03-17-2010, 04:45 PM

Hey guys,
So im a little frustrated. I was just told by the genius bar dude that my 6month old unibody 2.66 15in mbp needs a new logic board. This is my Third Macbook Pro in a row that needs a new logic board. These go back to 2005-2006. Whats the deal? Is it me? I use my machines for work where I do neuroimaging analyses. These tend to be very CPU intensive but not so much GPU.
So the question is, is it possible that something about my behavior/style/tendency is breaking these logic boards or is it just bad luck?
d

03-17-2010, 04:52 PM

Very bad luck I'd say. That's crazy.

03-17-2010, 04:58 PM

Your diagnosis may be spot on with that extreme CPU usage. Remember laptops and to some extent iMacs are glossy convenience machines with optical and hard drives etc all scaled down to fit a laptop. Your best solution may be a Mac Pro if portability is not vitally important.

Perhaps an exterior drive in a hard box may be the go if you take your work home?

MODS please note the server has slowed down to a crawl again.

03-17-2010, 05:45 PM

Originally Posted by harryb2448

Your diagnosis may be spot on with that extreme CPU usage. Remember laptops and to some extent iMacs are glossy convenience machines with optical and hard drives etc all scaled down to fit a laptop. Your best solution may be a Mac Pro if portability is not vitally important.

Perhaps an exterior drive in a hard box may be the go if you take your work home?.

I agree completely

Clay

03-17-2010, 05:51 PM

Curious did they mention what part on the board went bad?

03-17-2010, 06:52 PM

Originally Posted by osxx

Curious did they mention what part on the board went bad?

I would be pleasantly surprised if they did. The logic board is usually the last branch on the troubleshooting tree and that's all the further they think about it.

03-17-2010, 07:49 PM

Originally Posted by techound1

I would be pleasantly surprised if they did. The logic board is usually the last branch on the troubleshooting tree and that's all the further they think about it.

I guess each store may be different but my old 2006 MBP had a bad logic board and I asked what part and was told bad vram which is not user replaceable the whole board gets replaced and it just was not cost effective
bought a new MBP and so far it has been better all around which I knew it
would be especially the new trackpad.

03-17-2010, 08:05 PM

Do other tech's who do the same kinds of analyses as you do have problems with their laptops? Unless you are freelance or contract, why use your own equipment at all? At least you can write it off as a business expense (hopefully...).

Your post reminded me of a friend of mine who cannot wear battery powered watches because his own electro-chemistry kills the batteries and makes the watches go haywire. Perhaps you have an overly magnetic personality...lol!

03-17-2010, 09:02 PM

Originally Posted by Chud

Do other tech's who do the same kinds of analyses as you do have problems with their laptops? Unless you are freelance or contract, why use your own equipment at all? At least you can write it off as a business expense (hopefully...).

Your post reminded me of a friend of mine who cannot wear battery powered watches because his own electro-chemistry kills the batteries and makes the watches go haywire. Perhaps you have an overly magnetic personality...lol!

-well, now that you mention it, we do tend to go through a lot of machines. usually though, its hard drives that fail not logic boards as in my case. Applecare is NEVER a question around here.

-While I'm not paying for the machines myself (my grants are - meaning we all are with taxes), they are very much MY machines.

-I do take my laptops into the MRI control room which is just outside the MRI room. While I highly doubt this is the culprit, maybe It's not my magnetism but that of the Magnetic Resonance Imager? I doubt this is the problem as the control room houses at least 6 computers that I can think of and aside from monitors going bad, they don't seem to have catastrophic failures.

-To answer another persons question, no they certainly did not get into too much detail about what the faulty component on the logic board was. I doubt I would believe them anyway as this would take a lot more analysis than what those dudes at the genius bar did.

D

03-18-2010, 01:45 AM

The MRI control room is shielded, so I can't see that being the culprit, although it is certainly possible... It really does seem like a run of bad luck either way, but as long as you keep up with the Applecare, it's all good.
As advised earlier though, if portability isn't an issue, the Mac Pro could be a good option for the heavier work, and your laptop for the light usage stuff!

03-18-2010, 01:51 AM

Traded:

Can I just ask you if perhaps your alias is the alter-ego of your superhero identity, Static Lad?

But seriously, and this is the first time I have **EVER** suggested this, but as you're continuously running CPU-intensive software you might want to install and run SMC Fan Control to give yourself an extra measure of cooling.

Also, is it possible that you're working in extraordinarily dry conditions that promote static?

Finally, I wouldn't rule out the nearby MRI as a potential cause. Even though the room is shielded, you have the effect of a MASSIVE air ioniser there, and I was always told that air ionisers in close range to a Mac are a bad idea ... maybe this is why! (Just speculating here, I have to say, but hey ...)