When I start-up my MacBook Pro I get a black screen. Everything else about the computer seems to be running fine (hard drive, cpu). When I plug in a second monitor into the DVI port, it too is black. This leaves me with only one answer. Could my NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics card have died?
And will Apple replace these faulty cards? Unfortunately my warranty ran out last week so I will have to pay for this manufacturing mistake out of my own pocket. An expensive fix!
Rumors are that NVIDIA had known about this problem for quite some time and had done nothing about it. Apple should end their relationship with this company over this unless NVIDIA offers to replace my video card at no cost. I would like to see this problem resolved quickly.
If you bought a MacBook Pro at around June/July 2007 then this problem will most likely be yours as well.
My question is: why are we witnessing this failure all around the same time, shortly after the last OSX / firmware updates?
In my opinion it is ridiculous for Apple to fix some of these issues and not others when the video card failure is a known issue.
My problem: screen stays black after boot, sleep light remains half on. System otherwise functions normally.
What I did: took it to the local Apple store, they ran the Nvidia test, test fails, I'm told I have to pay for repair. Upset, I left with my laptop, ran the diagnostic test at home, and the test revealed a video chipset error. Called Apple, they quoted me some $300ish dollars to send it in.
I'm pretty upset about this! What can we do to get Apple to address this issue? Or Nvidia? Contact customer relations? Collaborate on a lawsuit?
Is it possible to run the diagnostic hardware test without a restart? I am reluctant to run the diagnostic test as long as my screen is currently working. I AM AFRAID TO USE MY MAC. I plan on being very vocal about the faulty NVIDIA chips... the entire 8600M GT line is made with high lead content material set which is why they are failing, essentially the GPU is desoldering itself from the logic board.
I have a plan. LET'S BUILD A FACEBOOK APP CALLED "CONSUMER ADVOCATES VOTING WITH DOLLARS: MONEY THEY COULD HAVE MADE IF THEY DIDN'T SCAM US"
The concept is that people will vote best and worst products and share horror stories of bad customer service. Now we can bring to light the money they could have had if we were happy customers. To vote a person chooses wether they would have paid $$$$ or not and the total gets added. If a product goes negative, we can show that the money they make scamming us is nothing compared to what they could have made keeping us happy. And hopefully the manufacturer will get a clue... good service and high quality keep customers coming back. Selling a person short in this age of word of mouth social apps... very expensive mistake! And hey, you know that those college kids can get a million people in a group for the sake of seeing if they could...
$300 is a small amount for a $$$$$$$$ company to argue over. I do not understand why they don't upsell the Apple Care coverage post incident as most of us have products that are only 2 years old... The Apple Care would give me the assurance that replacing the defective product will not just be something of the same stock... after all they are all made from the same material set.
I would like to post my resolution to this issue. After taking the laptop to the Apple store and getting rejected for the free Nvidia repair, I called Apple support directly, and they allowed me to send in my Macbook Pro for repair.
It arrived back to me in three days(!) all fixed, no charge.
Hey Apple, THANK YOU! (Please help the others having this issue)
My screen would go half black and after I would let it on for a while, the screen would come full alive.
If I would use the laptop everyday I would not have any problems with the screen.
If I would let it off for least 3 days, then the half black screen would occur.
I start using it every day until one morning when it was completely black.
Went to the apple store, they took it for repair.
5 days later they called me and they said: Battery was replaced with brand new one (I knew it was bad and I was planing to buy a new one) and the logic board was replaced.
I asked how much and they said $310 + tax.
A battery alone is around $130 and the logic board probably $500, just the board, so I was actually happy that they have this $300 program.
I bought the computer in 2007 without apple care. If I woulde've got apple care I would'cve spend $300 and by now would be expired (2 years)
So I get there, I give the fellow my debit card and after a while he comes back with good news he sais.
The repair is free of charge because of Nvidia bad product. And battery for FREE.
I love this apple company.
You have to understand why their computers are a little bit more expensive.
There is a great company service that comes with it.
P.S. Apple even replaced my water damaged iPhone, well it took a little bet of work and conference call with ATT reps. on the other line, but they did replace it in the end. For this one they built a faulty ringer switch, metal glued on cheap Chinese plastic, so the ringer will fell off. I argued that my phone works perfectly with water damage and all, the ringer button have nothing to do with the water damage and they have to take care of the problem. I told them to change tha casing with a new button on it and to give me back the same water damaged board inside. My phone did worked perfectly. They decided to replace the whole thing for me.
I have experience the NVIDIA 8600M issue and called in Apple Support.
My computer would chime, but nothing more. The screen would just not light-up.
I got a quick appointement at the Genius Bar and they confirmed it was the Nvidia issue.
Here's where it becomes strange..
They told me they had to change the logicboard (motherboard pretty much) because the video card is soldered on. And the person that serviced me confirmed they didn't have the piece in stock at the moment. So they would have to order it (This was on a Sunday). I decided to leave the laptop there, hoping that I might save a day of fixing because they'd already have the laptop when they would receive the logicboard. Now, the next day, early in the morning, I get called by them saying the laptop is already fixed and ready to pickup. Already there, I find that strange because it's virtually impossible that they got the ordered piece within 24h (But who knows, maybe they ordered some last week and got them Monday morning, thus permitting them to fix it).
But this isn't all. I went to pickup my laptop and asked what has been done after all. They looked at the paper and said,"Oh the logic board got replaced". I said OK, and took the time to look around the laptop. I asked one of the Genius guys if the logicboard includes the RJ45 ethernet plug, and he confirmed with another by saying that their built-in the logicboard, thus yes, it has also been replace. What I found very strange is that a new motherboard shouldn't have dust, specially not in the RJ45 plug.... except if it was the same logicboard that I gave them before repair... which I suspect it is (Because the dust is clearly in the same state as when I gave it to them). I pickup on that with one of the Genius guys and asked him, how can my logicboard have been replaced if my RJ45 is as dusty as it was before I gave it to you guys. He and others attempted to explain me that the motherboard (logicboards) which are used for replacement can be Old and could be sitting in a warehouse for 2 years.... I really dought Apple would let logicboards sit without anti-static bags in dusty warehouse rooms.
Thus, I personnally think that the Genious repair guys simply soldered something, or found an easy fix for the Nvidia issue Or something else... But I do not think they changed my logicboard, which is a discrase from support. They could at least tell the truth on what they did... Or provide with actual serial numbers of the logicboards before & after. This would permit the paying customer to at least know in what state his laptop is and to be informed properly.
On another note: I noticed that the Whiteish screen that shows up during the boot chime is staying up for longer than previously. Maybe they simply updated something at the EFI level!?
I hope someone can confirm that Apple support didn't change their logicboard too. I wish I would have opened my laptop before giving it in for repair to confirm this.
All in all, the laptop is fixed and still heats up like a cooking pan, as usual. But it works! 🙂 Lets just hope it doesn't happen again once the 2 year extended warranty expires.
After taking a better look at the fixed laptop, I noticed that it has a new Ethernet ID sticker under the battery. So, I guess my suspicions where a bit off.
So, I take most of my weirdness comments back. But I still find it odd that the RJ45 is a bit dusty. I guess it might be refurbished Or they need a cleaning person in their warehouse.
Hope the fix holds for ever, as any good quality computer should...(My Pentium 166 still runs fine considering its speed)
So, all to say, I'm at least happy I got my laptop fixed within 1 day when I was expecting it to take a week or more. And hope this supposedly Revision 2 motherboard will make a difference.
PS: That white screen on startup that shows up during the Chime really takes 5 times longer to go away. I'll have to re-install my computer one of these days and see if it changes something.
Yes, the logic board in my mid-2007 macbook pro has failed again for the 2nd time (first time was in the summer of 2008). Apple tech at the Apple store said that they will repair it, but if it fails again (for the 3rd time!), Apple will offer "alternative repair". I asked him what the heck was "alternative repair"? He avoided my question by SLIGHTLY hinting that Apple might offer me a new computer (most likely with a small trade up fee). But my warranty will be out in 6 months. I doubt it that the 3rd failure would happen before the warranty expires! Any advise, anyone?
If you're trying to get the free logic board replacement... make sure your aluminum case has absolutely no dents. I had a small dent in the corner and they told me that while the logic board replacement was free, they could not work on a damaged computer so I would have to pay $186 to replace the bottom case.
I did claim on contents insurance and they replaced the screen which was fine for 4 months but then the screen again went scrambled and froze. I paid money to repair it as insurance had £100 excess. Can I claim this money back as I now know its the graphic card failing.
I had exactly the same issues like you. More than that, same questions after the "repair" despite much longer time requested.
I'm afraid the problem still exist with the graphic card from Nvidia but now it silently crashes (actually I can hear a metallic click and then the screen gets black) while before the “repair” I had heavy video distortion issues followed by system crash.
I still have doubts that the motherboard has been replaced and if it has it is for sure a refurbished one.
■Shutdown your Mac entirely by holding the power button for 5 seconds.
■Hook up your Mac to another one with a FireWire cable. (You have one, right?)
■Hold the T key on your mac's internal keyboard and press the power button. When your MBP's disk will shows up as an external firewire disk on your HelperMac, release the T button.
■Open finder and go to the /private/var/vm folder on your MacBook's hard drive. You may need to use Command-Shift-G in Finder, because this folder is hidden by default. Once in /private/var/vm remove the sleepfile you find there.
■Next, go to /System/Library on you MBP's disk and remove Extensions.mkext.
■Now, eject your MBP drive and shutdown your MBP by hitting its power button.
■Shutdown your Mac entirely by holding the power button for 5 seconds.
■Hook up your Mac to another one with a FireWire cable. (You have one, right?)
■Hold the T key on your mac's internal keyboard and press the power button.
When your MBP's disk will shows up as an external firewire disk on your HelperMac, release the T button.
■Open finder and go to the /private/var/vm folder on your MacBook's hard drive. You may need to use Command-Shift-G in Finder, because this folder is hidden by default. Once in /private/var/vm remove the sleepfile you find there.
■Next, go to /System/Library on you MBP's disk and remove Extensions.mkext.
■Now, eject your MBP drive and shutdown your MBP by hitting its power button.
Yes it is. We do have the exact problem. and apple will not repair it. They say it is not the NVIDIA card and they are asking for $1200 for replacement of the logic board. I'm really frustrated with Apple, been a loyal mac user sine 98 but this time, so disappointed. I mean this is a $3000 machine, and now its worthless. Maybe if the external is working it worth something but nothing. All it is now is a very expensive external HD and its only 160gb.
Hi. I have a MBPro with the 8600M graphics card and I'm interested in doing the diagnostic test myself at home. I'd like to be able to have some "ammunition" when I take my MBPro to the Apple techs.
The symptoms it shows: the black screen on boot, external display doesn't work.
I can boot the computer in Firewire Target mode.
On startup, there is no startup chime; but if I hold down the P-R-Alt-Command keys (as if to do a PRAM reset), then I do get the startup chime. Still a black screen though.
On startup I have all the normal startup sounds (fans, hard disk spinning up, DVD comes on); I can charge the battery; the sleep light comes on.
Caps Lock key NOT illuminated: this is something that an Apple Tech told me was a sign of the nVidia problem - i.e. that if the caps lock key DIDN'T come on, then it WASN'T the nVidia problem, and you wouldn't get a new logic board for free as part of the recall.
This seems odd, because if everything else seems to work (startup chime, internal components start up, you can see the computer in Target Disk mode), what else could the Black Screen be caused by?
Okay, so I just got my MBPro 2.4Ghz (Late 2007) up and semi-running again.
I hooked it up to the wife's MBPro 2.2Ghz (Late 2007), which had already had the logic board replaced under the Apple program, in Target Disk Mode.
I hit the power button on my MBP and then immediately held down P-R-CTRL-ALT, and got the startup chime loud and clear (sometimes I didn't get the chime when I tried to start using only the power button).
And the screen came on!!!! I'd had only a black screen for several days now, no Caps Lock or keyboard illuminated either. Wow!
So my MBP disk mounted on the other desktop and I decided to clone the working OS onto my MBP. I formatted my hard disk and then used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone my wife's disk to mine. Took about 30 minutes.
I then ejected my MBP's disk from the other desktop, detached the FW cable and shut down my MBP.
Then, holding my breath, I hit the power button. And it came to life! Boot up took a little longer than usual, but the MBP finally booted up okay.
Or so it seems.
Weirdly, I now have a thin vertical RED LINE running the entire height of the screen, situated approximately 2mm from the left side of the screen. The red line is, I guess, 1 row of pixels wide - it's very thin, but noticeable on a blue or dark-ish background.
What's weird is that I've gone from a completely BLACK screen (symptoms of the nVidia chip failure) to a normal startup and a working screen, but with the RED vertical line that had NEVER been there before.
Does anyone know if this is connected with the nVidia chip problem? If so, what are the odds of getting the logic board replaced free?
I read on the Apple support page regarding this problem that the 2 symptoms are a blank screen and "distorted video". Would a suddenly appearing red vertical line qualify as "distorted video"?
