MBP Logic board failure

(Update ... 3)

After some "intense discussion" of my service-provider with apple they decided to replace the main-board of my MBP, although it had not shown the 'usual symptoms' and had been rejected at first. Unfortunately I already paid € 240 for an alternative solution (see post earlier), but I decided to go for the whole new board.

The desk guy (inofficially) told me that right now they are receiving up to two machines per day ⚠ with the NVIDIA-fault. So again, I'd like to throw in my vague theory that snow-leopard may address some parts of the chip that do not play so well with the intense use of the graphic-unit by SL. Or at least intensifies the probability for the failure to occur.

The best of luck with it, benon.

At the very least I'm sure you'll enjoy the speed of the new iMac for your purposes. Just a pity that you had to go through this along the way.

Cheers

Rod

I had exactly same problem on my mbp.
I thought my mbp was able to cover by NVDIA warranty. But it wasn't accepted.
I paid $310 instead of full charge(~$800) for replacing new logic board.
too bad logic board.

My wife was also told her dead MB showed signs of a foreign liquid having reached (and thus rusted) the logic board". Coincidently however, her serial showed that her late 2007 model MB was manufactured with the defective Nvidia component. But, I guess Apple Service felt that the liquid trumped the Nvidia issue. Interested if you ever received resolution to your problem with same.

Thanks-

Well, Apple have really dropped the ball on this occassion. It's been 2 weeks since my discussion with Shannon (see earlier posts by me in this thread) and I have not heard anything from him since. He was suppossed to be investigating from his end - including contacting Matt at Next Byte Rundle Mall, yet when I called Matt myself, he hasn't been contacted by anyone!

Not impressed Apple - not impressed one bit!!!

The logic board of almost all of the MBP's and MBA's are complete and utterly rubbish. My MBP mainboard with the NVIDIA chip has been replaced 4 times in a row. Problem is that they still replace it with the faulty chip on it. My new MBP 17" late 2009 is screwing up big time. My video is distorted on the external graphic chip, the colors are changing on the onboard chip and the machine starts either not (grey screen) or it hangs often on the Apple logo. I am sure the logic board is ruined again. On the MBA same problem. They have changed it without my knowledge during one of the many times I brought it in. I figured this out when I wanted to check the serial number (it's not there anymore) and in the meantime my warranty has expired a week ago. I do not and will not buy an expensive Apple care for the air, because the machine is unusable anyhow. It either hangs, does not start, runs hot, or does nothing since the very first week that I had it. I am going to claim the 3 month extended warranty on my logic board. I am pretty sure they will replace it for free.

...and then since dropping it, apple have now picked that ball up and kicked an almighty goal!

here's the latest on my saga:

after 2 weeks and no call back from apple (and no call from apple to next byte as I was told would happen) I called shannon in customer relations and he apologised for not having called me. I was then told apple would replace the logic board and the left i/o board, however I would have to pay the labour cost. that's a fair enough deal for me considering my machine was out of warranty. so for $150 (plus the initial $75 diagnostic at mac alert and then the extra $70 diagnostic at next byte rundle mall) i now have a working macbook pro again.

i will also add that "matt" from the service department at next byte rundle mall went above and beyond in terms of customer service. each time i dealt with him he was professional, courteous and thorough in his approach. he explained what was possible from his end and how it would take me putting the pressure on apple to obtain a result. during the repair process he called me with updates (including a DOA logic board that delayed the process by a day - yes, a Dead On Arrival replacement logic board!! - what's the deal with these things??!!!) and expected pick up time. i enquired about having my keyboard replaced as (through my own carelessness) i had snapped and bent the F7 key when cleaning one time, he told me it would be approx $150 to replace. i kinda thought it would be pointless as the key still worked, it just didn't have a plastic button on it so I told him not to fix it. when I got my machine back, the keyboard was replaced, no charge! amazing stuff!!

it's a pleasure when you find customer service like this, so thank you to matt!

and that concludes my saga.

i now have my macbook pro as a backup (i'm kinda scared it will pack it in randomly again, so it won't be used unless totally necessary, eg when out on the road) and a beautiful, kick-*** specced up iMac that (aside from the silly glossy screen) is a pleasure to work with. i've hooked it up to an external 24inch dell monitor which has a matt screen for lightroom/photoshop as the iMac gloss screen is totally unworkable when it comes to colour correcting (a MASSIVE oversight from apple imho), but folders and everything else are fine on the iMac screen.

I am on my third logic board in two years. Apple seems to think they are doing me a favor charging me $310 for replacement instead of the $850. Why can't they fix it correctly the first time? My MacBook Pro was bought early 2008 - it's not that old. If they know they have this many problems with the logic board why charge to have them replaced and risk such negative feedback...Where is that good ole Customer Service?

I agree on Snow Leopard being conflict with the logic board. Here is my beef, I just recently installed OS10.6 (SL) about 2 weeks ago. Before these I had no problem at all, running previous OS for last 2 years. The problem first arise first week of upgrade, computer did not boot up only question mark folder on screen. Panic in mind that my hard drive is dead, but it manage to boot up again. This did not occur to me this would be a big problem not until a few days ago. Which with the same problem is happening in this forum no boot-up, no chime, sleep light indicator on, etc.... BTW my hard drive is fine, manage to retrieve important file from the repair guys. I am dealing with apple care at the moment to see what they can do for me, I also did not get the extended warranty. Which I intended to get it before the 1st year end but forgot. Lesson learned never without ACW specially on laptops.

Anyhow my question to everyone on this forum, Did you install SLeopard prior to this problem? I notice the earlier posted dates is when the Sleopard was released.

AD,

Snow Leopard may not be the cause for the issue. But I could imagine that the strong use of the graphics-unit by SL could heat up the nvidia parts and in this case force a bad junction to break.

As I recall, in order to determine the nvidia-failure the tech guy @ the Apple Service Provider used a firwire-drive, from where he tried to boot and read out the logic-boards data. In my case he was unable to do so as my laptop did not boot at all (no start-up-chime), therefore Apple-Care initially refused to replace the logic-board. So from what I've learned in some cases it depends on the repair guys patience and eagerness as it could take up to more than an hour and several different methods to retrieve the data from the board.

My board had already been replaced a few month before, therefore I discussed quite insistent with the support of my Service Provider and Apple Care. In the end with success and a new logic-board for free.

I too, had the black screen of nothingness on my 2007 MBP 2.4 and well out of warranty. I took it to my local Apple store and was told it is not covered, but for $300ish they could send it to the "Depot" and fix it. Being a little light on cash I opted to hold off. Tonight I took it to another Apple store in downtown San Diego, and was told I will get it back in 5 days completely fixed. The best part.... NO charge, and this included FedEx back to my house. Thanks to this thread (and others) I discovered I had the nvidia 8600 and was ready to wage war over $300 bucks. But my faith in Apple has been reaffirmed and now I am a very happy user.

funny, I was having the same problems described in the help article posted by Apple.

Took my Macbook Pro into the apple store (guernsey) and I told them about the article.

My MBP is the correct generation, the correct graphics card, the same problem as described, but apparently it was only for 'High end machines' despite it including the 2.2ghz model in the description.

Starting to get a little peed off now. I don't think it's so much to do with apple, more their employees at certain stores.

PS. The tech guy did tell me it was the GPU that was the problem.

Message was edited by: Petite Lapine

KK,
After I posted this scenario of SL, I search for it in the net and behold here I found such problem, Here is the link...
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10389697-263.html

I sent this to Apple care and waiting for their response, wish me luck....

After giving all the details of the issue to the tech guy @ AppleCare the first question I was asked was which Operating-System I was running. I found that interesting.

Nevertheless it could be helpful to get some statistics of the occurrence before/after SL was brought to the market. As I mentioned above my Service Provider was talking about up to two machines per day ⚠ he received within the last months.

just a quick reply for AmanteDesign a few posts ago:

in my scenario i HADN'T upgraded to snow leopard... hope that helps in your scenario.