2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

"dxhyp

What so interesting is that we are all experiencing this issue for the first time at around the same time."

NOT TRUE...after a month of owning (bought brand new) my mbp 2011 (17in I7 2.2ghz) I started getting the "blue" screen now and again...And brought it to the local Apple store where I bought it for this and another minor issue...At the store, I was not able to reproduce the blue screen and they could not find anything wrong with it. My solution to date, when I get the "blue" screen is to close the lid, wait a few seconds and reopen the lid...Hopefully now that MANY have the same problem, I will be able to get this fixed BEFORE it gets worste (took Apple care on this laptop).

Dear Team:

Hello! kindly proceed on below Apple product feedback link.

Admin recommended on this case, to post the feedback on suggested link below.

as they block any innapropriate link survey report regarding the MBP 2011 GPU issues.

Lets work together to help apple and help ourselves on this isue. 🙂

<Link Edited By Host>

Contacting Apple via the MacBook Pro feedback form has been recommended since the early days of these very long threads - hundreds of people have said they've done it. It's good to continue doing it, but I am not convinced that feedback alone is going to be the tipping point that gets attention. Even with hundreds of reports, we've still heard about various Apple reps all the way up to Tim Cook's office saying that they haven't heard about this issue before. So I firmly believe that you fill out the feedback form.

<Edited by Host>

Has anyone had any success in keeping their original logic board when having a new one put in?

I'm keen to hang onto it if at all possible and send it in for a reballing to keep as a "spare" as I have little to no faith that the replacement will work.

edit: Just found the conditions... looks like apple retains the faulty part

Point 1.1.2

https://www.apple.com/legal/sales-support/terms/repair/generalservice/Service_Te rms_English.pdf

Hi ThyForsakenOne, This thread only concerns the 2011 model of MacBook Pro with Discrete Graphics, as you can see from the title. Our problem here is that the computer relies internally on "AMD Radeon HD 6750M" video hardware, and this hardware appears not to have been built to last.

Please find and post to a more appropriate thread ( perhaps https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3839361). Best of luck finding a solution to your problem.

There is a Apple repair program in place for the iMacs already, chech to see if you qualify...

"Apple has launched a replacement program for the graphics card in some mid–2011 iMac configurations, reports 9to5Mac. According to a note sent to Apple Support employees, the AMD Radeon HD 6970 video cards in some 27-inch May 2011 iMacs have experienced issues, causing them to fail.

The affected iMacs contain serial numbers with the last four characters of DHJQ, DHJW, DL8Q, DNGH, DNJ9, DMW8, DPM1, DPM2, DPNV, DNY0, DRVP, DY6F, or F610. The errors have been previously noted on both the MacRumorsforums and the Apple Supportforums.

Apple will replace the graphics card of affected iMacs with the aforementioned serial numbers at no cost for up to three years from the date that the computer was purchased, which makes early adopters eligible until May 2014.

Replacements can be initiated through AppleCare, the Genius Bar, or Apple Authorized Resellers and iMac users that paid to have the graphics card replaced are also eligible for a refund."

I beginning to think that Apple received a big bad batch of AMD chip. This issue we're dealing with, the recent class action with the 27" iMac and the recent 2011-2012 iMac recall with the AMD 6970 chip

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5167?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

The smyptoms on the link above are EXACTLY what we're seeing here.

Hello! is everybody done for the Apple product feedback below? For those who did not, please support the feedback link below to raise the issues

2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Or did anyone contacted APPLE support from link below? for my case no contacts in saudi arabia, hope somebody from concern to do this..

http://support.apple.com/kb/HE57?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Hello Apple! Please do attention on below issues of the MBP 2011 with ATI graphic AMD Radeon 6750 and 6790, it is clearly that the issues are the VGA chip.

we are concern for what we invested on this product, hope you are concerned with us too as your supporter.

also as a quality oriented company plase do attention on this.

everybdy on this forum are concerned with APPLE that why everybody are doning the investigatioins + troubleshooting for your reference.

We are willing to cooperate with APPLE company for any feedback you need in resolving the issues.

We know that APPLE company is a costumer oriented company taht they can do all for the sake of the quality.

After having had my laptop repaired three times (with Apple claiming having replaced the logic board with a new one each time) and the screen as well the last time, I am almost certain that the whole thing has to do with the latest SMC firmware update (http://support.apple.com/kb/dl1633). I have experienced the computer going wrong everytime I had that firmware installed. I am heading down to the Apple Store for the fifth time to try to either get my money back or check in the computer for another time.

I also had the 'external monitor issue' with no monitor attached. It prevented me from booting, so gfxCardStatus was of no use.

Boot into single user mode, then move the discrete GPU drivers out so the boot sequence will not try to enable it. You will have BAD graphics, but bad graphics is better than no graphics.

see https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4766577?answerId=22710793022#22710793022.

About SMC Firmware update, I found that on my latest replaced logic board, the SMC firmware version is 1.69f3 (MacBook Pro 8,2, 15" early 2011) while on Apple website (http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1237) the latest version mentionned for this model is 1.69f4.

But no SMC update 1.69f4 is offered when I check for updates, and if I click the link on Apple website it redirect me to a page mentionning a 1.8 version for mid 2012 MacBook Pro (so not for early 2011).

So it seems Apple removed 1.69f4 from download and from their software update server. If this is the case, this probably mean that there is indeed a known issue with that version.

For now in my case, so far so good on my replaced logic board. I hope it'll last.

iFrodo wrote:

About SMC Firmware update, I found that on my latest replaced logic board, the SMC firmware version is 1.69f3 (MacBook Pro 8,2, 15" early 2011) while on Apple website (http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1237) the latest version mentionned for this model is 1.69f4.

But no SMC update 1.69f4 is offered when I check for updates, and if I click the link on Apple website it redirect me to a page mentionning a 1.8 version for mid 2012 MacBook Pro (so not for early 2011).

So it seems Apple removed 1.69f4 from download and from their software update server. If this is the case, this probably mean that there is indeed a known issue with that version.

For now in my case, so far so good on my replaced logic board. I hope it'll last.

Sadly WebArchive isn't very complete but it looks like the firmware was pulled some time after May 2nd this year. http://web.archive.org/web/20130502234657/http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1633

While I'd love to think it's a firmware issue and rolling it back/getting a board that hasn't had it applied I'm still of the opinion it's a hardware manufacturing fault.

A forum member on here (Saramwrap) ran a survey, here's the analytics from it

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

The 1.7 firmware was made available early Feb 2013 however the analytics show that issues were being reported before. My guess is that as the devices became older they started failing and not a firmware issue, or the firmware exacerbated the problem at best.

Wojzo- I totally agree with you. This is not just a firmware issue. I am following this issue since last year when started to show for some people, before the last firmware was issued.

Since the beginning of the Saramwrap survey I am following the reports trying to find a pattern, but looks like there are a lot of variables in this equation.

This old thread has a lot of information since this 2011 mbp was launched:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2768351?start=0&tstart=0

I am suggesting that the last firmware just catalyzed the problem. Reducing the lifespan of the components with some sort of voltage rise causing overheating that could compromise the chip and the Vram. Overclockers already attested that the 6750m chip can run stable with less voltage applied:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1142028

I don't know why they would rise a voltage on this chip, but this is a strong factor to reduce a component lifespan.

By the way, on the 'software update' the 1.7 firmware was showing until July, the last time I checked this thing.

About SMC Firmware update, I found that on my latest replaced logic board, the SMC firmware version is 1.69f3 (MacBook Pro 8,2, 15" early 2011) while on Apple website (http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1237) the latest version mentionned for this model is 1.69f4.

The replacement board for my 8,3 came with

SMC Version (system): 1.70f3

Hi all

Ive noticed yesterday the same problem with my MBP 15 late 2011 (MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2011 - MacBookPro8,2 - AMD Radeon HD 6750M )

The mac stuck almost all the time on:

- blue screen with vertical black lines - something similar to this http://imageshack.us/a/img26/9898/screenshot20130201at758.png

- moved screen http://imageshack.us/a/img26/9898/screenshot20130201at758.png

- horizontal distortion - like this http://imageshack.us/a/img145/9898/screenshot20130201at758.png

After some review i found someone noticed that he has different SMC version on his laptop then the version officialy mention on Apple site http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1237

Ive tried to play a little with the SMC updates and instaled first the version 1.69f3 (SMC 1.5) which should be the right one but without success (still stuck almost all the time on blue screen + system report still showed version 1.69f4 (SMC 1.7). Then ive tried to install 1.68f98 (SMC 1.5) and - what is funny - I can somehow work now on AMD card - since last 2 hours only once I saw something like this http://imageshack.us/a/img26/9898/screenshot20130201at758.png

For more info:

- the gfxCasrd Status v2.3 is switched now to AMD chip only (Discreate only)

- the system report still showing verson 1.69f4 (SMC 1.7).

I will test it more, especially under some "stress" test.