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"I've been running my GPU at 100% capacity twelve straight hours a day every day for the past six months and it broke. I demand a new one!"

You'd be laughed out of the Apple Store.

I don't think you understand what a "thermal stress" problem means. It's not about your laptop running "too hot" for 12 hours a day for six months, it can handle constant hot just fine. It's when it has to change between running cold and running hot that the packaging itself starts to warp/come apart/develop stress cracks/pull off the MB/whatever the problem is this time.

That means:

1) Running at 100% for six months = FINE

2) Running at 100% for 20 minutes and then needing to go home so you put your laptop to sleep = BAD. The GPU temperature plunges quickly from toasty 80 Celsius to the temperature of your room. Do this often enough and it buckles like a cheap bridge.
 
i hate to say it all, but apple is to blame here, and they will be held responsible by "consumer."

We buy apple products, and if there is a fault with the CPU, guess who fronts the repair? not intel! Its apple, all the way.

If this goes wrong on your machine, apple is to be held accountable. Did they know this was going to happen? hell no. But is it good its happening in numbers? probably because itll be that much easier to replace it further on down the road.

Am I disappointed? Sure, who wouldnt be with 2000$ in a laptop. What will be done on a mass scale to rectify this issue? Who knows. I for one hope apple replaces all 8600 laptops with the new models coming out next. And hold NVidia financially responsible for the cost. Period.

I bought a laptop to push it to its limits. If I deem that as benchmarking, it damn well better act 100% behaved during that. If not, thatll be that.

Things go wrong sure, but we better be compensated for issues down the road. Because I wont drop another 2000$ at apple if I have issues, and Im ignored with the rest of the crowd.
 
I'm sure apple reuses their logic boards and resolder the new nvidia gpu kind of like recycled for replaced logic boards. Dont ever think when they replace a logic board for you that its magically brand new.

Everything gets reused especially if its the same gpu that goes onto the logic board. But maybe if it were a totally different gpu that apple were going to replace it with that the current logic board wouldnt be able to utilize then they would need to make a whole new logic board.

And how do you suppose they go about desoldering 80 nm chips from logic boards? These chips are all stamped onto the boards and soldered by machine. There's no economical way to get these chips out without damaging other circuitry on the board. Have you seen the underside of a graphics card lately?

Evgageforce8800gtxunder2.jpg


That's an 8800GTX - very similar in principle.
 
And how do you suppose they go about desoldering 80 nm chips from logic boards? These chips are all stamped onto the boards and soldered by machine. There's no economical way to get these chips out without damaging other circuitry on the board. Have you seen the underside of a graphics card lately?

Evgageforce8800gtxunder2.jpg


That's an 8800GTX - very similar in principle.

Hmm maybe they just reuse the parts to scrap and recycled to rebuild the logic board.
 
Assuming the financial aspects are viable, they can replace the chip in question. Just use a Hot Air or Infrared Rework Station.
 
I don't think you understand what a "thermal stress" problem means. It's not about your laptop running "too hot" for 12 hours a day for six months, it can handle constant hot just fine. It's when it has to change between running cold and running hot that the packaging itself starts to warp/come apart/develop stress cracks/pull off the MB/whatever the problem is this time.

That means:

1) Running at 100% for six months = FINE

2) Running at 100% for 20 minutes and then needing to go home so you put your laptop to sleep = BAD. The GPU temperature plunges quickly from toasty 80 Celsius to the temperature of your room. Do this often enough and it buckles like a cheap bridge.

I'll keep that in mind. Thanks.
 
I'm fairly sure that putting the computer to sleep pretty much sets all fans to either run very very very VERY low or shuts them off completly. By intentionally telling the computer to shut off its fans you you very likely brought this on your self by not allowing the computer to cool itself properly. When you're playing a game the computer is cooling itself the *entire* time.
 
:confused:

Errr, no. Just... no. lol

If the GPU is dead, that is it, logic board replacement time, dead one gets chucked or whatever they do with them now-a-days

Um you mean the chuck the graphics card right? Why would they toss a whole logic board. That is not economical. That's how we do it at Asus.
 
dude, it IS fraud.

it's like someone taking their iphone and rubbing it constantly on a rough concrete floor to prove that the glass screen is scratch-proof, yet finding that after enough rounds it IS scratched and then returning it because it didn't turn out to be "scratch-resistant" as advertised.

Ridiculous. This is flaw that may affect the long-term use of our investments. Chances are it they'll fail after the first year warranty and then we're screwed unless Apple extends the warranty for all MBPs with this graphics chip. Making sure we don't have this problem NOW is the only way to protect ourselves from being screwed over by Apple. Sorry, those who say that it's fraudulent to see if their machines are running according to spec are full of it.

Apple should issue a statement. Immediately.
 
I'm fairly sure that putting the computer to sleep pretty much sets all fans to either run very very very VERY low or shuts them off completly. By intentionally telling the computer to shut off its fans you you very likely brought this on your self by not allowing the computer to cool itself properly.

Putting the computer to sleep or shutting down immediately after playing a 3D game for 4h does not constitute abuse even if you do it for years. At least not in Apple's eyes. I know because I asked. I asked 3 different techs at Genius Bars and Authorized Service shops a year ago before the stink of nVidia was even in the air.

I frequently work my CPU and GPU hard, hard enough that the internal fans are on full speed even though it's sitting on a cooling pad with 3 more fans under it. I'm not playing games, but sometimes it has to run like this for hours for work. When something else requires my attention, I put it to sleep.

When my PB 17" fried its graphics card a year ago (not sure if it was actually the GPU), I asked about what might have caused it. I asked specifically about my own computing habits and all 3 techs were very clear in telling me that I should not need to change. So I didn't.

And now the graphics card is fried again. As it happens, it has an nVidia card. An old one. One that no one is interested in investigating because most of them are outside their warranty period. So, I will be taking the PB in to Apple when I get stateside and we'll see what Apple has to say about it. It is clear that as of a year ago, Apple did not feel we had to coddle these machines, I'll be curious to hear what their advice is now. If they're singing a different song now, I'll be writing a long letter to inquire why.
 
That is quite honestly one of the most ignorant comments I have ever read. Apple aren't responsible for the failures, nVidia are. What's wrong with trying like everyone else to address this issue properly rather than resorting to destroying your own equipment. Why don't you try doing something productive instead?

haha that's why it's an Apple computer and not an nVidia computer. Hell you might as well call up Fuji Heavy Industry in Japan when your car breaks down. Oh man...I love this forum.
 
Okay, I have no intentions of destroying my computer and I have a better things to do. Not to mention I'd rather go learn something and make money rather than try to defraud Apple for a new computer.

And I do GPU intensive stuff everyday; no issues and I don't expect any.
 
...after 25 cycles of doing exactly what you were supposed to avoid doing.

That's genius. I wish you had done it more like 60 times just to make it even more ridiculous. I hope the replacement model they give you fails.

i think the point is, he shouldn't have to tip toe around a flaw.....on a £1600 machine.

his little cycle thing has pretty much simulated a regular gaming situation.... are you supposed to avoid gaming or frequent CAD work on your machine because it might break? not in my book

you shouldnt have to avoid using your machine for what you bought it for.

whats gonna happen when we get more programs that use the GPU for assisstance? the next photoshop has GPU acceleration and a lot of photogs and image manipulators use mac's. are they supposed to just quit their jobs, give up their hobbies or buy a new machine because your supposed to avoid using the GPU?

thats the most rediculous thing ever, avoid using your machine incase it breaks....whats the point in buying it in the first place if you have to do that.
 
is there a way to check if the GPU is defective,,, ?
or trigger the problem? so we can get it replaced/fixed?
 
This may have already been covered....but if you just bought a MBP this September, would it still have a defective card or have they been brought up to speed? :confused:
 
I wonder if it is a Mac OS X thing? I play CS:S in Bootcamp with my MacBook Pro for hours on end and nothing happens. My laptop will get pretty hot and nothing glitched. I am very happy with my laptop's performance and I am lucky to get a good one. :p
 
his little cycle thing has pretty much simulated a regular gaming situation.... are you supposed to avoid gaming or frequent CAD work on your machine because it might break? not in my book

you shouldnt have to avoid using your machine for what you bought it for.

whats gonna happen when we get more programs that use the GPU for assisstance? the next photoshop has GPU acceleration and a lot of photogs and image manipulators use mac's. are they supposed to just quit their jobs, give up their hobbies or buy a new machine because your supposed to avoid using the GPU?

Are you kidding me? Cycling your machine so its extremely hot and then putting it to sleep immediately TWENTY FIVE times in a row is *not* regular gaming simulation nor is it anything Photoshop upgrades could possibly do in our lifetime. Sorry.

There's testing your product and then there's intentionally destroying it. I'm sure you can rev your car's engine up beyond its recommended levels while in park and be ok. Do it 25x and you might start having engine failures. Is that a defect? There's nothing normal with what he did and even then the computer bounced back.

Lots of people here run their MBPs hard and have no issues. What he did was absurd. I have yet to receive mine yet but you can bet I won't be beating the **** out of it INTENTIONALLY to see if I can get it to fail. I use my Macs hard but with respect and try to actually look after them.
 
? Cycling your machine so its extremely hot and then putting it to sleep immediately TWENTY FIVE times in a row

As the OP said earlier "Actually it was about 25 times over 2-3 weeks, and not in a row cos i actually use my MBP for work!!! I simply wanted to see it was true that rapid changes in the temperature of the GPU can cause a serious problem over time."
 
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