Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

New MacBook Pro's have bad nVidia chips says Inq

bluefiberoptics said:
And I JUST purchased a Macbook Pro Unibody... :(
Click to expand...

I wouldn't worry. If this is indeed an issue affecting a large portion of unibody MBP's, I have no doubt apple will take care of it asap - after all they just released the Unibody MBP's - the last thing they want is bad press over this - IF its an issue.

Just sit back and enjoy your new unibody - i have been. :D
 
CrownSeven said:
I wouldn't worry. If this is indeed an issue affecting a large portion of unibody MBP's, I have no doubt apple will take care of it asap - after all they just released the Unibody MBP's - the last thing they want is bad press over this - IF its an issue.

Just sit back and enjoy your new unibody - i have been. :D
Click to expand...

Yea dont worry at least apple has acknowledged the problem.
 
You would have to be pretty thick to believe anything the Inq says re: Nvidia.

Was it not the inq who said every single 8 series GPU, Desktop or Laptop would fail? Indeed it was.

I hate Nvidia as much as the next man with sense, but some of the things the inq have said are downright slander.
 
CrownSeven said:
I wouldn't worry. If this is indeed an issue affecting a large portion of unibody MBP's, I have no doubt apple will take care of it asap - after all they just released the Unibody MBP's - the last thing they want is bad press over this - IF its an issue.

Just sit back and enjoy your new unibody - i have been. :D
Click to expand...

I've been enjoying mine.

Actually, I played Crysis via bootcamp and Windows XP the other night for about an hour. I noticed my Macbook Pro getting hot but I never got the black screen of death.

As a lifetime PC user..I couldn't be happier with my new late 2008 model Macbook pro.
 
MH01 said:
The problems he describes are really simple to replicate. Nothing to do with Charlie having it in for Nvidia. If you have a new MBP...

Install Vista via bootcamp and jump into some games. There are plenty of posts on this. Myself for one can get a Black screen of death within 15 min playing world of warcraft. Sometimes it takes 5 min, other times it takes 15 min.

I have replicated it on a 2.8 and a 2.53. Basically they overheat. I have even had it crash in OS X.

Just google black screen of death, and see how many hits you get.

Here is a thread on apple's support site.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8554489
Click to expand...

This has nothing to do with what he's trying to prove. His article isn't about fans not spinning up and games crashing in Windows. He's trying to prove that the parts will fail... die... etc.
 
From the look of it, it seems the Inquirer is not trying to attack nVidia just to do it. They actually have evidence that the material used in the new GPUs will lead to overheating or whatever it is people are talking about.

I certainly hope that is not the case, but why would the Inquirer stir up trouble for no reason? (Ok, maybe hits)
 
ManWithhat said:
I'm using Vista x64 and am getting freezing (not black screen) doing non-graphical things (like browsing or word processing). I don't think it's 9600 related.

On the OSX side of things, I have never had a hint of a problem even with long Spore, WoW, and Call of Duty 4 play sessions.

Cheers.

Edit: Which Vista are you guys running? 32 or 64-bit?
Click to expand...

I use vista 64 bit and used to get freezing while browsing until I changed out the video card drivers. Uninstall the nvidia drivers that come with bootcamp and get the ones from www.laptopvideo2go.com for 64 bit.
 
this clearly doesn't effect all models. I have vista on bootcamp, and have played both the new tomb raider and WoW on it, for well over the 15minutes given (more like hours), and I had absolutely no problems at all.

I love how if this was acer/dell and a laptop had problems, it'd be a one off, but because its apple, EVERY SINGLE CARD is defected; what a load of crap.
 
Its all well and good to dismiss INQ's article to make yourself feel better but i think its important to keep the article's claims in mind. When the story broke about the 8600GT everyone was like 'yeah right...no way...BS' until a select few started having issues (and numbers grew) and eventually...Apple/Nvidia came out of the closet

Remember just because your computer isn't exhibiting symptoms after gaming a bajillion hours doesn't mean its not bad...it also doesn't mean its not good either...for your usage pattern. Some MBP Classic owners here have had their cards fail without any warnings/symptoms.

At the end of it all whats gonna happen is, IF it (GPU) breaks/dies and you're under warranty...you'll get a fix and repeat cycle until you're out of warranty
 
There has been a lot of problems in the MacBook/MacBook Pro area. Why don't Apple's other products have defects too?
 
Battlefield Fan said:
hopefully nvidia and apple address this issue.
Click to expand...

If Apple has adjusted their production to account for the difficulty in getting the solder to flow correctly, it shouldn't be a problem.

Though I thought nvidia said they have transitioned to another solder already.

And I don't see them shipping old pre-transition stock to Apple anyhow.

I'm quite sure Apple was pulling new boards for X-Ray analysis to make sure the new board production doesn't run into an improper solder flow issue again.

---

If the GPUs fail, it'll be piss-poor GPUs at fault, not nVidia failing to properly notify their clients of the manufacturing methods required.
 
it's not in their interests to be open about this!

I bought a powerbook 17" and got vertical lines appearing in it. I looked it up on google, and thousands of others did as well... most were after warranty expired. Turns out iMac 17", had the issue and was redesigned to make screen user replaceable (!)
It's been a while, dell, HP, toshiba, all admitted it, and covered the warrantees for another few years..... but Apple did not. A well know LG LCD issue.

I want to buy a new Macbook Pro, I figured LED would be a good idea. I noticed the massive defects reported, in video chips. From May 2007 - sept 2008 all 15 & 17" models, in october Apple recognized the "issue". (after nVidia agreed to pay $200 for every repair - so zero cost to computer companies. ) This defect only appeared AFTER a full year of use.
The defect will happen to all 8600GT GPU's, the question is just when. Apple released some fan speed adjustment, and will replace it until your warranty is gone.... then.... what?

So, I have a well known documented issue, Apple says it doesn't know still... yet dell & HP, sony, toshiba, etc. all said the exact same part is defective....
Oh, I guess that Apple offers $329 + shipping both ways repair is a "deal", even though the part is like $180 new for me to buy.... I feel screwed!

Others have had unresolved issues as well.... and most are never corrected.
 
At first I dismissed it because it was Inq but after I read it I was surprised how well they presented their case.
 
Muler36 said:
I love how if this was acer/dell and a laptop had problems, it'd be a one off, but because its apple, EVERY SINGLE CARD is defected; what a load of crap.
Click to expand...
Did you actually read the article? Because it says:

"In the end, what you have is a massive cover-up that keeps affected customer s in the dark. Doing right by them would cost a lot of money, which says a lot about the reason for a cover up. Fixed parts with a new 'material set' - basically new bumps and underfill - were phased into production starting in mid-summer, and the old, defective bumps are being sold off slowly alongside the new."

It also goes on to say:

"Apple and Nvidia need to clearly mark which machines have the 'bad bumps' so consumers can decide for themselves. Given that Nvidia claims to be transitioning from high-lead to eutectic bumps, it is only a matter of time until the high-lead inventory is depleted, and the Macbooks are safe to buy."

At no point does the article claim that ALL of the new MBPs contain the defective high lead GPUs. Instead, they're saying that the crappy ones made prior to the switch in the summer are still being sold along with the new ones, and you have no way of knowing in advance which one is going to be in your laptop.
 
daneoni said:
Its all well and good to dismiss INQ's article to make yourself feel better but i think its important to keep the article's claims in mind. When the story broke about the 8600GT everyone was like 'yeah right...no way...BS' until a select few started having issues (and numbers grew) and eventually...Apple/Nvidia came out of the closet
Click to expand...

Oh I'm not dismissing it. As a matter of fact the INQ's articles stopped me from getting a pre-unibody mbp because of the 8600 issues.

At the end of it all whats gonna happen is, IF it (GPU) breaks/dies and you're under warranty...you'll get a fix and repeat cycle until you're out of warranty
Click to expand...

The new MBP's are a completely new product at the beginning of their life cycle. Therefore IF my video chip goes bye-bye - oh well apple will fix it with a revised board that will not have this issue. Those folks with the 8600 chips - if there's fails it most likely will just be replaced with the same defective product because Apple really has no incentive to actually pour money into revising the boards for a product that is no longer being made. Make sense?
 
Trying to play Dead Space on max detail at 1440x900 consistently overheated (black screened) my MBP 2.8. I had the problem once while playing COD4.

Turning the resolution down a notch solved the problem. I hope a more agreeable solution can be found later.
 
Its a shame when 3rd party components cause problems in a great product. Hopefully Apple will sort out those who are affected ASAP. Have many people been reporting problems with graphics?
 
I shuddered when Apple announced that it was going to use NVidia chipsets for its laptops.

When I was a Windows user in the past I had the occasion to own NVidia chipset based motherboards and NVidia gfx cards.
The motherboard was a pile of crap, they just couldn't release an IDE driver that wouldn't result in data corruption. The graphics cards were good but then their drivers became less and less stable and the vast majority of my crashs were caused by their graphics card drivers.
 
Sun Baked said:
Though I thought nvidia said they have transitioned to another solder already.

And I don't see them shipping old pre-transition stock to Apple anyhow.

I'm quite sure Apple was pulling new boards for X-Ray analysis to make sure the new board production doesn't run into an improper solder flow issue again.
Click to expand...

If nVidia are slipping in 5% of the old ones in all batch shipments, and Apple only check a random 2% of batches, then chances of catching them are very small. nVidia are either:

a) slipping in the old chips with the new batches, can claim this as a mistake, or within the 5% error markings of their output
b) the new chips haven't improved.

Somehow, b) is worse.
 
Ha!

My iBook G3 motherboard was replaced THREE times because the video chip would still fail on each replacement motherboard.

I finally insisted on and received a replacement iBook G4.

CrownSeven said:
Therefore IF my video chip goes bye-bye - oh well apple will fix it with a revised board that will not have this issue.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back