Were the 2009 MBP's affected by the NVIDIA problem?

Question

I am considering purchasing a mid 2009 Macbook Pro - 13", 2.53 GHz.

However, someone advised me to beware of the NVIDIA graphics card problem they had in 'that time frame'. As I understand, the video would go out or flicker and in general make the machine hard to use.

After much google, it seems that the problem happened during the 2008 time frame - see here and here and here.

I can't seem to find a single case where a 2009 MBP failed due to the graphics card. Since I'm thinking about purchasing, I would like some confirmation that, indeed, 2009 13" Macbook Pros were NOT affected by the NVIDIA graphics problem.

Answer 1

The 2009 models do not have the affected chipset.

Apple publishes all repair extension and other "recall" type news at this page:

• http://www.apple.com/support/exchange_repair/

You can use a tool like the Wayback Machine from the Internet Archive to look at the contents of that page back to at least 2007 if you are curious if there was a program earlier and it's no longer on the main site.

Answer 2

Yes, I have a mid 2009 15" macbook pro and this is hard to type b/c my screen is full of horizontal flickering. The problem has persisted for weeks now, and at the genius bar I was informed that this model is now an "antique", & that repairs (new logic board, since the graphics card is integrated) can no longer be done.