Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

I Recommend you give it to D3us for repair, I've heard he is really good.

I Used to have a late 2011 MacBook, if it runs hot, like at more than 200 degree Fahrenheit, is that what causes it to break? What is the highest temperature it can go to?

thanks.

100c (continuous operation) possibly a little more for a short time, I wouldn't recommend that however.

That is an above normal running temperature though.

OR, have you tried download gfxcardstatus, if you get it to power on, download it, the program forces your MacBook to only use the integrated card, that should fix your MacBook temporarily until you can permeanantly fix it, hope this helps:)

Too many lamers here. Unfollowing.

now you are where they wanted you to be.

I was using it, then I had to restart. Now I can't boot to even use the program.

Try this bro:

******************************************************************************** ***
*             Please use caution when issuing commands in the terminal.                      
*     If you don't understand what these basic commands do, read this document:  
*                                                                                                                          
*                 http://mally.stanford.edu/~sr/computing/basic-unix.html                              
******************************************************************************** ***

*
*     BE AWARE THAT BY REMOVING THESE FILES, YOUR COMPUTER WILL BOOT,

*       HOWEVER, IT WILL NOT BE 100% FUNCTIONING. THIS METHOD RENDERS 

* VERY POOR GRAPHICS. THIS IS NORMAL, AND AS OF YET, THERE IS NO SOLUTION

*                          TO "FIX" THE POORLY RENDERED GRAPHICS.
*

******************************************************************************** ***

Steps to force your MBP2011 to boot by disabling AMD/ATI .kext files;

1) BOOT IN "SINGLE USER MODE"

Press: [Power ⎋] button, then immediately hold down [CMD ⌘] + [S] while booting.

2) CHECK AND REPAIR THE BOOT VOLUME

Type:   fsck -fy

3) MOUNT THE BOOT VOLUME (ENABLE READ/WRITE)

Type: mount -uw /

4) CREATE A DIRECTORY TO MOVE DISABLED .KEXT FILES TO

Type: mkdir /DisabledExtensions

5) CHANGE YOUR WORKING DIRECTORY

Type: cd /System/Library/Extensions

6) MOVE ALL ATI/AMD EXTENSIONS TO THE DIRECTORY WE CREATED

** Depending on your model, you may have either ATI or AMD .kext files.**

Type: mv ATI* /DisabledExtensions OR

Type: mv AMD* /DisabledExtensions

7) UPDATE TIMESTAMPS TO REBUILD KEXT CACHE

Type: sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions

8) EXIT "SINGLE USER MODE"

Type: reboot  OR

Type: shutdown -h now

i also have an early 2011 MacBook pro, I'm booked in with a genius this morning.

going to see what they say, Ive decided Before I go that I'm not going to be paying for it to be sorted.

the problem is far to common to a freak fault.

there is clearly a widespread problem with these machines and I want it sorted.....free of charge.

im not going to spend anymore that the £1500 I spent on it in the first place.

Thanks for the help. Unfortunately it didn't work. I'm still stuck in a perpetual reboot loop with lines running across the screen. I'll be making a trip to the Genius Bar today with the same intentions as Bradley Robertson. I'm not going to pay money to have this issue fixed.

IT didn't go well, Apple were most unhelpful, told me what I already knew that the gpu has failed and a new logic board is needed.

They want £416 to replace it, i refused to pay it and walked out.

They wasn't interested in the fact that there is thousands of other people with the same issue, all he said was that there isn't a recall on the Mac and basically refused to help me unless I pay up

How is your macbook pro? Still working?

Why then not reball CPU as well?  just to be sure...

gfxCardStatus does not force a MBP to use the integrated graphics by default.  A user would have to somehow boot the computer first and then make the change to always use the integrated graphics.