Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

tempj015 wrote:

 

I need help please

Check out page 753 for some solutions, especially 'SMC reset with a twist'. The most important thing right now is to call Apple Support and let them know about your case, whether or not you decide to have them repair your MBP.

We need more numbers.

Genius bar wanted to charge me 1200 aud for a replacement logicboard, lodged a complaint to australian consumer affairs, trying to get a hold of someone at apple as well.

TitansBarthilas wrote:

 

Genius bar wanted to charge me 1200 aud for a replacement logicboard, lodged a complaint to australian consumer affairs, trying to get a hold of someone at apple as well.

It's up to you whether you choose to repair it or not, that is solely your choice. I chose not to, since it is known to break down all over again.

But lodging a complaint is an excellent move, and definitely demand to speak to one of the seniors at Apple, this is the most important part. Make sure they add your case to their ever growing list of failed MBPs, to the point that they just can't keep ignoring us any longer.

Although my MBP seems to be working again, albeit severely crippled (Hi res graphics card disabled) and I can't rely on it for serious work, I will not give up fighting. I will constantly check for new 'victims' and remind them to report their case to Apple. I'm curious to see what Apple decides to do about all of this. For all the hard earned money we spent, only for it to end up in frustration and not being able to work (among other things), we all really deserve brand new machines, not refurbished logic boards.

Thought I may as well join this forum and add to the statistics as I too now have the same issue with my 2011 MacBook Pro lappy.

Grey screen of death, blue screen of death and glitches eventually leading to a mac that now won't boot up anymore. Apple needs to address the issue. Quoting me $600 to replace a faulty part isn't fair.

I bought this laptop to see me through a university degree and unfortunately for me it has died a year short...

I also am now a new victim.  Bought my MBP in april 2011, bought the longest applecare warranty they sold (3 yrs), bought a 27" monitor as well.  Of course, almost a year past warranty expired, and now its failing.  i didnt know it was a graphics card issue at first.  I recently installed a game and thought that was the culprit.  I restored from my time capsule to a period before I installed said game, which knocked me out of work for three days (3 days cause it kept failing and restarting).  Then, after restoration I went ahead and upgraded to Yosemite hoping it would help.  Worked fine for a day, then crapped out again.  Even got a popup first saying my graphics failed, would I like to report to apple.  I clicked "report" of course.  My biggest issue is a grey screen lockup, and sometimes I get a loud fast clicking noise from the 27" apple cinema display's speakers while its lockedup.  Ocassionally it doesn't completely lockup, but I get a cut screen where the left side of the desktop appears on the right and vice versa.  Photo shows this wraparound issue. I will also try to upload a video of the rapid loud clicking noise to youtube.  Extremely frustrating as a small business owner with deadlines.  Thanks God for Google Drive so I can still access my work files, although not many of my important apps used for work unfortunately.

xlamierina wrote:

 

I also am now a new victim.  Bought my MBP in april 2011, bought the longest applecare warranty they sold (3 yrs), bought a 27" monitor as well.  Of course, almost a year past warranty expired, and now its failing.  i didnt know it was a graphics card issue at first.  I recently installed a game and thought that was the culprit.  I restored from my time capsule to a period before I installed said game, which knocked me out of work for three days (3 days cause it kept failing and restarting).  Then, after restoration I went ahead and upgraded to Yosemite hoping it would help.  Worked fine for a day, then crapped out again.  Even got a popup first saying my graphics failed, would I like to report to apple.  I clicked "report" of course.  My biggest issue is a grey screen lockup, and sometimes I get a loud fast clicking noise from the 27" apple cinema display's speakers while its lockedup.  Ocassionally it doesn't completely lockup, but I get a cut screen where the left side of the desktop appears on the right and vice versa.  Photo shows this wraparound issue. I will also try to upload a video of the rapid loud clicking noise to youtube.  Extremely frustrating as a small business owner with deadlines.  Thanks God for Google Drive so I can still access my work files, although not many of my important apps used for work unfortunately.

Contact Apple and report your case immediately.

Swwitched wrote:

 

Thought I may as well join this forum and add to the statistics as I too now have the same issue with my 2011 MacBook Pro lappy.

 

Grey screen of death, blue screen of death and glitches eventually leading to a mac that now won't boot up anymore. Apple needs to address the issue. Quoting me $600 to replace a faulty part isn't fair.

I bought this laptop to see me through a university degree and unfortunately for me it has died a year short...

 

Contact Apple and report your case immediately.

payed $300 to get it fixed, but now my brightness keyboard button isn't working with the screen . The picture shows up as if the brightness is increasing/decreasing, but the screen stays the same (max brightness). I play around with the scroll bar in the options and nothing.

Back to the store I go

iPrologue wrote:

 

payed $300 to get it fixed, but now my brightness keyboard button isn't working with the screen . Back to the store I go

Yikes... sorry to hear that.

has anyone suffering from this been offered or asked about "flat rate" repair from Apple?

supposedly you can get ALL the issues fixed with your MBP for $300? not just the $600 and up for the discrete graphics issue, but all other issues that your computer is tested for. Like a car I know that you need to pay for maintenance. But come on! My 98 Civic is more reliable than my Macbook and the car COSTS LESS THAN MY LAPTOP.

I had recently bought a Macbook Pro Late 2014. I regret buying another $2000 machine after having such a headache with my 2011 Macbook. I cant fit all the software and updates that I need for my work on just one computer, I personally need both machines to do their independant jobs.

Support this thread people. Just like protesters do, bring attention and make them pay attention to us.

Im unable to boot to recovery, diagnostics, safe mode or any other mode.

I

cbetsinger wrote:

 

has anyone suffering from this been offered or asked about "flat rate" repair from Apple?

Please read this thread, it has been brought up many many times

hey all,

Don't pay apple for a logic board replacement, they have to repair it for free.

my MBP 2011 was a second hand computer i bought in 2012 from a guy on the internet (no apple care included) and i didn't even have a bill.

First thing first, call    apple before you go to the store.

be kind, tell them you're disappointed that your 2000 $ computer is dead three years after you bought it.

Tell them apple is a brand you love and trust, but tell them this is a GPU issue which is well known and spread all over the internet (tell them about this thread...etc). be convincing but kind (don't get agressive and upset on the phone).

ask them what could be done to bring your machine back to life.

they'll probably (that's what they did for me) call you back, set an appointment at the genius bar for you.

you go there, they tell you after tests it's the gpu, they give you a paper, you forward that to the person you had on the phone (be sure to have his/her mail).

and they'll probably tell you your machine will be fixed free of charge . if not, don't get upset but tell them you cannot accept that situation (knowing, not sure

for the english word, it's a hidden defect), that there are laws concerning hidden defects....blabla.

it has to work, if not, call back till it does.

heat gun, ovens, reballing ...etc  is bull*** won't last and will cost you money.

This is what my screen looks like after FOUR logic board replacements...

So, after working with Apple and not getting anywhere, I NEED to work, so I go buy a new iMac 5K.  One night later, I get this multiple times a day...

Apple sure has problems with GPUs.

This happened to me too after a week of problems. Started working a while later but then became almost impossible to boot-up 95% of the time.

Just in case anyone's interested what happened I decided to replace my 2011 MBP 15'' with a  refurbished 13'' MBP after reading about the logic card replacements failing. Decided it wasn't worth the time of going back and forth replacing it. Even managed to upgrade my old MBP to Yosemite which didn't kill it but didn't help either, just so glad to have a working machine now!

Ironically when I booted it up for the the time machine transfer to my new MBP I got the warning that there has been a graphics problems and the choice to report it or not. Why couldn't it tell me this straight away when it died more than 3 weeks ago?

Really disappointed in Apple but my degree and work pretty much demand I get a mac so I have no choice. Going to hold onto it in case there is a replacement scheme.

All of the representatives that I spoke to on the phone claimed this issue was not a common one...  I wonder if they were just trying to get money out of me or if those people honestly didn't know that many thousands of people are having to deal with this issue several times over and still not getting reliability.