Nvidia 8600M GT GPU issues - please explain

Your blank screen problem is most likely caused by the graphics card failing (nvidia 8600m GT). This is a known problem and nvidia has fixed it.
Replacing it will involve replacing the graphics card which will not erase your hard drive 🙂

I had the GPU on my MacBook Pro fail, sent it into Apple late last year , they must have replaced all the guts of the computer because the hard drive was wiped of my data. Luckily I had it backed-up via Time Machine so was able to restore it.

Since I figured it would probably fail again I bought the extended AppleCare plan. This past week it failed again, exact same problem. It's now in a local shop being repaired under AppleCare. Not sure if the hard drive will get wiped again.

I expect it to fail again in the future as the problem appears inherent in the Nvidia GPU model. Apple can't seem to identify which parts will work or fail or I wouldn't have gotten a faulty GPU part installed as a fix. I hope I'm wrong as this is a hassle to deal with as my MBP is my workhorse computer, now I'm on a Windows machine as a workaround. This is really frustrating.

"Replacing the graphics card" is not completely accurate. The graphics hardware is soldered to the logic board, not on a removeable card as in a desktop machine. The only way to replace the "graphics card" in a Mac notebook computer is to replace the logic board.

Get ready for a fun time. The same thing happened to me last month and I'm on my 3rd motherboard. Now I'm having other video issues.

They shouldn't need to reformat your drive but you should back it up using firewire-mode anyway. Plug in your firewire cable to another Mac and hold down the "T" key when youre booting up youre gimped Mac. You're laptop drive will show up as a firewire drive on youre working Mac.

If your MBP is failing due GPU issue and out of warranty I suggest to go to professional laptop/electronic repair service where they can make "BGA reballing" - failure cause could be just solder crack and GPU chip can be OK. It is a lot cheaper operation than buying/replacing a very expensive logic board.

limo79 wrote:
If your MBP is failing due GPU issue and out of warranty I suggest to go to professional laptop/electronic repair service where they can make "BGA reballing" - failure cause could be just solder crack and GPU chip can be OK. It is a lot cheaper operation than buying/replacing a very expensive logic board.

Noooooo!

If your 8600M GT GPU fails, Apple will replace it whether your machine is under warranty or not...and they're issuing refunds to people who paid for repairs related to GPU failures before it became a known issue.