MacBook Pro Logic Board Failure

Hi all. I just wanted to add I'm having same problems and am coming to the conclusion that it is a faulty logic board :( I have been having trouble with my early 2011 MacBook Pro. Mavericks was installed in January. It has had the hard drive and battery replaced in January. Two weeks ago I plugged a thunderbolt adapter to a projector in and the screen went to sleep. I woke it up and then it didn't mirror or woke at all so I unplugged the adapter. At that point the screen went on the fritz by going half and half to anoth "spaces" screen and having 2mm horizontal gray lines going across. I shut it down and then turned on and it worked a bit, but did the same thing. It has now been over a week and it will continue to freeze and do that in between with gray lines thing. Sometimes it does not start up and I will have to try three times before it gets to a login screen. Yesterday I worked for 4 hours before it went crazy. I have used disk utility to clean up the hard drive, I have nothing external connected. I have reset the SMC and the PRAM and I think all that's left is to do the hardware test and reinstall OSX. The problem is I'm in India and all that stuff is in the US. Right now the computer worked this morning for 5 hours, then went on the fritz and now won't start up. It gets the gray screen with the apple then just a gray screen. When I am in safe boot, it's a horizontal blue striped screen. I think this is super odd stemming from a thunderbolt plug catalyst. I also had been feeling that the computer had been heating up more than usual, so think I'll take the earlier advice and get an app to check my temp.

And now after reading everyone's comments I'm assuming I'll have to shell out for a logic board. I dunno if it will be exorbitantly expensive over here or less because of the wage difference. I'm really hoping this will fix the problem and I won't have to get more of them, as I'm definitely out of AppleCare territory (though luckily the hard drive and battery replacement was done two days before flight to India and two weeks before my flight to India.

I know this doesn't help solve the problem, but it's good to see how many people are dealing with this as well. I'll keep updating on what happens after replacement. Cheers.

The first few trips to the Apple Store they unplugged the battery for the hard shut down and this brought the machine back to life for a while. Who knows, maybe if I had a fan controller installed at that time I might have kept the temp down and prolonged the need for a new logic board. I plugged in a projector a few weeks back and had some strange results, this machine does seem to like running another screen from the cable port. Too much for the cpu maybe? It makes doing power points impossible.

You mentioned something that I have been considering -- I started having that same type of issue after installing Mavericks.

I had been using a second display without issue until I installed Mavericks (late 2011 MBP).

After that, the computer would not boot properly if the 2nd display was connected. (via hdmi)

Even without it connected, the monitor shows the funky grey (and sometimes different colors) pixels.

This only started after installing Mavericks. Also, I have had the logic board replaced and still have the same problem with a 2nd display.

I'm wondering if there is something in Mavericks that accelerates damage to the logic board. Just a thought. (I had no problem for almost 2 years before installing Mavericks. And it was covered by Apple Care.)

YEs, I had the computer with NO problems whatsoever with my company and the as I was leaving they did a reinstall of the latest system. Mavericks. Then the hard drive and battery crashed, though I wonder if it was a premonition of the logic board failing 4 mo later. Dunno as I had no problems till the thunderbolt adapter was plugged in. I'll get the osx reinstalled, have this place run some tests and I guess get logic board if necessary. I'm assuming that's what will happen. My neighbor here said you could buy some kind of consumer protection policy for $300 and it would keep you hassle free for whatever problems you had for that year. Could be worth it. I'll figure it out and get back. Installed the fans app and the temp app and looking forward to see if anything helps. I had noticed that it would work on cold starrt up but glitch after 4 hours. I think that may be when it gets hot. Maybe if I keep it under 160 deg, then it will be happy?

Flora82,

I don't know if your machine would qualify for the $310 depot repair... which model (e.g., "15-inch Late 2011") do you have? What Thunderbolt adapter did you use? Sorry if you've answered all of this before - I'm sometimes late to the party...

Clinton

EDIT: Never mind - I saw a couple of messages up that you've a 15-inch Early 2011 and that you were using a video adapter for a projector. You're problem IS most likely the poorly soldered GPU and, in your case (and depending on where you live) I would suggest a BGA reballing instead of a 'new' $310 logic board swap. The logic board swap will not actually fix the problem whereas a good BGA reball will.

Sorry about my confusion - if I would only look behind me, sometimes!!

Message was edited by: clintonfrombirmingham

Well, that's cool. Thanks Clinton! Was living in CA, but have a 6 mo fellowship (2 more months) in India. I use my computer everyday for work. Could you give me a little more info about the BGA eyeballing? What is that and how do I

Get that done? Right now I will have to just use an apple licensed approved provider for this since there are no apple shops here. My friend has a company that I could use their IT department for this as well, so that could help out. Thank you so much for the advice and help all!

I Googled "India macbok pro bga reballing" and came up with a number of hits - http://laptoprepairexperts.net/ being on of the top of the list.

See this wiki article on Soldering>Reballing -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reballing#REBALLING.

Best of luck - shame that this didn't happen after you got back to CA because there's an excellent MacBook Pro repair shop there -> http://www.ps3specialist.com/.

You needn't go to a genuine Apple Store or AASP - just a MacBook Pro reballing specialist.

Good luck,

Clinton

huzzah! Thank you Clinton! Yes, the one in CA looks great. I dunno if i'll be able to last long. I'm debating on seeing how long the temp control/fan control/unchecking of changing graphics card/no energy saving so the computer doesn't go to sleep changes will offer me. If it's 2 mo time, then I can get it done when back in CA. If it's just frustration and I can't get anything done at work, then I'll have to get it done over here. The price may be cheaper, but from what I've seen, the quality of work isn't always up to par. I'll let you know how it goes over here. There may be hope! Thank you again! ps, how do you know all this stuff! I read 20 + pages of this forum and didn't see this info!!

Flora82,

I've read just about every message on 4-5 threads here all dealing with the problems with the 2011 models - I was a 'victim' with my own 15" Late 2011 model. Had the logic board replaced (I'm still under AppleCare until March of 2015) in January and no problems since then. But, as many people have noted throughout these discussions, some have had their logic board replaced 2-4 times (though, usually, with the 4th failure, they usually get a free replacement).

There are threads here that are over a year old - and growing.

Good luck,

Clinton

Wonderful, well thank you so much for your time 🙂 I'm taking to a place in Bangalore mentioned on another post in apple forums where the logicboard was at fault. Some guy said Microworld in malleshwaram Bangalore. I took it in today asking for a BGA reballing. One day to diagnose, one day to fix. Hopefully the English language translation to Kannada works well enough. It seems like he understood. Hope this works! I've got pressing deadlines...yuck!

Best of luck to you!

Sounds as if the repair guy knows what he's talking about, too - a very good sign.

Clinton

I agree with Flora. Going through your Apple Store is a time-honored way of fixing your logic board problem, but reballing your graphics chip may provide the most long-lasting and reliable results. It's a complicated procedure, so I hope you'll post with the results when it's done.

Reballing is recommended by many. Read this for more detailed information on where and why logic board issues happen:

http://logicboardmac.blogspot.com

Will post when it all gets sorted.

I Also had a question about everyone's problems and when they started. My problems started after installing Mavericks. I had a hard drive fail AND battery fail. Can't help but think the logicboard stuff is from that as well, although it just takes longer to show. Maybe the Mavericks has more intense processing, therefore higher temps the computer is sustained at and therefore logicboard bums out? Perhaps the tin whiskers start from soldering parts and they havnt found a good solution since taking out the lead.

On a complex system like a computer, it would be difficult to demonstrate that Mavericks might have been a factor behind a HD and battery failure. However, several users have complained that Mavericks considerably higher energy, with increased load on the battery.

What does this have to do with logic board problems? In most cases, logic board issues seem to be correlated with specific vintages of MBP (like the early 2011 MBP); to a lesser degree, the size of monitor (15 and 17") may be an issue. High temperature computing is an issue with some machines (and users).

Information is sketchy, but a thorough reball seems to fix the problem reliably. And so does keeping a machine at a lower temperature (under 160F at all times). Tin whiskers don't grow on lower temperatres - but they can develop over time on higher temperature electronics.

Vi aggiorno Sullo Stato del mio macboo pro 15:

DOPO il Blocco di domenica non mi Sono Dato per Vinto.Ho Nuovamente smontato il computer.Non vi dico Cosa ho Fatto in Quanto Apple se la potrebbe prendere a male ma la "pistola" Alle Volte Può Servire.

certezza non ho Che il Problema Fosse Nella Logica di bordo o nell'hard disk o in qualcos'altro ma

FUNZIONA .......... per Ora!