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

JasonR said:
Why?
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I have a nice case, plus the glossy screen thing still kind of drives me nuts.

I realize I could accept a unibody, sell it, and buy a refurb Penryn, but that's too much work and too much time without a computer, and I'd still have the same 8600GT problem.
 
andrewkendall said:
Same thing happened to me, I knew it was the NVIDIA problem but the test wouldn't run at all. I was getting pretty freaked out. They took the machine in without a result and ended it up fixing it anyway. As you'll read above the repair did end up breaking the right speaker, but I took it in to the store again today and it was fixed with minimum fuss. Still a whole ton of hassle.

Overall I feel fairly conflicted, on one hand I was pleased with the speedy replacement and the fact they sorted out the broken speaker without question, after all everyone make mistakes. On the other, I'm obviously worried it will happen again outside of the two years and I'll be left with a dead machine through no fault of my own. This whole issue has really damaged Apple's reputation in my eyes, it will definitely impact my future purchases.

Apple needs to come clean as to whether the replacement parts will also fail and extend the fix for this issue far longer than the currently offered two years.
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See, thats the thing. The test didn't run and the called me saying the logic board needs to be replaced. I'm like I know it does, but they said the graphics didn't cause it and want to charge me $1681.44 CDN for repair. I WAS PISSED. Just because they couldn't run the test to see if it would pass or fail. The laptop has another issue where it can't boot into any volume without kernel panicking and I insist that its during the loading of the graphics drivers, the OS kernel panics which is a graphics issue. I explained it to him like this cause whatever manual Apple gives their Genius doesn't teach them much. During the boot process, the OS loads the graphics drivers. The drivers then look for the video card to communicate. The graphics drivers cant find the video card, so it kernel panics. That seemed preposterous to him.

Anyway, anyone have the number for Apple Customer Relations? Not AppleCare, they can't help me.
 
Sneakz said:
See, thats the thing. The test didn't run and the called me saying the logic board needs to be replaced. I'm like I know it does, but they said the graphics didn't cause it and want to charge me $1681.44 CDN for repair. I WAS PISSED. Just because they couldn't run the test to see if it would pass or fail. The laptop has another issue where it can't boot into any volume without kernel panicking and I insist that its during the loading of the graphics drivers, the OS kernel panics which is a graphics issue. I explained it to him like this cause whatever manual Apple gives their Genius doesn't teach them much. During the boot process, the OS loads the graphics drivers. The drivers then look for the video card to communicate. The graphics drivers cant find the video card, so it kernel panics. That seemed preposterous to him.

Anyway, anyone have the number for Apple Customer Relations? Not AppleCare, they can't help me.
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When I took mine in I'm pretty sure that the video test failed to run as well. I remember the guy I was talking to looking a bit confused (he was younger looking than the rest of the geniuses so I'm guessing he's fairly new). But someone else turned to him and said that the video test will stop once it fails. I'm not sure if this is the same situation you are having, but the thing definitely did not run properly on my computer. They took it in for repairs without any further hesitation.

Be persistent, and good luck.
 
Just as a matter of interest, is everyone sure the 9400/9600M aren't affected as well?

The 9400M is an 8400M variant as far as I am aware, and that had problems. The 9600M is a slightly beefed up 8600M once again as far as I'm aware, and that had problems.

Because it occurs to me that some of the problems experienced by early 17-inch UB MBP users seem to mirror some of the video problems I experienced with the Dell M1330 before I had to have a motherboard replacement on at least one of the machines I had (and I didn't realise at that time was a GPU issue) and also had with the Sony SZ'd in 8400M mode every now and again under heavy use (although none have failed yet - probably because I use the SZ's with the X3100 the vast majority of the time).

And both of these probably became big problems when NVidia was surely well past the point of no return in terms of a chip manufacturing process. So...?
 
My understanding is that the problem with the 8600's was a manufacturing defect, not a design defect; the substrate bond used with the GPU was slightly off specifications.

If so, you can bet your sweet bippy that nvidia will be taking special pains to ensure that the new chips are being made to specifications. They have to, or their stock will take a nose dive.
 
Does anybody know if other GPU's are hard soldered to the Logic Boards with other manufacturer's like Apple? i.e. Sony, Dell, HP etc. who are having the same problems with the 8600GT? The thing that makes this such a pain and expensive is you can't just replace the video card, which would be relatively cheap. I mean, the MLB is basically the whole computer.
 
I don't know if I've been lucky or not, but I have a MBP SR 07', and has not failed yet. This machine has played intensive computer games on windows (at official clocks, not "apple" clocks), and hasn't shown any real signs of failure yet.......though I still worry about when it will fail.....
 
Service center just called me: MBP has been repaired - free of charge *sigh*. Apparently the test ran smooth (despite the caps lock light not coming on after attempting to boot).

So I got 20 month out of the first board - if I get another 20 out of it I'd be happy. I will be hooking the thing up to an 24'' HD TFT next week - hope this won't accelerate the frying.

Cheers,
Dembo
 
Dembo said:
Service center just called me: MBP has been repaired - free of charge *sigh*. Apparently the test ran smooth (despite the caps lock light not coming on after attempting to boot).

So I got 20 month out of the first board - if I get another 20 out of it I'd be happy. I will be hooking the thing up to an 24'' HD TFT next week - hope this won't accelerate the frying.

Cheers,
Dembo
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How long is the new one covered for? The duration of the original's applecare? Or for at least two years after you've gotten it?
 
clyde2801 said:
How long is the new one covered for? The duration of the original's applecare? Or for at least two years after you've gotten it?
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Very good question - as far as I know pretty much everything sold over here (.de) has to come with a 1y warranty (well, 2y but it gets complicated after 12 month). However, I wonder how long Apple will honour NVIDIA defects - did they set a time limit at all?
 
clyde2801 said:
My understanding is that the problem with the 8600's was a manufacturing defect, not a design defect; the substrate bond used with the GPU was slightly off specifications.

If so, you can bet your sweet bippy that nvidia will be taking special pains to ensure that the new chips are being made to specifications. They have to, or their stock will take a nose dive.
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I know, but as I said, this blew up at surely an advanced stage in the 9xxx's rollout. I'm wondering if the firmware updates are just a band-aid, only without the publicity of the 8xxx's.
 
I don't think that the majority of the NVIDIA cards in the older Macbook Pros are defective, just a small minority of them who Googled the problem and banded together to form a seemingly large group. And besides, the older Macbook Pros have been out for a really long time, and Apple hasn't issued any warning covering the majority of the laptops, only a small issue with a minority of defective chipsets that MAY have that failing issue... In my experience, Macs are very reliable, and the company itself tries to use the highest quality part available, but then the computer parts manufacturers that supply Apple with the parts do not adhere to the strict stnadards that the company poses. No matter how much Apple asks the Chinese and other foriegn manufacturers to step up the quality standards, there will always be a difference between the chipsets that are made in the United States and the ones that are made in foreign courties... If only they would replace some of their part suppliers with those from South Korea... They have a very high standard of quality... And besides, if you are that worried about the GPU breaking, then the chances are high that you are someone who does a lot of gaming on their machine, and therefore the GPU will burn out faster then the projected 3-4 years, and therefore under warrenty. So if I were you, I would not worry too much. When the GPU does break, then just replace it with one at Apple Reatil Store and then sell it on eBay, then buy a Unibody Macbook Pro, they have parts made in Korea.
 
clyde2801 said:
How long is the new one covered for? The duration of the original's applecare? Or for at least two years after you've gotten it?
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Without AppleCare, the new Motherboard, as far as I know, is only covered for 3 months(manufacturers warranty) or 2 years from date of purchase( under extended nVidia warranty). I tried to get Apple to cover the board under 2 year extended warranty everytime they replaced it, but no go... Although they left me with the feeling that there was perhaps other options that customer service could provide, but they told me not to worry about it until my 2nd board died outside 2 year extended warranty... Whatever that means??
 
w00t951 said:
If you are that worried about the GPU breaking, then the chances are high that you are someone who does a lot of gaming on their machine, and therefore the GPU will burn out faster then the projected 3-4 years, and therefore under warrenty. So if I were you, I would not worry too much.
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I don't play games and mine still died after 14 months.
 
I have had mine replaced twice and now I am getting this after three months of having it replaced.
 

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:eek:

you had the same config as me....
don t say you are glad...

I have my MBP for 6 months.
bought it the 5 November 2008 Penryn early 2008 MBP.
I was ready to take the Unibody but I could not stand the matte and the black besel.

I do no gamming but only light apps internet and lots of word/pdf.

till now no issues.
also i see every day 1 movie.
no issues so far.

I think that the last chips made after the 15 Oct are no faulty.
nevertheless I m going to purchase an AppleCare plan and If they give me a matte unibody MBP I ll sell mine.

till now I cross my fingers.
 
Just to finish my story: Picked up my July 07 2.2 MBP from the service center - all working now and motherboard was replaced under warranty.

While I was there chatting to the service guy a frightened to death student showed up with his MBP (another July07) - burned out NVIDIA too. The guy never heard of the NVIDIA issues and was relieved that this is probably covered under warranty.

Anyway, the service guy told me that they are seeing an increase in June-August 07 MBPs - he thinks that two years might be the max you'll get out of the faulty boards. At least he told me that so far he has seen very few replacement boards failing (they are the biggest service center in the area - until Apple finishes building the second Apple store in Germany right around the corner). However, when the terrified student asked how long the replacement will hold up the answer was: "better ask yourself how long the repair program will be up".

All in all not a bad customer experience - neither from Apple and their support hotline and definitely not from the service center. They even gave me pretty nifty discount on a wireless keyboard just to cheer me up. :rolleyes:
 
Dembo said:
JHowever, when the terrified student asked how long the replacement will hold up the answer was: "better ask yourself how long the repair program will be up".
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Yeah, I really really hope that the machines manufactured after september contain good graphic chips but there's no way to know it :(
 
I bought my 2.2Ghz MBP like the 2nd day it came out in early June 07 and the video card failed December 08, right at 18 months. Of course my extended warranty runs out in a month (no AppleCare), so I too am trying to sell this ticking time bomb. What a terrible first experience (this is my first Mac). I'm getting an iMac in 2 days to replace it.
 
packgrad2000 said:
I bought my 2.2Ghz MBP like the 2nd day it came out in early June 07 and the video card failed December 08, right at 18 months. Of course my extended warranty runs out in a month (no AppleCare), so I too am trying to sell this ticking time bomb. What a terrible first experience (this is my first Mac). I'm getting an iMac in 2 days to replace it.
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Personally I wouldn't hold your breath for the iMac being much better, from what I've read you're trading the issues of a Macbook Pro (8600m blowing up, battery swelling, dodgy LCD's etc) for problems with the screen and graphics chips (at least the 4850) on the iMac.

I too am in the 8600m owners club and am currently awaiting my complementary screwing and wallet emptying. The machine was bought in June 07 but I don't do a huge amount of 3D work so the GPU has had a fairly stress free life. Which pretty much guarantees it'll fail outside of the two year replacement program and I'll have to engage in another round of 'yes it's an inherent fault and you bloody well know it' with Apple as I recently had to with a swollen battery. I suppose I could leave it gaming 24/7 but that'd be a guarantee of a fault a day after the two year period ended (and a bit of a scummy thing to do as well).

Why they don't do the right thing, cop to ALL 8600m's being faulty and recall 'em rather than fix IF they break within an arbitrary time period I don't know. Well, I DO know, much cheaper this way, but it'd be a sign of good faith to those of us who are about to come out of the cover period.
 
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