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leogets

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 12, 2009
10
0
Hello,

I (The actual purchaser was my brother-in-law for my sister not me as stated throughout) had purchased a MACBook Pro approx. 1 & a half years ago for a pretty hefty price through Kijji off of some person. It recently died. My friend told me to take it to a computer shop nearby to see if they could fix it. When I get it back, I notice that it use to have a 9600M video card and now it has only an 8600M video card. This unit has bootcamp installed with XP Pro on another partition. When the power adapter is attached, I can use it, but can no longer log into the MAC OS, all I get is a spinning wheel of death. I can log into XP but when the power adapter is removed, the unit just suddenly dies.
What is the problem here?

I was just thinking that because the video card is integrated, this computer shop had fixed the unit by simply replacing the motherboard with an older, cheaper model with a less efficient older video card.
Now if the motherboard had been changed, the HAL (Hardware applications layer) has also changed and is no longer compatible with that of the prior motherboard that had the 9600M video card and therefore, I can no longer log into my MBP and will have to reinstall the MAC OS. This is perhaps the same condition that the XP OS is faced with and that is why when the power adapter is removed the MBP dies.

What type of complications would I be faced with in the condition above where the original motherboad on the MBP had a 9600M video card and the new motherboard has an 8600M video card?

If the hard drive was left the same why can I no longer log into my MAC?
If the moterboard has been changed when the power adapter is disconnected should the unit just suddenly die like it does? Its as though the power adapter is not charging the battery or the motherboard is not realizing that the power adapter has been disconnected and auto switch to battery power, or there is a faulty inverter board on this new motherboard which does not charge the battery period.

The OS that is currently on and prior to its breakdown is Leopard 10.5.5

Need some help to figure this one out.
 

MBHockey

macrumors 601
Oct 4, 2003
4,050
297
Connecticut
This story makes no sense. You can't just swap video cards; they are soldered into the logic board. You'd have to swap entire logic boards. You should go back to the shop and ask them just what the hell they did.
 

jackiecanev2

macrumors 65816
Jul 6, 2007
1,033
4
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3Gs: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A293 Safari/6531.22.7)

MBHockey said:
This story makes no sense. You can't just swap video cards; they are soldered into the logic board. You'd have to swap entire logic boards. You should go back to the shop and ask them just what the hell they did.

+1. Either someone pulled a fast one on you and switched your machine for another, or your mistaken about which card you had.

However, IIRC, the 8600gt was pre-unibody, while then 9400m is unibody (and integrated, for that matter).
 

leogets

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 12, 2009
10
0
I know the video card is integrated into the motherboard. I'm now Not 100% positive the MAC that I took in to get repaired had a 9600M video card the last time I worked on this computer was say 1 year ago. Thats when I made the backup WinClone images before handing it over to the actual user of this unit. I was the one who installed the XP OS and downloaded the drivers for this video card for the bootcamp drivers I think worked (the install was a while back) but I figured the Nvidia drivers would work better its too bad I didn't keep a backup of these drivers for quick reference.

There are a variety of MACBook Pro's out. Earlier models came with the 8600M but this looked slightly newer with the 17" monitor and thats why I figured it might have had the 9600M; thats why it was a good buy at the time (but at the time I worked on it, the 8600 with a 128bit memory interface was a pretty good card for that time; the 9600M even better with a 256bit memory interface). Reason for editing.... The backup WinClone images were made July 2009 last year and the unit itself looked at least 8mths to a year old. Nobody ever wrote down the serial information which would have made this situation so much easier. Back then, I too had an Geforce 8600GTS video card in my desktop windows system at that time and back then, the card was pretty good for its time.

Is it at all possible to switch the moterboards from one MACBook Pro to another? And if so, what could the complications be? The MAC OS installed is Leopard 10.5.5; Maybe the earlier MBP models wouldn't except the Leopard OSX 10.5.5 only the newer models can handle it and that's why I can no longer log into my MAC. Does anyone know if Leopard OSX 10.5.5 is compatible with and can be installed without complications on the MBP's that use the 8600M video card? The log-in screen appears; I'm sure the password is correct but I cannot log in all I get is the spinning wheel of death.

I have a WinClone image of the XP OS installed on the MAC Prior to it becomming faulty. Does anyone have any idea of where to look or how to open/view the contents of a .dmg image file and then once opened, where to look for proof of what video card was in the system prior to it dieing and then being sent in for repairs? I've tried converting a .dmg to .iso but the contents are not viewable in windows using either ultraiso or mounting it to a virtual drive using daemon tools. The MAC right now is usless because I cannot log in.
 

MacModMachine

macrumors 68020
Apr 3, 2009
2,476
392
Canada
impossible

The motherboards with 8600m's ARE not in anyway shape or form interchangable with the 9600GT/9400m motherboards, there is no fast one to be pulled.

you either brought in a unibody , got a non-unibody back

or

you have mistaken what you had brought in

the unibody macbook pro's use the 9600GT/9400m and DDR3 , the non unibody's use 8600M GT and DDR2, they are IMPOSSIBLE to swap.
 

Vanarak19

macrumors 65816
Feb 18, 2008
1,060
32
This is a little funny because the 8600 was in the OLD design MBP, and the 9600 is in the new one.

Are you really serious? The whole machine looks different!
 

MBHockey

macrumors 601
Oct 4, 2003
4,050
297
Connecticut
haha, that's what i wasn't sure of and didn't have time to Google. You guys are right, they are completely different body constructions. The logic board from the pre-unibody simply wouldn't fit in the unibody casing.

Sounds like a troll post to me :)
 

leogets

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 12, 2009
10
0
The video card went dead on MBP and got sent in for repairs.

I have Leopard OSX v10.5.5 installed on a MBP with XP Pro on a bootcamp partition. If the hard drive was taken out of one MBP and placed into another with the same 8600M video card, should I still be able to log in to MAC side of things or would the Mac OS have to be reinstalled?
- And if/I am able to log in on XP Pro side, should the MBP be able to run without the power adapter attached to the unit?

If I can no longer log in on the Mac OS would you consider the unit as being fixed\repaired as long as the log-in screen appears?

If the power adapter is removed from the MBP while in use and then the MBP just suddenly drops dead would consider the unit as being fixed\repaired? This happened when in XP Pro didn't try to pull the power adapter while trying to log-in to Mac OSX side.

Because the hard drive might have been placed into a similar MBP does this mean the motherboards HAL's might be slightly different and that is why when the power adapter is removed from the MBP the unit just suddenly drops dead and perhaps reinstalling the OS for both the MAC and XP Pro on the bootcamp partition will have to be required to fix this problem? Or does this sould like the repaired/replacement MBP might have an issue with power supply on the inverter board on the motherboard that is resposible for charging the battery and that is why the unit/MBP just suddenly drops dead when it is removed from the MBP while in use?

Why would the unit just suddenly drop dead when the power adapter is removed from a so-called repaired unit\MBP?
 

cluthz

macrumors 68040
Jun 15, 2004
3,118
4
Norway
If your mac looks like this it has a 8600m GT:
mbpro.jpg

(silver keyboard)

The 9600m GT looks like this:
macbook-pro-15-uni-256.jpg

(black keyboard)

The different logic board won't physically fit, so a mixup at the repair shop is not possible.

(pics shamelessly stolen from lowendmac.com)
 

MikeinJapan

macrumors regular
Apr 23, 2010
205
0
Tokyo
If your mac looks like this it has a 8600m GT:
mbpro.jpg

(silver keyboard)

The 9600m GT looks like this:
macbook-pro-15-uni-256.jpg

(black keyboard)

The different logic board won't physically fit, so a mixup at the repair shop is not possible.

(pics shamelessly stolen from lowendmac.com)

What if he bought his MBP just after the unibody announcement when they were shipping the old 17" with late 2008 unibody components?

Did you buy your MBP in late 2008 (the date of purchase would help), if so you have the G1 unibody components in a older case and the dealer go confused and put the older 8600m logic board in by mistake. Am I mistaken?

EDIT after checking I am sure I'm wrong.
 

leogets

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 12, 2009
10
0
Would you consider this unit repaired?

The video card went dead on a MBP and got sent in for repairs.

This MBP has Leopard OSX v10.5.5 installed on it, with XP Pro on a bootcamp partition.
If the hard drive was taken out of one MBP and placed into another with the say same 8600M video card, should I still be able to log in to MAC side of things or would the Mac OS have to be reinstalled?
If the Motherboard was replaced in a MBP with another with the say same 8600M video card, should I still be able to log in to MAC side of things or would the Mac OS have to be reinstalled?

Should the MBP be able to run without the power adapter attached to the unit after you get it back from a Video Card failure and repair?

If I can no longer log in on the Mac OS would you consider the unit as being fixed\repaired just as long as the log-in screen appears?

If the power adapter is removed from the MBP while in use and then the MBP just suddenly drops dead would you consider the unit as being fixed\repaired? This happened when in XP Pro didn't try to pull the power adapter while at\trying logging in to Mac OSX side.

Because the hard drive might have been placed into a similar MBP or the whole motherboard has been replaced will this mean the motherboards power management schemes will not work correctly for use in Windows XP due to the motherboards being ever-so-slightly different and that is why when the power adapter is removed from the MBP the unit just suddenly drops dead and perhaps reinstalling the OS for both the MAC and XP Pro on the bootcamp partition will have to be required to fix this problem? Or does this sould like the repaired/replacement MBP might have an issue with the power supply inverter board on the motherboard that is resposible for charging the battery and that is why the unit/MBP just suddenly drops dead when it is removed from the MBP while in use?

Why would the unit just suddenly drop dead when the power adapter is removed from a so-called repaired unit\MBP when the unit was sent in for repairs of a faulty Video Card/Motherboard?
 

cluthz

macrumors 68040
Jun 15, 2004
3,118
4
Norway
The video card went dead on a MBP and got sent in for repairs.

This MBP has Leopard OSX v10.5.5 installed on it, with XP Pro on a bootcamp partition.
If the hard drive was taken out of one MBP and placed into another with the say same 8600M video card, should I still be able to log in to MAC side of things or would the Mac OS have to be reinstalled?
Yes you should be able to log in, no reason to reinstall.
Why are you running 10.5.5? Never used software update?
If the Motherboard was replaced in a MBP with another with the say same 8600M video card, should I still be able to log in to MAC side of things or would the Mac OS have to be reinstalled?
I believe you already asked about this
Should the MBP be able to run without the power adapter attached to the unit after you get it back from a Video Card failure and repair?
If it did before it should still do, sounds like a broken battery or the inverter board. Demand it fixed
If I can no longer log in on the Mac OS would you consider the unit as being fixed\repaired just as long as the log-in screen appears?
What do you think? Ofc not...
If the power adapter is removed from the MBP while in use and then the MBP just suddenly drops dead would you consider the unit as being fixed\repaired? This happened when in XP Pro didn't try to pull the power adapter while trying to log-in to Mac OSX side.
I'm not sure if you are forgiving, stupid or trolling if you even ask this question?
Because the hard drive might have been placed into a similar MBP or the motherboards have been replaced does this mean the motherboards HAL's for use in Windows XP might be slightly different and that is why when the power adapter is removed from the MBP the unit just suddenly drops dead and perhaps reinstalling the OS for both the MAC and XP Pro on the bootcamp partition will have to be required to fix this problem? Or does this sould like the repaired/replacement MBP might have an issue with the power supply inverter board on the motherboard that is resposible for charging the battery and that is why the unit/MBP just suddenly drops dead when it is removed from the MBP while in use?
This is hardware related, dead battery or as you suggest inverter board
Why would the unit just suddenly drop dead when the power adapter is removed from a so-called repaired unit\MBP when the unit was sent in for repairs of a faulty Video Card/Motherboard?
Yet again battery or inverter board.

Go back to where you got it fixed, tell them you are unhappy and are experiencing problems you never had before the repair, I'm sure they'l fix it properly this time.
 

leogets

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 12, 2009
10
0
Well here is the full scoop about this MBP. My brother-in-law bought his wife, my sister a second hand MBP for Xmas of 2008. The unit came with Leopard OSX 10.5.5 already installed and a bootcamp partition with Vista. She used it for a couple of months, but didn’t like Vista and would prefer it had XP. I’m pretty knowledgeable with Windows, but not the Mac. I decided to see what I could do for her. A little while later I had XP Pro installed in the bootcamp partition which was originally only 20GB. But seeing as how she is more of a Windows user than a Mac user, I decided at the time to increase this partition and split the 80GB drive that came with the unit almost in half and I backed up the XP partition (2GB Backup). I finished this in early July 2009 and gave it back to her.
She used the unit for approx. 5-6 months before it dropped dead. She says she has and could still use the MBP for approx. 2.5-3hrs. without a problem by battery power alone until it dropped dead. I took it to a friend. He tried another good battery in the unit with no success. This unit was dead (no start booting up etc...dead). She took the unit to a place where my friend usually goes for parts, computers, etc. They had the unit for quite a while (over a month) before finally getting back to her and then finally telling her that the video card was no good. How much to repair it? A whole week goes by… Finally the guy tells her $450. For another $150-$200 she could buy a brand new Windows type laptop/notebook computer with a full 1 year warranty that would do just fine for her needs.
She at first thought the price was pretty steep and told the shop man not to repair it as yet until she gets back to him.
About another week goes by. She phones the shop man to find out when she can come and pick it up because she doesn’t want to repair it. The shop man “it is being repaired”. Why are you repairing it when I told you to hold on until I got back to you? Don’t know the answer to this one.
When is it going to be finished so I can come and pick it up. Soon. Another week goes by and another; still no computer. Finally it is supposedly finished. She takes me with her to have a look at it and test it to see if it is in fact repaired. I have seldom touched this unit in the year that had passed. It has been out of her hands getting so-called repaired for approx. 5 months. She could not remember her Mac Password. I had set up the system so it would boot directly into XP Pro for her, so she seldom used the Mac side. I even had a hard time trying to remember it. Anyways, we are there to test it out.

I tried many passwords, but needed some time to remember her password that I had made up for her. We could not get into the Mac at that time; so what about the XP side. No trouble logging in. For something to do with the unit, I right-clicked on the desktop to select properties and immediately the MBP suddenly froze. I was forced to turn the MBP off. The MBP would not start up again period. Dead... So we left it for him to fix.

2 week later we return to test it out before taking it home. This shop man knew when she would be coming back in to pick it up. Now if you’re a repair person and someone is going to come and pick-up a “REPAIRED” MBP, wouldn’t you as a shop man leave it plugged in for at least a little while so the battery could get recharged and the customer could fully test the unit before paying the bill for the repairs to the unit?
While all this is going on, I’m looking for a laptop\notebook for myself for a lot of the jobs in my field are now out of town work, not much happening locally.

We get there to once again try to test it out. I’m pretty sure I have the correct password (but my memory isn’t what it use to be) but I’m still unable to log into the Mac. All I get is the spinning wheel of death, forcing me to turn the system off, twice. It’s like I typed in the correct password but for some reason I’m unable to log in. If it was the wrong password, it would immediately notify me of this and revert back to nothing being entered for the password, but this does not happen, just the spinning wheel of death pops up. Now I logged into XP Pro and wasn’t exactly too sure about what video card this unit had had. I right-clicked on the desktop for the properties of this unit’s Video Card, just for something to do on\with this unit. I first thought that this unit had the 9600M video card, but after a couple days I finally realized that due to the date of when I created the backups and by the looks\wears of the unit, it had to have the 8600M video card, for I now remembered that I, at the time I worked on this unit I too had an 8600 video card in my desktop unit running windows and it was at the time still considered a good video card. Anyways, seeing as how this unit had an 8600M instead of 9600M I moved the computer to show and shop man and get his reply. But a soon as I moved the unit towards this shop man, the power adapter pulled out of the socket and all of a sudden the unit dropped dead.

When the power adapter comes unplugged from the unit, the unit didn’t revert to battery power. Why? Your trying to tell me this unit is repaired. If it is repaired, I should be able to walk around with it; It should be able to run on battery power like it use to before it dropped dead.
As soon as the power adapter is removed from the unit the unit drops dead. This should as far as I can see not happen and therefore it is not repaired. My sister has 2 dogs which are constantly beside her and follow her around. Most of the time when I see her using the unit it is connected with the power adapter, but occasionally not. According to my sister, the dogs have pulled the power plug from the unit a couple of times leaving her using battery power until she notices it had been unplugged.

I had taken a half day off work to go with her to check this thing out. I was pretty peed off when first off she had told the guy that she didn’t want the unit to be repaired and yet, it supposedly is\was fixed as they seem to think. If this unit cannot run on battery power and must rely on the power adapter for its power, it must as far as I can see still have a problem. This unit now should not be classified as a laptop but rather a desktop unit. We left the unit with this guy.

Prior to it going in for repairs, my sister says she could use it on straight battery power for 2.5-3Hrs. without a problem. She wants back a working computer without defects for the amount she is about to spend on the repairs. Because of complications arising out of this matter between me and shop man, I can no longer return to the store. My friend is of Indian origin and so is this shop man, they are like friends. Now when I told my friend about what is going on with this unit he’s trying to tell me or say that these things have no bearing on the repair of the unit. It’s as if he is backing this shop man. It seems like we took in a Mac with a perfectly good battery and somewhere along the line they either switched it up for one that is no good or the motherboard they put in the unit has a faulty inverter board. Taking it back from them this way would seem like exchanging one problem for another. My friend as a hobby also fixes computers but most of the time it is software related. He has told me some stories about people bringing him their computer, and because the person that brought him the computer\laptop didn’t know much about them to begin with, he once switched up a 250GB drive for an 80GB drive and the person he fixed the computer for didn’t know the difference. So knowing this, what’s to stop this shop man from doing the same thing with my sister’s battery in this MBP!

The shop man as I found out a little later, doesn’t actually fix the Mac’s he hands them off to someone else to get repaired. So me yelling at this man for this b.s service was unintentionally misdirected.

??? How much should it normally cost, or how much would you pay to replace a MBP motherboard with the 8600M video card?
??? How much is a battery for the MBP with the 8600M video card?

My sister would have taken the unit back and paid for the repairs providing it was operational; this includes being able to turn the unit on and off without the power adapter being required. It should be able to run on battery power which to date after the so-called repairs, it does not.

The above is the reason I’m looking for people’s input about this situation.
 

pjcforpres2020

macrumors regular
Jun 21, 2010
110
0
Does it have Applecare still? If so, take it to an Apple Store, not some random hole in the wall computer shop that clearly hasn't satisfied you. Even if you don't have Applecare, take it somewhere else, even and Apple store.

Also, document everything, then sue the crap out of the shop for any and all money you have spent.

And remember in the future, regarding not just computers, but cars, and any other service you pay for, you get what you pay for, and do some research before dealing with somebody.
 

leogets

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 12, 2009
10
0
One thing I forgot to mention in the above was that they had a hard time to find the power supply for this unit (the first time we went to check it out), when it should have been with it all the time and with a lable or identifier on both but there was none. They tried to blame the first insident on the power supply, saying it wasn't the right one for the unit and they needed a little time to find it\the right one. The whole time I was using the unit the light on the power adapter stayed a constant red. Never changed to green to say it was charging the battery like it use to. My guess to this whole shamble is that they're either trying to pass me off a replacement motherboard with a faulty inverterboard on the motherboard (Number 1 choice), or the power adapter that they are using is no good which after 2 weeks of waiting for it (I would place this last on the list), they switch the good battery that was in the unit for a bad one (2nd last), or the unit is a whole different one from the one we took in to be repaired (2nd choice, only because of the infractions on the monitor on the left side of the screen; when I showed my sister them she didn't see them there before).

Note to remember: When you take a laptop\notebook in for repair to some small computer shop always write down the serial number, open the unit as if you were cleaning it, Put little special markings on your removable hardware and battery and power adapter. Take pictures of these. They are your proof of your unit and what you had in your unit. Verify that you get the same pieces back after the repair.
 

l.a.rossmann

macrumors 65816
May 15, 2009
1,096
372
Brooklyn
Those posts were way too long winded for me to read all the way through, so forgive me if what I am saying is based on false assumed information.

It sounds like the little cable that goes from the battery piece to the board may have not been popped back in all the way. It isn't as strong as the slide in piece used on the newer models.
 

leogets

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 12, 2009
10
0
Thanks for this information, I'll pass it along if I can. But these techy guys who have been working on the unit should have figure to try this one out a long time ago
It sounds like the little cable that goes from the battery piece to the board may have not been popped back in all the way. It isn't as strong as the slide in piece used on the newer models.

I get what you mean about
if what I am saying is based on false assumed information.
The information is not false about the power adapater my sister was there nor the fact that it never changed from red when it was connected to the MBP, nor the fact than when it was diconnected from the unit, the unit would drop dead. As to why this happens is assumptions. I don't know I'm only trying to figure this out. So thanks again for the information.

I'm not a mac user I'm a windows user for a very long time, never ever touched a mac in my life until my sister got this MacBook Pro. Just trying to create a usable backup of the Vista installation on it was tough enough before attempting to Install XP on an 80GB drive, 60GB for Mac OSX 46GB used 14GB Free and Vista Partition 20GB with 3GB Free.
 

leogets

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 12, 2009
10
0
The way this has worked out:
wow, um you really should go to a authorised mac service centre.
You are defenately right.

I was just thinking that maybe the best place to ask "would you consider this unit repaired" would be to get the answers directly from one of these authorized mac service centre representatives. This thing is more head aches that it is worth. Best to forget it and move on.
 

cluthz

macrumors 68040
Jun 15, 2004
3,118
4
Norway
The 8600m GT is replaced for free by apple because it was prone to fail.
Even if they doesn't physically fixed the machine at the shop, they still sell the service, and are responsible for your machine getting fixed.
 
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