+1
RIP Macbook Pro (April 2008 - Feb 2010)
Penryn Macbook Pro, Nvidia 8600M GT 512B VRAM chip.
After following this thread for over a year and wondering about my mac it finally stopped working last Friday. No warnings, no graphic manifestations, it just wouldn't turn on whatsoever.
When I took it into my local Applestore (Shinsaibashi, Osaka), the genius couldn't even run the Nvidia faulty chip test. (It was later confirmed to be a logic board failure at the repair centre).
I can't fault the service I received at the applestore though. I have applecare and took it in the same day it failed, last Friday. It was sent off to the repair centre and shipped back to my house fixed today, Tuesday. A 4 day turnaround which included a Saturday and a Sunday. I also received a new battery and a new superdrive which were also both defective. (3 separate things broken on such an expensive laptop that I babied is not great but at least it was fixed fast with no worries. Applecare was definitely worth it in my case).
Talking with the apple genius he claimed that most people who have their first logic board replaced don't experience any further problems but I find that hard to believe given all the evidence to the contrary. He was pretty friendly and very professional. When I pushed him and asked whether I was just going to receive the same unmodified Nvidia chip again after the repair he admitted that was the case after saying at first he didn't know.
On my documentation I supposedly have a "Rev 2" 8600M GT chip now in my mac, although whether there is really any difference between this new one and the faulty original or not I do not know.
Either way the mac is working again but nevertheless if this really is an ongoing problem then sooner or later it is going to go wrong again. This laptop is two years old, one year left with Applecare and if Apple refuse to replace faulty boards after the 3 year window this mac will become a $3000 paper-weight.
Let's hope that either the new "Rev 2" chips are less likely to fail (highly doubtful), or Apple continues to honor replacing the logic boards beyond three years. (Again doubtful).
Selling the notebook is the final option but it is still quite a loss to take when I was planning on keeping it for at least 5 years.
One strange thing happened after the repair. The Hard Drive is intact and all my files and applications were left unchanged but I mysteriously gained an extra 10 GB of space back from somewhere...? The start-up time is also significantly faster too. What could they have done to affect that??
My new Nvidia chip specs taken from System Profiler:
GeForce 8600M GT:
Chipset Model: GeForce 8600M GT
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0407
Revision ID: 0x00a1
ROM Revision: 3212
RIP Macbook Pro (April 2008 - Feb 2010)
Penryn Macbook Pro, Nvidia 8600M GT 512B VRAM chip.
After following this thread for over a year and wondering about my mac it finally stopped working last Friday. No warnings, no graphic manifestations, it just wouldn't turn on whatsoever.
When I took it into my local Applestore (Shinsaibashi, Osaka), the genius couldn't even run the Nvidia faulty chip test. (It was later confirmed to be a logic board failure at the repair centre).
I can't fault the service I received at the applestore though. I have applecare and took it in the same day it failed, last Friday. It was sent off to the repair centre and shipped back to my house fixed today, Tuesday. A 4 day turnaround which included a Saturday and a Sunday. I also received a new battery and a new superdrive which were also both defective. (3 separate things broken on such an expensive laptop that I babied is not great but at least it was fixed fast with no worries. Applecare was definitely worth it in my case).
Talking with the apple genius he claimed that most people who have their first logic board replaced don't experience any further problems but I find that hard to believe given all the evidence to the contrary. He was pretty friendly and very professional. When I pushed him and asked whether I was just going to receive the same unmodified Nvidia chip again after the repair he admitted that was the case after saying at first he didn't know.
On my documentation I supposedly have a "Rev 2" 8600M GT chip now in my mac, although whether there is really any difference between this new one and the faulty original or not I do not know.
Either way the mac is working again but nevertheless if this really is an ongoing problem then sooner or later it is going to go wrong again. This laptop is two years old, one year left with Applecare and if Apple refuse to replace faulty boards after the 3 year window this mac will become a $3000 paper-weight.
Let's hope that either the new "Rev 2" chips are less likely to fail (highly doubtful), or Apple continues to honor replacing the logic boards beyond three years. (Again doubtful).
Selling the notebook is the final option but it is still quite a loss to take when I was planning on keeping it for at least 5 years.
One strange thing happened after the repair. The Hard Drive is intact and all my files and applications were left unchanged but I mysteriously gained an extra 10 GB of space back from somewhere...?
The start-up time is also significantly faster too. What could they have done to affect that??My new Nvidia chip specs taken from System Profiler:
GeForce 8600M GT:
Chipset Model: GeForce 8600M GT
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0407
Revision ID: 0x00a1
ROM Revision: 3212
