so did manage to get it working correctly for two separate boots. The display worked perfectly, and stress-testing the graphics card with a 3D game showed completely normal behaviour. This success was however sporadic, and I could not narrow down the causes, as the issue would occur again on other boots, and coming back from sleep mode.
Next morning I handed the MBP in at the repair shop, for them to figure out the problem. A few days later I received word that they ran a test for the Nvidia error which came back negative: My logic board would have to be replaced at my own costs. The report's exact wording, translated, was: "Logic board needs to be replaced, no Nvidia error." The hefty price tag for this operation scared me off, and I will be able to pick up my still-defect MacBook Pro on Monday.
I took the MBP home to make a Time Machine backup, and in the process of doing so did manage to get it working correctly for two separate boots. The display worked perfectly, and stress-testing the graphics card with a 3D game showed completely normal behaviour. This success was however sporadic, and I could not narrow down the causes, as the issue would occur again on other boots, and coming back from sleep mode.
Next morning I handed the MBP in at the repair shop, for them to figure out the problem. A few days later I received word that they ran a test for the Nvidia error which came back negative: My logic board would have to be replaced at my own costs. The report's exact wording, translated, was: "Logic board needs to be replaced, no Nvidia error." The hefty price tag for this operation scared me off, and I will be able to pick up my still-defect MacBook Pro on Monday.
Now, based on the fact that I did manage to use it normally for those two boots, I suspect that the failure springs from someplace peripherally, possible mechanical and related to temperature, and a fix might be possible. All I know is that the MBP was cold when it worked again, and for one of the two boots I was holding down the 'T' button when booting, for Target Disk Mode.
Other details:
- The model is a late-2007 MacBook Pro 3,1, 15-inch 2,4 GHz, with a Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics card and a RAM upgrade of about six months ago.
- The symptoms displayed are exactly like in this YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcpI9y3jfe0, so seemingly related to the http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377 Apple Support page. A test said no, though. The one thing different is that the MBP booted up on two occasions after the problem first started.
- The repair shop was the Netherlands-based iCentre: http://www.icentre.nl
I am really hoping that someone can give me advice on what to try next, before I discard my dear old MacBook Pro that still seems to be working so well, except that it's screen stays dark
Thank you!
-Bastiaan