problems with amd gpu on early 2011 macbook pro

ah, and i can confirm what i saw in another thread > a simple way to make the problem happen is:

- select amd gpu with gfxCard status

- open photo booth

can be usefull if you want to show it on demand to an Apple "Genius"...

I have a late Macbook 2011. I think I am getting the same screen. My screen is dark blue but it appears I have black vertical lines instead of grey ones. It's hard to tell. I get this screen when I try to run Disk Utility or safe mode.

Thanks clovist, for the article. Mine is a late 2011 Macbook unfortunately... there is hope, but I don't think it's looking good.

I have the same issue. Macbook Pro 15" Early 2011 with AMD Radeon 6750M.

Using gfxCardStatus to force disabling the Radeon GPU did it for me.

Looks like a quality control issue and I have expressed my concerns and feedback with Apple.

Spending double the price to get Apple hardware expecting top quality and having an issue like this is quite a disappointment.

how did you use gfxCardStatus to disable it?

How can I use gfxCardStatus if I can't boot up?

I bought my Macbook Pro 15" at July, 2011 in Hong Kong. In earlier 2013, I started to have screen glitches (screen blurring, freeze and dislocation) and I can't boot the computer sometimes.

The problem escalated and I was not able to boot my computer normally at all at Sep 6, 2013. I can only boot the computer in safe mode and when I do get in, there are red vertical lines all over my screen! See below:

I went to the Apple store at Sep 9 and and Apple staff said it would cost me around CNY4,800 to replace the motherboard. This is totally UNACCEPTABLE and it is apparently not my responsibility but a SERIOUS quality control problem of Apple Computer! This is not the quality I expected from Apple and I'm very disappointing. You cannot expect a customer to buy a computer and use for only 25 months before it stops working at all!

Apple should start an investigation and do a recall on all these flawed models! I will not stop complaining through all possible channels until I get a reasonable explanation and solution from Apple!

At least you are able to boot into Safe Mode (even though you can't do much in it). My Macbook Pro Late 2011 won't even boot up at all. 😟. And my computer is only 19 months. I am going to the Genius Bar on Wednesday and I hope they are able to fix it for free (which I doubt). Otherwise, I would be very disappointed. As I have mentioned before, this Macbook is my most expensive computer yet, and I have owned multiple desktops and laptops before, and this Macbook has been the fastest one to fail.

I had to reboot several (really several) times until I could actually boot up and try to do something. I would have maybe 10min, sometimes much less until it would crash and die with the flickering on the display.

I spent maybe a week trying to be able to do something about it.

I'm not sure but looks like heat makes the problem worse so I disabled everything that could help decrease the heat such as key ilumination, energy saving preferences, screen brightness, using the admin user that loads less stuff at startup, etc. Even so, it was hit or miss, sometimes it would boot other times it wouldn't and many times it booted it would crash before I could even login. Once I was able to boot and login I quickly installed gfxCardStatus and immediately set it to use the integrated Intel GPU. After that I did not have the issue anymore.

This is really bad and really annoying.

Dell, Sony, Samsung and other PC manufacturers could use this against Apple. You think you are getting a top notch machine paying all of that $$$$ but you are actually buying a lemon with an expiration date.

My machine has there exactaly behavior.

Same!

Same Problem...Went to the Pudong Apple Store(Shanghai) & asked the support folk if this is a new issue or a frequent issue with other customers,she replied in negative & suggesting me its a new issue.Utter crap! Many users are facing the same issue & I would seriously pursue the matter with the Apple folks for a free replacment since this is kinda 'Cheating' the customer.😠😠😠

Hello Dreamson,

Greetings! You went to which Apple store? Are you based out of Shanghai? 4800 Yuan is a steep amount & absolutely unacceptable,are there other folks in your circle with the same issue?

Thanks.

Hi, I went to Shenzhen Holiday Plaza store. Since most hardwares are highly integrated in a macbook, they can only replace the whole motherboard for most hardware issues. And that's the cost for a motherboard. I didn't replace it now since I can't afford this CRAZY price. Now I absolutely do not know what I can do with this piece of garbage. Apparently some other guys I know have encountered the simliar issues, but some are still in warranty and Apple will just replace it for them for free, no question asked. The attitude of Apple store staff is just like: well not much we can do, it's just bad luck for you since you are out of warranty. 😠 I think they absolutely know what's going on here and that makes me really angry!

i'm re-posting here the message i've post in this other thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2768351?answerId=22938246022#22938246022

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Does anybody knows if it's possible to revert back to an old smc version ? I now have a doubt if this could be part of the solution. I'll try to explain why here:

- few weeks ago i've launched a system update, including SMC 1.7 update. But at reboot i had a freeze (blank screen). I'm not talking about the normal behaviour when updating SMC, i know this kind of update is a bit special, but here it was obvious that the update failed.

- when i finally could reboot the system (hard reboot, PRAM thing etc), i noticed that nothing was updated. But here is the doubt i have now: SMC 1.7 real version number is 1.69f4. So perhaps the SMC was updated at that moment, but seing this number i thought it was not. And prior to this update attempt i never had any issue with this mac.

- then now that i'm thinking about it, right after that i started to have some little video freeze when watching movies (online or offline, so not a bandwith issue), but nothing compared to system freeze / strange lines effects / kernels / and other reboot problems that has started 2 weeks later. Perhaps it was the real start of the problem.

Even I was thinking about the same,all the problems with the Graphics began after the SMC 1.7 Update. It may have potentially caused the issue since it alters many settings inlcuding Graphic performance,Fan speed etc etc & I see most of the users facing the issue from Feb onwards(SMC 1.7 Update was launched on 12 Feb '13) I normally use Windows(7) for my daily chores & updated the SMC last month only & since then all kinda vertical lines,blackouts in the screen etc have popped up.If this is the case then lets hope the SMC 1.7 update has not caused any harm to the hardware! 😠 & Apple will resolve this issue by releasing SMC 1.8 update.In the meanwhile I would request the experts to help in reverting back to Pre SMC 1.7 settings.Thanks