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So are all MBP owners with the 8600m GT cards screwed?
- Thread starter jjahshik32
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They don't, I can confirm this from personal experience. You tell them you have a possible graphics card failure, they automatically take out the orange nvidia test device and they'll know in 60sec.
Regardless, you will not be charged the $902 repair cost as that is still covered by Apple.
So what happens after the 4-years-from-purchase-date goes by? I realize none of the 2.4/2.2GHz SR MBPs have reached this date yet, but will Apple still continue the complimentary repair program for us afterwards?
Thanks for the info. I'll head over to the apple store tomorrow and see what happens.
I got a question a guy sold me this macbook pro 2.2 ghz with the same NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics card (I obviously did not know about the problem) until suddendly it failed to boot , only to a black screen ,computer works (hard drive works, can use target disk mode) , but no video at all,even with my apple cinema display, the guy that sold me the laptop bought it from the original buyer when it failed apparently he bought a used logic board , changed it and sold the laptop to me , now I'm stuck with a dead laptop , when trying to get info about buying a used logic board somehow i came to this thread and learned that apple repairs the same problem for free , so my question is do you think i could get it repaired by apple even if i'm not the original buyer , or if i'm better off getting a used logic board from ebay, thanks in advance
daniel
daniel
No one knows the answer to this but most figure after the 4 years, Apple will stop the program and if any failures happen, I guess it's tough luck. At that point, it would not be worth it to repair and you would just go out and replace a very outdated, although still useful, computer.
I know, it's tough to come to that realization which is why many users on this forum are against anybody purchasing a Macbook Pro that uses the 8600M GT GPU (unless you're getting it at an absolute bargain) because the probability of it failing is high and it's just a headache to deal with in the future.
Do you have anything to base this off of or just reading on the internet? Myself and a bunch of friends have a MBP with the 8600 and have had no problems. I'm not saying it is never going to happen, but you say the probability is high and I am wondering where you came upon this info.
Thanks.
I can't pull concrete numbers but just reading this thread, external tech sites/blogs and add on-top of those, the NVIDIA settlement you can pretty much come to a similar conclusion that, not surely but likely chance that the GPU will fail. But like you said, if you and your friends are not experiencing any problems, that's great.
Do we know for a fact this is true? They told me I was getting a new chip which didn't have the problem when I had mine replaced about two years ago. And I've seen other folks say the same (although sometimes those chips later seem to fail).
It would make some sense that NVIDIA would fix their manufacturing process once they found out they have an issue, and Apple would eventually start using the new chips.
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It would make sense from whose perspective? Nvidia didn't even acknowledge the problem until July 2008. They don't do production runs of outdated stuff. Nvidia's answer was to change the behavior of the fans through a software or firmware update and let the OEMs handle the rest and then Nvidia would compensate them. Every 8600 is a dud.
What's up with nvidia and defective gpus? Will we have better luck on MBPs if their gpus will be coming from ATI/AMD?
So now you really got me curious. Turns out they DID start making replacement chips that (probably*) didn't have the defect around mid July 2008; see here: http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1016846/nvidia-changes-desktop-g86-reason That's for the desktop chips; no word if they changed the mobile chips too, but I bet they did.
The probably* is they apparently didn't do a good job on the testing of the revised design, so the chips may have other problems, and may still fail. http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1036374/what-nvidia
Arg.
So many of these 8x00 mobile gpus hv failed (apple, Sony, Asus, Dell, HP from 8300-8800) there is more than enough anecdotal evidence to support a conclusion of inevitable failure. I would never recommend anyone buy any mobile 8x00 based laptop.
Apple will repair this issue regardless, however, if they see damage not related to this issue they may deny the repair. Call and get rma and send it back or take it to apple retail store. Doesn't hurt to try.
Cheers,
I don't know for a fact, but when my first GPU was replaced I asked this exact question. At first the genius said it would be "Rev 2" but when pushed he admitted that the problem is still there and that it could indeed fail again. There are quite a few people who have had their 2nd chip fail. Remember it is also a time based issue. If the average lifespan of the chips is a little over 2 years, then we should be seeing a wave of second failures before too long.
Did you guys see the litigation claims site is open? Legit?.
https://roscomps3.securesites.net/www.nvidiasettlement.com/claimform.php
https://roscomps3.securesites.net/www.nvidiasettlement.com/claimform.php
#1. It is Apple's fault for selling defective computers to customers. Your reasoning is like saying Ford isn't responsible if it sells cars with faulty gas tanks if those gas tanks come from one of their parts suppliers.
Yes, it is Nvidia's fault for selling Apple faulty hardware. But, Nvidia is really liable to Apple, not to us. Apple is the one that is liable to us. We purchased the computers from Apple, not Nvidia. The lawsuit is quite stupid, given that it's being applied to computers sold by 3rd parties, not just GPUs sold by Nvidia directly to customers (Nvidia branded parts for sale to consumers).
#2. The lawsuit doesn't solve the problem. It's just a duplication, probably an inferior one even, of Apple's "kick the can down the road" pseudo-solution -- which is to replace faulty parts with faulty parts.
Apple's lottery approach (get lucky enough to waste tons of time, have tons of stress, and maybe even lose some data) where people have to have failure after failure in order to have the problem be truly fixed (a replacement laptop with a non-faulty GPU design), absurd as it is, seems better than the Nvidia suit's terms.
We're the ones who are paying for Apple's mistake. They chose to sell us those defective machines. We shouldn't have to deal with multiple failures in order to get resolution. In fact, we shouldn't have to deal with any failures due to a known defect.
I also find it supremely offensive that people are saying it's no big deal that we're to be left with time bomb laptops that cost a lot of money after a mere 4 years. Someone said the machines will be "quite obsolete". Obsolete? 4 years is nothing for some of us, especially poor college students. We don't have the luxury of buying high-priced Macbook Pro laptops every 4 years. Plus, the resale value of these units has tanked because of the defect. Again, we're the ones who end up paying for the defect -- not those responsible. I think those of us who paid hundreds extra for maximum-length AppleCare should also get something for our money, given that Apple extended the warranty on their defective GPUs for several years.
This is bad business.
hahaa I'm in the same boat, I have a 2008 earlyyyy model when penyn came out.. I have not seen any issues and this bad boy is running each day for about 16 hours /day... so I guess I'm lucky .. but this luck might end soon??
I think it would make perfect sense, to replace all 8600 macbooks with brand new ones, knowing that any macbook with 8600 in it is a "DEFECT".
My opinion anyways.
I'm also using an "early 2008" Macbook Pro. No issues so far, but from what I've read, it's a combination of design flaws and material flaws that cause the chips to fail. Additionally, leaving your system on all the time is one of the kinder things you can do to your chips - thermal stress is what causes the chips to fail. So, if you're a heavy gamer (or otherwise heavily utilize the GPU), or if you frequently turn your computer on and off (putting it to sleep also counts), then you're inducing thermal stress to the chip.
I'm a bit torn over this. I don't like the newer unibody Macbook Pros, can't afford to upgrade at this moment, and was certainly not planning to upgrade until quad-core processors (at least) were included in them. This system works fine as it is, and there's another upgrade or two that I could drop in to keep its performance up with my needs. Nothing lasts forever, but I don't like the idea that there's a failure-prone component in the system - and that my option is to either replace my driven but failure-prone component with another failure-prone component that is untested.
At this point, I suppose so.
What was the correct solution, though, was to recall every laptop with a bad GPU and replace the faulty board with a FULLY FIXED version of the GPU. (If I had been Apple, I would have upgraded the GPU to a die-shrunk improvement while I was at it -- if one was available -- to give users compensation for having to deal with the flaw in the first place.)
Instead, we've been subjected to a variety of schemes designed to shift accountability for the flaw to us.
Is there really such a thing as a version of this GPU that is not flawed? From what I've read, there were two issues with the GPU: 1) the materials used, and 2) the design. While I would imagine that they are using better materials now (but that's not a guarantee), the design flaw was not fixed.
It makes sense, as I've read over a few stories of people getting their failed GPU replaced, only to have it fail again within months. In some ways, I feel better with my years-old, yet-to-fail GPU, than I do with the idea of swapping out for a new, untested, and just as likely to fail GPU.
The millions of users who were affected by this issue span many PC makers. Apple has by far been the most liberal in their approach to resolving customer sat issues related to the nvidia 8x00 debacle. Sony took years to acknowledge the problem and then only agreed to repair some machines. I'f you'd already paid or sold for parts you go t $0.
I personally dumped my 2.2 SR MBP after the first GPU related repair. I warned the buyer and had Apple care and got what I could.
This is nVidia's fault and as much as Apple annoys me at times, this isn't one of them. Almost always you can get this issue resolved if you escalate high enough.
Cheers,