Nvidia chips failing?

The conference call mentioned at http://www.nvidia.com/object/io_1217319887756.html may through some more light on the matter.

Cheers

Rod

hi rod,

yes i know that is a few years old now, my point still stands that it is possible to have multiple failures.

personally, i don't think any of us are in a position to judge who is "legitimate". besides who in their right mind would spend time on these boards if they were not having a problem!? the only thing we are here to do is help each other with out issues not to pass judgment on other posters based on some inconsequential point like they have posted other issues.

to be frank the idea of anyone coming hear to post about nonexistent issues boggles the mind and simply makes no sense.

regards,

Sorry PoliSciGuy, but you are being naive. It happens on most such boards dealing with computer matters unfortunately, regardless of the parent company.

But lets wait and see whether the new announcements from NVidia today add any real information.

One thing I DO agree with is that silence about such things from both NVidia and the computer makers who use these chips allows such matters to fester, and all sorts of rumours to take hold.

Cheers

Rod

Look, of course it is possible that some people with a faulty MBP NVidia GPU is signing on as multiple users and submitting their failure multiple times (but its unlikely many people are doing that, for obvious reasons), and it is possible that some people who don't even own a MBP are signing on and submitting failures for some strange reasons (to knock Apple and NVidia, for kicks, etc.).

However, this in no way mitigates the facts that 1) NVidia has publicly announced there is a problem with these GPUs, without (so far) restricting the failures to any batch within their production, 2) many people have experience the exact same problem with these GPUs (heat causing the GPU to fail and advertise itself incorrectly - probably the reason it no longer functions).

So until Nvidia and Apple work out which batches were affected and hence which MBP serial numbers we all live with the risk that our GPUs will fail as a result of a design/production failure. It's suggested that we take out AppleCare to protect ourselves even though every replacement we get could (if they are all potentially bad) be just as problematic. This should be Apple/NVidia's problem not ours.

Even if we do take out AppleCare and they haven't fixed the problem we can ask what happens after three years? My last PowerBook lasted for 4.5 years (Mac users often note how Macs generally have longer working lives than PCs). If they NVidia/Apple don't fix the problem, or replace the GPU with another model we'll be potentially SOL. Again, not something I would be happy with.

I'm also not happy with a firmware solution that brings the laptop fan on earlier and keeps it on longer. One of the reasons I like/buy Mac laptops is that they are generally very quiet. I don't think I should have to live with a noisier laptop just so Apple and NVidia can try and mask their failure (which could still show itself if the fan can't prevent the GPU heating up to much).

Cheers,
Ashley.

Can we just stop talking about super hot please. There are programs that give you some clear values of temprature in Celsius or Farenheit. The one I use is the widget iStat.

My current GPU Diode temperature is currently 58°C and 47°C at the GPU heatsink
The maximum I observed was 61°C at the GPU Diode.

15.4, MacBookPro3,1
Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.4 GHz, 2 GB

For now I don't see any temperature issue...

Best regards,
Klaus

hello,

as i have said before, my computer is running REALLY HOT. not sure why you would want us to stop talking about that when it is happening to some of us.

regards,

polisciguy

hi,

maybe it would be better if everyone who had a problem with there MBP screens/video wrote to apple directly. here is apple's contact info:

Apple
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, CA 95014
408.996.1010

this feels real bad, like convicting someone guilty without telling the poor guy when the execution will be

Another article on the subject

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=2108

Hope Apple extends warranties

why does the gpu ALWAYS have a higher temp than the cpu? when cpu load increases (and therefore temps) and gpu load stays the same, the gpu's temps will consistently be about 7 degrees celsius aboe the cpu. is it because the chips are so close together that the cpu heats up the gpu?

also, what are signs of gpu failure. sometimes in expose, i get flashes of white squares and in safari, there will be rendering problems (or is that just safari?)

Just a function of what they are and what they do, I guess, bootareen. I have occasionally seen my CPU running warmer than my GPU, but not often. Many things that impose a substantial CPU load also give the GPU a fair bit of work to do too of course. There may also be some transference, I guess.

What sort of temps are you seeing under what sorts of situations?

Cheers

Rod

An update for people having screen corruption issues with their NVIDIA-equipped MacBook Pros: some good news.

Apple Store Sydney took my current-generation MacBook Pro with screen corruption, flashing video and ripples/tearing on scrolling in for investigation and possible repair.

They were able to reproduce the problem while booting off an external drive with a clean installation of Leopard, indicating that it is not a software problem (at least, not a corruption of my installation of OS X -- it could possibly still be a problem baked into OS X itself.)

The said they had had a number of MacBook Pros in with a similar problem -- four or five to date, so it doesn't seem to be a problem with every MacBook Pro they've shipped, they said.

They consulted with Apple Engineering in the US and were told that there is "no fix for this problem, either through hardware or software", which they said meant Engineering was still trying to figure out what exactly was the cause of it.

So, official company line was no repair possible. However, as a courtesy they swapped the logic board out anyway.

Since I picked it up on Tuesday, (it is now Friday night Sydney time) I haven't seen any of the problems. Videos now play back without flashing white blocks all over them, scrolling is fine in Safari and all other apps with no breaking up of the display, etc.

I am happy that after my six months of owning a faulty MacBook Pro it is now back to the condition it should be in when purchased -- I'm just sorry I put up with it for so long thinking it must have been a software problem.

Note, nothing at all has changed in my software config since taking it into the store. They simply swapped the logic board and that fixed the problem.

So if you are experiencing this problem, I strongly urge you to take your MacBook Pro back to Apple to be fixed. Even if some of you do not get the same courtesy I got in getting the logic board replaced without advice to do so from Apple Engineering, the rising numbers of repair requests for this problem may make Apple realise it's a bigger problem than they think it is.

NB. details of the NVIDIA chip on the new logic board:

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

hi,

glad to hear that you have gotten you MBP fixed for the time being. be aware, however, that quite a few people have had their logic boards replaced including me - only to have the problem return a few months or in some cases days later.

if the issue has been listed as unfixable this could be helpful for people where lemon laws exist in exchanging their laptops for the newer ones when they come out in a few months. even for those who do not benefit from a lemon law, it still may be of assistance.

anyway, hope your fix holds. let us know if it fails again.

regards,

polisciguy

...another thing that just happened to me again and I hope someone could tell me, or even experienced the same problem, if that could be an issue with the 8600M GT as well.
When I bought a Wacom Cintiq half a year ago, Wacom told me already that there are problems with that NVIDIA model. At the beginning everything run normal, whenever i used the Cintiq to draw or just as a second monitor. BUT whenever I didn't connect it to my MBP my Intuos was not recognized (the tablet prefs where not in the System Preferences). As soon as I plug in the Cintiq (second monitor) and un-plug it right after, the Intuos the Intuos was recongized (and the Wacom prefs where in the System Preferences). When I re-installed the latest Wacom software (I un-installed the old one before), it seem to work. I started my computer and it recognized the Intuos and the Wacom prefs, YES! BUT since yesterday, I believe the first time I used the Cintiq since I installed the Wacom drivers, the same f.... problem. in my System Preferences i get the message, "A USB tablet was not found when the system started....". This is driving me insane, since i always need a second monitor to plug in first in order to use my tablet! At least to me, it seems like, this has to do something with the second monitor...HEEEEEEEEEELP! ...or just some info.

Thanks.

p.s. of course i wrote to Wacom as well ...no response.

Hello Mr. Hagen,

I am a college student who would very much like to have a new MBP for the fall term, and so have been researching which model/features to select when I came upon this thread and others like it. Given what is and is not known at present, I am wondering if I should hold off on buying my MBP (though this would inconvenience me at school). I did find some information on another thread that the other user's here might be interested in. At http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=543468&highlight=nvidia+8600 *user mct74 wrote*:

"Well this is my first post and have been in the market for a MBP to switch from Dell/Windows and recently discovered this site. The nvidia issue is concerning. I want to take advantage of the education promos out now, but if it means getting a bum video card - that is not worth it.

I called Apple sales last night and asked them if the video cards in the MBP were affected by the recent nvidia defects. The sales person told me they were not aware of any issues with nvidia cards or the MBPs. He said that the MBP is a fine machine and if anything were to pop up, Apple's great warranty would cover any problems. I explained that I did not want to end up with a laptop that would be in warranty repair for known defective parts. He reiterated that they were not aware of any problem and that I would need to contact nvidia for more information. I asked to be transfered to a tech and he said he would, but when he did, a message came on saying "You have reached Apple outside of our normal business hours" and I got hung up on (nice first time call to Apple eh?).

I took the time to contact nvidia tech support today to see if I could get any information. The first tech I was transferred to simply read from his script, stating that "we do not have a list of the specific chips that were affected and that the laptop manufacturers were informed of what issues were in which cards". I then stated the obvious - "so you have a list" and after directing me to the nvidia support site to pull up knowledge base article "2214", which basically states to contact your laptop manufacturer, I explained to him that I already tried that.

I said I felt like a ping pong ball in this mess and all I want to do is buy a laptop, but when asked if my laptop will contain an affected GPU, all Apple will say is I need to call nvidia and nvidia says I have to call Apple.

Once he realized I was not hanging up until I got a straight answer, he asked me to hold while he got his supervisor. Once his supervisor got on the phone, I explained the whole thing again. He apologized for the back and forth and finally provided some useful information.

_+*He said that the graphics cards being used right now have been corrected. He said that as of July of 2008, the cards being used are all fine. He did say that cards made prior to this date would have been affected. However, he said that if I am buying a MBP now, it should be fine as long as it was manufactured AFTER June of this year.*+_

He then told me to contact Apple again, but make sure to ask for a senior technician to verify the MBP I am ordering was made after June.

So here I sit debating whether to believe any of this and take advantage of the education promos or wait and see if Apple will release a new MBP in the next month {sigh}."



Again Mr. Hagen, I would appreciate your thoughts.
Thank you.