display anomalies

What I don't get is that there seems to be so many affected by this dodgy logic board configuration but on the petition site there are only 33 signatures. The law firm looking into the matter obviously didn't get enough feedback because their webpage relating to the issue is gone. This makes me wonder: are we really that many or are we just few but very loud? Or are people just too lazy to take the time to share their story with those who can help? I can't link to the petition site because my post will be deleted and I'll get banned… again! Just Google 'X1600 petition' and you'll find it. We're banging our heads against a wall if we try to communicate with Apple directly. They're not unaware of the X1600 problem, it's in their forums, on cnet, Neoseeker, PowerBook Central, and probably another twenty or so sites. They know but are avoiding the issue like the plague because of the costs involved in doing the right thing. If you can stay away, then why not keep running? It'll cost them less to lose a few hundred customers. Money talks, people walk. It's just the cost of running a business. The option of doing the right thing when you're wrong disappeared a loooong time ago. Apple are growing fast thanks to the iPod and the iPhone and we can expect less understanding the bigger they get because they can afford to lose more and more customers. It hurts a bit since we loyal customers who have bought these iPods, iPhones and Macs are the reason they're doing so well in the first place, but… 'whatyougonnado'?

Wow looks like I'm signature number 4 out of 36....and I got my Macbook pro replaced! Maybe they're taking a random/select number of complainants and dealing with their grievance. Thought there would be many more signed up. I am certainly grateful and hope others receive similar compensation. cheers

Where exactly is this petition?

bjzdesign, read my post above thoroughly for info on finding the petition. I've linked directly to it and the law firm doing the investigation previously but the post was quickly deleted and I was banned from posting. Turns out that sharing that information was a no-no. Thus you have to Google it yourself. You'll find it.

knorven - what do you mean "i was banned from posting"? you're posting right now yes? not trying to be a smartass, just wondering.

re: the petition, I tried for months and months to get more people to sign that thing and I even started to collect email addresses so I could take all this stuff somewhere and get some results. I never got above 35 people. that's nowhere near enough to start any kind of action.

sure this will get deleted but what the ****.
cheers,
bvb

bennetvonbennet, I was banned for about a week. Then I was told I could post again if I stopped being naughty. Therefore I'm no longer linking to sites which are not "Apple-friendly" but everyone can easily find these sites. As the saying goes, "truth will out". Sometimes you wonder about the meaning of 'freedom of speech', don't ya?

Guys, I'd recommend you stop wasting your time. First off, numbers aren't that easy.

I haven't played a game on my MBP for like 2 years, and then I did and the laptop turned out to be crippled.
I'm saying that it doesn't matter how many petitions you get - the problem is there all the time and Apple knows about it (or worse case they don't even care to know). It's just the user who's unaware of it. A lot of people just write emails and surf the web and most probably will be using such MB Pro for ages.

Second, it's better to think big numbers. Apple sells millions of laptops. So even if you get a 1000 users with faulty ATI chips, that still isn't enough to force a recall.
I think I remember something like 3-5% lemons is still OK for Apple/Dell/etc. and they won't consider recalling those. Try inventing some fancy statistics-involved-terms for that, you'll know what I mean.

In other words, unless you are sure you can collect like, literally thousands or tens of thousands of signatures AND get the attention of the whole internet (like it was in the nVidia 8600M case - which is the only reason the companies involved used a repair program on those) nothing's gonna happen. Really.

It's like ******* against the wind I'd say, there's more trouble to it then fun.

I'll just follow up with a classic quote:

"Take the number of /laptops/ in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one."

from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137523/

🙂 disable quartz extreme, all I can say.
(now, why does my magsafe flash green/amber for the first time in 38 months.. ?)

@gmarinov

Fits perfectly.

Mine flashes too, not always but pretty often. And my battery's completely dead by the way.

Just wanted to report that im having the same problems. 2.33 c2d, a1211

It usually just go bananas while there are flash-sites running. Thank god for youtubes switch to html5.
cpu hits 96 degrees celcius, Gpu 60 and Gpu heatsink 68.

Hopefully it wont die until I finish my studies this summer.

Just for your information, there still seems to be an investigation into these GPU failures. Google these words: sfms radeon investigation.

Definitely the heat is the problem. Because after 3 years of working fine, and changing the battery last June, in November it started giving me these problems.

What I have noted is that in the past, when the machine started to heat up because of a few apps running at the same time, I could hear the fans reving up and working at full speed to cool the machine down.

Now this no longer happens, the fans ALWAYS work at minimum speed and I NEVER hear them increasing power to cool the machine as they used to do before.
Could this be the issue?

I can't recall ever hearing the fans rev up in my iMac until i installed SMCFanControl. Afaik they've never done it automatically. Maybe a dodgy thermostat from the word go. Anyway, it's too late for me to try to cool things down. The damage to the GPU is done and my lines appear even just after starting up now. My machine doesn't even have to get warm.
As a precautionary measure I am already running SMCFanControl on my new iMac i7. Regular settings are 1800/2000/1700 for the ODD/HDD/CPU respectively. When running games in Windoze i crack them up to 2900/3100/2600.

I'm experiencing the exact same issues. It started about a year or so ago, my MacBook "Pro" is out of warranty. At first there were subtle occasional display anomalies, which over time have become more and more severe. It seems to coincide with overheating, I'm going to try a cooling pad and cleaning the fans inside to see if it helps. Right now I'm also looking into getting a new logic board off eBay for a reasonable amount of money to squeeze some more life out of it. It's very irritating as I rely on this machine for work, and I've already spent a lot of money on upgrading it. Since I've had it I've had the battery die very quickly, the magsafe charger die even quicker, the DVD writer fail and recently the trackpad has started to show signs of developing problems. Snow Leopard runs smoother than Leopard, but is more prone to freezing under high CPU load. Not that Leopard is stable for me either - if it goes for one day without crashing at least once, it's a miracle. Earlier today Snow Leopard froze on me seconds after startup on three successive occasions. I can't count the amount of times my MacBook "Pro" has crashed whilst looking at a youtube video. Any page containing flash sends my CPU fans into overdrive. Overall, I'm having to tiptoe round this MacBook "Pro" now like a terminally ill patient and I'm crossing my fingers that it won't die before I get a chance to get a new machine.

Like others have said, this has made me think hard about purchasing another Apple laptop. You live and learn! I might have to go for a PC this time (which is sad because I really like OS X) because I've wasted too much money on this and it's a more cost effective option. If it wasn't for the money I've spent on it I would have probably thrown it out the window and smashed it to pieces. £1000+ is too much money for a "Pro" machine that has a shelf life of a year and a half. I have friends who have experienced issues with their PC laptops, but the difference is that they're paying £300-£400 for theirs not £1000+. For that kind of money you expect the machine to be robust and reliable. I wouldn't risk getting another machine now without Apple Care.

Update:

Since installing Lobotomo Fan Control and setting the lower limit to 42C, the upper limit to 70C and the base fan speed to 2250 rpm, my Macbook Pro has been operating like a brand new machine! I'm stunned. No artefacts or locks up yet, and that's considering that I've been doing projects in Logic Pro that are very CPU intensive. The bottom of the unit feels much cooler than usual also. I've had kernel panics, but that's been an issue to do with the bad timing of removing firewire devices. Snow Leopard runs brilliantly now; solid, snappy, efficient and overall much better than Leopard. I'm going to get a cooling pad to make sure things stay this way since I've identified that heat was definitely the problem. Either a Thermaltake Massive23 or a Zalman NC2000 should do it. I might still get a new logic board to be on the safe side, I'm not sure. I'll post an update in a month or so after running things this way about how it's going.