Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

I spoke with Apple consumer relation yesterday and they didn't want to help me to solve the issue. I had to pay the $600 repair, so I told them that I'll be suing them myself. I am happy to know that I did scare them enough so they offer this program. But don't be fool, APPLE offered the worst customer service I ever seen from day one of this problem, they now offer this repair because they know that WE have a strong case.

I HOPE CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT STILL GO FORWARD.

This repair program is a joke, unless they change their soldering method and remove the patch that reduce our GPU performance by 30% we still have a computer that will fail and that do not perform as advertised by Apple. FULL REFUND or exchange for an equal value Macbook Pro model that is not affected by this flaw is the only solution. NO THANKS APPLE, I'll have my computer repair for sure so I can work. But Apple still have to pay for it's nonchalance and false advertising.

Darrell Stall wrote:

So if you move to Linux, what will you do for software? Rely on Open Source? Gimp is fine for what it does, but my understanding is it still falls well short of Photoshop.

I don't use Photoshop. I'm a music person. I already have a few options in terms of software: Ableton Live and Bitwig Studio, both major software. It looks like setting up audio isn't as straightforward but it's something I'm willing to look into.

SkyHawk-YQB wrote:

 

This repair program is a joke, unless they change their soldering method and remove the patch that reduce our GPU performance by 30% we still have a computer that will fail and that do not perform as advertised by Apple. FULL REFUND or exchange for an equal value Macbook Pro model that is not affected by this flaw is the only solution. NO THANKS APPLE, I'll have my computer repair for sure so I can work. But Apple still have to pay for it's nonchalance and false advertising.

Amen.

SkyHawk-YQB wrote:

This repair program is a joke, unless they change their soldering method and remove the patch that reduce our GPU performance by 30% we still have a computer that will fail and that do not perform as advertised by Apple.

AMEN indeed.

How and where was that patch applied actually?

Was that a part of the updates of the OS, or..?

I mean, what was done when to reduce the performance?

If you reinstall Mountain Lion, for instance, will the patch then not be present?

Pier11 wrote:

 

SkyHawk-YQB wrote:

 

FULL REFUND or exchange for an equal value Macbook Pro model that is not affected by this flaw is the only solution. NO THANKS APPLE, I'll have my computer repair for sure so I can work. But Apple still have to pay for it's nonchalance and false advertising.

Amen.

Perhaps in the next three years, all the MBPs repaired for free will break down all over again and maybe then Apple will acknowledge that the only solution would be to simply replace the machines. So be prepared to do this all over again in 3 years.. maybe less!

Remember these words!

Thank you corentiny1 for finding this and telling us!

And thank you Apple for finally recognising the problem and acting on it.

I don't know however if they will reimburse me my first logic board replacement as just after the 4th logic board replacement, in January this year while it was still working OK, I contacted Apple Support by chat, pointing out that the subject concerned a recently added Apple component in order to avoid having to pay to chat.

I expected the 4th replacement board to fail before the process with Apple finished, but no - the chat resulted very quickly in a telephone call from a Senior Adviser in Apple in Ireland, extremely helpful and pleasant, who agreed to replace my early 2011 (i7 8GB memory 500 GB disc with the dreaded AMD processor) MacBook Pro with a new 2014 (so current) 15 inch i7 Retina (16 GB 500 GB SSD) MacBook Pro. He agreed I could pay the normal upgrade price to upgrade to the 2.8 GHz i7 and a 1TB SSD, which I did. This meant they collected my machine, which I had managed to Time Machine AND Carbon Copy Clone  and I duly de-registered iTunes etc. and wiped the disc. And because of the extras they delivered the new machine from China to me in Belgium, which took 6 days. This part of the operation was followed by a very helpful lady from AppleCare Support in the Netherlands (by the way I had never bothered with AppleCare as until that machine, all the Macs in my family had been extremely reliable and long-lived). One thing the Senior Adviser said was "as you have paid for the first of a series of faulty repairs", which is why I don't know if they will reimburse it, having replaced the whole machine.

Another thing - I told him I had bought the machine partly to run professional graphics and photography applications on and that this was impossible with the failed logic boards - he seemed a bit surprised and said most people seemed to buy high-end machines even though they had no real technical need of them and just used them for email, web access and bit of office applications. I pointed out the huge tip of the enormous iceberg of hurt professional users on this thread; another factor being that most of us seem to be highly mobile - for example I spend a quarter of my days travelling or away from base and thus an iMac or a Mac Pro are not much use to me.

Nonetheless I shall send in the request and see what happens. I have the serial number and characteristics of the faulty machine and all the proofs of the multiple repairs.

Now for something interesting - I had decided to do do a clean install of my software and files on the Yosemite the machine came with, rather than taking over the cumbersome layers upon layers of old stuff accumulated since Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion and Mavericks, and had expected to need to do this by transferring stuff gradually from the clone, as I had thought this Yosemite machine would not run Mavericks, having heard that new machines would not run previous operating systems. Nonetheless I created a second partition on this huge SSD and cloned my Mavericks clone to it, and lo and behold, it worked immediately like a charm. Presumably because the machine is technically a "mid-2014" model while Yosemite was officially launched on 16 October 2014. This means I can gradually transfer programmes and stuff as I need them, and use my Mavericks partition directly when required. I also have an old emergency Snow Leopard partition cloned, but this would indeed not boot immediately and I have not had time to investigate further, probably impossible and not worth it.

One small detail - I couldn't get the iWork '09 applications to work under Yosemite until some helpful people in another thread pointed out that one needed to load them from a .dmg or a DVD and update it, the only problem being that it's disappeared from iTunes and the AppStore so one has to update it from elsewhere (I still have the original DVD, luckily).

Once again, thanks Apple for at last recognising the problem and at least offering to repair free of charge. Even though the free-of-charge logic board will certainly need replacement several times! But personally I am extremely pleased at this outcome. Good luck everybody and thank you for our collective voice, advice, experience-sharing and support. AND as D3us said, thanks to all of you who have so tirelessly and doggedly campaigned on this issue, digging up facts and expertise, petitioning, collecting serial numbers etc.

kayazuki — Google "forums appleinsider 2011 MacBook Pro graphics class-action suit expands, accuses Apple of concealing defects"

That article quotes law firm as having sent out email reading "Specifically, we allege that between early- and late-2011, Apple released a software update that dramatically reduced the graphical performance of the GPUs in order to prevent them from reaching temperatures that would cause the GPUs to effectively self destruct." So if that's true, I doubt if reinstalling ML will fix the issue since the early 2011 MBPro shipped with  Snow Leopard 10.6.6. My guess is there's some firmware that was installed, possibly as part of and update to the OS or as a "Security" update perhaps as early as late/last version of Snow Leopard, which then was included with all OS going forward which I think would be typical for any such legitimate type of change.

who advice apple to do what they decide to do.

ALL authorised labs I went, and in three deferent countries, says it;s a waste of time to try and fix it, as the problem will return FOR SURE. All the boards produced for these MAcBooks produced with same manufacture problematic issue. So it will last for a little and then again, probably, as authorised technicians saying, will be crash a suffer from same failure,

So when Apple, a serious, reach, and proud company, make a decision, why it goes half way. OR they have a solution that never offered before which suppose to eliminate the graphic issue for good ?!

I AM SO TRIRED OF ALL THESE STORY. ALL I WANTED IS A GOOD FUNCTIONING COMPUTER!!

Great i will sleep well for the first time in the past year and a half, Buy it to do my work and end with a fancy brick, now the brick will be useful (to program and not just to hold paper).

Darrell Stall - GIMP, exactly I actually tried GIMP on OSX and it is waaaaaay behind Photoshop I can admit it but it is something I guess... I've been trying to go with Open Source Software so I use Open Office for docs, Blender for 3D/Video Editing, but... on audio well, I'm still looking for a good Garageband replacement...

I've already performed the reflow technique myself on my MBP and it worked, I've also downgraded the kext drivers from 6770M to 6450M and they work!, and reaplied new thermal paste to the GPU. Right now it is working at pretty cool temps and I am able to do any 3D and 2D work on it. But my choice was to give this MBP to my wife, as she will only use it for Docs and Internet so she won't be stressing out the GPU at all, so I already got me another Laptop brand were I'll do all my 3D and 2D work "Superduper Powerfull!". My bet was to go with a dual linux and windows system... I was really in loved with OSX :\ sad I'll have to "Let it go... let it go!"...

raffaellos wrote:

 

So when Apple, a serious, reach, and proud company, make a decision, why it goes half way. OR they have a solution that never offered before which suppose to eliminate the graphic issue for good ?!

As I mentioned before, let's all repair our MacBooks for free and come back here in 3 years for another round of this. Surely then they'll finally admit to their mistake and just give us all brand new machines.... I mean what else are they going to do.. launch another repair program?

Apple made BILLIONS last quarter. God knows what numbers they'll reach in 3 years. They should be able to easily afford to replace all our machines for new ones by then.

This is great today I called Apple customer service and went on for quite some time about how dissatisfied I am , I mentioned this thread with affected users all over the world, the law suits and the petition. I was given a case number. I told the support person I  wanted my computer fixed for free. Tonight I see they have finally seen the light. I agree it may not be a permanent fix, however now that it is an official program they may changed how they repair this issue...

This is a great first step, Apple! Thank you! But some (all?) of these laptops are going to have to be replaced. Mine has had three logic board-gpu units replaced in the last year. The latest is showing early disturbing signs of failure similar to past problems. Not bad enough to replace yet, but not inspiring confidence. But it does sound like I'll get $300+ refunded for the one I had to pay for, and it does sound like you are fully acknowledging that there is an issue. Again, Thank you, Apple!

This might be a crazy thought but... what if the logic boards used in this repair program are new ones, not the refurbished ones used in the past? I guess our MBPs might stand a chance then?

Yes this is what I am thinking, it makes no sense to have a repair program and then have customers keep coming back, I suspect they have come up with a more permanent fix we shall see...