I have a mid 2010 macbook pro 15" and recently it started crashing so I took it to my local Apple store to have it looked into and they told me its a graphics card issue requiring the replacement of the logic board at a cost to me of $340.

Question

I took my laptop to my local Apple store to have the problem diagnosed and they told me the problem lies in the grpahics card which will require the replacement of the entire logic board at a cost to me of $340.
after that I did some research on the topic and found that this was a massive problem on this model of macbook pro and Apple never issued a recall to fix the issue, are there any class action suits in this category currently underway? if so how can I join?

Answer 1

I also have a mid-2010 Macbook Pro 15". Also, I had paid $100 for Apple Developer account and I can't even use Xcode or Unity3D to work on my game because the moment I write a line of code, my computer crashes. Scratch that, I used to have an Apple Developer account (I let it expire a couple of weeks ago). It hasn't been of much use since my Macbook Pro crashes 15 times a day.\
A month after buying a mid-2010 Macbook Pro 15" directly from Apple, it began to crash. At first, I assumed it was my fault as I had been messing around with Bootcamp and doing other heavy stuff, but I quickly learned it would randomly decide to shutdown regardless of the task at hand. I was very busy at the time. I was a fledgling teacher in France, and I hardly had any time, or money, to put toward a 84 euro train ticket to Paris. Also, OS X updates were around the corner (Lion, Mountain Lion), so I held out, hoping the issue would be resolved with the updates.
During my investigation of the issue, I did find the TS4088 article. It recommended I install some updates, and then it described a problem that seemed similar to my own, but the order in which the problems occured, as described in the TS4088 article, did not follow the same pattern that my computer had been experiencing–there was no gray or black screen after the restart warning message when my mac crashed. The first time I found TS4088 on Apple's Support page (at a time when their product recalls were easier to locate before they redesigned their website), it was a couple of months after I had bought the computer. I reasoned that my Macbook Pro must not be suffering from the same issues as I had never seen the video freeze or go black before seeing a restart message. The restart warning message is the last thing I saw, no loss of video or black(or gray) screen afterwards. My computer would simply start to boot up again.
About two years after buying the computer, and suffering from about 3 GPU panics a day, I searched for the TS4088 article again, wondering if I had misread it, and that maybe the issues described in the article were the same issues I was experiencing. This time I could not find the TS4088 article on Apple's Website. I searched over and over again, but it was nowhere to be found. I assumed that issue had been resolved and the article removed. Now after three years of using a faulty, unreliable computer, I was feeling like a schmuck. I searched again on Apple's website to find the TS4088 article, or any new ones that outlined my very apparent GPU issues, but I had no luck. I circled Apple's website over and over and could not find that article. It was only through a link other frustrated mid-2010 Macbook Pro owners had posted on some other website that I found the link to TS4088, also learning that the forum's users were experiencing my same problems.
Based on the language Apple used to describe the problem, I did not reason that I was suffering the same issue. Here's what happens when my computer crashes:
     • The computer seems to shut down. The display turns off, the fans stop spinning
     • The message "Your computer was restarted because of a problem . . . Press any key to restart" is displayed.
     • I press any key, the computer restarts, I wait for next crash to interrupt my work
Excerpt from TS4088
"Symptoms
Apple has determined that a small number of MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010) computers may intermittently freeze or stop displaying video on the built-in display or on an external display connected to the MacBook Pro. In this situation, you may also see a restart warning message before the video is lost or the display turns black or gray."
My computer never displays a restart message before the video is lost or display turns black. My Macbook Pro mid 2010 loses the picture on the display, and less than a second after that is the restart warning displayed. The video would never freeze or stop playing, rather the whole computer just dumped all of its processes and displayed a warning message asking me to press any key to restart.
My issues with this problem are the following:
•The problems described in TS4088 do not accurately reflect what users are experiencing. TS4088 is misleading in this respect.
•The article TS4088 was not easy to find on Apple's website. It seemed to have moved to an obscure, impossible-to-find location that could only be found thanks to the great number of other Mac users who are experiencing the same problem.
This issue hasn't been managed dutifully. I'm annoyed to have sunk money into a developer account. I'm annoyed that I sunk money into an expensive product that does not work. I'm annoyed that the description of the issue afflicting mid 2010 Macbook Pros was inaccurately and misleadingly described and that links to the TS4088 article disappeared from Apple's website when I could have truly benefitted from them. I am especially annoyed that my life in graphic design, web development, and iOS development has stagnated for several months as my computer crashes some 15 times a day. I am, however, pleased with the speed at which a Mac can boot up.