New MacBook Pros: A bad case of the bumps?
When hard science confronts marketing hubris, it’s time for the guilty parties to come clean. NVidia led us all to believe their problems with defective chips were a thing of the past. That apparently isn’t the case.
In a piece entitled INQUIRER confirms Apple Macbook Pros have Nvidia bad bump material, Charlie Demerjian long-time hack and friend lays it straight out—get a new MacBook Pro, take it apart and let the science give us the answers.
In a nutshell that’s what you need to do see if the bumps (ie the solder and other material used to attach nVidia’s 9400 and 9600 parts to a MacBook motherboard) are good or bad. Good reliable bumps—ones that won’t ultimately lead to a MacBook self destructing—are comprised of about 63 percent tin (Sb) and 37 percent lead (Pb). Bad bumps on the other hand are about 95 percent lead (ie high resistance equals high temperature which yields high failure rates) and the remainder tin. Charlie, in league with some technical types that wish to remain anonymous, bought a new, off-the-shelf 15-inch MacBook Pro in California, gutted it and then examined the nVidia 9400 and 9600 parts under an electron microscope and here’s what they found:
Electron micrograph of a 9400 chipset bump. Source: The Inquirer
Electron micrograph of a 9600 chipset bump. Source: The Inquirer
Again, this is a known problem, one that Apple admitted affects previous generation MacBook Pros that used 8400 and 8600 parts. That the problem would carry forward into the newest models using nVidia’s 9400 and 9600 parts is pretty much unthinkable, especially for Apple which trades so heavily on its reputation for performance and quality.
That said, Apple’s MacBook Pros use both the nVidia (low-power) 9400 and (high-performance) 9600 parts. Other models, the MacBook and MacBook Air, only use the 9400, which appears from the above to A-OK.
To date, the one common issue affecting new MacBook Pros appears to be sleep related and not units dying. However, these are new products and widespread failures caused by high-lead, high-resistance bumps probably won’t become common for months if not a year.
Whatever the case, Apple and nVidia need to come clean on exactly what’s going on—it’s entirely possible that things aren’t what they seem. Nevertheless, right now things don’t look good…
What’s your take?
Related Posts:
December 10th, 2008
Funny, Apple’s portables took three or five spots in a consumer survey.
http://www.macworld.co.uk/digitallifestyle/news/index.cfm?newsid=23906
December 10th, 2008
Mongo, That means nothing.
People love apple because of the nice white casings.
I’m not an Apple fan. The only Apple product I will own is the new touch, and only because it is innovative.
December 10th, 2008
Top Five Highest Rated Laptops of 2008:
1. Samsung NP-NC10 KA
2. Apple MacBook Pro MB166
3. Apple MacBook MB402
4. Asus Eee PC 1000H
5. Apple MacBook MB403
Ya, reliability and quality, ie top rated, those things aren’t relevant.
December 11th, 2008
I bought a late 2008 Mac book pro a week ago, it worked for a while but now it randomly freezes with the screen pumping and the audio making a terrible sound , VERY disappointing
December 11th, 2008
And yet the number one slot escapes them, and the reviews number less than 50 on the Macbooks while the Advent has over 400.
If you sort by best value for the money, you see a Packard Bell, lifebooks and others with no particular reason to celebrate them.
Not sure what this proves at all. The size of the sampling means 20-30 Macheads think the world of their hardware.
Whooo!
December 12th, 2008
That Packard Bell wins hands down in the malware compatibility department—the people have spoken!
However if your one of those that can’t keep their hands off their own hardware, Linux (and a box Klenex) could fix that, though I’ve heard the side effects include warts growing on your palms and hubristic myopia (a socially fatal form of blindness).
December 15th, 2008
@Mongo your postings seem totally irrelevant to this article…
Not to mention that those units aren’t out long enough for any reviewers to notice negative effects from bad bumps.
But it’ll be real nice when your Macbook Pro dies a miserable death just after the warranty expires. And then Apple gets to rape you for new circuitry at 3 times the value to fix it, only for you to find out another year later, that your replacement circuitry STILL used bumps with 95% lead.
So fun! Steve you’re such a Joker, working so hard to keep us entertained!
December 15th, 2008
Tsais,
Pretty gosh darn sure I don’t want to shake hands with you–ever!
OK, so you guys don’t like Macworld’s numbers. How about Consumer Reports where Apple everything gets 80% ratings (at least 10% better than any PeeCee maker).
http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/mac/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207500319
Put that bitter leaf in your troll pipes and smoke it!
December 15th, 2008
my macbook pro just died this morning because of the faulty video card. and the fantastic thing, i just had it fixed two weeks ago..
good job, apple. for the obscene amount of $$ i shelled out to get this machine, i shouldn’t have to deal with this ridiculous bs. what happened to QUALITY ASSURANCE?
December 15th, 2008
Mongo you are totally missing the point of the article.
December 15th, 2008
Zealots often do. I wasn’t referring to MacWorld numbers, since it wasn’t their survey.
The idea that a machine with Windows and AVG and automatic updates enabled isn’t going to be a BSODing, running at a crawl malware infested mess is beyond them.
It’s bad to have part of your self image tied up in the tools you use. Negative news becomes a personal attack and things like PeeCee and troll get tossed out.
December 15th, 2008
It’s irrelevent whether Apple or any PC maker is in the top of any survey or has produced outstanding products in the past.
A manufacturer from time to time will produce a bad computer model due to a design flaw, faulty components or whatever.
One sure way of reducing the lifetime of a computer, particularly a notebook, is to generate too much heat.
The fact that the use of high percentage lead solder is a known problem with previous generation MacBook Pros that used 8400 and 8600 parts is a real cause for concern.