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

JavaWizKid said:
I wouldn't call a graphics card that packs in after a year or 2 normal because you pay good money for a graphics card that can do more than an average card eg: playing games in better detail etc... If it packs in after a year or 2 it really isn't worth the money compared to a rubbish graphics card that will last 5 years or so is it?
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You misunderstood me. I was referring to the percentage of graphics cards that pack it in out of any batch/brand. These things die and get replaced...I'd like to know how many ATIs get replaced as opposed to Nvidias. If we could get some numbers we'd actually know if there is something to this speculation.
 
vixapphire said:
What, are we in Italy or living in sheet-music-world now? Check your dictionary; "retard" still means "to decelerate".:rolleyes:
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I think he was being ironic and I apologise for the typo in my original post. I did in fact mean "retard".
 
I took the affected 6 month old MacBook Pro into an Genius bar in the UK. The repair will take two weeks though and I need it for work at the moment so I brought it home again as at least it's still working, aside from the occasional graphics head fit and consequent forced restart, so I may as well wait until I'm sure I'm not going to need it or it dies completely.

The Genius's at Apple UK totally deny there is any problem with the graphics cards. They tell me they are not getting unusual levels of failed cards coming in. The guy refused to look at any of my printouts from the more reputable sources about this issue or even printouts of people discussing it on their own boards. He, and another guy who rang me later, refuse to research the issue themselves.

They refuse to offer any additional warranty on the graphics card/logic board alone and just say I have to buy Applecare which is nearly £300 UK pounds here. I asked why it is so much more expensive than in the US and was told it is the same price there. I think £300 UK works out at about $600 US, how much do you pay in the States for Applecare for a MacBook Pro guys?

If I don't get Applecare and the replacement chip fails out of warranty the Apple guy tells me it will cost around £500 UK to replace. And I lose the laptop for another two weeks off work.

I'm really unhappy about this I can't begin to tell you. Apple should do the decent thing and at least offer free replacements on any failed cards for three years from the original date of purchase, and bill nVidea not treat us like this.
 
fs454 said:
The GMA X3100 is built into Intel's chipset that goes along with the CPU, but is disabled in the Macbook Pro. In the regular macbook, it is enabled and the computer runs directly from it, and on the Macbook Pro, the X3100 is not needed due to the extra, more powerful discrete chip to handle all the work, so it is hardware disabled. Guess it still works for network access though.


Apple REALLY needs to do something about this. I'm so glad they're allowing logic board replacements free of charge but what happens when someone's fails twice?
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Is there any hack available to enable this chip if the nVidea one goes out of warranty so we could at least have something working?
 
Please go read the Inquirer and the articles they source. Everything they write is out of context so they can get ridiculous sensationalist headlines. There's a reason they're named after a tabloid.

Also, the man writing these articles, Charlie D, is maybe one of their most biased writers which is saying something. He's an ATI fan. The same exact thing happened with the 3850's and some 3870's from Diamond and he said it was a small, isolated incident that was no big deal.

All of the other websites are reporting using the Inquirer as their source, which is not how truth is found.
 
If October 14th brings new MacBook Pro's, could its logic board fit inside the current generation MacBook Pros'? The rumored pictures suggest that the the new MacBook Pro has a similar design to the current generation ones, an maybe this is why Apple is holding off replacing the "bad gpus" as the next generation MacBook Pro's logic board could be the "fix". That's just my thought anyway. If not you could just buy Apple Care (which you shouldn't be forced to buy!) and then after it breaks 3 times you get a FREE next generation one!
 
ttp://www.petitiononline.com/badmbpgp/petition.html

I signed that but, should I sell my MBP? I have a buyer for $2500. I'm pretty sure I could get the mid grade new MBP for that price...
 
finally

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377

interesting timing. Apple nursed the current line as far as they could (in other words let people blindly buy them right up till the end, new ones next Tuesday)

I am not satisfied with this fix. They owe us a recall with a fixed gpu (not another time bomb).
 
duk said:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377
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Well, I'm glad they finally admitted there was a problem, but the affected range goes all the way into Sept of this year! I like how it's worded so that Apple is basically pinning the blame on the late response on Nvidia, essentially saying, "well, Nvidia told us that the GPUs in our MBP's weren't affected, and we believed them, but THEY LIED."

Ah, well. Anyone who paid out-of-pocket for a repair is supposed to get a refund. I suggest nagging them, just to make sure you get your money back.
 
duk said:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377

interesting timing. Apple nursed the current line as far as they could (in other words let people blindly buy them right up till the end, new ones next Tuesday)

I am not satisfied with this fix. They owe us a recall with a fixed gpu (not another time bomb).
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Oh my God! That's fantastic! They've fessed up!

I am going to phone that Apple guy who gave me all the ******** a couple of days ago and make him look at this!

Nevertheless, if the new ones have different processors I'm going to look at selling this one (I'll get it fixed first) and buying a new generation one. I didn't spend £2500 UK for a laptop with a two year life expectancy, my TiBook is still going after five. Well the fans are making funny noises but apart from that it's fine.
 
Does this have anything to do with the 'spotlights' that appear sometimes on the screen?

I get it from time to time :(
 
My MBP a few months old is not presenting any trouble so far.
But the risk it can fail really give me chills, you known there are people that buy a macbook PRO not for play counter strike or another game but to work with it.

So i wish the new MBP will not present such trouble.

At least Apple sound a bit concerned with such a trouble and i bet they are losing money with all this trouble, so they will put a lot of effort to avoid such situation with the newest line.
 
Either NVidia's chips post-September are manufactured differently or replacement chips will be as likely to fail as those they replace. If the situation is the latter and given that the GPU introduced in October 2008 MBPs (or whatever they'll be called) is likely to be different I see no reason for an optimistic assumption, a lot of people are left with machines that have effectively zero resale value to any informed potential buyer.

I think Apple have actually handled this pretty well in the end but a two-year warranty on any replacement GPU would seem the most ethical resolution of the whole issue.
 
macffooky said:
Either NVidia's chips post-September are manufactured differently or replacement chips will be as likely to fail as those they replace. If the situation is the latter and given that the GPU introduced in October 2008 MBPs (or whatever they'll be called) is likely to be different I see no reason for an optimistic assumption, a lot of people are left with machines that have effectively zero resale value to any informed potential buyer.

I think Apple have actually handled this pretty well in the end but a two-year guarantee on any replacement GPU would seem the most ethical resolution of the whole issue.
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From what I understand, Nivia changed their manufacturing process at some date and all GPUs built after that are fine...problem is making sure you get one of the new ones. Who knows how many faulty ones are floating around out there.
 
While I'm grateful Apple has finally acknowledged the issue, is it just me or should there be a three year warranty rather than two? Maybe they have data to indicate that it should fail within two years, but for people like me that don't really tax the gpu, I could see having a failure at around 2 1/2 years and getting no coverage. I think they should have at least matched the apple care warranty for this particular item.

When the logic boards on the old iBooks had a problem Apple extended the warranty to at least three years. Of course, mine failed about 4 months out of the extended warranty so I ended up having to pay for it anyway...
 
sclough said:
While I'm grateful Apple has finally acknowledged the issue, is it just me or should there be a three year warranty rather than two? Maybe they have data to indicate that it should fail within two years, but for people like me that don't really tax the gpu, I could see having a failure at around 2 1/2 years and getting no coverage. I think they should have at least matched the apple care warranty for this particular item.
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Well, it isn't a hugely common problem, and the likes of Dell only offered a 1 year extension.
 
sclough said:
While I'm grateful Apple has finally acknowledged the issue, is it just me or should there be a three year warranty rather than two? Maybe they have data to indicate that it should fail within two years...<snip>
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They probably have data which indicates it will fail just outside of two years ;)
 
sclough said:
While I'm grateful Apple has finally acknowledged the issue, is it just me or should there be a three year warranty rather than two? Maybe they have data to indicate that it should fail within two years, but for people like me that don't really tax the gpu, I could see having a failure at around 2 1/2 years and getting no coverage. I think they should have at least matched the apple care warranty for this particular item.

When the logic boards on the old iBooks had a problem Apple extended the warranty to at least three years. Of course, mine failed about 4 months out of the extended warranty so I ended up having to pay for it anyway...
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What about people who purchased AppleCare for THIS very reason?!?
Apple should give THEM an extra year over & above the AppleCare since thats 2 extra years PAID FOR. An extra year alone is fair for everyone who didn't invest in the extended warranty.
 
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377

interesting timing. Apple nursed the current line as far as they could (in other words let people blindly buy them right up till the end, new ones next Tuesday)

I am not satisfied with this fix. They owe us a recall with a fixed gpu (not another time bomb).
Click to expand...

You're 100% right. Is Apple somehow suggesting that they just found out about the issue now, right before the launch of their new notebook line? Everything seems to suggest they've known about this issue for longer...and the fact that they've kept selling the MBPs is disgusting. Not to mention those of us who bought Applecare just to contain this problem. Lawsuit, anyone???
 
powz said:
You're 100% right. Is Apple somehow suggesting that they just found out about the issue now, right before the launch of their new notebook line? Everything seems to suggest they've known about this issue for longer...and the fact that they've kept selling the MBPs is disgusting.
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Have to agree with this...
 
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