Has anyone else been getting some pretty bad issues with the graphics card in the new unibody 17" machines? I have been getting some pretty bad green lines down everything when I use the more powerful GFX card.
This machine is brand new.. the lines do seem to get worse as the card heats up...take a look..
I still find it amazing that Apple isn't commenting on these issues. This is an ongoing problem that most likely comprises quite a few of the Macbook 17" owners out there who have bothered to boot into their secondary graphics card. Shouldn't they be offering some sort of compensation for putting out a bum product and making us go through hoops to use their products?? Having to restore my entire mac via Time Capsule will take a LONG time. Plus I have to wait at least a week to get my new laptop. This is unacceptable for mac's claim that this is a PRO machine. I say this as a Apple enthusiast who has preached their platform for many years. The silence is simply wrong.
Amazing, no. Sad, yes.
The figure we don't have but Apple is how many sold and how many turns out having this problems. If at least Apple would tell us which build weeks or the percentage of affected machines, it could help trying to see the odds of getting a good unit vs. ending up in this thread...
Again, you can vote with your wallet. I did. I have no time to beta test a laptop I am working with so many hours everyday, worse having to return it and be without... You decide if you want to play the Apple Russian Roulette or not, if you have time and energy, or want to know you are among the lucky people with a faultless unit.
Looks like the old saying "don't buy a 1st Gen Apple product" turns true with this one too. I stick to my MBP 17 2.33GHz (which happens to be the second gen of MBP...) until I am confident I can buy. For the moment, unless Apple comes with an explanation, I'll just wait. If I have to wait for the next revision I will. For so much I want and desire a new MBP, I'll just wait.
So you decide if you want to play this game or not.
Apple handles this issue the way they want (stunning silence so far), I handle this issue the way I want (no buy).
PS: I would get an external drive and use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your entire disk, it turns to be way faster than a Time Machine restore. Time Machine is great for unplanned data loss (i.e. human error or disk dies, lost laptop...), but for planned disk / machine swap, CCC is simply easy & fast.
I, too purchased a new 17" Macbook Pro. Mine has green artifacting terribly on the lower 3'rd of the screen and the very left edge of the screen.
Mine is an 8910 and I just recieved it yesterday. I purchased it from a reseller. I talked to their tech-support and they had not seen the problem before (it may be they haven't sold many 17's yet). Anyway, they are taking it back to assess the problem and will replace it if they can't rectify it.
This is my first Mac, and I'm not impressed. Maybe I should have stuck with a PC. I've tied allot of money up to sit here and wait for a resolution.
Here are more of the symptoms mine has. It seemed to have green artifacting the most on dark areas of the screen. I tried switching the background to the picture of the earth, and the black all around the outside of the earth was flickering and "static" looking. I also tried switching to a solid gray background color and the whole thing pulsed and flickered. It made no difference when I changed between graphics processors.
Just took my 12 day old 17" to the Apple store to discuss 5 problems I am having with it, this being one of them.
Conclusion, replace the logic board. (6 - 7 Day procedure - AFTER parts arrive)
I'm none too happy I'll tells you that much sir! All this because I decided to put a 7200 rpm drive in the machine, thus making it "custom". Strangely enough they're replacing the HD drive too because it's broken. So you help me figure out that logic.
Anyway, I'm not too confident that this will solve the issue. Anyone who knows anything about the laws of chance knows that this many people shouldn't be having issues. I guess there isn't much more I can do in the mean time other than wait.
I am going to be talking to Apple about the 6 - 7 turn around time being that anyone with an ounce of knowledge could fix put in a new logic board/HD in less than 7 days...especially when it's a 4 hour round trip for me to the Apple store.
I agree, there's not much logic in that considering that it's a brand new machine. You should have gotten a new one, no questions asked, especially considering all the problems you're having. And, one can't help to wonder how is it that not all machines have this problem.. I would have thrown a hissy fit, regardless if its a custom machine, having that many issues is just plain unacceptable especially considering this is a flagship laptop.
This is why I'm sitting tight. All these potential and highly possible aggravations is not worth a $4k dollar investment, especially considering no one, not even at Apple, has convinced me that they even know of this issue. It's like a tight lid is being kept on this intentionally. One can only speculate!!!!
I just recommend the people that bought the new notebook to really make all possible tests at the first few days and report any problem immediately to apple, otherwise you will require to be without your notebook for a few days repairing.
It was really hard to me to get my notebook replaced and the specialist from apple support was making my life very difficult informing that I should wait for some firmware update or send to apple store for repair. After long discussion, I was suggested by apple store to contact customer relation to solve my problem and now I will get a replacement.
I'm not sure if this problem is related to heat, since I had the problem and after close the notebook for few seconds (LCD turn off) and open again (LCD turn on), the problem was solved for long time again...
I can only suggest again that the people use the black and white wallpapers from apple to detect the problem.
Hopefully I will receive a new notebook without the problem...
I have had 3 17" MBPs (1st was glossy and I didn't like it, 2nd was matte but keyboard stopped working, and 3rd is good so far) that were W8910, 12, and 12. On all of them, I've tried re-creating the problem but haven't been able to while using the 9600M graphics. I've tried Cinebench 10, and in addition doing this for 3 hours to keep the CPU at 100%:
1) Viewing three H.264 HD movie trailers simultaneously in a loop
2) iTunes music playing while showing the visualizer
3) Running two instances of yes > /dev/null in Terminal
The CPU goes up to 105 degrees F before the fans spin up, and then the CPU remains around 90 and the GPU around 70. Ambient temp is 65 F. The fans on the 2nd MBP would go to 4300 to maintain those temps, whereas on the latest MBP it only needed 3400, which was strange to me since it was such a large difference. Nevertheless, I've never seen the artifacts on any of the three MBPs. I've also just spent the past day installing Vista in Boot Camp, and I haven't see the problem either on the current MBP I have.
Hope it doesn't suddenly pop up in a few days though!
Also, I should note that build week of the *serial number DOES NOT equal the build week of the components!* On the opposite side of the RAM slot (the side that is directly facing the top case for which you need a mirror to see) is a sticker that states when the logic board was made. You can check out iFixit's guide to see pictures of the RAM slot and sticker. The week 10 MBP I had had a sticker which said it was a week 08 board, whereas of the two week 12 MBPs one board was a week 02 and one was a week 08. Also, the build dates for the top case, bottom case, and battery vary as well and don't correlate with serial number. The top case has an exact date laser printed near the battery connection, the bottom case also has a date printed on the inside, and the battery has a sticker with a date code.
if you bought your computer at an Apple Store you are covered by the 30 day DOA policy. this means YOU have the option of exchange or repair. it does not matter if it is CTO or not. if there is that much wrong with it just say that you consider it DOA. here is the policy if you are interested:
No worries, I called Apple and said that I was a little "cranky" and they are sending me out a new one with the "advanced replacement" and upgraded me to the Matte screen.
