Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card
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Dec 16, 2014 9:12 PMby Kanimies,Just ignore the troll, he gets his kicks from any attention he gets here..
He has nothing to give to this thread except harassing those asking for or trying to provide help to the issue; the troll doesn't even have the affected device himself. Some believe he is affiliated with Apple, which could explain him trolling into pretty much every opinion and message posted here 24/7.
If everyone just stopped feeding the troll, he might eventually give up.
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Dec 17, 2014 2:25 AMby Nickiwi,If you are limping along until you can get back to the US and take your machine in to Apple there, at least inform them of the problem and the fact that you are waiting to get back, so they will register that the "new" board failed BEFORE the 90 days guarantee was up.
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Dec 17, 2014 7:47 AMby Nickiwi,Yes I suggested that because the last time I took mine in (for its 3rd replacement board) I had just got back to Belgium from abroad and the repair centre seemed to think it had been 91 days since they delivered the previous repair - indeed it was, and they made no difficulties, but I had taken the precaution of warning them by email before the 90 days and I had their reply with me, just in case.
I'm now about to take it back to them again, having limped since a week after getting it back, but one cannot just stop all work at any time.
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Dec 17, 2014 8:23 AMby kayazuki,blackcap33 wrote:
it seems that your email is set to private. ive just set mine to public so if you want to get in touch, that would be great
Oops, I didn't know that. I haven't written anything here ever before my Mac started dying on me
I've set it to public when logged in now, so now you can contact me if you'd like to know about my experiences with a good reflow.
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Dec 17, 2014 8:44 AMby TJMooseman,I understand your position, a reball is likely the best option to get your defective computer working again. Changing the logic board will likely not fix it. Like you said, it comes down to what you really want to achieve in the end.
My ultimate goal was to get a replacement computer. So I went the route of replace it once at my expense and then I would have a 90 day warranty. During that period of time, I would simply use my computer and when if failed (which it did in just a couple of days), I would take a picture and back to the apple store I would go. One glitch is all you need, but document it. I went thru two logic board replacements in two weeks. The next time I went in, I asked for a manager, explained my situation. Didn't get angry, simply told him that this is ridiculous, I paid a premium for this, I paid for the repair, I am self-employed and this computer is impacting my livelihood. I walked out a short time later with a new MacBook Pro.
I was willing to thru the cycle a couple more times if needed. The good thing in going to an Apple store, it makes it a more personal experience, some employees are aware of the problems and hopefully they will have empathy for you. Managers and I believe there is usually a higher level manager who is normally not on the floor have decision authority to replace computers, even if there is not a publicly know corporate policy on the matter. They probably charge back to customer satisfaction programs or maybe even the warranty since the repair didn't fix the computer.
For some, this route may be the way to go, for others, if you need a working 2011 MBP your best bet is to get the GPU re-flowed.
Best of luck
TJ
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Dec 17, 2014 8:57 AMby tikki50,Add me to the list! Mid 2012 MBP Retina i6 16g/ram 256 SS drive. I've had screen issues early on, replaced with a crappy screen, now my laptop wont run at all. I took it to the Genius Bar was handed the 410$ bill for a new LB. Which it's just our of warranty.
<Edited by Host>
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Dec 17, 2014 9:31 AMby Bassbarbie,I just got my MBP back yesterday - having had it's 2nd logic board replacement - at least I think that is what MLB 2.5GHZ, QUAD CORE I7 means where it shows parts used in repair.
If I check on 'about my Mac', it isn't showing up the AMD graphics card, it just shows Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB. When I look at the software report, it does look like there is an AMD 6770M in there. Can anyone confirm - should the AMD be showing up in the 'about my Mac' please? I am worried that as someone suggested earlier, it has possibly been disabled somehow.
I haven't to my knowledge got any software installed that will allow me to swap between the integrated and discrete graphics cards.
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Dec 17, 2014 1:29 PMby akamyself,Bassbarbie wrote:
I just got my MBP back yesterday - having had it's 2nd logic board replacement - at least I think that is what MLB 2.5GHZ, QUAD CORE I7 means where it shows parts used in repair.
If I check on 'about my Mac', it isn't showing up the AMD graphics card, it just shows Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB. When I look at the software report, it does look like there is an AMD 6770M in there. Can anyone confirm - should the AMD be showing up in the 'about my Mac' please? I am worried that as someone suggested earlier, it has possibly been disabled somehow.
I haven't to my knowledge got any software installed that will allow me to swap between the integrated and discrete graphics cards.
no, it is not supposed to show the AMD there, showing integrated is normal.
if you don't have any adobe software to test the discrete, you can try using flash videos, chrome web store, facetime or at least turn on the camera, that should trigger it.
or plug an external monitor if you can.
install gxfcardstatus if you need to be alerted when switching from one to the other.
if you want to accelerate its downfall you can look for stress tests softwares so you can ask for the next 'repair' pretty quickly, before 90 days anyway.
good luck
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Dec 17, 2014 1:34 PMby Bassbarbie,akamyself wrote:
Bassbarbie wrote:
I just got my MBP back yesterday - having had it's 2nd logic board replacement - at least I think that is what MLB 2.5GHZ, QUAD CORE I7 means where it shows parts used in repair.
If I check on 'about my Mac', it isn't showing up the AMD graphics card, it just shows Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB. When I look at the software report, it does look like there is an AMD 6770M in there. Can anyone confirm - should the AMD be showing up in the 'about my Mac' please? I am worried that as someone suggested earlier, it has possibly been disabled somehow.
I haven't to my knowledge got any software installed that will allow me to swap between the integrated and discrete graphics cards.
no, it is not supposed to show the AMD there, showing integrated is normal.
if you don't have any adobe software to test the discrete, you can try using flash videos, chrome web store, facetime or at least turn on the camera, that should trigger it.
or plug an external monitor if you can.
install gxfcardstatus if you need to be alerted when switching from one to the other.
if you want to accelerate its downfall you can look for stress tests softwares so you can ask for the next 'repair' pretty quickly, before 90 days anyway.
good luck
Brilliant, thank you. That's a relief.
I am planning on working it hard in photoshop - as I've needed to anyway, whilst it is still under warranty. That was where the second board's weaknesses first showed.
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Dec 17, 2014 1:48 PMby Redarm,If I check on 'about my Mac', it isn't showing up the AMD graphics card, it just shows Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB.
If it's right that you are using Mavericks, it should show the card in use at the time (but not on the fly, so you'll probably have to close "About my Mac" every time you change GPUs, to get it to show the actual one in use).
To force the discrete AMD, going to System Preferences > Energy Saver and turning off "Automatic Graphics switching" should make your Mac only use the high performance GPU (ATI).
