Faulty graphics cards on 2008 model MBP's

Has anyone else had a MBP that fell under this faulty graphic card issue from 2008? I bought mine in summer of 2008 and the screen just went black and has stayed that way. Everything internally is still running, just no display. I can touch the brightness buttons and see the screen go from a solid black to a lighter black, but thats about it. Is this in line with that's been happening with other MPB's that have this manufacturing error? Before paying Apple support to tell me they screwed up, I'd like to have some certainty of what's wrong with it.

That's pretty much exactly how the problem manifests itself from what I've read here (I have one of the effected models, but it hasn't had the issue).

Bring it into an Apple Store if you can. I would not attempt a depot repair just because of the complexities of the situation.

Well, we have an Apple certified repair facility here in town that can do the repair if Apple will issue a case number for it, which I have to pay support to give me over the phone. The nearest Apple store is two hours away.

Drew384 said:

Well, we have an Apple certified repair facility here in town that can do the repair if Apple will issue a case number for it, which I have to pay support to give me over the phone. The nearest Apple store is two hours away.

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Yeah. therein lies the rub. Your best bet is going to be trying to convince Apple phone support that it has the specific problem covered under the warranty extension. How you do that over the phone is beyond me. Might be worth the drive just to know that it will get taken care of in one visit (which may even lead to a swap with a new machine).

Well I'd have to pay the repair shop to diagnose it first. In speaking with the nearest Apple Store rep, it sounds like a repair and not a complete replacement of the machine is the scenario.

It depends on who does the repair. Normal repair for that problem is to replace the logic board - Apple pays for the repair. I have heard of one person who was given a refurbished MBP in lieu of the repair but I suspect that is not the norm.

chscag said:

It depends on who does the repair. Normal repair for that problem is to replace the logic board - Apple pays for the repair. I have heard of one person who was given a refurbished MBP in lieu of the repair but I suspect that is not the norm.

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Heck, I'd take the refurb if it were offered. Now if this GPU would just fry already!

So tonight, just to make certain of the issue before taking it in for repair, I hooked an external screen up to it and it came up just fine. Can I safely assume then that I in fact don't have a faulty Nvidia chip, but another issue relating to the main display?

Check the nVidia settlement page to see if that route may be easier.

The NVIDIA GPU Litigation - Affected Models

Also, unless their policy has changed getting the case number is not as cumbersome/expensive as you would think. The last time I did it I got asked for a credit card number that the fee could be charged to. I think the fee was about $30.00. The person on the other end explained that the fee would not be charged if it was determined that the issue was due to a hardware defect. After answering a number of questions about troubleshooting methods I had used it was determined that this was not due to something like accidental damage/software problems and I was not charged the fee.

I figure I'll chime in here, in case it helps someone.

What I did was wrote down the Apple knowledgebase number for this problem, and told the rep "I have the widely known Nvidia chip failure that qualifies for replacement regardless of my current warranty status, here is the Apple kb # confirming this". Then I was transferred to their supervisor, who was well informed of it and then transferred me to a tech who took all my information have me a case ID and said I could either bring it into a store or go to a service center.

My graphics card crapped out on me late last year. All I had to do was take it to the Apple store and they are required to replace the card for free. But they were going to take a week or so to repair it. So I took it to a local Apple repair center and they had it fixed for me a few days later. it only cost 50 bucks to have them do it. But if you're not in a big hurry, the Apple store should be able to repair it for free?