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Really Getting Fed Up With my MBP

M

MaxMike

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 6, 2009
487
36
For the past two weeks, I had been going back and forth to the Apple Store for issues with my MacBook Pro. The first week, they disregarded my statement that it was the hard drive and replaced my MacBook Pro's logic board. Since the problem came up again, they finally agreed to replace the hard drive the next week I went. Now for the third time today (this has happened in the past week), the screen goes to vertical blue lines across, and the audio from whatever I was doing begins to stutter. The only thing left to replace is the RAM, which I bought 3rd party. I ran memtest86 (runs inside OS X) and everything came back fine. Should I look to that as the last possible cause of my issues? :confused:
 
ayeying said:
That is a graphics and/or screen problem usually.
Click to expand...
Is it possible then that my new logic board is faulty? I have the Early 2011, and they replaced the board, and I'm pretty sure along with the processor and GPU. It hadn't happened for a few days, but I hope it won't come back. When I restarted, I had to let it sit for a few minutes. Because when I tried to immediately start it after a hard shut-down, it would stay at a blank grey screen (no :apple: or wheel) and the fans went to full blast.
 
Raise holy hell, politely but firmly, with AppleCare. Insist on escalation. This is unacceptable. Do this even if out of warranty.
 
The processor and GPU are soldered to the logicboard; in order to replace the logicboard they would have to replace the processor and GPU as well.

If the audio was fine I would say it was a screen issue, but it sounds to me like some type of logicboard problem, but it's possible it's a RAM issue. Just to be sure, try running your computer with the stock RAM it came with instead of your 3rd party RAM and seeing if it makes any difference.
 
If you're having graphics corruption, its almost exactly from the GPU or display. It's really hard to see the issue be related to RAM or anything else.
 
If it's still under warranty, call Applecare, mention what's going on, they'll tell you to take it in for repair, mention you've been having a number of problems, they'll most likely replace the entire laptop...

If you wait a couple months, they'll replace it with the new MBP's!

:apple::cool:
 
The only issue I'd have with this is that I can't replicate it. It is just random. So far in the past 3 weeks, I've gotten the new logic board, had to go back because my left speaker wasn't connected and serial wasn't put in, and then they finally listened to me about the hard drive last week, which came preloaded with Lion at the store. I'm gonna try my stock RAM, even if it means going back to 4GB instead of 8GB, and see if I have any corruptions. If it still happens, guess it's back to the store. And it would be great if I could somehow get a new one when Ivy Bridge gets released
 
Sounds to me like you have been unlucky, and they replaced a dud with a dud. You need another Logic Board, but I also wonder if the PSU is faulty, and could be responsible for frying the board?

Does it do this when running on battery as well as when plugged in?
 
I saw that you added new RAM. Bring the MBP back to factory condition and then change things one by one. Not that the RAM is doing some weird stuff. I have seen that with some cheap RAM from Fry's before. It thought it could help processing, not just storing info. Good luck.
 
Good lord. I hope they just end up replacing it with a shiny new one. That's very frustrating. I hope you get it sorted out. Don't give up though, these things can and do happen.
 
I vowed never to buy another Apple laptop after my 2007 one went south. I walked out of the room came back and screen was not working. I assume it was the graphics card and I attempted a bunch of restarts and apparently it was the logic board which went. This happened 1 month after Apple Care ran out. It is almost as if they put a time bomb in my machine just to scam me. The laptop fan was always making weird noises even after replacing because it ran so damn hot all the time. I could buy an iPad but never a laptop.

I am running with a Mac Pro 2008 now and now that it is getting a bit sluggish the ram upgrade price is beyond ridiculous for that model so I was looking at a new machine for a full upgrade. I look at the iMac which looks great because I need a new screen too but then they are so thin and I hear about heat issues and it just reminds me of my crappy experience with the Macbook Pro. The Mac Pro line looks like it is on the end and also I don't have the need for that performance anymore the iMac performance / budget is what I am after.

The Mac mini looks like a heat disaster too and also would be too little performance. What else is there? Windows. Oh Crap. Looks like I will be heading to windows again after 7 years OS X >< Not by choice really. I hate windows but yeah it that stuff is gonna work better why not.

To sum it all up. Get a Windows machine.
 
ayeying said:
If you're having graphics corruption, its almost exactly from the GPU or display. It's really hard to see the issue be related to RAM or anything else.
Click to expand...

Since the machine has an onboard graphics chipset that uses shared memory in addition to it's AMD it is possible to be the ram.
 
Ccrew said:
Since the machine has an onboard graphics chipset that uses shared memory in addition to it's AMD it is possible to be the ram.
Click to expand...

The one in the OP's sig doesn't use shared memory.
 
thekev said:
The one in the OP's sig doesn't use shared memory.
Click to expand...

Actually, the Early 2011 models have ATI Radeon graphics in addition to Intel HD 3000 graphics. I can't recall if I normally have it set to the integrated or discrete graphics when this happens as I normally use gfxCardStatus
 
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