Graphics Card for 17 inch Macbook pro

[goosecoupe]

Alright so I've put this off for a long time.

Decided to finally fix my macbook pro.

It's 2.4ghz 17 inch Macbook pro. Not the unibody.

I edit films on there (I'm seriously not that knowledgeable of macs or pcs in general)

Graphics card I need is NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT but I can't seem to find it anywhere! Can I upgrade to a better graphics card for it? Are graphics cards interchangeable with PCs and Macs? Anyone know of a site where I can buy them? I tried Nvidia's site but it says to buy from Apple, looked with no success in finding it at all.

Also would like to upgrade my memory. I have two 256mb memory and want to boost this baby up to 2 GB for each memory card or even 4 GB.

And last but not least want to bigger hard drive for it too. If my memory serves me correct I can only go up to 250gb hard drive? But some websites say I can go up to 500 gb, is that true?

Since I can't really find the graphics card, am I basically screwed in that department and should just get a new laptop? Seems strange that I can't find a part that was specifically made for Macbook Pro.

Thank you

 

[mark28]

Alright so I've put this off for a long time.

Decided to finally fix my macbook pro.

It's 2.4ghz 17 inch Macbook pro. Not the unibody.

I edit films on there (I'm seriously not that knowledgeable of macs or pcs in general)

Graphics card I need is NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT but I can't seem to find it anywhere! Can I upgrade to a better graphics card for it? Are graphics cards interchangeable with PCs and Macs? Anyone know of a site where I can buy them? I tried Nvidia's site but it says to buy from Apple, looked with no success in finding it at all.

Also would like to upgrade my memory. I have two 256mb memory and want to boost this baby up to 2 GB for each memory card or even 4 GB.

And last but not least want to bigger hard drive for it too. If my memory serves me correct I can only go up to 250gb hard drive? But some websites say I can go up to 500 gb, is that true?

Since I can't really find the graphics card, am I basically screwed in that department and should just get a new laptop? Seems strange that I can't find a part that was specifically made for Macbook Pro.

Thank you

I believe the Logic board has to be replaced for the 8600M to fit. And I wouldn't bother with the 8600M, it's crappy GPU from Nvidia.

 

[Arie]

Alright so I've put this off for a long time.

Decided to finally fix my macbook pro.

It's 2.4ghz 17 inch Macbook pro. Not the unibody.

I edit films on there (I'm seriously not that knowledgeable of macs or pcs in general)

Graphics card I need is NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT but I can't seem to find it anywhere! Can I upgrade to a better graphics card for it? Are graphics cards interchangeable with PCs and Macs? Anyone know of a site where I can buy them? I tried Nvidia's site but it says to buy from Apple, looked with no success in finding it at all.

Also would like to upgrade my memory. I have two 256mb memory and want to boost this baby up to 2 GB for each memory card or even 4 GB.

And last but not least want to bigger hard drive for it too. If my memory serves me correct I can only go up to 250gb hard drive? But some websites say I can go up to 500 gb, is that true?

Since I can't really find the graphics card, am I basically screwed in that department and should just get a new laptop? Seems strange that I can't find a part that was specifically made for Macbook Pro.

Thank you

The complete logic board will need to be replaced, which is quite expensive. It might be easier and more worthwhile to simply purchase a new MacBook Pro.

 

[chrfr]

Alright so I've put this off for a long time.

Decided to finally fix my macbook pro.

It's 2.4ghz 17 inch Macbook pro. Not the unibody.

Are you certain Apple won't repair it for free? The graphics "card" (built into the main logic board, not a separate part) is known to be a problem on these.

 

[Adokimus]

Are you certain Apple won't repair it for free? The graphics "card" (built into the main logic board, not a separate part) is known to be a problem on these.

I believe that Apple has extended the warranty for this exact problem with the NVIDIA 8600M. Call the store, it should be covered. Also, if you use the forum search, there should be more posts on this. I think there's a really long thread that discusses the warranty extension for 8600M problems.

 

[goosecoupe]

What if I don't have the Apple Care? Would I still be able to get it hypothetically?

And I mean that be able to get it if they did extend their warranty.

 

[mdatwood]

What if I don't have the Apple Care? Would I still be able to get it hypothetically?

And I mean that be able to get it if they did extend their warranty.

Applecare doesn't matter if your graphics chip has the specific Nvidia problem. I wouldn't wait though because their extended warranty period does end at some point.

I had the exact computer you have without Applecare and had them replace the mobo for free because of the graphics issue and replace a bulging battery for free. YMMV.