So are all MBP owners with the 8600m GT cards screwed?

[iLog.Genius]

Following this thread for quite some time, and having my motherboard exchanged for the 8600 problem of my 2007 SR, I wonder if there is actually such a thing as a Rev2 motherboard.

Using CPU-Z I found that my 'new' motherboard is indeed a Revision A2. Are there forum members that have turned in their RevA2 motherboards as well?

Otherwise I'd have to burn this board down before september 2007 in order to get an extra two years out of my MBP. My motherboard has been replaced one year ago, but since then I noticed that my MBP runs much cooler since. Anyone share thise experiences?

As far as I know, you might have a "rev.2" board, but don't believe for a second that the GPU is different. Regardless if it's rev.2 or rev.3 or rev.x board, the GPU is still faulty and is proven by the numerous times other users have had their logic board replaced not once or twice but even three and four times.

 

[MKelleher]

Logic Board going a second time?

So as the long term readers of this thread know, I had the whole distorting video issue on my 17" 2008 MacBook Pro this summer and took it in to the Apple Store where the nVidia 8600m GT card failed their test. Apple replaced the entire logic board and everything was working fine for several months. I've been watching the PCIe Lane Width and it's been constant at x16, so I haven't been worried. Just the other day, though, I came back to this thread and read that sometimes the logic board can suddenly die without any prior warning. So I ran the Apple Hardware Test that came with the computer (both the short and extended tests). It detected the following error:

4SNS/1/40000000: TGOD

The last time I had my Mac in for repair, the Apple people left one of their Apple Service Diagnostic Disks in my optical drive. I ran that test too and got this message:

Temp Sensor - GPU0 Die Temp Test 1 - Failed - Sensor is reading above the high limit

Any ideas on what this is, and if this is somehow connected to the refurbished logic board they stuck in my machine? Should I bring it back to the Apple Store again?

 

[aimbdd]

Yep it means a temp sensor failed/ motherboard issue again... i would bring it back to apple.

 

[suburbia]

Going over this thread has me worrying again about my 17" MBP with the defective chip.

The CPU was replaced in the summer with another defective chip:Chipset Model - GeForce 8600M GT. One of the guys at Apple told me that I "wouldn't have any more problems because the chip is a new one"-- but it's obviously not, as clearly documented by the System Profiler.

With my AppleCare ending this month, should I be concerned it's just a matter of time before my MBP's CPU fails again-- this time with no AppleCare support...?

 

[MKelleher]

Going over this thread has me worrying again about my 17" MBP with the defective chip.

The CPU was replaced in the summer with another defective chip:Chipset Model - GeForce 8600M GT. One of the guys at Apple told me that I "wouldn't have any more problems because the chip is a new one"-- but it's obviously not, as clearly documented by the System Profiler.

With my AppleCare ending this month, should I be concerned it's just a matter of time before my MBP's CPU fails again-- this time with no AppleCare support...?

It doesn't matter whether or not you have AppleCare. Apple announced that if the GeForce 8600M GT fails, it will replace it (and the entire logic board, because it's soldered on) for free for up to four years from the date you bought your computer. So if it fails again, they will replace it free again (whether or not you have AppleCare). They replace it with the same problematic chip, as there's nothing else to replace it with. So basically you get your laptop back with another ticking time bomb in it. Supposedly people have said that after 3-4 dead chips, Apple gives you a new laptop instead.

What I'm curious about with people here is, when you bring in your laptop and they ship it off to Texas or wherever they ship it, don't you worry about your personal data. Humans are humans, after all, and I don't like the idea of Apple technicians being able to go through all the stuff on my hard-drive. So I usually wipe it and reinstall the OS before giving it to them. And when I get it back, I do the same thing (I don't like the idea of somebody being able to stick spyware on it). Call me paranoid, but to me, computers are like toothbrushes -- I don't like to share them with other people.

Which makes this whole process of bringing in this defective laptop just to get another defective chip in it (albeit one that hasn't failed yet) so horrible!

I've yet to meet anybody who's had this chip who has not had it fail. It's only a matter of time. Make sure you have a good back up of all your data.

 

[Zorn]

What I'm curious about with people here is, when you bring in your laptop and they ship it off to Texas or wherever they ship it, don't you worry about your personal data. Humans are humans, after all, and I don't like the idea of Apple technicians being able to go through all the stuff on my hard-drive. So I usually wipe it and reinstall the OS before giving it to them. And when I get it back, I do the same thing (I don't like the idea of somebody being able to stick spyware on it). Call me paranoid, but to me, computers are like toothbrushes -- I don't like to share them with other people.

You're being nonsensically paranoid. The technicians see a huge amount of computers per day. They are interested in getting your repair done, running the test on it, and getting it out of there. Poking around in your data would be a huge waste of time that could be used fixing more units. As someone who worked on computers for a good while I can tell you the last thing any of us cared about is looking at pictures of someone's cat or kids.

 

[MKelleher]

You're being nonsensically paranoid. The technicians see a huge amount of computers per day. They are interested in getting your repair done, running the test on it, and getting it out of there. Poking around in your data would be a huge waste of time that could be used fixing more units. As someone who worked on computers for a good while I can tell you the last thing any of us cared about is looking at pictures of someone's cat or kids.

Rigggggggght! If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. A local newstation in New York did a sting awhile back, placing cameras inside laptops, installing spyware, pulling a small sensor out (to see if they would overcharge) and sent them off to twenty local repair shops. Eighty percent of the techs went through personal files while they were "repairing" the systems, one even copying bank information off the hard drive (that case was referred to the police). True, these were independent repair shops, but human nature is human nature.

And P.S. It's not looking at pictures of someone's cat or kids that's a concern, it's copying bank information, credit card numbers, etc. And again, I'm not saying that Apple's techs would do something like that, they're probably better trained and better screened. But there always bad apples in any barrel. That's not paranoia, it's common sense.

 

[wct097]

I'm assuming that the MBP 8600m GT is the same 8600m GT that my Dell Vostro has. My laptop died a few weeks back with classic symptoms of a bad video card. No POST, no noise, powers on, but nothing but a blank screen. I disassembled my machine, and removed the card. In the Vostro, the card plugs in, and isn't built into the mobo. I tried simply reseating the card, but that didn't work. I pulled it again and removed the heat sink from the card and placed the card in the over at 385 degrees for five minutes (using tin foil to prop it up off the pan). Afterwards, I reapplied thermal paste to the GPU and reinstalled the heatsink, then put everything back together.

Amusingly enough, my laptop is back up and running.

 

[peskaa]

I'm assuming that the MBP 8600m GT is the same 8600m GT that my Dell Vostro has. My laptop died a few weeks back with classic symptoms of a bad video card. No POST, no noise, powers on, but nothing but a blank screen. I disassembled my machine, and removed the card. In the Vostro, the card plugs in, and isn't built into the mobo. I tried simply reseating the card, but that didn't work. I pulled it again and removed the heat sink from the card and placed the card in the over at 385 degrees for five minutes (using tin foil to prop it up off the pan). Afterwards, I reapplied thermal paste to the GPU and reinstalled the heatsink, then put everything back together.

Amusingly enough, my laptop is back up and running.

Yep, the baking trick is widely used for the 8-series GPUs. I know several people who have done it to PC cards. Unfortunately it only seems to work for a while, not indefinitely.

 

[millerb7]

Soooo.. 2007 MBP 15" with 8600m GT card. Going on 4 years, no failures of any kind... what are the odds I'm either SUPER lucky, or it's coming any day now haha.

 

[kdum8]

Soooo.. 2007 MBP 15" with 8600m GT card. Going on 4 years, no failures of any kind... what are the odds I'm either SUPER lucky, or it's coming any day now haha.

Yours is certainly one of the longer ones I have heard for sure. The problem is that it is difficult to judge the real failure rate without getting some genuine statistics from Apple. The general consensus on this thread is that sooner or later ALL the chips will fail. I suppose time with tell.

For the record I am on my second logicboard. The first one failed after 2 years due to the 8600 GT problem.

Let's hope that yours holds out, but if not make sure you come back here and report it!

 

[gorjan]

it's copying bank information, credit card numbers

Why would you keep these saved on your hard drive?

 

[millerb7]

Yours is certainly one of the longer ones I have heard for sure. The problem is that it is difficult to judge the real failure rate without getting some genuine statistics from Apple. The general consensus on this thread is that sooner or later ALL the chips will fail. I suppose time with tell.

For the record I am on my second logicboard. The first one failed after 2 years due to the 8600 GT problem.

Let's hope that yours holds out, but if not make sure you come back here and report it!

Will do. Hopefully it holds out. I'm about to put 6GB ram and a 120GB SSD into it haha.

Soon as it fails I'll def. let you know. I'm almost 100% positive mine is the first MBP with the 8600m GT card. The lawsuit states only those MBP's back to 2007, which mine is. Hopefully it'll keep dodging the bullet for some time to come.

 

[bmcgrath]

My Macbook Pro suffered this problem on Wednesday evening. Put it to sleep and it never woke up again. Out of AppleCare warranty but Apple replaced the board under the nVidia repair programme they have going. (Thankfully as the board was £750!!)

Brought it the Apple store in Covent Garden, London and they had it repaired in under 24 hours. Very impressed with their service.

Also, I've obviously been having this problem going on a while it just went under the radar a little. I had noticed a lot more heat being generated in the past 2 months lets say and the performance of my machine had degraded quite a bit. With this new board all graphics are a lot smoother, Aperture runs quite sweet and the temps have dropped. So the run up before the card died the performance decreases quite a bit!

Glad to be back up and running but lets hope this so called REV2 board doesn't have the same faith... If it does I'll be demanding a new machine!!

 

[JustDom89]

Logic board failed on mine. I had to take it to Apple and have a Genius look at it. He ended up fixing it for free. He told me it wasn't linked to the graphics card at all. Is that true? I thought when the logic board goes on these it's from the 8600 GT..

 

[lumine01]

My MBP died on Dec 6, black screen, no chime, etc. Brought it in to the local Genius Bar yesterday, where he tested it, and said the logic board failed, not the 8600M GT, and that luckily I still had 33 days remaining through Apple Care, or else it'd cost $902US. Got it back today, and was informed the logic board was replaced with the Rev 2 board.

Now dreading what seems like the inevitable day it dies again, after the extended extended extended warranty on the graphics card runs out next May. Ugh.

 

[kdum8]

My MBP died on Dec 6, black screen, no chime, etc. Brought it in to the local Genius Bar yesterday, where he tested it, and said the logic board failed, not the 8600M GT, and that luckily I still had 33 days remaining through Apple Care, or else it'd cost $902US. Got it back today, and was informed the logic board was replaced with the Rev 2 board.

Now dreading what seems like the inevitable day it dies again, after the extended extended extended warranty on the graphics card runs out next May. Ugh.

Wow if it had to fail, 33 days before your Apple Care expires couldn't be much better timing really....

I am always suspicious when I hear that the logic board has failed, but that "it has nothing to do with the 8600M GT chip". There seem to be quite a high rate of logic board failures as well on these machines. Certainly to fail within 3 years isn't normal.

Given that the graphics chips on average seem to last around 2 years, you should be good until your macbook is 5 years old which isn't too bad.

Mine was replaced at the 18 month mark and my apple care will expire next April... fingers crossed I don't have another problem after it goes...

 

[jeffy.dee-lux]

I've got a 2.2GHz, mid 2007 MBP that's already had the motherboard replaced once, about a year and a half ago I think. Lately, I've been having a crash that basically logs me out all of a sudden and either sends me back to the login screen or it logs in if i've got automatic login turned on. This happens when I'm viewing a flash video full screen, and it's often set off when I adjust the volume and the transparent volume floater tries to pop up. I then get a Window Server crash log in console that says stuff about NVDIA and CoreGraphics, does this sound like a symptom of the graphics card going again?

here's some of the stuff from the Console log:
Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000000000000000
Crashed Thread: 0 Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Thread 0 Crashed: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0 com.apple.GeForceGLDriver 0x0000000200012910 gldAttachDrawable + 2528
1 com.apple.GeForceGLDriver 0x00000002000d5787 gldUpdateDispatch + 14359
2 com.apple.GeForceGLDriver 0x00000002000d5a56 gldUpdateDispatch + 15078
3 GLEngine 0x000000010a31ea7a glFlush_Exec + 133
4 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x00007fff87a94ecd CGXGLAccelFinish + 154
5 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x00007fff87a94034 CGXReleaseDisplayDeviceSurface +

 

[dime21]

Why would you keep these saved on your hard drive?

My bank sends me PDF format monthly statements, instead of paper ones, for my checking and savings accounts, and also my credit card. Plus I have all my income tax returns in electronic format. And 401k statements. All kinds of account numbers and financial information that an identity thief would want to steal.

I agree about wiping the hard drive before sending it in for service.

 

[PUTALE]

I am curious has anyone know any info regarding to the class-action lawsuit or has anyone claimed the lawsuit at all?

 

[MaxMike]

My friend went to the Genius Bar and got his battery replaced (had less than 200 cycles and <20% health) and the guy ran the serial number. The "ever reassuring" genius said that only "a select few GPUs had been marked as failing" and my friend's MBP is fine (early 2008)

 

[diehldun]

My '07 SR MBP failed the nvidia test... again.

It already failed before (about 10 months ago), and when I had it replaced I was assured then it wouldn't happen again. Yeah right. The Genius Bar people yesterday were "surprised" it failed twice for me- they said they were told the replacements were modified. But that's what I was told last time.

At this point I'm just hoping this machine lasts me until summer, when I'm planning to get a new MBA/MBP. Good riddance!

 

[badcrc32]

Fyi

My logic board failed so many times that I ended up getting a Brandnew Top of line 17" with applecare....

 

[wct097]

Yep, the baking trick is widely used for the 8-series GPUs. I know several people who have done it to PC cards. Unfortunately it only seems to work for a while, not indefinitely.

I've had to bake it twice now. Not really expecting it to survive a 3rd. Have an in-law that works for a corp that builds logic boards. He informed me that my 385 temp is probably too low. Next time it fails, I'm giving it to him so he can run it through an actual reflow oven.

 

[OmegaRed1723]

My late-2007 15" MBP gave up the ghost this weekend. Classic symptoms of a failed logic board: wouldn't wake from sleep/no chime on restart/fans running with black screen on restart. My AppleCare has long since expired. My question is, does Apple charge a fee to diagnose the issue? If it's going to cost $50 just for them to tell me my machine doesn't fall under the 8600GT repair category, I won't waste my time.