MBP Logic board failure

Josiegallo, That is exactly the same scenario as my problem, and I got mine fixed with no issues for free at the apple store. the NVIDA chip is soldered to the board, that's the only reason the logic board needs to be replaced. it's all one unit. it all depends on who you talk to. Unfortunately there are people out there who are trying to "pull a fast one", which then makes people suspicious of us who really deserve to get something fixed for free. I didn't even have to ask to get mine done free, they just offered. So it depends on who you talk to.

But I had the same intermittent issues and finally just light went on, no chimes, etc., just like yours.

I did find some posts that could be interesting to you...something you could try if they won't do it for free. People said that they had success with different ways to get the solder to melt and readhere the chip to the board....turning it upside down and putting in a blanket so it would heat up and melt the solder to the point of resealing it, or taking the board out and putting it on balls of aluminum foil and baking it in the oven for 15 min, or just going to an apple authorized service center and having them resolder the chip on the board.

I AM NOT TELLLING YOU TO DO ANY OF THE ABOVE, AS I HAVE NO EXPERIENCE WITH THEM. But, before you shell out lots of money to replace the board, you could try these things, since you would have nothing to lose at that point.

Good luck with apple, hope they just do it for you free.

Good Luck to you and I wish you the best.

Thank you, unfortunately I didn't get a free repair. I took it back to the Apple Store and I went with my brother who is a software engineer/general computer whizz because I felt like the Apple Support helpline were quite patronising when I talked to them. The technician at the 'Genius' Bar was quite rude, straight away he did the NVIDIA test but of course my computer wasn't starting up, so he was just saying again that it was logic board failure. My brother insisted that we spoke to a manager (the technician said 'why do you want to speak to the manager?'), and then he asked them to open up my computer to check for hardware damage because he didn't think it was right that Apple are only checking this issue using software diagnostics. So after a bit of attitude from the technician (and my brother) he opened it up and confirmed that there was no damage - the logic board was intact with no heat damage etc. No free repairs but the manager offered a 10% discount for me to get a new model plus free hard drive retrieval. They also recommended that I sell mine for scrap as it is still worth £150ish.

So I'm glad to have got to the root of the problem (sort of) but I am not happy with the way Apple treated this. I've dealt with three store technicians, plus two technicians on the support line, as well as the store manager, and the store manager was the only one who treated me with sincere respect. I also think Apple should be treating the NVIDIA issue by inspecting the hardware itself, rather than just using the software test. The technicians are also not properly informed - for example today's technician told me it wouldn't be covered even if it was the NVIDIA issue so I had to explain to him it was 4 years from date of purchase, then he told me that the 2008 models weren't really affected anyway. He just had a very poor attitude and it wasn't until the manager was present that he showed any signs of sympathy and stopped being rude to us. He also told me that the distorted video issues I had been having weren't to do with the graphics card, and that because I had taken the computer into a London Apple store last summer they would have picked up on the fault then. All in all, disappointing that my Macbook died just after the three year mark but the 10% discount was a nice gesture...

(By the way I went to the Apple Store in Bath, UK.)

Trust me, when I say that I definitely understand. I too, went through the same thing. I just said "f*** it," and now I going to try to fix it myself. I found a service technician in New York called L2 Computer, Inc. that can reball the chipset for as little as $200. I think I am going to give them a try.

Josiegallo, if you are wanting to trade your Macbook in, I suggest you take a look at Powerbook Medic site. You will definitely get more than what they told you. I would trade mine in myself, but since I already have it apart, I am least going to give it the "old-college-try," and fix it. However in the meantime, I am enjoying my NEW Macbook Pro Late 2011 model. Yeah, I had to get another😟. But I'm going to make certain this one lasts; I'm currently shopping for laptop coolers now so the darn-thing doesn't heat up like before.

Thanks for the link although I think it is for US customers only. I'm hoping to sell mine on eBay but I'm not sure how much it will sell for. Good luck with fixing yours! I think I am going to go for an iMac next as they seem better value for money.

Please check out the Sale of Goods Act in the UK as you have rights for six years (five in Scotland), You can read about this at www.oft.gov.uk/business-advice/treating-customers-fairly/sogahome/forcustomers or you can call Trading Standards on the number below.

Your consumer rights – products must be:

of satisfactory quality - last for the time you would expect it to and be free of any defects

fit for purpose – fit for the use described and any specific use you made clear to the trader

as described – match the description on packaging or what the trader told you.

Not having any luck with sorting out problems? Then call 08454 04 05 06.

In april 2010 there was a problem with my hard-drive and the connection, and having purchased my MBP in early 2008 i didnt reslise about the logic board or the graphics card problems. Being (just) within the 3 year warrenty with apple care the guy behind the desk in the brighton genius bar was amazing. They took my laptop and were able to recover all my data, and install a new hard-drive. The laptop worked perfectly until last weekend.

Last weekend after using my laptop to play music when i had some friends over it just died. After always owning macs i tried all the re-starts to no avail. There was no start-up bong, and the screen was blank. Worrying that i might have to claim on my house insurance i took my MBP and my extenal hard-drive into the apple store mainly to see if they would be able to recover my data, not really knowing much about the logic board/graphics card problems. The guy behind the genius bar was brilliant. I dont know if it was because of all the previous problems that i had, or if it was that they already had all my codes etc on file - but they told me i would get the repair for free as it was a problem with the graphics card, obviously something that i was really happy about 🙂

I shall post and let you know when i pick it up again and update you as to the running of it....

Same issues here, display shows chequered with horizontal and vertical lines and hangs. Force shutdown and repeatly turn on again still fails. Try couple of times and suddenly the my MBP cannot turn ON! no sound, no fans turning, no LED front light... completely dead. Read about the replacement exercise for Nvidia video chip and visit one of Apple service outlet. To my dismay, since it cannot 'turn ON' they said its not video chip problem! So it won't come under the replacement program. Explained to them what causes the whole failure, but it falls to deaf ears. Since changing a logic board will cost a BOMB, i decided not to proceed but they said i must pay for the diagnosis test, but the way i see my MBP, it is not even dismantled to see the problem in the board inside! I refuse to pay and contact the customer service advisory to waive the charges mount to a hundred dollars. Finally they did waive the charges and i took back my MBP sadlly home. Now wondering what to do with this expensive paper weight....sigh!

sounds like you probably do have a video problem...but now you have more than that...like maybe a hard drive failure. without replacing any other bad parts, they can't really test for the nvidia card problem. it has to be working otherwise. you didn't mention how old your compter is. i'm wondreing if you shouldn't take it in to a different certified apple service place.

My MBP is in early 2008, battery cycle is just 35 only. Still look brand new although i've changed the hardisk and upgrade to Lion. Need to find 2nd hand parts to make the power supply works and i believe the left I/O board is dead although i check with multimeter there's voltage going to the battery and logic board. Any suggestions?

I sent my MBP to one repair shop that deals with apple products. Free diagnotics and they check every sections of the MBP that is faulty. They will change the power supply chips, the burnt graphics chip and other components that need to be changed to make my MBP works at a mere S$280 only! That is what i call good deal service and repair job. Will tell you more when i get back my working MBP later.

Just recently experienced a true black screen on my late 2007 Macbook Pro 17 inch. Laptop went to sleep, but never came back out of sleep. Tried a hard reset on the system, boots up with black screen. Tried to reset the SMC (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964), that also did not work. I can hear the system running, but there is no video on screen. Having read up and found that this was an acknowledged failure of the Nvidia 8600 graphics chip (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377), I then decided to bring the machine in to Apple for some help. Scheduled the Genius bar appointment in Burlington, MA and met with an apple "genius" who then looked up my computer and found that I was out of luck and they would not help me, quick and simple. I was out of the 4 year window period by a few months. I then asked what my options were, he said I could pay a $550 fee to get it fixed in store, or pay $350 to have it shipped away, but there would be no guarantee that any of my files would be left on the machine. I then asked if I could somehow back up the computer, he proceeded to try and boot from target disk mode to connect to it. After a few mins of him holding the "T" button and running firewire into his iPad, he claimed it did not work. I later tried this same technique at home, it worked for me after 1 minute of time. I'm just a little upset with my experience at the Genius Bar. It appears that if you are there to get help on an issue such as this for a major hardware failure, they are quick to wave you off and get you out the door. But in the opposite direction they will help someone for an hour who is trying to figure out how to load music onto their newly purchased iPod. That seems to be their sweet spot.

My computer was 3 months over the 4 year window of repair. The Genius Bar helper told me to make a decision soon because my machine will eventually become a "vintage" model, and will be lost to any sort of repair by apple. I'm a little sick to my stomach having spent $3000 on a laptop to only have it survive a little over 4 years, and with no help from Apple even with a manufacturing issue acknowledgement. The computer was running perfectly until the video failure. I'm a bit disappointed to say the least. Presented with an option to drop another $500 of my own money down to get the issue fixed even with the knowledge that it was a hardware failure on Apple/Nvidia's part.

Has anyone had Apple move to help you after you have gone over the 4 year mark from Date of Purchase for this particular problem. I would think that as a company they would be flexible for their customer base. These were expensive and top-of-the-line models for Apple when they came out, and for them not to stand by their product or their customers with this acknowledgement of failure is a bit hard to swallow.

Yes some have been very lucky and gotten there units fixed after the 4 year period. But it was at the discretion of the repair center to do this. Most have been told to Go Pound Salt (if you know what I mea by that. In other words F Off).

Your only option is to NOT buy from Apple again. If everyone that has this and many other problems with Apple products did this then maybe Apple would change its ways. But as it is with everyone flocking to their So So products like they are the next coming this isn't going to happen.

People are so quick to start bashing Apple...when you have a computer that is going on 5 years old, it is likely that things will start to go wrong and repairs could be necessary. If you drove a car that long, you might expect to do some repairs also.

Read the previous posts and you will see that there are suggestions of how to get the video card resoldered onto the logic board...or take it into an apple authorized repair center and ask them to try to solder it back on...or at least look at it to see if the solder is the problem.

Yes, most of the geniuses at Apple are more software oriented and most often they won't have someone there that can take a quick look by opening the computer to see if soldering might be the answer. So take it somewhere else where they have hardware technicians on premises.

y2kiddo wrote:

People are so quick to start bashing Apple...when you have a computer that is going on 5 years old, it is likely that things will start to go wrong and repairs could be necessary. If you drove a car that long, you might expect to do some repairs also.

Sorry but your argument doesn't hold any water. Apple knew of this problem long ago and should of had a complete system recall. Age has nothing to do with it. I drive a ten year old car that I have only done normal maintenance on and only had to change one light bulb on since I bought it new. Sure thing can and will break but as to this known problem Apple has F over all it users that put faith in the Mac computers they bought. Thinking they would last much longer then Apples 4 year warranty. Not only that but if for some reason when the faulty graphic chip finally does fail and takes the rest of the system with it Apple refuses to fix it even if it is within the 4 year cut off date.