Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

rdbrwn wrote:

 

It happens to me when I have connected external monitor. But just if I want to connect external USB HDD that runs on its own power supply. It makes this when I touch the top case around USB/ fireWire connectors with USB connector from external HDD. Actually it makes a spark from HDD USB cable to top case of MBP. I can see a little spark in complete dark.

And it happened twice, and that was very strange, when I had connected ext HDD and ext display and my mobile phone got incoming call. Phone was very near HDMI adapter.

Are you in the States or where?   In the States the third wire, the circular pin, to your power outlet is Green wire ground, carries no current.  White wire is neutral, the widest blade, carries current and is connected at one point in the building to earth ground.

Is your MBP connected to its MagSafe cord?   If yes.  I have read that there are some non Apple MagSafe units on the market that have ground issues.  Is your MagSafe an Apple unit? If yes.  There is an electrical ground problem with the external hard drive.  Unplugging the MagSafe will isolate/float the MBP that will stop all "little sparks" but make you the the ground return line when you grab the MBP while the external hard drive is still connected.

If your MagSafe is not an Apple MagSafe and has a ground issue, you may feel a tingle just touching your MBP.

You need to fix this problem.

Please help. someone knows where to buy new GPU for my macbook pro 2011?

https://www.apple.com/uk/support/macbookpro-videoissues/

I am in Europe and I use it with cord extension when at home. It is hard to tell if I really have original charger, coz I bought my MBP used on eBay.

I made a little research and it looks like I have original charger. I compared it with my brothers (I know that he has original charger) and the only thing that differs is the cable feel. His is some kind more soft. I have early 2011 model and he has late 2011 model.

I also tried to connect my ext display and HDD to his MBP and flickering thing is the same.

External HDD does not have grounding as most electronic devices that don't have metal chassis.

About "tingeling": since day one, me and my brother felt that when using it without extension cord and having feet on ceramic floor.

But what I would like to say, that this sparks are "jumping" to the thunderbolt (TB) controller. Since I have connected ext display to TB this doesn't concern me much. I am a little more worried if I would have connected ext disk to TB. From the picture http://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/QWKKPpAh4AHJm1bf.huge you can see that USB ports are next to TB ctrl.

thans for your effort, but I am sure that they will avoid my problem saying that there is some problem with my ext HDD

if you have early 2011 with 2.2 or 2.3 cpu or late 2011 with 2.2 cpu then try this link http://www.parts4laptops.eu/en/laptop-chipsets/451-amd-216-0810005-2014.html.

But why not to try to take it to apple and have it repair under repair program as almssp suggested?

Lacking any electronics experience I would recommend:

1. Reduce your setup to the minimum number of devices with which you can reliably recreate the problem.  Take pictures of the problem occurring while those devices are attached.
2. Make an appointment at the nearest Apple Store.  Describe the problem and advise them that you will be bringing other devices besides the laptop so as to recreate it.
3. Let the genius who serves you analyze the problem and propose a solution.

It is my understanding that the session at the Genius Bar is free.  With all the diagnostic tools at his/her disposal it should not be too difficult for the genius to determine:

1. What is likely causing the problem.
   • If it's your external hard disk, you'll have to replace it.
   • If it's your external monitor, ditto.
   • If it's something on your motherboard, hope that it is either covered by the repair extension program or won't cost an arm and a leg for Apple to repair.
2. What must be done to solve it.
3. How much that will cost.

If it comes down to deciding whether to authorize Apple to repair your machine, you can ask any questions you like, e.g., how sure is the genius about the cause, and how sure is he/she that the proposed repair will solve the problem, and then you can decide how you want to proceed.

Good luck!

How can we determine if the replacement board is new or old

Remove bottom case and check around screws if there is any corrosion. Black numbers on grey components should be clearly visible.

Remove heatsink. On GPU find 4 digit number. First two digits = year of production. Second two digits = week of production. 14xx or 15xx means you got new GPU.

Although it's been awhile since houge posted this problem, I have the similar problem. Started with a few horizontal flickering lines then gradually increased to  all over the screen then eventually died within a few minutes on the disk mode whrn I was trying to troubleshoot it by reinstalling the os. Afterwards it wouldn't power on. Just a dead machine. Still within the first year warranty. Taking in for service tomorrow. Every apple product I've owned gave me problems at least once or twice.

I Think I'll be safer if I was to say goodbye to apple once for all time. They're very expensive and yet most problematic products.

Do we know any rough numbers on how many people have received new MacBook Pros out of this?

I got mine repaired under this program but the graphics issue has come back, so I'm about to send it back (via an authorised third party) to be repaired a second time. I've heard that some people, after three failed repair attempts, had someone at the genius bar give them a new laptop. I imagine this won't happen if I keep going through my third party, so I'm tempted to take a train to Amsterdam (I live in Brussels) and call into the genius bar there.

Numbers? I don't know. i live just to the South of Brussels. And I did not need to go to an Apple Store in order to get excellent service. Is your authorised third party an Apple Authorised Repair Centre?

After my fourth logic board replacement through a helpful Apple Authorised Repair Centre on the North-West side of Brussels (I had paid 700€ for the first repair as my machine was out of guarantee, the subsequent repairs were all under the 90 day guarantee of the repairs) I set up a chat with Apple support and made an appointment to speak to a senior person who agreed to send me a new MacBookPro Retina. I asked if I could change the standard specifications if I paid the difference - he said yes so I upgraded to the fastest processor and a 1TB SSD. I cloned my Mavericks system to an external Thunderbolt drive, wiped the memory and Apple arranged to pick up my old machine. A few days later I received my new machine, pre-loaded with Yosemite, shipped from China because of the upgrades I had bought.

Miracle, although "new" machines are not supposed to run older versions of OS X this machine was mid 2014 so just BEFORE Yosemite was finally released, so I was able to create a partition for my Mavericks clone - this facilitated the gradual transfer of applications and files across to Yosemite.

Good luck!

Nickiwi

Just an update on my 2nd logic board repair:

My MBP is FINALLY back to its original condition. The new logic board fixed all the issues I had after the initial repair in February. It's faster and, even though, it's only been 2 days I don't see any issues with the GPU. I've run the Haven benchmark and the difference between when I ran it before the 2nd repair and now is night and day. My new warranty ends in July so I have plenty of time to stress test.

Second reply: if you get the NEW replacement logic board, rather than an old reconditioned one, you may not need to get a new machine - your current machine should work as normal again.

Good luck,

Nickiwi

Thanks for this - I went with Easy-M, who have a shop on Avenue Louise, Brussels. They're an authorised third party and I was pretty happy with their service. They basically just took my MBP2011, sent it to the Apple repair centre, and then returned it to me. However, the repair carried out at the centre obviously hasn't worked as the fault is back. What third party did you use?

I'll just have to send it off a second time, I guess. Frustrating as I really need my laptop! I'm just trying to think ahead in case I get it back and it's faulty again. I might do what you did, arrange a call with someone senior and see if they'll give me a Retina.