Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Fibonacci786 wrote:

 

Same problem!! I took my MBP to the local Apple Store and had the logic board replaced. After a few hours, my macbook pro has completely died!!! All I see is a white hazy screen with a red crossed out circle!! Laptop won't even boot anymore.

A few days before the warranty extension program there were reports, as before, of swapped boards that failed leading to another swap and on occasion a repeat of the process. 

Then came the announcement of the warranty program.  Suddenly there is suppose to be new improved boards ready for swapping.  Assuming there is supply of new boards, there is also a supply of old boards that need to be flushed from the supply chain.  Refurbishing the supply chain will take some time.

Recently there was a report of basically a machine swap, not an upgrade, instead of a board repair.  Thankfully we can keep track, via the reports to this discussion, of any stumbles as this warranty program unfurls.

Sorry to hear that.

BTW, Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful that they gave me another 2011 MBP in even better (like new) condition.  I've had it up and running constantly since Wednesday and not a single issue yet.

My intent is to build that 2011 unit back up and then sell my now 6 month old 2014 MBP with 2.3GHz, 750 AMD GPU and IRIS int. GPU and 16GB RAM and 500GB SSD.

I've been using my repaired mbp 15" (early 2011) last weekend without a problem, which doesn't come as a surprise. After all I don't think there is one case known of a failing system just days after the repair, provided it got repaired under the official repair program.

But here is the interesting part: when I picked my Mac up at the ASP, I insisted knowing if I got the same crappy logic board as before, or not. As a customer, I think I'm entitled to know if I returned home with a ticking time bomb or a properly repaired computer. I didn't get an answer immediately, because the technicians weren't available anymore. But instead I got a formal (in writing) confirmation that the troubled logic board has been replaced with a new logic board containing a fix that would definitely prevent the problem with the video card to occur again. Although I didn't get any further details, it's a clear statement that will do for me, for now.

Let's hope so.

Hi gman can you provide a photo or Screenshot of your writing- thanks

Just ran the Heaven benchmark thingy. My computer passed all 26 tests. Temperature went up to 82 degrees C max. Yesterday I connected my laptop to an external monitor and used that for a few hours, everything was working just fine. I really hope my laptop stays this way for a long time.

Does anyone know if I am not the original buyer of the mac do they do a repair replacement? I bought my macbook from another guy second hand from Romania and then the gpu crashed so I was forced to repair it in Romania in a third party Service on my own expenses . Now I am wondering if Apple cand pay the money that I have spent on the repair.

sicilianu89 wrote:

 

Does anyone know if I am not the original buyer of the mac do they do a repair replacement? I bought my macbook from another guy second hand from Romania and then the gpu crashed so I was forced to repair it in Romania in a third party Service on my own expenses . Now I am wondering if Apple cand pay the money that I have spent on the repair.

The machine by Serial Number failed, not the purchase.   Contact Apple and get a case number for reimbursement of your repair.  Apple will send you, via email, a link address that is good for 7 days.  Make a scanned copy of the invoice and send that to Apple.  Make sure the invoice contains the Serial Number of the machine, the name and address of the repair shop, description of work done "GPU replaced", repair cost, your name, and address  Send the invoice to Apple via the link. 

In about a week Apple will email or call you confirming or denying your claim.  If Apple doesn't contact you, call them, refer to your case number and ask for a status update.

According to Apple my check will arrive after three weeks wait.

andysbrandy wrote:

 

Hi gman can you provide a photo or Screenshot of your writing- thanks

Yes, I, too, would like to see a statement that the boards that are being installed since Feb. 20 (in the US and Canada) and since Feb. 27 (elsewhere) are different from those installed prior to those dates to fix the same problem, and the new boards do fix it.

As I mentioned, I took my late 2011 MBP 17" to the Apple Store in Basel, Switzerland, a few days before Feb. 27, was informed that I could pick it up approx. two days after that (but still before Feb. 27) and finally did so on Feb. 28.  I have not received any document from Apple describing the repair.  The only document I have is the one authorizing it.  At the Basel store today and Apple employee, shuttling between me and the technicians, found out that there is no such document (perhaps because the machine still has Apple Care until July 2015).  When I asked whether the replacement board is one of those intended for the program or one of those that were being installed before the program, the technician said that from the serial number it's "überarbeitet".  I would translate this as "revised".

I took the opportunity to call the "shuttler's" attention to this thread and to emphasize how Apple could improve it's credibility in such situations by supplying more information about the exact cause of the problem, how many machines were sold, how many are potentially affected, how many (prior to the program) were repaired once, how many twice, etc., and how the new motherboards differ from the original one, resp. from the ones that were used before the program.  Far from defending the company, he just rolled his eyes and said yeah, he knows, but that's Apple.

Just picked up my repaired MBP 2011.

Removed bottom case and made photo of LB. It looks brand new. I doubt that it could be cleaned so much. And if you check glue around video ram and glue around screen chip it is different. Video ram also looks different or from new revision. But for sure it is the same board. Maybe it is soldered with lead (it is possible, coz lead is still allowed for repairs), but I would say that lead solder would shine a bit more.

So far so good. On idle I get less than 40°C. One day I will check also thermal paste job. I dont remember anybody from this or some other topic that had problems with video issues if repaste at the begenning.

andysbrandy wrote:

 

Hi gman can you provide a photo or Screenshot of your writing- thanks

Sure, here it is ...

Here is the text version (for easier translation options):

Gisteren bent u om uw Macbook Pro gekomen die hersteld was voor het videokaart probleem.

Met uw vraag welk logicboard het is dat er nu in de Mac zit.

De technieker kan met zekerheid vertellen dat er een nieuwe in zit en geen „refurbished”.

Dit logicboard is aangepast zodat dit geen videoprobleem kan geven zoals ervoor.

Hopende u hiermee voldoende geïnformeerd te hebben.

Just got my fixed macbook back today! Nothing wrong with graphics, but they replaced my two 8G ram sticks with two 2G sticks.... So now I have only 4G of memory instead of 16G! The two old sticks were wrapped up in the package. The computer is extremely slow and laggy. Did this happen to anyone? Is it necessary? I do a lot of memory-intensive video editing, and 4G of ram isn't going to work for me. What should I do?

rdbrwn wrote:

 

Just picked up my repaired MBP 2011.

Removed bottom case and made photo of LB. It looks brand new. I doubt that it could be cleaned so much. And if you check glue around video ram and glue around screen chip it is different.

It looks just the same.

The failing ones also had the glue.

In fact, they better shouldn't do that. It's totally useless.

To get a better idea, need pics of other side with heatsink.

And heatsink removed and chips cleaned.

This is one I repaired last  year, has the glue too:

Since getting back somebody else's logic board (with a complete MBP attached), still no issues.  But still don't know if this logic board was repaired or not.

Nevertheless, I will not be performing any stress tests with this MBP. 

I do not want to any overheating as I wouldn't be surprised if the stress tests themselves may not be a good this for this potentially compromised hardware. 

Remember, they've gooped on the thermal paste so it acts like a thermal blanket.

Unbelievably, I took my early 2011 15 inch MBP to an Apple authorized repair shop, today, and it passed all its tests. This machine that only boots one time in 20 due to GPU failure, this machine that I've been trying to gimp along using gfxCardStatus and never turning off, this machine that I had to replace with a new laptop because even then it would freeze every week or so, this machine started up flawlessly. Over and over. All I could do was shake my head. The guys were great, though: they kept my info, including the rest of the diagnostic data, and cancelled the test, telling me to come back when it wasn't working.

So I put the MBP to sleep and took it home in order to disable gfxCardStatus and you of course know exactly what happened: waking from sleep the screen was distorted and shortly thereafter it went black and the fan came on. By then the shop was closed. Sheesh.

I reckon the problem was that in the store it was running too cool, having not been used in weeks. But of course that's the opposite of what got it to run in the past: I had to use the blanket trick, then quickly switch it to integrated-only mode. Oh well. Back it goes to the shop, but first I'll make sure it's not working!