Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Wouldn't we all. But from their point of view, i wouldn't dare making commitments to something potentially costing at least two digit million sums. Keep stock value in mind.

Hello Apple and Dear Mr Cook,

I am a 15-year-long Apple user. I inherited this affinity for Apple from my mum: a graphic designer who was one of the first in her field to have an Applecomputer in the early 1990’s. So naturally I grew up thinking that as a graphic designer, Apple would serve me best.

I now have a macbook pro 15 '' from early 2011 and within three years, I've had to change the logicboard and airport card two times. These problems appeared within the first 12 months of use.
After only 3-4 months, my airport card completely stopped working, and since 2012 that my  Macbook Pro does not have functioning Wi-fi, a problem that has never been solved, even when it was – albeit unsuccessfully - replaced by Apple Care.

November this year, my laptop again presented problems: it froze showing a gray screen at boot...

I went to an Apple authorized assistance centre in Lisbon-Portugal to try to solve this problem, but as my Macbook Pro is no longer protected by Apple's warranty, they presented me a budget
of €669.58 (Logicboard + Airport Card) which represents about 1/3 of the laptop value. A value that I think is inadmissible. As a user who has had a 3-year period with constant issues problems with the Macbook Pro 15 '' a model from only 2011, it is clearly demonstrates that the problem is not the user, but a Factory/Hardware problem. Someone that buys a computer for the price of € 2000, should not have to pay over years for new hardware whose original that has clearly a factory defect!

I sincerely hope that Apple can find a solution to me and all users who have chosen the Apple brand, famous for being a reliable and professional working tool – in this case the Macbook Pro, emphasizing the word "PRO".

Summing-up the time my laptop has been inactive due to hardware problems, I get to approximately  2 months during which I am impeded from doing my job.And as you know, time is money!

And it just does not seem fair that to continue my work and to meet my project delivery times, I have to pay €600 for your factory errors.

Honestly I do not expect anything less than a professional solution and a definite answer to this problem that affects thousands of users around the world, which to this day have never had a concrete solution nor has Apple taken a sincere and official responsibility for this issue.

I think we all deserve better than Apple’s silence over this matter.
I hope Apple can show professionalism and attention we deserve as faithful users of the brand.

Best regards of a sad i-user,Hope to receive news from you.

David La Rua
Lisbon, Portugal | 05.12.2014

14minus9 wrote:

 

Wouldn't we all. But from their point of view, i wouldn't dare making commitments to something potentially costing at least two digit million sums. Keep stock value in mind.

Yup, I don't expect any official statements now that suit has been filed.

I have the same Issue. I have no additional info that wasn't already posted here. Just making sure to post to keep the numbers accurate.

Same Issue (MBP Late 2011, AMD Radeon 6750M, I7)  Nothing to add except except that my friend and I changed the paste last night on the CPU and it's CLEARLY a spotty job at best and total lack of care and training at its' worst.

Powered back on the computer to find that the pink lines I had now went blue and to find that my screen went black automatically. Turned it off one more time and powered it on and then got the pink lines. Powered it on again and it's now running fine, very smooth and quiet (I don't even hear the fans anymore). Now, I obviously think it's a bandaid and that the problem will persist but I wanted to throw my hat into the ring of people who have tried the paste option.

After Removing CPU and Heat Sink covers.

Clear to see there are points of contact that aren't layered with paste (and I've seen worse than mine)

After cleaning with Alcohol. There was an incredible amount of oxidation on the copper heat transfers.

New Paste Applied:

In the end, it may not be worth the hassle : ( I hope I can squeeze a few more weeks out of my machine though. I'm really interested in hearing how the reballing has been going as far as longevity sake. I'm located in Korea so I can't just ship my computer to California, unfortunately. Is it something that can be done by most computer guys?

That is very close to what I do to repaste these 2011's to prevent failures - though with those two copper parts on the heatsink (the die plates) I go a lot further. I polish those with autosol chrome Polish and then Cape cod jewellery cloths to get them almost like mirrors.  That polishing alone smoothing the surfaces to gets rid of the big pits that thermal paste is not supposed to do efficiently - it drops idle temps for both chips anywhere between 4-6c, improving the heat transfer enormously and with less paste particularly on that GPU so the plate around the copper part does not have paste between in transferring heat to the pcb part of the gpu - where it is not designed to go. I suspect along with the poor surfaces of the die plates they are the root causes why these GPU's fail and less to do with lead free solder. Thermodynamics 101 more like, and when you have repasted over a dozen working 2011's to prevent failure and NONE have failed it's not difficult for me to suspect strongly exactly that.

this suggestion I have sent to apple often over the last year and they have done absolutely nothing.  a few Bucks each making all those 2011 plates shiny with less paste, so no wonder I despair that they don't feel like the engineering first company they market themselves as they do not seem to listen to simple logic and physics.

though I woudnt recommend anyone who follows your instructions to place a logic board on carpet!

And for apple paste that is a very liberal application, many have twice as much as that covering over half of the gpu pcb!

Ha. Gav. That's actually a hard plastic floor here in Korea. Very Clean, very smooth, no fibers whatsoever, it just has a 'carpet look' to it. So, you've had great luck following your procedure then? Just with a simple deep clean of those copper plates?

In Korea I'm, unfortunately, limited in what I can do as far as repairs. The stuff is out there, I just don't know how to get a hold of it. My wife and I are coming back to the states for Christmas so maybe I'll pick up some of that polish before I come back. From what I gather, you have repasted the 2011 MBP before a problem was detected?

As I'm not even a beginner in thermodynamics I would like to ask you about my heat issues. I'm guessing since I've already had the problem occur, am I essentially out of luck and need a costly repair?  Or would repasting solve a faulty problem as well (in your experience)?  What's your thoughts on reballing?

I have the same Issue. Macbook Pro 17"

I have no additional info that wasn't already posted here.

Just making sure to post to keep the numbers accurate.

Hello,

I have a MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2011) with an AMD Radeon HD 6770M (1024 MB).  While using Photoshop CS6 (specifically the masking brush tool), my screen started to distort (like a repeating effect on the edge), everything froze / went black and I had to do a hard restart.  Then I got some some purple / green vertical lines at the start up screen (see pic below).

I downloaded GFXCardStatus and set it to "Integrated Only".  Hoping that will prevent / delay any freezes so I can figure out what to do next (this is my only computer).

So a couple questions:

I am in NYC, anyone have an experience with what solutions work and don't work at any nearby Apple stores? SoHo?

Moving to LA on Dec 18th, anyone with this same issue have experiences at any of those stores?

I don't have Apple Care, do they typically cover a new logic board if necessary? Or is it a case-by-case thing?

How does keeping it on "Integrated Only" effect the visual quality / performance?  Things look the same and seems like I can use Photoshop but haven't had a chance to do much else.

Anything I can do at home? Read a bit about reballing? Pretty sure I would end up making things worse.

And lastly (if the other questions are too annoying / complicated to answer), what has been the most common solution (if any) to this issue?

I realize some of these questions may have been answered but this thread is currently at 694 pages, thats a lot to go through, even with the search tool. Any help (or a one sentence summary) would really be appreciated.

Yes, I like parentheses. 

Thank You

Michael

MBP 8,2 another casualty added to the list... Has anyone had there's repair? if so any issues with post repair?

<Link Edited by Host>

If you have a time machine backup, make sure it is plugged in to the usb port, boot or reboot your computer, immediately hold down the command - R keys, don't let go for a bit, eventually you will have the options to run Disk Utility, and 3 other options, support, etc, i don't remember, but run Disk Utility if possible and repair the disk permissions. if you can do this, you have an excellent chance to restart the computer and it will boot up, at least it works for me...I hope it works for you.

What is the cost of reballing? Can you by any chance recommend someone in San Francisco for that?

Hello !

We can add my MacBook Pro from summer 2011 to the collection...

It's been a week since I have problems and now I installed Yosemite (somehow I managed to do something with the computer, last saturday) I have no more access to the disk utility when pressing keys at the start-up...

I have a external hard drive with an OS in it but rebooting from it doesn't work anymore...

I can do nothing except giving my password to open my user session but then I have a grey screen which stays there til battery is empty...

Hopefully, I have a Time Capsule and managed to save all my important files but I have exams the next two weeks and well, my computer is my work tool...

(French girl here, sorry for the bad English)

Currently based in Singapore and your answer is helpful. I wanted to go to Plaza Singapura but have several doubts they will fix it without a fee. When I found that for some repair shops, just checking out the problem will cost 250 SGD, I decided to find someone who'd do it cheaper but now my return key is not working. Not a big problem though. I figured I can do the temporary fix they are doing. I was also informed that the same problems happen for Macbook Pro 2013! I KNOW THAT APPLE SUPPORT WILL SUCK FOREVER. I learned that last year based on how they responded to a support ticket I sent. Decided to stop buying Apple products but I still want to fix small issues like overheating and the keyboard not working. I think we can all do it without paying anyone. Plenty of tutorials on Youtube. But sadly, I am no longer an Apple fan and won't buy any more of their products.

hi fellow french affected user.

as a reminder for everyone a bit stuck with this (being) one and only defective computer to work or whatever, a relatively quick and easy way to use it again is by installing a linux system on a partition and deactivate the discret via grub or rEFInd.

not suited if some intensive graphic usage is needed but that is a nice way to discover another OS with Mac similarities, especially for those who choose to ban Apple products from now on, it allows to use the computer without struggling starting it up or freezing while in use, and lastly, it ain't no fix for sure but that can help until it can be sent out for a reball or a new computer is purchased...