MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze

I'm in the same boat-my late 2011 macbook pro is having the horizontal-line crashes. I'm at a genius bar seeing if I'll get help or if I'm told is just a conspiracy theory that there's a consistent problem with this model.

I just started having the dreaded bars and lockups and reboots Monday.

The Apple store looked at it and basically told me they wouldn't even send it to depot because I have too many third party products (I upgraded the RAM, boot drive to an SSD) and added a second hard drive...never mind the fact that the part that's failing has ZERO to do with any of that.

I've purchased a replacement as I *have* to have a functioning laptop for work, but I should have gotten more than 2.5 years out of a $2500 laptop.

I'm going to get it repaired, but it still angers me.

I ended up with a very positive experience -- the person at the Genius bar was professional, and took the laptop to fix. It was shipped overnight to the repair facility and got to my house 24 hours later -- e.g. I went in on a Tuesday and it was fixed Thursday morning. New logic board, new case (I also had trackpad and monitor issues).

Moral of the story: Have the extended AppleCare warranty service and life is good.

Unfortunately, I've been fighting against this issue since last december (I didn' buy apple care). I never had screen issues, but my macbook pro 17 (I bought it in march 2011, at Orlando's Florida Mall) started freezing. The only way to use it back it was hard turning off, but, since march this year, it don't boot anymore, with a gray screen.

It was a wonderful machine while it lasted...

To change the logic board here in Brazil costs U$ 1200,00 (or R$ 2500), 90 days warranty.

jlf599, try another genius appointment. Results are variable. I've had them replace my RAM. I've had them play games like that. I've had them refuse an SSD. I explained the original drive crashed (true), that is why it didn't have an original drive, and I could give them the crashed drive if they want. So I gave it to them with the crashed drive. They replaced ram (downgraded to original 4GB). Later on the 3rd logic board replacement, depot repair claimed it was my drive and wanted $900 to replace the drive. I explained that I didn't want to give it to them with the drive in the first place. I told them the drive works because I showed them the drive booting a different computer as proof that my laptop was not booting and it wasn't because of the drive. So the genius had it sent back, I took my drive, and it was sent back to depot repair without a drive. Give it to them without the drive. Say you have sensitive data you can't hand over to strangers.

So, finally I got my MBP e2011 from pro repair shop (not Apple). They replaced faulty GPU chip with a new one and now it seems, that computer works again. GPU was reballed with lead solder in October 2013, but after one month symptoms came back. I was advised (from repair shop, that made me reballing) to replace GPU chip, just for the price of a new AMD Radeon 6750m, that was 30€ and shipping back from Germany to Slovenia.

I am still figuring out under which OS (SL or Mav.) my MBP will last longer with a new chip. There are some differences between those two OS, how they are switching between integrated and discrete graphics. Any your experiences are welcome to share with me 😉

I also use Macs Fan Control app to control fans when to kick in.

I will still follow this thread and inform you if I will have graphic crashes again, but so far so good (two days now from repair).

This picture is a render from ACAD (1600x1200p). Before the GPU replacement, I was not able to produce this task without a graphic crash, white, gray, blue stripes, shifted screen picture etc. It looks now that i am able to do these tasks again.

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We've all been ragging on Apple over this issue and for good reason. But it's only fair to report when they do the right thing, so...

After months of my MBP being either at Apple for repairs or not functioning correctly, I believe that Apple finally fixed the problem. The final time I sent it to Apple, it remained there for over 2

weeks due to a back order of logic boards.

I'm guessing that this last replaced board came from a different source than the 2 others I had replaced in the previous repairs.

It's now been 2 full months of no freezes, no hard reboots,and no problems whatsoever. So in fairness to Apple i need say, having the extended 3 year AppleCare policy made a lot of sense. I paid no money out of pocket for any repairs, was offered a replacement MBP if this last repair didn't work, and even though I lost a lot of time due to the puter being in the shop, I was treated fairly and now have a working MBP...We'll see if it holds....

checkout this thread:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4766577?start=45&tstart=0

(580473 Views 5,456 Replies) as of May 25,2014

so this is how apple promote their 3-year AppleCare Protection Plan? or perhaps a coincidence?

Wow. There is also a facebook group with 1,377 members. https://www.facebook.com/groups/2011mbp/

Really dissapointed, it was 2 years back since it happens to my precious 9000 sar mbp 2011 15 inch and till now nobody cares from apple regarding our issues, and it will be two years that i will keep my mbp in my storage room if i did not go for re-flow. As of now still working but disabbled discrete gpu By Gfxcard, useless mbp for my photography works... Hope apple will have a recall program. Apple should care for this issues....

I have an Early 2011 MBP with high-res screen that has suddenly displayed crazy pixel screen then when restarted froze on gray screen. The computer will not boot from Recovery or from Disk or USB drive. The hard drive seems ok when tethered. Hope Apple can fix this issues with so many users seeing the same problem.

I have an Early 2011 MBP with high-res screen that has suddenly displayed crazy pixel screen then when restarted froze on gray screen. The computer will not boot from Recovery or from Disk or USB drive. The hard drive seems ok when tethered. Hope Apple can fix this issues with so many users seeing the same problem.

Estoy teniendo los mismos problemas con mi MacBook Pro de finales de 2011. Al parecer la mayoría de ordenadores de esta serie da ese fallo a corto plazo. El problema es claramente de la fabricación de dicho ordenador por parte de Apple, se están recogiendo firmas para que Apple lo reconozca y comience el programa de sustitución.

Ruego que firmemos todos los afectados:

https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/timothy-d-cook-replace-or-fix-all-early-2 011-macbook-pro-with-graphics-failure

Saludos.

Estoy teniendo los mismos problemas con mi MacBook Pro de finales de 2011. Al parecer la mayoría de ordenadores de esta serie da ese fallo a corto plazo. El problema es claramente de la fabricación de dicho ordenador por parte de Apple, se están recogiendo firmas para que Apple lo reconozca y comience el programa de sustitución.

Ruego que firmemos todos los afectados:

https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/timothy-d-cook-replace-or-fix-all-early-2 011-macbook-pro-with-graphics-failure

Saludos.