Some Apple 17-inch MacBook Pros Have Failing Graphics ?

[malware]

A new rainstorm may be coming on Apple's head if the following scenario becomes as real as the previous one. Numerous owners of brand new 17-inch MacBook Pro are complaining that their video cards or perhaps notebooks are failing. The new $2,799 MacBook, which was debuted in January at Macworld, features both GeForce 9600M and GeForce 9400M mobile graphics cards from NVIDIA, that switch during operation depending on the graphics load. Owners are now reporting that their laptops have started to show random green lines and artifacts on the display - a certain symptom for failing video card. Users also believe that the issue occurs only when the second card - the GeForce 9600M - turns on. Both NVIDIA and Apple had very serious problems over faulty GPUs last year. A second NVIDIA fiasco over faulty mobile graphics, won't be good at all for the company. Hopefully, this time an update from Apple will fix the issue. If not, prepare for more lawsuits on our news page. A discussion in the Apple forums was also posted, direct link here.



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[Mussels]

dont worry guys, macs have superior hardware and 'just work'

 

[ShadowFold]

dont worry guys, macs have superior hardware and 'just work'

lol I love this kinda stuff
But god damn, I love how they make you pay the 1500$ price premium for this crap.

 

[DaveK]

This wouldn't have happened if they used ATI

 

[v12dock]

http://www.appledefects.com/wiki/index.php?title=MacBook_Pro

 

[TreadR]

I'm not surprised... they way Nvidia chose to handle the hole fiasco made me think twice before buying or recommending Geforce equipped notebooks. Actually... once.

 

[BazookaJoe]

As much as I enjoy a good Mac Bashing - This is just standard video memory failure, and can happen to any card on any system.

(Or possibly in this case, a memory swapping issue)

In fact it's this EXACT same type of failure that eventually wrote off my ATI X800XT.

( That's not to dismiss nVidia's recent poor form with regard to mobile chipsets :\ )

 

[GLD]

OK...wait for it.....................................................................................................................Sounds like a bad Apple to me.

 

[crazy pyro]

Another reason not to buy a mac... Really apple's putting on a poor show lately with this.

 

[Yukikaze]

Both my XPS M1530 and my friend's XPS M1330 had to be sent to Dell for a mobo replacement due to the 8400M GS on his and the 8600M GT on mine going kaputt from the previous nV screwup on mobile graphics. This is going to seriously suck for nV. As for Apple ? Overpriced crap.

 

[mtosev]

I love my 1 year old DELL notebook. works flowlesly

 

[hat]

gotta love 4chan...

 

[Bokteelo]

Apple notebooks are what.... almost 3 thousand?! I'm not sure whether it's Apple's fault or nVidia's fault, but either way they'll both see their stocks drop.

 

[hat]

I made a demotivational relevant to this thread

 

[Mussels]

As much as I enjoy a good Mac Bashing - This is just standard video memory failure, and can happen to any card on any system.

(Or possibly in this case, a memory swapping issue)

In fact it's this EXACT same type of failure that eventually wrote off my ATI X800XT.

( That's not to dismiss nVidia's recent poor form with regard to mobile chipsets :\ )

you're missing the point. this is happening to the ENTIRE line not just one unit

 

[EaGle1337]

I made a demotivational relevant to this thread

HAHA!

 

[DrPepper]

I wonder if they tested this new gpu with thier stuff ? Obviously not because now there fecked.

 

[Ripper3]

I have a 2.4GHz MBP, the cheapest of the new MBP models, and mine is working fine (but mine has 256MB of RAM, the other models have 512MB), it must be the revision of the 9600mGT and/or the memory that Nvidia supplied for it. My mate has the 2.53GHz model, which uses 512MB of RAM, but again, it works fine, so it really is jsut a problem with the 17"ers.
The 15" models can only use up to 6GB of RAM, while the 17" models can go up to 8GB, so there must be a firmware revision, a slightly different chipset or something similar.

My mate has an older Acer with an 8600mGT, and his has been giving him trouble. I think he had one of the affected chips, same as another friend with an m1530. Again, the 8600mGT is fubared, but mostly usable. It's a problem with Nvidia, not Apple. I don't enjoy Apple bashing any more (and not just because I own one since I've seen a lot of things I'd like changed on my MBP, and wish Apple had thought of), and I must say this is probably not their fault. If it is, there'll be a fix for it soon enough.

 

[mtosev]

I have a 2.4GHz MBP, the cheapest of the new MBP models, and mine is working fine (but mine has 256MB of RAM, the other models have 512MB), it must be the revision of the 9600mGT and/or the memory that Nvidia supplied for it. My mate has the 2.53GHz model, which uses 512MB of RAM, but again, it works fine, so it really is jsut a problem with the 17"ers.
The 15" models can only use up to 6GB of RAM, while the 17" models can go up to 8GB, so there must be a firmware revision, a slightly different chipset or something similar.

My mate has an older Acer with an 8600mGT, and his has been giving him trouble. I think he had one of the affected chips, same as another friend with an m1530. Again, the 8600mGT is fubared, but mostly usable. It's a problem with Nvidia, not Apple. I don't enjoy Apple bashing any more (and not just because I own one since I've seen a lot of things I'd like changed on my MBP, and wish Apple had thought of), and I must say this is probably not their fault. If it is, there'll be a fix for it soon enough.

not all 8600M's are affected. mine in my dell inspiron 1520 isn't affected. DELL listed the inspiron 1520 as "not affected" on their site.

 

[FatForester]

not all 8600M's are affected. mine in my dell inspiron 1520 isn't affected. DELL listed the inspiron 1520 as "not affected" on their site.

I have an Insprion 1520 as well with the 8600m GT and it's been working fine so far (knock on wood). However, when I first got it the GPU was bad from the get-go (artifacting with Aero on), and after shipping it in two times they finally accepted that it was the video card and swapped it out. That was over a year ago, so if you aren't having problems now, chances are you won't.

 

[mtosev]

i have my dell a little more than 1 year. the notebook is non-stop on. the only problem i had was that nV drivers would freeze. only had that 2 times. in the last 6 monts i had no problems. i was using modded nV drivers so that could had been cousing problems but i'm not sure.

 

[Steevo]

To the apple people, did you even read the apple problem wiki? No no no, that is hearsay!!!!!! Burn the heretics!!!!!!

 

[Ripper3]

I meant as in, the 8600mGT in their two laptops were fubared, they were from one of the bad batches. Certainly, there were plenty of unaffected ones. I think the problem chips came later after a small revision.
From reading the thread on the Apple forums, it seems it might be an SMC problem in the 17" models, so I figure a quick firmware upgrade should do the trick. Other than that, it might be a heat issue. Having looked at the iFixIt tear down, the way these new unibody machines have their coolers arranged means that there are two heatpipes touching, and they both go from the graphics chip, to the northbridge, to the CPU, then split off towards the heat displacement fins that are connected to the fans, that means any and all heat is dispersed amongst all the chips. If the 17" machine is running a slightly faster GPU core clock, it could heat up more, and the heat just wouldn't escape all that easily. But if that were the case, similar problems would be seen in the 15"ers.

To Steevo, I've skimmed it now, I forgot to read it earlier after posting. I got distracted (Oooh, butterfly...).
It seems those are all problems that affect earlier models, like the ones that were still using ATi graphics (I was going to buy a used one, but I'm glad I avoided that now). Really though, I've heard of far less problems in these newer unibody models than in the older ones, so I'm quite glad I decided to get a new machine.
There's no doubt about it, Apple f***s up, but at least they tend to get around to fixing it. I have my Applecare to fall back on if a problem occurs (student discount means I got mine for a ridiculously low price, so it was a great purchase).

 

[Random Murderer]

ha, just another reason why mac sucks.