Bad GPU?

[TehFalcon]

Uhm, so i am seriously freaking out right now. My MacBook pro may have just died.. I Got it 3 days ago (we are talking used here, its a early 2008). And Since i got it, it seems to have random shutdowns (more likely overheats), and went to sleep when i typed alot. I Was using it for 2 hours, and it has 15 minutes of battery left, So i got up to get the charger (we are talking 12 seconds here) and i get back and I'm playing on it still, (unplugged.) and suddenly it just died, shutdown, black screen, no fans, no hard drive noise. Plugged it in, reset the SMC, and still nothing when i press the power button. WTF! This IS the GPU Failing right? I Sure hope so.. I Scheduled an apple store appointment monday so i will be going this week, I am still in the 4 year replacement period, So i hope its the GPU, i wasn't getting lines or color problems except when lion loaded the login screen.. THIS IS A GPU FAILURE, RIGHT? Gahh.. I'm so sad right now..

edit: its been 15 minutes since this happened, and its now turning on.. Either way i am taking this thing to the apple store. Is my GPU Bad?

 

[alust2013]

GPU shouldn't have anything to do with that. You may have just been sold a bad computer.

 

[S.B.G]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4S: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Sounds to me like it's the battery. It's probably not calibrated correctly which is why it's shutting down on you unexpectedly. You ran it completely out of juice even though it's displaying some energy left.

I bet if you get a new battery all will be well again.

 

[EmbraceNext]

4 year replacement? Can you educate me on this?

 

[blueroom]

Doesn't sound like a GPU problem. Only way to find out is a trip to an Apple service depot.

 

[nebo1ss]

I think you are getting worried unnecessarily. If you get two hours out of the battery its not that bad. When a MAC shuts down because of low battery you can not just put the power in the turn it back on like you do with most windows machines. it takes a good 15 minutes before it will switch back on that is not unusual.

Calibrating the battery is not a bad idea but again I don't think you have a problem.

 

[jbrenn]

4 year replacement? Can you educate me on this?

Last Modified: September 07, 2011
Article: TS2377

Symptoms

In July 2008, NVIDIA publicly acknowledged a higher than normal failure rate for some of their graphics processors due to a packaging defect. At that same time, NVIDIA assured Apple that Mac computers with these graphics processors were not affected. However, after an Apple-led investigation, Apple has determined that some MacBook Pro computers with the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processor may be affected. If the NVIDIA graphics processor in your MacBook Pro has failed, or fails within four years of the original date of purchase, a repair will be done free of charge, even if your MacBook Pro is out of warranty.

 

[djhyro]

I had my MBP replaced a while back due to GPU, but for mine only the display was failing (system was still on, lights up and responding). Sounds like it is overheating though, which may not be too bad maybe it just needs thermal paste re-application or something.

 

[MadMac84]

My GPU failed once in my 2008 MacBook Pro. However, it would still turn on but have no video. If you're gaming on a 2008 MacBook Pro with a 8600m chip in it you're asking for the computer to die. My solution to keeping my computer running ever since the repair has been no games and keep SMC fan running the fans a little faster than normal. Excessive heat is what kills these computers, try and limit it.

 

[TehFalcon]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4S: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Sounds to me like it's the battery. It's probably not calibrated correctly which is why it's shutting down on you unexpectedly. You ran it completely out of juice even though it's displaying some energy left.

I bet if you get a new battery all will be well again.

Woo-Hoo! You were right! I Took it to the apple store, Nvidia test came back fine, (VERY surprising. Hopefully this mac will last me at least 2 years.), And so did the hardware test and genius bar test. Only thing wrong was the battery, So i got a new battery and charger and every things great! Thanks for all your replies guys!

 

[S.B.G]

Woo-Hoo! You were right! I Took it to the apple store, Nvidia test came back fine, (VERY surprising. Hopefully this mac will last me at least 2 years.), And so did the hardware test and genius bar test. Only thing wrong was the battery, So i got a new battery and charger and every things great! Thanks for all your replies guys!

I'm glad it worked out for you and wasn't anything major.