MacBook Pro Logic Board Failure

I buy a commodore 64 and both floppy drive and computer work this is a computer from 1984. So this computer is 29 years old and works. So much for lifetime waranty on electronics. Governments around the world should uphold that electronics should have a lifetime waranty. No excuses. And this is the same with laptops. I have a laptop my frien bring by. It is a pentiup III 1.0 ghz processor. I looked it up the manufacturing date is 2002. The laptops only fult is battery don't charge as good anymore but if pluged in on power works perfect. As a matter of fact the laptop has been on for one month now. I never turn it off. I use it for my home CCIE lab to connect to my practice routers through console port. So this laptop is 9 years old and the hard drive still works with 0 errors. All software works. Did not try the wifi. My makbook had a hard drive fail in 1.5 years. Hard drive was toshiba. The video had enomoly on purchase it took me one year of constant visits to apple store and when the sd card and usb started to have enomally where sd would not even get recognized where they change the logic board. The video on the second started to have enomolies with in 6 months. Again the replacement part only had 90 day waranty this is rediculous. A logic board should cary lifetime waranty. I have a 29 year old electronics and a 9 year old elctronics that works flawles. No excuse for electronics to fail and not even mechanical. If a laptop hard drive can work flawless for 9 years all should work that long. This is not even a rear occurence. In my life I had 2 hard drives fail on me from more then 20. I have bought and sold computers to friends and lived through all the movement from 8086 procesorss to the latest core. Only had a segate and a toshiba drive fail on me. As far as motherboards. When I had my own pc builds I only had a 486dx go dead on me mind you this was after I took a flight from cali to chicago and the computer was checked in as bagadge on US air. so it way have been fried as electrostatic discharge in flight. That was the only electronic mother board faliure I experience. With apple I had 2 within a year. Unexceptable. Recal is in order. I went through 20+ motherboards in pc with no problems.

It bothers me the MBP logic board is still a problem - and for so many users. This issue has been around for years. And while mother board issues exist for PCs, the expense for fixing a MBP is all the more serious because Apple solders the logic and graphics board together; if one goes bad, the whole board goes into the garbage. The user pays for the repair.

My question is this - and I hope someone answers: why do 15 and 17" models show up in in the vast majority of logic board complaints? Logic board problems rarely if ever happen on iMacs. Why are 15 and 17" MBPs so comparatively vulnerable?

Disclaimer: I do not speak for Apple on these issues.

You are not looking at ONE Problem reflected here.

There are a bunch of defective NVIDIA GPUs that were recalled before the 2010 model.

There was a latent defect in SOME NVIDIA GPU chips of the 2010 15" MacBook Pro 6,2 models, that did not show itself unless/until the OS was upgraded to 10.8, and there was recall, but it is petering out and some posters have been left out.

Some of the remaining 15" and 17" MacBook Pro were driven HARD, running desktop-class processing problems for many hours on end. Some of those MAY have failed due to changeover to non-Lead solder, which can fail after many heat/cool cycles. Some of those MAY have failed because the chips suffered premature failure due to heat. Some of those may have been treated roughly for a long period and failed due to rough treatment.

Grant,

Your diplomatic approach to this issue makes sense to me. Because we don't have access to data to make a more definite conclusion, the problem possibly comes down to a few things.

1. Heat. 15 and 17" MBPs run a higher temperatures than 13"; the graphics and logic boards run hotter, so there's a greater chance of a logic board fault.

2. Design. While many laptops are vulnerable to motherboard/logic board problems, weakened solder can lead to logic/graphics board isssues, or graphics board failure in some machines. We don't see this fault with laptops designed with logic/graphics boards that are not soldered as a unit.

True, the majority of cases are from '07 and '08, and we're still seeing evidence of failures. But there has been consistent (albeit anecdotal) evidence of the same problem emerging in more recent machines. For example, early 2011 15 and 17" MBPs have an notably increased incidence of logic/graphics board problems. I hope we don't have a repetition of '07 and '08.

Both my logic boards contain not nvidia but 3000 intel built in and radion AMD chips. 6750 was the graphics chip. What I would get is the first five minutes when connected to external monitor flickering of the screen and total screen out. The laptop also broke my monitor. I used that same monitor from 2005 to 2008 with pc windows based with no problems. When the video flicker on the mac book started i also started noticeing that with the pc I would get sort of destorted video. Small perhaps one pixel move over waves vertical but not as distracting as the flicker and total blank to black of not even seeing the screen as with the mac book. So I guess you can not go right with computers. With the pc virus and malware and with macs the hardware problems. This is what you get when there is only 2 major players in the computer market. But apple should pay for all the misconduct. Not owning up to the problem and acually constant wippes of my data durring the apple store visit mad my college experience ****. I spent more time moving data back on my mac book then studying. Still managed to get high grades. Apple shame on you!

I have an early 2011 MBP that is at the apple store for logic board #2 in the last 60 days. No Apple care = $600. I will no longer support a company that continues to ignore a widespread problem among high end users. It's costing me money not having my machine. I'm certain Apple is headed for obscurity if it refuses to stand behind its products. I'm thoroughly disgusted and will be phasing them out of my personal electronics... And recommending my friends colleagues and students do the same.

I updated my mid-2010 MacBook from Snow Leopard to Mavericks over the weekend. Since that time, it has had serious issues with shutting down suddenly when playing back video. I believe the issue is related to the following article: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4088. Unfortunately, my AppleCare expired in June. Any suggestions about what to do?

Gilrod-

You appointment at the genius bar for an evaluation is FREE, in warranty or out.

Go and get them to run the VST test for you so you know whether that latent defect is indeed the problem.

If you find out later it was a different, easily-fixable problem all along, you will certainly feel like an idiot for not finding out.

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, there is not an Apple Store within several hundred miles of my location. However, I did take it to a certified tech who is running the VST test. (It was taking inordinately long last night, so I left it with them today.) Thanks for the suggestion; I really hope it is an easily-fixable problem!

I would not wais my time. Back up your stuff and step it back to the privious Operating system. If the computer works fine. You know it is a bug in the new os. Also need to find out what new things the os utilizes. The new os may have commands for new hardware as far as throtleing the cpu or putting the computer partially to sleep and you got to realize that there is a budget at building software and their priority is not to test it on every older hardware but to make it functional on the lattest and greatest. Also you have to realize when you upgrade and not just install anew. Something may get corrupted. The easyest fix for this is to back up your stuff and just zerro the hard drive out and reinstall from scratch. You can create a boot flash or cd from the free mevricks that you download and do a clean install from that or use an eight gig flash drive to create a boot media. Holding an option key on boot may give you option to boot from flash to install. May not be hardware related. You may just get angry for no reason. Suff just happens durring installation that is unforseen. Files get corrupted. I hope this rant helped.

I have a 2 year old (purchased in 2011) 15inch MacBook Pro that appears to have had a logic board failure. I can boot to blank white screen with no cursor. I've tried safe mode as well as boot from install DVD, resetting NVRAM, still get a white screen. Oddly resetting the NVRAM on the first attempt was successfuly, I logged into the machine fine, then moments later the screen went grey.

Upon powering the machine up I get a light blue screen with distorted Apple logo, then the screen changes to white.

I am more than a bit disturbed that a 2 year old machine that cost this much could have such a catastrophic failure. Prior to purchasing this Mac I built my own Windows boxes and never suffered a failure of this magnitude.

Some Readers have attributed the failures in the 2011 MacBook Pro to a tragic confluence of the shift to Lead-Free solder, the ability to run these MacBooks really hot if you ask them to do a lot of high-powered work, and the fact that notebook computers get banged around a lot [they are subject to surprisingly high G-forces in normal transportation.]

If you have AppleCare, it may cover any needed repairs. If not, you can try discussing your concerns with the store manager during a genius bar reservation (FREE).

You should also inquire whether you could buy repairs at a lower cost using a special program called "flat rate depot repair", available for SOME MacBooks. This essentially "reconditions" ALL the non-cosmetic parts of your MacBook for one fixed repair fee. (You supply a laundry list to send with it to be certain all areas of concern are addressed.) [Your Mac will be sent to a regional repair depot, at a typical time cost of 5 to 7 days, for this work.]

I respectfully decline. I sold all my macs. I am a repair expert. Though i don't want to tinker with iMacs and macbooks. I shift to the mac pro line which is easyer to repair and maintain. i have my 11 year old lap top to check email on the run and to watch you tube videos. Isn't it interesting that an xp machine still has the latest flash support unlike a 5 year old g5 that has almost no support. Way to go aaapppppppplllllle!@@$%*#%&^$% it! I feel bad for the person who buy it from me. They were on the same high i were. I got all the repairs i could and first sines of faliures and got rid of them at half price. Only question to Apple manegement is how you sleep at night. I hope I am in your nightmares. I lost on apple about 10000 to 20000 dollars. We are talking about selling off 4 laptops and a bunch of iMacs and mac pros. Also not to mention the hassle of constant repopulation of my info for all the apple genius can suggest is that it is not a hard ware problem. We have to use less invasive procedures then ah say change a logic board or replace a failing hard drive and if I loose a weeks work it is my own fault not the company who dodges responsibility. Because we are like doctors on bio entity. We want to do less invasive procedures and prolong a problem for a whole year till the hard drive is out of waranty and than say sorry you are out of luck. Apple you are way too cool for me! I am an Apple genious with lots of training and must sound like your local hospitals surgion and have the prestige of a doctor where i use surgical doctors lingo and modus operendie to make you so respectfull of me. I think all apple genius bar employees should show up to work dressed like surgions for Holoween. That would have been such a good prank. Good luck to the apple store you will need it for the number of disapointed users of apple products are growing. These misconducts will end up in the kings court and someones head will come off. Hahaha. I love theater. College is great to finish. I allways find a way through the darkest roads. I am growing old and wise. I have to side step here and just observe the news and read about how apple will go bankrupt for there is no more Steve to stir the run away train. The train is going to crash and inovation runs out. Love the new mac pro how it became just another lap top that no one should touch for it will have no exchangable parts even an expert mechanic will have a hard time fixing. 4x the power 8x the cooker. That should be the best barbaque show ever. Awesome. i can't wait to get it like 5 years from now on a garage sale. Mark my word it will be mine for $100 in 2019. I buy a dual core g5 for $25 on a garage sale. I lie I buy 3 of them on 3 different garage sales. I made one working machine out of the 3. It has iphoto '08, Aperture 2, CS 4. The guy even had all the original install disks so all the software is legit. Photo shop you name it. What else you need. Love the 4th hand machines. I just hope that some of the flash drive technology will last as long. It is going to be a blast in 2019 when I pick up a mac vacume cleaner and 3 4k displays for $50 from a garage or yard sale! That is going to be a long 6 year wait. I hope my current g5 will last that long. Also my mac pro 3,1 model that I got for 400 on craigs list. The guy just wanted to get rid of it. He did not realise that he mismatch the memory chips and had a video card that belongs into a PC. hahaha. His loss my gain. All I did is google the memory population sequence. One of the memory pairs goes in one card and the same slot on the other card not next to each other like the guy had them. So now you don't have wierd enomolous behaviour. It took me a week to get what was going on. I though I had to get new memory on ebay for $10. Also the video card was free from a friend that upgraded. Love it. Love my new mac pro that has 8 cores and ddr2. Here is the kiker. What is faster ddr1 with 2222 timings, ddr2 with 8888 or ddr3 with 15,15,15,15 or is it going to be ddr4 with 30,30,30,30 timing. Oh also 400 single pumped or 800 double pumped or 1600 quad pumped. Wow so hard to figure out. The end of the day, while my video is being compressed I just get a sandwitch. If the computer cannot multitask the human can.

You know apple remove most of my posts but I will copy and paste all of these. My name is Robert Fried and you can find the same post that apple removed unedited on facebook you tube and such. I will cut and paste all on all you tube videos about any apple product ever made in chunks. See if you can remove it from every where. You gave me three years of **** I will return the favor and give you 20. I am 42 now and will hope to see 86 and I guess for the next 40 years I promise I will blog about my apple experience. Something to do like a hoby for my retierment.

Hi,

Mi Mac 17" Mid 2010 had in the last year the next failures in order:

1. Magsafe charger
2. DC charger board
3. Motherboard
4. Screen failure

The quality is absolutely terrible! The response I've got from the store is a case of bad luck but after is out of waranty they cannot do anything. According to them none of the issues are related what leaves tehm an even worse position. Is this the quality I can expect from a 2000+ USD laptop?

I'm looking now how to make a a formal complain through the appropiate ombudsman.

Regards