MBP Logic board failure

Got a lot of important information, thanks tech guy and gals. I did end up having them call me at a specific time on Sunday, did it online scheduling. It worked really well and very prompt calling. I talk to Daniel and he mentioned that I had to go to the Apple center local to Tempe, AZ. Needed to get a diagnoses before they would replace the logic board, my laptop is covered til mid December so I have an option.

Did try everyones suggestion and mine didn't come up but did get the cooling fans to run ful board. So I do know the logic board is getting key commands. Still now video! I am on the hunt for a cheap logic board on Ebay first, then if that doesn't pan out, off I go to Apple center.

I ha ve a Macbook Pro 13.3"/2.7ghz about $1,700.00. In three weeks it was completely dead. Its logic board is defective. the same as saying the computer is defective less the body and other parts. I bought this in Manila and was advised by service center here to contact Apple Singapore, they said they might approve a new replacement.

I did 3 times. First you would hear a monotonous sound for about 20 minutes before somebody would answer you. Good thing i have speaker phone. Customer service were ok but the technician and customer service supervisor are not kind, meaning they are somehow rude.

don't buy Mac book Pro. It still have problem with the logic board.

don't buy Apple items in Manila, you will have no protection from the distributor regarding warranty.

My MBP from early 2008 has been functioning perfectly until a few weeks ago when the NVIDIA video card crashed. The Apple Hardware Test indicated that was the problem and it is the card subject to the special warranty.

I was able to reboot from the hardware test and it continued to work on & off. I ran Tech Tool Pro 5 and those tests indicated everything was fine except the video card.

The MBP has been living with me in Costa Rica. I took it to the Apple dealer and left it. After a week they said their testing did not indicate the correct code to trigger the special warranty on the video card and that the logic board, memory and hard drive had all also failed. I had booted & used the unit the day before it went to the shop.

This is my first Mac and I loved it until 3 weeks ago. I know lots can happen in 3 1/2 years but this just doesn't feel right.

Now I feel like I must reluctantly go back to a PC.

hello everyone, i own a 15'' macbook pro purchased in march, 2008. it is a 2.6 ghz however it has the nvidia 8600.
I was turned away at the genius bar because my macbook pro would not boot up or chime, the superdrive and led lights in the front however work and you can clearly hear that it is running. I was told that it is a complete logic board failure and not the nvidia because it won't chime or boot. They want $310+tax to depot it and very likely that additional charges may accrue if they find anything else.

The reason I believe this was caused by the gpu was because right before my macbook pro went into a coma i was noticing very weird patterns on my screen, a variations of horizontal lines with discoloration and flickering. I didn't think much of it and simply restarted my computer, the lines dissapeared slightly but the discoloration and flickering was still present. I had to attend to something so I simply but my computer to sleep by shutting the lid and ever since then i am faced with a black screen, non functioning keyboard/ports, no chime/boot but with a functioning superdrive,front led and an overall sound of the computer running.

what should i do?

that is EXACTLY what mine did, strange screen rendering for a week or so that was "fixed" by rebooting, then eventually just the front lights and could hear it running. I got mine fixed for free. You could try going back to the apple store and asking to see a supervisor and show him these posts...or if you scroll backwards in this topic, you will find an 800 number for corporate customer service and you could try working with them.

Reading this discussion makes me fume. I had a MBP for less than 3 years and loved it... until my logic board failed. It took many weeks of troubleshooting until I finally brought it in to get looked at... When they told me it was the logic board and that it would cost me at LEAST $600, I about died.

I spent over $1000 on this laptop (when I could have spent around $300 on a Windows machine). Who in their right mind is going to spend additional money on "AppleCare"?! You pay a ton of money for this laptop expecting it to live up to standards... then it fails.

In short, I wish I would have gotten a Windows machine instead of this pile of junk.

Now, I'm going to use my old Dell and use my MBP's hard drive as an external hard drive. There is NO WAY I'm purchasing another Apple laptop, and I sure as heck aren't spending that kind of money to have it repaired.

you didn't read everything in this discussion. I posted a link earlier that goes to a page on the apple site that explains about the class action suit with NVIDIA about their chip that failed, attached to the logic board, and that apple will refund your money up to 4 years after the purchase date, if it is one of the ones affected. go back to my other posts and you will find that link. then call the 800 number posted by another member for corporate customer relations.

Thank you for letting me know. I will do this ASAP.

(I didn't have time to read the 22 pages in this discussion)

BAH, this doesn't apply to me. Darn!

Quick update on my situation from a page or two back. Four trips to two different stores, 3 genius's and 3 managers later, I am a happy camper.

Basically the first store could run the test and see it was an Nvidia problem but they refused to fix my 4 1/2 yr old MacBook Pro. The 2nd store was much more attentive to my issue but couldn't run the test (and they described the "no chime" thing like another poster described). Unfortunately, the 1st genius from the other store did not input any notes, otherwise the 2nd store would have fixed it.

Being stubborn, I ran over to the other store to see if the other genius would update his notes. Having had to setup an appointment, I actually was directed to another genius, who to be honest, was a real jerk about it. He ran the test, which again ran successfully, but argued with me about 1) getting my board replace 2) getting a manager, and 3) getting the original genius to update his notes from 2 nights previous. I, arguing/insisting in a calm matter, finally got all three done, but the manager still wouldn't do anything.

Once I got the notes (and a printout) I knew my only alternative was to go back to the other store, which I did. As I was going in the manager I spoke with earlier was just leaving his shift and handed me off to a night manager. He then dropped a bomb and told me the other store should have taken care of me. He then tried to call them to find out why but they were as unresponsive to him as they were to me. I then went into my whole pitch again (below) and after about a half hour of discussion, he finally conceded. Right up to the last minute I really thought I was going to have to drop $310 (that's the cost, not $600) but this Apple Store really came through.

Notes:

- go into the store when they are least busy (1pm seemed like a good time whereas 5-6pm was really, really bad). They are less stressed at this time and will hopefully spend more time listening to your "pitch."

- take in printouts of this discussion, Apple's tech bulletin on the issue, the articles of Apple/HP/Dell fighting Nvidia originally, and the class action lawsuit

- be calm, don't lose your cool, and have a game plan when you go in. I didn't the 1st store visit and I had the documents on my iPad. I noticed they, the other geniuses, and most important other customers saw all my documents laid out with highlights.

- if the genius can't help you, don't degrade them, but explain you'd like to talk to a manager

- if the manager can't help you, go to another store

- make sure they put in notes and review the notes with them

- the arguments which I believe held the most weight: 1) I said I too felt like I was being stubborn fighting Apple on the issue, just like Apple/HP/Dell was stubborn fighting with Nvidia (I had the printout highlighted) 2) I showed them the last line on the tech bulletin which stated you could only bring your computer in if you were experiencing the issues describe. I said when I received the email 2 years ago I was not but that this started about 6 mths ago (slowly) and I had forgotten about the email. I said in retrospect I should have pretended I had the issue and treated it like a car recall. I semi-chastised them for knowing they had a defective part in their computers but not fixing all of them.

Sidenotes:

- because I was outside the 4 year limit, this was not covered by the Apple/Nvidia agreement, so the store had to repair it themselves and cover the cost. Thus why the 1st store didn't want anything to do with me.

- the chime/or even booting up -- I could every now & then get it to boot to a screen for me, which would most times chime. But I also had times where it'd chime but go to a black screen. Point this out to them if they bring up the chime issue.

- for the test running versus not, I actually had reset both the PMU and PRAM before I took it into the 1st store where they were able to run the test. YMMV

Lastly, this is not the first time Apple has come through for me. They've replaced my original iPhone twice and about 5 years ago gave me a brand new iBook replacing my other one which was a few months out of warranty (because I had documented other issues with them while under warranty). To people who say they shoulda gotten a Windows machine, I say good riddance.

So much for a quick update... 😀

chrispy, glad to hear you hung in there and got it done!

and, i agree, let those disgruntled ones go back to pc's and see if they can get them fixed for free.

i highly recommend AppleCare, btw...i was able to get someone on the phone to agree to replace my hard drive so I didn't have to deal with the people at the store on that issue...and it's great to have someone to talk to about any issue...they've walked me through a bunch of stuff over the years. and i've gotten parts replaced with no issue several times....more than paid for itself imho.

O.K.

After researching countless posts and forums, I have to say that nowadays I just don't have the buying confidence that I wanted to. I'm typing this post on my trusty old G3 iBook. I love this computer. I too went through the whole logic board thing in about '03 or something, and yes they did replace it at COMPUSA's Apple dept under the warranty that I paid good money for. Its not like they just "gave" it to me. But it was Apple then, and not Mac, I guess. I realize defects happen, and they affect a lot of people, practically everyone who buys that model, when they do happen. But in those days Apple had really small market share. You couldn't buy iPods in Walmart. I just think, that with all of the stock price success Apple has enjoyed during the literal boom times since '07, and with all of the popularity of the products, that those same products could be manufactured for a little more longevity. Its not like consumers aren't holding up their end. Graphics card and logic board failures aside, it seems clear on the blogs and all over the internet that the newer ones are hot machines at the least, and many tech guys I know seem convinced that it could be a recipe for short hardware life. And now, on Cyber Mon., I am giving up the deal search and think I will either wait for some assurance that the newer products are made better, or just go Windows computers and Cubase/Pro Tools for my future editing needs. They will be cheap to replace if junk. I'm finally at the point where I want to really invest in a home studio, and now I have more concerns than I should as an informed consumer.

I was all set to buy a mini this fall and then a pro in the late spring, as I put off buying iMac in '09 based on all of the problems, only to see that what I thought was a run of small hiccups just keeps on running. Bloggers' posts claim that they get crazy hot and have loud fans now, so no practice studio set up due to audio issues/heat/HDMI issues, etc. So then I thought, "I'll go MBP ". But reading this 22 page post, among other blog sites, has convinced me that I will have downtime at the least, and a short product life is likely. Honestly I haven't read much good at all about the heat/issues that the MBP is having right now. The iMac might be the best of the 3 now, but I had been put off of it last year with all of the display and graphics issues. And I really need a portable first.

A machine, dell, whoever should last 5 yrs. before it dies, and if it doesn't, then an extended warranty should be offered. I also own an 02 Chevy Impala, so I think I know a little something about systematic failures due to flawed engineering.

y2, I WANT to buy mac.....really! I've been waiting and hoping, but it seems these days they are making it too hard to believe. If I want a machine that fails every 3.5yrs, I'll buy pc and save some cash. BTW, I was always treated fairly by tech support over the years, and CUSA apple store folks were older and totally cool IT guys. They were always so awesome just to talk to. My 2 experiences at our new "store" were very lackluster. I was informing the "kids" there about their own products in some cases. They were super nice, but I kept getting my questions thrown back at me. I can identify with some of the posters on this post about that part, so +1 officially.

Hi!

I have an early 2008 MBP 17".

My question is - how I can check if the logic board has (not) been replaced recently?

any LBoard serial to check?

Once with only iTunes started MBP went to sleep. I thought it was the battery that needed to be recharged and plugged in magsafe.

The next day the system wouldn't start.

Though the vents were whirring, after a sec it stopped to and there was no booting chime at the startup.

So I rashed to local apple service guys same day. The technician told me: it's a known problem, you need to change the logic board, there's a program, don't worry - we will class this problem under Apple logic board replacement program.

I was like, whatever, just make it work again : )

so, a month went, and I got my MBP back. Now it boots, but the same graphic artifacts appear time to time. Battery failed short after, I'm curious if the problem was not exactly the logic board issue, instead some other kind.

I don't know how you could check, but I would take it right back in right away.