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Apple Launches Repair Program for Late 2013 Mac Pro Video Issues

wizard said:
...some bad GPU cards got to customers Considering that cards manufactured outside the recall dates are fine...
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You'd be right if his was true, but in reality this definitely is not limited to either the dates or card types mentioned in the article. Mine was built after the date given, and has D300 cards which are not covered, but even after 2 replacement cards I've still not got a reliable machine.
 
I have one of these AMD HD 5770 graphics cards in an earlier Mac Pro and I've only had this problem recently since El Capitan. Technically it's not a shipped graphics card for my Mac Pro, but the drivers are in El Capitan as well as back to Mavericks since it was an optional graphics option.
 
wizard said:
The towers do take the stress very well from what I can see. In this case the problem is limited to to two different GPU boards for a very short time span. This indicate a high probability that a bad set of chips worked their way into production and failed in the field. Consider two different GPUs where impacted it might be a problem with RAM.

It really doesn't prove anything beyond the fact that some bad GPU cards got to customers Considering that cards manufactured outside the recall dates are fine, there is nothing to imply an issue with the Mac Pro itself.
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While I agree the move to lead free solder is a prime example of governmental stupidity, you can't blame this on the solder given what we know at the moment. It could be but it could also be lots of other things. Given the tight recall period I'm leaning towards a batch of flaky components possibly RAM or maybe capacitors.
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What about the 2011 and 2011 15” MacBook Pros?
 
[QUOTE/]
Apple could have released a Haswell update to the Mac Pro. They could have released a model updated graphic cards and storage. But I think to some degree they keep postponing the update because there is always something new they could include if they wait another six months, so they wait for that.
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Design a thermal core to cool two big graphic cards and then best release an external graphic housing that is noisy.[/QUOTE]

That
ppcebay said:
The fact that your company still buys it means they still see the value (and why it si not ridiculous) in it and that is why Apple can get away with it, their machine are worth the price even few years down the road, you can't say the same thing about "equipment from multiple companies".
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Incorrect. We see value in iOS. To develop for iOS we need OSX and to minimize hardware deployments we're going with a MacPro.
 
garirry said:
There's absolutely nothing wrong with the trash can design, if that's what you meant.
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Because no one wants to upgrade the GPU, use existing PCIe cards, or install large-capacity hard drives, without expensive and bulky external enclosures. Is that your reasoning?

I think the trash can design has its strengths, but I won't agree there's absolutely nothing wrong with it, especially while my 9-year-old Mac Pro sits here with 1 SSD, 4 HDDs, 2 ODDs all inside the case and out of the way.

If only Apple would sell it alongside the tower design like they did with the G4 Cube. But it would probably fail for the same reasons the Cube did...
 
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PinkyMacGodess said:
I owned a car that had a recall, and I had sold it. I got several cars, and ended up going to the dealer and telling them about it. They chuckled, and told us that Toyota had to do last owner notification, and that was all. They took my name off the vehicle. Funny that I had bought another Toyota, and logged in to their buyer site, and they had the information on the next owners of that truck, and they contacted me?

Why me? They had the probable current owner in their buyer records, and the contacted me?

Yeah, they try hard...

My new Toyota had an option that mine never had. Toyota hounded me three times to get me to 'bring it in to be serviced'. I finally went to the dealer and told them. I got one more card, and they finally stopped.

The car recall system is rather far from being even moderately useful...

Heck, one car I owned, a Toyota again, had a recall, and I didn't find out about it until I went online, and happened on the news that some Toyotas were recalled, and saw my model in the list. I went to the dealer and they asked, and checked. Yep, Toyota had the right name and address, but I never got the notice.
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Obviously a benchmark for how not to do it!

Apple on the other hand, if they set their recall policy and ran their recall process like they do their stores and logistics would have customers grateful for a company that didn't try to minimize its recall costs by doing the absolute minimum necessary to avoid the risks of appearing so should they ever face a wrongful death trial.
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macpt said:
Apple's QA is abysmal. Is every model released going to go through a callback ?
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Even with the best DFMEA and PFMEA and supplier audits, rvery company makes non conforming product. Some even gets into the hands of customers. That is the nature of manufacturing.

The non conformance presents an opportunity to create a reputation for legendary customer support and satisfaction. There is no mystery here, the only influencing factor is a management decision to pritorize the customer over quality financials.

Apple squanders this opportunity with every extended warranty and recall program it launches. It squanders the opportunity on incidents too small to ever qualify for a recall or warranty extension statistically, or safety-wise.

Tim loves to crow about customer sat on products, "90%", or "off the charts", etc., but I bet if Apple did a deep dive on customer sat, for how these issues are handled, given customers that were informed of the current state vs the "real right thing state", the figures wouldn't be so bright.

One of the virtuous benefits of a "satisfaction guaranteed" approach is that it helps to drive down the non conformance incident rate as nobody wants to risk choosing an alternative that risks a higher failure rate.
 
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jblagden said:
They wouldn't have as many issues if the avoided AMD like the plague .
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Because Nvidia has never had similar problems? :rolleyes: (Because I had two different MBPs with Nvidia GPU problems.)

My understanding is that the D300/D500/D700 are versions of AMD FirePro W7000/W8000/W9000. Those GPUs had outstanding performance in -- mid 2012 (!) Too bad there was no nMP 2014 update - the W7100/W8100/W9100 are even better. (But, still high power.)

I see multiple issues here:

(possible) failure on AMDs part to make GPU card sufficiently robust

(possible) failure on Apple's part to provide adequate cooling. The D500 and especially the D700 particularly are very high power GPUs. When you buy a PCIe-based card from one of the card vendors (e.g. Saphire), a lot of extra effort goes into the cooling. These high-end GPUs can be almost 300W each. Is the nMP up for that much heat, plus the 130W-150W for the CPU?

Third-- failure to adequately support customers. This is a problem for the entire industry, and, my experience with Apple has been fairly good compared to other companies, but, Apple should be better -- you pay higher-than-commodity for Apple.

Also, I would like to see a four-year AppleCare option on Pro products, given the expected lifetime.
 
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jblagden said:
Yeah! This is why irreplaceable GPUs are a horrible idea. If the Mac Pro used PCIe, you could just go down to Best Buy for a replacement GPU. It also be good if the 15" MacBook Pros used MXM GPUs because it make them replaceable and upgradeable.
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I agree. I just think Tim Cook failed to admit this..and take money from us ...blah...he just failed to live up to what he was...COO...not CEO.
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macpt said:
Apple's QA is abysmal. Is every model released going to go through a callback ?
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Tim must have fired them.
 
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BruceEBonus said:
The Apple (Dustbin) Hoffman symbolised the end of thr.glory years. But still attempted innovstion by making itself literally recyclable. When it packed in due to overheating design issues because it looks like a trashcan you don't have to dispose of it. Because it can still be used. As a trashcan. Nown that's what I call forward thinking! :cool:
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You made my day! *ROTFL*
 
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It's unforgivable that Apple took so long to recognize and act upon this problem.

This is not a cheap computer; it's mainly purchase as a business investment, so imagine the trouble a bug like this causes when these kind of bugs affect productivity.

I'm glad I didn't rush into buying one!

Apple: You need to trust your clients, and solve hardware bugs much faster than this!
 
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Bring brand new

- Apple Mac Pro
- Apple Thunderbolt Display 4K 24-inch
- Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad

with Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.1 Type-C (reversible) Generation 2 (USB 3.1-built-in hub for keyboard).

Also the the rest of Apple devices (Mac and iOS). Bring standards.
 
shareef777 said:
Incorrect. We see value in iOS. To develop for iOS we need OSX and to minimize hardware deployments we're going with a MacPro.
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You agreed with me even if you said incorrect, the fact that your company choose the MacPro instead of any other mac still means they see the value in it, yes they need a Mac for IOS dev but no they do not need a Mac Pro so he fact that they chose it.....
 
shareef777 said:
Just realized. Someone that drops $3k+ on a brand new Mac in 2016 can take it home, unbox it, boot it up and when they go to "About This Mac" it'll say LATE 2013.
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Of course that is the first thing a real professional does. Going to "About My Mac".
 
mabaker said:
Of course that is the first thing a real professional does. Going to "About My Mac".
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My upgraded cMP says even "2009" - and I take it with a BIG smile.
Never had issues with it. Well-upgraded 4,1/5,1 get nearly as performant as the trash-can-styled GPU-toasters…
 
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Reason077 said:
This is what happens when you manufacture things in America!!
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I don't think the AMD GPU is manufactured in the US.
AMD has manufacturing plants in Taiwan/Mainland China and Malaysia, I think.

My guess is that because of Apple design priorities like compact size and silent operation the GPU is prone to overheat. That might be the reason of all the gpu problems history.
 
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My nmp was delivered on may 2015 and i have a d300 6core. And I have constant freezes. On the official apple forum https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7045057?start=90&tstart=0 one user recommended setting sudo nvram boot-args="dart=0x0" . Apparently it has something to to with intel's vt-d. And interestingly my freezing was not as intense as before. Usually I will get the GPU freeze every other day and sometimes twice in a day. But with the setting I could usually go for a handful of days before the GPU gives up.

If i every have a theory, some firmware caching layer could be up to no good. It would explain the unpredictable freeze. since displayport monitor uses digital instead of analogue.

Whatever the case, my nmp seems to fall out of the unofficial repair requirements. And I hope apple can realise d300s are having this problem as well. At least I can schedule my work time for the repair and hopefully not spend weeks with apple authourised repair people
 
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I'm visiting an Apple and get my 2018 MacPro today! I know Apple is so advance and manufactured their product in the future. :p
 
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