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

Well I took the computer to another Apple Authorized Service Provider, which appears to be more reputable. The first one was a small place which is just steps away from work so I went there for convenience. Either the guy there didn't know what he was doing or he wanted to charge me for the free repair to pocket the cash. The second repair center is fixing the computer, so my faith in Apple is renewed and now that place will have my business for any future Apple purchase.

Hi

I would like to know if those faulty NVIDIA graphic cards in a MacBook Pro 2007-2008 are being replaced with a different model.

Can somebody please tell me something about it ? I don't think that Apple wish to be in legal troubles with loyal customers.

When I took mine in they said they were going to swap out the entire logic board if I had a faulty nVidia chip. These cards are part of the logic board, so the entire thing is simply swapped out with a working one. You don't have to worry about them using a different model or anything. You'll get the exact same logic board you had before with the exact same nVidia card. The new ones are not part of the malfunctioning batch though, so you'll be fine for years to come (and I'm sure if you have any problems they will cover it anyway...Apple seems to be rather logical with their warranties...they won't play lawyer games if the video card breaks again in a year).

None of your personal information is stored on the logic board though. When you get it back everything you had will be as it was. I would DEFINITELY perform a full backup before sending it in though.

Hi there,

This is an update of what is happening with my MacBook Pro 2.4GHz, bought in August 2007.
Sunday, I went to the Fifth Avenue, New York to have my MBP repaired. Today, Tuesday I had a message. I returned the call and one of the technicians told me that my display was fine (which a knew), that the problem was that it was not powering on (which is not true). I explained to him that when I went to the store, the white led was working, and that I could hear the hardrive spinning.

He said: "OK. Your computer run out of warranty" . "I know", I said again, in my bad English. "So, do you want your computer to be fixed?" "Yes",I answered.
"OK", said the genius."It is $310", "yes or no?". "I guess, yes" I replied, "and can you tell me the cause?"

"Well, we don't know but the logic board needs to be replaced". I asked,"so how do you know that it needs to be replaced, if you don't know the cause?" "It's not the nVidia Graphics Card?".
He said, "we don't know".
I said, "OK, I want it to be fixed and thank you".


Later, I was feeling a little bit upset, after reading that MBPros with the symptoms of no video between May 2007 and September 2009, were going to be repaired even though they were out of warranty, based on Apple's statement.

So I called again, and a nice woman said to me,"yes I understand, that happended with my MBP too". I asked her, "well, what should I do?" She said, "when you come to the store if they don't say to you upfront that there is not charge, you should ask why and talk about it". "I will", I said.

So, I'm going to wait for that phone call and a copy of Apple'statement.

What I don't like is when people try to play dumb, "I don't know", like the first guy.

I think that they are running out of logic boards and trying to avoid at maximum any replacement.

Reading other posts, what Apple must do is a recall of the faulty machines.

I'm not a gamer, I'm a musician, and my MBP, failed wakening up after a heavy session of editing a High Definition video-which I did for the first time in my life- of my daughter's piano recital.

It is obvioulsly clear for me that is something related with the video unit, and I don't care if is heat or not, probably.

What I want, it is a computer that works.

As I said before, I paid enough for quality, but these guys want to charge me $310 dollars.

I'll keep you guys informed of my adventures with Apple!

Take care.Bye.

I just got mine back from the shop today - the logic board was replaced for free when I showed the tech the printout from the Apple KB. There were no questions asked, even-though the computer was 6 months out of warranty AND the shop is 'just' a reseller.

Now, the thing that I am now wondering is, considering the board was replaced due to a faulty GPU, and I got a new board with the same GPU on it (and from what I understand, all GF 8600M are faulty) - what is to say that it doesn't die again? And I have to go through the same process all over again, only then will I have to pay for the replacement, since it will probably happen after the 2-year "after-you-bought-it-we-fix-it-for-free" warranty given by Apple for this issue, expires.

I am also a moralist, and I don't want to just dump the 'tainted' computer on some poor soul, just so I can buy one of those new models...

Just when I about to call AppleCare and file a case, my MBP (late 2007 2.2GHz) came back to live. Here's what I did.
1) VNC over from another Mac (I did re-installation of OSX in prepare to send it in for repair).
2) Discover the expected Intel GMA X3100. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2475/353176304178c9d5f858o.jpg
3) I did all the steps mentioned before (delete kext, remove sleep image & etc, no help).
4) Screen resolution become odd 4:3 aspect and options are 800x600, 1280x1024, 1680x1050. So I did a change from 1680x1050 to 800x600. Restart and the MBP came back to live.
5) Did multiple sleep, restart, shutdown test, no issue.
6) The problem came back after restarted from a AHT test, all passed no error found.

I notice the issue will return when:
- You did a non OSX boot (Target disk, AHT, ASD, etc).
- The GPU side get hot (right under the hinge & F3-9), it's burning hot.
- And during this time, System Profiler will crash when trying to read Graphic/Display info. As if the GPU can't be recognize anymore (not even miss-identified as GMA X3100).

So I left the MBP to cool down for whole night (disconnected battery). And this morning it booted up just fine, now doing 10.5.7 and bunch of updates. I hope to get a free repair, but looking at it now working fine, my local AASP most likely won't accept it.

regards,
wei

Message was edited by: hippo@wei

Just a quick and general question here.

Yes, my Macbook Pro is having this same problem, and I purchased it nearly a year and a half ago, it is not under warranty, it was purchased from a certified reseller (Futureshop in Canada), and I do not have my original receipt of purchase. Should this cause any problems?

It was purchased in December of 2007, so I would assume somewhere on records that my serial number would be registered to the store it was purchased at, and somewhere in the system they would be able to see that it was purchased less than two years ago. In addition, regardless of an original receipt of purchase, it is still a fault in their system, so when I take this in tomorrow, should I expect to be hassled about this, or should I be able to steer clear of many problems?

It's seems as though we are in the same boat. I have the exact same Macbook Pro purchased 2 months after yours from Futureshop as well. My warranty was up as well.

Concerning your receipt, I had mine, but was never asked for it. He found out everything he needed with the serial number i suppose. *You shouldn't have any problems.*

My experience. I took mine in today. The genius guy went through it, tested to make sure it wasn't faulty RAM causing the problem and then he told me this. That the problem wasn't exactly the one apple has outlined and was prepared to cover. That it was being caused by something else that wasn't being covered, and then he told me that he was going to push it under that coverage anyway, so I wouldn't have to pay anything. He said it's only been a few months since your warranty expired, and that you've never had any repairs done on it, and it would be ridiculous to charge you for it now. (Great guy!)So anyways, he put it through, and mentioned it would have cost about $1600 to do otherwise!!

My Repair description is as follows

Item #: 661-4955
Description: PCBA MLB 2.2 GHZ REV2
Total Due: $0.00

I believe they are replacing the entire motherboard.

I have a question regarding X3100 graphic accelerator detected on faulty MBPs. Was it detected when main GPU G84M GF8600GT failed ? Did laptop work when X3100 is detected ? Was it fully operable ? Are you using external monitor via DVI to work on such Mac ?

I am asking because this proofs my theory that previous MBP generation with Intel GM945 and GM965 can use hybrid graphic switching method like in previous gen of Sony VAIO SZ with Stamina Mode switch (restart needed) or Alienware Area M15xx with binaryGFX technology. This probably need some modification in EFI, but maybe there is a chance to correct some kext files in OSX to use it

Add me to the list of MBP's owners with dead Nvidia GPU.

My MBP has been now 10 days in repair. They told me the 2nd day that they have to change the logic board for a new one, but that they have to wait because they haven't any in stock.

Today they told me that maybe they will not change my logic board, because "they have a software from apple that will repair my GPU, but it takes from 2 to 12 hours"

*Anybody knows what it means??????*

So far I know it's a hardware problem, so I don't understand how they will fix it with software...

And this has been the newest problem (but I'm afraid it won't be the last) of a 3,000.00 USD computer. So far this has been the unacceptable problems with my MBP in 2 years of use:
-Battery almost dead after 100 cycles (Apple gived me a new one).
-Wi-Fi drop-outs during 1 year when on battery (fixed via software update).
-Sleep & Wake Up problems (I have had to disable safe sleep mode).
-Black (or grey) dots on the screen (sort of death pixels... no solution so far)
-And finally... dead GPU (expecting logic board or software repair ¿?).

Apple: What's next?

Same with me, all running normal but no video

Hi All,Seems like I have just inherited the same problems as some of you although I am not clever enough to be able to put my finger on the reason why.
Like most of you I ask the question Why? I purchased my Macbook Pro Jan 2007 and until two days ago have had no problems whatsoever, then my wife closed the machine and sent it to sleep which to my knowledge we had never done before.
So I looked for the cause and followed instructions posted on this and other forums.
I have noticed that on my machine , which has a ATY,RadeonX1600 graphics card that the black screen , seems only to be like a low light problem and when I choose sleep the screen flashes back to normal before closing, I am also able to use the machine through an external screen.

So my thought is that it has something to do with the sleep mode and therefore a software problem?

I do have an extended warranty so will be giving Apple a call tomorrow, so let's see how they behave?

Regards,

New to the Grumpy user club.

Just a quick update for anyone else who may have been wondering.

I took my Macbook into the Apple Store, despite not having a receipt and having purchased the Macbook from a reseller, and they didn't even ask where it was purchased from or for a receipt. The Apple Genius ran a quick test to make sure it was the graphics card, found out that indeed it was, and had it sent off for free repairs with no hassle at all. The only thing I could have to pay is that after reading the repairs contract I signed, that I could be subject to a $100 Canadian "diagnostics fee" if they have to run a diagnostics on the computer.

Regardless, it was really hassle free, in and out really quickly (Thank God I made an appointment because there were literally well over 150 people in that small store either buying, looking or having tech issues). I expected to really have to argue my case after some of the horror stories I've heard about dealing with Apple, but it went extremelly smooth for me.

I managed to fix it for my MacBook Pro 3,1 2.4GHz...

I put the exact process I followed on my blog to keep it central and findable. Took me days and the loss of a lot of hair - I have no idea why it works and no-doubt there is a lot in there that doesn't need to be done. Whatever, I thought I'd share it in case, like me your machine is business critical and can't afford for Apple to get off their butt to get a fix out there.

Like most, I am seriously unimpressed that this was put out in the wild with such catastrophic results - But that aside, have a read and take from it what you will. It got me back nice and stable under 10.5.7 without having to rebuild etc.

Hope it's of use to someone...

http://blog.ginkgostudios.com/2009/05/just-a-note-of-caution-this-worked-for-me- i-hope-it-works-for-you-but-obviously-i-cant-guarantee-that-i-just-thought-i-wou .html

OK. First of all sorry for my poor English, still learning.

As I mentioned before I took my MBP 17",2.4 GHz bought at the end of August 2007 to the Apple store in New York City, 5th Avenue.

After 6 days and $336 dollars, it appears to be working now normally.

I don't know why but I had the 'honor' to be attended by the Lead "Genius" who gave me the "explanation" of what was wrong.

As I said in a previous post, after editing my first High Definition video, and putting my computer to sleep, the next day I got the black screen. White led indicator fine, hard drive working but no video.

His explanation was that they run a 'secret' test (his words), and it was not the nVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processor's fault. He said it was a problem with the logic board which was replaced, also a problem with one of sticks of 2GB of RAM which was replaced too.

Asked about which part of the motherboard failed, he said that Apple's engineers don't provide that type of information to the store, and also that was a 'secret' too.

Asked if he read the Apple public statement about this issue, he said yes, and added that my computer was out of warranty. So I showed him a printout of it, and he does not even bother to look at it.

At that point I felt impatient and upset with that nonsense. I was asking for the cause of the problem and the guy insisted that he could not provide the information.

So, I stopped the nonsense, paid the $336 and came home.

Now here comes the interesting things, the computer seems to work fine, but I checked the serial number of the my 'new' logicboard, and it is the same of my old one. I don't know but reading other posts, some people got a different number, probably I'm the 'lucky' one who got the same.

Later, out of curiosity about the RAM, which personally I had installed 4BG of Samsung matched memory sticks long time ago, I decided to open my MBP and see by myself. Wow! What a surprise! They were the same old Samsung sticks installed by me, bought at OWC.

With this post I put an end of a 'nice' experience with an Apple Store's Lead "Genius" and its service.

I'm praying and wishing that my computer will work without problems during the next 90 days, because I don't think that I'm going to pay again $336 if it fails at day 91, which probably is going to happen, remember I got the same graphics processor !

Be aware of Apple repairs, fellow customers.