Q: MacBook Pro Blank Screen (Built - in & External) - continued

Well I am taking my Santa Rosa MBP in to the Sydney Genius bar later today to see if they will now fix it for free, wish me luck

It's exciting, thinking of getting an old friend back from the dead.

good luck to u istara. maybe we should rebrand our machines: MBZ - macbook zombies.

Hi all,

My 15 inch macbook pro had the blank screen problem as well. Had taken in to the apple place in Brisbane, Australia (next byte) back on the 20th Oct and got it back yesterday (24th). Thought it would take more than a week...

Anyway, the technician ran a graphic processor test and found it was faulty. They ordered and replaced the graphic processor/logicboard which was within the extended warranty. Just like some have mentioned already, the new logicboard part is "PCBA, MLB 2.4 GHZ, REV2".

It all works like a charm now and notice that the fan doesn't actually turn on as often as before.

I write this issue here 'cause I thing is related.

I started to play some game as Doom3 and Quake4. With Doom3 I noticed that, after about an hour, the game became unplayable as MBP slowdown and framerate drops to 2-4 fps. So I quit game and wait some minute and relaunch it, and it was at nominal framerate again, about 40-50fps.

I thought was a Doom problem but last night I tried Quake4 and is the same!
I read another topic here that says with games in bootcamp it happens too, but I have not problems with windows games, even recent, I played for some hours.

so this is not only strange, but need some thinking too.

Is this due to nVidia firmware that slows down card clock to avoid the famous nVidia failures? or is OSX that have some protection on GPU overheating that on bootcamp is not active? and again, why in another post some wrote that has this issue in bootcamp (crysis)?

I think apple is playing with clocks, vents, and sensor to ensure that GPU never toast, but as I haven't see so much posts about performance in games, I don't know. I would like some feedback.

NOW WHAT?

Picked up my MBP this Monday (10/20), after replacement of the logic board/video card. The Apple Store had handled my case professionally and promptly. Thursday morning, I open the lid... and presto! BLANK SCREEN! (nicely lit keyboard) - I rebooted, and it came back to life. Now what?
Previously, as posted in another forum, I had the lid/display replaced; ('Strange Vertical Stripes').
I have had no problems these last two days. The Apple store is a whole 5 miles away. I have Apple Care.

Suggestions? I am not one to seek being a pest but,......

Hi,

I got the same blank screen, drop it for repair on 10/17/2008 and got in back on 10/24/2008. However, there is something strange. My time machine backup does not work anymore after repair. The backup did work even in the darkness of BoD. And now I have even tried to restore from Time machine using the disk utility with install disk to startup. They surely have change the logic board. Can someone tell how to check if they have effectively change the logic board and it is now rev 2? If the logic board has been changed, the serial number hasn't though, why the Time Machine backup is not compatible anymore? I have also tried to reinstall from fresh with the install disk. It complains now : "Mac OS X can not be installed on this computer". Does someone have got this before?

Hi all,

my MBP was returned from service a week ago and I'm finally gaining confidence that logic board #5 will last longer than the ones before.
I was told that it is a Rev.2 board and it had Boot ROM Version: MBP31.0070.B07, SMC Version: 1.18f4.

The GPU runs approx. 10°C cooler than all previous ones with identical load and ambient temp., no NVIDIA related hangs so far, not a single application crash under high OpenGL load.

+btw, before you bring your MBP to service for a logic board replacement you should really try to connect via Screen Sharing (or ARD) and de-authorize any installed applications which may tie their registration to the Ethernet MAC address. You'll save yourself a lot of hassle. Check iTunes (you only have 5 authorizations), Flip4Mac, QuarkXPress and other apps which required a online validation of your license. Simply de-authorize your old logic board and re-authorize the new one after repair.+

cheers
peter

hi everyone,

i wrote a large story here about my MBP and AASP in Kuwait, but i erased it back, dont want to wast your time guys, in summery, the guys at AASP in kuwait are not helpfull, they just ignore my problem with MBP.

please some one can give me advise, what to do now.

i bought this laptop for more than 3000 USD, now it doesnt worth 300 USD if i want to sell, because it doesnt work.

can i call apple in USA and explain my situation with this AASP. (btw - AASP in Kuwait has no Genius Bar - u talk with sales man who have no clue about the issue)

what is apple phone number so i can call them
will they listen to me ?
i read earlier some ppl sent email to Stev jobs the owner of apple.
is it helpful if i write to him in brief ? (give his email plx)

i am in miserable condition - believe me - almost 3 monthes no computer.


i will be thankfull for any ideas

thanks

hi there, living in a country that is relatively obscure in the apple world like Nepal, I can tell u things are not easy. i don't know what AASP is, but if they are an authorized apple dealer, they are obligated to help you. Some dealers - like all of them here - are not authorized repair centers, so they are not up on anything technical. I would recommend you educate the dealer with all the info on the web about this problem, including the apple KBs. They just need to download a test program from the apple service site (only dealers have access to that), run it to confirm the problem, and put the replacement part order into the system. Alteritivly, you can go to another country like I often do for apple repairs, like Bangkok. The service center there is excellent. Cheers,
coocoo

thanks for replay.

here in Kuwait we have 2 AASP (Apple Authorized Service Provider) which the apple kb article tells me to go to them, but when u go to these people, they just ingnore unless you pay money.

they diagnosed my MBP with thier softwares, they came to conclusion that my MBP LB is not working properly, they suggest LB replacement - however they cannot accept replacing the LB just by reading the Apple KB article - they want apple to officially announce the issue to them so they can fix for free.

i have no choice - i have to go out of kuwait to fix this.

I printed the apple KB article which says any AASP will fix for free - but when they read that page - they say that they will wait for apple to officially tell them to repair for free.

This Is A Huge Pain In A$$.

Has anyone who actually paid for the repair before Apple issued the KB support gotten their refund yet?

I called in almost 3 weeks ago and after awhile they said that refunds would happen automatically in 2 weeks but I haven't seen anything yet.

onaogh, that does not sound right. even in a poor country like nepal i am getting a logic board replacement. they need to log into their service system and they will see the procedure. the CompTIA Code is Z03-Pro Nvidia Issue covered under the Quality Program. they have to download a test program and run that to verify the problem and then submit the repair order. good luck.

Well, here is my amazing experience. I feel somewhat bad posting this given the experience of those that haven't had such a great response from Apple, particularly those in non-Apple countries. I've lived in such a country before, and I know what a nightmare it can be when you only have an IMC (at best) to deal with.

But Apple Australia has been wonderful to me over this issue. I took the MBP back in and they ran this diagnostic test by booting from a LaCie Rugged. It's supposed to take about three minutes apparently. They can see by the flashing lights at the front of your MBP that it's working, and then it eventually prints a log file to the LaCie which they then access on another computer.

After ten minutes, mine still wasn't showing any result. The Genius disconnected the LaCie and attached it to a working MBP. The log file said - now I cannot fully remember this, because I was a bit stressed - but I am pretty sure it failed to find any device/processor. He showed me another log file from another MBP which said: "no valid Nvidia device" or "no valid graphics processor" or something like that. This is what was supposed to be there (unless it said "found valid processor" etc). But from what I remember, mine didn't even show that. It found nothing.

The issue appears to be that Nvidia has given Apple a list of affected chips by their serial numbers or something, and the free repair only applies to those specific processors. If it comes up as "valid" you get free repairs. If it's not, you don't because it's not in the known faulty batch.

Anyway I said I really couldn't afford to pay for repair, having already wiped out my bank balance buying a replacement MBP. But I said I was curious to know what actually went wrong. So they took it in for proper diagnostic testing (where they lift the front off etc).

Two days later I got a call that my MBP was ready for collection. They had repaired it FOR FREE!!! It now has a new logic board in and works again. I am still not sure what was wrong, I am not sure they were even certain, other than the fact it did appear to be the graphics processor.

So I am extremely happy as you can imagine. It was a lot of shock and stress and a lot of money, but it has all worked out in the end.

Add me to the list of what seems to be an ever growing collection of mbp's that have a blank screen. Mine was manufactured in July 2007 and last Monday I woke it up from sleep to find no display. Rebooted to my hearts content and still no display. Thought it was the ram so tried 1 stick, swapped them around but no luck.

Came on here and found out about this thread and the logic board. Funnily enough I've already had my logic board replaced (for mbp crashing/freezing/high temps) before on 6th August but I guess it's not the rev2 board everyone is talking about. The part number for the logic board they put in was 661-4364. However this did fix the problems I was having and the system overall ran a lot cooler as someone on this thread also mentioned. I've also had display replaced twice due to constant black smudges near the center of the screen due to apparent "pressure" but the laptop has done nothing but sit on a desk.

Managed to put the mbp into target mode by hooking it up to another mbp with firewire and was able to save all my data. Tried a few mentioned things to get it working again in this thread such as the sleep image solution but nothing seemed to work. It magically started working again after I had ran it in target mode a few times. Since Wednesday it has been working and today It's back to having a blank screen.

If I ever get it going again I'll be sure to remember not to reboot it as I'm in the middle of some very important projects. I guess it's off to the apple store I go... you would think after so many repairs they would just replace the **** things instead of always wanting to replace parts.

Just connected to dead mbp with vnc from vista and the video card is indeed displayed as an intel GMA X3100 (with 64MB of shared system memory) as others have mentioned...