Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

bga_repairs wrote:

 

If your stuck for a repairer you can send over to us in the UK. We have many customers from Europe if you need a reference.

 

We have limited stock of these GPU's which do you have?

Have you done any X-Rays or endoscopic inspection of these before pulling the old GPU?  Any indication of the nature of the joint failures?

I get that you would mainly use those things for checking your own work, but you must have been curious about it?

I send an email to Tim Cook. He most likely will never read it but I agree, if there are hundred of emails with similar subject lines then it might bring attention to the matter.

Here's a link to an article that I believe we can all relate to, regarding Apple testing the limits of customer loyalty:

http://www.xconomy.com/national/2013/11/08/apples-weakness-customer-loyalty-limi ts/

The scale of this 2011mbp disaster is stunning. Many of the stories are coming from long time Apple fans who are now questioning whether this company has lost its way. And the impact is international.

Apple, do the right thing.

Ok i'm back with my story.

Didn't want to go to Service Center coz didn't want to waste time.

I followed this thread daily for about two month. I could use my MBP on integrated for some time (took about 50-100) attempts to boot until I finally tried to upgrade to Mavericks and its not booting anymore no matter how long I try.

I sent feedback over the form at apple site, I filled in google document, did several other things and sent an email to Tim Cook.

I was contacted by lady from Executive Relations from Ireland and she passed me over to Singapore as I'm currently in Indonesia. I was contacted by Executive Relations Senior Advisor from Singapore who connected me to APAC Senior Specialist.

I was offered to go to local Authorized Service Center (in Bali).

After 2 weeks (!!!) and many attempts to get some info about my computer I was finally told that... the motherboard has a problem ))) and was offered a replacement for 9,3 millions Rupiah ($800).

Obviously said no.

Was contacted by Advisor from Singapore again who said its an individual case and there's no known issue by their techies regarding the case even though I pointed to this thread.

I was offered a eCoupon for my next Apple computer buy of about $100

Still hope apple will do a replacement program sooner or later.

Right now I'm stuck with no machine to do my job.

Not sure if rMBP is a good buy.

I just wrote to Tim with the following:

Hi Tim,

Love the products, but I'm sure you are aware that there's a fault in the 2011 MacBook Pro with it's GPU.   The thread has over 1,100 replies and unfortunately over 84,000 views.  You're welcome to view it here, it's unfortunately not the only thread discussing the GPU problem.   Some people have noted that reballing the GPU makes it work, while others note that just pressing on the GPU will get it work, indicating that it is the GPU and not the logic board; unless one wants to argue that the logic board isn't soldered properly which is just semantics.  

As a long time and loyal customer, I'd appreciate you looking into this and issuing a recall.  It's the right thing to do and I believe Apple does right by it's customers.  It's what keeps us loyal.

Regards,

Michael

<Email Edited by Host>

Same issue here - MBP 2011 - bought in March problems started last month - Blue Screens - When starting Photoshop the computer freezes or just close down ...

I repaired permissions, checked harddisk, did a hardware check (no problems found???), clean install of the system, etc. etc.

I am surprised that there are more hundreds of messages which point this problem but Apple doesn't/hasn't do/done anything (or I have missed it out somewhere). I noted that Apple did a replacement program for iMacs.

In the Apple store they tell me I better buy a new one,  no more garantee, but when I pay a lot of money for a computer, it is to use for more then 2 years.

Somewhat dissapointent now. No more think different ...

I personnally don't believe this issue to be related to soldering melting with heat, otherwise that would be logical to see people having failure of the CPU also and from now we only saw GPU failures.

I think some GPUs (but not necessarily all of them) have internal issue(s) that reveal themselves with time (much like the NVidia 8600M), and so need to be replaced (and not just reballed/reflowed).

The issue may look widespread, but franky reading this thread, there are not so much cases, at most a few thousand cases if not just a few hundreds. I believe not all AMD Radeon 6750M GPU are affected so replacing them (or replacing the logic board alltogether) can fix the issue, but of course you can have the bad luck to get an affected replacement GPU/logic board that will eventually fail again in the future.

In any case, Apple should seriously think about putting in place a replacement program for affected users. Knowing them, they will (always did in the past for similar issues (Radeon 7500 on iBook G3, NVidia 8600M on MacBook Pro and Radeon 6970M on iMac), but from what I known, they don't issue such a program until they have a way to solve the issue correctly (and from what we can read from several users, this is not the case yet as some replacement logic boards can also be affected).

I know that it can take a lot of time sometime (several months for some issue, for example that was the case for the Radeon 7500 of the iBook G3, at first (first cases) it was a specific issue, then it became known by Apple Care (but still no replacement program) and at the end once they had a definitive fix, they issued a program).

By the way, the iBook G3 is an early 2003 unit (10 years old), so saying that it worse today than before is just not true. From my point of view, it didn't change or not very much, the process seems to be very similar today than it was back in 2003 and Apple seems to be dealing with the present issue in a very similar way.

We are for now at the first step of the process, that's to say Apple is collecting informations from the first units affected. I think it's a matter of weeks before it becomes a known issue internally at Apple, and there are still months ahead (maybe 3 to 6 months at most) before a public replacement program is issued.

So you should either wait (if you can use your MBP in a way or another or have an alternative computer) or get your logic board replaced anyway (all cost paid will be refunded once the replacement program is in place).

@ iFrodo

Thank you, there are still some people here with common sense and knowledge of huge international companies. But I'm very disappointed about all those naive "we have to write an eMail to Tim Cook" guys here, do you really believe the eMail goes through to Tim? Have you never heard something about SPAM filters? The best you can hope for, is that Tims assistant is forwarding these mails to the tech department.

The far more efficient way is to contact Apples Support or file the problem here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookpro.html

Beside of that, I got the impression that many of those "write an eMail to Tim Cook" guys are not even affected by the problem, the just like to miss-credit Apple. I hardly believe they even have a MacBookPro, because as I went through this thread, those peoples didn’t publish any pictures or Log-output, they just post something like "me too". How should Apple investigate in this matter without any facts? A "me too" is not helpful.

Actually I did write an email to Apple too, but not to Tim and I did not tell them what they have to do (Replacement Program), they knows best whats to do.

And I got yesterday an answer:

     Dear XXXXX,

     Thank you for your email. We appreciate your comments on the MacBook Pro.

     Apple is committed to providing a positive experience for our customers through the use of our hardware,      software, and Internet offerings. Feedback such as yours helps us determine areas of opportunity as we      continue to grow our business.

     Please be assured that Apple values the time and consideration that you invested in your email.

     Best regards,

     XXXXXXXX

     Apple XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

So you all can be sure that Apple knows about this thread, By the way, what do you think why has Apple set up this Discussion Forum? They are constantly checking these entries, thats the reason, now and then some of the entries are disappearing, e.g. those with Tims eMail address in it.

Enjoy your 

hunter_aran wrote:

 

Has anyone tried replacing the logic board with a newer 2012 or 2013 logic board? Even for a price? I'd be willing to pay if I knew this problem won't happen again and also that it's an upgrade.

No way, those motherboards won't fit.

Enjoy your 

iFrodo wrote:

 

The issue may look widespread, but franky reading this thread, there are not so much cases, at most a few thousand cases if not just a few hundreds. I believe not all AMD Radeon 6750M GPU are affected so replacing them (or replacing the logic board alltogether) can fix the issue, but of course you can have the bad luck to get an affected replacement GPU/logic board that will eventually fail again in the future.

There are always a lot more people who don't use internet forums and don't bother posting about their problems.  This thread is a small fraction of the people who have this problem.  Also, it looks like people are just starting to run into this problem, so this thread is going to get bigger and bigger.  It is a major problem, as several people here said they got Apple to replace their logic board 3 times and had a GPU failure all 3 times.

Hello,

same problem here. First time one month ago. After a backing the logic board, it worked, until today. Now I just get a blue screen. Can't boot in safe mode, disabling kext's doesn't help. I called AppleCare today (Germany), the guy said, that he didn't knew anything about this problem. I told him that the support forums are full of this problem. He wanted me to offer an reallly expensive out of warranty replacement or told me to try to visit a store. Should I waste time and go there? Would take me half of a day (1 hour one-way).

Thanks

Ilja

@ Ilja

Hi Ilja, here you can get some help:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/23737231#23737231

If you are using an  OSX older than Mountain Lion, you have to put an additional command after step 7:

Type mv ATI*.* _temp and ENTER

Instead of wasting time an go to the AppleStore, you can file a Bug Report here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookpro.html

Enjoy your 

hello guys! is there any body tried to replace the GPU with new chip? is it coming with balls? and is it leaded balls soldered on the chip? in Saudi arabia i found one shop that can replace the chip for 450 SAR for 120 $..

in case that the apple recall does not come, i will try to go with the BGA replacement.

anyhow as of now, my MBP is working aftert reflowed by BGA machine for 5mins profile. but forced to run in intergrated with gfxCard.

still hoping for the recall program. coz this is unfair for what wve invested.

Apple should take care of this, any professional company is doing a recall for flawed products such as toyota before for theire break system issue.

God bless us!

Thanks, this at least helped my to boot into my system. I've also filed this "bug" report.

@ Rimshots

I would not recommend you to put your Mac in the hands of any repair centre except it is certified form Apple. Reballing can help but most probably the failure comes up again.

Please read the post from iFrodo, he points out excellent why it not so easy for Apple or any other company to start a Replacement Program before they have done an extended analysis of the matter.

But Apple is aware of this Discussion.

Enjoy your 