nVidia settlement coverage

Personally, I think the NVIDIA settlement is mostly designed to enrich lawyers. Apple's program replaces a faulty NVIDIA chip along with the logic board, which seems to be a much better deal. You would have to investigate the terms of the settlement to determine exactly what is covered by it.

I have no idea of the temperature range the NVIDIA chip is designed to perform under--hopefully it is designed to shut off before any damage is done. You would have to research that information before you can determine what would be considered overheating.

Regardless of what you conclude about how hot is too hot, your GPU will have to fail Apple's own testing to qualify for Apple's logic board replacement program. The terms of that program have been established for a while now, and I doubt that there's any flex in them.

While I'm not positive about the authenticity of this statement, I have also been told by someone at a Genius Bar that when Apple does replace the logic board for a GPU failure, it is replacing it with an identical board, with the same model GPU which means that if it has failed once for you, there is a good chance that your usage patterns will cause the replacement GPU to also fail sooner or later.

A little over a year ago, I had a failure that appeared for all intents to be a GPU failure. It started with scrambled graphics on the screen, even during the boot process where the apple logo is on the grey screen. It went so far as to not show anything on the display at all, but a remote access via LogMeIn showed the screen perfectly. When I took it to the Genius Bar, they told me it definitely wasn't the NVidia failure and the replacement logic board would have to be paid for. Luckily, my AppleCare was still active, and that covered the cost of the replacement logic board for me.

If the machine's specifications call for the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics chip, then that is what the replacement will be.

I don't think it's the case that all NVIDIA chips of this type have this problem--I think it's more likely that there were some bad manufacturing batches that somehow were not caught by the inspection process and which ended up being installed onto a large number of logic and motherboards. Many of us, including me, have never had a problem.

The Apple program, as I understand it, covers a specific type of failure. That does not mean that graphics chips cannot fail in other ways. Apple has a specific test they run to diagnose the NVIDIA failure covered by their program, and it is my understanding that there is a very specific error code associated with it. If the chip is failing and they get a different code, then I assume that it cannot be fixed under this program, but can under Applecare.

If you have never had a problem with your MBP, like me, what is your opinion of sending in the unit for GPU replacement anyway, per the settlement agreement? Proactive repair or waste of time+risk of damage?

If it isn't faulty, it won't be replaced.

Thanks for clarifying. I went back and read everything. As you say, eligible models must also be showing the stated problem.

its not a 8600M GT, its a GeForce 9600M GT.

Monty: Certain older MBPs that have the NVidia 8600M GT are the only ones addressed by the Apple/NVidia repair program. Some newer machines do have the 9600M GT. They aren't the ones under discussion in this thread.