NVIDIA issue: Apple not agreeing to replace logic board

Question

Hi,
I have a 15" MBP purchased in Oct 2007.
This is what happened.
Watching videos, screen starts flickering, Then hanged. So rebooted manually. Happened 3-4 times and after that system won't boot.
Display comes, sound comes and then comes to gray screen of death.
Took it to ASP, guy says software issue and asks me to repair. I go home run the diagnostic test and get the error:
4VDC/1/40000003: VideoController.
Googled and found out about the NVDIA 8600M graphics processor issue.
Went back to ASP very happy that problem occurred with just 2 months remaining for the 4 yr warranty.
Then begins my ordeal.
ASP says because of the kernel panic, they cannot run any diagnostic test to confirm if its only GPP issue. They say some other component on logic board has failed so cannot give free replacement.
Raise it with Customer care who puts me through Customer Relationship Manager, she says she'll have Apple engineers validate it.
Comes back next day, says Apple engg ran test and found out its not GPP issue. I ask for results confirming it. She says I can get those from ASP.
Next day go to ASP, ask for results, they say we could never run any test.
I am a bit of technical guy myself. I understand that any malfunctioning hardware can cause kernel panic and graphics processor is pretty important one.
So what I don't understand is, how can Apple say its not NVDIA issue, without even running any test.
Called up customer care again, (this time was connected to different relationship manager) she kept saying the same thing, we did our test and find to connection to GPP issue. I asked her to put me through some technical person. She said she would do it and am waiting for the same.
What I find very frustrating is that I have found many instances where people found the same issues as mine and they got a free replacement of the logic board. Then why in my case Apple is not willing to accept that this is the same problem.
I need help from folks over here. What really are my options? What should I do?
I am hoping the Apple technical person understands what I am saying. But what if he too refuses to accept?
I cannot afford to spend this much on a logic board. Will have to buy a new one and that too non-MAC. (My wife would kill me if I buy another MAC and based on my own experience I would be very scared as well)
I am based in India.
Please help.
-Thanks
Nikhil

Answer 1

nikhil_no_1 wrote:
Finally some good news. Couldn't wait to share with you all.
Received a call from AASP that they have got the approval for replacement of logic board and I should be getting my laptop back next week. Yayyyy..
This is what happened today.
Today being a holiday I went there in the afternoon. Luckily the place was empty.  So caught hold of the supervisor and told him lets sit together and work on the
issue. Told him if we suspect the kernel panic to be an OS issue then lets hook up another HDD and bootup the laptop. Thankfully he too obliged.
First thing he booted up in single user mode and ran fsck. HDD was all OK. Then I noticed that the background instead of being completely black had some blue
colored stripes. He probably noticed that as well but didn't say so. When I asked him if it was supposed to be black he said yes but also said it could be an OS
issue as well. Then he got an external monitor. But since the laptop won't boot we couldn't reach the stage where we can make use of external monitor.
Next he brought external HDD. It was detected but again laptop won't boot from it.
Then he got the NVIDIA Test Program on a USB stick and tried to hook it up. Unfortunately the laptop didn't recognize the USB stick. He then got the specs of
my laptop from Apple Site and brought up the TS2377. Then he gave me some nonsense about how my model was 15"MBP 2.2/2.4 GHz (Late
2007) whereas in TS2377, it just says 15"MBP 2.2/2.4 GHz, no mention of Late 2007, therefore my laptop is not part of affected batch. I was like, dude, what
are you talking about, its clearly mentioned manufactured between May 2007 to September 2008. Then he said, this model doesn't have "something" because of
which the NVIDIA test cannot be run. When I asked what that something is, then he just said nothing and cut short that thread of conversation. Then he tried to run
the test on his own laptop and to my good fortune even that laptop didn't recognize the USB at bootup time. It would detect when system was running. At
that point he pretty much ran out of all excuses and told me he would take the laptop inside and work on it. He told me he'll give me a call once he has an
update which he did a while back and gave me the fantastic news.
Although I am thankful to this AASP person for looking into it seriously, this whole episode has left a bitter taste about Apple's service in general.
First I never expected Apple product to go bust in less than 4 years. And if there is a known manufacturing fault then Apple should make sure that the
customer doesnt have to do running around to prove the issue.
The NVIDIA test requires the system to boot up. But ideally the test should be such that they should just be able to take the logic board and verify it somehow.
Its like, if the part has gone little bad then we can replace, but if its gone completely bad then we can't.
Also, Apple should look to fix issues in logic board rather than asking users to replace it completely (in the event they are not providing replacement). For all
we know the problem could be in $10 component that requires a $1000 to replace.
Anyways, enough of my rant. I'm just relieved that matter is resolved. I am thankful to all who replied esp tjk.
Wow.
As you and I already know, that machine is indeed one of the models that may be affected by the NVIDIA issue. It's difficult to believe someone would deny that. Anyway, your persistence paid off, and you should be on the way to a normally functioning MBP. Finally. It's too bad you had to go through all that, but I'm glad that worked out for you. Hope you'll post back with the results after the MBP is repaired.