Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

D3us you are right about that "professional" thing using heat gun in reflow. That´s not very "professional" or maybe even not the right way to do it, but what I meant by "professional" here, was that this guy had experience doing this and knew at least something about the temperatures and other stuff. Im not sure, how he did it in the end (exept warming the chip with heat gun) and what methods he used, but my mac is working.

If you got the opportunity to do it better, i most definetely recommend that. Here in Finland there isn´t so many people fixing these and having the right tools, so this was the only option for me. How ever, I think it´s better to use an "professional" than putting this to owen or use the heat gun by myself (no experience).

I´m hoping that my reflow will last now, but you never now. But if you dont have money to buy a new logic board, dont have anyone to reball, you could try reflow process. It´s worth a try and I´m not the onlyone who has fixed it this way.

Ok here are my questions:

• Is it actually AMD's fault for the chip behaving as it does, or would any chip get grilled with Apples Board layout?? so should we complain to AMD or APPLE?   Or should we complain to Apple and they to AMD? Hahaha, sounds like an awful lot of lawsuits!
• Where can I check which tasks the Integrated Chip let's me do? (Up to what use is capable of handling? What happens if i go over that but am on Integrated only with gfxCSt.??)  ok, that was weird english, don't know how to express it properly
• Where can I follow the progress of the current lawsuit(s)? I only know of one in Canada right now but hasn't there already been one in the US?
• Can someone who knows explain  to me where there are good repair guys on the internet or better local ones (means south of Germany; would also go to France or Switzerland, currently based close ) But just tell me of good ones you know no matter where exactly...
• Does someone know the exact procedures of Apple Stores or Apple Service Providers, are they bound by a certain blockade-policy and how can you break that pointless crap? Or at least get to the point faster and with less .."slippage" of money..

Thanks in advance, I hope, someone can at least answer part of my questions..and has the will to do so..

Bye, good luck to you all!

Hey Mirko,

for how long has it worked already? Would be very cool, if you told us when it breaks down again..

But may that never happen to you, fellow (former?) friend of the fruit! 

mirkofromturku,

Had no idea you are from Finland.

Next time you need it fixed, contact me.

Have contact with 2 capable guys overthere using real rework stations.

Sharing info, DIY projects etc with them.

Hope for you it keeps working, honest, not sarcastic.

For general information: many repairshops don't take in repairs beeing heat gunned before.

It's mostly not really good controlled, even when measuring temps while doing it.

The failing later can be due delamination/

Or the next heat cycle done by even het most expensive machine running a perfect profile on it can be the last drop to delaminate it.

(Delaminating = pcb layers coming loose, not allways visible).

Who gets blamed for it of course although it wasn't really his fault...

It has been working for 3 days now. And of course I will let you know if this breaks down again. Then I propably will just go and buy a new mac or a new logic board.

And thanks D3us. I hope that it will work too. For me, this was just a "test" to save some money. If it would have failed, I would have been forced to buy a new logic board. But this also proofs and confirms where the "problem" is.  My collegue is having the same problems. He already bought a new mac, but if you know good guys who can fix this, I´m sure we could be interested. I´ll talk to him, and send you mail, if he´s interested in fixing it.

I was searching for a reballing service in Ankara and found out the best keyword to search for is "macbook BGA Rework tamir" (and derivatives). There are plenty of places that do this in Ankara and Istanbul but which one is most reliable I don't know. Also, in order to do the process professionally, the service should have BGA rework machine in order to do the reballing in a controlled environment.

I am going to check a service in Ankara this week with my old macbook pro  (2006 17" ATI Radeon 1600) that had the same problem and will post the result here. The thing that drives me mad is my macbook pro 2011 15"  (unsurprisingly) is having the same problem and I am counting the days to its death.

I decided to write the things I lived through here: http://efealpay.com/story-of-us-2-apple-macbook-pros-me/

There nothing Apple Service/Genius Bar at my country. So, with or without a replacement program, I still have to spend money. This is hardware fault, so NOTHING software can fixed this. It's graphics chip (chip itself or soldering) fault, not all part of logicboard. Replace logicboard with same chips version? No, it's only repeating the mistake. So, i think replace vga chips with new year version but same type, is only permanent solution.

I've done replace with new vga chip (version 2013 according to chip supplier and electronic guy), and go to repair shop which have BGA machine. My technician not good with macbook pro, but he know a lot about electronic and mainboard from other brand. He had high skill for replace a chip, but not specific to apple product.

He buy 2 chip, one for backup if fail. 10 days process for order new chip to supplier and replace to macbook pro, test with graphic application, flash video, and counter strike via crossover and give me 2 month guarantee. Now, i read and write this long thread with this macbook pro.

I can't believe this is happening... I thought I was the only one with this problem so I search for "Macbook graphic card". Apparently lots of us have the same problem. Come on, I lost one of my projects because the graphics card failed me, and my Macbook is kinda unusable now.

penyo wrote:

 

There nothing Apple Service/Genius Bar at my country. So, with or without a replacement program, I still have to spend money. This is hardware fault, so NOTHING software can fixed this. It's graphics chip (chip itself or soldering) fault, not all part of logicboard. Replace logicboard with same chips version? No, it's only repeating the mistake. So, i think replace vga chips with new year version but same type, is only permanent solution.

I've done replace with new vga chip (version 2013 according to chip supplier and electronic guy), and go to repair shop which have BGA machine. My technician not good with macbook pro, but he know a lot about electronic and mainboard from other brand. He had high skill for replace a chip, but not specific to apple product.

He buy 2 chip, one for backup if fail. 10 days process for order new chip to supplier and replace to macbook pro, test with graphic application, flash video, and counter strike via crossover and give me 2 month guarantee. Now, i read and write this long thread with this macbook pro.

From where did you buy the chip, online?

No, my technician have a subscription from some local chip supplier, but if not ready, he always import from china/hongkong/taiwan.

But, you can search a guy see-ic from ebay, i know him from some technician discussion about mbp graphics problem and they recommended this guy. He sell 2013 version AMD 216-0809000 (Radeon HD 6490M). You must disassembled your logicboard then heatsink to know what type of your vga chip.

But, i'm not technician. I cannot distinguish chip version. You must ask to experienced technician for sure. I only hope my technician to be honest about chip version.

orphicpixel wrote:

 

From where did you buy the chip, online?

You can not replace the chip yourself.

It's soldered to the logic board.

Sadly, I have to ad myself to the ever growing numbers of 2011 MPB users with a graphics problem. Mine is suffering too. :-(

Signed the petition,
It is still running if I do not use an external monitor.

Going to make an extra backup now...

Gerard Klein wrote:

 

Sadly, I have to ad myself to the ever growing numbers of 2011 MPB users with a graphics problem. Mine is suffering too. :-(

Signed the petition,
It is still running if I do not use an external monitor.

So it runs OK using its own screen but not if you use an external monitor?

What does that have to do with this problem?

Csound1 wrote:

 

Gerard Klein wrote:

 

Sadly, I have to ad myself to the ever growing numbers of 2011 MPB users with a graphics problem. Mine is suffering too. :-(

Signed the petition,
It is still running if I do not use an external monitor.

So it runs OK using its own screen but not if you use an external monitor?

 

What does that have to do with this problem?

would be great of everyone if you could prevent yourself from asking dumb questions since you don't own any 15" or 17" 2011 mbp nor have any technical skills to help people on this matter.

this "problem" makes the use of an external monitor impossible, but that doesn't mean the computer is randomly somewhat usable for a while and for limited tasks.

which you could have guess if... referring to my first sentence.

I was not replying to you, I know that may be difficult for you to comprehend but really ...

This is not all about you.