Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

This was the worst troubleshooting experience ever. It just took me 5 minutes to find out:

My computer was initially flawed..

What is worse, it will just breakdown soon.

Hope the replacement program will happen, otherwise it is so many frustrated customers.

Persistence paid off today, as I read it would in this thread several weeks ago! Each time the computer showed an issue, my daughter took a picture of the screen, and made a new Genius Bar appointment. She/we made at least six trips to the Apple Store in the past two months. They replaced the logic board 2 or 3 times, the RAM, the case, the SuperDrive, among other things. Still, the jumbled graphics appeared intermittently. On today's visit, the jumbled graphics appeared as soon as she opened the computer. the service tech pulled up her record, saw how many trips had been made and how many parts had been replaced, and agreed that it was time for a new computer. She wanted to downsize to a 13", and they gave her a MBP-RD 13/8/500/2.8Ghz.

So kudos to Apple! It was painfule getting there, but they stood behind the 3.5 year old computer. I doubt that many other companies would do that.

since a few months me mbp gets the same problem - maybe i worked (heat it up) to much with it - i hope we get a worldwide solution for it. since i am from austria (eu). does anyone has info how i get a free solution?

I will be taking my 2011 MBP in tomorrow for the fifth time and for what I am sure will be yet another Logicboard replacement (the last one was replace on 09/25/2014).  I assume I should expect more than 3 months out of a replacement part.  I fear the $3300 laptop is about toast.  Very frustrating and discouraging.  Then again maybe I'll have an experience like jalynn2.

D

Eu has 2 year warranty minimum.

A country can apply other rules, like e.g. the U.K. where it's up to 6 years.

You have to check warranty rules/customer protection specific for your country.

Good luck with it.

I have a MBP 15" late 2011 with the logic board problem. Here, in Brazil, it's something like US$800 to repair. Impossible. And Apple still without a recall program. Sad.

Funny thing happened to me this week !

After trying all the workarounds I'd seen to get a bit more life out of my 17" April 2011 MBP wearing green and white striped pyjamas, I decided to take an appointment with a genius. The said appointment happened this Monday PM, and after doing all the tests and multiple reboots, the MBP still had green and white vertical stripes, and the genius officially declared that the motherboard had to be replaced at 600 euros.

I refused the repair, deciding to put the machine aside, awaiting the outcome of the class action, and having already replaced it anyway.

Before stashing it on a shelf, I decided to do one last SMC reset, but one with a twist, that I had seen, but not tried before.

Apple say :

1. Shut down the computer.

2. Plug in the MagSafe power adapter to a power source, connecting it to the Mac if its not already connected.

3. On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.

4. Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.

5. Press the power button to turn on the computer.

The twist is in step 4. I held the keys in step 3. for about 5 seconds, then released all EXCEPT the power button, holding this for an additional 5 seconds before releasing it. Finally, step 5. The computer booted with a normal screen, which I hadn't seen in 2 months, BUT, the fans were going full blast, no led on the MagSafe, no battery in the menu bar, Mac not going to sleep when closing the top, and probably  other stuff that I missed.

I rebooted several times from the menu, without problem and with a normal screen, but still with the fans blasting and all…

Finally, I shut down and did a NORMAL SMC reset, the Apple standard way, and lo and behold… a normal startup, normal screen, fans, MagSafe, everything!

I have since rebooted countless times (deliberately) and even done an update to Yosemite (I was on Mavericks), and the machine has been running perfectly ! I have run videos and generally tried to stress it… it hasn't budged!

It's now Wednesday, 4AM all is well :-)

Fingers crossed then !!

Ok, I've noticed something with the GPU drivers.

I have the same issue as everyone here my MBP had dieded very dead, first I tried the "Single User Delete kext files" method and it worked, I was able to jump from the gray freeze screen to the desktop. But only using the Integrated Intel Chip... the problem is that I use this MBP for 3D modeling so it became a useless $2000 netbook for me with only the intel chip.

Without warranty I decided to try the heat gun method described in earlier posts.

Before doing that I remember that I noticed that this MBP got extremelly hot while doing 3d stuff or graphic intensive work working with Blender and Unreal Engine 4 at the same time, or just watching a movie on a second TV, more on the top left corner it got extremelly hot. I had done some investigations before about the temperature but found out it was "Normal" that this MBP got hot like that at around 85C 95C, so I never really paid attention to that for the 3 years I had this MBP. It was hot as ****! you could almost burn your hand if you left it on the top left corner for too much time. But I read it was "Normal"...

While opening the MBP I realized there was a lot of dust and fluff on the fans and on the heat disipators one reason the air couldn't get to where it should..

The thermal paste on both chips the GPU and the CPU had fall on the sides not covering the base of the chips, probably for the extensive heat.

I did clean all the internal components, performed the heat gun method mentioned in a youtube video that I can't find right now!! and reapplied new thermal paste, reinstalled all the components and!

Thank God it worked!

I noticed that without the original GPU drivers, Mavericks chose older drivers?? my MBP has the 6750m chip but Mavericks started using the 6490m drivers instead, weird thing... soooo I just left it like that.

The first thing I did after making it work I downloaded the MacsFanControl to monitor temperature and control the speed of the fans to go on full speed if the temp went up to 65C and at min speed at 35C.

Performed some tests modeling high density 3D Meshes while monitoring the GPU temp..

The highest temp I could measure was 65C, there is absolutelly no heat on the top left corner of the MBP...

Even with the charger connected at 65C the fans go at full speed, but I prefer to replace a $40 fan than to pay $400 dlls to replace the GPU or reballing or whatever.

I probably was lucky with the heat gun method, I don't know how much it will last, i will keep you informed if it dies on me again.

Now, one thing to consider, the 6750m chip is more powerful than the 6490m, you can compare them here http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-HD-6750M-Mac-vs-Radeon-HD-6490M-Mac, the temp test I did performed it with the 6490m drivers installed instead of the original ones. The graphics on Unreal Engine 4 are of less quality with the 6490m but If that is the price to pay for having a low temp MBP so be it.

I'm hesitant on installing the 6750m drivers again and run some temperature tests. If I do I'll let you know the results.

Cheers mates!

Hi,

Thanks a lot for the reply. The guy told me that there was some light sensor that was not responding and due to which the whole logic board needs to be replaced. I asked him for the reason and he told me that due to heating or electricity fluctuations the same has happened, but sometimes my laptop works fine which happened yesterday after I bought it back from the service center. I'll be calling the apple support center again and will ask them to raise this issue, however I'm in no mood to spend 40k on this as the service center guy is not guaranteeing as to how long the same will last and the problem will not occur again. I'll probably buy a cheaper laptop, I still have a question as to why in the SMC check which the service center guy did showed a light sensor problem and not the complete logic board issue and when the fans blow fast my laptop does not works and when they don't it works fine even tough it gets heated up. I will keep you updated with the responses which I get from the support guys.

Thanks.

You've persuaded me. Enough said about that! I hope this really works out, and if I'm lucky, the heat gun will only be used once although I fear the worse! I greatly appreciate your time and effort for reasolvement on this issue. I guess I'm not the only one taking need of your posts!

thank god your situation shows there can be a positive outcome.  I have a 2011 MBP, but it is now showing signs of the graphics problem,  inermittantly though.

Are there any ways to prove the error screen and take pics of it that way?  ie force the issue? so i can have proof and possibly get applecare to cover it even if beyond that extended expiration.

My 17" 2011 Macbook Pro just failed 4 months after my 3 years of Applecare expired... Too bad on the timing, after speaking with several representatives it sounds like there isn't a grace period.

It showed some of the symptoms people mention here, blue screens here and there - I would restart not knowing what the issue was, then about a week ago it completely failed and had the horizontal lines...  

I have heard that there are some people that have paid Apple to do this repair multiple times, I don't want go through with the repair unless I'm sure that it is going to be a good fix.

1.  Does anyone know a figure on the reliability of the repair?

2.  Apple has given me several different figures for estimated repair costs, one said it would be a blanket $300 fee, others said it would be up to $1,000.  Does anyone have experience with the "blanket" fee? I was told it would cover anything that they could find wrong.

Best,

Evan

I've got the same machine and I just replaced the logic board and battery for the 2nd time last week. It was $310 for both. The Apple store sent it out, it took 4 days to turn.  I now have the fans going at lower temps and I'm likely to sell this machine while it's working and under the 30 day warranty.

Here's what they did.

Daniel en Colombia, pudiste realizar la reparacion del equipo?