Back in July, Nvidia issued a filing to the US Securities and Exchange commission, taking a $150 million to $200 million charge to cover repair expenses related to a packaging defect that affected the Nvidia graphic chipsets equipped on some mobile computers, included notebooks by Dell and Hewlett-Packard.

Nvidia have said that the 15-inch and 17-inch Apple MacBook Pro models produced between May 2007 and September 2008, which feature the Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics chip – the model with the flaw – were not affected by the issue, whose symptoms are “distorted or scrambled video on the computer screen [or] no video on the computer screen (or external display) even though the computer is on.”

In a statement released by Nvidia, they comment that their analysis of the Apple portable computers "showed that a failure in an Apple MacBook Pro notebook is remote." Not relying on Nvidia’s word alone, Apple has done their own testing and has concluded that some models of the MacBook Pro may be affected yet. For this reason Apple has offered to repair MacBook Pros free of charge if their Nvidia graphics chips have failed, or fail within two years of the computer’s purchase date. Apple is also giving refunds to people who have paid for the graphics chips on their MacBook Pro laptops to be repaired.

Some customers have objected to the computer manufacturer’s refusal to replace the chip unless it actually fails, as well as to the way Nvidia have “handled” the problem in the past with the other affected models, by implementing software changes which turn the cooling fan on the chipset to be permanently turned on (the failure is believed to be related to overheat issues) thus producing a lot of noise.

Nvidia has not taken offense at Apple’s decision, recognizing that the computer maker is ultimately best able to assess the reliability of their systems. The company "has worked diligently with Apple, as we have done with all of our customers and partners," according to Nvidia director of PR and events Derek Perez.

“Our analysis shows that a failure in an Apple MacBook Pro notebook is remote. However, Apple, like other OEMs, decides on their own how to handle their warranty and repair programs, based upon their own quality standards. Regardless, we stand by our products, thus the reason why we set aside such a large reserve, and we have and will continue to work closely with Apple and their customers,” said Perez.

You can determine which graphics chip is equipped on your MacBook Pro by selecting ‘About this Mac’ from the Apple menu, clicking on the ‘More Info’ button, and selecting the Graphics/Displays tab. System Profiler will tell you what chipset model is installed on your MacBook Pro.