problems with amd gpu on early 2011 macbook pro

I think Apple is finally doing something, and they're shutting the help thead down now. Repair program soon, hopefully.

I hope so!

But I'm afraid that they were very specific in the last week about what got deleted. So I guess we should avoid that here.

Hopefully. but its time they do something about it. As its not a users fault.

Let's face it. I get notifications from all 2011 MBP-related topis, and every day I have to move to the trash tens of messages of people saying the same thing: "I got a 2011 MBP, same problem here."

There are hundreds of cases: please, someone at Apple, show some interest. We just want the company to take its responsability and offer serious technical information about the problem and some solution hopefully. Applecare is not enough here: these are defective "professional" computers.

We are not the people, who should be scared and not do something we were waiting for a very long time anyways. Customer is the king.

I guess every seller should know this. You dont spend 2500$ for piece of ####.

We would appreciate answers.

other thread is back. They just locked it while the deleted sensible content.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4766577?start=1575&tstart=0

I switched to Mac because of three reasons:

1) I work as a software developer.

2) I have a rock band.

3) I also work as a freelance photographer.

I really love Linux, but 2) and 3) are really complicated on that OS. I despise Windows, which could provide 2) and 3), so I decided to go buy the expensive thing.

I've had two MacBook Pros. Zero issues with the first one (13'' Core 2 Duo) so I decided to step up and go with a 15'' i7 Macbook Pro (Early 2011 model, with the ATI 6750m discrete card. Serial number C02F944YDF8X). Problems appeared right away:

1) The audio jack got loose. I have bought a $2000USD computer that has a 3.5'' jack that was worse than the one you can find in a $20USD radio. There was no way to get a cable to stay inside the jack, the minor movement lifted it off from the jack. Really useful in rehearsals (we used the Mac to trigger Reason loops). Not to mention the stage. This is, actually, old news: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W0rhmzMgBo. (more than 60,000 views!).

2) The memory card slot stopped working. Again, something that flawlessly works in most $20USD adapters you can buy in any tech store. Since then, I had to carry my external SD card slot everywhere. Not the worst problem in the world, but indeed an annoying one. This is, again, old news: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbc0l-t3f1Q (almost 130,000 views!!).

3) Random glitches. The first thing I did after buying the laptop, was to update it with a hybrid Seagate Momentus XT 500GB disc. I had used my first MBP with that disk with excellent results, hence I didn't hesitate to buy a second one. To my surprise, every 8 or 10 hours, the Spinning Beach Ball of Dead would appear, and I was eager to blame the disc for that, since I could still perform tasks that did not require disk access. But later on, I discovered that it was the first symptom of something way, way worse.

-----> ISSUE NUMBER 4 <-----

This issue needs no introduction. It is widely known in the Apple community, so I'll just post the relevant links for you to refer to:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4766577?start=0&tstart=0 (119 pages!)

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4637833?start=0&tstart=0 ( 11 pages)

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2768351?start=0&tstart=0 (144 pages!)

There's even a site set up in order to raise awareness on this issue:

http://www.mbp2011.com/

And a poll in order to gather data from the affected customers:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1PuJ2QS2Ri7fw9HVaNHLQ4OYZCb99zonc96HmhTWEAoY/vie wform

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsGSu8v7DhVUdFNtRzUtRVFIeE50ajJyTWJ yeVRzNVE#gid=0

Let me just address the key issues about this:

1.- Flawed design makes the Mac overheat and this leads the ATI card to stop functioning.

2.- Things go from infrequent hangs to distorted video, and they always result on the same outcome: the Mac ceases to boot, either temporarily or permanently. Most users (including myself) end up with an useless Mac that won't even boot.

3.- In most cases, issues appear after 2 years of usage, which is out of the original warranty in most cases.

4.- Users reporting to Apple got their logic boards changed (prices ranging from $530USD to $1200USD depending on the country). Almost all users reported that the replacement board only solved the issue for a couple months. Something that strengthens the idea that the design of this Mac is flawed.

5.- 0 people got a replacement Mac from Apple after reporting this issue.

6.- There are no intentions of Apple to issue a recall program for this.

7.- Known affected users are more than 300.

8.- This only occurs in certain top-of-the-line products.

Conclusion:

How come a brand like Apple forget about the main reason most people switched over to Mac in the first place?

We want the best quality. We are not afraid to paid the ridiculously high prices Apple sells their machines for.

We are professionals. We're not spoiled kids taking selfies on their iPhones. We're making Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, GitHub and all the apps that makes the computing world go round.

We're composing music and playing it live on Macs.

We're selling our photographs after editing them in our Macs.

And all we get is some mediocre hardware (performance never excelled on this machine, the i5 Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E430 running Ubuntu that I have at work outperforms my Mac every single time) that can't even hold for 2 (yes, two) years.

Furthermore, Apple is refusing to acknowledge this issue and to provide a feasible solution.

Final words:

I worked a lot to finally get a Mac.

This is what I have now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihoYFWq2LpE

I just chatted with a apple representative and he told me that only a few users reported minor problems with their macs. I just hit the same problem as the rest of you. Does anybody know where can I submit a written complaint? Now my mac is in service awaiting new motherboard and possibly it will fail again.

i guess all the thing is in the word «few». I understand that for Apple a few hundreds of users is still a «few» regarding the quantity of early 2011 macbook pro they sold. Mine is a brick for 2 months (cannot even start it up, all the tips i had are not working anymore). I had to buy a new one (didn't want to pay for a logic board replacement has it does not solve the problem in a long term way), lost 3 weeks of work, and i'm very very disapointed Apple does not want to recognise they had a problem with a few of these 2011 mbp. A 2000$ mac should work more than 2 years (mine was bought on refurb on december 2011).

there seems to be weird rules for posting in that thread. it

kept flagging and rejecting my post. I had to post it a paragraph at a time

not sure why?

hope apple does something to remedy this problem of ours

Please add me to your list. MBPro Early 2011, i7 2.3GHz, 16 Gig RAM, AMD Radeon HD6750M.

Same initial simptoms, same result...

😠

This matter deserves a campaign ...

And here's one more to the list.. Mine is completely bricked and won't get farther than the bootscreen. I tried everything to solve the problem, but nothing.

It's obviously the stated graphics card problem. Yet the "genius" at the Apple Store told me after coming to the same conclusion, that Apple does not yet consider this a problem for the Early 2011 series created by Apple in the first place - but he couldn't really look me in the eye while telling me that. 500€ for a 'repair service'. At least they assured me that i would get my money back if they started to acknowledge the problem - for 2 months after the repair. Well, not good enough for me.

It's more than disappointing from Apple that you can only work for 2 years with their products now and have to throw them away afterwards or pay them a ridiculous amount of money for solving a problem they created. Until they finally help us here, it looks like the only way to at least do a little bit against such a flawed customer sevice is to tell all your friends not to buy a mac anymore and do the same for yourself..

Yes, as of last night I too have joined this, not so exclusive club. Is this Evidence that Apple is engaging in planned obsolesce? We need to get some news reporters in on this to help bring it to the publics attention. I too have an early 2011 15 inch macbook pro which is now displaying a blue screen with black vertical lines upon startup. I spoke with an apple "Genius" and he pretty much told me tough luck because I'm just outside of warranty. Nothing I have done has allowed me to get it to boot up without the "Apples Black and Blue Lines of Death".

I had the same issue with my macbook pro 2011 and got it fixed under warranty. My advice to thise out of warranty is to still take the matter to your government complaints authority / ombudsman. In Australia we have "statutory warranty" on everything automatically. I have previously used the statutory warranty argument with Apple to get a MacPro repaired for free ( logic board and power unit) outside of their 1 year warranty. The idea being that something that expensive and 'top of the line' should not break after a couple of years. We expect about 3 years from a premium laptop at least I would have thought. Anyway. I think enough people taking it through offical complaint channels indiviually would be the way to go.

I have a 2011 MacBook Pro and am having the same problem! At least I know now what it is, but I'm highly disappointed as I rely heavily on the machine to perform glitch free during our shows. We had to cancel a gig over this issue :( Apple needs to show the love and get these macs fixed, or at least help in some way.