MacBook Pro Logic Board Failure

I don't think this is a rant. Why such censorship?

My Macbook was repaired and a new logic board was installed. Now the only "problem" is that Windows 8 is not booting or it is crashing now... so I guess Windows has detected a change in the hardware and needs to be reinstalled. Anyway a song came to me One Bad Apple - Osmonds a #1 song in 1971 for 5 weeks. (don't spoil the whole bunch girl..) Not only did I get one bad apple, but 2 as the iMac is in for repair or analysis. I negotiated something with Apple. First Apple will try to see if the power supply needs to be replaced. If that works that only costs $103 or something for everything. However, if the problem is worse like a logic board issue that costs $600, I can say STOP! Don't repair that and put back the old power supply and I will pay nothing. If the power supply works I will pay that minimum amount, otherwise, I will donate the iMac to charity on or before New Year's Eve. Meanwhile, my Better Business Bureau complaints have gone to Apple and the Reseller. I will let them deal with things to expose either the reseller selling faulty Apples and not disclosing that to the customer or Apple using defective hardware... I am not sure what is going on, but I expected more from Apple and I am quite disappointed. Thank you.

Good luck. I wish you well with your Macbook.

Mine is fixed ... for now. But I am not as enthusiastic about using it like before.

I wonder when the logic board will fail again and hopefully if it does it is before

Apple care expires.

I think some here are losers and you don't take things into your

own hands by filing complaints with the manufacturers or sellers

regarding these problems. So I will let you suffer in silence

as you seem to censor comments.

I am out of here and hopefully if the iMac is repaired,

I will sell it and wash my hands of it or donate to charity.

I am pretty much done with Apple , major let down.

I completely agree. As President and owner of TMI, a 18 year old Medical Company in 8 states, who has dumped close to 100K into Apple's equipment for my employees, I was FINALLY convinced to "get with the times" and get a MAC from Apple. I did. Got the loaded MBP for almost $3K. I'm a published author also in NYC and SF publishing companies (fictional novel) so the cost wasn't a bid deal and I used the MBP for writing early in the morning and late at night as the keyboard lights up nicely and finding a "delete" key or other key was nice in total darkness. Used the product for two years...got it in 2011 I think. It died. Just out of warranty. Video card problem.

Just like everyone else in these discussions. Now it sits on a acrylic box I had made in the lobby. With the sign on it saying what junk it is, next to a picture of a boat anchor.

What did I do?

Told EVERYONE via company memo, that if ANYONE EVER buys an iPhone, MBP, desktop (ordered the cancellation of two MP's loaded in the works for over $9K by two employees) or ANYTHING from Apple (dumped their stock I owned...take that T. Cook--who has the same last name as me)...THEY WILL BE FIRED!! Period.

Replaced all with Dell products and hired them to do our Pro Support. Told them the story and they had their Marketing Communications department call me to say they wanted to feature TMI and me in an Ad talking about "customer loyalty" and such. I said "sure."

I say to everyone . . . fire Apple. This is CLEARLY a manufacturer's defect. Thing is, when I brought my Porsche Turbo Cabriolet to Porsche for a Rear Main Seal failure, it was also out of warranty by a few months, but without question, Porsche repaired it, a $3000 cost to them. And even smiled thanking me when it was done. I bought another one from them just this year. So, who loses here? Apple does.

They used to be a great company. Now they stink. Thanks to Tim Cook who is incompetent as even Bloomberg TV says (financial channel). No innovation. No direction. No customer service. Nothing.

Here's everyone's answer . . .

fire Apple and move on. Once they realize they've lost the phone war, lost the OS war, lost the desktop war, they will be sold to someone else, or merged.

Or, they can do the right thing, and support their customers . . . don't count on it. With Cook it's all about keeping the share price high, even if they must dump on their two decade old customers. Goodbye Apple.

I wish I could disagree with your post...but it's accurate and well-reasoned. If I spent that kind of money on MBPs that ended up useless, I'd be livid. With Apple, you pay more, but there's the expectation of value, of money well spent. You'll spend a third more money on an iPad Air, but it will be materially more usable than a Kindle Fire (despite the ads heralding the contrary).

The main problem is the MacBook Pro. Or, specifiically:

- MacBook Pro 2007-8 (with affected Nvidia graphics board)

- MacBook Pro 15"

- MacBookPro 17"

- MacBook Pro 13" 2011 (spring)

- MacBook Retina (stats still being researched)

Any specific MacBook can exhibit a problem for whatever reasons, but the above mentioned MacBooks have an increased chance of developing the dreaded logic/graphics board issue. Moreover, it's been suggested (and not proven) that the design of soldering the logic/graphics board together during manufacturing may lead to potential problems for some machines down the line. Expensive repairs that may, or may not, ultimately fix the underlying problem.

You might say, "This is CLEARLY a manufacturer's defect." I don't know what constitutes a defect in this case, but I do know what Apple needs to do to address the problem: make the MacBook so that the logic board/graphics board is not soldered, and can be replaced easily. It's that simple.

You are a wise person, Poikkeus. Thanks.

Now I use a Dell XPS for the desktop and replaced the defective MBP with a Dell laptop with a $500 alternative, that is MARVELOUS! Yes, I'm not as "cool" but since I dumped my iPhone (as did everyone else in the company if they wanted me to pay for it) for the Samsung Galaxy life has been wonderful. Siri was gimmicky and never worked despite the ads Apple ran...I gave up and texted manually instead...got tired of getting AI results back that said, "Here are the locations of Pistols in your area", instead of what I asked for "Where are locations for Pizza shops in my area."

My advice to everyone is to simply buy a Dell and move past the loss of Steve Jobs who had a much better perspective on shareholders vs. customers.

Michael Dell has it right and is soon to eat Apple's lunch now that the company went private again. Cook should learn that sucking up to the shareholders does NO good to the customers. That's all he cares about . . . share value. Not products. Shareholders demand earnings and that greatly influences company direction. They want it NOW. I'm thankful that TMI (TriAxial Medical Inc.) is a privately held company with millions in worth (I'm the President and Founder)...and no shareholders to bully me.

Now, I'm NOT as "cool" as I was with the nice shiny MBP, but the Dell weighs less, is better, has a long warranty, and if it fails, so what? I'll recycle it and buy another . . . five more times if necessary, for what that junk from Apple cost.

Signed:

"Ex-Cool" Apple User.

(but thrilled PC user again)

I use to be a hardcore apple fan. I had all the products, a ipod, an ipad, a iphone, a macbook pro 15". But Now I don't use any of these products. I switched for the same reasons as you.

The first incident was of my ipod classic. It started to screw up 1 day after my warranty expired. I took it into apple as soon as I had time but I was told that since it was out of warranty there was nothing they could do about it. At the time I just agreed with it and didn't put up a fight.

What angers me is when my top of the line 2010 15" MBP started to fail. I was STILL UNDER WARRANTY and I took it in a few times to the genius bar getting them to try to fix it. They never came up with a solution and just said that it was related to a software issue and that a clean install will fix the problem. I did a clean install and the problem kept on recurring. A week after my warranty expired I found many websites/forums stating that the problem was due to the logic board failure with the NVIDIA graphics card. I took it into the genius bar as soon as possible and explained what I did previously and what I found out online. I was told that since my applecare ran out they would charge me $600 something dollars to fix the problem. I tried arguing with them saying that I tried to get this fixed while my apple care was valid but they were never able to figure out the problem. I mean if this was such a common problem wouldn't the apple genius guys know to check for a logic board/dedicated graphics card failure right away? They just said it was probably in my best interest to buy a new computer. I nearly laughed in their faces. I will never be buying another apple product because of these incidents. I switched back to PC and android and have never been happier.

Well great news I think... the iMac was so far successfully repaired

and was just the power supply was replaced for some $100 ....

I rarely use it or don't keep it running like before its failure and

I treat it very carefully -- even after shutting it down all the way

then turn off the power to the surge protector and if I have to

power it back on to get more data, turn on the surge protector

wait then power on the imac treating it like a little baby as it needs

to be babysat...

As far as my complaints with the Better Business Bureau :

The BBB closed my case not to my satisfaction as Apple did not focus

on there may be a defect in its products (2011 line Macbooks or iMacs),

but closed it because the seller was not an authorized Apple reseller...

well I thought it was. 🙂 and so case closed there , the Apple executives

don't want to take responsibility.

Nevertheless, Apple's customer support wants to offer me something for my

troubles to perhaps make up for the $100+ I spent fixing the iMac but it cannot

be an iPad, AppleTV... but maybe I can get an iPod (something I don't think I would

really use or some software at the Apple store - maybe they will give me a voucher

or something but I heard it is one time and I think they are pressuring me to

do or choose something quickly to get me out of their hairs or maybe I will forfeit

their "generosity").

The BBB complaint against the reseller is still ongoing and the seller tried to blame

me or insinuated that maybe I dinged the iMac in its transport or did not shut it down properly

using the power button for hard resets or it could have been software added to the iMac

or I was the cause of it failing when I said the iMac was stationary for 3 months on

surge protection and was working fine until that dreaded day it was shut down -using the apple logo

top left corner- and did not come back on after removing the power cord and plugging

it back in minutes later.

Therefore I countered and made some other comments about the reseller ...and how it may not

have had it on proper surge protection as Apple did tell me in the Apple store that they thought

the previous owner may not have properly maintained the computer prior to my purchase.

So I did my best to let Apple know using the BBB that there could be a problem with this line

of iMacs and Macbooks... that is all I can do as I am insignificant and powerless.

I wish you all well... while I try to get rid of this hot potato before something else goes wrong

with it. And I will be looking for something to offset the cost at Apple, maybe I will go for that

iPod as it could be worth $150 (so nearly $50 profit for an Apple failure...).

Best wishes you all , I think I am done here.

The Macbook is running fine as Apple care helped pay nearly $600 to fix the logic board or

replace ... thus I have made back the money I spent on Apple Care of $350. I am getting

profits all around it seems for bad Apples.

🙂

I hope my comments are not censored here as they were before and I pretty much

used pretty good English (no 4-letter words or rude comments which should be the things censored I think

but not for using proper grammar/spellings - or attempting to do so).

God bless you all and most importantly, God Bless America!

I forgot -apologize- to add.......

the Macbook Pro 17" problem states:

"Replaced main logic board to resolve boot issues as a

result of a faulty GPU. All further testing passed, no

further issues noted."

So The Graphics Processing Unit affected the logic board.

So I am not sure if the GPU was replaced , it looks like it

wasn't so I may have this logic board failure again and hopefully

before my Apple care expires and at that point I will demand

they replace the GPU and the logic board

have a lovely day

So I am not sure if the GPU was replaced

Since the GPU is soldered to the logic board, and the logic board has been replaced, the GPU has been replaced as well.

I meant if they used the same (or similar) GPU as the one that

caused the logic board to fail , then I may have the same problem

in a year and the logic board may fail again.

I hope they changed or used another type of GPU or one that won't

cause failure of the logic board....

oh well. whatever.

Despite what may appear to be a lot of failure complaints on threads like this one, these complaints generally represent "Sample Defects" (a problem with a specific unit) rather than "Inherent Vice" ( a problem that every device of this type is suffering).

My wife and son both use 2011 MacBook pro 15" models, and they have been trouble free -- with the exception of a swollen battery which caused a trackpad problem (and was replaced under AppleCare).

The 15" MBP should be problem-free for most users. The issues seem to occur more frequently on units from Spring 2011; the summer batch seems very stable.

It seems that every time someone complains about a MBP, it's from Spring 2011. I don't know if this fits into the "Sample Defects" vs "Inherent Vice" theory, but I hope your units aren't from Spring 2011.

So that goes to show you that even your family's macbook(s) had some

problem that if you did not have Applecare you would be up the creek and perhaps

have a useless computer or computers. Thank God for Applecare I forgot to add

before.

Apparently there are some inherent problems with these Apples that even you (your family)

were not spared despite how you may feel more fortunate.

As far as my Macbook which I purchased early 2012 is a 2011 model

but I thought it was manufactured late 2011 (October? 2011). I have the

17" Macbook Pro i7 2.5 GHz 8 GB RAM, 0.75 GB HD.

faulty GPU, logic board

The iMac I had issues with a faulty power supply on the other hand is a Mid-2011 model

(27" i7, 3.4 GHz, 8 GB RAM and 1 TB HD).

But as the #1 song for 5 weeks in 1971 by the Osmonds said

One Bad Apple (don't spoil the/a whole bunch girl...)

somehow I got 2 bad apples. I just don't know if that song is true.