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

i actually have a pretty good feeling that the april '08 models, while they have the same type of GPU, don't come from the same bad batch of nvidia GPUs that are allegedly plaguing the summer '07 models.

i'm sure some of the cases presented in this thread are from the GPU, but i am certain that there are a few examples here that are a result of a defective inverter board (not at all caused by the nvidia chip).

that being said, it's always a good idea to get the warranty as it certainly protects you from any potential problems with your hardware. it definitely kept your son from getting bitten in the behind with a major repair bill!

mvp 2.2ghz purchased in sep'07, apple care until 2010, no problems atm, but I'd better follow this thread... what a shame...

Hi

I won the "Corporate Cover Up " battle with the crappy Nvidia GeForce 8600m GT chip installed in the June 2007 MBP 2.4 (SR) machines.

I have followed many posts here to gather info as ammunition for my second meeting with the The Apple Store "Genius".

The first meeting I had with my local Apple Store resulted in them telling me I had to pay £635 for a new Logic Board.

I really couldn't wait for the repairs to be done (even 3 days would have lost me money), so I purchased a Mac Mini in order to transfer data from my MBP via Firewire, and carry on with some urgent work.

In the little time I did have I researched this forum and became aware through other website links that this problem is actually an NVIDIA manufacturing fault that Apple are not openly confessing!

The next day I took my research to the The Apple Store "Genius" and posed my argument that even if my machine is out of warranty (14 month old), they should be replacing the Logic Board at their expense based on the fact.

They chose to play it safe and ask if they could "*****" the machine, to which today i received a call saying they would replace the Logic Board at no cost to me.

*ANYBODY SMELL SOMETHING FISHY HERE!*

So I am happy... but are you?

The goal to get them to break is to make them know you are not another consumer drone that will just cough money for their stuff up!

I managed to turn Screen Sharing by activating the Voice Over function (CMD + FN + F5) so that I could get screen shots of my System Profiler, which shows the Graphics Chipset Model reading as Intel GMA X3100 which is a MacBook's Graphics Chipset not my MacBook Pro's one.

You can also quote the user "Monkeymilk", as she also got an out of warranty replacement!

I will also be exercising my consumer right to return the Mac Mini I purchased under the Apple 14 day money back clause.

I really enjoy owning Apple products (this is my 6th mac), and I am thankful they are agreeing to replace my Logic Board... but It really disappoints me they chose to screw me over in the beginning!

If we pay the price for owning an Apple product and support the brand why do they choose to not to be honest when they have made a mass mistake like this?

If you need a collection of the info I gathered please email me!

An update: After 2 logic board replacements, my laptop came back to me with a broken iSight. My warranty ran out after the first logic board replacement, but since the display problem wasn't properly addressed the first time I didn't have a huge hassle.

The guys at the Apple Authorized Reseller shop double checked the connection of the iSight to the logic board and everything appeared to be good, so I called Apple Care angrily and they agreed to courier it to some other place to fix it.

This time it received a new display. Could it be that the issue with the blank screen not only requires a new logic board but also a new display? We'll see if I manage to burn through this one.

It was a huge inconvenience being without my MBP more than 50% of the time in the last 2 months, and when I mentioned this to Apple Care they only offered me £20 off a purchase in the Apple store as compensation... hardly compensation considering the amount of time lost!

it's because the black screen issue may not even be caused by the defective GPU at all. some cases, maybe, but i have a feeling that the majority (or at least a healthy portion) of the cases posted here are a result of a faulty inverter board.

people should be checking for these symptoms before jumping to the GPU conclusion:

"Do you have a problem with the backlight on your laptop? If yes, you are not alone, that’s one of the most common laptop problems. In most cases the screen inverter is the culprit. Here are some LCD screen backlight failure symptoms that could be related to a bad inverter board:

- Laptop boots as usual but after some time the screen blacks out. You still can see an image on the screen but it’s very dim. You might even use a flashlight to see it better. Sometimes the backlight comes back for a while but then goes off again. In some cases you can turn the backlight on if you tap rapidly on the lid close switch.

- The screen always stay black and the backlight never comes on but you still can make out an image on the LCD. It’s dark, but the image is still there.

-In some cases you might hear a buzzing noise coming from the area where the inverter board is located, it’s on the bottom part of the display assembly."

Quick update - had my faulty board replaced late August. It's failed again. Being replaced today. Yes, it's the GPU - again. This really is unacceptable. I rely on this machine to earn a living. If I could buy something else, I'd be inclined to, but I'm locked into OSX - I like OSX, in fact. But I have had incredibly unreliable Macbook Pros. This current one is a replacement for an earlier one that had a large number of warranty issues. Sigh.

Just an update on my situation.

My laptop was delivered by DHL today, but I was not at home to sign for it.

The "repairs" took about a week and a half shipped from a major NJ Apple Store with no questions asked and no tests performed to see the problem.

The "fixed" laptop is being shipped from Houston - Cypress next day.

Everything is free of charge.

I just hope it works for a while until I can sell it and I dislike writing that part.

Hello all,

can I join the disappointed group of ppl experiencing dead Nvidia chipsets?

Mine died first on September 08, motherboard replaced and failed again two weeks later. The macbook pro was bought in the US in August 07 and it's an nvidia 8600 model.

The problem manifested itself always upon power cycling (aka reboot), with the machine being most of the time running attached to an external display. It all works perfectly, except for the fact that I have to imagine what's going on, since main and external displays are no-signal. What is surprising and upsetting is that I don't power-cycle that much, I only reboot when necessary or when I (rarely) have to carry the laptop with me.

Luckily enough I had Applecare, which by now has greatly repaid itself. Clearly the first failure happened one month after the 1 yr warranty, which would have rendered the machine a piece of junk since logic boards here in the UK are a sweet 700 quid (1400 dollars).

I have good reasons to assume Apple is perfectly aware of the problem, but it is not publicly stated since it would mean extremely bad press and damage for both Apple and Nvidia, which apparently will provide the full (not just graphic) chipsets for future Macbook pro models.

What I do expect though, is Apple being able to provide me with a RELIABLE machine. I work with it and I make money with it. I can't afford as many of you as well to be without a computer for one week or more as the repair guys keep replacing motheboards with the same defective models.

Moreover the people I spoke with at the apple store in regents street (london) didn't seem very serious to me; the second time the MBP failed, I quick-dropped it in store and was promised in verbal, written and email form that I would be notified within 24hrs on what the problem was and so on. Not a single buzz from them well past the 24hrs period, and after popping in store to shake a few heads, it was a worrying concert of uh-ohs? Well, I know they are not Geniuses, but at least don't make false promises if you want to be taken seriously.

If the motherboard fails once again in such short period of time, I'm expecting a replacement with an updated model, what about you guys?

Message was edited by: designunits

designunits wrote:
The problem manifested itself always upon power cycling (aka reboot), with the machine being most of the time running attached to an external display. It all works perfectly, except for the fact that I have to imagine what's going on, since main and external displays are no-signal. What is surprising and upsetting is that I don't power-cycle that much, I only reboot when necessary or when I (rarely) have to carry the laptop with me.

Same pattern here, it always happens on power cycle, I reboot maybe once every 2 days, sometimes less, I always use a second screen and I use a mix of 2D and 3D graphics applications which can create quite a load for the GPU. In the days preceeding the failure I often get complete graphics hangs which last up to 5 minutes after which normal operation resumes.
(try waiting it out when your screens freeze completely, if it magically starts working again you may see messages like these in system.log repeating for the time of the freeze:
+09/15/2008 12:18:37 AM kernel NVChannel(GL): Graphics channel exception! status = 0xffff info32 = 0xd = GR: SW Notify Error+
+09/15/2008 12:18:37 AM kernel 0000000c+
+09/15/2008 12:18:37 AM kernel 00200000 00008297 0000047c 00000000+
+09/15/2008 12:18:37 AM kernel 00000486 00001b0c 1000f010 00000003+
+09/15/2008 12:18:37 AM kernel 00000000 00000000 01bfd003+
+09/15/2008 12:18:37 AM kernel 0000000c+
+09/15/2008 12:18:37 AM kernel 00200000 00008297 0000047c 00000000+
+09/15/2008 12:18:37 AM kernel 00000486 00001b0c 1000f010 00000003+
+09/15/2008 12:18:37 AM kernel 00000000 00000000 00000013+
+09/15/2008 12:18:50 AM kernel NVChannel(GL): Graphics channel timeout!+

I visited Apple Store Regent Street in late August and asked if they have any ideas what causes these errors, specifically after the 1.5.1 Firmware update. The only recommendations were ranging from PMU resets to new OS install, both options I've already tried when logic board #1 failed with no whatsoever effect. I still strongly believe that EFI Firmware update 1.5.1 plays an important part triggering this behaviour. (I downloaded new installers of the update every time btw. so its not an issue of a broken download....)

I'm currently waiting for logic board #5 and just spent another 20 minutes on the phone with Apple.
My repair center hasn't even got a date when the replacement will be shipped by Apple. Apple Support said they are currently on back order. If thats already an indication of unusually high failure rates, I don't know but it sure looks like it.

peter

{quote:title=Peter Meininger wrote:}I'm currently waiting for logic board #5 and just spent another 20 minutes on the phone with Apple.{quote}

Wow, that is patience. I already feel carried around at the second episode. I don't think I will resist up until the 5th logic board (why on earth they call it logic board when the rest of the world says motherboard...? it is the icing on the cake), if not for the pure taste of draining Apple 700 quid at a time by Applecare means. Hey, this is an unacceptable hassle they are forcing us through, then be it an hassle for them as well, as long as they insist in replacing faulty hardware with faulty hardware.

I asked one random genius when and if this will ever trigger a replacement, and he said -god, I wish I recorded that- that at the third failure they would give me a new machine. I will believe this when I see it; for now I appreciate the fact they are hopefully fast tracking my repair, since the second GPU died like one week after the first.

Moreover the failures are not even Apple's fault. It is Nvidia's mistake they are paying for which is even more nonsense.

<Edited by Moderator>

My MBP screen died yesterday, just when I needed it to work with video editing for a tv ad.
I always worked using a second monitor connected to it.

As a quick solution, I connected my MBP by firewire on an Imac on my work, turned on the MBP holding T (to make it behave like an external hard drive), and turned on the Imac holding Option (to make it ask for what system drive it should use). Then selected the MBP hard disk as my system drive, so I could use my softwares and files to finish my work.

But my MBP display is dead, just as everybody else's here. Sadly, it was one month after my one year warranty expired, and I have no Apple Care. Isn't it something to be noticed, that the problem is happening to almost everyone shortly after the one year warranty expires?

My MBP had a noisy fan that I was planning to fix it myself, buying the fan on www.ifixit.com, just because there's no Apple Store in my city, located on Brazil's Northeast region. The only option I have here is one Authorized Tech Service that charges lots of money for anything they do. I wonder if the video card died because of overheating.

Any of you that had your Logic boards replaced, tried to install Mac OS Tiger instead of Leopard?
Seems to me it is a hardware failure triggered by bad software updates. Everybody that had the problem did the Firmware update 1.5.1? I tried Clemson47's tips but did not work for me. Gonna try it again, though.

Anyway, Apple is hurting many long time fans and lovers of its products. Hope they do something fast that looks like an apologize.

PS: Brazilian MBP users that had the same problem, contact me by email so we can share our thoughts and options (or the lack of it).

Regards

Long story short: My MBP 15", bought in June 2007 is now officially nothing more than aluminum and plastics.

After having bought the MacBook Pro on the Apple Online Store this piece of technology has been the most unreliable I ever bought from Apple (and it was my Fifth-Or-So since 1999):

o Oct 07: Changed Harddisk Drive due to complete failure
o Febr 08: Keyboard and Touchpad started to fail
o May 08: Keyboard and Touchpad died completely
o Sep 08: This MacBook Pro has no longer a GPU (but thinks it has an Intel GMA)

Yesterday I called Apple Care. All I know now, I was treated stone-cold (no, I was very polite and didn't try to make the girl angry in any way). After the "limited warranty" (first 12 months), don't blame Apple if there's some hardware failure. For those incidents, there is Apple Care (which is about EUR 400,- in Germany, so the MBP would have costed 2300,- not 1900,-).

Cynical? You buy one of the best Laptops on the market, pay one of the highest prices on the market, and all you get is a machine that fails soon. Before the MBP I had a black MB with a massive flickering display and a broken case. Now I have a MBP with a changed harddisk drive, with a changed top-case, keyboard and touchpad, without any GPU, thus no display.

As for Apple, I should have bought AppleCare. Just because I thought I'd better buy the best on the market, I should have known that it will break right after the first year.

As I'm treating my stuff with greatest care and still have no children that toss my MacBook Pro through the window, I decided not to buy AppleCare. Because I just believed in the quality of Apple Products which turned out to be some kind of misconception which I have learned yesterday on the phone (she was completely suppressing all what people would call friendliness).

All I can do now is buying a new Logic Board which has a high propability to fail with the same problems after 6 or 12 months which means I'd better buy a new white MacBook for a grand every 12 months.

At work, I'm responsible for evaluating which hardware to buy next. We develop software with Apple WebObjects which means that we need to have "Apple labeled hardware", yet at the moment it looks as though as it is way too risky to buy MacBook Pro's for our developers (if this gear fails one after another, the controlling guys would ask me not Apple).

I'm very sorry to say so, but this brand just lost me.

Message was edited by: Hendrik Runte (trying to fix some typos)

Hi friends!

Another one here. Died last Sunday, October 5th. He is survived by its perplex owner, as the baby was over 18 and no longer under warranty.

I called AppleCare and they said Apple would replace the logic board for free, but they won't cover labour at the shop. Looks like they are quite aware of the problem, thank god.

My shop, that happens to be under my house, charges me €75 for the swap, and additional €50 for taking out the HD (!!)

I'm doing it, although .... i was expecting a full warranty coverage, or at least taking out the HD for free. I understand it's difficult to extract it, but the trouble it's causing me having the computer dead is quite big. It's that little details what makes you spend twice the price in a laptop.

I bought this, my first mac, as a test on how it would perform on a development company, instead of the recommended corporate ugly-as-****-but-powerful Lenovo. I work as research engineer in the interactive TV field, and the only one in a 600+ engineers building with a mac!. I've been campaigning lately about buying MacBookPro's for some of our development engineers, for the scandal of my boss, hehe. I wonder his face when I give him the Apple receipt with the HD-swapping costs...

Well.. in resume ... sweet and sour impresion. I just hope they replace the logic board with another one without the same problem.

Thank you all posters for the excellent information. It allowed me to perfectly track the problem.

Hi Leonardo,

Im from Brazil too. A friend of mine has the same problem.
How can we contact you? What's your e-mail?

I was reading through as many posts as possible in this and other threads regarding this issue on Apple's forums and it occurs to me that there are four main aspects common to the great (read: all) majority of affected machines (excluding those posts clearly related to other problems showing similar behaviours)

First is that all affected machines are the ones released around summer '07.

Second is that they are all failing around 1 year from that date range, causing most of them to be out of warranty at the time the defect shows up.

Third is that there seem to be no common usage pattern across different users, meaning that this is not a high-stress fault related to excessive gaming or any other activity which might overwork the GPU (which by the way should not even be a concern in my opinion)

Fourth is that all failures become permanent after a reboot, thus confirming that the 'power-cycling' mentioned here and everywhere else is in fact a major (if not the only) player in this saga.

Fourth (B) is that some of those machines, but not mine for example, have shown graphics hardware related lockups and visible on-screen graphic corruption before completely failing.

What I am starting to wonder is why is this all happening more or less one year after these products entered the market and IN PARTICULAR why most newly replaced logic boards (aka motherboards) -which are virtually equivalent to getting a brand new computer- are failing in much shorter times (weeks) compared to the originally installed ones.

I have a hard time believing that old but never used hardware ages even while not being used at least not just one year after being manufactured.
This, as far as my knowledge or deductive skills take me, means two things; that yes, the Nvidia-provided hardware is faulty and that something else than just power cycling (on/off - low/high power) is playing a part in triggering the death of the component.

That something else might well be a firmware (EFI) update or a recent OSX update including new drivers for the Nvidia chipsets. What do you guys think?