Apple Thoughts: MacBook Pro Video Warranty Extended

"Illustrating the scope of a flaw in older NVIDIA graphics chipsets, Apple has extended its special warranty on the GeForce 8600M GT in certain MacBook Pros from two to three years. Those visiting Apple's support page for the video corruption and failure issues suffered by this portable generation have noticed that Apple has quietly added an extra year to its coverage, giving owners of the affected MacBook Pros free replacements as late as September 2011 depending on the date of purchase."

I had mine in to the Genius Bar a few short months ago for this very reason. This affects the older MacBook Pros, manufactured between May 2007 and September 2008. Per the Apple Support article, look for distorted or scrambled video on the screen or no video at all on either the computer screen or an external display. The last problem is what I suffered through, but they fixed for free so all I was out was about a week with no laptop and my time taking it in and picking it up. This affects the 15 and 17-inch models, and was written about back in October of 2008. Now there is a class action lawsuit about the problem, that includes HP and Dell owners.

NVIDIA is denying that the new uni-body MacBook Pros share the same material in their graphics chips that caused the problem with the older ones so it appears, at least for now, that those models won't suffer the same fate. NVIDIA initially told Apple last year that there was no problem with the chip in the older MBP's too, so I guess we shall see!