Early purchasers of Apple's new unibody MacBooks are reporting crashing and graphic corruption during gameplay. Users are reporting that their screens turn to black upon loading a game and shortly after the computer locks up and the sound enters into an infinite loop. Users state that once the systems lock up there is no other method of recovery but to restart the MacBook.The issue occurs under both Windows and Mac OS X affecting titles including but not limited to World of Warcraft, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Company of Heroes.
According to Sam Oliver from Apple Insider, users believe the problem lies in a driver or cooling issue, wherein the MacBook is heating up faster than it can be cooled by the internal fans. Some users have mitigated the issue by installing alternative NVIDIA drivers and using a software tool called SMCFancontrol and manually setting their fan speed to 100%.
Some users have not been so lucky and have had to have their logic boards replaced or swap in their system completely. The issue seems to be linked to the earliest batch of unibody MacBooks as users who have swapped in their systems are reporting that the issue has went away.
Additionally, it has been reported that while browsing the web and viewing HD content, "wave-like" video distortion occurs. The problem is said to be visible even on the MacBooks that are on display at the Apple stores.
Apple has acknowledged both issues and is assumed to be working on fixes.
See, OS X IS becoming more like Windows. YAY for progress!
I don't think so. Poor design... on Apple's part.
It's most likely nVidia's fault pal
They didn't do good drivers, or maybe the hardware's (the card) the problem. Not Apple
They didn't do good drivers, or maybe the hardware's (the card) the problem. Not Apple
So Nvidia designed the innards of the Mac, i.e. the fan and cooling system? Interesting.
They didn't do good drivers, or maybe the hardware's (the card) the problem. Not Apple
So Nvidia designed the innards of the Mac, i.e. the fan and cooling system? Interesting.
No, Apple's fans obviously work just right, RTFA.
Lucky!!
Yes, I do. I own 3 and have played a few on 2 of them.
Oh, using Windows, that is.
Wow, perhaps read what you've typed before posting it. That made no sense at all.
I agree with Kirkburn, we don't know whos fault the issue is...
But then again Nvidia may not be entirely at fault here... they claimed that their mobile graphics chipsets were failing because manufacturers weren't implementing them correctly... something like that.
The Intel switch isn't to blame in Apple's case.
Last edited by LTD on 29 Nov 2008 - 17:09
This is an Nvidia-based issue. As to how Apple should take responsibility for it, I'll leave up to others to decide.
Apparently (reported as of August 2008 ), every 65nm and 55nm Nvidia part appears to be defective. It is not a question of yes or no, but how defective each line is, and what the failure rate for each one is. There early failure rates in the teens per cent for 8800GTs and far higher for 9600GTs, so this is not a matter of splitting hairs.
To make matters worse, Nvidia has a mound of unsold defective parts that they are going to bleed out into the channel (already have) along side of the (hopefully) fixed parts. Not a guarantee, but that's how it works. As a buyer, you have no way of knowing which one you are getting, and it looks like Nvidia isn't keen on helping you figure it out either, that would cost too much.
Last edited by LTD on 29 Nov 2008 - 14:05
I don't know how Apple, for example, does their Quality Control/Testing. I imagine if the part were to fail at some later point in time, there's not a whole lot that can be done about it, save for the GPU maker to clean up their act first. What bothers me is the very real possibility (inevitability?) that these bad parts, either knowingly or unknowingly will/have already made their way into the mainstream.
I certainly hope that by now, the problem is understood by Nvidia and they're working on quality control, while Apple is hopefully ensuring that they're getting fixed, non-defective parts.
But this is nothing new. Even before Apple moved to Intel, they were using ATI cards in the G5. The G4 sported an nVidia graphics card, the venerable GeForce 2MX. The G3 (going back to 1997) had onboard ATI graphics (originally IIc, later updated to Pro and then Rage Pro Turbo.) So Apple has a long history of using third-party hardware in their Macs.
This isn't an Intel-related quality issue or an Apple build-quality issue. It's an issue of Nvidia releasing a faulty series of chips into the market. Those that rely on Nvidia for GPUs in turn get shafted. Not just Apple. Only reason this is big Apple-related news is because Apple sets the bar in the industry, and a great deal more is expected of them.
The question is: Could Apple have done anything more in terms of Quality Control to prevent this (or, did they know about this already - going back to before the unibody release, and just left it up to Nvidia to take care of the matter without looking into it more fully?)
Is there any kind of QC testing that can be performed by PC makers to prevent such occurrences, even when the GPU manufacturer either doesn't know about the issue themselves (until it surfaces), or doesn't inform the PC maker?
Last edited by LTD on 29 Nov 2008 - 17:09
I certainly hope that by now, the problem is understood by Nvidia and they're working on quality control, while Apple is hopefully ensuring that they're getting fixed, non-defective parts.
What I find more troubling is the fact that this is happening to their mobile 9xxx chips, and aren't the Macbook(Pro)s the first to get them? All the bad chips were the 8xxx and below mobile chips, which were in, amongst many laptops, the previous generation Macbook Pros.
You would think Nvidia have found a solution by now. Guess not. And by solution, that doesn't include a software fix that pegs the fan at 100%. That's not a solution!
Possibly. I'm saying this as a PC user: most comments above this are generic anti-Apple statements. But I have to admit that charred out PC is funny.
Perhaps Apple wanted to answer critics who've noted that even Apple's "state of the art" PCs and laptops have always shipped with graphics technology 1-2 YEARS behind the PC curve and Apple was unaware of how to properly adjust their cooling/case designs to accommodate more advanced GPU hardware then they've ever had the opportunity to use before?
Maybe it's not showing up for most Apple users (or Apple QC) because they don't have any way of stressing a modern GPU on those machines? No games from the 21st century, etc.
You know, lessons Sony, Dell, etc. learned in engineering high end, affordable laptops YEARS ago.
Ahem.
I was really suprised that Apple chose to go with nVidia. Especially as Apple laptops are about style and design. If they built a fugly brick like PC laptops are , with noisy fans and heatpipes galore then it would make sense....
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