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Apple Launches Repair Program For Longstanding 2011 MacBook Pro GPU Problems
AmiMoJo writes: Apple has just launched a MacBook Pro Repair Extension Program for Video Issues to provide out-of-warranty repairs for MacBook Pros and Retina MacBook Pros sold between February of 2011 and December of 2013. Symptoms of affected computers include "distorted or scrambled video on the computer screen," "no video on the computer screen (or external display) even though the computer is on," and unexpected restarts. Some users have been complaining about 2011 MacBook Pro GPU issues since shortly after the systems launched. Those complaints continued for well over three years—outside of the warranty window even if you bought AppleCare, at least if you bought the systems at launch—and were more recently the cause of a class-action lawsuit.
Those complaints continued for well over three yearsâ"outside of the warranty window even if you bought AppleCare,
That's like Sears. Bought a window AC from them, failed inside the 1 year warranty. They drug the replacement process out for so long that the warranty expired, then they tried to claim that since it was now out of warranty, they had deleted all information on the claim and they wouldn't cover it. Took many hours on the phone to even get the unit replaced with an inferior model, spent says in over-100 temps with no AC as a result. Now I sincerely hope Sears goes out of business. Petty? Too bad.
If you make your warranty claim before the period expires, though, they don't have a legal leg to stand on.
This is not Apple's first epic hardware failure. The one by which I've been personally bitten is the B&W G3 data corruption bug. Rev.1 used a CMD IDE controller which sucked, and which Apple implemented very poorly. Works okay in the Ultrasparc 5, causes data corruption with most UDMA devices in the B&W G3 mac. Apple's solution was either spend more money on FWB toolkit (a third party utility) or spend more money on a PCI IDE card, which due to the apple tax was $100 back when exactly the same card with a different rom was sold for the PC for $20. No logic board replacements. When they folded the old TechInfo Library (TIL) into the modern Knowledge Base (KB) they got both older and newer articles than the one in which they described this problem, because Apple would like you to forget both that they make crap and that they will leave you twisting in the wind even when they know it was their fault and their products are not suitable for their described purpose.
Apple is different from other OEMs only in that it is sleazier.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
...You're a gentleman, sir.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
It needs a lawsuit for companies to do what they should, and some people even worship those companies, as if they were anything else than money to them
From the smug "genius" who tried to blame the owner for the problem, who kept asking if they had dropped it, who insisted that Apple just doesn't make faulty products.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
The problem is reportedly due to switchover go greener lead-free solder, resulting in cold solder joints which happened before the 2011 MBP ...but that was a breakthrough year for Mac and so there were far more complaints from those users than those from 2008-2010 and, after all, 5-7 years "is like forever" [T Cook], never mind that we're talking about solid state devices that should last virtually forever. Apple has closer to $200B in cash and is in a position to fix any laptop it ever made that has cold solder joints, but at least could go back to the switchover to lead-free solder.
Repair is coming a bit late for these long-suffering Apple customers. The first machines to suffer this problem are now four years old. Rather than make expensive repairs to those aging machine, Apple should offer these people a heavily discounted replacement with the Mac of their choice. And that large discount should take into account all the troubles they've gone through.
Another poster compared Apple to Sears. That's unfair. Apple's behavior is nothing like that in the 1970s that lead once-respectable Sears to its current low status. A few years ago, a graphics artist friend of mine told me that his firm had been hired to do an image remake on Sears. I was tempted to tell him that'd be a waste of time, that nothing could fix what people think about Sears. Once your reputation is lost that badly, it's gone forever.
Apple is rolling in money. I'd be great business sense to spend a small slice of that money to make sure Apple never acquires a Sears-like reputation. Were I Apple, I'd give everyone who reported this problem to them a new, free mid-range MacBook Pro or high-end MacBook Air. And I'd give anyone who purchased one of these troubled machines a $500 discount on a new purchase.
I've been burned by Apple one too many times now. I've been affected by manufacturing "difficulties" on every Apple product I've owned in the last 10 years with the exception of one; a 13" Macbook Pro that I only owned for 6 months because it was.. well.. crap. The "Pro" label was definitely an affectation rather than a true calling. I had a first-gen MBP that had the "squealing CPU" problem that Apple refused to acknowledge either... but they eventually relented and replaced the system board for one that squealed only slightly less. I've also had GPUs that just went completely tits up requiring a system board replacement... I'm probably forgetting a lot of the problems now, but the most reliable Macs I ever had weren't built by Apple.
And in fact my 2011 15" MBP just happens to be at a third party repair right now to not just fix the problem but actually replace the lead-free solder balls with the real stuff... so mine won't fail again. But I don't care. It's possible it might go to my son or it might go on eBay when it comes back.
My new platform of choice is an Alienware 15 running Windows 8.1, with an Ubuntu install I might also use when there's some support for the 970m GPU in here. I have a Surface Pro as well and it's great. Much as I used to despise Windows I find myself back in the Windows world because competition here is good. As a result, products either work or people go elsewhere; you don't have that option with Apple so they really don't care when their manufacturing processes fail miserably.
I have already voted with my wallet here. I've had enough of beta-testing gorgeous but fundamentally flawed products and defending them to my friends. Besides which, the operating system in which you function no longer matters; it's the applications that matter. It used to be that the best creative applications were on Mac, the best games were on Windows. Well guess what... the best games are STILL on Windows, but the best creative apps are available on both. And the fact that from my perspective OSX has become drastically slower every release since about Leopard is just the icing on the cake for me. Under Windows 8.1 my applications launch... and run... and my system rarely has any appreciable slowdowns. OSX occasionally just decides "Oh hey... yeah I know you asked me to do something but I'm busy over here doing some random and unrequested task to send your personal information back to Apple so you're going to have to wait. My manufacturer's data mining is more important than you."
Screw Apple. I'm done with them.
I have a few iPhone devices for development purposes. The 4S has been a disaster. The first one had its wifi suddenly disabled (greyed out). Apparently it has some sort of temperature sensor for the wifi unit, (which only got enabled with iOS 6 or so IIRC) that tends to malfunction and disable the wifi. The following two units eventually had the same thing happen to them. Of course I had to pay for them because I was out of warranty. It is a quite widespread issue judging from the numerous forum posts, but Apple does not acknowledge it as a hardware failure - their instructions call for resetting network settings or a full restore of the unit which does not work. What does work is, quite interestingly, putting the phone in the freezer, but it does not fix the issue permanently. Apple is a special case though, due to the fact that the average Apple customer behaves like a member of a cult. For example, my boss had his 6-month old Mac Mini warranty voided because they found "dust" inside (it was in a pet-free, smoke-free office in case you are wondering). I told him that they can't do that, even if they did find "dust" it is not in their listed reasons to void a warranty and he simply answered "no, it is official, they told me so at the genius bar and gave me 10% off a new mac mini so I got one". So they usually get away too easily with bad hardware, like the low quality "superdrives" that would fail left and right, the aforementioned wifi module etc. I don't know if they are sleazier than everyone else, they sure are sleazy as hell but the difference is that the majority of their customers thinks they are infallible...
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
I've got a mid-2010 MBP (15-inch) that will suddenly power off and then back on (sometimes twice in a cycle) with no real rhyme or reason. Can any /.'s make a guess as to (a) whether it's the same issue, and (b) if I should bother taking it to an Apple store? I've replaced the RAM and hard drive (1TB hybrid), but those were replaced long ago and I never had a problem.
In related new, they're approximated at 6th place in defect rates behind ASUS, MSI, Toshiba, Samsung, and Sony laptops.
They had a 'recall' for the mid-2011 imacs but I found they made the requirements so restrictive that they would not repair many models displaying failed ATI GPU's.
Their process was "we have a diag disk, and it must say failed" or they would not replace it. Of course the failure mode was dependent on heat etc..so at the store it would pass just fine, but using it at home.....fail, white screen, no display etc..
Where can one find the diagnostic test used to identify this issue? I would like to save myself several hours if Apple is going to tell me I am not affected.
This isn't the first time Apple has instituted a quiet warranty extension on a laptop because of widespread GPU failures. Last time it was Nvidia 8600M GPUs on 2007/2008 Macbook Pros.
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203254
My friend works at a computer recycler affiliated with a non-profit thrift shop. They don't get in many Macs, but they have literally filled garbage cans with dead MBPs from that era. They're all dead, and it's always the GPU.
If you buy a Macbook Pro, get the one with the graphics built-in to the CPU. 3D performance is not as fast, but you know if Intel processors start burning out you'll have plenty of company. It will be hard to sweep that under the rug.
What I need to know is if they will reimburse those of us who have already had to pay 500 bucks for this problem!
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
"Apple is contacting customers who paid for a repair either though Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider to arrange reimbursement."
They're going to cut a check to apologize. Who does that?
free Apple stickers.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
The author cites as background for his grievances a 15 year old computer that Apple once produced and .... a Sears air conditioner. A. Freaking. Air conditioner.
The author, who in my mind is now being referred to as Mr. Dunning Kruger, then goes on to display his extensive legal knowledge by proclaiming "f you make your warranty claim before the period expires, though, they don't have a legal leg to stand on" without of course any awareness of various state's (or Federal) statute of limitations laws on bringing forth timely lawsuits.
And this is given a Slashdot rating of 5, and "informative" as well.
Which is why I get my tech news from Ars these days instead of here.
----- In Your Cubicle No One Can Hear You Scream...
Slashdot is a sad, hateful place, deteriorating like the prostates of its users.
I had this problem, but I thought that the possibility of a repair program never could materialize so... I had mine reballed. It worked great for a few months until one day the problem arose again, and a few weeks later the motherboard just died.
Do you think I have any chance to get the computer accepted in the program?
Has Apple actually fixed the defect? Or are they just going to replace people's logic boards with logic boards that still have the design flaw and will fail within a few weeks/months? That's what Apple has been doing already for people with Apple Care or people who were willing to pay to have the problem fixed - they just replaced the logic board with a refurbed logic board, and the refurb would inevitably fail with the same problem. A lot of people went back to Apple 3 or 4 times to get the logic board replaced because the replacement boards all suffer from the same problem.
GPU is nVidia 320m I have several dozen screenshots of the problem. Yes, saving the screen to PDF or PNG actually shows the scrambled graphics as is. It only happens after severe overheats and is easily corrected with a simple restart of the affected app (game) a full system reboot is not required.
Sadly, a Libertarian cannot force his views on another, and freedom cannot spread as does the cancer known as religion.