Apple says "liquid killed my 8600m GPU",

[quasinormal]

I'm not sure what to do with this. I've spoken to a apple representative who told me some liquid related damage had been found on the hard drive and under one of the fans. He referred me to the Genius team leader of the Apple store. The genius told me little more and seemed unaware of the 8600M GT recall. I stressed to him the proposition that I would still have a functioning machine, regardless of any problem with moisture ingress, if it weren't for the defective 8600M GT issue. He promised to get to me with more information but haven't heard back from him. I said i wasn't necessarily interested in getting my my machine repaired, but would appreciate further information about the actual damage- salt related or catastrophic liquid damage? I have since bought a 2011 13" MBP and my new 15" arrives next week, so i no longer need it. Still it would have been nice to give it away to a deserving recipient- most likely one new to OSX.

It fairly obvious that Apple is giving MBP with defective 8600m GT owners like me the run around. I'm in two minds about this. On one hand, I'm thinking of lodging a claim with our local small claims tribunal and on the other admitting defeat and dropping off the 3 defective MBPs i have to an Apple store for recycling. My natural tendency is to avoid the stress and accept defeat, but Apple's apparently deceptive conduct makes me angry.

 

[iStudentUK]

It fairly obvious that Apple is giving MBP with defective 8600m GT owners like me the run around. I'm in two minds about this. On one hand, I'm thinking of lodging a claim with our local small claims tribunal and on the other admitting defeat and dropping off the 3 defective MBPs i have to an Apple store for recycling. My natural tendency is to avoid the stress and accept defeat, but Apple's apparently deceptive conduct makes me angry.

The warranty is pretty clear- the water damage must cause the issue. For example, I have the white plastic MB and Apple would still have to repair the case if there was a crack (which is a well documented issue) regardless of water damage.

However, it is very hard to tell whether the water damage caused the issue with the 8600. Whilst the 8600 has a known fault, even a few drops of water can wreck a computer (even if everything seems ok at first).

If you got to a court the burden of proof is on you and the standard will be "on balance" (I assume Australia is similar to UK in that respect). Ask yourself- if you were a judge and someone came in with a water damaged laptop exhibiting a known fault what would you think? - I think would be a close call.

 

[moosaur]

It fairly obvious that Apple is giving MBP with defective 8600m GT owners like me the run around. I'm in two minds about this. On one hand, I'm thinking of lodging a claim with our local small claims tribunal and on the other admitting defeat and dropping off the 3 defective MBPs i have to an Apple store for recycling. My natural tendency is to avoid the stress and accept defeat, but Apple's apparently deceptive conduct makes me angry.

I -just- got my first Mac, so I'm not too in-the-loop as to repairs and the 8600m GT, but a friend (if I'm not getting my details mixed up!) had one with issues, brought it to the apple store and walked out with a top of the line 15in modern MBP as a free replacement. He then brought in all the other MBPs they had at work with 8600m GTs, and apple replaced them all, even the ones that hadn't yet had any problems.

Maybe different apple store folks treat it differently? (Lame, but maybe your guy just had something bad for breakfast!)

 

[quasinormal]

I have yet to hear back from Apple with any further information. Yesterday i pulled the thing apart to extract the drive. As they said, there was some form of corrosion on the hard drive. I don't think it was caused by liquid. I remember when i upgraded the stock HD to a 500GB samsung, i used sticky tape to the stick foam back to the hard drive. It was that satiny type of tape. I suspect that is what is the source of the powdery substance. There was just a bit of powdery stuff on the hard drive, but the screw hole in the chassis has corroded away- maybe a a chemical reaction?. Since i had the top case open, i decided to look under both fans. There was lots of dust, but absolutely no sign of moisture damage or ingress. The dust was dust. The hard drive was fine. It has been in a dodgy firewire enclosure for the last 12 hours transferring my info. I finally pulled out the logic board- again no sign of moisture ingress.

Below are links to photos of the underside of the logic board, the open bottom case with logic board, optical drive, HD, etc removed, and the powdery stuff on the hard drive.

The underside of the logic board.

The open bottom case

The powdery stuff on the corner of the hard drive.

 

[redsteven]

If you used the computer on the deck of the boat at all then I'd be extremely surprised if there wasn't any water damage... especially after having it for so long.

BTW I wasn't able to get your pictures to load.

 

[farmermac]

Dude I like your lifestyle. Garbage collector where you find macs, live on a boat in Australia. Sounds awesome

I freeze my ass 6 months out of the year and I live near corn fields

 

[HBOC]

I -just- got my first Mac, so I'm not too in-the-loop as to repairs and the 8600m GT, but a friend (if I'm not getting my details mixed up!) had one with issues, brought it to the apple store and walked out with a top of the line 15in modern MBP as a free replacement. He then brought in all the other MBPs they had at work with 8600m GTs, and apple replaced them all, even the ones that hadn't yet had any problems.

Maybe different apple store folks treat it differently? (Lame, but maybe your guy just had something bad for breakfast!)

I HIGHLY doubt Apple just would hand out new MBPs to folks with the "Classic" MBPs, especially ones that don't have symptoms of failure. It took me 2 logicboard failures, 2 keyboards, a new battery, a new Matte screen and it still acting up to get a replacement. I had to ask for one politely to get one..they didn't just hand me one.

 

[Macsavvytech]

I have yet to hear back from Apple with any further information. Yesterday i pulled the thing apart to extract the drive. As they said, there was some form of corrosion on the hard drive. I don't think it was caused by liquid. I remember when i upgraded the stock HD to a 500GB samsung, i used sticky tape to the stick foam back to the hard drive. It was that satiny type of tape. I suspect that is what is the source of the powdery substance. There was just a bit of powdery stuff on the hard drive, but the screw hole in the chassis has corroded away- maybe a a chemical reaction?. Since i had the top case open, i decided to look under both fans. There was lots of dust, but absolutely no sign of moisture damage or ingress. The dust was dust. The hard drive was fine. It has been in a dodgy firewire enclosure for the last 12 hours transferring my info. I finally pulled out the logic board- again no sign of moisture ingress.

Below are links to photos of the underside of the logic board, the open bottom case with logic board, optical drive, HD, etc removed, and the powdery stuff on the hard drive.

The underside of the logic board.

The open bottom case

The powdery stuff on the corner of the hard drive.

Your Links don't work

 

[quasinormal]

If you used the computer on the deck of the boat at all then I'd be extremely surprised if there wasn't any water damage... especially after having it for so long.

BTW I wasn't able to get your pictures to load.

I can't work out how to link to mobile me. How very unApple-like.

i have never used the MBP on the deck of my boat. It has always been below decks inside. It is not as if i'm on the open sea. I am in sheltered waters so sea spray is not an issue. I could detect no evidence of salt build up, leading to water absorption, when i dismantled it.

Dude I like your lifestyle. Garbage collector where you find macs, live on a boat in Australia. Sounds awesome

I freeze my ass 6 months out of the year and I live near corn field

It's OK. Sydney can get a little stressful if you let it get to you. Outwardly it has a veneer of sophistication, but essentially we Australians are little different from 50 years ago when pubs closed at 6PM and the spilt blood was washed away with hoses. This is reflected in our political debate. The difference now is that we have an extra 3 or 4 million people and we are poorer in real terms because we pay so much more for housing and we are much more materialistic. Many people seem to be nervous and stressed, and can act accordingly, because they are doing the peak hour/mortgage treadmill and there is a fear in the background that our housing market bubble will burst like yours did. Still we have nice surf beaches, a great harbour and we can be quite friendly people.

Where are you? Mid West US? Single? Interested in doing a swap for a year? I'd love to experience the US for a while. I can drive a tractor and have worked on lots of farms. My garbage job is easy, free from stress and well paid. We start early, but finish early. I found an iPhone 3G today in the garbage. i just charging it up now. It appears to work but is a little battered and is missing the sim tray. EDIT- Home button not working.

This is underside of the logic board. The 8600M GT GPU is top left with the conductive paste still on.

This is the bottom case with logic board, fans, optical drive and HD removed. Note the dust. By definition, dust must be dry. On the bottom, where the the left fan goes, you can see where i have moved my finger through the dust.

This is the powdery stuff, that i believe is disintegrated sticky tape i used on the rubber bumper when upgrading, on the hard drive and corner of chassis. Note corrosion of screw hole.

 

[Robbug]

I am almost 100% positive that is corrosion caused by contact with saltwater or other highly corrosive liquid. I work in a marine enviroment and could positively say that I have seen that style of deposit on all kinds of metal. It looks like a galvanic type corrosion. It also looks like there is some minor pitting in the aluminium chassie around the corner. Honestly if I were a tech I would assume that is the case too.

That being said - whether or not that caused the issue - dunno. It honestly doesn't take much to start a galvanic corrosion process.

Edit: the hard drive mount is aluminum correct?

 

[quasinormal]

There is no corrosion on the chassis or shell- only a powdery deposit that scrapes off. Galvanic corrosion explains the corrosion in the alloy screw hole by the stainless steel screw. The only corrosion is in the screwhole. Does the chemical composition of the disintegrated satin finished sticky tape i used to tape the bumper (this was missing when i opened it up) preclude it as a the substance that caused the galvanic corrosion in the screw hole?

But all this is beside the point. It has a failed GPU. It was a GPU known to fail, due to a defect associated with that chip and the maker of that GPU, Nvidea, had agreed to pay Apple for repairs to that GPU. Maybe the money has run out. My machine still had Applecare left as well. In the meantime i have bought new 13" 2.3GHz and a 15" 2.2GHz MBPs to replace this one and the Powerbook that I blew up with a faulty inverter a week or so after the other one died. I didn't want to- when the 2011 models came out i said to myself i'll get at least another year out of my 2007. After using the low end 13" constantly for the last week or two, i'd never want to use it again anyway. The battery life, speed, screen, form factor etc are brilliant, but I have had a bit of trouble with the wifi dropping out. Still, it would have been nice to give it away.

All I want to do is to speak to a person who knows categorically why my macbook was rejected for GPU repair. All i've spoken to are people who can determine little from the records, which are obviously inadequate. They promised to ring me back and they haven't. I've given them the address of this thread.