Apple Launches Repair Program for Late 2013 Mac Pro Video Issues

[JamesPDX]

It's a tin-whisker problem. Also, non-lead solders have a much higher melting point than leaded solder, so a great deal more energy is being used. So, whatever greenwashing went on with this was at least two-fold in error. It wasn't worth it. I'm sure those satellites failing pissed-off a lot of people who spent countless millions in the engineering, building, and launching. My point is that not everything needs to have planned obsolescence, and everything produced should have a "best practices" build quality. In any event, there is no case of lead decoupling from tin and getting into ground water. You'd probably have to vaporize it, not just melt it. (Paging Chemical Engineers!)
But here's what happens when you can't just update your CPU or replace your GPU, or worse somebody out there is just making crap products (like taking shortcuts with cheap capacitors that take down a PSU or MOBO):

http://gizmodo.com/e-hell-on-earth-where-the-wests-electronics-go-to-die-1442576665

[doublepost=1455184668][/doublepost]

FL have been used in huge numbers for decades in office buildings, factories and the like. Why have I not heard you complaining about them ending up in landfills all this time? Society had decades to be trained to not trash FL and recycle them instead. If it didn't care then, why does it suddenly care now?

Because people are finding out the hard way that when a CFL bulb breaks or explodes, it releases from 25,000 to 100,000 nanograms-per-meter (cubed) of mercury vapor directly into the air of a room, dispersed from the floor to the ceiling. LEDs? fine. CFLs? nope-nope.

Put it this way: No one has ever inhaled mercury from a broken tungsten bulb. Why not? Because there's no mercury inside of a tungsten bulb.

And is everyone clear that (Tin/Lead) solder is not Mercury? Some discussions are crossing their drumsticks.

http://www.greenpasture.org/ferment...the-forced-use-of-compact-fluorescent-lights/

Disclaimer: There's some newer and really wacky junk-science stuff in ads, etc. around this fine article, so apologies in advance. I'm not one of those "healing-magnet" dudes.

 

[manu chao]

Because people are finding out the hard way that when a CFL bulb breaks or explodes, it releases from 25,000 to 100,000 nanograms-per-meter (cubed) of mercury vapor directly into the air of a room, dispersed from the floor to the ceiling. LEDs? fine. CFLs? nope-nope.

Put it this way: No one has ever inhaled mercury from a broken tungsten bulb. Why not? Because there's no mercury inside of a tungsten bulb.

And FL tubes never broke or exploded? Why is mercury only a problem in rooms were we want comfy light?

 

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

Because people are finding out the hard way that when a CFL bulb breaks or explodes, it releases from 25,000 to 100,000 nanograms-per-meter (cubed) of mercury vapor directly into the air of a room, dispersed from the floor to the ceiling. LEDs? fine. CFLs? nope-nope.

Here is an article about measured emissions from broken CFLs:

https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/science-public/some-comfort-about-broken-cfls

CFLs are passe' anyway. The price of LED lights has come way down recently.

 

[wonderchimp5]

Please can someone send a link to the official apple communication about this?
At the apple store here in Toronto they don't acknowledge the existence of such a repair program for the MacPro.​

I just called 800-275-2273 and mentioned the issue, and they knew exactly what I was talking about. They specifically mentioned the graphic card manufacture date having to be Feb 8 2015- April 11 2015, which is exactly what Mac Rumors mentioned.

They refused to send me the document that he was referencing, and he couldn't point it out on the website either. They also wouldn't tell me what the fix was. Does anyone know what they are doing to fix these cards? My Mac is out of the date range, but still has issues.

 

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

It's a tin-whisker problem. Also, non-lead solders have a much higher melting point than leaded solder, so a great deal more energy is being used. So, whatever greenwashing went on with this was at least two-fold in error. It wasn't worth it.

I'm not sure which antecedent this refers to, but, at this point, we don't know what the common failure is, AFAIK. Could be bad capacitors, could be tin whiskers, could be some other cooling-related problem, ...

I'm sure those satellites failing pissed-off a lot of people who spent countless millions in the engineering, building, and launching. My point is that not everything needs to have planned obsolescence, and everything produced should have a "best practices" build quality.

In the U.S. at least, satellites are not directly affected by these rules, and, the tin-whisker problem long predates ROHS. Turns out that space is particular prone to this problem, although, the model for tin-whisker growth is still basically mostly unknown as far as I know. But, I do agree with your concern that if "everything" goes ROHS, then, the cost of non-ROHS will go up significantly.

And, as I mentioned before, I agree that it is irritating how extreme planned obsolescence is getting right now.

I also agree that the biggest part of the (current) lead production economy by far is auto batteries, so, I don't know why the anger was directed towards electronics. And, old-old lead piping is still the biggest source of lead affecting humans by far. (e.g. Flint, MI.) But, yeah, for some reason the electronics industry was forced to deal with this first. Go figure.

I just called [...], and they knew exactly what I was talking about. They specifically mentioned the graphic card manufacture date having to be Feb 8 2015- April 11 2015, which is exactly what Mac Rumors mentioned.

They refused to send me the document that he was referencing, and he couldn't point it out on the website either. They also wouldn't tell me what the fix was. Does anyone know what they are doing to fix these cards? My Mac is out of the date range, but still has issues.

Very good question. I would like to know myself. I can't help but wonder if it is cooling-related.

 

[JamesPDX]

I'm not sure which antecedent this refers to, but, at this point, we don't know what the common failure is, AFAIK. Could be bad capacitors, could be tin whiskers, could be some other cooling-related problem, ...



In the U.S. at least, satellites are not directly affected by these rules, and, the tin-whisker problem long predates ROHS. Turns out that space is particular prone to this problem, although, the model for tin-whisker growth is still basically mostly unknown as far as I know. But, I do agree with your concern that if "everything" goes ROHS, then, the cost of non-ROHS will go up significantly.

And, as I mentioned before, I agree that it is irritating how extreme planned obsolescence is getting right now.

I also agree that the biggest part of the (current) lead production economy by far is auto batteries, so, I don't know why the anger was directed towards electronics. And, old-old lead piping is still the biggest source of lead affecting humans by far. (e.g. Flint, MI.) But, yeah, for some reason the electronics industry was forced to deal with this first. Go figure.



Very good question. I would like to know myself. I can't help but wonder if it is cooling-related.

It's a lot of bad all around . Everyone's cutting corners. You'll love this story: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2010/jun/29/dell-problems-capacitors

And regarding water pipes, time will tell what PEX may do to us. I'm a copper man, myself. I live in a town where they're also yanking out sturdy metallic gas pipes and replacing it all with (wait for it...) plastic. Lot's to worry about, but in the long run, if we're all eating raw fish, we're just filling ourselves with up parasites anyway. How about those guys using warm tap water in their "all natural" Neti Pots? Eh, a little OT, but you get the idea. Never cut corners.
[doublepost=1455530196][/doublepost]

Here is an article about measured emissions from broken CFLs:

https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/science-public/some-comfort-about-broken-cfls

CFLs are passe' anyway. The price of LED lights has come way down recently.

Thanks for posting that. It has an important link: http://www.epa.gov/cfl

As far as light goes, people should learn and repeat this phrase: "It's not the wattage, it's the lumens."

 

[Cwolk]

Weird to see this for such an old product

 

[milo]

Old, yet still a current product.

 

[Peace]

You can add the D300 to this list.

Mine bit the dust and I took in and they are replacing one of them.

 

[cdpage]

How is it possible that Apple hasn't replaced this machine yet?

what gives? I don't want to replace mine with an iMac... give me a break!

 

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

How is it possible that Apple hasn't replaced this machine yet?

what gives? I don't want to replace mine with an iMac... give me a break!

Broadwell-EP is due out this month. That part should be easy. I'm not sure what they will do about the GPUs. nMP looks cool, may run hot for current GPUs.

 

[teohyc]

You can add the D300 to this list.

Mine bit the dust and I took in and they are replacing one of them.

What happened to yours?

I have problems with my D300 also.
Sometimes, it will just freeze the screen with the spinning beach ball that I can still move around.
Music and videos will still play as I can still hear the audio.

 

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

Weird to see this for such an old product

Old, yet still a current product.

You can add the D300 to this list.

How is it possible that Apple hasn't replaced this machine yet?

What happened to yours? I have problems with my D300 also.

Broadwell-EP is due out this month. That part should be easy. I'm not sure what they will do about the GPUs. nMP looks cool, may run hot for current GPUs.

Broadwell-EP is finally released. Kind of a letdown. Only the top-end parts seem interesting-- if you need 22 cores, or, just more "throughput". Single-thread performance doesn't seem to be changed much. Most of the parts hardly seem like an upgrade from Haswell, making me wonder why Apple didn't do a Haswell upgrade for nMP all along. The existing Ivy Bridge chips still look pretty good, though. And, as of today, it still looks like the D700 is a decent deal for the performance. Too bad there seem to be (heat-related?) failures.

I'm still wishing Apple would release a 4K/5K-oriented mid-tower Xeon E3 Skylake (Xeon E3-1515M with Iris Pro P580) system with 1 x16 / 2 x8 slots for 1-2 GPUs.

 

[milo]

Clock speeds are so low for most of those. Are they supposed to be much faster at the same clock speed? Or does the server market have demand for tons of cores and not care about clock speed?

Six core 3.4Ghz is $1500 just for the chip, which is a huge price increase over the previous generation at that same spec. Unless you stick with 4 core, the higher Ghz are all crazy expensive.

 

[GuruComposer]

Yeah, this just happened to me. All of my monitors went black, 1 was pink, and the computer wouldn't boot.

So when Apple replaces your video card, do they just replace it with the same model? How do you know this won't just happen again?

It seems like the trash can model is defective if it is cooking people's video cards? Or is it the card that is defective?

 

[jblagden]

Yeah, this just happened to me. All of my monitors went black, 1 was pink, and the computer wouldn't boot.

So when Apple replaces your video card, do they just replace it with the same model? How do you know this won't just happen again?

It seems like the trash can model is defective if it is cooking people's video cards? Or is it the card that is defective?

The video card isn't replaced by itself. The whole logic board (motherboard) is replaced because the GPU is soldered to it, and because it was fried by the tin whisker problem everyone's talking about.

 

[bax2003]

The video card isn't replaced by itself. The whole logic board (motherboard) is replaced because the GPU is soldered to it, and because it was fried by the tin whisker problem everyone's talking about.

Video cards on Mac Pro (Late 2013) are not soldered to logic boards, they are discrete cards connected to logic boards by flat cables.

 

[jblagden]

Video cards on Mac Pro (Late 2013) are not soldered to logic boards, they are discrete cards connected to logic boards by flat cables.

I sit corrected.

Okay, Apple can replace the card if it fries. But you can’t upgrade it yourself because it doesn’t use PCIe. So, one of the two problems remains (upgradability).

It used to be that anyone who wanted an upgradable Mac, whether they’re a video editor or a gamer, they could turn to the Mac Pro. But those days are gone. Well, at least for now. Maybe Apple will change directions eventually, but only time will tell.

 

[milo]

Mac Pro is such a mess now.

Seems like they haven't really fixed these chronic problems, even after three years.
And not a single upgrade since then.
And that's on top of the design being more of a novelty that is a step backwards for user flexibility.

 

[JamesPDX]

Okay, so any suggestions for Pro Tools 12.7 users? I need to keep a quiet machine in my project studio. The 2013 Mac would have been a dream for this, given the Xeon power. I'm using a late 2012 i7 QC Mini with an SSD, an Apogee Duet, and my media drives are on one of these:

 

[milo]

It is quiet and fairly powerful, but way overpriced for what you get and the failure rate has been way too high.

 

[JamesPDX]

I think my "hoping" process is turning into a grieving one...

 

[bhaslan]

Apple today launched a new Repair Extension Program that addresses video issues on some late 2013 Mac Pro models, according to an internal notice obtained by MacRumors.

Apple has determined that graphics cards in some late 2013 Mac Pros, manufactured between February 8, 2015 and April 11, 2015, may cause distorted video, no video, system instability, freezing, restarts, shut downs, or may prevent system start up.

Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider will repair eligible Mac Pro models affected by the video issues free of charge until May 30, 2018. Apple lists a turnaround time of about 3-5 days.

Apple says both graphics cards must be replaced on Mac Pros exhibiting any of the problems listed above. AMD's FirePro D500 (high-end model) and D700 (built-to-order) GPUs are affected. AMD's FirePro D300 GPU on the base Mac Pro is not listed.

Customers can book an appointment with the Genius Bar at an Apple Store or visit an Apple Authorized Service Provider to determine if their Mac Pro is eligible for coverage. Unlike Apple's voluntary recall of some international AC wall adapters last week, Apple is unlikely to publicly announce this repair program on its support website, but it may contact some customers directly.

A lengthy Apple Support Communities topic was posted about Mac Pro video issues in February 2015, and it has since amassed nearly 3,500 views and 50 replies from affected users. One customer claimed Apple agreed to replace his Mac Pro's graphics card after he contacted the company's support team about the issue.

Apple also launched a repair program for 2011-2013 MacBook Pros with video issues in February 2015.

Article Link: Apple Launches Repair Program for Late 2013 Mac Pro Video Issues

[doublepost=1512855860][/doublepost]Hi All,

I want to share my positive experience with you. I have a 2013 MacPro with D300 graphics card and I had been suffering from constant freezes. I contacted Apple Support and they really went out of their way to help me. Over the past few weeks, they contacted me several times including on Sunday to make sure they get the information they needed to diagnose the problem. The issue is still getting resolved but I just wanted to convey how impressed I am with the level of customer service they provide.

Cheers,
BA

 

[nikon3312000]

Three months from end of support on the recall and Apple refuses to fix my issue. They ran all kinds of test at Apple store and passed brought back home and freezes/shuts down will not power on with out in plugging/ strange graphical glitches on screen. Apple has the worst support I keep getting the run around saying either the store or phone support handles this issue. Will not be buying the new model when ever the hell it comes out.

 

[dieter12]

I habve just got 2 MacPros 6.1 (both from 2014, both D700). One works fine and the other just reboots after a few minutes. How does I see, if the D700 GPU was replaced?
Thanks
Dieter