GPU/CPU Problems? Logic Board bad? I'm not sure what the issue is. Please Help!

Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014


PROBLEMS WITH MY UNIBODY MACBOOK PRO


 Hi, I have an:



  • Early 2009


  • 17 inch


  • Unibody Macbook Pro (UMBP) (5,2)


  • Intel Core2Duo 2.66GHz


  • Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT 512MB graphics (kept on Performance mode – not power saver – because it usually sits on my desk plugged into AC wall-wart 85watt mag-safe power like an iMac), (Nvidia GeForce 9400M onboard too)


  • I have an external 27” monitor connected and mirrored - with the internal screen off (brightness is all the way down – thus running cooler)


  • (Note: all the problems existed before any/all my upgrades – including the external monitor.)


  • I have upgraded to 8Gb’s of 1066 DDR2 RAM


  • Upgraded to a 500Gb Seagate Hybrid HDD


  • The UMBP is Running the latest OS 10.8.4 (with automatic updates) – and it had the same list of problems (below) with OS Leopard, and Snow Leopard too!


 


1)  System Information crashes - “Quits Unexpectedly”! SOooooo frustrating! I can’t even get the current specs so you guys know what we’re dealing with! So I looked them up in a file I have kept since I did all my research online to buy this UMBP. So, I copied all the data that was just now sent to Apple (not that anything will be done with it – they don’t care – my Mac is out of warranty). This app crashing has happened *numerous* times in the past couple years and I just didn’t know what to do about all these problems (the list continues below) because it’s been out of warranty since before I bought it used on eBay.


 


2)  It will not play youtube or other internet video (such as *Netflix streaming*) without stuttering, stopping, and hesitating in video and/or audio!! I have CHARTER Cable Internet which runs between 20-50Mb’s!! This is NOT slow internet!


And with my Windows 7 (64bit Intel QuadCore) Desktop PC using the exact same wifi internet connection there’s *No stuttering*, no stopping, no hesitation in video OR audio!! It’s an older Gateway desktop with a tiny USB wifi dongle. And the desktop runs *on-board* Graphics – no graphics card in the machine!...at least not until I upgrade the power supply – then I can install one. ;-)


 


3)  I canNOT get Adobe Reader to run on my UMBP - it crashes within seconds!! I finally uninstalled it and re-downloaded it and then reinstalled it – still same problem! So, I waited a few months and then re-downloaded it and re-installed it again – still same issue! And I know that Reader had been updated in that time.


 


I think that the following is unrelated but I figure I should put in all the data I can. The battery never says 100% (it’s always between 97-99% full. When I first got the UMBP it kept telling me to get a new battery (for $250!) And the seller sent the UMBP with a 65 watt (not 85 watt) mag-safe power supply…which I didn’t even realize until months later (hey, this was my first and still is my only Mac, so ya gotta give me some grace here – I hate(d) Microslave *so much* after living with Vista for 2 years that I HAD to get a Mac!..and I don’t ever want to go back! ;-) The only reason I even have a Windows box is because a friend of mine (who was borrowing my then spare beat up old car for like 3 months) gave me one when he got it as partial payment for a job he did on a small business network (yeah, he’s even more geek than me!)


 


At first I was thinking that it was the NVidia GPUs, but now I’m beginning to think that all three: the CPU and both GPUs are in need of re-soldering to the Logic Board. It seems that I’m not the only one online that agrees that the system cooling fans are subpar in UMBP’s (lots of complaints about burned fingers, etc.)  – so, I run a small 6 inch fan (on high) across the top of the keyboard 24/7 so that it won’t completely fry! Well, at night I put it to sleep so I usually turn off the fan then…but anyway. It doesn’t wake up at night to do any background downloads or Time Machine (USB ext drive) work – it would most likely wake me up if it did (I’m a very light sleeper). The fan does a good job at keeping the surface (aluminum) “warm” (as opposed to HOT) so that IF I were to use the built-in keyboard I wouldn’t burn my fingers (like I used to – until I bought an external Bluetooth Apple keyboard – those keyboards are so nice!).


 


So, yeah, I could send it to someone (along with $200) who will reflow or reball the chips to the Logic Board, but that seems to be a band aid on a situation that is quite likely to happen again…right?


As I see it: Apple didn’t put enough cooling into the system – the fans are too slow/small – and thus I have a serious problem with the Logic Board!


And I was just on eBay looking at Logic Boards and they cost at least as much as most of the UMBP’s like mine! So that would be way too expensive – I might as well just buy another UMBP like mine – but that’s not going to happen.


The closest Apple store is 2.5 hours drive away from where I live. And the closest authorized apple repair shop is about 1.5 hours away and it’s not likely that they will run system tests for free…and the Best Buy here in town is not authorized to work on Macs – they didn’t show up in the search results at locate.apple.com/service/….


 


So, what can/should I do??

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    PROBLEMS WITH MY UNIBODY MACBOOK PRO
     Hi, I have an:
    • Early 2009
    • 17 inch
    • Unibody Macbook Pro (UMBP) (5,2)
    • Intel Core2Duo 2.66GHz
    • Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT 512MB graphics (kept on Performance mode – not power saver – because it usually sits on my desk plugged into AC wall-wart 85watt mag-safe power like an iMac), (Nvidia GeForce 9400M onboard too)
    • I have an external 27” monitor connected and mirrored - with the internal screen off (brightness is all the way down – thus running cooler)
    • (Note: all the problems existed before any/all my upgrades – including the external monitor.)
    • I have upgraded to 8Gb’s of 1066 DDR2 RAM
    • Upgraded to a 500Gb Seagate Hybrid HDD
    • The UMBP is Running the latest OS 10.8.4 (with automatic updates) – and it had the same list of problems (below) with OS Leopard, and Snow Leopard too!

    1)  System Information crashes - “Quits Unexpectedly”! SOooooo frustrating! I can’t even get the current specs so you guys know what we’re dealing with! So I looked them up in a file I have kept since I did all my research online to buy this UMBP. So, I copied all the data that was just now sent to Apple (not that anything will be done with it – they don’t care – my Mac is out of warranty). This app crashing has happened *numerous* times in the past couple years and I just didn’t know what to do about all these problems (the list continues below) because it’s been out of warranty since before I bought it used on eBay.

    2)  It will not play youtube or other internet video (such as *Netflix streaming*) without stuttering, stopping, and hesitating in video and/or audio!! I have CHARTER Cable Internet which runs between 20-50Mb’s!! This is NOT slow internet!
    And with my Windows 7 (64bit Intel QuadCore) Desktop PC using the exact same wifi internet connection there’s *No stuttering*, no stopping, no hesitation in video OR audio!! It’s an older Gateway desktop with a tiny USB wifi dongle. And the desktop runs *on-board* Graphics – no graphics card in the machine!...at least not until I upgrade the power supply – then I can install one. ;-)

    3)  I canNOT get Adobe Reader to run on my UMBP - it crashes within seconds!! I finally uninstalled it and re-downloaded it and then reinstalled it – still same problem! So, I waited a few months and then re-downloaded it and re-installed it again – still same issue! And I know that Reader had been updated in that time.

    I think that the following is unrelated but I figure I should put in all the data I can. The battery never says 100% (it’s always between 97-99% full. When I first got the UMBP it kept telling me to get a new battery (for $250!) And the seller sent the UMBP with a 65 watt (not 85 watt) mag-safe power supply…which I didn’t even realize until months later (hey, this was my first and still is my only Mac, so ya gotta give me some grace here – I hate(d) Microslave *so much* after living with Vista for 2 years that I HAD to get a Mac!..and I don’t ever want to go back! ;-) The only reason I even have a Windows box is because a friend of mine (who was borrowing my then spare beat up old car for like 3 months) gave me one when he got it as partial payment for a job he did on a small business network (yeah, he’s even more geek than me!)

    At first I was thinking that it was the NVidia GPUs, but now I’m beginning to think that all three: the CPU and both GPUs are in need of re-soldering to the Logic Board. It seems that I’m not the only one online that agrees that the system cooling fans are subpar in UMBP’s (lots of complaints about burned fingers, etc.)  – so, I run a small 6 inch fan (on high) across the top of the keyboard 24/7 so that it won’t completely fry! Well, at night I put it to sleep so I usually turn off the fan then…but anyway. It doesn’t wake up at night to do any background downloads or Time Machine (USB ext drive) work – it would most likely wake me up if it did (I’m a very light sleeper). The fan does a good job at keeping the surface (aluminum) “warm” (as opposed to HOT) so that IF I were to use the built-in keyboard I wouldn’t burn my fingers (like I used to – until I bought an external Bluetooth Apple keyboard – those keyboards are so nice!).

    So, yeah, I could send it to someone (along with $200) who will reflow or reball the chips to the Logic Board, but that seems to be a band aid on a situation that is quite likely to happen again…right?
    As I see it: Apple didn’t put enough cooling into the system – the fans are too slow/small – and thus I have a serious problem with the Logic Board!
    And I was just on eBay looking at Logic Boards and they cost at least as much as most of the UMBP’s like mine! So that would be way too expensive – I might as well just buy another UMBP like mine – but that’s not going to happen.
    The closest Apple store is 2.5 hours drive away from where I live. And the closest authorized apple repair shop is about 1.5 hours away and it’s not likely that they will run system tests for free…and the Best Buy here in town is not authorized to work on Macs – they didn’t show up in the search results at locate.apple.com/service/….

    So, what can/should I do??

    Just reinstall the system, I doubt it's the hardware. Have you tried to run a Linux OS with a bootable USB on it, if not you should have. This will tell you real quick if you have a problem with the hardware. I know it sucks when things don't go the way you want them too but reinstalling the system is an obvious solution.
  • Reply 2 of 10

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Relic View Post





    Just reinstall the system, I doubt it's the hardware. Have you tried to run a Linux OS with a bootable USB on it, if not you should have. This will tell you real quick if you have a problem with the hardware. I know it sucks when things don't go the way you want them too but reinstalling the system is an obvious solution.




    Hi Relic,


    Sorry, I thought that it was understood that I installed a bare new HDD and installed Snow Leopard on it....and still had all the same problems i now have two years later. So, reinstalling Mountain Lion shouldn't make any difference - right? ;-)


    I've had these problems since I bought it with Leopard, and I've upgraded each and every time Apple released a new OS, and I've kept it updated automatically!


    That should cover your suggestion.


     


    Any other thoughts? I'm still in need of some good help. I'm still considering hiring a lawyer and suing Apple in court for a new Macbook Pro. But I hate lawyers (no offense if you happen to be one).

  • Reply 3 of 10

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by MacRulez777 View Post




    Hi Relic,


    Sorry, I thought that it was understood that I installed a bare new HDD and installed Snow Leopard on it....and still had all the same problems i now have two years later. So, reinstalling Mountain Lion shouldn't make any difference - right? ;-)


    I've had these problems since I bought it with Leopard, and I've upgraded each and every time Apple released a new OS, and I've kept it updated automatically!


    That should cover your suggestion.


     


    Any other thoughts? I'm still in need of some good help. I'm still considering hiring a lawyer and suing Apple in court for a new Macbook Pro. But I hate lawyers (no offense if you happen to be one).





    Plus, this issue isn't just the System Information App - it's a serious overheating issue and not being able to play online streaming video (Netflix, Youtube, etc.) !!

  • Reply 4 of 10
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    I'm still considering hiring a lawyer and suing Apple in court for a new Macbook Pro.

    Utter freaking nonsense.

    1) Did you buy it from Apple, a reseller, or a third party?
    1.1) If third party, have you wiped the hard drive at any point since purchase?
    2) Get the newest version of Flash, install it, ignore it, get the Click2Flash extension for your browser, and view YouTube as embedded MP4 video. Watch the loading bar for that and see what happens.
    3) Don't bother. Use Preview. Reader is a GIGABYTE of useless bloat (and ads) and Preview does the same thing in 36.4 megabytes.
  • Reply 5 of 10

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post





    Utter freaking nonsense.



    1) Did you buy it from Apple, a reseller, or a third party?

    1.1) If third party, have you wiped the hard drive at any point since purchase?

    2) Get the newest version of Flash, install it, ignore it, get the Click2Flash extension for your browser, and view YouTube as embedded MP4 video. Watch the loading bar for that and see what happens.

    3) Don't bother. Use Preview. Reader is a GIGABYTE of useless bloat (and ads) and Preview does the same thing in 36.4 megabytes.




    1) a third party via eBay


    1.1) as you can see in the previous posts - yes, it came with a HDD and then I upgraded to a new clean Seagate Hybrid (with 4Gb's of Flash Ram inside it)


    2) I'll try that, but that won't help Silverlight - which is what is required by Netflix to stream Netflix movies


    3) Reader has features I need that Preview doesn't. But thanks for the info - I know Reader uses a lot more overhead (CPU, RAM, etc) but those additional features require that overhead. Everything in life is a compromise :-/


    Thanks for your time!


    Keep the suggestions coming!


     


    I know that my first post is loooonnng, but this is the second person who had the answer to some of their suggestions already (I know - it kills ya to read the whole thing because it's so looooong,) I know, but please do.

  • Reply 6 of 10

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by MacRulez777 View Post




    1) a third party via eBay


    1.1) as you can see in the previous posts - yes, it came with a HDD and then I upgraded to a new clean Seagate Hybrid (with 4Gb's of Flash Ram inside it)


    2) I'll try that, but that won't help Silverlight - which is what is required by Netflix to stream Netflix movies


    3) Reader has features I need that Preview doesn't. But thanks for the info - I know Reader uses a lot more overhead (CPU, RAM, etc) but those additional features require that overhead. Everything in life is a compromise :-/


    Thanks for your time!


    Keep the suggestions coming!


     


    I know that my first post is loooonnng, but this is the second person who had the answer to some of their suggestions already (I know - it kills ya to read the whole thing because it's so looooong,) I know, but please do.





    So, I guess there's really no help. Apple wins because I have to buy another Mac and can only sell this as-is.


    Great, thanks Apple. :-(

  • Reply 7 of 10
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    [quote name="MacRulez777" url="/t/158741/gpu-cpu-problems-logic-board-bad-im-not-sure-what-the-issue-is-please-help#post_2369025"]1) a third party via eBay[/QUOTE]

    You therefore don't really have any legal ground to sue Apple. You might have a [I]complaint[/I] against the eBay seller, though.

    [QUOTE]…I upgraded to a new clean Seagate Hybrid (with 4Gb's of Flash Ram inside it)[/QUOTE]

    Could it not possibly have been a human error in installation? Maybe the drive itself is faulty. I don't trust Seagate, myself. Why blame Apple?

    [QUOTE]2) I'll try that, but that won't help Silverlight - which is what is required by Netflix to stream Netflix movies[/QUOTE]

    Getting the newest Silverlight would. But you're right: nothing can help Silverlight itself. :p
  • Reply 8 of 10

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post





    You therefore don't really have any legal ground to sue Apple. You might have a complaint against the eBay seller, though.

    Could it not possibly have been a human error in installation? Maybe the drive itself is faulty. I don't trust Seagate, myself. Why blame Apple?

    Getting the newest Silverlight would. But you're right: nothing can help Silverlight itself. image


     




    I can tell that you're never going to believe that Apple has any fault in this matter.


         Yes, I do have complaints against the seller, but it's been about two years - so there's absolutely no way of making any kind of case with eBay - they wouldn't believe it after two years.


         As I said before the issues have been on this UMBP since I bought it. That means the problems would have existed with the first Hard Drive that it came with (Leopard OS), not only the current Seagate I installed (I've built many computers, so I doubt that it was human error (but not that I'm infallable)).


         I don't see any other people running Firefox on a Mac complaining about issues with Netflix streaming (via Silverlight),..but then I haven't looked in a while. And, yes, there were some issues with Silverlight (Microsoft code) in the beginning (yeah, no surprise there - like I said, I dislike them too).


         I bought a new custom-built notebook from HP (with dual internal hard drives plus the DVD burner and two video outs that simultaneously ran my dual external LCD monitors at 1080p) in early '09 (which incidentally is when this UMBP was made and sold to someone else) and about a year and a half later it too had serious overheating issues. It seems to me that the engineers/designers of notebook computers are using common heat-dissipation data leading them to severely under-engineer the cooling systems in the notebook computers. Sure, Apple claims that the aluminum aids the cooling system (but it does so to the user's detriment - my (and countless others') burnt fingers will attest to that). And heat is enemy number one to a chip soldered onto a circuit board. That's why I'm probably going to have to pay $200+ to have a technician re-flow or re-ball the primary chips to the Logic Board.  :-(

  • Reply 9 of 10
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    [quote name="MacRulez777" url="/t/158741/gpu-cpu-problems-logic-board-bad-im-not-sure-what-the-issue-is-please-help#post_2369129"]I can tell that you're never going to believe that Apple has any fault in this matter.[/QUOTE]

    I can tell you don't have any reason to believe that, given that I've never indicated as such.

    [QUOTE]Yes, I do have complaints against the seller, but it's been about two years - so there's absolutely no way of making any kind of case with eBay - they wouldn't believe it after two years.[/QUOTE]

    That doesn't magically give you the right to blame Apple.

    [QUOTE]As I said before the issues have been on this UMBP since I bought it. That means the problems would have existed with the first Hard Drive that it came with (Leopard OS), not [I]only[/I] the current Seagate I installed (I've built many computers, so I doubt that it was human error (but not that I'm infallible)).[/QUOTE]

    That's fine. Somehow the seller is absolved, though?

    [QUOTE]I don't see any other people running Firefox on a Mac complaining about issues with Netflix streaming (via Silverlight)[/QUOTE]

    Have you tried on another browser? Something that isn't a load of bloat?
  • Reply 10 of 10

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post





    I can tell you don't have any reason to believe that, given that I've never indicated as such.

    That doesn't magically give you the right to blame Apple.

    That's fine. Somehow the seller is absolved, though?

    Have you tried on another browser? Something that isn't a load of bloat?




    Magic seems to be what Apple, HP, Toshiba and all the other notebook manufacturers are relying on to keep their notebooks cool, because it certainly isn't a well-designed cooling system.


    The seller didn't design the cooling system nor did a former user cause the chips to begin to (magically) lift from the Logic Board - thus causing problems. Right?


    And yes, thank you for pointing out that other browsers will play Netflix, Youtube, et al. The thing is - my Win7 box has no problems at all using FireFox - no dropped frames, no sound issues...I just don't get it! I have all the same Add-Ons (plug-in Apps) on both systems in FireFox. :-/ Very weird.


    Thanks for "solving" my first issue "1)"


    Ok, so what about my number 2) and number 3) issues? I've read tons of other people on this and other forums with the same issue with 3) Adobe Reader. And, no, Preview doesn't have all the same features, so I need Reader to work.

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