hi i live in ITALY
i found that my macbook pro 4,1 early 2008 has no video output, after a while i was not using an external monitor
i' read the article TS2377 regarding the NVIDIA 8600gt problem and went to the authorized apple service
they did the test and the result is that my MBP did not qualify for the free of charge repair
because they said that there is a problem but not on the NVIDIA chip
there is a problem probably on the logic board, so if i want to fix it i have to pay 500euros plus labour.
this left me very disappointed , because APPLE will do it for free just for the NVIDIA chip but not for the logic board which is relatively much more serious than the NVIDIA chip.
after looking around online i found out that i can use the APPLE HARDWARE TEST with the result of:

Alert! Apple Hardware Test has detected an error
4VDC/1/40000003:videocontroller

NOW IS THIS RELATED TO THE NVIDIA OR NOT ???

what can i do? to make apple repair it for free? any ideas or tips

and also if the logic board is replaced will it have the same faulty NVIDIA chip or a different version?


i hope you have some advice
thank you
Roberto

that would be a problem with the video chipset on the main logic board. If it is still under warranty or under a recall from Apple you can take it to them, otherwise you'll need to replace or repair the logic board which is not cheap.

thank you for your reply!

when you say a problem with the video chipset on the main logic board, would this mean the NVIDIA 8600GT?

my MBP is not under any warranty or other
but according to the article TS2377 regarding the NVIDIA 8600gt ( http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2377 )
it would be under a recall from apple

but as i said when i went to the apple service provider it didn't pass their test to get the free repair

but when i run the APPLE HARDWARE TEST , i had this result:

Alert! Apple Hardware Test has detected an error
4VDC/1/40000003:videocontroller

does this mean the NVIDIA8600 gt?


thank you

there isn't a separate card for the nvidia, so if your machine is still in the recall, I'd print it out and take it back to Apple.