Odd MacBook graphics problem, any ideas???

[djwhiley]

Hi all,

This is my first post here, I am looking for some advice on an odd problem.
I have a 2008 Macbook Apple MacBook MB403LL/A 13.3-inch, with GB ram and Snow Leopard. The problem being when viewing video the laptop gets hot and the graphic become corrupt and duplicate video and create odd squares on the screen. The problem is temporary resolved by turning the screen off/on but soon comes back.

The problem occurs when booted into windows 7 on bootcamp only, in mac os it is fine

thanks

 

[cubeeggs]

It’s a hardware problem with the graphics card. If it’s under warranty, Apple will replace the logic board for free, but if it’s not, it’s probably close to $1000 to replace it.

 

[fluffyx]

If it does turn out to be a hardware problem, the out-of-warranty repair cost through Apple is $280. Not bad.

That'd be pretty unusual for the hardware problem to show in Windows but not in Mac OS. Have you tried running some graphics-intensive programs on the Mac side?

 

[cubeeggs]

Where did you find that Apple could replace the board for $300?

I've experienced a similar problem on an iMac G5 that started out occurring only when the computer heated up, but it eventually became stuck that way. A Genius at an Apple Store quoted a midplane replacement at about $1000, but some third-party companies can reflow the graphics card for much less. If it costs too much to fix through Apple, there may be companies that can perform similar service on MacBooks.