Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Hi,

I has the same problem,too.

I come from Taiwan and bought MBP 2011 early with Apple care, during apple care it broken once,and it repaired by switch logic board.

After apple care expired,it broken again.This quality really effects my job.

If Apple will not do any recall,I think I will not buy any new products of Apple.

The reason is most of Apple's new products,almost all components are onboarded.It means one of these has problem , the only way to repair is get a new logic board.

What Apple to do with this case,it will happen again.

To get the gfxCardStatus temporary fix to work, try this:

Boot the machine and let it fail. Repeat until you get the Grey Screen of Death, but instead of shutting down via the power button, let the machine run until it shuts itself down. It might take a few tries, but eventually it should boot using integrated graphics. At this point you can set gfxCardStatus to use integrated only. As I say, it's only a temporary solution and you probably won't get the performance you bought the machine for, but it'll stay alive long enough for you to do backups or rescue any projects you might have been working on.

I also have this problem, my MBP is from summer 2011. Went to Apple and they told me to change the logicboard for 500€. After nearly two years, nothing happens? Very sad, Apple.

Consideration:

Sell defective MBP on eBay ~ 400 Euro

repair costs ~ 150-200 Euro

Sell repaired MBP on eBay ~ 900-1000 Euro

What is your opinion in telling the buyer it was repaired? Normally it should be a pro argument or not?

Csound1 wrote:

 

The PCie drives in the MBP's are not 'soldered' they fit in a connector and OWC already sell replacement options up to 1TB.

Things change fast.

That's correct, for now at least.

I ment more should they start soldering those to the pcbs in the future.

Excuse will probably be for more speed, as no extra resistance/impedance from connector etc...

Which in fact would be neglectable.

In that case I would say: nope, no go for me.

In fact, soldered or not upgradable memory is allready a no go for me.

Not upgradeable? Customers should stay away from it.

KuanMing wrote:

After apple care expired,it broken again.This quality really effects my job.

If Apple will not do any recall,I think I will not buy any new products of Apple.

The reason is most of Apple's new products,almost all components are onboarded.It means one of these has problem , the only way to repair is get a new logic board. What Apple to do with this case,it will happen again.

You're right. High chance of that happening again. They already prove now that they won't "repair" the board. Instead, they only give you the option to replace the entire board for serious costs, they then DO repair it and resell it to the next person for the full price as a refurbished board.

For you; I hope you can find a person in your area that can offer you a goof reflow. If not, your problem will be fixed fast and perfectly if you would send your board (cheaper then whole Mac) to D3us (2sjevoo at gmx. net) near Antwerp, Belgium. He can reflow your board within 1 day time and send it right back to you. Then your Mac would be as good as new. Better then it started actually, because then you'd have good flown solder connections. He fixed my board Dec 6th and it's running like never before now! Noticeably cooler also actually.

MoritzSn wrote:

Consideration:

Sell defective MBP on eBay ~ 400 Euro

repair costs ~ 150-200 Euro

Sell repaired MBP on eBay ~ 900-1000 Euro

What is your opinion in telling the buyer it was repaired? Normally it should be a pro argument or not?

One more consideration:

- repair costs ~ 150-200 Euro + use your Mac normally as it was intended.

- repair costs for reballing with leaded balls should give the old fashioned durable result, but requires that the boad is heated up twice.

In all reality, there is little guarantee at this moment that a brand new Mac wil effectively have LESS change of showing the same issues after a few years of use....! There is no reason not to consider that if you consider these 2 articles about modern day lead-free soldering.

Potential problem 1 now+maybe in the future (due to too low melting temperatures): http://www.ko-ki.co.jp/en/memo/memo_10.html

Potential problem 2 now+maybe in the future (due to stress caused by thermal expansion during use): http://product.tdk.com/en/techjournal/archives/vol05_mlcc/contents06.html

To me, the future of the quality of durable solder connections in any computer feels quite uncertain at the moment. D3us told me he's receiving PS4's with similar PGA component failures for instance.. Completely different device, similar problem.

The step to go lead-free may be better for health (only while breathing in the vapours during soldering though), but this seemingly growing tin problem may cause much more misery for both the people and the environment in time (more failing devices enting up in the trashcan).

hello D3us how can i contact yyou for fix my mbp ? Thanks

Hover his user name and you'll find his email address

Or you can also send me an email, i'll send you all his data then, incl website link.

If you only need to get the files off the machine you could also just restart with the left Shift-Key pressed. This will deactivate the extensions, including all video drivers. The display will be very slow but at least all other functions will work.

PS. I'm writing this on a brand new mid 2014 MBP I had to get because as others, I use my machine to earn my living... What a disappointment when I learned that the SSD is not upgradable at the moment It really makes me fell locked in. ***.

D3us wrote:

 

Csound1 wrote:

 

The PCie drives in the MBP's are not 'soldered' they fit in a connector and OWC already sell replacement options up to 1TB.

Things change fast.

That's correct, for now at least.

I ment more should they start soldering those to the pcbs in the future.

Excuse will probably be for more speed, as no extra resistance/impedance from connector etc...

Which in fact would be neglectable.

 

In that case I would say: nope, no go for me.

In fact, soldered or not upgradable memory is allready a no go for me.

 

Not upgradeable? Customers should stay away from it.

As I have said before, you are here promoting your business, You are not an unbiased observer, you're a vendor to these people, and you do it for financial gain

The fact is that whatever you say the PCie drives in new MBP's are removable.

And another option is to take out the hard/ssd drive and connect this drive via any SATA > USB adapter to any other Mac (you can even boot from it and work on any Mac like on your own machine, if the hardware doesn't outdate the OS (as Csound1 stated).

Or, I presume you may be able to approach the data also if you have a PC with Linux running on it or some tool based on Linux, like Acronis. Linux may even form a functional bridge between the OSX filesystem and other filesystems on other drives.

+1

The most reliable method of Recovering the data is to remove the drive from the Mac and use it externally.

To Csound1: In fact, D3us is simply offering people a way forward, one that Apple should be doing. I bet anything that D3us would be thrilled to see Apple recall and replace all of the faulty Macbook Pros, even though it would affect his business (though I guess he does a whole lot more than just reflowing Macbook Pro logic boards). I see others promoting D3us as a good quality repairperson more than D3us himself. That says plenty....

Csound1 wrote:

 

D3us wrote:

 

Csound1 wrote:

 

The PCie drives in the MBP's are not 'soldered' they fit in a connector and OWC already sell replacement options up to 1TB.

Things change fast.

That's correct, for now at least.

I ment more should they start soldering those to the pcbs in the future.

Excuse will probably be for more speed, as no extra resistance/impedance from connector etc...

Which in fact would be neglectable.

 

In that case I would say: nope, no go for me.

In fact, soldered or not upgradable memory is allready a no go for me.

 

Not upgradeable? Customers should stay away from it.

As I have said before, you are here promoting your business, You are not an unbiased observer, you're a vendor to these people, and you do it for financial gain

 

The fact is that whatever you say the PCie drives in new MBP's are removable.

you can say whatever you want, no one cares much except for the fact it is usually more annoying than anything.

I haven't seen D3us promoting his business (as you call it) that much, it's not even the core of his business, and even took me several months to understand he was indeed proposing that kind of service.

and even if he were, that wouldn't make his analysis less valuable anyway so your point doesn't make any point.

Your obvious love for this brand makes you pretty unbiased yourself, everything Apple does you agree with and despise anyone disagreeing.

While it's one thing to upgrade internal components for better performance, from a consumer's perspective, what benefits is there to have soldered ssd and ram in a 'pro' device?