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Help I am having a weird problem with my macbook pro

B

Big-Viscera

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 28, 2009
21
0
Yesterday I was working away at it when suddenly the screen freaked out, there was blocks of color everywhere and the mouse was acting strange (jerky, up was down, down was up etc etc) I had to hold down power to repair it.

When it started loading it froze the little circle in the middle stopped spinning and I had to restart it. then the same thing happened again froze. So I started it in safe mode then restarted again. This time everything was back to normal . But today again I was just using the computer when everything went all glitchy again and same thing, this time when I went in safe mode the screen darkened and a box in the middle said something was wrong and to restart my computer.

What's happening what could be causing this and what do I do!
 
I take a guess that you have the pre-unibody MBP with the GeForce 8600M GT GPU?

apple_macbook_pro_17_08.jpg


If so, the GPU might be dying. Contact Apple and set up a repair arrangement.

If it is not that MBP, maybe you can tell us what exact Mac you have.
 
I am not sure its a macbook pro from lateish 2008. Before they got all redesigned.

Yeah its the one in the picture
 
Big-Viscera said:
So I should ring apple rather than head round to an apple store or anything?
Click to expand...

As linked in my second post (warranty on machines with these GPUs):


Resolution

If your MacBook Pro is exhibiting any of the symptoms listed above, please take it to an Apple Retail Store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP) for evaluation, or call your nearest Apple Contact Center. Before visiting the Genius Bar at the Apple Retail Store, please make a reservation (available in some countries only).

So whatever you do, do the thing you're more comfortable with, as maybe you don't have an Apple Store or AASP in your area.
 
So it def sounds like the gpu then? It wouldnt be anything I put on my computer or anything, no software thats on there is messing about with it or anything?
 
I wouldn't be so quick to say it is the GPU

The GPU would only affect the screen. The dark box you described sounds like the kernel panic box (was it in different languages?). A GPU wouldn't cause a kernel panic, as far as I've heard at least. This could be many things, but it is not an application that you installed. If you have an apple store near you then take it there. There is a chance that you have a stick of RAM that is loose, I've seen that cause all sorts of weird problems, which are always associated with occasional kernel panics. The fix would be to simply pull out the sticks and reinsert them, if the problem were this simple.

The GPU issue that is described by those above caused screen aberrations, not system crashes. When the system acts up, the screen will act up with it, usually by going wonky or just freezing.
 
I hope it is under the warranty. Say it isn't any idea how much it would cost to get it fixed.
 
Yeah I got that panic box in all the different languages. This all came out of no where. I did the disc repair and it scanned and said everything was fine. I wonder what is up. I hope it isnt too much to fix or it may have to just stay broke.
 
I wonder what happened, it was working fine up until yesterday. If I have to say reinstall osx or anything, I have a time machine back up will that return everything back to normal?

I am gonna head down to the apple store on Monday to see what they say.
 
I have the MBP with the Nvidia geforce 8600m GT.

The video card did fail. Things got glitchy, and jerky. When I would open a finder window, it would take a few seconds, be very glitchy, turn white and then finally appear. Most likely your video card is failing. There were also vertical and horizontal lines on the screen

Most of this generation laptop video cards will fail. I have two friends with the same laptop, and size, and they both had their video cards fail.

Thank goodness for Apple Care. And thank goodness for Apple Care again when my battery blew up 2 months later.
 
Kernel panics on those machines definitely can be related to the NVIDIA GPU failures. I’ve seen it on several occasions (I repair them), and as long as the machine fails a simple test the Apple Store will run on it, it’ll be covered no problem.

jW
 
Ok me and the girlfriend are gonna head up to the apple store tomorrow. Just go to the genius bar thing right? what sort of things do they normally do to it to test it?
 
Well I took it to the genius bar. The guy did the scan and it showed that everything was working fine (except the battery, but I was well aware of how weak it was)

He said to attempt a clean install of snow leopard. I am doing that now, but when booting on the disk it is still glitching up and freezing. I am having no luck with this!

He said to erase it all and repartition the drive. I deleted the drive and it froze. I wonder whats happening!
 
Kernel panics are a sign of the "nVidia issue". I'd ask to have them run the test.
 
Well they ran a test then scanned everything like hard drive and everything. Everything seemed fine.
 
The new scan they run does not check for the NVIDIA issue. Take it back and insist that they run the NVIDIA diagnostic. It will mostly likely fail that test.

jW
 
There is a chance that you have a stick of RAM that is loose, I saw that you all sorts of strange problems, which are always associated with the occasional kernel panic.
 
I reinstalled the whole os after erasing the harddrive as instructed at the store. It seemed to work at first I was using it for hours with no trouble. Then earlier the screen saver started, froze and I couldn't get it back on.

Its weird nearly everything checks out, if the graphic card was at fault what is causing the freezing and the trouble starting?
 
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