MacBook Pro's w/ nvidia 8600m

I have about 10 06'-07' MacBook Pro's in my fleet that were purchased 6 months ago.. At the moment I have 3-4 units that will not post video (LCD or external). I have tried the Option+Command+P+R+Power memory dump, and I hear the unit chime... Keyboard lights light up as well.
So I've come the the conclusion I have the infamous Nvidia 8600 problem, as all of my problem units have the chip.
Now I've read Apple extended the original warranty to cover these defective units. And from what I can gather this date is really close. Does anybody have the exact details of the warranty? It will cost me $$$ to get in touch with Support, and if these units are out of warranty for sure I'd perfer to save my money on Support.
Thanks for any help,
Steve

Try running the combo update before you revert.
10.9.3 Combo
If the problem is still there, try booting into the Safe Mode using your normal account. Disconnect all peripherals except those needed for the test. Shut down the computer and then power it back up after waiting 10 seconds. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. When you reboot normally, the initial reboot may be slower than normal. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application un-installer. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don't do them all at once.
Safe Mode
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Another Macbook Pro black screen GeForce 8600M question

Hey everyone,
I know this has been discussed to death, but I have had trouble finding someone with my exact symptoms, so I thought I'd ask just in case anyone has any insight.
I have a 2007 Macbook Pro with the GeForce 8600m chip. The computer boots up and the gray Apple loading screen illuminates and loads. Then when the screen would normally switch to the desktop, it goes black. I can plug in an external display and the computer works fine. In the "About this mac" window, no internal display shows, just the external. Same with the Displays pane in System Preferences. I try to detect displays but to no avail, only the Cinema display shows up.
So the computer works fine, it just does not recognize the internal display - but I know the display itself works cause it shows the boot screen when I start it up.
I've tried all the PRAM resets and such.
Any ideas?
Thanks!

At this point, you have basically diagnosed the issues as far as you can by determining what does and doesn't happen on the external display. If you have your original system disks, one has Apple Hardware Test (AHT). That might pick up a failed inverter but I doubt it picks up a failed backlight or a broken cable.
I don't know if you can run AHT with an external monitor. The test boots from the DVD so you may not have extensions needed to fire up the external. You can try--just make sure your external is set to "mirrored mode," not "extended desktop," before restarting from the DVD and you have a chance of it working.
AHT will give you a cryptic code if something fails; post the code and I can try to translate.
If AHT doesn't further narrow the suspects, you'll need to have it looked at by a pro to get anywhere, unless you are comfortable taking apart something loaded with tiny and delicate electronic bits. If so, tell me your screen size and I can point you to some illustrated maintenance sites.

MacBook Pro 2.4 Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT slower than ATI

I just bought a MBP 2.4Ghz to replace my 2.33Ghz. I played Call of Duty 2 and now the frame rate is awful. The playback is jerky and slow. The same game ran extremely well on the ATI card in the previous MBP. What's going on? Anyone else having problems? I ran Apple Hardware test and everything is fine. I have 2GB Ram and 160GB 7200 HD.

Unfortunately there are some driver issues that is holding back the performance of the Nvidia 8600M GT. Hopefully an update will be available soon.

13" MacBook Pro (Late 2009) - nVidia 8400m stuttering graphics.

Recently, my nVidia 8400M GPU seems to have started acting up on my 13" MacBook Pro (Late 2009). Whenever it is coming under a lot of heavy graphics i.e. games, the FPS rate begins to drop - understandibly, this is normal. However, it's predictability and duration is not.
Both under Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Windows (via Boot Camp) the problem occurs and will occur under any heavy graphics. Currently, the only games I play on my MacBook are Source based (Portal 2, L4D2, Team Fortress 2) and Minecraft; all of which have the issue.
The issue is that once the game begins, the FPS is fine, usually hovering around 24-30fps on full resolution with decent settings which is high enough for fluid gameplay. However, 5-10 minutes into gameplay, the FPS plummets to around 12 fps in a reoccuring pattern (demonstrated as best possible below with '-' being smooth gameplay and and '.' being a 'stutter');
----- . . . ----- . . . ----- . . . ----- . . . ----- (and so on)
It's fairly rapid, the smooth might last for a few seconds, stutter; smooth, stutter, smooth, stutter in a rhymic predictable pattern. At first, I attributed it to possibly a flaw in the Source code for Mac, it's still fairly new. But then Minecraft started. And now it occurs on Windows so it must be a hardware issue.
After maybe 10-15 minutes, it'll resume a normal FPS that's playable (or oddly, if the map is changed or refreshed on TF2, that kick starts normal FPS). Once it's settled down, you could close the game, come back hours later and wouldn't have the issue - if you put the Mac to sleep or shutdown, it'll occur again on next boot.
Is this a common occurrence with the 8400M on MacBooks? I used to play TF2 on Windows via Bootcamp before it was released for Mac and can never remember having this issue.
Is this something that could possibly be resolved instore? My MacBook Pro is still under AppleCare, would it be worth them having a look at it?

You say recently.... I suspect that it has something to do with the 10.6.8 you have posted on the bottom left of your specs. I too had this very same problem and it turned out to be some apps that were not yet optimized for 10.6.8 I had to pop the install disk in and downgrade to 10.6.7... problems have disappeared since then. Good luck! Check your activity monitor and see what the CPU usage is when you boot up also check your system memory... After the update my computer the new MBP i7 2.2ghz was using 50% of the cpu at idle didn't notice it until I finally checked activity after having sluggish performance editing in aperture and restarting multiple times.

Motion 4 and MacBook Pro with integrated nVidia 9400M Grapichs?

Hi. I wonder if somebody has experience using Motion 4 (and/or other motion graphics software)with a MacBook Pro 13" or 15" with integrated nVidia 9400M Graphics.
So far I know those laptops are very good for video editing and Photoshop, but I don't still know about people that animate with them.
Thanks for your answers!

Heya Mark,
Thank you for responding. The information provided leaves a lot to consider. Personally I would consider frequent solo layers or lack of expectance for realtime performance for anything moderately complex in HD comparative to simple, minimal Motion projects as originally stated. But everyone has their own opinion I suppose...
Checked out the first few seconds of your linked reel - pretty cool. Like most reviewing reels I only looked at the first 15 seconds since I consider that the just of the reel. Then I went back and re-watched and I was especially interested in the West Marine flag. Nice fluttering of the flag - produced using only Motion? So you produced that solely on the MBP described in your post? What was the FPS on the project file? Have a project file with included media to download for testing?
Best regards,
OP,
With my profession I use many different systems/configurations on a daily basis. So yes; I have tested the performance on comparative configurations. Cinema 4D does not = Motion and "pretty good" is an opinionated statement. Much like "acceptable" or any other opinion you will receive from your inquiry that begs the opinions from others that may omit specific hardware and/or project configurations comparative to your consideration. Maybe you should try going to a Apple store and testing a project yourself on the machine you're considering... Just a thought.
Yeah your MBP will work - it's just that there's better machines out there can produce better results. If your consideration is the best that you can get for your budget then you'll get the best performance that you can get. I described it as "acceptable". If it's a black/white, yes/no question of whether your MBP consideration will work with Motion then the answer is yes. Otherwise you're asking for an opinion that may contain uncertainty. That's the deal. Best of luck on your hardware choice. I hope it works out for you! The lack of responses tells a tale for me. If this thread was flooded with responses form others saying "yeah the 13" MBP with integrated gfx card works GREAT with Motion" then I might consider the hardware. But two responses saying "acceptable" and "surprising amount" tells me that there's not much to hope for. If you're surprised by the results that your hardware performs at then you should not expect much from the get-go. I expect high performance from Mac Pro - I'm not surprised by its performance.

Run davinci on macbook pro 15" (without NVIDIA)

Hello,
I am in the market for a 15" macbook pro without NVIDIA. As i dont wanna buy the cheaper one without the nvidia to conclude afterwards you need it...
So 1 simple question.
Will this be able to run davinci resolve? Or is a NVIDIA needed?
Thanks

The replacement program for that model has expired. It's no longer available.

Need to replace graphics processor in vintage MacBook Pro 17". Nvidia died when installed Maverick.

Is it reasonable to replace the NVidia graphics processor in MacBook Pro? Apple program to fix is long over with and its considered vintage.

Your frustration is very understandable. It sounds like a hardware issue of some sort. The AHT does not test everything, so it will not necessarily find every possible hardware issue. Apple has a more sophisticated hardware test they can run, and often hardware issues may not show up until the machine is heated up. What they probably want to do is to try to reproduce the freeze and then run the test to see what is wrong.
You can run the cleanest system possible, and still be beset by a hardware problem, which can only be solved by replacing the faulty parts. Here's hoping that the Apple guys can discover what is wrong and fix it for you.
Hardware problems can be intermittent and hard to find. If they can't make it freeze and therefore don't find anything, then the next step would be to use it at the Apple Store until it freezes up and then give it to them to evaluate.
Good luck!

Firefox 18 on OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard Macbook Pro May Cause NVIDIA Problems

I upgraded my Macbook Pro to Firefox 18 on OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard on Friday afternoon. My computer froze while I was using Firefox on Saturday. It froze while I was switching windows within Firefox on Sunday. It froze when I was scrolling a Firefox window this morning. I've checked the kernel log, and each time the computer froze I got "NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0xd = GR: SW Notify Error" and some related NVIDIA messages.
The rest of my computer still works. I was able to ssh into it and have it play sounds. It's just the screen that was having trouble. That's what you would expect if your video card is freaking out.
I don't know for sure that Firefox is causing this, but it's rather suspicious. It's the only thing I've changed on my system in the last few days.
If you want to check your kernel log, open the Applications folder, open the Utilities folder, and then open Console. Click on All Messages under DATABASE SEARCHES and search for NVDA.

Unfortunately, the program they recommend doesn't work on Snow Leopard, the version of Flash that seems to be an issue is a really old one, I've already installed the patch from Apple, and I've had my motherboard and graphics card replaced once already. Thanks for digging, though!

15 in MacBook Pro 15 mc373ba NVIDIA GeForce 320M

I bought my MacBook Pro in Mid 2010, and it was running fine until I put Lion on it.. Since then the graphics card regulary crashes. Anyone else know of this problem? Is there a fix about? thanks

i have the same problem in
NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 512 MB
please help me

Are Macbook Pros w/ two NVIDIA cards going to get display switching?

I see that the just-released Macbook Pros have dynamic switching between their Intel and NVIDIA chipsets - will the previous generation's Macbook Pros, with their dual NVIDIA chipsets also receive this upgrade?

It should be a nice thing for the "old" MacBooks...
But I think there's some hardware issue to prevent this feature to be implemented on our MacBook Pros...

MacBook Pro June 2009 NVIDIA 9600 black screen of death

Hi there,
I am thinking of buying a new MacBook Pro June 2009 with dual graphics.
1.
As I read about the issues the MacBook Pro has in regards to graphics related to NVIDIA 9600 GT,
black screen of death, I would like to know if anything has changed regarding the NVIDIA 9600 GT
as it is still the same graphic card Apple is using for the latest MacBook Pro series.
Of course I know that Apple does not build it, however are there any informations that NVIDIA has performed changes on its graphic card that the widely discussed long term heat issues relating to the black screen of death will not appear in the latest model series?
2.
As I mainly use PS for picture editing I also would like to know how much this will conflict with the 9600 graphic card in the long term. Are there any users with black screen of death experience that were using PS as their main picture editing software where the issue appeared?
3.
Lastly I am aware that their are tools to manage fan speed behavior - as a workaround to cool down temperatures. Using this software would it void the warranty that is provided by Apple?
I thank you very much for all thoughts about the subject.

Hi pictureswithPS, welcome to Apple Discussions!
1. I have an original late-2008 unibody MBP that was purchased a week after the introduction. I have never had a single "black screen of death" ever, and I do some gaming under OS X on my machine. The heat issues are, in my humble opinion, greatly exaggerated. Does the machine get warm? Yes. However, any computer with this much power in this thin of an enclosure is going to get warm. Mine has never crashed, frozen, black screened, etc. once.
2. I don't think PS is particularly intensive on the graphics card. It may use the graphics card, yes, but I don't think it will be quite as intensive as a 3D modeling application or 3D games. I would doubt you would ever run into problems anyway.
3. Lastly I am aware that their are tools to manage fan speed behavior - as a workaround to cool down temperatures. Using this software would it void the warranty that is provided by Apple?
No, it wouldn't likely void the warranty. However, if your fans die prematurely as a result of running them at high speeds for extended periods of time, I doubt Apple would be especially happy about replacing them. I do not use any 3rd party tools to manage my fans, and never will. It is simply not necessary.
--Travis

MacBook Pro A1260 with NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processor

Hello,
I booted my MBP 2.5Ghz Core 2 Duo this morning and was greeted with a startup chime and then a pink 'chequer board' effect on screen while the apple logo appears faintly in the background. The OS doesn't ever load because the startup sequence seems to freeze shortly after this.
I think this sounds like the infamous NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processor failure
If so, am I correct in thinking Apple may still be addressing the failure, free of charge. I think it's supposed to be up to 4 years from date of purchase, but given that this macbook was discontinued in Oct 2008, and it's now sept 2012 it would make it very tight, perhaps even exceeding the cutoff, becuase I can't remember the purchase date.
Does anyone know the restrictions to this offer? Do you need the original receipt/invoice? Does the MBP need to be standard, or can it have been upgraded with SSD or 2nd Hard Drive, or anything? Are they even strict on the cutoff date? Anyone have any experience on what to expect? I'm fearing the loss of time and projects while this is being sorted out
Thanks all.

It's a little late for me to jump into your discussion, I only read it when I posted an issue with the same model.
Well, I hope you got it fixed soon enough in 2012, because as I learned in the past few days after purchasing that model and reading up on the issues, Apple stopped the care for this fault on December 7th or so in 2012.
Seeing that people still get problems due to that graphics card, I should try to return the used one I just bought. I might run well now, but who knows how long.

Macbook Pro 4,1 - NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT

So, over the last 2 years, I very rarely used my Mac. I had my work laptop, iphone and iPad. In the last few weeks I started using the laptop
for running the INSANITY workout videos(MP4) during my workout. Sunday, June 30, during my early morning workout, the laptop screen
scrambles like a checkerboard and froze. I could still hear the audio, but the video was gone. A minute later, the laptop shutdown and reboot with message
"Your computer restarted becasuse of a problem. Press a key or wait a few seconds to continue starting up." (displayed in 6 languages)
After a few reboots the sytem would come back up, but only for about 5 minutes, then same message.
Today, Tuesday, I finally found the discs my system shipped with (10.5x), so I was able to run Apple Hardware Test
(currently running Mountain Lion/ software Download)
I checked box for extended testing. Total test time 1 hour 54 mins 52 secs,
Test Results
Alert: Apple Hardware Test has detected an error
4VDC/1/40000003: VideoController
I google 4VDC and find
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2377
"The NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processor repair extension program ended on December 7, 2012. This program provided extended repair coverage for a period of four years from the date of purchase, and as of Dec 7th 2012, it is unlikely products qualify for this extended repair coverage."
Oops, missed the free repair by 6 months, paperweight :-)
Thanks for reading, happy 4th of July all.

Ok, Kaz & Grant, took your advice and went to local apple store. The tech ran their video checker, looked like a small black external hdd labled GPT that he plugged in. After the video fail, he said it "could" be the video card or the logic board. He was familiar with the repair program but dismissed it because he said it had expired for me in September 2012.
Issue: Garbled video on screen
Steps to Reproduce: Ran Graphics Process Test, failed.
Proposed Resolution: Depot for new logic board
Cosmetic Condition: Sticker on clamshell
Estimated Turn Around Time: We'll call you in 3 - 5 days
Mac OS Version: 10.8.4
Hard Drive Size: 200GB
Memory Size: 4GB
iLife Version: 09
Repair Estimate
Item Number
Description
Price
Amount Due
S1580LL/A
Flat Rate Repair Charge, PBG4/MBP15"
$ 210.00
$ 210.00
S1586LL/A
Labor Charge, PBG4/MBP15"
$ 100.00
$ 100.00
Total (Tax not included)
$ 310.00
$ 310.00
FYI, this is the sticker on clamshell

Bootcamp issue. I recently ran bootcamp on my late 09 macbook pro, and my Nvidia 9400m driver keeps crashing? Any ideas?

So I have a late 09 macbok pro, with 2.25ghz or so core 2 duo processor, 8 gb of ram, and the nvidia geforce 9400m graphics card. I just recently used bootcamp to install windows, so I can run AutoDesk Revit, however every time I go to open Revit, I am informed that my graphics driver kernal failed and has made a full recovery. What am I doing wrong?? I really need this to work for school. Thank you all.

Have you made sure you have all the bootcamp drivers installed and updated? If not, get them here. Download them from the mac side, put them on a flash drive, then restart onto the windows side. When you're in windows, run the setup off the flash drive, and when it's done, restart your computer, then log back into your windows partition, and see if the issue still exists. You might've just used bootcamp to install windows, but you might not've gotten the updated drivers.

Macbook pro mid 2010 nvidia gt330m errore s4088

Vorrei sapere se a qualcuno è capitato l'errore TS4088 ovvero il crash della scheda video nvidia dedicata gt 330m, provocando frequenti kernel panico ed altri problemi al vostro Mac.
La mia esperienza chiusasi oggi negativamente con il mondo apple è questa:
L'errore in argomento, appurato presso un centro apple al quarto anno di vita del mio Mac, non è riparabile in garanzia sebbene di fatto errore di fabbrica riconosciuto (sostituzione della scheda logica).
Apple ha esteso la garanzia per questo tipo di problema fino a tre anni pur sapendo che il problema si presenta dopo un enne uso del mac. Quindi chi non lo usa per professione ha rischiato come me che l'errore sia puntualmente arrivato dopo i tre anni di vita.
La riparazione ovvero la sostituzione dell'intera scheda logica presso un centro apple costa 500 euro iva esclusa mentre in laboratorio riparano (alla meglio) la scheda video per 200 euro.
Inoltre il Macbook, contrariamente a quanto riferitomi dal genius della apple non è da buttare perché grazie ad un programma di terze parti gfxcardstatus è possibile disabilitare la scheda video dedicata facendolo funzionare perfettamente con qualche limite oggettivo, solo con quella integrata.
Attendo le vostre esperienze,
grazie Raffaele

You need to make an appointment to bring this into the Apple store. From what you're saying this looks like it has the high potential to be a hardware problem and only Apple can resolve it. Looking at the video it reminds me of my 2007 MacBookPro that had an nvidia problem. That required a motherboard replacement from Apple.

MacBook Pro's w/ nvidia 8600m

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