MacBook Pro

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Added: Fri. Jul 04, 2008 5:25am
Posted in: Computers

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Do you own a MacBook Pro?

NVIDIA says "significant quantities" of laptop GPUs are defective.

While NVIDIA has not yet announced the product lines that are affected, they have provided details to their vendors.

And their vendors talk to people, and people have begun to leak information:


The Macbook Pro's use these series NVIDIA cards.

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I believe I'm affected.

I use my MacBook more than the average person: I wake up to it at my bedside, I use it to work, I use it to watch videos on Growing Bolder (*plug*), listen to music, research -- wow, I really can go on, but I won't. I find my MacBook a fantastic piece of hardware, and an excellent tool. Not long ago, my MacBook began to have issues with it's display. Luckily my MacBook is still under warranty -- these things aren't inexpensive. The Genius at the GeniusBar [support guy at the mac store] immediately saw my issue, and said "Yup, this has been happening more often lately - The thing is that it's not the screen, it's the graphics processor on your main board -- we are going to need to replace your main board".

After todays news -- this will likely be one of the last blogs I write on this laptop before I send her in for repair.

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The blog/article comments also mention that vendors have been suggested to release a software update that would engage the cooling fan's at an earlier stage. This may help extend the life of a failing processor.

Maybe a coincidence: I received an automated software update yesterday, July 2nd.

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Someone once explained processor manufacturing to me like this: When you bake a sheet of cookies, they don't all turn out the same. You get different sizes, and some may cook a little darker than others. Depending on how the processors are 'cooked', they may actually run faster than advertised, but are scaled down to the advertised speed. Thus, the ability to 'overclock'.

While this issue has nothing to do with overclocking or the kitchen, the point i'm making is that I'd imagine that not every processor has this issue.

I wouldn't return to the store with your machine and a print out of this blog just because you have this specific chipset. But -- do keep an eye out for 'funk'.

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I continue to prefer NVIDIA over the other graphic chip-sets out there. I have purchased many video cards in my days -- and have plenty of good things to say about NVIDIA. 

ATI - Sorry, you have failed me too often. I avoid purchasing products with your sticker attached to them.