“When the new Macbooks came out a few weeks ago, Nvidia stated that the chips they provided to Apple did not contain the proverbial ‘bad bumps.’ Unfortunately for them, an investigation lead by The Inquirer proves that not to be the case,” Charlie Demerjian reports for The Inquirer.
“Nvidia has been in the spotlight all summer for failing chips due to bad materials and thermal stress. The end result is that bumps, the tiny balls of solder that hold a chip to the green printed circuit board it sits on, crack, and the computer it is in dies,” Demerjian reports.
“Nvidia took a $200 million charge over the problem in July, but the firm refuses to support its customers by saying which parts are defective, and what computers they were sold in,” Demerjian reports.
“In a statement just before publication, Nvidia’s Mike Hara had the following comment on the situation. ‘The GeForce 9600 GPU in the MacBook Pro does not have bad bumps. The material set (combination of underfill and bump) that is being used is similar to the material set that has been shipped in 100s of millions of chipsets by the world’s largest semiconductor company,'” Demerjian reports.
Full article here.
Ah jeez, not again. I have to say i was surprised when Apple went nVidia again for the new notebooks, i was sure it would be ATI and would have bought one if it was
Uh ohhhhhh
What happened to good old soldered pins?
I have 2 perfectly fine G3 iBooks, and one G4 iBook, that are all dead thanks to this condition.
Yes, I’ve tried the pressure/heatgun/blowtorch fix… with temporary success…. But shouldn’t have had to.
Having just sent my MacBook Pro Santa Rosa back for nVidia repairs a month ago (thanks, Apple, for extending the warranty a year!), I was kinda’, sorta’ hoping this problem would go away in the next iteration of MBPs. (Really want a new 17″.)
Apparently it HASN’T. Dang. What’s up with nVidia QA people?
Given that Apple made a point of getting a specific guarantee from nVidia before proceeding with these models, it’s likely that nVidia will pay for the repairs if they are needed.
> an investigation lead by The Inquirer proves that not to be the case…
An “investigation”? So there haven’t been any specific problems with MacBooks related to NVIDIA.
Uh-oh someone’s BGA designs suck!!!!
Pins are fine, but probably solder bumps allow for a slimmer design. Pins probably need a socket, hence thicker MPB.
Not sure. Any chip designers here? Anyone?
Ball Grid Array=Solder Bumps?
Just askin.
Nvidia products have become crap.
Too many short-cuts, too many problems, too liitle value.
I avoid Nvidia like the plague.
from Wiki:
bending, due to a difference in Coefficient of thermal expansion between PCB substrate & BGA (thermal stress), or flexing & vibration (mechanical stress) can cause the solder joints to fracture.
Damn. I ordered my 15″ 2.8GHz MBP the day after they came out. I guess the prudent thing to do is to buy Applecare (which I have done for all my Mac notebooks).
DWJ, I’m not a computer engineer, just an electronics tech, but most devices nowadays are SMDs (surface mounted devices), which are the very low profile components that sit on the board, not stick through it. This opens up the other side of the board for use, rather than having to stick in yet another board. The circuits on either side of the board are connected by traces that run through the board — a drilled hole with metal in it joining the circuits on either side. So, yes, SMDs will give you more compact devices.
Just what in the world does Fergie have to do with the MacBook Pro?!?
Rev.A, stay AWAY!
Say NAY to Rev.A!
Rev.A macs are BETA machines.
Unless you’re desperate… WAIT for Rev.B!
@emanon
I agree. After trouble with solder ball “fault” on my old G3 ibook, as well as more recent PSU replacement on 2 yr old iMac, I’ve lost some faith in the reliability of Apple’s hardware/associates and will look seriously at buying Applecare with future machines, even though they get fairly light domestic use.
I remember when people complained about Apple using ATI and when they will use the “faster and better” nVidia chips. I read complaints that nVidia is better and faster, especially for gamers. Now I am hearing people complaining about nVidia and clamering for ATI. When did this happen? How did this happen?
well a ‘premium product’ for a premium price…I think not! While it’s nVidia’s fault, the point remains: where’s the so called premium hardware in an apple that we pay so much extra for? Well we know it isn’t the GPU now don’t we? It goes back to the point I made elsewhere: with an apple you really are paying a significant hardware premium so while OSX is relatively cheap, the hardware premium pushes its price up near windows vista ultimate, even beyond. And while OSX is vastly superior to vista, it alter the fact that the hardware premium is too high (yes, I know, I know, if its too high then don’t pay it, so lets stop whipping that dead horse). WHile it may set you (us) apart to have a mac, well in your (our) mind(s) away, since most people don’t seem to care either way so it seems, bottom line is that in a cloud computing world, osx, windows, etc are slowly becoming irrelevant. Its the browser that is key, not the OS it runs on. Let’s see if the all powerful and all seeing Jobs does anything about it??? (makes Jobs sound like Sauron, doesn’t it- actually if Ballmer is Sauron, Jobs then is Saruman as the lesser of two evils and Linux is the little good guys? So then Redmond is Mordor, Cupertino is Isengard? Isn’t geekness sad sometimes? hehehe)
Do you idiots just sit in the weeds waiting to pounce on any negative Apple comment?
Get a life you retards.
@Brulek:
If you knew your elbow from your backside you’d understand that browsers run on an OS, and the security of the browser is based on the capabilities of the OS. If you want to use Windows, be my guest. If you don’t want to buy Apple equipment then by all means go to Wal-Mart and get a Lenovo for $199. Just quit whining without ever saying exactly what your problem is.
For the record, Microsoft is already dead. There’s no chance that it will be in business as thye same entity in 5 years. I know you think you should be able to buy Apple equipment and software at junk PC prices, but the world just doesn’t work that way.
I can’t help but wonder if compliance with RoHS is in some way attributable to this problem. In the aviation community we routinely experience failed components that upon further inspection are exhibiting “tin whiskers”. We never had this problem until RoHS came along and forced the removal of lead from solder. What used to be fairly reliable components are now replaced at an alarming rate due to short circuits caused by the microscopic crystalline growth that forms as a result of the tin/zinc used in RoHS compliant components.
Apple fumbles big time! Nvidia’s complicity in assembling their products with faulty solder joints is not a new phenomenon. Apple should have contractually required that Nvidia fabricate their GPUs with eutectic solder joints. Obviously, Apple goofed in allowing Nvidia to use the inferior non-eutectic joints.
@ DWJ
Yes, unless your name is Quagmire. Giggidy Giggidy!!
@Zeke: You’re my hero for sure….
well…had you any inlking of an idea about anything (which I doubt- call it knowing sh*t from clay), you’d understand my gripe is about the so called premium price apple charges for clearly substandard hardware. Also inclusive in said gripe is the fact that all this OS-centric circle jerking that fanboy’s from either side egage in is becoming increasingly irrelevant. Additionally it also it appears this premium hardware that apple charges us for is really just a way of hiding the true cost of OSX, which is apparently not too far from Vista. We think we’re getting a premium product with a cheapish OS, when in reality we seem to be getting way overpriced, non-premium hardware that effectively obfuscates the true cost of OSX (since you ‘can’t’ run osx on anything other than apples overpriced hardware).
While the paradigm of cloud computing is becoming increasingly pervasive, and inherent in that is the problem of security, that is not what the issue is about here. Blindy freddy know that OSX is vastly more secure than windows. The point is that operating systems are fading into the background. They are becoming, from the perspective of the typical user, irrelevant. OSX, Vista, Linux, Unix, etc….the average user doesn’t care, as long as it works. Debate about OSes, which once occupied the center of attention of many users, is fading away. Like I said, the OS is becoming increasingly irrelevant to all but blowhards like yourself.
So, Zeke I’ll be sure in future posting to make my point simplistic enough for you to grasp, even though it might be difficult to go so basic…but I’ll try, just for you…actually, since your contribution is not even useless, I wont bother…
These new macbook pros really suck. Now they can flame out along with their Glossy screens.
They should call them macbook lameo