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

[panzer06]

I would've gone back to my old ATi MacBook Pro, but its screen is really faded, it gets ridiculously hot (far hotter than my Santa Rosa) and has all sorts of problems like mega warping, display bezel rubbing with body, high-pitched CPU whine, flickering backlight and shocking general build quality.

That ATi one had a logic board problem where all the colours on the built-in display went crazy (all wrong colours, but not inverted). So now both of my MacBook Pros have had to go in for logic board replacements...

That is very sad. My ATI based 2.16 is still going great, long after I sold off my SR time bomb.

Cheers,

 

[mistergogolak]

My mbp died...

I looked at this thread Saturday morning. Saturday night my MBP crapped out. Won't boot/ might boot - no picture either way. They are replacing the motherboard. Took the opportunity to upgrade the RAM and Hard Drive.

Now, I am trying to find a solution for pulling data off the original internal SATA drive which was not formatted in a Microsloth favorable way... I'm led to believe that since I formatted it in the Mac preferred way that I may have trouble mounting it as an external drive. Time to search the forums.

The guy at my authorized reseller says he's seeing these failures more frequently lately with this batch of MBPs... At least my PowerBook is still running...and about 80 degrees cooler to boot...

I am so glad I paid for the AppleCare...

 

[204353]

At last!

Finally got my MacBook Pro back. Apparently the issue with the sleep light not working was due to a fault on the new logic board... so they put another one in. Everything's working well now.

Annoyingly Time Machine would no longer recognise my back-up drive after the repair, so I've had to wipe it and make a new back-up. Thankfully there was nothing important on it...

I'm just happy to have my beloved back so I can get blogging properly.

P.S. Blog URL in my signature if you're interested.

 

[panzer06]

I am so glad I paid for the AppleCare...

I know the feeling, especially, now that Apple admits that all nvidia 8600 based MBPs are affected by this issue.

excerpt-
Specific products affected:

MacBook Pro 15-inch and 17-inch models with NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processors
MacBook Pro (17-Inch, 2.4GHz)
MacBook Pro (15-Inch, 2.4/2.2GHz)
MacBook Pro (Early 2008)
These computers were manufactured between approximately May 2007 and September 2008

However, I am still frustrated we felt "compelled/coerced" to buy Applecare because our systems were potential timebombs. After mine died and was replaced under warranty, I sold it at a loss just to be rid of the potential problem. Prior to that one unit I've kept my Apple laptops for 4 or 5 years.

 

[waterkamp]

This is a sad day for me , my mbp graphic card just gone kaput, its the 2.4 / 256 vram ... I manage to logged in,and about 3 to 5 seconds the machine hangs with distorted images and beach ball... i've tried to clear pram and reset smc, but fail.
since my mbp just out of warranty and I didn't have applecare, hopefully the apple reseller in Indonesia would apply this from apple http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377

*fingers crossed*

Want to update about my mbp, so I took it to AASP and when they checked it, it's not the graphic issue, it seems that the thermal paste was dry which cause the computer overheats and hangs so they re-apply the thermal paste, and they've had burn-in test for 48 hours to make sure... this makes me think probably there were some bad batch from nvidia and mine was the good batch and the other mistake was from apple regarding thermal paste ?

anyhow, my mbp been working fine for over a week now, and just bought applecare, hopefully there will be a rev b board that will fix this for good

cheers

 

[Teej guy]

I know the feeling, especially, now that Apple admits that all nvidia 8600 based MBPs are affected by this issue.

excerpt-
Specific products affected:

MacBook Pro 15-inch and 17-inch models with NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processors
MacBook Pro (17-Inch, 2.4GHz)
MacBook Pro (15-Inch, 2.4/2.2GHz)
MacBook Pro (Early 2008)
These computers were manufactured between approximately May 2007 and September 2008

The 15-inch 2.6 has the problem as well, I've had one of those die. All 8600GT are ****ed.

 

[fuzzynavo]

Chalk me up as another statistic. My gpu started failing this weekend when my computer started kernel panicking while playing video or displaying anything on the screen that was more than slightly gpu intensive. Vertical green stripes would accompany the hard crash. A forced restart would bring up the boot screen but the vertical lines would remain. The computer would make it all the way to the "Welcome to Mac OS" screen and then kernel panic again. If I shut down the computer and let it cool down for 20-30 minutes it would boot up normally until the gpu was stressed and the cycle would repeat.

I took it into my local Apple Store this morning at 11 am and they did the diagnostic, verified it was the video card at fault and took it in for repair. It was done by 3 pm. I was amazed at the speed that they had it fixed, but still upset about the whole ordeal.

I have less than two months left in the 2-year extended warranty for the gpu. I'm debating whether to place my computer up for sale and investing in a new Macbook or not. I hate having to be paranoid about my computer and worrying about it possibly crapping out on me in the middle of a presentation or something important...ESPECIALLY after two months when they will no longer replace the MLB for free!

 

[fleshman03]

I've asked this before, but thought I should ask it again.

How long till we are fed up enough to file a class-action?

To all those who say that Apple is fixing the problem, how much is your time worth driving back and forth to the store? Time spend without a computer? I know for me, that is a huge hit to my productivity.

 

[The Flashing Fi]

How long till we are fed up enough to file a class-action?

You're talking about Mac users. They would much rather sweep problems under the rug and pretend they don't exist. You never hear about the MBP's problems outside of this section of the forums. You never hear about the shoddy drivers Apple provides with Mac OS X for their laptops. You never hear about the yellowing issue with previous generation MBP's outside of this forum. You never hear about about the vulnerabilities of Mac OS X, or the iMac freezing update that (used?) to afflict iMacs, ect.

A lot of the users are content with Apple replacing their logic board. But what happens after two years? By the end of this year, many of the SR laptops will fall out of the 2 year extended warranty on the 8600M GT. What happens after two years? It's now on the user to fund their own replacement (which is more expensive than a PC replacement, since PC laptop manufacturers typically don't soldier the video card onto the motherboard, which means you have to replace the GPU, instead of the entire unit).

But then again. I don't mind the replacement, but I want them to assure me that the replacement WILL NOT be defective. I want them to tell me that this is one of the 8600M GTs that is not affected by the problem. Contrary to some people's beliefs, laptops are supposed to last more than 2/3 years.

But no. They're not going to do that. They're not going to assure you. They'd rather extend the warranty to 2 years time to make it appear that they're doing something about it. When in actuality, they're doing jack squat about it. They're just pushing the problem outside of the 2/3 years and then it becomes the owner's problem. Well, it's bull crap, and if my MBP goes and they don't fix the problem and not just stall the problem (whether it be a new MBP or a guaranty that the GPU is not affected by the problem), then this will likely be my last Apple product for a very LONG time. I put up with this bull crap with Acer, but at least I didn't pay an arm and a leg for the laptop. This is like being kicked in the nuts and having your head stomped on to boot.

 

[clyde2801]

The question is whether the replacment cards contain 8600's made after september of 2008, or if apple just had a pallet full of ones made during the 5/07-9/08 time period.

If it's the former, hopefully there's no worries. If it's the latter, then I would agree with you; that apple's just postponing the problem past when their extended warranty and owner's applecare runs out.

Has anyone tried contacting apple to see if they've said, or will say, anything about the issue?

 

[SolRayz]

I just hope that if mine fails again, that it happens soon. The two year extended warranty for my SR 2.4 is up in June. I kick myself everyday for having missed Applecare deadline last year.

 

[iBecks]

Not sure if any UK users had had this problem and have had no luck with Apple.

Touch wood my MBP 2.4 has been ok, but if it fails after my Applecare is up then I shall be looking at the Sale of Goods Act which can protect the purchaser for upto 6 years.


• Wherever goods are bought they must "conform to contract". This means they must be as described, fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality (i.e. not inherently faulty at the time of sale).

What is an inherent fault?
A fault present at the time of purchase. Examples are:
• an error in design so that a product is manufactured incorrectly
• an error in manufacturing where a faulty component was inserted.
The "fault" may not become apparent immediately but it was there at the time of sale and so the product was not of satisfactory standard.

 

[Dembo]

ah ****...

Gone. No picture on screen after waking up from sleep, reboot & co not helping. For the fun of it I tried resetting the PRAM. Nope. Sometimes I get the startup "bing" sometimes I don't.

Off to Apple f§%/$.

This a SR 15'' Unit bought and received mid-June 2007. At least I am inside the two years, let's hope support is kind.

Are there any instruction on how one might get the thing back up and working even if only temporary? Target mode should still work, right?

 

[sclough]

ah ****...

Gone. No picture on screen after waking up from sleep, reboot & co not helping. For the fun of it I tried resetting the PRAM. Nope. Sometimes I get the startup "bing" sometimes I don't.

Off to Apple f§%/$.

This a SR 15'' Unit bought and received mid-June 2007. At least I am inside the two years, let's hope support is kind.

Are there any instruction on how one might get the thing back up and working even if only temporary? Target mode should still work, right?

Target mode should be fine. If the machine will boot, ssh access should work as well.

 

[macffooky]

Not sure if any UK users had had this problem and have had no luck with Apple.

Touch wood my MBP 2.4 has been ok, but if it fails after my Applecare is up then I shall be looking at the Sale of Goods Act which can protect the purchaser for upto 6 years.

I've been planning to use this approach as well but I'm hoping someone else will already have blazed the trail by the time it's necessary

 

[packgrad2000]

The question is whether the replacment cards contain 8600's made after september of 2008, or if apple just had a pallet full of ones made during the 5/07-9/08 time period.

If it's the former, hopefully there's no worries. If it's the latter, then I would agree with you; that apple's just postponing the problem past when their extended warranty and owner's applecare runs out.

Has anyone tried contacting apple to see if they've said, or will say, anything about the issue?

I've seen this "cards made after Sept/Oct 2008 are OK" quite a few times on this thread, but I've yet to see that anywhere else. Can someone provide a source? My 2.2 SR's video card crapped out around Christmas, and it was replaced in January 2009, so I'm hoping it was made after this supposed Sept/October date. Any way to find out when your video card was manufactured?

 

[baditkoff]

I just bought my MBP on 4/19

Hi All,
Well this is very upsetting to read! I bought my mbp/2.66 on 4/19. How do I know if my GPU is from the bad lot? Would a call to the apple store help?

Andy

 

[Teej guy]

Not sure if any UK users had had this problem and have had no luck with Apple.

Touch wood my MBP 2.4 has been ok, but if it fails after my Applecare is up then I shall be looking at the Sale of Goods Act which can protect the purchaser for upto 6 years.


• Wherever goods are bought they must "conform to contract". This means they must be as described, fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality (i.e. not inherently faulty at the time of sale).

What is an inherent fault?
A fault present at the time of purchase. Examples are:
• an error in design so that a product is manufactured incorrectly
• an error in manufacturing where a faulty component was inserted.
The "fault" may not become apparent immediately but it was there at the time of sale and so the product was not of satisfactory standard.

Hmm...I wonder if Canada has similar laws...

 

[Teej guy]

Hi All,
Well this is very upsetting to read! I bought my mbp/2.66 on 4/19. How do I know if my GPU is from the bad lot? Would a call to the apple store help?

Andy

One of the new unibody MBPs?
This is thread is about the 8600 not the 9600. You should be fine.

 

[areusche]

Hi All,
Well this is very upsetting to read! I bought my mbp/2.66 on 4/19. How do I know if my GPU is from the bad lot? Would a call to the apple store help?

Andy

You do a lot of video intensive work (or play) and hope it fails within the allowed time frame for a repair.
I'm quite fond of protein folding. :-/

 

[Dembo]

Damn, I am officially scared now:

Had a chat with Apple's support this morning and it started very well: He confirmed that my MBP might be affected by the NVIDIA issue and that it will be covered under the extended warranty )), however, he asked me for a final test: Does the caps lock light come on upon turning the machine on. I just said yes (machine wasn't around atm) and the support guy was happy stating that otherwise the issue might be related to power.

This morning I double checked and the caps lock light does not come on. uuurgs

I dropped the MBP off at a service partner who is supposed to confirm the NVIDIA issue and repair the thing (handed them a reference number given to me by Apple) and they did not ask any questions.

I am somewhat nervous that this might be a different issue not covered under the NVIDIA fiasko warranty...

Did anybody run a successful exchange despite the caps lock light not lighting up?

 

[applecultvictim]

does that affect the penryn mbps? Did nvidia get their stuff together or are ALL these graphics cards faulty?

 

[Vercingetorix]

All right, so it seems that I'm probably screwed. I just found out about this. Wow. This sucks. I love this machine.

They probably won't even fix the problem when mine does go because I've almost certainly voided the extra year of warranty by opening up the machine a couple of times (upgraded the hard drive, had to replace the keyboard after a, uh, Guinness-related incident). I'll push them, of course, but in case I do end up being on the hook for it -- has anybody actually paid out of pocket to have the system board replaced? If so, how bad was it compared to the price of a new machine?

 

[KingYaba]

price

Expect to pay $1,000 for logic board replacement. Better off building a PC in my opinion.

 

[5thcolumn]

-has anybody actually paid out of pocket to have the system board replaced? If so, how bad was it compared to the price of a new machine?

When mine died this month, I took it in to an "Authorized repair center" before the Apple store. They didn't know about the extended warranty and(tried) charged me 1200.00(CDN). After doing a bit of research, LogicBoards for Mbp run about 900.00-1100.00(U.S.) for parts alone.

As for the eternal question: Are all 8600m GT chips faulty? I believe the answer is unfortunately: YES.
I have talked to Apple care(Tech and Customer Support) and also have had multiple conversations with "Genius(s)". The bottom line is that not one of them will say, (confidently or not) that there is such a thing as a dependable 8600m GT chip. You would think that this information is important to them, but they always seemed a little scared to discuss the problem in any detail, which is odd considering the number of high end machines affected, perhaps they know that this problem, if faced with full disclosure and honesty will amount to replacing multiple generations of mbp at their expense. I think because they admitted to the problem at such a late date, almost at the introduction of the nVidia 9series, that they weren't worried about the old 8series. I cannot see them(nVidia) altering their whole manufacturing system just to fix a problem on an old chip that has already been replaced, it's just not worth changing infrastructure to manufacture a limited run. The worst part is that Apple, in some instances, almost want to seem heroic because of their extension of warranty, saying that yes, indeed they do protect their customers, however, they are always shut up or are humbled when asked about the unconscionable action of replacing a faulty part with another of the same(FLAWED) design.
I love my mbp. It is flawless, runs cool, perfect screen, keyboard, case... I don't want a uni or any other mb... I bought this laptop to use exactly in the manner it was advertised for, but because of this issue, it has gone from a professional and appreciated tool, to something that I can't really use at work anymore because of it's lack of reliability... Expensive unreliable toy... Arg.