Q: display anomalies

I don't think this is just a hardware issue. My 15" Macbook Pro with the ATI x1600 video card has had ZERO crashes using Windows 7 on the Boot Camp partition with all visual effects enabled. It is now 8:51 PM, and since 7 PM when I started using the machine today, it has crashed 12 times. This is on a brand new installation of Leopard. I never had these problems running under Tiger.

I get the random yellow or blue boxes, the single lines of pixels either running along the background or across an application, and the oh-so-fun crash when I try to access a program in the dock right after startup.

I've spent a lot of money on Mac apps, but I can't see purchasing another one if what I'm reading in this thread is true. I can buy a PC and slap Ubuntu on it and do virtually everything I need to without worrying if my machine is going to suddenly lock up.

Exactly what happened to me also - never had any problems with Tiger, then installed Leopard and all of a sudden my computer's crashing all the time. May have just been a coincidence, but since the problem seems to be heat, the guy at the Apple Store said that Leopard probably does make the computer run a little hotter. smcfancontrol is working pretty well for me now, but according to everyone here it's just a temporary fix. Good luck.

In my opinion it's a coincidence!
This morning i installed winxp (boot camp) and i try to watch a flash video (youtube)...

Results? WindowsXP crashed!!

The problem increase day after day!

PS: new video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLJugrJNDbI

Message was edited by: damiii

Very difficult to say on the Tiger vs. Leopard thing.

However, I did conclude my first run with 1-800-SOS-APPL today. Without a repair extension program, the response was $600+ to get an authorized repair.

Mine has been getting this bad as well. Can barely use the internet without the risk of a freeze-up. Heck, I can barely run more than a program or two at a time. My $2000 mac is getting to the point of being nearly useless. It's very frustrating to know that soon I have the choice of dumping enough money to buy a new cheaper laptop just to fix my macbook, or have a nice shiny expensive paperweight.
Also, I don't think this is exclusively a Leopard problem, as I am running Tiger.

Just found this thread while looking for solutions for my 2nd gen MBP 17" - out of the blue last week, everything froze, and the screen refused to come back on. After a few restarts I could get it to come on, but after a few minutes everything would freeze again and I'd be left with a blank screen once again. I thought it could be heat related, but even with the fans upped to 4000 or 5000 RPM I'm still getting the freezes. The GPU stays at < 50C at all times since the initial problem, but still I get freezes.

...and yes, I have the ATI X1600 card. The local Apple Store told me there were no known problems with that particular card and that I needed the logic board replaced. However, as with so many other people in this thread, I don't have Apple Care, and do not have the money to pay for a new logic board or new laptop (using my Windows machine at the moment). The machine does a lot of Java compilation (I work as a programmer) and is very used to running quite hot, but in all its two years of life it has never done this before. In fact, I never had a problem with it before - no distorted graphics or lines appearing, so not sure where all this has come from.

Just thought I'd add my experience.

Where do you live? I have heard that it can cost up to 1200 or 1300. Is that just for the part?

Yeah, this problem exists for both MacBook Pro 1.1 and 1.2. So annoying. Getting worse day by day.

Mine is actually an MBP 2.1 according to System Profiler (I think it's a late 2006 version - was bought March 2007 anyway), but it definitely has the ATI X1600 in it. I have an older iMac (early 2006) at work which also has the ATI X1600 in it but that has had no problems thus far.

And another one: out-of-warrenty 17" MBP showing all the sick symptoms described here. It worsened over the course of approx 5 months and now it's freezing up on average once per hour. That, of course, renders it practically useless.

Dear apple: don't overstress customer loyalty by selling us "Pro" equipment which does not even survive the tax depreciation period!

A big "Thank You!" to Rami and all the other folks in this forum for analysing the problem.

Add me to the list of customers with the MBP and ATI Radeon X1600 problem. Did not purchase Apple Care and looking for a cost-effective solution. When the display goes bad, I can usually get to the Apple menu at the top and select "Log Out." When I log back in, the display usually returns to normal but the problem eventually occurs again. I think it's been mostly happening during the day when the battery is recharging, perhaps because the battery gets hot, but this may be a coincidence.

I again called Apple Tech and they had no idea what I was talking about regarding the problems listed here by so many. He even told me that the ATI Radeon x1600 was/is one of their better chips and he couldn't imagine it being the problem. He thought it just needed more thermal paste. So he told me to go to an Apple Store - which the closest one is 5 hours away. Called my nearest Apple Service Provider and they thought it was the logic board that needed to be replaced. They had never heard of a Flat Rate repair program for MacBook Pros - which *****. Anyway, if it's gonna cost me $600-1200 then I may as well buy a new Mac!

Or instead of buying another Mac which may just crap out on you, and no one will help you, maybe we should all just buy PCs, and maybe EFIX.... cuz they cost a lot less, and we can get cheaper parts for them if/when they crap out.

<Edited by Host>

Hi DHD,

we should use our PC's to run this nice peace of software we also paid for? Sounds like a great idea when you are in our position. It should be much better for apple to get us lucky again, if this really works.

Great suggestion will think about it

<Edited by Host>

Message was edited by: macuser128

Interesting forum about thermal paste if anyone is interested:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=199840