Fried another motherboard

Daughter told me that her MacBook Pro looks like it lost the video card again. I plugged it into my MacBook Pro and got her homework files off of it. I'm going to bring it into the Apple Store this morning where they will most likely replace the motherboard but it will be down for a week. The system is a few months shy of three years old so the extended warranty should cover it.

My question is do current MBPs still have the video card problem? This is the second MB replacement for this computer so I expect the replacement motherboard to last about 1.5 years. I would probably want to buy a replacement before then so that she doesn't lose her system during school. I think that we have enough in the way of spares so that she can get by - I'm probably going to give her my Dell XPS M1330 for the week but I'd like a long-term solution. I don't think that I will give her my MBP as she games and I don't want to lose my system.

 

Did you clean the ventilation at the back? Was it dusty? or another question that you can ask your daughter. While running the MBP, did it gets really hot under?

Defect / Fried...

 

It's a known problem - see Charlie Demerjian's articles at the Inquirer if you want the details. My question: do current models have the same problem.

 

yeah that was I thought in the beginning but it is kinda so-so because most of my friends own a Macbook Pro 2008-2009 models and they didn't have issues with it. We ran programming codes, 3D graphic editing software or modeling software and etc.

 

That's because those ones don't have problems.

 

Only models with 8600 have the problem, recent ones (unibody) have 9600s, so they dont have the problem.

 

Thanks guy I worried as well.

 

"Current" Macbook pros are installed with a 9600 + 9400 Nvidia Card, thus relieving any problems that the mobile 8xxx series had in its glory days. (And seemingly are appearing all over the forums the past few months as well).

So the answer is: No. You will not have the same problem with the video card.
However, that is not to say that you will not have other problems.

 

Dont cite the inquirer.

The new macbook pros don't have the nvidia early-death gpu issue.

 

speaking about the OP, his Macbook Pro has a major defect issue in this case. What would Apple do? Replace and let it go? And when the warranty ends, you're screw?

This isn't the user fault.

 

They'll have it back to us in two days as the new local store is going to do the repair. I suspect that the replacement will last another 1.5 years so we'll essentially get 4.5 years out of the system. We have another that failed after 1.5 years so I hope that one fails before the 3-year warranty runs out. Not sure what we'll do when it fries again. Maybe there will be a class action suit with Apple, Dell, HP, Sony, etc. users. Maybe Apple will take the model in a trade. At the moment, it's an annoyance.

If Apple came up with something a lot nicer in the meantime, it would be a lot easier to just upgrade two systems and eat the cost of the older machines.

 

Apple extended warranties, allowing graphics card failures to be replaced for free. Every manufacturer that had an 8 series card, did something along those lines(atleast I hope they would). I think apples was 3 years warranty? Dell had something like one year i think(correct me if im wrong).

It isn't the users fault(to a degree) and it isn't apples fault either. No one knew that the 8 series lineup was going to have these problems, and apple isn't the only one who is affected.

Last year when I got my 2nd logicboard, it was replaced with one that was "fixed", and supposedly wasn't going to die. No idea if it really is fixed, but its coming up on a year, and thats generally how long they've lasted for me.

 

The notebook that failed this morning had it's motherboard replaced around August 2008 so it may be that motherboards from 2009 are okay. My second notebook that failed did so in August 2009 and was replaced. If 2009 was a good year, then these notebooks should be good. From what I've seen in the Dell XPS notebook forum, where users have had many more motherboard replacements than I have, my guess is that they just replaced the defective chips with more defective chips as they had a ton of them because nobody wanted them when they found out that they were defective.

 

> Dont cite the inquirer.

That's an ad hominem approach. The Inquirer happened to be right.

 

Got it back yesterday afternoon. Superfast turnaround time. It worked as before. Daughter finds it slow after using a 3.0 Ghz iMac 27 for two days. Oh well.

 

lol got spoiled by the speedz! that's what will happen for getting used to a computer on steroids.

i'll yell at my HP 266Mhz desktop PC. It is still with me.

 

And the huge monitor.

 

I think your daughter needs this: http://www.ilugger.com/

: / if she insist sticking with the 27" iMac xD

just kidding!

 

I was thinking of buying a few more of them. One for her at school, one for the office and one or two at home. Might be a little overkill but it would be nice for working on.