Apple says some MacBook Pros affected by faulty Nvidia chips

2

Comments

  • Reply 21 of 50
    Maybe this is why Spore hangs so often in the Space stage (I've got it installed in Mac OS X, not in Windows). But it's weird, the only glitch I get when on Windows isn't during games, it's only occasionally when booting Windows, the screen is black, but the computer is responsive and I can reboot without a hard reset. No bugs during game playing so maybe it's a Mac Spore bug in the first case and a BootCamp bug in the second. If it gets worse I'll be sure to take it to Apple, that's for sure.
  • Reply 22 of 50
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    I would think that Apple would have their supply contract such that the supplier pays for all expenses if their chip fails.
  • Reply 23 of 50
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by heffeque View Post


    Maybe this is why Spore hangs so often in the Space stage (I've got it installed in Mac OS X, not in Windows). But it's weird, the only glitch I get when on Windows isn't during games, it's only occasionally when booting Windows, the screen is black, but the computer is responsive and I can reboot without a hard reset. No bugs during game playing so maybe it's a Mac Spore bug in the first case and a BootCamp bug in the second. If it gets worse I'll be sure to take it to Apple, that's for sure.



    I think it is a Spore issue and not a gpu problem. The only Spore crash I had was in the Space stage.



    The total failure results in black screens - both on the lcd and external monitors.



    I could remotely access my MBP and boot it up in target mode too. Mine is a 15" MBP 3,1 - July 2007. That black screen would worry me. But in my case once I got that - I never got a working screen again.
  • Reply 24 of 50
    nathnath Posts: 1member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Leithal View Post


    Yes, I had this problem before my MBP failed to display anything.



    It is an early symptom. Later, the screen would remain black even as it booted up, never to come on.



    Apple replaced the LCD and the main logic board the first time this happened. They replaced the logic board the second time it happened. Makes me glad I bought Applecare and Procare too.



    So I am on my third logic board - hoping they offer me a discount on a new MBP the next time it happens.



    I have the same problem, only affects my laptop screen but doesn't affect my external display which is strange, if it was a GPU glitch i would expect it on my external! Also i have a small line on the edge of my screen where it appears a few pixels have killed themselves! Are dead pixels covered in Apple Care?



    I have a 15inch Macbook Pro bought in Nov 07



    I shall be keeping an eye on this!
  • Reply 25 of 50
    Unfortunately I have experienced screen tearing and screen corruption and I have an iMac with an ATI x1600. but I also owned a PC and made the unfortunate switch to vista only to find out my Vista ready Nvidia card couldn't handle 3D intensive task's such as vista screen savers due to Nvidia not building proper drivers for Vista. But I thank Microsoft and Nvidia together for building crap software cause it only encouraged me to buy this Mac I have today and I will gladly put up with the occasional screen tear and corruption.



    on another note:

    I have shown 5 people at work the ease and flexability of Mac OS X and they all were avid windows users. They all have made the switch and love there Mac's and don't know why they didn't switch earlier.



    I'll be waiting for Microsoft to roll over and die.
  • Reply 26 of 50
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post


    I would think that Apple would have their supply contract such that the supplier pays for all expenses if their chip fails.



    Isn't what the article implies?



    "In July, Nvidia informed the Securities and Exchange Commission that it would incur a $150 million to $200 million charge to cover repair and replacement expenses resulting from "a weak die/packaging material set" in certain versions of its previous MCP and GPU products employed by various notebook vendors."
  • Reply 27 of 50
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wheelhot View Post


    Hmm, I wonder though, do anyone experience this issue?



    Sometime after waking up from sleep or after returning from BootCamp, my MBP display color is bluish, it can be easily fixed by going to system pref -> display, after that the color will return to normal.



    Anyone have this problem?



    Yeah, this is an ancient problem (was around on PowerBooks and in Tiger) and not related to this. The Color Profile system crashes, and you just have to load up Terminal and run:



    /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/CoreGraphics.framework/Versions/A/Resources/DMProxy
  • Reply 28 of 50
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rnaoncfixd View Post


    That's funny that I should read this article today after my system just had a video glitch this morning.



    The thing though is that mine is a 17" 2.5 MBP and it was the first time it happened. Basically after the battery died and after a night of charging it, when I turned it on it gave me this static distorted color. I'm guessing that it was more so a boot up error or something like that. But should I still get it checked?



    Are you referring to the washed out gray screen that is present until the progress bar at the bottom finishes and the computer resumes normal operation? If so, I think that's normal as mine does the same thing and only when the battery dies while I'm using the machine.
  • Reply 29 of 50
    eaieai Posts: 417member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mikep123 View Post


    Are you referring to the washed out gray screen that is present until the progress bar at the bottom finishes and the computer resumes normal operation? If so, I think that's normal as mine does the same thing and only when the battery dies while I'm using the machine.



    That's it resuming from 'Deep Sleep', the equivalent of Window's Hibernate, essentially the RAM content is written to the hard disk. The progress bar is it loading back into RAM from the disk.
  • Reply 30 of 50
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rnaoncfixd View Post


    That's funny that I should read this article today after my system just had a video glitch this morning.



    The thing though is that mine is a 17" 2.5 MBP and it was the first time it happened. Basically after the battery died and after a night of charging it, when I turned it on it gave me this static distorted color. I'm guessing that it was more so a boot up error or something like that. But should I still get it checked?



    I have had the same problem occur on two occasions. If the battery runs out on my MBP (15" 2.4) OSX saves its current state and goes to sleep. When I plug it in and wake it up I see the little progress bar of OSX retrieving the state it was in but then when it goes to the login screen (i have it set to require a password to wake from sleep) I get a garbled noisy mess. I can see a garbled outline of the login dialogue box but no text boxes are legible. I don't even know where to click to attempt to login. I have just done a hard reboot on both occasions and everything was resolved. I wonder if this is a part of the issue with the GPU.
  • Reply 31 of 50
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cddude View Post


    That may be true that this problem is now affecting Apple machines. But good luck getting a PC manufacturer to offer what Apple just did! Fixing it within 2 yrs even if it's out of warranty???



    In PC world you get what you get with very limited crappy support. Good luck jumping through hoops to get anything taken care of with quality if at all.



    In April 2005 I purchased a Dell Inspiron 9300 with a 17" 1920x1200 screen and a 1 year warranty. In April/May 2007, just over 2 years from the purchase date, I started getting vertical pixel-wide lines on the screen. The direct2dell.com blog had an acknowledgement of the issue and said you could get the screen replaced no charge up to 3 years after purchase even if you only had a one year warranty. I called that morning, DHL arrived with a box at 1PM that had a foam cut out for my laptop and I had the repaired machine in my hands 3 days later, it still works to this day w/o a problem.



    Later I discovered the 17" Powerbook owners were having the same issue with their 1920x1200 screens but that Apple was not acknowledging that it was their responsibility to fix unless you had AppleCare. This was not the temporary vertical line issue but permanent pixel wide lines in a rainbow of colors that didn't disapper on a restart.



    I have Dell, Lenovo and Apple laptops and like them all, but I'll never drink the fanboy kool aid, ignore facts and try to make myself feel better by making up that Apple is perfect and PC makers are evil. That service from Dell was the reason I went back for a Dell desktop a year later.
  • Reply 32 of 50
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Kasper View Post


    I have this problem =P



    Best,



    Kasper



    Same. I've sent it in twice already. Via Lemon Law, I might end up with a new comp at the end of this week! Gonna send it in again. Here's to hoping!
  • Reply 33 of 50
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mavfan1 View Post


    In April 2005 I purchased a Dell Inspiron 9300 with a 17" 1920x1200 screen and a 1 year warranty. In April/May 2007, just over 2 years from the purchase date, I started getting vertical pixel-wide lines on the screen. The direct2dell.com blog had an acknowledgement of the issue and said you could get the screen replaced no charge up to 3 years after purchase even if you only had a one year warranty. I called that morning, DHL arrived with a box at 1PM that had a foam cut out for my laptop and I had the repaired machine in my hands 3 days later, it still works to this day w/o a problem.



    Later I discovered the 17" Powerbook owners were having the same issue with their 1920x1200 screens but that Apple was not acknowledging that it was their responsibility to fix unless you had AppleCare. This was not the temporary vertical line issue but permanent pixel wide lines in a rainbow of colors that didn't disapper on a restart.



    I have Dell, Lenovo and Apple laptops and like them all, but I'll never drink the fanboy kool aid, ignore facts and try to make myself feel better by making up that Apple is perfect and PC makers are evil. That service from Dell was the reason I went back for a Dell desktop a year later.



    Good service from Dell? I'm not saying apple is perfect, but this is the first I've heard of good experiences from Dell. All mine have been awful! Last time I called I needed to speak to head of sales regarding a purchase that had been canceled without anyone notifying me...
  • Reply 34 of 50
    This sucks for Apple, since they have to take a hit to replace all the affected machines, but don't panic people.. AFAIK, The nVidia problem had to do with their manufacturing process involving a lead solder that would fail at a high-temperature on the video boards. They have made changes to the manufacturing process, and the boards that are failing were manufactured many-months-to-years ago.

    Remember this when the new laptops are announced with nVidia chipsets. Assuming all the issues are worked out, it's a *POSITIVE* thing. nVidia's chipsets and integrated graphics chips are much more powerful than Intel's GMA. The graphics performance will be 2-3x faster, and all new nVidia chipsets have advanced hardware decoding of H264/VC-1 video with de-interlacing, iDCT, upconverting, noise reduction, etc.
  • Reply 35 of 50
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Abster2core View Post


    Isn't what the article implies?



    "In July, Nvidia informed the Securities and Exchange Commission that it would incur a $150 million to $200 million charge to cover repair and replacement expenses resulting from "a weak die/packaging material set" in certain versions of its previous MCP and GPU products employed by various notebook vendors."



    You're right, I misread that.
  • Reply 36 of 50
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by winterspan View Post


    nVidia's chipsets and integrated graphics chips are much more powerful than Intel's GMA. The graphics performance will be 2-3x faster, and all new nVidia chipsets have advanced hardware decoding of H264/VC-1 video with de-interlacing, iDCT, upconverting, noise reduction, etc.



    By 2-3x faster than GMA... I suppose you mean 6-7x faster. An 8600m 256MB can run graphics stuff at least with 6x the FPS of an Intel GMA graphics card.



    Same computer different graphics card:

    3Dmark06:

    8600m GT: 3347

    X3100: 522



    3Dmark05:

    8600m GT: 6175

    X3100: 807



    It's certainly not the same to play games at 10 FPS than at 70 FPS, that's for sure.
  • Reply 37 of 50
    eep that's my graphics card and MacBook Pro model It's from August 2007...



    and I think I've suffered from the effects too...



    When I try to play Video Podcasts in iTunes they play for about 1 second and then the whole computer freezes for 10~ seconds and then the audio starts playing for another 3 seconds and then the whole machine freezes forever until you shut off the power anyone think that might be a problem related to the graphics card?



    I've also had my MacBook Pro, while doing multiple things including iTunes, do this ear-piercingly amazingly loud 'beeeep' noise for 1/2 a second and the display goes black and the computer freezes up (I'm assuming as I can't see anything plus the music stops)... the noise is the one of the loudest things I've heard, scares me soooo much when it does it luckily it's only ever done it twice though...



    Anyone else had these problems/know if they might be related to the graphics card?
  • Reply 38 of 50
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bleach1st View Post


    eep that's my graphics card and MacBook Pro model It's from August 2007...



    and I think I've suffered from the effects too...



    When I try to play Video Podcasts in iTunes they play for about 1 second and then the whole computer freezes for 10~ seconds and then the audio starts playing for another 3 seconds and then the whole machine freezes forever until you shut off the power anyone think that might be a problem related to the graphics card?



    I've also had my MacBook Pro, while doing multiple things including iTunes, do this ear-piercingly amazingly loud 'beeeep' noise for 1/2 a second and the display goes black and the computer freezes up (I'm assuming as I can't see anything plus the music stops)... the noise is the one of the loudest things I've heard, scares me soooo much when it does it luckily it's only ever done it twice though...



    Anyone else had these problems/know if they might be related to the graphics card?



    You have a hardware problem, that's for sure :-O
  • Reply 39 of 50
    nvidia2008nvidia2008 Posts: 9,262member
    Although clearly I am very biased, I think this is overall good for nVidia and Apple.



    Here's my take. nVidia chipsets and GPUs, are still very good. But Apple, is making it clear, "Yes, there were screw ups. But we've still got confidence in nVidia. So we'll fix the mistakes, and going forward, we're still confident in nVidia and how it will take Macs to the next level..."
  • Reply 40 of 50
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nvidia2008 View Post


    Although clearly I am very biased, I think this is overall good for nVidia and Apple.



    Here's my take. nVidia chipsets and GPUs, are still very good. But Apple, is making it clear, "Yes, there were screw ups. But we've still got confidence in nVidia. So we'll fix the mistakes, and going forward, we're still confident in nVidia and how it will take Macs to the next level..."



    I just wonder what advantages Apple would see in them.
Sign In or Register to comment.