It sounds like an issue with the bonding of the GPU to the logicboard to me, samianlife. The primary problem with the NVidia 8600M GPUs in 2007/8 MBps is not that the chip itself actually fails, but that it generates temps that mess up its connection to the board as I understand it. If this is your problem (and you have an MBP with the NVidia 8600 processor) then it should be covered by the Apple Extension repair Program ( see http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377 ). If it is not covered then it is usually either a matter of replacing the logicboard, or of finding someone to "reflow" the GPU connection (which is still expensive, but not as expensive as a logic board, requires specialist equipment and is hard to find someone capable of in many areas). Without repair the problem is likely to get progressively worse, I'm afraid. Cheers Rod