MacBook Pro Logic Board Failure

Back here at the forum! So I got a new graphics card, NOT a reball procedure as I was desiring. They said they would and they said they knew how, but when I called for diagnosis, they said they'd just replace the graphics card. Ok. Fine. One day later I got it. All runs smooth. Get it to work and the spacebar, fn, caps lock, tab, down, left and delete keys don't work. I have the keyboard viewer up so am not totally handicapped. I've tried as apple forums have suggested, to do a PRAM, SMC reset. Done. Have looked at all my system preferences. Normal. One odd thing. When I use keyboard viewer, the caps key lights up (and works).

Thoughts, my wise friends?

RAnt:

I Tried talking with the guys who fixed it and they said to come back. So frustrating. I'm spending SO much on cans because I'm across town. NOT fans of these guys, though the original person who went here said they were great. Grr. They should pay for my next two taxi's because it's going to add up to half the cost! So, if I don't fix tonight I guess I'll go over there tomorrow. Taking MORE time off work.

Update:

Keyboard fixed. Yay. just a trip to the store again. Annoying, but meh. All done!

just some other info if anyone wanted to read, maybe it will help:

I'm in India for 6 mo so had no apple shop to go to, besides that all the parts are probably astronomical here, as they usually are in countries outside the US. The Licensed apple store rand diagnostics and said no hardware issues. I was going to come back for a software re-install, since I don't have software here on CD, as it's back in the states. Upon reading somewhere in another forum, some guy in India had his graphics card reballed for 2500 R ($41.5 USD) at a place across town and he said they did a good job in 1.5 hrs.

I decided to go for it, since I was sending out my portfolio in 4 days for a once in a lifetime job (and realized my whole portfolio was terminated by the hosting site bc i forgot to pay the bill back in March. ick) Thus. I REALLY REALLY needed my computer for portfolio work.

Well, I gave the guys my computer. They said more like 2 days, which turned into 3 days. They took out the graphics card (not a BGA Reball, oh well) and put the same (but newer) in. I dunno how long it will last (I will loyally keep all temps low as I'm a graphic designer and my CS makes it HOT!). But in total I had it out for 3 days, graphics card for 5,500 R($92 USD) and then my keyboard had hiccups, so had to go back in today to sort it out.The thing is running great and it makes me so happy to have her around with me again. Yay computer working!

I hope it stays put and doesn't melt like my other! but if this works out, i'd say go for the reball or the new graphics card since it's a third of the price and it's really not the whole logicboard. It's the graphics card. So, if you're worried about the price, go for the 100-150 Reball. Please do your homework. Your computers are not bricks. I myself do not like that it died and think apple should recall and give us all new logicboards with new graphics cards, or better yet, NDVIA who is supplying the faulty cards.

I hope I don't have to use this forum again for this purpose but if I need to I'll update you on status.

Flora82,

I'm happy that your machine is finally working like it should. Hopefully, you won't have to deal with this problem again.

That said, how do you manage the temperature on your machine? You said it runs kind of hot on CS. What is the current/ideal temperature range on your MB?

My Early 2008 MacBook Pro just died this weekend. 😟 It has been running hot for a while and it seems to be following the same pattern where it goes to sleep and never wakes up again. It was my favorite computer, but now that it is 6 years old, can I even get Apple to service it if I take it to the store where I bought it? I know I'm past the end of the AppleCare period as well as the extended 4 year period for the Nvidia repair. What options are left for somebody at this point?

I've looked at the new MacBooks, but I don't actually want one. They don't include an internal DVD ROM any more, and to do basic things like plug in Ethernet you have to have adapters. And the price tag is upwards of $3000 -- which is even harder to justify in view of this recent bad experience.

What do you plan on using instead, back to Windows?

That your computer died is lamentable.

A completely portable computer that pleased you and did everything you wanted for six years, and you refer to that as a "bad experience" ??

Hi mpender

Bad news! But, it appears yours lasted longer than quite a few on here. My late 2007 packed up last year (just fitted a 1TB drive and upped the RAM). Had a new logicboard for £500 (around $750 - we do not get US deals over here). It lasted four months before the new one went - out of its three month warranty of course. After much thought, I have used Apple since 1986, so it is difficult to change, I decided on a 13" MBP mid 2012. I did not want an SSD, which appear to be expensive for little storage, and having tried a friends 13", decided it was big enough. I also needed the superdrive. A replacement 15" would have cost me around $2200 (I buy in the US) but the 13" with i7, 8mb RAM, 750 HDD and a superdrive came in around $1000. No NVIDIA inside either! You can get this one for $1200 #MD101LL/A in the US with i5, 4/500 and a superdrive. I also had to buy an MBP (arm twisted) for my teenage daughter (decided the Dell had to go). She got the cheapest I could find without a superdrive and only 128GB SSD. I added a 1TB portable to that for around $70. That cost less than $1000. So, all in all, we are now happy - apart from having an immaculate expensive 15" MBP with new RAM and HDD playing at being a dead duck....

At the end of the day you have options. I will say, do not waste any money on your broken MBP - it is dead - gone.

Cheers

TY

@Grant

Yes, a computer that was babied and treated with TLC and still dropped dead after 6 years is a disappointment in the Apple brand, when I have computers at home from 20+ years ago that plug right along and the only reason I don't use them more is because they are slow. Lack of reliability is disappointing. And it would be a mistake to assume it did "everything I wanted" but I accepted the limitations that went along with a machine that was not designed for gaming and would get hot enough to be unusable as a 'laptop' computer. I used a console for gaming and a Mac Pro for the heavy number crunching, so it is not like it was pushed very hard most of the time. It just seemed to have more problems with overheating after the upgrade to Mavericks. The user experience is too expensive at $500/year.

@csound

I haven't decided what to do instead yet. I'm hoping that for some reasonable amount of money that there is still a repair path. I really like the form factor and usability (trackpad, ethernet ports, USB ports, WIFI, etc.) of that 2008 machine and can't say I care for the new mac laptops with no integrated DVD or ethernet. I wouldn't go to Windows though -- more likely I would install Ubuntu Linux on a PC clone. Going back to Windows would be too big a step backwards at this point.

Of course you have older equipment that has lasted longer. Older equipment is MUCH simpler.

There is no realistic way to compare today's or six years ago's computers to the ones from even 10 years ago. There are 1000 or more times MORE transistor-equivalents and memory-cell equivalents in later computers. And recent computers run hotter.

The US military did huge studies and issued handbooks for predicting failure rates for electronic and mechanical equipment. Their equations are complex, but once electronic parts are in stable production, failure rates boil down to two major factors: Number of transistors, and on-chip temperatures. For portable equipment, number of connections and how much slamming around are also factors -- which is one reason Apple has moved away from memory in sockets to soldered-in memories.

The Motorola 68,000 had roughly 68,000 transistors.

some Core-2 Duos from 2006 had 291,000,000

A quad-core i7 has about 1,400,000,000

These are just the CPU numbers. They are not counting RAM memories.

source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor_count

After 3 years of moderate use my Macbook Pro, early 2011 crashed. The tech said it was logic board problem common to apple early 2011 machines. The repair bill is $949.00 No more apple for me..

danielnegron,

Is that $949 US dollars? If so, that's outrageous. Look for a good reballing shop in your area... where are you located?

Clinton

clintonfrombirmingham knows wherof he speaks.

Before you give up on your machine, investigate a reputable a reballing vendor. If you haven't heard about reballing, this is the time to investigate. $250 for reballing, sans shipping, is a reasonable price.

$949 in a poor price.

TYDYsails wrote:

My late 2007 packed up last year (just fitted a 1TB drive and upped the RAM). Had a new logicboard for £500 (around $750 - we do not get US deals over here). It lasted four months before the new one went - out of its three month warranty of course.

mpender wrote:

My Early 2008 MacBook Pro just died this weekend. 😟 It has been running hot for a while and it seems to be following the same pattern where it goes to sleep and never wakes up again.

2007-2008 MBP .... symptoms you describe ..... you can resurrect them

http://russell.heistuman.com/2010/04/27/cooking-the-books-or-baking-my-macbook-p ro-logic-board/

Sounds absurd, but it does work !!! It's not permanent though. Mine (2007) is on about it's 6th bake over about a 2 year period, but it is still going. (170C fan forced, 7 1/2 mins)

Might not be worth the effort or the hassle to some, but if you love your old MBP, and would like to see working again, then give it a go.......what have you got to lose, the logic board is otherwise junk anyway !

If you get it working again, install SMC Fan Control and do you best to keep it cool .... flash games and video are a killer !

TBMC wrote:

what have you got to lose, the logic board is otherwise junk anyway!

I'd answer “health”, because backing it may produce “toxic” smoke, some say.

Toxic smoke should not be an issue if you keep the temperatures to recommendations.

It would be prudent, as always, to ventilate your "cooking" area, but a vent hood that sends the air outside should suffice. If your over-stove hood simply re-circulates, you may want to reconsider, or just plan on not being in the room while cooking it. Perhaps a friend or neighbor's stove with an outside-venting hood would be better.