MBP's and these supposedly faulty 8600M's

[otispunkmeyer]

im sure you lot must of heard the news stories about the entire glut of 8600M GPU's, the ones used in laptops, are supposedly all bad due to a defective material being used in manufacturing.

apparently this is leading to premature failures, especially on those that get a lot of heat cycling.

you guys heard much on this? theres a huge thread over at macrumours.com

i wonder how this is gonna play out

my MBP is in the shop as we speak for possibly exactly this problem.... i was having major display issues.

have any of you guys had problems with the display or video card?

 

[ubercaffeinated]

hmm. haven't heard of this problem nor have i had problems. i'll read up on it now.

 

[RESmonkey]

you were covered with a warranty, OP?

 

[xanis]

This is the first I'm hearing about it. I haven't experienced any problems myself though.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=515067

theres the thread,

if you dig around on daily tech there is also a report about this, however that only covers HP and Dell machines. theres a few reports from engadget and Inquirer too.

according to the INQ, it transpires that all 8600M's suffer from the defect which is linked to the common ASIC found on all G84/86 chips (so desktop parts as well). its something to do with the substrate used during manufacture not being able to handle heavy heat cycles. this puts notebook chips at a higher risk as naturally, cooling is a lot more limited. Nvidia have been said to of been putting away $200mil to cover the cost of repairs.

however Nvidia maintain that only a specific batch is affected. on the flip side other sources say that engineers they interviewed said NV wouldnt change the manufacturing process or material just for a batch.... so its all abit he said she said atm with no party really saying much. Dell and HP do have a list of affected machines on their sites somewhere though (apparently)

also, i think the latest firmware patch fouled with some peoples machines causing all display output to cease.... whether thats the GPU or some oversight in the firmware who knows? so thats in the mixers as well. theres quite a long 300+ post thread on apples official support forum about that as well.

from where im stood it all seems a bit up in the air as to what the problem acutally is and who's affected.

my machine recently had display problems where 2/3's of the screen just went a solid block of grey. DVI out was unaffected though so whether this is due to the GPU on its way out or the screen being faulty i dont know. the repair shop said they fixed it, but didnt say how or what was wrong...ill find out soon enough. its a good job i have full apple care on this thing!

 

[Kmax82]

I believe my MBP died because of this. I have an appointment tomorrow, but the video doesn't come on AT ALL. Whether it's plugged into an external display, or not.

EDIT: This was far after the firmware update, so I don't believe that's the cause of my troubles.

 

[revnja]

I had my Dell notebook die because of this about a month ago. Thankfully it was still under warranty.

 

[Kmax82]

Originally posted by: adambooth
I had my Dell notebook die because of this about a month ago. Thankfully it was still under warranty.

Yea.. I'm sorry, but it's BS that they aren't covering this without a warranty. This is a known issue from nVidia, and they should make this right. Just plain crap IMO.

Luckily I have a 3 yr warranty, but a known faulty part should not be the responsibility of the end user.

 

[spaceghost21]

Hmm, so should I buy the extended warranty now? I got my MacBook Pro 17" 2.5Ghz 2GB RAM 8600M 512MB in June, so my warranty is still good for almost a year.

$250 is quite a bit to drop but I suppose compared to the cost of a new laptop... fuck this pisses me off.

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

It is... I didn't get it for my Macbook and it's out of warranty. I hope it lasts me another 2 years lol.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

ive read a few cases where apple repaired the MBP when it was just out of warranty (ie a few weeks) because of this failure. they obviously know about it, but really what can they do? its Nvidia's problem

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: spaceghost21
Hmm, so should I buy the extended warranty now? I got my MacBook Pro 17" 2.5Ghz 2GB RAM 8600M 512MB in June, so my warranty is still good for almost a year.

$250 is quite a bit to drop but I suppose compared to the cost of a new laptop... fuck this pisses me off.

i would get it if i were you..... its a horrible fact, but if it does fail you'll be covered. i mean these chips are soldered to the logic board so you need a whole new one and the prices ive seen are rediculous.

 

[Kmax82]

Originally posted by: spaceghost21
Hmm, so should I buy the extended warranty now? I got my MacBook Pro 17" 2.5Ghz 2GB RAM 8600M 512MB in June, so my warranty is still good for almost a year.

$250 is quite a bit to drop but I suppose compared to the cost of a new laptop... fuck this pisses me off.

Yea, I would get it strictly for the added value to your machine. Typically Macs with AppleCare sell for a lot more.

But you can wait until the day before your warranty expires, if you'd prefer to wait a bit.

 

[spaceghost21]

Originally posted by: Kmax82
But you can wait until the day before your warranty expires, if you'd prefer to wait a bit.

That's what I think I'll end up doing. Who knows, maybe Apple will acknowledge the issue and offer extended coverage.

 

[Kmax82]

Originally posted by: spaceghost21

Originally posted by: Kmax82
But you can wait until the day before your warranty expires, if you'd prefer to wait a bit.

That's what I think I'll end up doing. Who knows, maybe Apple will acknowledge the issue and offer extended coverage.

Yea.. they might.

I still feel it's nVidia who needs to step it up and formally issue a recall to get this rectified.

 

[MrTransistorm]

Originally posted by: Kmax82
I still feel it's nVidia who needs to step it up and formally issue a recall to get this rectified.

I agree, but to issue a recall they have to have something to replace them with. I doubt they have a new batch of redesigned GPUs to drop into 18 million laptops.

Still, they need to come clean about exactly how many GPUs are affected. They've had plenty of time to figure out how widespread the problem is. Instead they are keeping quiet while the rumors and fear-mongering are getting blown way out of proportion.

Meanwhile, I continue to use my MBP to get work done. Worrying doesn't pay the bills.

 

[Kmax82]

Originally posted by: MrTransistorm

Originally posted by: Kmax82
I still feel it's nVidia who needs to step it up and formally issue a recall to get this rectified.

I agree, but to issue a recall they have to have something to replace them with. I doubt they have a new batch of redesigned GPUs to drop into 18 million laptops.

Still, they need to come clean about exactly how many GPUs are affected. They've had plenty of time to figure out how widespread the problem is. Instead they are keeping quiet while the rumors and fear-mongering are getting blown way out of proportion.

Meanwhile, I continue to use my MBP to get work done. Worrying doesn't pay the bills.

That's true.. they would have to have product to replace them with...

On the side of getting work done.. I was getting work done until my graphics card died! Curse you nVidia..!!! Good thing I had my wife's machine that she's letting me use.

That's one of the annoying things about laptops, and why I think that if they were able to get the price down even more on the MB Air, that it would become a very viable system for most people. Having a road machine and then a desktop warrior at home, would be super nice.

 

[spaceghost21]

Ugh fuck. I think my video card is dying. When I play videos the flicker and flash strangely and I'm getting strange artifacts in iChat. Today's the first day of class too. Woo, good timing.

 

[Kmax82]

Nice.. mine took forever to get back to me. I sent it in on a Monday and it took until the following Wednesday to get it back to me. Really annoying.

It's running cooler than it was before though, so that's nice.