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

I really hope Apple stick to nVidia, they make good cards, and as long as you ramp up the fans when playing, all will be fine, besides its only when the GPU isnt cooled by fans when the laptop is turned off that you get a problem.

The Next MBP will have the 9600M GT, which is a great card, and the one after that will have a N260M
 
My 2.4 Ghz Merom recently died, classic GPU failure (recognised it from my fried TiBook).

They swapped out the logic board, it seems to run even hotter now, 80 degrees C with just this browser running (33% CPU). Only now my Applecare has run out and I have a ticking time bomb.

I hope they acknowledge this fault.
 
I wonder if Nvidia announced "certain notebook configurations" meant that the "merom" 2.2ghz and 2.4ghz falls under those specs.
 
MattZani said:
I really hope Apple stick to nVidia, they make good cards, and as long as you ramp up the fans when playing, all will be fine, besides its only when the GPU isnt cooled by fans when the laptop is turned off that you get a problem.
Click to expand...

If that's the case (gpu heat soak when turned off hot) Apple could conceivably upgrade their firmware so that the GPU fan doesn't turn off until the core gets cooled off properly.

I had a car that used to do this.. cooling fan ran for 3-5 min after the car was off depending on the temp.
 
bov said:
Good luck! and let us know how it goes!
Click to expand...
Well, good news they approved the repair without charge.:D
He looked it over and saw that there was not a scratch or dent on the thing. And he basically said since it was not banged up and since the warranty just expired he would green light it. I swear i wanted to kiss that man, i was not about to pay 1000 for a new logic board.
 
So does this mean that instead of turning off the mbp you put it to sleep, is that the same thing as just shutting it off right when the gpu is hot?
 
I think it means rapid cooling or heating might be causing the GPU to fail, rather than the high temperatures. I'm not sure about that - some MBP's run at roughly equal temps for CPU & GPU, others seem to have the GPU at least 10 degrees hotter - this can push it over the edge to near-boiling point (I've hit 92 degrees C quite often.) I run SMC fan control and keep it with a minimum of 3000rpm on each fan as the machine was too hot to use otherwise.

Since the overheating got really bad on this laptop, other nasty things have started to happen - two dark blobs and several white ones have appeared on my screen, as if the GPU is sending out the wrong voltages and 'burning' the LCD. Other times lines of pixels (diagonal mostly) drop out then come back on a re-start. (This is in addition to all the classic GPU corruption - freezes with bright graphical artifacts etc.)

I really don't know what to do about this machine - when I took it back for logic board replacement they said the screen was 'in spec' - it looks terrible to me and only started as my first GPU began to fail. I'm now without warranty - any advice?
 
Sonic said:
I think it means rapid cooling or heating might be causing the GPU to fail, rather than the high temperatures. I'm not sure about that - some MBP's run at roughly equal temps for CPU & GPU, others seem to have the GPU at least 10 degrees hotter - this can push it over the edge to near-boiling point (I've hit 92 degrees C quite often.) I run SMC fan control and keep it with a minimum of 3000rpm on each fan as the machine was too hot to use otherwise.

Since the overheating got really bad on this laptop, other nasty things have started to happen - two dark blobs and several white ones have appeared on my screen, as if the GPU is sending out the wrong voltages and 'burning' the LCD. Other times lines of pixels (diagonal mostly) drop out then come back on a re-start. (This is in addition to all the classic GPU corruption - freezes with bright graphical artifacts etc.)

I really don't know what to do about this machine - when I took it back for logic board replacement they said the screen was 'in spec' - it looks terrible to me and only started as my first GPU began to fail. I'm now without warranty - any advice?
Click to expand...

How long have you had your macbook pro for? And is it the 07 merom model?
 
I got it about a month or so after the launch of the '07 Merom. It's the 2.4, standard config.
 
LOOKS LIKE other manufactures are "fixing" or rather giving out temp fixes for their system. I am wondering when will mac fix their notebook. I think the firmware is just a temp fix, i really want a permenant fix.
 
dont know if its related but i have been experiencing these after the computer has been on for 5+ hours (sleep or not)

  • white cubes in videos no matter what browser
  • text jumbled/squeezed together no matter what browser/itunes
  • screensaver ghosts
  • screensaver flashes/flickers
  • screensaver freezes
  • changing desktops go slow/jerky
 
I've been away for a few weeks, and this is the first time I really look into this. I'll read this whole thread but I just want to say that a few weeks ago I got a weird menu freeze thing while using XP, though it happened while using Parallels. It happened once more after that. Besides that, I don't seem to have any other video related issues while using XP, though I do play games a lot but I guess I'll stop that now. I still only used XP about an hour or 2 a day.

On the other side, while using Leopard, I get no issues, at least none that I have noticed in the past month.

my MBP is my only computer right now, so I basically turn it on only once a day, sometimes twice.
 
scmguru said:
If that's the case (gpu heat soak when turned off hot) Apple could conceivably upgrade their firmware so that the GPU fan doesn't turn off until the core gets cooled off properly.

I had a car that used to do this.. cooling fan ran for 3-5 min after the car was off depending on the temp.
Click to expand...

I don't know what car you had, but generally that's a custom modification for mostly turbo engines. Pretty much it just idles for a while to extend the time metal contracts and thus extending the overall life of the engine block. But the thing is, that's a block of metal with explosions going on thousands of times per minute so it's understandable (though technically it is only a myth, a car's engine is incredibly well designed to hold through rapid expansion/contraction; I don't think anyone ever broke their car by switching off the engine instantly after a hard run - except maybe if you're climbing pikes peak or something). This is a computer...and it's not a myth. Grrr I keep hearing things about the 9600m GT in the next model, hope they solved the problem!
 
Sonic said:
I think it means rapid cooling or heating might be causing the GPU to fail, rather than the high temperatures. I'm not sure about that - some MBP's run at roughly equal temps for CPU & GPU, others seem to have the GPU at least 10 degrees hotter - this can push it over the edge to near-boiling point (I've hit 92 degrees C quite often.) I run SMC fan control and keep it with a minimum of 3000rpm on each fan as the machine was too hot to use otherwise.

Since the overheating got really bad on this laptop, other nasty things have started to happen - two dark blobs and several white ones have appeared on my screen, as if the GPU is sending out the wrong voltages and 'burning' the LCD. Other times lines of pixels (diagonal mostly) drop out then come back on a re-start. (This is in addition to all the classic GPU corruption - freezes with bright graphical artifacts etc.)

I really don't know what to do about this machine - when I took it back for logic board replacement they said the screen was 'in spec' - it looks terrible to me and only started as my first GPU began to fail. I'm now without warranty - any advice?
Click to expand...


If you bought it with a credit card and live in the U.S., chances are you have a free extended warranty through the CC company and they will cover repairs during the second year. Call them to ask!
 
I don't know about you guys, but I'd rather not have a ticking time bomb, waiting for it to go bad and warranty than having NVIDIA/Apple provide a permanant solution to the problem (not some fancy thermal management, that's just a band-aid solution).

It would be a shame when the machine fails at the worst time possible and screwing your life over..
 
MattZani said:
I really hope Apple stick to nVidia, they make good cards, and as long as you ramp up the fans when playing, all will be fine, besides its only when the GPU isnt cooled by fans when the laptop is turned off that you get a problem.
Click to expand...

:rolleyes: How's that Nvidia stock doing ? :rolleyes:
 
Just reading through this thread..doesn't sound good at all! I am a switcher..wondering where do I check to see what GPU I have in my MBP. I bought it in April of this year (2008). Is my MBP affected?
 
what sucks is that apple is refusing to address this issue. my mbp's warranty has expired and I cannot buy the AppleCare now. I hate when manufactures sells us defected product. I think apple should at least follow HP's lead and extend their warranty.
 
I'm about to buy a new MBP 15"... but now I'm not sure if I should buy one after hearing all this GPU problems... I had problems with the GPU (Nvidia also) of my 20" Core Duo iMac, and repairing it costs around $1000 because you have to replace the entire logic board, same as a MBP, and that's just too much, my iMac is almost useless now...
Now my question is this: Do the Penryns (the ones that are on sale now) have the same problems, or is it a only a problem with the Merom's MBPs? How long does it usually take to appear the problems with the GPU? On my iMac it started a little over a year after purchasing it, so my iMac was out of warranty... Any advice??
 
jcandrada said:
I'm about to buy a new MBP 15"... but now I'm not sure if I should buy one after hearing all this GPU problems... I had problems with the GPU (Nvidia also) of my 20" Core Duo iMac, and repairing it costs around $1000 because you have to replace the entire logic board, same as a MBP, and that's just too much, my iMac is almost useless now...
Now my question is this: Do the Penryns (the ones that are on sale now) have the same problems, or is it a only a problem with the Merom's MBPs? How long does it usually take to appear the problems with the GPU? On my iMac it started a little over a year after purchasing it, so my iMac was out of warranty... Any advice??
Click to expand...

You should wait. The Penryns (current Macbook Pro) also use the 8600m card which is one of the graphic cards that has been reportedly been affected. Nvidia says that only a small back was affected but they haven't stated what time frame or anything, so even the current Macbook Pros could have problems.
 
mchank said:
You should wait. The Penryns (current Macbook Pro) also use the 8600m card which is one of the graphic cards that has been reportedly been affected. Nvidia says that only a small back was affected but they haven't stated what time frame or anything, so even the current Macbook Pros could have problems.
Click to expand...

The thing is that I'll buy the MBP for grad school, so if a newer model doesn't come out by the time grad school starts, waiting won't be an option... School starts around the 20th of August.
 
Figuring out which NVIDIA GPUs are defective -- it's a lot

Posted on Engadget:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/31/figuring-out-which-nvidia-gpus-are-defective-its-a-lot/

So now that HP's joined Dell in releasing information on which laptops have those defective NVIDIA GPUs, we can sort of piece together which chips are faulty -- and just as had been rumored, it looks like basically every Geforce 8600M and 8400M chip is affected. That's not good news for NVIDIA, which has been saying that only "previous-generation" chips were problematic -- unless the chipmaker is planning on updating the hugely popular 8x00 series sometime, say, now, that's not exactly true, now is it? Other affected chips appear to be in the GeForce Go 7000 and 6000 lines, as well as the Quadro NVS 135M and the Quadro FX 360M, but that's just looking at model numbers, and we can't be exactly sure. We'd say that if you've got a machine with any one of these GPUs, it might be wise to call in and see what your laptop maker is going to do -- and it would be smart for NVIDIA to come right out and say exactly how big and how bad this problem really is.
 
So far, my MBP is working properly. :) I don't care this issue actually because I joined 3 years Apple care. In my mind, extending warranty is bloody important for current Laptop products which value is more than $3000.

Good Luck everybody!
 
Well i'm buying one tomorrow and taking my chances. Apple Care for sure. It would have been best if Apple threw in new GPUs the moment they found this problem.
 
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