2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

The EVO 840 uses about 100 miiliwatts, it is a fairly low power device. It should not cause heating of the Mac any more (in fact rather less) than the original drive did.

Here is Samsung's Specification for the drive (all 5 versions)

Csound1 wrote:

The EVO 840 uses about 100 miiliwatts, it is a fairly low power device. It should not cause heating of the Mac any more (in fact rather less) than the original drive did.

Here is Samsung's Specification for the drive (all 5 versions)

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7173/samsung-ssd-840-evo-review-120gb-250gb-500gb- 750gb-1tb-models-tested/11

That's the relevant part of Anandtech's exhaustive review about power consumption. I doubt in the real world that with hard use you will ever get near the levels they stress test the drives too.

The edit expired before I could add that I have the 1Tb Evo in my own late 2011 17 inch. It transforms it completely in terms of performance. My house is totally spinning disk free on the boot drives, aside from my old server (not needed), Vaio XL302 Media Center (not needed) and my daughters old 2006 iMac which is stuck on Lion, has screen glitches and will go in the bin when it dies. Every other of the 10 computers, Macs and PC's boots off SSD and I wouldn't have it any other way. Booting for use they are defunct and the difference in a 2011 is probably the greatest Mac boost performance wise since floppies along with the 2011 imac's and Mac minis which have SATA 3 interfaces. From 1-2 mins boot to sub 20 seconds - once you go solid state you never go back!

The Trim enabler app is needed at activate TRIM, and has to be reactivated with every OSX point upgrade.

Hi,

So, I'm joining the party. :-(

Today my Macbook Pro early 2011 died completely during converting pictures in Aperture.

The screen suddenly has become gray.

After a reboot I see only this:

1. Glowing red apple boot screen (No idea why the pictures are upside.)

2. Then only a grey screen....

I'm using a Samsung 830 Pro SSD since 3 years

I'm really disappointed. 😟😟😟

please send ALL letters to ireland (by the way: i wonder why the european headquarter is in IRELAND... maybe because they don't make enough profit and thus can save some taxes...) or to cupertino

i mailed a letter (not very friendly) posted it here (page 559)

and got a very friendly yet meaningless letter back a few days ago

but now i have an apple case number - so i can refer to this if my 3. logicboard will die as well

i think the more cases they have to open to this issue the better (sorry if my english is bad...)

here is the reply again:

I know you will always disagree and that is fine if you disagree with an opinion but it is not when you disagree with a fact , yes every BGA chip on the logic board will have dust around it and they all fail and that is why in some logic boards they get CPU failure but it happens more often with the GPU for a reason , the next two pictures might be enough to show why ..

you can clearly see that the dust concentrates more around the GPU chip due to its location on the board at the rear edge of the computer close to the ventilation area and the air circulation inside the computer , the CPU has a lot of dust as well but still far less than the GPU , that dust doesn't just stay around the chip , it actually penetrates under the chip around the solder, the nano particles of that dust is what goes under the solder with the help of humidity and over time starts to form a layer of isolating dirt and at the end one or more of the solder points will fail and result in all the problem that people are suffering with these computers , I repaired at least 25000 BGA packages in every electronic device and the reason I am saying it is not an opinion is that its what I find almost every time I get to reball one of these failed devices so its a fact and I don't know why you keep denying it, the material if it is leaded solder or leadfree won't make any difference and always remember that leadfree solder lasted for over three years in these computers and I don't think that leaded solder will give a better result or will even similar.

I can't say for MBP 13inch... but on macbook air if something gets hot that is CPU - only. In furmark test MBA2013 gets CPU A proximity to 90°C (CPU A diode max 105°C) while everything else on the logic board does not pass 60°C.

The same furmark test on (now repaired) MBP2011 takes CPU A proximity up to max 70°C, temperature diode to 90°C (and cpu cores up to 96°C) while the discrete GPU gets hot up to 99°C and the GPU diode (strangely to me) shows 79°C. (I did not made repasting, because it is under short time warranty)

here are max values I got

+17,001:Add My little Baby to the list. I came home today booted the £apptop and was greeted by the Apple logo then grey screen then blue, never getting to the desktop. When I picked it up I noticed the bottom was way hotter than I have ever noticed before. After continued force shut downs and restarts I have been continually unable too get past the blue screen of death. I have a genius bar appointment tomorrow afternoon, any advice? MacBook pro 2.0 quad early 2011 8gigs ram and apple 256 ssd.

Hello And Thanks to Everyones troubleshooting suggestions and Best to all those Suffering this Manufacturing Faux Pas. My early 15" macbook problem went Grey Blue Screen 2 days ago on Saturday afternoon which I posted in this thread that day. Took it to an Apple Sore in Los Angeles today who diagnosed it as an Instant GPU Failure and offered either a $510 or $310 assembly / replacement option, both of which I Passed On.

Now I go home and read about this wrapping in a blanket quick fix and was about to try it when I stumbled on to this solution that has temporarily fixed the Dead GPU for Me.

Please TRY, I turned it upside down and opened the lower case as pictured below, about a 10 to 15 degree angle and pressed the power button. To My pleasant surprise a few moments later it Booted Perfectly to My desktop!!!!! Here is a picture of it laying upside down.

Please let Me know if this works for You because it might strengthen the obvious fact that the GPU card is Not seated properly in its Socket of some of these malfunctioning machines and gravity might aid in a proper diagnosis. Looking Forward, Stu

Since Monday, I'm also a member of the club. My Early 2011 17" shows colorful lines on the OS selection, but does not boot any more. 😟

Let's see what the Genius may say. Have an appointment on Monday.

Hello, If it is not booting past apple logo/grey or blue screen please try this, and yes it worked for me. Turn the macbook upside down then press the power key and wait a few minutes, it might make it to the desktop as mine has.

timdastis wrote:

Does this suffice as a barebones system error? Occurred after format and fresh install - I'll be going to Apple store today to demand they do something at no cost to me

Can I ask what version of OSX are you upgrading from, and what model/age is this Mac. (and is it modified with additional Ram or larger hard drive)

I think that is an enlightening explanation. It actually DOES explain what the actual problem is and what causes it.

The bumps in the underfill are the real problem with these chips.

The cause of the ball problems is the terrible cooling of these machines in combination with the 'hot running' chips.

You are trying to fix a hardware problem using a software and that is why its not going to work, I explained before that the dust that gets under the solder that attaches the GPU chip to the logic board and cause bad connection is the root of the problem , some people thought that it make no sense that dust can not just go under the chip but also under the solder so I would like to share few pictures to show an example of that so people can see for real that it really what happens and what ends up breaking these computers , the pictures is not a MacBook , it is from a logic board of an Alienware computer that uses the same concept of having both CPU and GPU attached to the logic board , its as expensive computer as MacBook and probably even more expensive yet it is affected by the same problem

This picture is for the area under the graphics chip , you can clearly see a brown residue on almost every soldering pad and that all accumulated under the solder over time by dust and humidity and ended up causing bad connection between the GPU chip and the logic board which lead to a malfunctioning computer.

This picture is for the same area after removing the old solder and cleaning all the soldering pads like new again ready to reattach the reballing chip, by comparing the two pictures you will clearly and easily see the difference and see why this logic board did not function correctly before this repair.

This picture is just to show that this logic board has the core i7 CPU attached to the board, the same concept used by Apple in MacBook Pro but as I said it is an Alienware computer. After reattaching the reballed chip this computer is back to life and is now working as good as new. This is the only procedure that will fix the graphics problem in MacBook pro and no software can replace it So want your computer fixed right find a Reballer to fix it for you and good luck.

i didn't change anything (except more RAM - i ordered it like that at the beginning) i am even still running 10.6.8!

nevertheless: 3 logicboard replacements because of graphic card issue

it was surely the graphic card issue, for example i could crash my computer only by check and uncheck this (see picture "energy saver" sorry it's german) or by opening photoshop - and after this it would only boot to blue or white screen (only after many many attempts - pram, smc, "fsck -fy"… and stuff - it would eventually reboot so that i could run time machine at least…) typical is that when it starts (for example suddenly a black screen!) it is only sometimes (more like a defective contact) but after short time it will get worse and in the end you are not able to do anything that uses the gpu (it died)

+1 Same deal here, though my 2011 15" MBP has been fine until Yosemite. I have been running my MBP with a Thunderbolt Display for 3+ years (ironically, my Apple Care just ended 2 days ago... seems eerily suspicious that now I begin to have problems). I have worked extensively in Lightroom, Photoshop, Final Cut, Premiere and other graphic intensive programs (no 3D stuff though) with no problems until Yosemite (though I can't discern if this was the culprit or just coincidence).

So, I had lockups, spontaneous restarts, the kernel panic screen, striped and split screen issues all that have been reported here. Seeing that I have just been upgrading OS X over the years, I decided to wipe everything and start over. I had Mavericks on a USB stick so I went ahead and installed that, then upgraded to Yosemite once Mavs was up and running.

I then proceeded to install my Creative Cloud apps, and attached my Thunderbolt display only to see the issue continue. I have not seen the kernel panic screen, but if I hook up my Thunderbolt, the Mac pretty much locks up with a "double exposed" screen image and I need a restart. I also see the attached dialog popup, so there's that.

The Mac seem stable now, but I'm just running Safari. I've turned off all the Transparency, Genie effects and other tips "to improve" performance on Yosemite.

I guess I'll look for firmware updates et al. I have an appt with a "Genius" on Saturday, they were booked 4 days out on Bar reservations.

$0.02,

Zach