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

Add me to the list. 15" 2.4GHz MBP, purchased October 2007.

Graphics died on Fri Jan 23rd, reported to Apple on Sat 24th, picked up by courier from my house on Tues 27th Jan, got it back Thursday 5th Feb. All done under Apple Care, although that's irrelevant since Apple are now offering to fix this free of charge.

I am incredibly annoyed to find that this is a known fault - I think Apple should have issued a recall since such a HUGE number of machines are affected.

If my machine fails again with the same fault I don't know what to do. How can I sell on a machine with a known fault (even if it gets fixed again)? I am on the brink of buying more Apple machines (Mini or a MacBook and a Time Capsule, mainly as backup development sytems since I realise I need a 2nd machine in case of failure), but I'm seriously disillusioned with Apple now and I'm not sure that I want to spend more money with them.

I don't even know how to officially voice my concerns to Apple - will they even listen?

So I dropped my MBP into a service centre in Dublin, private business acting as agent for Apple, There is a rush put on it because I finally got to talk to someone in Apple who will listen to sense. They said there is a rush on it, well see.

Oh and i'm being given a new logicboard/motherboard with the same Nvida card....

DUH, where is the common sense in Apple?, do they want to keep having to waste our time and their sevice agents time with faulty hardware?

“Insanity is doing the same thing again and expecting a different result… We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” --Albert Einstein

This is truly insane

@ ivanmcc:

Did you bring your Macbook to Mactivate or Dectek? I sent mine into Mactivate and was told that the machine had "failed" the diagnostic test Apple provided them with to check whether or not it would be eligible for repair under the extended warranty. In fairness to the Mactivate guys (who are very nice to deal with and provided great service in the past) their hands are probably tied as Apple will not reimburse them for parts & labour unless the machine passes the provided diagnostic...but it's pretty evident that the issue is the failed nVidia GPU issue that everyone on here seems to be having. My guess is that the serial number on my machine fell outside of the range of machine's Apple / nVidia are admitting have problems.

Anyway, was thinking of bring it to the Apple store in the US that I originally purchased it from next month when I'm back there, but if you've had better luck with Dectek I might try that out.

yes, take it to an apple store or another apple store. one might not help you and the next might.
Mine did not pass that test as well but i told them it was obvious its the same issue everyone is having and i think by now with so many coming in that they are attempting to do the right thing. I am shocked at this point hat someone hasn't filed a class action, especially those who had the board replaced more than twice. we might all get them fixed but after another 90 days, it could die again and then what?
I am not one to have ever jumped aboard a class action against apple and i have received many, but i have to say, this is the first out of about 24 macs i have owned that i am not very happy with. I own allot of apple stock and believe in the product but this issue is by far a huge problem. they should not be replacing parts with the same cards, these video cards were horrible to start with.

Bets of luck getting yours fixed

Message was edited by: richphoto

Me too...

Wonder if Apple has noticed that this continued thread is now so long that it's timing out too.

Off to Apple Store tomorrow clutching a printout of TS2377, I'm hoping they're onto it. It seems like a bit of luck whether your allocated genius lives up to the title or not, and hence whether you get the rightful response to this issue...

GTrequired

If like I have you have attempted to connect to an external display and got no picture but the MBP connects to the screen (the power light on the screen lights up) then the graphics card is dead.

If this is the case then any magic "diagnostic" that any Apple agent does will not convince me otherwise, remember this is the diagnostic that failed to spot a problem with my Refurb.

The Mactivate guys seem straight up (I went with them), unfortunately it looks like apple are forcing their agents to put equipment which is known to have faults into their excessively expensive MBPs.

If I am told by anyone in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary that I have to pay anything for a repair in this situation they can keep my MBP, refurb it and sell it to some other sucker.

I have had enough of semi-denials and idiocy, I am pricing PC laptops that I can run OSX on as we speak.

Message was edited by: ivanmcc

Message was edited by: ivanmcc

@richphoto

I dont have any interest in a class action. I trust that if confronted with reason Apple would do the right thing, as a shareholder I hope you agree.

I would however be interested in drafting a proposal(which could be signed by anyone interested) to put to Apple which could leave some unsatisfied customers satisfied.

I count myself as an unsatisfied customer, this is my first mac. It has not been a pleasurable experience so far. ie. nice and pretty OS but shoddy and expensive hardware

Might aswell add my case here. Had my logic board replaced for the NVidea issue, got it back and the machine crashed again within 40 minutes. When I ran the Apple Hardware Test, I got a sensor error. (4SNS/1/40000000:TGOD)

The tests that the guys repairing it run arent showing any problem with the sensor, but the Apple Hardware Test is showing the error - and like I said, the machine died after just 40 minutes.

So, according to other posters on here, I might be in for multiple logic board replacements and lots of lost hours of work?

Hi kev,

Mactivate got the MBP back to me yesterday, quick service (because someone in mac lit a fire under their.....)

they installed leopard, it was unbelievably slow when it started, software update and a few restarts and its better but still a bit slower.

Oh and I got my first screen freeze already!

Logic board 3 can't be too far away.....

Hi Ivan -

Just spoke to Mactivate again - they're going to have to replace the logic board that they replaced my logic board with, as it seems to be the only possible explanation. Mactivate have been very helpful and are doing their best. As for Apple, I'm deeply disappointed. I'm hoping that this replacement logic board will resolve the issue, but not confident based on what I've read here.

I can't afford a new machine and I'm seriously behind on projects because of these issues. If I do end up having to get a new machine, I'll have to think twice about getting a mac again, even though I was of the 'once you go mac you never go back' mindset up to now...

BTW, if your screen froze again after getting it back I'd do the Harware test straight away.

Hi kev,

How do I run a hardware test?

Oh I asked Mactivate how many of those logic boards they have on the shelf, answer none. This is some thing I asked of the helpful person I talked to in Apple operations ie. "if this is a known problem why do applecare agents not have a stock of a few boards in store for the sake of expediancy and efficancy?" no answer as yet

This would at least cut the downtime for those affected.

Message was edited by: ivanmcc

The Hardware test is on disc one of the OSX installer. Restart with the disc in the machine and hold down D before the grey start up screen appears. It'll take a minute to boot into the test,

It'll start the Apple Hardware Test then. It first asks you to pick a language, then the test console appears. The quick test takes a couple of minutes, and showed my hardware problems each time.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509

It should probably be oddly comforting that they dont typically keep a stock of logic boards - if they did you'd wonder about the need to replace them with such frequency...

Don't have istallation disks unfortunately, Mactivate used their own.

Oh and it seems according to this discussion they DO need to replace them frequently,

eg, you and I this week in Ireland(tiny market)

am i wrong?

You're not wrong, unfortunately. If you're still experiencing crashes though, I'd see what can be done to check it out. If theres a problem with the new logic board (as there was with mine) the you'd want to flag it and get it replaced. Hows the machine been performing since you got it back?