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btown

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 11, 2012
2
0
I have seen quite a lot of issues like this with older model MBPs, but mine appears to be just outside of that 2007 - 2008 range with the faulty graphics card. This is a description I posted on another forum. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated -

I have a Macbook Pro (A1278, 13in) that I purchased new in July of 2009. When I bought it, I upgraded to 4GB of RAM, but rarely used it for more than occassional web browsing, movies, music, etc. I never put an intensive workload on it. In the 3 years I've had it, I've never had the first problem or issue. Until Sunday night, that is. Oh, and it is out of warranty.

I was browsing the internet, and the computer was running off battery power (not plugged in) when after about an hour of usage it appeared to have died. No low battery warning, just sudden blank screen.

I plugged it in, tried to turn it back on, and nothing. So I let it sit there over night, and tried messing with it some more last night. Here is a description of what it does when it is fully powered off to being powered on:

Sleep light comes on for a few seconds, in that time I hear the DVD drive kick on and can feel the harddrive spin. After a few seconds, the sleep light goes off and everything seems to shut down. That lasts for a second or two until the sleep light comes back on, and with it I can hear the DVD drive and hard drive working again and it will stay "on" for as long as I leave it.

During that whole process, the screen never comes on. No booting chime, nothing on the screen and the apple logo never lights up whether the screen is open or closed.

If I press the caps lock key, the green light does not toggle on and off. Also, the hot keys at the top of the keyboard for volume control, etc, do not seem to work.

I did load a blank DVD in the drive. The drive fed it in like normal, and I could hear it spinning the disc. However, when I tried to eject the disc using the eject key on the keyboard, it does not respond.

I have tried every single trouble shooting method I've been able to come across online. The problem is, I don't think it ever actually fully shuts down or boots up.
I have not called Apple support, because I've already tried just about anything and everything they'd tell me to do, except take it into an Apple store to be looked at further.

At this point, I have literally tried everything I can think to do and I've tried everything others online have recommended. I am sure this is a hardware problem. My question to you guys is, what sort of hardware problem do you think it is?

Graphics card, logic board or monitor?

The macbook is only 3 years old. Considering that apple touts itself as a high end product, it seems outragious to me that a logic board or monitor would need to be replaced after 3 years of occassional usage. If that's the problem, I'll trash the thing and go buy a PC.

I have read countless accounts online of identical situations happening to other people, but in all those cases, they were had slightly older macbooks with the NVIDIA 8600 video card, which was the root of the problem. In many of those cases, logic boards were replaced at no charge. Has anyone else heard of any more recent issues like this with new graphics card or logic boards? I have the NVIDIA GeForce 9400 (I think).

I am debating whether or not to take it to my local Apple store. I really dont want to pay them to tell me it's going to cost several hundreds of dollars to fix. I'd rather just use it as a fancy drink coaster than give Apple another dime in that case. However, if the issue may be fixable at a reasonable cost, or perhaps due to a faulty product in which Apple will fix at no charge (yeah, I know, long shot), then it might be worth my time to take it there.

What do you guys think?
 

btown

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 11, 2012
2
0
I agree that it is most likely the logic board, which is why I havent really wanted to take it into the Apple store. I dont want to waste my time and money just for them to confirm what I suspect and tell me it's going to cost way more money to repair than I am willing to spend.

I guess my question is, why would the logic board go out like that? Aren't these suppose to be durable machines? After only 3 years of casual use, and now it's just a paper weight. It seems like it would have to be a faulty part, but even so, would that matter to apple if it's out of warranty.

I'm pretty aggravated by this, and I feel like this is unacceptable and something Apple should fix. Imagine buying a brand new car and the engine blows up after 25,000 miles. Someone would pay.

So what are the odds that this is something attributable to a known faulty product or defect that would cause Apple to want to fix this out of the kindness of its own heart?

Slim to none, or less than that?
 

Interstella5555

macrumors 603
Jun 30, 2008
5,219
13
I agree that it is most likely the logic board, which is why I havent really wanted to take it into the Apple store. I dont want to waste my time and money just for them to confirm what I suspect and tell me it's going to cost way more money to repair than I am willing to spend.

I guess my question is, why would the logic board go out like that? Aren't these suppose to be durable machines? After only 3 years of casual use, and now it's just a paper weight. It seems like it would have to be a faulty part, but even so, would that matter to apple if it's out of warranty.

I'm pretty aggravated by this, and I feel like this is unacceptable and something Apple should fix. Imagine buying a brand new car and the engine blows up after 25,000 miles. Someone would pay.

So what are the odds that this is something attributable to a known faulty product or defect that would cause Apple to want to fix this out of the kindness of its own heart?

Slim to none, or less than that?

They won't charge you anything without talking to you first, though your sense of entitlement is a little off putting.
 

killerrobot

macrumors 68020
Jun 7, 2007
2,239
3
127.0.0.1
You should feel lucky getting three years out of a logic board from Apple.:p I've already had mine replaced once and I'm waiting for another one to be sent to replace the replaced one. Two new logic boards in a little over a year.:eek:

Computer parts go bad and IMO the over-paced and high production demand for Apple has lead to more and more reliability issues over the last few years with their notebook line. I understand your frustration because it's just out of warranty but that's how electronics work sometimes.

Check out ifixit.com and look at the logic board replacement instructions and maybe you can save some cash buying the part and replacing it yourself.
 

whoknows87

macrumors 6502a
Aug 8, 2012
676
31
S.Florida
doesn't boot up or chime at all, sounds like a logic board issue and that's what Apple will say,they can run a diagnostic if it will read anything not sure, they offer a flat repair fee of $300 I believe for Out of warranty repairs
 

whoknows87

macrumors 6502a
Aug 8, 2012
676
31
S.Florida
I agree that it is most likely the logic board, which is why I havent really wanted to take it into the Apple store. I dont want to waste my time and money just for them to confirm what I suspect and tell me it's going to cost way more money to repair than I am willing to spend.

I guess my question is, why would the logic board go out like that? Aren't these suppose to be durable machines? After only 3 years of casual use, and now it's just a paper weight. It seems like it would have to be a faulty part, but even so, would that matter to apple if it's out of warranty.

I'm pretty aggravated by this, and I feel like this is unacceptable and something Apple should fix. Imagine buying a brand new car and the engine blows up after 25,000 miles. Someone would pay.

So what are the odds that this is something attributable to a known faulty product or defect that would cause Apple to want to fix this out of the kindness of its own heart?

Slim to none, or less than that?

I've had a similar issue with my MBP Mid 2009 Model also, but mine booted up couldn't interact with the HD at all, I did the HD replacement myself to save $200 Apple would've charged me, fixed the issue to a certain extent but not entirely , narrowed it down to the HD Cable, they confirmed it 24 hrs later they called me saying it's a logic board issue ( I didn't buy it I told them I'll pick it up no thanks for offering me the $300 repair, when I went to pick it I expressed my extreme frustration with all the misdiagnoses and that I was sure it's the HD Cable and if it's a logic board ( just like you mentioned) I don't expect an Apple product to fail within 2-3 years it should last more than that, your paying for a high quality supposedly durable product , all I got was you know nothing is a 100%, computers can fail blah blah, they replaced the HD Cable for me and never bothered taking it out ( maybe they were banking on me to go for the $300 repair) I took it back home and decided to give it a shot one more time, this time it worked everything was a 100% after all it was the HD Cable that's the only thing that makes sense, went back and schooled the manager on the issue , they apologized and gave me a 10% Coupon card lol ( they also tried telling me that replacing my HD voids the warranty which is totally wrong you can replace your HD and Memory as long as you dont damage any other parts ,which I didn't I helped narrow down the cause of the problem not exacerbate it
take it to them, stand your ground , be polite and see what they say, your situation is a bit different from all the troubles I went through sounds like you might have a logic board issue :( Good Luck
 
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