SMC Update killed my computer!!

bhive01, have you tried my story about the heating cycle to get the machine to come one?

Sadly, no, as I said, they fixed my machine. They replaced the logic board and charged me £750 to do so. The machine works perfectly fine now... like it did before the SMC update. They didn't give me the old logic board so I have no way of trying or looking at it.

750 pounds is enough to feed an entire family for a year in Africa!!!!

I wouldn't doubt if it would feed more than one. Honestly, I didn't know what to do. The computer cost me over £2000 and was only a year and a half old. A replacement was more than the repair cost. I could barely afford the repair let alone a new comparable machine.

Finaly I have an answer and this is definitely the Geforce issue.
I posted this elsewhere on another thread but in case someone missed it:

I have been ranting about this and all the time not able to believe Apple where treating me this way.

Eventually I found out that Core are the company that import and distribute Apple in South Africa. I phoned their marketing management and spoke to a very friendly lady. She said it did not sound right to her and could I please take it to a local iStore which they own. I took it along and told my story to their very helpful technician.
He phoned me today to say the Nvidia test gave him the required code and he was now awaiting authorization from Apple.
This is exactly what I was expecting when the machine went to Digicape.

From what was described the test was not the same as the one I witnessed at Digicape.

So all I can say is if you get you machine tested, verify the store you are going to is really closely affiliated to Apple and their credentials as a repair center are 100%

*What ever you do, get a second opinion.*

Well done Core and iStore, you have reinstated my faith in Apple. 🙂

Now I'm worried. I did software update last night which included SMC 1.3 then shutdown. On startup today the "Restart to Update SMC" dialog appeared. For no particular reason (6th sense?) I did a search first, and wound up here.

The dialog is still lurking with its "Restart" and "Cancel" buttons. What do I do?

Obviously I cancel, but will the updater run automatically next time I restart? If so, how can I prevent it? How do I get rid of this malevolent presence?

Ironically I use "smcfancontrol" http://www.eidac.de/?p=134 instead of Apple's offering so I didn't really need this update in the first place. Anyone care to guess which will take precedence?

http://www.freemacsoft.net/AppCleaner/ is the biz. Close call - good luck everyone!

Just thought I'd add my experiences:
Did an update on my 17" Macbook Pro at the very end of July which seems to match the release date of the SMC update.

Shortly after when trying to wake my laptop up one morning it refused to start. When turn it on the screen stays blank, the keyboard lights are unresponsive, the standby light stay on and no start up chime is heard.

AASP say the NVIDIA chip is not to blame and so I have to pay for the repair at the Macbook Pro is 5 months out of warranty.

I've been all the way up to Executive Relations in a hope of getting a repair but Apple refuse to do anything about it.

I really hope that one that Apple take responsibility for badly manufactured hardware and sort out the many people who are experiencing legitamate problems. Until then I'm sticking to the Windows world again unfortunately.

Sounds like you had the exact same thing as me. EXACT.

Your experience with Apple was the same too. They seem to just be ignoring us.

lol, almost the same. Except you have a working Macbook Pro after the repair :P
As much as I love OSX and the hardware (when it works) this has put a pretty big downer on my Apple experience. As a first time Mac owner my loyalties are still fickle so after a couple months of not getting anywhere I've jumped ship and just bought a new Vaio which I'll be sticking WIndows 7 on (hope I'm not gonna get lynched for saying that on a Mac board!) :P

You're right. It does work... but I'm out £750.

If I had been smart I probably would have just bought a Vaio myself. I love OSX, but this is the second time I've had an Apple Laptop go bad on me and need a logic board replacement.

Shame on me.

2nd time! Yikes. They must end up as pretty expensive computer by the end of it!

I also love OSX so it's a shame to see it go but to be honest I'm enjoying the Windows 7 beta as well so hopefully I won't miss it too much. Just can't justify the hardware cost plus the repairs.

Had a problem with the battery (luckily within warranty) as well.
In comparison my old Dell Inspiron 9100 has been running for about 5 years now. The hinge is a little broken but it still runs Windows 7 nicely and is doing better than my 1 and a half year old Macbook Pro.

I meant me. I've had to foot the bill both times because I didn't buy into the Applecare program. The first was a Rev.A G3 iBook and now my macbook pro. All told, I could have bought a very very nice computer for what I've spent on repairs. I have to admit the first one was sort of my fault though. I (foolishly) thought I could replace a hard disk and didn't get the computer put back together right. I really wish they would make getting to the HDD easier in these things.

Just thought I would include the epilogue to my own tale of computer woes:
- As I previously wrote, despite the black screen of death, tweaking with SMC resets, PRAM resets etc etc would usually get it started every once in a while (until the next sleep/shutdown, where it would just crash again). However, after a couple days of very spare use (mostly to try and backup everything that was on it), it finally refused to start altogether.

- this morning, I finally found the time to bring it to the nearest Apple store (1h away by train) and the genius bar guy ran some tests and confirmed within 2 minutes that it was the NVIDIA issue: free replacement of the logic board for me (and one week without a home machine...)

A few things worth noting:

- The test didn't require a working display or even for the laptop to start other than in target mode. The genius guy plugged some sort of hard that ran the test over firewire (I believe: wasn't paying much attention), then gave him the logs on his own machine.

- *According to the guy*, SMC update would have nothing to do with the fact that the NVIDIA suddenly started acting up (mmmnyea, right).

- Although I certainly appreciate the fact that Apple is changing the board for free, no question asked... The fact that I have to be without a machine for a week, not to mention trudge it across half the country to get it repaired in the first place, would seem to call for something more than a (very polite) apology. Dunno what, but even something symbolic like throwing in a coupon for some apple software or whatnot, would be the least they can do...

Anyway, good luck to everybody else with this issue!

Your experience is what I was hoping for, but mine didn't boot far enough to even run their test. In White City, London it was a black USB HDD looking device. It makes the sleep light flash in a certain pattern and they know from the flashes whether or not the problem is related to the NIVIDIA chip. Obviously they read the log from the device as well.

The tech also told me that the SMC update and NVIDIA problem could in no way be related, but I don't believe that in the slightest. This update caused a wide variety of issues all of which appear to be power related. The SMC chip controls power flow across the board as well as the fans. I see no reason why they couldn't be related. The lack of explanation and immediate dismissal of a connection is a farce.