kernel panic, looks GPU related

I think the Consumer Reports cost of repair argument is a red herring. Since when is $350, or even $500, more than half the cost of a new MacBook Pro? Unless you want the latest and greatest, it still makes more sense to pay for a new logic board than a new computer.

That's IF the Apple Store doesn't honour the recall. If the cause if provably a known issue, I think it's just really bad PR to take a callous attitude toward their customers. IMO the blame lies mostly with the stores that are doing this, not with Apple, since clearly the stores have discretion to allow some leeway with expired warranty/AppleCare. I'm still hopeful that my store will make good, assuming the VST test uncovers the defect.

Thats what im hoping that the test reveals as this isnt my first logic board replacement as the first one died when the charger shorted out and almost caught fire shortly after I got the machine; which killed the USB bus on the board. I had the first test run only a few hours after I starting to see the issue so it could be that the hardware wasnt fuly settled and gave a false negitive as I was trying to see if I could get the issue fixed as I relie on this machine for school and work. I have also been getting the same issue to occur and can in fact cause it to occur on command within my bootcamp install. I not only get constant driver/graphics drop outs but also full reboots as well after the most recent bootcamp update. These issues seem to be triggered by the switching between nvidia and intel on both sides as the issue happens when ever it seems that I need the extra graphics card.

Would I still get a MBP again? I would as I have loved my mac otherwise and personally I would get another one as apple has realized the source of the flaw ...nvidia... they switched to ATI for the next revisions before returning to nvidia as it seems that the new chipsets are vastly surpior in quality to the eariler versions. Ive been wondering if this might have been the cause for that switch to ATI for a bit before returning to nvidia?

Our issue is apple didnt realize this issue till it was too late and production had ended and everyone had a machine that could contain the bad chipset. Now here were TS4088 comes in it is an attempt at detection and fixing the possible bad chipsets. I understand the amount of planning and cost a model line wide recall could cause if run sucessfully. If everyone remembers correctly the massive case action suit against nvidia a few years before or even the ipod nano battery recall. Those recalls even when planned and excuted in the best of each comapanys ability caused more problems for the consumer than the problem could have caused if they hadnt experience the issue yet. Case in point the recall of nanos, I have friends that would have replaced their own battery but had to send the device to apple and in the begining be without the unit for weeks or get a 6th gen in return which wasnt compatible with their accessorys. I mass recall of all mid 2010 MBP could lead you to be without a machine for weeks or even cause apple to run out of logic boards requiring they then update the customer to the most recent equivalent MBP. Now while you might think that "YAY i get a free quad code or retina" even if you have to wait a few weeks. What if its without a super drive, mic input, firewire 800, or native network port? I know in my case that would be very bad as I use the: onboard network, firewire, super drive, usb mouse, external DAC and display port all at once in course of my schooling and work when preforming video work and missing those feature might not be support and arent availble to someone with a new MBP. A forced recall would cause tons of cases similar to mine and force us to Imacs or back onto windows for video work.

Apple is treating this issue just as if it were an automotive company in my opinion as I have also dealt with Chevy in a similar fashion. Issue a service bulletion with a test and fix but not widely distribute the material outside of people in the know or that have researched the issue. Chevy acted the same way with bad ABS wheel speed sensors on 2001-2006 Chevy silverado. The sensors would cause the ABS to kick in at low speeds prevent you from fully stopping at speeds less than 3mph in the worse case or just cause a shudder otherwise if it were just 1 wheel. Since no life is in imediate danger not recall was issued in this case.

My question about this is why not release it to the public and allow all mac owners with this issue self run the test at home as it seems to not require any technican input or interpertation? Does the test contain some secret that apple knows but doesnt want revealed to the public about the hardware? I bet a lot of people would love to be able to run this test as part of their self diagnoises just like the hardware test can be run.

I do find it funny that the forums crashed as I was editing my last post for style/content.

I would also like to think that apple could have handled the issue better than TS4088.

Why place a time limit on the replacement? It shouldnt matter if it was 3 years or 3 years and 1 day if it takes that long to notice the issue apple could still take of the issue instead of making them seem greedy and evil in a custoemrs eyes leading to bad attention. Electronics are completely diffentent than cars and the thought about them goes similar. You dont mind paying to repair your car for an issue if it isnt documented but on electronics if a company can widely acknowledge a bad production run in most cases its fixed for free or kept completely secret.

By placing this limit on the fix for a known issue that is in fact popping up more now that you have released/forced users to upgrade to the newiest OS shortly after your timeframe has expired has planned obsoletance written all over it and for a $2000 item is a terrible buisness decision. Now I could see they tried that with the last updates killing core2duo machines but that was a physical chip limitation for a certain set of instructions as windows 8 did similar or atleast that was my guess as its seems they can now be updated with maverick. But doing similar just to 1 set of production as 13in and 17in arent affected shouldnt be used plus you do get hold outs just like microsoft is experiencing with xp I know alot of people that want to stay on 10.6 till forced but atleast in microsofts case its been over 10 years not 3 so that their hardware is also now extremely out of date when they were being forced to a newer OS. Our 2010 MBP are still extremely capable computers and arent old sluggish relics that need to be retired but it seems that would believe they do. If you have to play the lottery now when you upgrade to maverick that will your hardware be affected but now not covered under warranty how do you think customers feel?

By removing the time limit or atleast setting it to like 7 years you could in fact make more good press about your company as it would like your cared for customers even after purchase and could lead to an increase in sales. Just like brands such as craftsmen, granite gear, or even companys like REI are completely based on their customer support and support of the customer after purchase. Now apple doesnt have to extend it to all issue but just fixing an known issue on a certain model would end most bad press associated with this issue.

harry2110-

Could you please take your eloquent last post RE: TS4088 problem and send a copy of it HERE:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

My goal is to get this thread away from the bashing of apple or you and back on helping other users fix the issue and showing the train of thought that might end this.

Those both posts should have been combined to one but the forums crashed as I was submiting my second draft of the first post that combined the two postings. It seems you cant edit or delete post after you send them.

Further research and editing is needed as I would like to see the end or atleast extension of the time frame as its about to expire for all affected MBPs soon(feburary).

An update on my case that might help to deflect some of the Apple bashing. It took a lot of pushing to get them to do it -- they stress tested my machine for two nights and did everything EXCEPT run the VST test (which is even listed on the copy of the work order they gave me at the Genius bar). Finally this evening, I called them and was told that it had passed all tests and the next thing to try was to do an erase and reinstall. I asked them if they had run the VST test -- turned out they hadn't but it would only take a few minutes -- so they ran it while I waited for a callback and it FAILED. Hooray!

And the better news is that they will ship it out to replace the logic board under their Quality Assurance program and thus I will be completely covered. Estimated time to return to store: 3-5 days.

So at least some of the stores do know how to treat customers fairly. I have to guess that Apple leaves this at the discretion of the franchise.

Thanks to the valuable information on these boards and the knowledgeable users here who share it!!

Well after trying each stick of RAM on its own just to follow the troubleshooting it's finally given a kernel panic on each one ruling out the RAM. Another chat with a nice person at Apple and the conclusion is to take into an Apple store to run some tests. Scheduled for Thursday. Let's see what happens

So how did it go, Eddy? Inquiring minds...

As for me, I have my Mac back from the repair depot, with a new logic board, at no cost to me even though I was 4 months past the 3 year limit, and out of Applecare coverage. Picked it up last night, and after 24 hours, it remains panic-free. I do hope your experience turns out as positive as mine.

Unfortunately the appointment didn't seem to have been made. I called before hand as I couldn't see any sign of it online and the store had no record too. Apple Chat saw that it was in the chat records, but couldn't confirm with the store as they don't have access to their systems.

Anyway I've got an appointment for Monday evening so let's see how I get on.

Sounds like you've had a spot on experience. hope it stays panic free too.

I thought it would be helpful for others to describe my experience at the Apple Store in the UK with this issue.

My Macbook Pro was bought in June 2010 - with full Applecare, though this expired back in June 2013. Since upgrading to 10.9 this Autumn I'd been having increasingly frequent GPU panics when switching graphics cards, making the machine often unuseable. However, some days it worked ok and somedays it didn't and I couldn't find a pattern in there to explain this.

I booked an appointment and took it along to the Solihull store, taking with me a bunch of printouts (including parts of this thread) explaining that it was a known problem. However, the printouts weren't needed: what they were interested in was the list of kernel.panics in the logs, viewable from the Console application.

Once they saw this and I described it occuring when changing between graphics cards they said it was a known problem. Then they ran the hardware/graphics test (which it passed in huge green letters saying "PASSED"), but agreed to fix it free of charge, even though the machine was more than 6 months out of warranty, as it was a known issue.

If I had had to pay it would have been £418, but there was not even a discussion about paying for it to be fixed - they just said straightaway it would be free. No idea if the other Apple products I own contributed to the decision, but I was certainly going to mention them if a charge had been discussed. It took five days to fix and now appears to work fine when switching which graphics card is in use.

So my advice to anyone in the UK is to try and get theirs fixed as part of this known issue ASAP.

Been to the Solihull store today as well. They checked the console logs, saw the errors then booted up the service test mode via network and ran the VST which it failed in big red letters. They're repairing it for free, didn't even have to ask or say anything so hopefully should get it back in 5 days.

My MacBook did also pass the test. But my problem was exactly the same as that of all the other people complaining here. So I got my board replaced but had to pay € 475,- 😟. Now I get no kernel panics anymore but the graphics get sometimes mixed up. Now the Intel Graphics produces sometimes stripes instead of shadows around Dock icons and window borders.

Maybe the RAM is defective or the Intel graphics chip is faulty two? Never had such problems before with Apple products.

It´s ok that you got lucky but Apple does make so much money they could really be less restrictive with free of charge repairs. I sometimes feel as if we Germans are those who have to pay all the time.

It´s a sad joke that I have to pay money for some updates in the App store (iPhoto, iWork) that are for free if I change my default language to english! Who made that idiotic decission? I am beginning to think Apple has become to big like IBM in the old days.

Saxifraga-

the graphics get sometimes mixed up. Now the Intel Graphics produces sometimes stripes instead of shadows around Dock icons and window borders.

Those kinds of problems are likely to be software issues, where a programmer made a bad choice or something changed and the software did not keep up. Make sure you have all the latest updates.

Graphics Hardware problems cause horrible, ugly, nonsensical problems, bizarre shapes and colors, arbitrary tiling and repeating of cookie-cutter sections of the image on screen and the like.

Thank you for your response.

But I don´t think that third party software is the cause of the problem.

When I go to 'System Preferences -> Energy Saving' and activate 'Automatic graphics switching' the artifacts vanish the moment the NVIDIA GPU is used. If I untick the box the artifacts reappear and the Profiler shows the Intel graphics to be active. Reticking the box rectivates the Nvidia GPU and the artifacts disappear again.

It´s either hardware or programmers at Apple don´t have that switching process under control. Then it has to be a systems graphics library. It looks as if some of the graphics context gets lost. Maybe pointers into the dedicated GPU RAM still point to RAM not available to the Intel graphics? 😟 (It has nothing to do with the App the window belongs to. That I am sure of.)

You can force the system to run with discrete graphics only, if that eliminates the problem (using gfxCardStatus). It could be that the integrated graphics chip is borderline broken. I would try resetting everything possible (SMC etc). It's unlikely that Apple is producing new motherboards as spare parts for the repairs, so the replacements are likely either old stock (which will certainly run out sooner or later) or refurbished/repaired motherboards from MacBooks that were sent in for repairs. With an odd/intermittent non-fatal problem like yours, I can understand why it could go undetected and instead of the board actually getting properly repaired before it goes out again, it gets used as a spare part.