Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Here is an other case, today my MacBook Pro 17" early 2011 (i7 2.2Ghz, 16 Ram, SSD512)  stop working with the discrete card. I am very angry, because I pay attention my MBP17" so much, I need a big screen to work in cad programs and a portable device, so with the knowledge that my bmp 17" is discontinue I'll take extra care.

This morning I need to finish my work, and when I started the Cad program which needs the Discrete card to work, the lines of all kinds of colour apear in my screen and finally the blue screen shows the display.

With the Integrate card works perfect, but when the OS X turns to the discrete card blows away my MBP 17" ..

It's a shame the this kind of machine have this problem and Apple do nothing about it. It is a machine of $2500, and the ads showed that this machine resits a heavy work with the amazing AMD card ...

So I hope the Recall program for all the MBP 2011 soon will announce.  I don't want to pay an extra $300 to change the Logic that it's common knowledge that this logic has the same problem sooner or later.

Please Apple hear ours reclaim.

Nickkett wrote:

 

Here is an other case, today my MacBook Pro 17" early 2011 (i7 2.2Ghz, 16 Ram, SSD512)  stop working with the discrete card. I am very angry, because I pay attention my MBP17" so much, I need a big screen to work in cad programs and a portable device, so with the knowledge that my bmp 17" is discontinue I'll take extra care.

 

This morning I need to finish my work, and when I started the Cad program which needs the Discrete card to work, the lines of all kinds of colour apear in my screen and finally the blue screen shows the display.

 

With the Integrate card works perfect, but when the OS X turns to the discrete card blows away my MBP 17" ..

 

It's a shame the this kind of machine have this problem and Apple do nothing about it. It is a machine of $2500, and the ads showed that this machine resits a heavy work with the amazing AMD card ...

 

So I hope the Recall program for all the MBP 2011 soon will announce.  I don't want to pay an extra $300 to change the Logic that it's common knowledge that this logic has the same problem sooner or later.

 

Please Apple hear ours reclaim.

Immediately install SMControlFan and keep temps under 70C or lower.

You should always have a backup computer if you use it for your work.  With any laptop, you never know what might happen.  Try to borrow a crappy one from a friend.

If your lucky, you won't pay $300 for a logic board swap, but an upgrade to a retina.  Apple's repair policy mentions that after 4 or so repairs within it's own 90 day repair warranty that it has to provide customers with a different alternative because at that point, it is costing them money to repair your laptop consistently.  Most of the boards are faulty, so when you get your repair back, you use GPUTest and it'll break within a day.  If it doesn't, then they did a pretty good job repairing it, and at most, you are $300 out for a logic board swap.  I paid Apple the $300 flat rate fee and it turns out my $600 display, $100 battery, $300 logic board, $50 of memory were all faulty so they replaced all of it, for $300.

Also, I have been recommending a cooling pad for some people on here called Targus Heat Defense.  It's basically a pad with crystals inside that empowers the heatsink cooling capabilities of the aluminum body of the macbook pro by taking the heat out of the body.  Even if your laptop runs lukewarm hot, you are always extending the life of your laptop by making it run even cooler.  The Macbook Pro doesn't have poor thermal design, it just that Apple chose to not have vents on the bottom to cater to their design motives and audience.

<Edited By Host>

Issues with Targus Heat Defense pad

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/targus-heat-defense-pad-issues.340029/

Other ways - laptop lap desks and stands

http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Comforter-Cushion-C-HS02-KA/dp/B003XNB7U8/re f=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1422804899&sr=8-2&keywords=laptop+pad

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=l aptop+stand&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Alaptop+stand

Count me in the failed macbook pro club. I have a 15" late 2011 macbook pro and use it for teaching. I have purchased it refurbished from the apple store less than 2 years ago. This past week my screen randomly went white. I powered off, and then back on. The apple boot screen was gray with red horizontal lines through it. Eventually it looked normal, then I got vertical blue, green, white, black lines with nothing in the background. I've been able to boot up and update my carbon copy clone, but I'm at a loss what to do. To complicate matters I am teaching in kenya so I can't go visit the genius bar in the states where I purchased the computer.  I'm writing this from my wife's 13" late 2011 macbook pro and hoping hers doesn't bite the dust too. My love for all things Apple is changing. Anyone come up with a fix yet, or figure out the likely hood of Apple standing by its products and replacing the faulty parts for free? Thanks,

Michael

Same issues with my MBP 2011.

 

The workaround that seems to be working for me is running:

sudo nvram gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00

to force the integrated card on from EFI . See: https://github.com/codykrieger/gfxCardStatus/issues/184

If your system is unable to boot at all (like mine), boot in single user mode, move the AMD/ATI drivers out of the way first and try again. This makes it boot using basic VGA drivers which works but is super slow. You can move them back to where they were after you run the command above.

anyone had a chance to use this sudo nvram gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00, is the command reversible and what it really does?

the same issue here with my mac 15 inches

tomasfn93, no, the MBP's 2011 with just built in intel don't seem to be affected by this hardware defect.

At least now he owns one or two MBP's 2011, but I'm still thinking he bought them so that if they fail (or Apple decides to replace all MBP's 2011) and he is one of the lucky ones that gets a brand new MBP retina he will get them having paid 50% (or even less) of the actual cost...., but according to him this discussion its all fake, still he uses it to try and take advantage from the one company that he loves..., lets see how this story ends.

Moved ATI files (no AMD ones on my Snow Leopard OS). Restarted and was able to login. Login screen has reddish cast, desktop pix is changed and has strange dark red cast. No apps will open. Unchecked Automatic Switching on Battery tab of Energy Saver System Prefs, but each time I restart and log back in, box is checked again. Ran the sudo nvram…. command, restarted and logged back in. Still strange reddish cast, red desktop and no apps open. Moved ATI files back, but reddish cast and changed desktop pix remain and apps still can't be opened "because of a problem", and once again Automatic Switching box is checked.

I have got 2 MBP retina mid 2012 . 2.4 and 2.9 ghz i7 with nvidia 650. Both have kernel crashes.

I have tested a solution on one. I booted to singleuser mod. and than i have delated all kext from system librery extension with nvidia in name, than delated kernel cashes. and rebooted.

now laptop works only on integrated graphick card, but it wil not have the ability to use external monitors, as they can only work with nvidia chip.

So i assume that it is time to go and ask for repair.

Apple since 2011 is making trash not laptops. A friend of mine has got 3 of them and all have the same problem, and in my company they have replaced 25 laptops with that problem.

it is not the first time, because in 2008 they had the same problem with nvidia, and i have had laptop eplaced also.

I know that it is sad but i do not feel safe while using apple computers. You do not know the time when it will fail and it will fail for sure....

sorry for my bad english

And there is no repair program yet.... why ?

Also i have got Lee****vo  laptop for work. I have linux on it because i do not like win**s so my apple branded hardware is now just for watching youtube. I'm not working on it because i have lost a lot of work while that crashes were preasent. Right now i'm planning to sell all 6 laptops mac pro and mac mini plus the apple tv , and buy some PC laptops and install hakintosh on it.

I know thatit is not the same but hardware is much more stable than oryginal apple laptops.

Add my MacBook too in the list.

  Model Name:    MacBook Pro

  Model Identifier:    MacBookPro8,2

  Processor Name:    Intel Core i7

AMD Radeon HD 6490M:

  Chipset Model:    AMD Radeon HD 6490M

  Type:    GPU

  Bus:    PCIe

  PCIe Lane Width:    x8

  VRAM (Total):    256 MB

  Vendor:    ATI (0x1002)

  Device ID:    0x6760

  Revision ID:    0x0000

  ROM Revision:    113-C0170H-521

  gMux Version:    1.9.23

  EFI Driver Version:    01.00.521

This problem seems to be very widespread now!

I initially only ever saw infrequent and subtle graphical glitches when starting up.  But a few months ago, after upgrading to Yosemite, the frequency of these problems increased.

I bought my laptop second hand on eBay ( in the UK ) so didn't think that Apple would help.  But I took it into an Apple Store anyway.  They could tell that the laptop had originally been bought from an Apple Store and so agreed to replace the Logic board for FREE because, as it is a manufacture fault, it is covered by CONSUMER LAW.

Unfortunately, I am still seeing glitches and crashes after this repair, so am going back to Apple - but people with this problem need to know that if their computer was purchased from Apple Stores, they may be able to get repairs for free - even if they are outside of Applecare or warranty.

TheNaturalist777 wrote:

To complicate matters I am teaching in kenya so I can't go visit the genius bar in the states where I purchased the computer.  I'm writing this from my wife's 13" late 2011 macbook pro and hoping hers doesn't bite the dust too.

Anyone come up with a fix yet, or figure out the likely hood of Apple standing by its products and replacing the faulty parts for free? Thanks,

Michael

The likely hood that Apple will fix this is actually slim at the moment. WB&M informed me a few days ago that they hope that D3us will manage to collect multiple boards soon to fix and have them 3D X-rayed which might actually provide proof of what's going on, because they said that Apple is already arguing the judge that no defect exists.

I understand your tight spot there very well. If you wouldn't be able to find a technician there that could reflow your board, I would personally arrange a 2nd hand replacement board of the same time, which already had a reflow treatment. I don't know what your resources or experiences are on IT level, but if you need help with getting that organised, log in, hover my name and send me a message, I'll help you. I could find you a board, get it reflowed and have it sent to you by DHL or whatever. There are online tutorials how to replace the board. If you stick to that, it's not so hard to do it yourself. There is a indeed chance that your wife's 13" machine may also get into trouble, especially if it's used more intensively now.

Good luck and let me know if you need help.

Cheers!

Yet another to add to this overwhelming list.

  Model Name:    MacBook Pro

  Model Identifier:    MacBookPro8,2 (15" Early 2011)

  Processor:    2.2 GHz Intel Core i7

AMD Radeon HD 6750M:

  Chipset Model:    AMD Radeon HD 6750M

  Type:    GPU

  Bus:    PCIe

  PCIe Lane Width:    x8

  VRAM (Total):    1024 MB

  Vendor:    ATI (0x1002)

  Device ID:    0x6741

  Revision ID:    0x0000

  ROM Revision:    113-C0170L-573

  gMux Version:    1.9.23

  EFI Driver Version:    01.00.573

I feel ike my issues became worse after upgrading to Yosemite too.  Now my computer won't boot.