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Apple says some MacBook Pros affected by faulty Nvidia chips

bkeezy said:
Here's my thought, the previous gen 2.5s and 2.6s are going to go REAL fast. Currently you can get one in the clearance store with a student discount on the cheap. I say pick one up for insurance purposes before they're gone and you have 14 days to get your money back. Hey maybe you can make some scratch on EBAY when all the designers coming looking for matte screens.

If you keep it you can run the hell out of it every night and hope it goes within the 2 years or i guess jump on the NVidia class action suit... ;)
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That's what I did. I just purchased the previous gen on Amazon for what will be around $1440 after rebate. With shipping speed that should give me enough time to go look at the new model at a store and read benchmarks to see if it is worth it.

I'll probably go with the previous gen for now and then upgrade when Nehalem comes out. Hopefully Apple will go back to Matte by then.

First ever Mac by the way :) I just hope I don't have any problems with the GPU to sour my Mac experience
 
bkeezy said:
I thought the same thing and almost bought a refurb until I tried it yesterday for the hell of it and sure enough, $100 discount for students after clearance price...
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Is that a refurb or clearance? ...or is that the same thing? :D I logged on to the educational page and the clearance seemed to be exactly the same as they were on the regular page...is the discount added later in the ordering process?
 
Phrasikleia said:
Yes. All machines of the "Early 2008" generation are affected. ("Early 2008" means the generation that preceded the "Late 2008" two-tone models that have just been released.)
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Thanks. Well I guess im part of the crowd then. I play WoW a lot so i think that I might see something before others. Thanks for the info! :(
 
I just bought the old model MBP from Amazon on clearance pricing ($1444 after rebate). The question for me is after reading this entire thread, will Apple's system/fan updates prevent the issue from appearing on a brand new laptop or is the machine still likely in danger of failing no matter what? Like many others, I wasn't crazy about the new MBP design and lack of a matte screen and $1444 was just too good a deal to ignore (MBP at new regular macbook pricing with 2 firewire ports and a matte screen and only slightly slower than the new one and without the ugly black bevel).
 
MowingDevil said:
Is that a refurb or clearance? ...or is that the same thing? :D I logged on to the educational page and the clearance seemed to be exactly the same as they were on the regular page...is the discount added later in the ordering process?
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There is a refurb section and a clearance section in the apple store. But make sure you designate your "school" and get into the educational store then head down to the clearance section. I saved a $100 on the already $1699 clearance price (recently dropped) for a 15" MBP 2.5 Ghz. These are the same laptops that were priced at $2599 literally a month ago. Gonna have to figure out something with the video card if it doesnt die in 2 years tho :( guess ill make sure it does...

EDIT: I saved $200 after student discount off the clearance price, without discount it is still $1799, SWEET!
 
For those of you with the 128MB 8600M GT and a 2.2 GHz CPU that have had your logic board replaced under warranty do you wind up with the same specifications or do you get bumped to 2.4GHz with 256MB 8600M GT?
 
I just ordered one of these:

Refurbished MacBook Pro 2.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
15.4-inch widescreen display
2GB memory
200GB hard drive; 7200 rpm
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 512MB of GDDR3 memory
Built-in iSight Camera

I gather this is included in the problem list?
It's the first time I'm ordering a refurb. Does the 10% restocking fee apply on refurb products?
 
Is there any way to test the GPU to determine how it's holding up?

I've had intermittent graphical problems playing games but only rarely play games on the MBP and would not be able to replicate this problem in store if I booked a Genius Bar appointment.

The MBP is from June 2007 and had a Logic Board replacement within a month as the fans were running full blast the whole time and the Unit would not sleep correctly. This did fix those problems.

I'm assuming if I book an appointment, take it in (this is in Sydney, Australia) that they'll take a look and tell me "Well it all looks fine to me sport" :confused:
 
JoetheBastard said:
Does this effect my 2.6ghz 17" that I got in July 2008?
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I'm actually not as sure as everyone else that the answer is "yes".

Read my previous posts.

They specifically mentioned all 256MB products, but left the 512MB products to be covered under the umbrella of "all machines".

Since all machines means all machines, I wonder why they specifically quoted the 256MB machines, but not the 512's.

"Early 2008" machines can also mean all pre-Penryn MBP's manufactured in early 2008.

The 512MB 2.5, and 2.6 machines have been placed in a somewhat ambiquous category.

Reading between the Apple lines, and reading NVDA's "end of life" product claim, one could make the argument that the 512MB cards are among the "non-problem batch" cards.

They don't all fail, and some fail more than others.

The lack of mention of specific machines may mean that the 2.5 and 2.6 machines are possibly "less effected" than others.
 
DjAmTraX said:
Among the models affected are those that were manufactured between approximately May 2007 and September 2008. They include the MacBook Pro (15-Inch, 2.4/2.2GHz), MacBook Pro (17-Inch, 2.4GHz), and MacBook Pro (Early 2008).
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Victor, I think the reason why apple specifically mentioned all the Mid 2007 mbps by name and not the early 2008 ones is because they are quite certain that all of the mid 2007 machines are affected. By all I mean that part if not all the machines within all categories are affected. Since they did not individually identify the affected early 2008 mbps, one can assume that certain mbps are affected, the extend of which they can't identify. Which may explain why they would rather say "Early 2008" instead of pinpointing specific models just so to cover their base.

Your deduction may prove to be true. However from how I interpret it to be, I think it means Apple isn't sure of the extend of the damage, and how much of it is spread among all the models. Perhaps none among the 512mb ones, perhaps some or even all of them. They just ain't sure. Rather than conclusively and singly name them out, they just mentioned them generally so that buyers of these mbps can take note and check for themselves.

Without doing a survey/poll among MR, we cannot conclusively determine. But if even one of the 512mb buyers come forward to report a failure, I think all of us should throw caution that perhaps, the damage is worse than we think it is, and we should simply take it that all early 2008 mbps are somehow affected.

It is only human nature to hope, but sometimes hopes are just too optimistic at best.
 
coogee said:
Is there any way to test the GPU to determine how it's holding up?

I've had intermittent graphical problems playing games but only rarely play games on the MBP and would not be able to replicate this problem in store if I booked a Genius Bar appointment.

The MBP is from June 2007 and had a Logic Board replacement within a month as the fans were running full blast the whole time and the Unit would not sleep correctly. This did fix those problems.

I'm assuming if I book an appointment, take it in (this is in Sydney, Australia) that they'll take a look and tell me "Well it all looks fine to me sport" :confused:
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coogee, you can always bring your mac in and let the geniuses do a diagnostic. It seems, although I can't be certain, that Apple has a diagnostic app to determine the gpu failure. I did read this from a thread here.

So even if you can replicate the failure on the spot, it really doesn't matter. What have you gotta lose anyway?
 
thanks, just time and maybe hair i guess!
i will wait until it happens just one more time. i'm already on logic board #2 (re: sleep issue)
 
Victor Odin said:
"Early 2008" machines can also mean all pre-Penryn MBP's manufactured in early 2008.
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No. Apple is using the designation "Early 2008" for the Penryn generation that preceded the current two-tone line. It's a generation name, like "Gen X", chosen for when the generation was released; it has nothing to do with when an individual machine was manufactured.
 
bushbaby said:
I just ordered one of these:

Refurbished MacBook Pro 2.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
15.4-inch widescreen display
2GB memory
200GB hard drive; 7200 rpm
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 512MB of GDDR3 memory
Built-in iSight Camera

I gather this is included in the problem list?
It's the first time I'm ordering a refurb. Does the 10% restocking fee apply on refurb products?
Click to expand...


I ordered a refurb a few months back then caught wind of the update and they sent me a free Fed Ex shipping label to send it back for a full refund. I will admit some times you have to get the right person on the phone as per usual. Hey and now I just ordered the same thing new for $500 less! but thats another issue...
 
Well my SR 2.4 MBP shows signs of this issue. It has lines jump across the screen, occasional flashes, pixels bugging out etc. No complete graphics failure and it passes the test when I put in an Apple Restore Disk booted up with "D." Question is, and I think this has already been addressed sorry if it has, are they replacing defective GPUs with defective GPUs or has Nvidia and Apple fixed this problem?

I have read stories of people being on their 3rd or 4th logic board replacement because Apple is fixing a problem with a part that still has the problem. Also, I wonder if Apple will call my unit defective since it is passing that hardware test and it isnt a complete failure.
 
Bkeezy, that is what apple offered to do for me as well. After reading about the issue of the 8600 card, I decided I did not want to spend $2000 on a refurbed machine that has known issues. It's crazy, esp in this economy.




bkeezy said:
I ordered a refurb a few months back then caught wind of the update and they sent me a free Fed Ex shipping label to send it back for a full refund. I will admit some times you have to get the right person on the phone as per usual. Hey and now I just ordered the same thing new for $500 less! but thats another issue...
Click to expand...
 
Bobeder9 said:
Well my SR 2.4 MBP shows signs of this issue. It has lines jump across the screen, occasional flashes, pixels bugging out etc. No complete graphics failure and it passes the test when I put in an Apple Restore Disk booted up with "D."... Also, I wonder if Apple will call my unit defective since it is passing that hardware test and it isnt a complete failure.
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This is the first I've heard of this "test". What's supposed to happen if it fails the test?
 
It is just the hardware test included on your install disk that comes with the machine. I read somewhere on a forum about Apple not replacing if it passes these hardware tests. Then again, that was on a forum and could be fake.
 
bushbaby said:
Bkeezy, that is what apple offered to do for me as well. After reading about the issue of the 8600 card, I decided I did not want to spend $2000 on a refurbed machine that has known issues. It's crazy, esp in this economy.

I don't get how you spend $500 less for the same thing new...?
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Because the new prev gen (not refurbished) are on deeper discount now in the clearance store since the new versions came out. The first time I ordered my refurb a month ago, that i returned, it cost me $2000. The one I just ordered is the exact same thing, not refurbished, and cost me $1599. Sorry I exaggerated, it's actually only a $400 savings ;)
 
Just out of interest I looked up my GPU Specs in System Profiler from my Santa Rosa 17"MBP":

Graphics/Displays:

GeForce 8600M GT:

Chipset Model: GeForce 8600M GT
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0407
Revision ID: 0x00a1
ROM Revision: 3175
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Don't know what it all means but this is a MBP from June 2007, certainly seems to still fit the 'dud' list as per the Apple info.

Also, totally Off Topic, having had a Logic Board replaced my Serial Number shows as:

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro3,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP31.0070.B07
SMC Version: 1.18f2
Serial Number: System Serial#
Click to expand...
 
I just ordered one of these:

Refurbished MacBook Pro 2.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
15.4-inch widescreen display
2GB memory
200GB hard drive; 7200 rpm
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 512MB of GDDR3 memory
Built-in iSight Camera

I gather this is included in the problem list?
It's the first time I'm ordering a refurb. Does the 10% restocking fee apply on refurb products?
Click to expand...

I have the bought the exact same configuration brand new. I'm on my second logic board due to a bad GPU (replaced in July). But this one has been running with no issues for 3 months with no problems yet.
 
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