How long will laptop be in the shop?

Question

Hello,
I have a mid-2010 15 inch macbook pro. For a long time now I have been having this issue with the laptop, whereby it will freeze if the video card or graphics card or whatever is taxed too hard. The display goes black immediately after some action (attempting to crop a large image in photoshop, scrolling quickly through images, doing something on an external monitor) and this action is usually something that would make the computer work harder than what a normal person would be doing on a day-to-day basis. If sound is playing while the computer freezes, then the last half-second or so of the sound track repeats ad infinitum, and there is nothing that can be done to bring the computer out of this state except for a hard restart of the system. Over the past year I have tried many things...closing the lid and opening it, waiting for a long time, pressing any number of button combinations from online suggestion forums, resetting the ram or whatever else you reset on the system, trust me...there is no way to make this issue stop happening.
The problem started perhaps one year ago, but was very seldom and did not occur with any alarming frequency. I would estimate that the computer froze maybe once or twice in a month - it was seldom enough that it took me a few months to begin noticing any correlation in what was causing the issue. Over the past year, the problem has grown, very slowly, and as more time passes the number of actions that cause the problem multiply. Six months ago I would maybe see it happen once a week. Three months ago perhaps twice a week. Now, it happens every day and I can reliably force the issue to occur if I just open a large image in photoshop and attempt to quickly do many things to it in a row until the computer blacks out.
I have not sent the laptop in to be fixed because I NEED this laptop. I am a self-employed residential designer and my work hinges on having access to Photoshop, AutoCAD, SketchUp, and many other graphics programs. However, the issue has now grown so that I am unable to work on this laptop...the amount of time I spend resetting the machine every time I overtax the graphics just makes it impossible to get anything done, so I now must send the machine in to be fixed.
I just would like some reliable estimates from people here who may have some idea of how long I will be without my machine. I do not trust the people in the store because they obviously have a bias and ulterior motives to get my business, they will most likely not give me an accurate answer. Every day without my laptop is a day without income. I apologize if this post is longer than necessary, my thought was that in order to give me an accurate time frame for repair, you would need a thorough description of the problem. Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

Hi and Welcome to Apple Support Communities,
Well, there's no defined turn around time with MacBook Pro repairs however, must will agree in this forum that repairs can take about 1-5 business days to be completed. All depends on how serious is your issue and what component needs to be replaced.
As for your black screen issue it seems that you are suffering from the well-known Black Screen bug issue in the mid-2010 15" MacBook Pro. This issue has no other solution than to swap the Logic Board according to this Apple article.To determine whether your computer is suffering from the issue you need to go to the Apple Store and set up Genius Bar Appointment. Ask the Genius to run the "Mid 2010 MacBook Pro GPU Stress Test" it shoudlappear on the list of available tests when they connect your computer to the diagnostic servers. The test will determine whether you qualify for a free repair. If you do, they will either take the computer right away or set up another repair appointment that best suits your needs. If you are not covered by AppleCare prepare to fight off the obstructions that Apple will put to get you to pay the $600+ logic board repair, its just how they work.
Hope this helps and best of luck!
Please do not hesitate to ask further questions...