07 macbook pro pixelated gray boot screen and freezes

Question

Level 1

8 points

07 macbook pro pixelated gray boot screen and freezes

Opened sleeping 15" macbook pro and screen stayed black.. pressing keys got me the angry alert tone. Forced shutdown and restarted. Chimes and begins booting but gray Apple logo has displaced pixels and there are bands of displaced gray pixels elsewhere on screen. Eventually gray startup wheel stops turning and it is frozen. But caps lock light and keyboard lights work, and volume up/down tones are audible as normal.. suggesting it did boot but display locked. When I boot in single user or verbose, all the standard white text that floods the screen is very garbled. Is this nvidia gpu fail/logic board issue?

Thanks for taking a look.

MacBook Pro, iOS 4.3.3

Posted on Feb 12, 2012 10:32 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 24, 2012 9:10 AM in response to cmickle

I have the same problem. I can connect to my computer on the network and see all the files, so I know it's booted properly. Interesting that we both had this problem within a couple weeks of each other. Any updates?

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Answer 2

cmickle Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 24, 2012 12:30 PM in response to jesseamber

Yep, got to the bottom of it- essentially it is a broken graphics processing unit. Our model macbook pros are known to have a faulty Nvidia GPU that breaks prematurely. Unfortunately, in laptops, this GPU is soldered onto the logic board, so the entire board has to be replaced as repair ($500). HOWEVER, Apple is doing this for FREE if the GPU breaks within 4 years of the purchase date of the computer.

http://gigaom.com/apple/apple-extends-macbook-pro-nvidia-geforce-service-policy- to-three-years/

(this story says 3 years, but it has been extended to 4)

In my case, I got my macbook pro summer 07... I was 5 months past the 4 year mark, but I was able to get a Genius at the Apple store to empathize with my situation and they overrode the repair cost to $0!

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Answer 3

Mar 15, 2012 2:00 PM in response to cmickle

same here, bad graphics card, replaced for free!

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