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Having distortion and graphic errors on my macbook pro in first year.

I have a Macbook Pro 13 inch and since in the last couple of months I've been experiencing video errors where portions of the screen will become distorted. I also have experienced where Garageband suddenly becomes distorted and erroneous where the tracks start blending together visually and this happens often. I might try to grab a screen shot and post it here.


Portions of the screen can become seriously distorted and colored strangely and pixelated.


I have not tampered with anything on my macbook pro and the software is up to date (10.7.2)


How can this be resolved? I'm suspicious this is a defect in the video card and I'm not going to pay for their mistakes. Could I get a repair or recall? my macbook pro is conveniently out of warranty as I bought it last January. (1/2011)


Thoughts, anyone?

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2010), Mac OS X (10.7.2), NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256 MB

Posted on Jan 22, 2012 10:58 AM

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12 replies

Feb 4, 2017 11:01 PM in response to werdnasivad

It's now February 2017. I had this happen with my early 2011 MBP. Reinstalled OS X, installed new SSD, tried resetting PRAM and SMC. Got it working for about two days then it just shut down. After reading about the faulty GPU on the logic board, I took it to the Genius Bar. It's been two months since the end of the free logic board replacement program but they took mine! Fixed it within 24 hours. And now with the SSD and 8GB of RAM, I pretty much have a new computer. My advice to anyone still having this problem is to take it in and hope they're still honoring the logic board recall

Jan 23, 2012 8:26 AM in response to Shootist007

Hey. Give me a break. I didn't wait until the warranty expired.


I didn't think it was anything abnormal. It's an occassional error so I figured it was simply a little bug that would disappear after quitting a program or something.


My warranty expired before these problems cropped up.


I just saw today that there was a known issue with NVIDIA 8600 cards and looked to see if my card was that card.


It's not. So deciding that the distortion error was not a small deal (since there are complaints from other carded machines) I posted here.


I did NOT wait until my warranty expired to ask for help. It expired before the problems showed up. My warranty expired before August and this problem has been since about November.

May 3, 2012 12:37 PM in response to werdnasivad

I also have a mid 2010 macbook pro 13 inch purchased in August of 2010. I have seen graphical errors and distortions after my warranty expired. Mine initially occured while using garage band as well. Now, they are occuring more frequently while using internet browsers and word processing applications.


I agree with the orginal poster that we should not be punished for faulty graphics cards or bad heat managment on Apple's part.

May 20, 2012 10:27 AM in response to wvicensjr

wvicensjr wrote:


Okay so is everyone finished bashing each other? Can someone answer the question? Does the graphics card need replacing?

Maybe, only Apple can confirm that


wvicensjr wrote:


If yes, is that something that can be done at home or only with Apple service?

Only Apple can replace internal components (other than HDD or RAM)

May 20, 2012 11:15 AM in response to wvicensjr

1) yes it does.


2) No it can not.


The graphic chip, along with the CPU, are soldered onto the motherboard (Apple world wording Logic board). So to replace either of those components the Complete Logic board must be replaced. It is very expensive.


But if you take the system to an Apple Genius Bar they can test it and give you an estimate on the cost of repair. Then you can buy a New computer because it may cost almost as much to fix your Mac.

May 23, 2012 1:10 AM in response to werdnasivad

I have exactly the same problem, I went to an apple store to get it fix, and they said it was the hard Drive, so they replace it and charged me. At first everithing was ok, but just a couple of week pass and the same problem happened again. Im really mad at the people at Apple for not fixing it and charging me. I will go again this week to get this fix.


If anyone can help me here.

Having distortion and graphic errors on my macbook pro in first year.

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