Friday, February 8th 2019
Apple MacBook Pro 2018 Appears to Have a Serious Design Flaw
Apple's MacBook Pro (2018) with the AMD Radeon RX Vega 20 graphics option appears to have a serious design flaw related to its video subsystem. The laptop tends to show severe screen flickering and lines crossing through the picture after waking up from extended periods of idling (after the display has turned off). The problem persists even through reboots. A reboot will make the flickering go away, however the next time the MacBook idles and decides to turn off its display, waking the machine will bring the flicker back. Most common remedies an enthusiast could think of, such as disabling the auto-switching between integrated- and discrete GPUs, and preventing the monitor from idling, don't appear to fix the problem.
The problem was discovered on a brand new $4,500 15-inch MacBook Pro (Intel Core i9, AMD Vega 20, 32 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD). Upon its discovery, it was taken to the Apple Store, where the employees immediately replaced it without further questions when they heard "display corruption after standby". The replacement process was hassle-free, it looks like others have faced this issue with this MacBook Pro model and Apple is trying to quickly resolve it to keep the lid on it. However, after a couple of days, the problem re-surfaced on the replacement MacBook, too. Both models were running MacOS "Mojave" version 10.14.2.
TechPowerUp staff member Crmaris depended on this MacBook Pro to see him through the rigors of TechPowerUp's CES 2019 coverage, which includes image editing and video rendering on the move, which requires the serious CPU and GPU power on tap with this particular MacBook Pro variant. Video rendering and transcoding tasks can run up to hours, during which the MacBook usually sits unused, plugged in. By default, the monitor times out after a certain amount of time. Perhaps this is the key to reproducing the issue: let the display time out while the machine is utilizing the discrete GPU for something other than driving the display. Crmaris is also the editor of HardwareBusters, and has described the issue on a more personal level in the video linked below.
If you have encountered a similar issue, please do let us know in the comments below, so we can get an idea how widespread this problem is.
Source:
Hardware Busters (YouTube)
The problem was discovered on a brand new $4,500 15-inch MacBook Pro (Intel Core i9, AMD Vega 20, 32 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD). Upon its discovery, it was taken to the Apple Store, where the employees immediately replaced it without further questions when they heard "display corruption after standby". The replacement process was hassle-free, it looks like others have faced this issue with this MacBook Pro model and Apple is trying to quickly resolve it to keep the lid on it. However, after a couple of days, the problem re-surfaced on the replacement MacBook, too. Both models were running MacOS "Mojave" version 10.14.2.
If you have encountered a similar issue, please do let us know in the comments below, so we can get an idea how widespread this problem is.
156 Comments on Apple MacBook Pro 2018 Appears to Have a Serious Design Flaw
At the thickest point DELL is thicker by 0.05 inch (1.27 millimeters ).:shadedshu:
unrepairable.
Honestly, customer service is quite variable, and most companies respond differently depending on the situation. A part of my job involves customer service, and the way I respond often depends on how the customer is behaving. Some customers can’t communicate well or misunderstand what my company does, others lie compulsively or get belligerent to try to force my hand. Some go to social media, the news, or a lawyer when they don’t like what they hear and claim they got crapped on by the company that they just tried to get one over on. I deal with enough of it that I take any of these customer experience stories with a big grain of salt.
Now Lenovo will hold onto you matching for 6 months until you complain loud enough for them to send you a new one out.
You only have to see one of them apart and it becomes pretty obvious that they are not just difficult to repair they are specifically designed that way.
I also worked as a level 3 tech at a major repair shop so y'all consistently arguing which machines are hard or easy to repair without ever touching them literally blows my mind. This whole I saw a picture on Google nonsense is a joke. Tell you what find me a working slimline precision or XPS 15 from 3-4 years ago. I can tell you they don't exist because every single one of them that was sold came back with a bad logic board. :rolleyes:It absolutely matters. Please stop telling me what's easy to repair without doing it.What on earth are you talking about? Plastic laptops piss me off. I have a $2500 acer predator on my desk right now... It's built like garbage.
Would you like me to get specific as to why the apple ones are easier to work on? I absolutely can.
You are quite literally one of the only people that I have heard claim Apple products are easily serviceable.
The board change is cake. You remove the torx screws that everyone copied apple and uses now.
Remove about 14 screws, 5-6 well built cables and the cooler.
I'm sorry if you find that more difficult than the 8 layers of plastic in most modern laptops to just get to the logic board.
Most of the complaints about "serviceability" of a Mac have zero to do with replacing parts and everything to do with a closed ecosystem for parts.
Now if we were talking 2009 and older model macs? Absolutely terrible products to work on. The newer ones are cake.
www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0252-warranties
The product obviously has a design flaw so the consumer is entitled to repair, replace, or refund. Hope the individuals were able to get it sorted. If Apple didn't willingly take care of it, take Apple to small claims court. Apple probably won't send lawyer to appear and the court will order Apple to pay the value of the computer to the plaintiff.