Q: display anomalies

i've also been told that this (BGA/solder joint) is the real issue. this makes intuitive sense to me simply because hardware tests do not find issues with the ATI card itself, and also for the simple fact that conductivity drops dramatically as temp rises...
has anyone actually done this repair? i'd love to know whether this fixes the issue - if it does than the fault for the problem lies directly on Apple as it is clearly a manufacturing defect...
let's hope we hear soon from someone who's done this repair.
cheers,
b

You can email them at: sales@mac2maconline.com

and talk to Darrell. He seems very knowledgeable about the issue.

Does anyone know where to look for the BGA 'break'... whilst i have my logic board out i might have a look... i have a jeweller's glass that has great magnification...

Also, on the underside of my lb, just above and slightly to the right of the center CPU there's a small round (5mm approx.) component, says "IRD" on it... mine looks like it might have a couple of small gobs of thermal paste on it, but i can't be sure... anyone notice this at all?

Cheers, John

Looks like i got 'gremlin'd', 'again'... a previous post deleted. Here's the basic post, edited to remove possible inflammatory phrase:

Well, i'm down to the bones of my MBP now... first thing i noticed when removing the logic board... gobs of thermal paste, like thick over-spill the size of a US quarter may be... also, very dry and crumbly... i don't have any new paste to hand, the shop i thought would have some didn't so i need to go to another town tomorrow (i live in a very remote area)... i might try just reapplying the paste before the copper strip fix and see how i go...

But, the solder/BGA thing may still defeat me...

Shame [edit] didn't do all this R&D before releasing these puppies on the market eh?!? ...and on that thought, i'd still like a [edit] proper fix or replacement from [edit]! If i wanted to spend [edit] hours of research online and hours of disassembling/reassembling i'd have purchased a junker PC with [edit] OS... Oh wait, i did do that... installed Ubuntu Linux, runs great... for about 1% of the cost of the [edit]!

J

You won't be able to see the solder on the chip, BGA stands for Ball Grid Array, they are tiny balls of solder under the chip, no through hole soldering at all.

You'll want to completely remove the old thermal compound before putting the arctic silver on there, grab some rubbing alcohol and a cloth and be real carful not to knock the tiny caps off. Use a small headed screwdriver (be carful) to remove the gunk from the sides of the die, once it's all nice and clean make sure you have a thin layer of compound on the die only then stick it back together. Obviously, you'll need to do all three processors.

I'd recommend NOT adding the extra copper in there if you want to have the board fixed, it's snug enough in there without it and flexing the board will only weaken other solder joints but if you must I'd say don't use anything thicker than .5mm at the most. You'll find not only the board flexing but the case won't close properly either.

Good luck either way.

Hey thanks Joel, thanks for that...

Figures it wouldn't be that easy... Anyway, all back together now... no screws or bits left over either!

Opted for no 'spacer'... has been running now for a few hours, ran a DVD, slide show AND a VirtualBox XP session... no crashes or freezes thus far... Temps around the 50's mark on both the CPU and GPU... Did notice a few screen oddities BUT very quick so can't be sure it's the same ol' anomalies as before?

One thing though... battery now a 'no show', but it was failing before taking apart so who knows?!?!

AAAARRGH!!! Spoke too soon!!! Just died on me (i'm typing this on the ol' faithful G5 iMac)! Black screen, sounds like it's still running, combo drive made a few whurrrs but now quiet... NUTS!

See this thread also –> http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1516765

Same issues, same video card. I have a white Intel iMac with the dreaded X1600. Horizontal lines of random colored pixels, intermittent freezes with screen changing to vertical lines of varying colors. Have to force shut down and restart. Apple non-supportive; not aware of any issues with my model, etc, etc. Tough luck basically.

This happened on the iMacs too? Stands to reason I suppose but then it starts to make a cold solder joint less likely. I think it's about time Apple owned up to their mistake here.

Seems Apple computers just lost the one thing that made them worth the money; reliability.

Good try Knorven, you've been Gremlin'd three times in a row - you're out!

Just adding my case.

Older macbook pro (purchased mid-2006) with the Radeon x1600 card. ONLY AFTER installing Snow Leopard have I had the aforementioned symptoms: display anomalies, blurring, discolored lines, etc. I can live with those, but the most unbearable effect is the total freeze, usually when watching some type of flash video. Complete system freeze, but the mouse is able to move. Have to hard restart.

Apple reps, just so you know, I'm advising everyone I know not to buy SL or any new macs until you focus on the people who bought back in the day.

My mac is now buggier than any windows I've ever used, and my only fault is paying for your program and hardware. Congrats.

hey all - booted up the MBP yesterday and was presented with a screen covered with a kind of checkerboard pattern of pixel noise. completely unusable. tried an external monitor - no dice. have tried everything at this point and it appears that the video card has finally and completely given up the ghost.
i'd be extremely upset - except that i insured the MBP last year against any kind of damage, malfunction, theft or accident.
it's going to get sent in and we'll have to see what they decide to do - the entire machine is insured for $2000 which is more than a Logic Board install will cost them, but i might try and push for a complete 'total' anyway as i have very little faith left in this particular Logic Board configuration.

the url for the insurance company is www.safeware.com - i've dealt with them now on several occasions and can't say enough in favor of them. costs about $120 for a years worth of coverage and they'll insure any machine that's no older than three years. worth looking into believe me.

i'll let you all know what happens
cheers,
b

Hello everybody,

I got a nice looking MBP 2.16, getting hot. Time to time, an horizontal line of colored pixel appears under heavy workload. It reminds you something, doesn't it ?

Some system freezes occur regurarly for several months now, when the Mac is getting hot (> 65° with both fans running above 5000 rpm). Noisy and not enough to keep the Mac running as it should... Btw, i changed the thermal grease earlier in Q1 2008 (artic silver) with an improvement in the temps reported but still too hot, I presume.

I use Tiger 10.4.11. and had the problem of swollen batteries earlier last year (replaced in a minute in the Applestore, I had just to put the battery on their desk !)

It is really a pity, because otherwise, I love using this computer.

Hope the insurance pays off Bennett!

knorven, my repost of your three deleted posts has been... you guess it!

Brekelien, eventually, you will be writting - "I 'loved' using this computer" as it will completely die sooner or later... Might be a bit later if you use Fan Control?

J

Ok people its been awhile since i posted here, but this is important. After reading of cybermorph's success, I decided to call SOS Apple for the third time in the last year. I used cybermorph's advice and asked to speak with a customer relations person. I took a photo/screenshot of my specific problem and used the Capture Data application provided by apple and returned the results to them. I cooperated with them the best I could. I did NOT get a new MacBook Pro. However, I did receive a 100% free (shipping included) repair via FedEx. I now have my MacBook Pro back. And you can bet I'll be pushing its GPU to do the things I paid for it to do. You people should be calling once a week to get your issue resolved and don't be lazy. do everything they ask you to do. A small amount of hoop-jumping to save your small fortune of an investment.

I guess now I'm hoping that if it fails, it will fail in the first year of my renewed warranty. Then I get to jump back into this maddening phone-tag with apple. When in reality they would save more money if they just replaced my poorly-designed MBP with a newer and hopefully better designed MBP.

So happy for you Marcus.....hope others have similar success. Getting a repair was all I ever wanted... my results were totally unexpected. Maybe the "customer relations" people have different directives and criterion in which to base a decision (and more latitude too). Everyone should try them. Congrats.