fequent mid 2012 macbook pro retina kernel panic reboots possibly GPU related

The genius bar supposedly replaced the logic board. After one day the error is back already, crashing my ~$4k system.

That repair comes with a warranty of at least 90 days. In any business [like car repair], occasionally the spare parts turn out to be bad as well.

If you are unhappy with the distance you need to travel, AppleCare phone support can arrange to send you a courier-pack. You pack up your MacBook and send it off to a depot instead. But the elapsed time for the repair will probably be longer. In this particular case they may insist that the guys who touched it last are the ones to "make it right" for you.

hi guys,

i had logged onto this forum in the past when i was having the problems with the GPU kernel panic on my mid 2012 Mac Book pro. Here's my update. Yesterday I got the machine back from Apple repair. The genius bar sent it to a depot in Texas for replacement of the logic board and the top case.

i had been very reluctant to take the machine into the Genius Bar for repair because of the interruption it would cause to my work schedule. All in all, they handled the repair quickly. I dropped it off on a Saturday midday and was called to come pick it up on Wednesday midday.

My machine was out of warranty unforunately. I had not taken out the extended AppleCare nor did I have any warranty extending benefit from my credit card (as I used a debit card to purchase the machine--duh!).

The charge for the repair came to $310 plus tax. It was comprised of a charge of $210 for the flat rate repair and $100 for the flat rate labor charge.

SO far, and it's been less than 24 hours since I got the machine back, I've not had any problems. I'll keep you posted. Again, they said they replaced the logic board and the top deck. The only other thing I noticed is that the mouse pad and keys may be a slight bit 'softer' than they were before.

So far my experience with Apple on this repair was very positive. The crew at the Genius bar understood my problems, set about testing the machine when I went in for the repair by loading up the GPU demand, and this prompted a GPU panic and shutdown while I was standing at the Genius bar. Their next step was to wipe the sysyem (the OSX and PC partition) and then do a clean install for a second test. When the machine had another GPU kernel panic (after a wipe and clean install of OSX), they sent it off to the Texas depot for repair.

I will keep you posted and see how it goes. One thing I noticed before is that when I would do my own hardware test (the long version) the machine would routinely crash in the middle of it. I'll try that again and generally wait and see how it performs plugging and unplugging from the thunderbolt display, etc..

thanks,

ed

Eddie - hope things work and keep us posted. I'm interested in the cost of the repair - many of us who had the logic board replaced had a $680 or so charge and in my case at least it required a bit of a "push" to get them to do that. Did you ask or suggest they replace the logic board or did they volunteer to do that? I'm fishing but I'm trying to ascertain if this is becoming a problem that Apple is aware of or if this is a rare event that affects a small community. Ideally this would become a known flaw with a service bulletin describing how to fix it. It does sound like so far you have had a competent repair experience.

Peter

I was given the same price. $310 for a "texas fix" and $550 for a "local fix". For me the fix took a while because they didn't replace the "top deck" but they did the second time. I would recommend people do the offsite repair, based on my experience.

Also --- I tried my Mid-2012 with a 4k monitor yesterday over HDMI - that's a lot of pixels - and it worked fine. No overheating, no problems. The mid-2012's can only support 4k monitors at 30hz, but it was a very smooth 30hz, fine for programming.

Hi eddie268,

Good to hear your experience was positive (all my service experiences have been apart from the one where there was confusion about what needed to be done, which got rectified pretty quickly).

I'm curious, what did the Genius people do to load up your GPU demand?

By the way I'm now on my 3rd logic board on my mid-2012 MBP 15" Retina (10.9.3) and it seems to be holding out pretty well so far - no GPU panics at all since the repair. I have gfxCardStatus running, allowing dynamic switching (I guess that's "passive mode" where it just monitors what happens) and I see it pop up frequently switching from one GPU to the other (which seemed to be a problem before). So far, so good. I'm still monitoring this thread carefully though.

Are people who are still experiencing GPU panics running 10.9.3 on their MBPs? It could be the newer logic boards got a fix (maybe an updated version of the GT 650M 1024 MB) or something in Mavericks fixed it, I'm not sure...

Hi Sam,

My recollection is that the Genius rep opened up a ton of graphics-demanding applications at once and let them run. Here's the rep's description from the initial work order of what he did to load up the GPU demand:

"Issue: Customer reports that the computer will crash and give a report stating that the was an error on the GPU. This usually happens when plugging in a Thunderbolt Display. Sometimes gets a kernel panic when error occurs.

Steps to Reproduce: Launched application to utilize the full capacity of the RAM and was able to replicate issue after about 5 minutes the computer kernel panicked and rebooted.

Proposed Resolution: R Erase and Install OS. Please Open applications until ram becomes completely depleted and stress the machine this way. Open activity to monitor the RAM usage and run a few yes commands. Customer is Ok with wiping windows."

The rep performed this GPU-loading before and after an erase and install and it kernel panicked/crashed each way. I think this indicated a hardware more than a secondary/software problem.

I'm running 10.9.3 and am usually tethered to an Apple Tunderbolt monitor but ferquently untether and work as a laptop alone.

Re: Peter's question, I didn't demand any particular fix when I arrived at the Genius counter. I expained the symptoms in detail and let the Genius rep diagnose.

As far as the cost, like bbuklow explained, I was told that the repair could be done quicker/more expensively at the local store or slower/cheaper by shipping to a repair depot in Texas. I took that option. When I went to pick-up the machine, the Genius rep said that the depot had replace the logic board AND the top deck.

My repair order indicates that the repair comes with a 90 warranty.

I'll post an update of how the machine performs over the next weeks. So far so good.

Hi Eddie, do you know what part comprises the "top deck"? https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Pro+15-Inch+Retina+Display+Mid+2012+Tear down/9462 shows most of the parts in the tear down. I'm guessing the "top deck" is the part that is left in step 21 - the part with the keyboard, trackpad, and batteries. I wonder why they swapped that part out unless the logic board and top deck together are faster to replace as a unit. I don't see any function on the "top deck" that might relate to the panic issue. Our repair did not involve the "top deck" and knock-on-wood still seems to be working.

Peter

Peter, when they discussed my repair, they did not use the word "top deck" but they did point near the hinge and say there was a sensor package, possibly including a fan, that they replaced the second time around (which worked). They weren't specific with me, but "top deck" could be part of the main body but different from the mondo motherboard unit, and could include some of the temp sensor units which are not macro-visible in the parts lists.

Hi guys,

When I left the machine with the Genius rep I understood they were shipping it out for repair. I assumed this was for a replacement of the logic board only. Actually, the Genius Bar Work Confirmation I was emailed when I left the store after drop-off does not specify what work was scheduled at that time.

When I picked up the machine, the Genius rep told me they had replaced the logic board and the top case. I called it the 'top deck' in my post but I think the right phrase is 'top case'. The Product Care Repair Summary I was given indicated the same. It said in part: "We replaced these parts:

Item Number Description Symptom

605-3219 Board, Logic, 2.3Ghz, 8GB Video Distorotion on External Display

605-3511 Top Case w/Battery, US Resolved Issue Identified in the Test/Repair Process

It's been a few days and I've had occasion to use the machine normally. Plugging and unplugging it from my monitor while in sleep mode. Doing my normal work tasks. I've not had any problem but I also haven't loaded up the GPU demand beyond what work normally requires. Also, last night, I rebooted and performed a hardware self-test (the long mode) and it went through the entire hardware check successfully. Before, when I would run that hardware check in the long-mode, the machine would crash about 5-10 minutes into the check. This time, no problems at all.

I'm very pleased with the repair so far. I will monitor it closely of course over the next few months because the warranty on the repair is just 90 days.

ed

After a replacement logic board (first) and top case (second), my issue persisted. I expect that it was related to heat management, fan activation, etc, although the fans worked, tested ok, and the thermal sensors in the battery/top case didn't fix the problem. Silverlight would cause the problem immediately, but it was by no means unique to that software. Apple finally resolved my issue with a *new* solution. After three work weeks without stability, ~15 hours on the phone, and ~500 miles driven here and there and everywhere, and a full restore from time machine, I'm back in business. Must have been a hardware problem.

Add another MacBook Pro Retina 15" Mid 2012 to the list of laptops that have this problem. Constant GPU Panic kernel errors and crashing when running anything with any graphics intensity.

Went to "Genius" bar 3 times now......restored OS twice.

Deleted tons of apps and still having same problem. I just installed gfxCardStatus and will try to force Integrated only to see if that helps.

This machine (as we all know) was about $2500. Apple, step up and address the problem with the NVidia card!!!!! We are all loyal customers and believe it or not, will continue to be as there is no going back to a PC once we go Mac.

How about a recall? Time to go to the federal government complain board with this.

Does anyone know the name of the website where you can report product problems? If enough people do it, the government can force the company to have some sort of resolution. The time has come for this to happen.

I've been fighting this issue for a few weeks and it was getting worse and worse. On Tuesday, it crashed with the black curtain coming down on my screen the keyboard responding only with error beeps. I closed the computer and fortunately got an appointment for that evening. Since I took it in to the Genius Bar in the crashed state, the tech was able to verify it was the logic board in about 10 minutes. He ordered the logic board on Tuesday, it came in on Friday, I took the computer in Friday night and got it back Saturday morning. So far so good. If the problem comes back, I'll let you know.

I've got one more Macbook Pro 15 Retina (mid 2012) to add to the list.

Mine was purchased in December, 2012.

About 3 weeks ago, or 18 months after purchasing----my laptop starting crashing regularly, and reporting a "GPU panic" error.

I brought the computer to the Apple-store--and they diagnosed (as expected).... Faulty Logic Board.

I'm no longer under warranty---and I can't understand why Apple is not recognizing this issue. To make matters worse, during the same time period when the GPU panic began, several pixels on my retina display suddenly died. I have no idea about whether or not this was a coincidence but that repair estimate is more than half the cost of the original 2000 dollar machine.

this problem may be related with the display cable or display cable connector. i realised this after making a full check on my mbp mid 2012 unybody when i had the same problem. hope this help someone...

Hey,

you can add another Mid 2012 Macbook Pro Retina to the list. I have tested everything that is mentioned in this thread. The only thing that worked was to install gfxcardstatus and use integrated only, sadly I can't use any external monitors then. Since I don't live in US I can't take the cheap "Texas repair" so I hope apple will add some extended warranty to this.