MacBook Pro Logic Board Failure

OK so I have read almost all of these posts and I am convinced I have a logic board failure. I was working on my MBP today and it just turned off. No noises, no beeps, not boot to disc. Anyway, have Genius Bar appointment tomorrow. I checked on my original sales receipt and I purchased it a year and three days ago. Really? I do not have Apple Care so does anyone think they will be human and fix it for nothing? I am a business member and have 4 Apple computers and 14 other Apple products.

When I was in there, I was in a similar situation. The genius called over his supervisor to get them the waive the deadline and it was explained to me that there is a grace period of around 45 days (can't remember exactly) after your warranty is over...so, good news! They should fix it for free.

Hope it works out for you.

Boy, I have to add my thanks to Keith for his suggestion to call Customer Relations at Apple Headquarters (408.996.1010). That is the way to go!

We have 2 first-generation Intel MacBook Pros, and between them their logic boards have been replaced 6 times—one computer has had its logic board replaced 3 times in the last 8 months. The other computer just lost its hard drive due to its second logic board failure, but the Genius Bar wouldn't touch it because the HD was an aftermarket drive we'd had installed by an authorized Apple repair place. The repair place put in a new drive but still couldn't get the laptop to boot because of the logic board.... which the Genius Bar wouldn't replace because of the hard drive—ARGH!

I took Keith's advice and poured out my sob story to a rep at Apple Customer Relations. Within 20 minutes he had called the repair place, arranged to ship them a new logic board, and covered the entire cost for us!

The endless trips to the Genius Bar, the interminable repair delays, and the clueless customer service had seriously tarnished my shiny opinions of Apple, but this goes a long way toward restoring their luster!

My experience was that the genius bar told me it wasn't the GPU issue, but that it was just a logic board failure. LIE! He tried to get me to buy a new laptop. Guy in front of me in the queue had exactly the same thing. I took my laptop to a local PC store and had the board resoldered for £70.00/$100.00 and they showed me the printout that POSITIVELY IDENTIFIED THE GPU ISSUE. Apple just fobbed me off and would have charged vast amounts to do the same thing. Problem is I've had another failure after 4 months and just got it resoldered again. I'm off to buy a laptop cooler. I nearly went back to Apple to complain, but I was just sick of them by then.

You can always try calling customer relations at apple headquarters (the phone # is included in a previous post) and telling them your history, provide them the paperwork, and you may get reimbursed...no guarantees, but worth a shot.

Well I'm back... Turns out Apple didn't cover the entire cost of the logic board replacement—the repair place still charged us $90 to transfer the data off the hard drive that was corrupted by Apple's crappy logic board.

That would be easier to swallow if the computer weren't acting up again: Ever since we got it back, it's been acting like the Shift key is stuck (it isn't) and typing in all caps. We can get it to stop temporarily by rebooting, but then it starts all over. I cannot believe that this is coincidence, but the repair place says that it's a separate issue and they will charge us to look at it! Here's hoping Apple Customer Relations is as good as their word...

Wow! I know there's another post on this somewhere, but I've only just found out that Apple are extending to four years for the GPU issue and considering reimbursing costs of repairs. Well that's two third party repairs for me - I would have got them done at Apple had the genius not incorrectly informed me (as proved by third party diagnostic) that it was the logic board and not GPU. I've just finally upgraded to SL because of Apples **** up with the prokit software that meant logic and mainstage wouldn't run until they fixed the prokit add ons much later. Now (in common with a lot of users) I can't quite logic or mainstage. Not ready to jump into lion yet. As a Mac user of over 20 years (the first I used was an Apple II and the first I bought a plus (with 20Mb external HD - yes Mb) - I am getting to a point where I am loosing all trust - this extension to 4 years might just save the faith of a long time dedicated Mac user and supporter. I'll let you know.

Jeff, I'll just repost what I said on the other thread:

And so it should - I have a 20+ year old Mac still working here amongst my other Macs.

But isn't it strange statistically that people are now complaining about 'logic board' failures out of the blue after this fault is finally acknowledged?

I've never worked on another platform in 20 years as an early adopter and staunch supporter, but if the OS is no longer better and the hardware less reliable, whilst still being more expensive than alternatives (though far less so then when I used to purchase), I'll drop it at a heartbeat. It was good while it lasted. After the FCP debacle and waiting to see what they do to Logic (having been royally stuffed with SL for a while - Logic still won't quit for me).

No one I know would have ever thought I'd say this. I've backed entire Scientific labs to go to Mac in the past.

I'm a VERY unhappy camper.

Note for all Macbook pro users.

If you have apple care, make sure you take in your computer to run all diagnostics before it expires.

All I had was a computer that was getting too warm and took the computer in. The warranty covered a new battery (failure), new logic board, and new microphone cable and I had no idea any of this stuff was messed up.

All was replaced free of charge. I would suggest everyone take in their computers before the warranty expires to have it checked out. The total cost of the repairs was near 650 bucks....

my 4 month old macbook pro was bought in the uk, after a month or so with no problems, my hard drive failed, it was sent off for a replacement, about 2 months later, the hard drive has failed again. i took it into an apple store in florida and was informed my logic board was faulty and had been sending bad signals to other components, corrupting the hardware.therefore, every piece of hardware that recieves messages from the logic board could be corrupt. i am going to persue a full refund from the store i purchased it in as the supposedly reliable macbook pro has completely let me down, and i want to go back to a windows pc.

hey only to report that the logic board of my MBP is broken too, and is too expensive . Is better buy another computer,

Im not shure on buying a MBP again. apple stuff its looking like plastic toys that works 3 to 4 years and then you have to buy another. I bought mine in summer in 2008 and 3 and a half years later this happens. really,

apple quality is getting worse and worse, im dissapointed

my dad has a sony vaio like 10 years ago and is still working

!!! HEY APPLE I HOPE YOU DONT CONTINUE WITH THIS CHEAP MANUFACTURING AND GET BACK TO THE TIME WHEN YOU WERE KNOWN BY YOUR QUALITY,. PLEASE MAKE RELIABLE STUFF.

sorry if my english is not too good

I took the mac bac to the shop and swapped it for a windows laptop. Has the led screen, backlit keyboard, hd camera, 8gb ram, 1tb harddrive, i7 processer, 3gb graphics card. 19 inch screen. far better in every way than the mac, more reliable, same price. now why would you have a macbook over this?

sorry, they took it back in exchange for the new laptop. I can apprieciate why people might like mac, but it think its all to do with the operating system, and i could easily get that for my new laptop

Same issues with my computer, and have had no luck finding any sort of reasonable solution or compromise with Apple. Next step will be to call customer relations at Apple's HQ's.

Have a MacBook Pro purchased in August of 2008, with the faulty NVidia GPU. After first visit to Genius Bar the other day, was told my Logic Board had failed and that I would need to spent $310 to replace. Thought it was ridiculous that Logic Board would fail less than 3.5 years from date of purchase, so went home, did some research, and found this thread. Armed with this knowledge, went back to different Genius Bar this morning, hoping for different results.

Instead a Genius Bar Tech had audacity to tell me that it the diagnostic that's apparently used to determine the problem: (a) works and he can run the diagnostic, despite fact that my computer won't boot up; (b) and further, that the test revealed that my LogicBoard failure was not due to the GPU. I asked him if he really expected me to believe that the test could be run even when my computer wont even power on, and he fumbled around on his Ipad, and chortled out some rambling, non-related response.

I'm calling Customer Relations tomorrow, and if this issue isn't resolved to my satisfaction (e.g., Apple pays for the repairs), I'm considering whether I should get legal counsel involved--if some one hasn't already. Most lawyers would jump at the chance to file a class action repping multiple, actionable claims (including breach of implied and express warranties, violation of various state and federal consumer protection acts). I don't say this lightly, but my experience handling and dealing with this the past few days has been nothing short of awful.

barboursam wrote:

sorry, they took it back in exchange for the new laptop. I can apprieciate why people might like mac, but it think its all to do with the operating system, and i could easily get that for my new laptop

No, you can't. OS X won't install on non-Mac hardware. Nor will it run in a VM.

(and yes, I'm aware of hackintoshes, but that's a lot of work for an unstable system)