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So are all MBP owners with the 8600m GT cards screwed?
- Thread starter jjahshik32
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I wish I could sell mine, but what are the alternatives from Apple at this point? I was thinking of switching to a macbook air, but the compromises are too many. Also, there is no guarantee that they won't have problems in a year, or that any computer won't have issues. This all sucks and I hate knowing that there is a chip in my MBP that is most likely defective and will stop working eventually.
I've been following this thread for awhile but haven't posted since I'm not as educated when it comes to Mac. Although, I have been trying to do my homework & etc. since I've purchased one.
I've gotten maybe 2 graphic glitches that seem to be like the ones the rest of you are speaking of. I'll have QuickTime open and iTunes will sort of freeze and some of it will disappear. After a moment, things go back to normal though.
Should I be worried? I use my MBP for everything - so this thread's gotten me a bit shook up. Thankfully, I do have AppleCare.
Pardon my ignorance on the subject, I'm trying to learn
I've gotten maybe 2 graphic glitches that seem to be like the ones the rest of you are speaking of. I'll have QuickTime open and iTunes will sort of freeze and some of it will disappear. After a moment, things go back to normal though.
Should I be worried? I use my MBP for everything - so this thread's gotten me a bit shook up. Thankfully, I do have AppleCare.
Pardon my ignorance on the subject, I'm trying to learn
I've been following this thread for awhile but haven't posted since I'm not as educated when it comes to Mac. Although, I have been trying to do my homework & etc. since I've purchased one.
I've gotten maybe 2 graphic glitches that seem to be like the ones the rest of you are speaking of. I'll have QuickTime open and iTunes will sort of freeze and some of it will disappear. After a moment, things go back to normal though.
Should I be worried? I use my MBP for everything - so this thread's gotten me a bit shook up. Thankfully, I do have AppleCare.
Pardon my ignorance on the subject, I'm trying to learn
yeah, now we know that Nvidia cards are faulty, and tend to have heat problems, maybe and HOPEFULLY, Apple will take heed, and switch to ATI cards (which i have found to be better, faster, and cooler (temperature wise) and also ATI cards consume less power... if you ever look at system requirements for games, most games will run well on ATI and they will register a "less powerful" model that will still let u run the game -- take a look at crysis for example.
Yeah but then the next question is if we get a replacement machine or if Apple keeps repairing it. If they repair it they would just be putting in another failed nVidia chip (unless nVidia sends Apple non faulty ones). If its going to be repair after repair, then I will just sell my machine or ask Apple for a new one if it has to have repairs for the same problem every time.
Seriously guys
If the failure rates do indeed to be that high, Apple will take the necessary steps to ensure that everyone with effected models will be compensated with new hardware, and likely updated cards without the supposed hardware faults.
Unlike us on these forums Apple has to have all the facts and a certain number of cases to make such an expensive decsion, but I am competent with their past track record that they will make this right in due time if the rumors are true.
If the failure rates do indeed to be that high, Apple will take the necessary steps to ensure that everyone with effected models will be compensated with new hardware, and likely updated cards without the supposed hardware faults.
Unlike us on these forums Apple has to have all the facts and a certain number of cases to make such an expensive decsion, but I am competent with their past track record that they will make this right in due time if the rumors are true.
Further proof that GPU's are dying. Mine will randomly freeze with particles all over the screen. It has done this while booting up to OSX as well.
Nvidia wrote to Gizmodo to tell their side of things...
"1) The issue is limited to a few notebook chips only; we have not seen and don't expect to see this issue on any NVIDIA based desktops
2) Only a very small percentage of the notebook chips that have shipped are potentially affected and the problem depends on a combination of environmental conditions, configuration and usage model
3) We continue to work closely with our partners and have taken the necessary steps to ensure that all NVIDIA chips currently in production do not exhibit the problem"
I wonder what the special combinations they refer to are?
Link: http://gizmodo.com/5037070/proof-nvidia-desktop-g86-graphics-cards-affected-by-materials-defects
"1) The issue is limited to a few notebook chips only; we have not seen and don't expect to see this issue on any NVIDIA based desktops
2) Only a very small percentage of the notebook chips that have shipped are potentially affected and the problem depends on a combination of environmental conditions, configuration and usage model
3) We continue to work closely with our partners and have taken the necessary steps to ensure that all NVIDIA chips currently in production do not exhibit the problem"
I wonder what the special combinations they refer to are?
Link: http://gizmodo.com/5037070/proof-nvidia-desktop-g86-graphics-cards-affected-by-materials-defects
I swear this is bullcrap. Nvidia is blaming everyone but themselves.
Apparently the cards still have this problem, and the 8400, 9200 and 9400 are also affected.
Special factors could be, perhaps:
very think form factor (=MBP)
rapid fluctuations in temperatures (aluminum = MBP)
consistently high operating temperatures (=MBP).
Oh please. You have no idea what these circumstances are, don't make them up to serve your point.
Whoever said ATI cards run cooler, that's a joke.
You guys should really get some cold hard facts instead of going with speculation as the 100% truth when it's pretty obviously overstated. Yes it is an issue everyone can see that, but it's not at all clear what the extent of it is. Calm down and use some common sense.
Whoever said ATI cards run cooler, that's a joke.
You guys should really get some cold hard facts instead of going with speculation as the 100% truth when it's pretty obviously overstated. Yes it is an issue everyone can see that, but it's not at all clear what the extent of it is. Calm down and use some common sense.
Yeah. I am really pissed off about this, but to be honest, ATi have terrible support and drivers.
if ati has terrible support and drivers why does the ati cards out perform even the 8800gt in the mac pro in pro apps under OSX?
Also I think it's crazy how the current penryn Mbps run much hotter at full load than the ati x1600 card mbps which have a CPU that runs hotter but the nvidia just heats up the mbp while the performance isn't that great.
I hope to god that they use an ati card in their next mbp.
Here's something else that you may not have thought about: They set aside "$150-$200 million" to deal with this. You already know that. The 8600M GT was released on May 7, 2007. That means that it's a little more than a year old at this point. That means that Nvidia has been selling them for 4 fiscal quarters. Nvidia has been shooting for the upper three billion dollar mark for those quarters, so lets go with an impossibly lowballed estimate that they made $12 billion this year, $3 billion per quarter. $200 million is undoubtedly painful to part with, but in the face of selling these things for a year and making something much higher than 12 billion dollars this fiscal year, $200 million doesn't sound like the big huge deal that you guys have let some people convince you of.
NEWS FLASH!!
I don't think the GPU's are bad on the MBPs!!!
I to thought I had the problem and would have these times when random freezes would occur and have GFX corruption. I too was very very upset and mad and all just like every one of you.
BUT!! today I solved the problem (well sort of). Seeing how I had the freeze and GFX problems like once a week this time I just got pissed at it and left it there all messed up. But I just so happened to press my dash board button on my keyboard and walked off. About 20 minutes later I came back and the dash board was loaded but most of the GFXs were all messed up. But I was able to see one thing.
I WAS OUT OF RAM. There was some sort of memory leek. Coming from Linux it all made sense now. In X you could get some nasty GFX issues and locking and freezing when linux ran real real low on memory.
So today I am %100 sure that all of my freezing and GFX problems are caused by some process eating up all of my memory. All 4 gigs of it.
Note that my freezing would happen after I would wake my laptop up from sleep in most cases, but sometimes just with general use.
If I find out any more I will let you guys know. But for those having the problem please try and see what your active memory is after you start to experience the problem.
We might want to start listing apps that we have running.
I don't think the GPU's are bad on the MBPs!!!
I to thought I had the problem and would have these times when random freezes would occur and have GFX corruption. I too was very very upset and mad and all just like every one of you.
BUT!! today I solved the problem (well sort of). Seeing how I had the freeze and GFX problems like once a week this time I just got pissed at it and left it there all messed up. But I just so happened to press my dash board button on my keyboard and walked off. About 20 minutes later I came back and the dash board was loaded but most of the GFXs were all messed up. But I was able to see one thing.
I WAS OUT OF RAM. There was some sort of memory leek. Coming from Linux it all made sense now. In X you could get some nasty GFX issues and locking and freezing when linux ran real real low on memory.
So today I am %100 sure that all of my freezing and GFX problems are caused by some process eating up all of my memory. All 4 gigs of it.
Note that my freezing would happen after I would wake my laptop up from sleep in most cases, but sometimes just with general use.
If I find out any more I will let you guys know. But for those having the problem please try and see what your active memory is after you start to experience the problem.
We might want to start listing apps that we have running.
Right.
I can believe that Apple OR Dell OR HP might have installed the cards wrongly, or be sailing a little too close to the high end of the spec sheet or whatever.
I don't believe that Apple AND Dell AND HP all screwed up the same way. No. Sorry. All the talk here about the difference in the form factors in these forums (usually expressed as some variation of "the others are all fugly") should put paid to that.
I think there's a lot up for debate right now about what exactly the extent of things are, but it seems pretty clear that there is a big range to these faults and the only common place between them is the vendor.
I am pretty sure, as other have pointed out, if there is a real issue with the chips then Apple will make good.
Those who are having issue now will just have to wait a while.
Those who dump their MBP's on Ebay to unsuspecting buyers for premium prices and are aware of the potential issues and are in fact selling because of these issues are rip-offs.
Those who are having issue now will just have to wait a while.
Those who dump their MBP's on Ebay to unsuspecting buyers for premium prices and are aware of the potential issues and are in fact selling because of these issues are rip-offs.
That might be true if the macbook pros that people were dumping on ebay already had problems or was repaired. But the macbook pro that I sold was through craigslist and the buyer was already aware of the nvidia issue but I told him that my mac pro never exhibited any problems and that long as its covered under the 3 year apple care warranty he didnt really care.
The bottom line for me is that I love my MBP. If the card goes tits up I can't control it. I'll treat it as best I can and deal with it when/if I have a problem. I'll probably buy another in 2-3 years so if I can get 8 hrs/day 7 days/week out of it until then, that's good enough for me.
That doesn't make sense if all the other models doesn't have this problem. We're running the same OS here, not different OSes. I figure if it is a memory leak, it'll effect all macs, not just the macbook pros.
Sorry but thats just fanboyism. Sure there are some cards that are faster than others, but thats because they are different models. Outright saying ATI is faster than Nvidia is plain stupid. How can you even quantify "better"?
I swear some of the people on the internet...
Sorry but thats just fanboyism. Sure there are some cards that are faster than others, but thats because they are different models. Outright saying ATI is faster than Nvidia is plain stupid. How can you even quantify "better"?
I swear some of the people on the internet...
Wouldn't you think Apple would stop using those in the MBP if it was a major issue?