abelliveau

Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

I have an early 2011 MacBook Pro (2.2 GHz Intel Core i7, 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 memory) running OS 10.8.2.  It has two graphics components: an AMD Radeon HD 6750M and a built-in Intel HD Graphics 3000. Since I've had the computer, the screen would get a blue tint when the computer switched between them.

 

However, as of two days ago, the problem has become substantially more severe.  The computer was working fine, when all of a suddent the screen when completely blue.  I had to force restart the computer.  Since then, the screen has gone awry on numerous occassions - each time necessitating a hard reset.

 

I installed gfxCardStatus, and have discovered that the computer runs fine using the integrated card, but as soon as I switch to the discrete card - the screen goes .

 

I am just wondering what my options are (any input on any of these would be appreciated!):

 

1) Replace the logic board.  Would this necessarily fix the issue?

 

2) Is there any way to "fix" the graphics card? 

 

3) Keep using gfxCardStatus and only use the integrated graphics card.  This is definitely the easiest/cheapest option, but to have such a computer and not be able to use the graphics card seems like a real shame.

 

4) Is there any other alternative?

 


MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7, 8 GB memory

Posted on Feb 1, 2013 4:45 PM

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Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

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  • by youx0017,

    youx0017 youx0017 Apr 14, 2014 1:14 AM in response to abelliveau
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    Apr 14, 2014 1:14 AM in response to abelliveau

    Just adding to the list.  My early 2011 macbook pro has this problem as well.  It's just stuck at the Grey screen reboot after reboots.  2000 dollars only lasted me 3 years and 2 months.  I did buy apple care and that has expired.

  • by HelgeCPT,

    HelgeCPT HelgeCPT Apr 14, 2014 1:51 AM in response to clintonfrombirmingham
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    Apr 14, 2014 1:51 AM in response to clintonfrombirmingham

    There is a laptop called the razer-blade, which is essentially a black rip off of current macbook pro's by the look of it. There are two versions, both are "gaming" laptops which simply means they have all the bells and whistle's that top range Macbook Pro's have, the more expensive one has an extra gaming pad or something which isnt needed. Costs pretty much the same as s Macbook Pro, yet if one can get OSX to run on it youd have one powerful black macbook it seems. Research it first though, havent seen one oner than in pictures.

  • by Kanangra,

    Kanangra Kanangra Apr 14, 2014 2:35 AM in response to abelliveau
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 14, 2014 2:35 AM in response to abelliveau

    Same issue for me. 2011 MBP 15". Very sketchy startup, usually fails, and when it does complete, lasts anything from 30 secs to 5 mins before it freezes or goes to the blue screen with vertical lines. When it was alive, it generally ran very hot - much hotter than one would expect and sometimes too hot to rest on your legs. So what was actually happening was that the design caused the system to run hot, the cooling was inadequate and the solder was progressively cooking.

     

    Now waiting for Apple to respond...  This is now clearly a widely defective product, traceable to specific design and sepcific time windows of manufacture. Apple, it's time to act, as you have on other occasions when the design or manufacturing is defective.

  • by Matt Williamson,

    Matt Williamson Matt Williamson Apr 14, 2014 4:20 AM in response to HelgeCPT
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    Apr 14, 2014 4:20 AM in response to HelgeCPT

    "There is a laptop called the razer-blade, which is essentially a black rip off of current macbook pro's by the look of it. There are two versions, both are "gaming" laptops..."

     

    Can't help  but have this thought here... Someone in the market for a gaming laptop probably doesn't care at all about 3+ year reliability--the system is obsolete for their purposes after 18 months, tops.

     

    If you're looking for a competitor, I'd stick with a business class machine. Just check reviews on Engadget, there are systems from Lenovo and (I hate to mention it) samsung that they've liked recently I think. Agree though that you're going to pay about as much for a comparable machine from another manufacturer.

     

    And I'm not sure I can say you'll get better lifespan unfortunately. In the business IT world, lifecycle management means you usually replace end user devices every three years anyway. I seriously doubt any manufacturer puts 3+ year longevity on their priority list. The market conditions just don't support it.

  • by HelgeCPT,

    HelgeCPT HelgeCPT Apr 14, 2014 5:52 AM in response to Matt Williamson
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    Apr 14, 2014 5:52 AM in response to Matt Williamson

    perhaps I should have quoted the post to which my response was directed, so I'll do so now

    What are our quality options apart from Apple laptops? Any suggestions?

     

    I bought a built-to-order Sager NP9377... a bit more expensive, in the end, than some (not all!) MacBook Pros and I'm making an oh-so-slow migration to Windows. I'll not give up my MacBook Pro, but when it dies I don't believe that I'll be buying Apple ever again.

     

    I stumbled upon the razer blade laptop by also looking for alternatives to Apples Macbook Pro which I used for design until it became a paperweight. I noticed the blade's design seems to follow that of the Apple products and had a look at the specs, which would probably blow the latest Retina Mbp out of the water in terms of performance, and with a pretty insane resolution of 3200 x 1800, might be worth a look for prefessionals. I know it's marketed to gamers because of the specs, the price and the branding mostly. However, take away the green backlit keyboard LED's and the logo on the cover, heck, put an apple sticker over it and what do we have? If you can manage to get osX to work smoothly on this, or if youre comfortable with running Creative Suite in vanilla installation of Windows, it might just be an alternative to those with the budget - just a thought. Personally, it's out of budget, just like a new Macbook Pro and I'll probably never invest so much money in any computer again that I can't fix myself by replacing faulty components.

     

    As Matt said however, companies like Samsung and I think Dell do have other decent alternatives, marketed to the business class/professionals for similar specs and performance and price and alot of the designs are almost imitations to the Apple products, looks wise usualy, not built quality. Perhaps someone can suggest some better alternatives to us, Id really appreciate it.

  • by prYmea,

    prYmea prYmea Apr 14, 2014 6:36 AM in response to abelliveau
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    Apr 14, 2014 6:36 AM in response to abelliveau

    Got the same problem last week and the mac just crashed out of the blue. From then it is getting worse; the boot up screen logo is broken and froze with a gray screen. Need numerous tries in order to get pass the boot screen. Now it is just an expensive paper weight. Bought in 2011 and nearly 3 years old now. Apple this is ridiculous! Spent so much money £2k+ on a laptop that last only less than 3 years!!

  • by faryaz,

    faryaz faryaz Apr 14, 2014 10:13 AM in response to abelliveau
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 14, 2014 10:13 AM in response to abelliveau

    I don't believe that I'll be buying Apple ever again. I just wasted £2900 on macbook pro that lasted only 2 year. I wish Apple company should have died when Steve Jobs died.

  • by Riccieri,

    Riccieri Riccieri Apr 14, 2014 12:58 PM in response to abelliveau
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    Apr 14, 2014 12:58 PM in response to abelliveau

    Same Here!

    Help us apple!

  • by WalterH02,

    WalterH02 WalterH02 Apr 14, 2014 3:32 PM in response to WalterH02
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    Apr 14, 2014 3:32 PM in response to WalterH02

    This is unbelievable!

     

    1st Logic board repair failed after 76 days. During a heavy graphics render the display went totally gray. After restart it showed vertical stripes and went back to gray.

  • by Ellis Z,

    Ellis Z Ellis Z Apr 14, 2014 3:51 PM in response to abelliveau
    Level 2 (260 points)
    Apr 14, 2014 3:51 PM in response to abelliveau

    OK, so I've been following this thread for the past few weeks, and I'm finding it concerning.  I'll keep watching it for a bit, and I'll tell you why.

     

    Back in 1999 or 2000 I bought my first iMac for my kids.  It was during that time I found out about the forthcoming OSX, which captured my interest.  (I originally started programming on Unix, so this seemed like a good fit for me.)  I subsequently purchased a G4 Cube.  Both the iMac and the G4 Cube had some technical issues.  (The iMac pretty severe, the Cube fairly minor.)  Apple didn't have stores then, so you had to mail the kit to Cupertino. 

     

    Apple ended up replacing my iMac with a much newer and more powerful model, no questions asked.  My G4 Cube was back in my home only 3 days after I mailed it off.  I was beyond impressed with their service.

     

    Over the years they have impressed me with their service, which improved to new heights when the Apple stores multiplied across the land. 

     

    One month ago I purchased my kids a 27" iMac Core i7 16GB, etc etc.  Two days later my MBP fried. 

     

    My company has offered to replace my two year old MBP.  But after reading this thread, if I were buying it myself, I am not sure I"d spend the money for one. 

     

    Ditto on the iMac:  Had I purchased the iMac a week later (after my MBP blew up, and after I read this thread), I don't think I would have ordered it. 

     

    If Apple's service is now being dictated by bean-counters, well, then there is nothing special about the company any more.  I can buy (or build) a Windows PC and save some bank.  I'd miss OSX (and iPhoto!), but it's not worth the premium if Apple is not the company it was.  (At least as far as PCs go).

     

    Apple used to have a philosophy to do whatever it takes to obtain or retain a customer.  Apparently that's now gone, and they follow the same penny-wise, pound foolish method that other firms use.  Disappointing.

     

    I hope I'm wrong.  I'm still on a "wait and see" to see how this turns out. 

  • by skimnc,

    skimnc skimnc Apr 14, 2014 4:08 PM in response to abelliveau
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    Apr 14, 2014 4:08 PM in response to abelliveau

    I sent an email to Tim Cook explaining everything and got a call back from an executive person. They were very friendly and offered to do a "flat rate" fix for a little over $300. I decided to take it and will see what happens. I was still vocal that I thought Apple should fix this for free as it is a widespread hardware fault. I also mentioned this thread many times and the executive I spoke to is aware of it. Based on our conversation, it sounded like they had heard about this before.

     

    My guess is they will swap out the logic board with new chips and everything. Since the new hardware has a 90 day warranty I will be stress testing it as much as possible (nothing that the machine shouldn't be able to handle) to get it to fail again within the 90 days.

     

    I'll come back to this thread if it fails again.

  • by Sebastián V,

    Sebastián V Sebastián V Apr 14, 2014 4:43 PM in response to abelliveau
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    Apr 14, 2014 4:43 PM in response to abelliveau

    Same here! Macbook Pro 15'' Late 2011.

    After a week on diagnosis the finally said the problem was on the Logic Board, and it needed to be replaced... what a surprise!

    I think Apple should pay attention and make a replacement program, I didn't buy a $2800 computer for this.

  • by paigoomein,

    paigoomein paigoomein Apr 14, 2014 8:16 PM in response to skimnc
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 14, 2014 8:16 PM in response to skimnc

    skimnc, sorry to burst your bubble, but Apple Executive Relations did absolutely nothing for you.  The $310 flat-rate repair is a standard repair cost for out-of-warranty issues.  The other option would be to have the Apple Store do the repairs, which they would charge based on what was actually replaced.

     

    The 90-day warranty most likely points to refurb parts--I doubt that you will be getting anything "new" put in your MBP.

  • by iLLiCeR,

    iLLiCeR iLLiCeR Apr 15, 2014 1:35 AM in response to abelliveau
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    Apr 15, 2014 1:35 AM in response to abelliveau

    I have the same problem with my macbook pro 15" i7 early 2011. And I have no money to repair it or buy another one :'(

  • by Tengla,

    Tengla Tengla Apr 15, 2014 3:37 AM in response to ckleinastro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 15, 2014 3:37 AM in response to ckleinastro

    I having exactly the same problem as everyone does. My macbook 2011 late was first having issues with the screen. Afterwards the screen didn't want to go further then grey at start up. In safe mode the screen went blue with stripes. I used to do with ckleinastro did and it made my laptop work again. Its now using the intergraded gfx what makes my laptop really slow in loading graphics.

    I made an appointment with an Apple Genius in Amsterdam. I dont have apple care, im actually scared of what its going to cost but ye.

     

    For the people who still want to back up files and are not able to pass the grey screen at start up, do what ckleinastro did.

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