Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

The guarantee wont automatically stop if you have already had this issue seen too or fixed. Its just meant to be for those who experience this issue for the first time, after that you are covered by whatever warranty they give you on that part. So for me i have 3 or 6 months on that part so if it fails within that period they have to change and so on.

I asked the genius and he told me so. Maybe it differs in each country.

At the end of the day i want to trust my work station, not have constant anxiety not knowing when it will die. Reballing them, as they seem to have called this fix, is not good enough.

Will post back on how i go.

Thanks so much for the information. I wasn't sure about that, but hoped that was the way it worked. That's great to know, I just hope the first one is a winner and I don't have to go back again. I hate dealing with things like this.

I really like my 17 inch MBP and hope I don't have to trade it in. My eyes are not as good as they used to be. lol

haha i know that feeling, its not that i cant buy a new machine, i can, BUT this mbp has been my work horse for a while now and when it did work as new last week with the new parts + new hdd + my 16 gig of ram it was so quick and made using el capitan a breeze. ATM i am using my 2008 MBP and its slow and clunky.

Plus the thought of having to use one of the new macbook airs terrifies me as they are so thin and light..i am scarred i will snap it and i dont really want to revert back to a full desktop, havent had one in over a decade.

My daughter has one that's a few years old and she is pretty rough on them, but she really likes it. Or at least she did till she got a smart phone. Now that is what she uses most of the time. Myself, I get tired of those little screens. My iPad is wonderful for reading in bed, but those **** advertisements really ruin it. I spend half my time, trying to get rid of them. Fat fingers just aren't conducive to using iPad minis.

does anyone knows that those who repaired their Macbook by unauthorized repair centers can use this repair program?

Anyone with the same experience?

Hi Ahashem2,

I also would like to know that.

Last year, october 2014, I replaced the gpu 6490m with a new chipset but after 1 year approximately it is having the same exact issues again.

Now the guy who did that doesn't have the chipset in stock anymore and I need a fast solution cause I use the computer to work. Im thinking on trying to use Apple´s repair program but I wonder if they notice the computer was repaired (they probably do, just wishful thinking.).

@Ahashem2, @Pedrodfa,

At worst, Apple will ask you to pay for the repair that others obtain for free.  But read the announcement of the repair extension program carefully, specifically the third-to-last paragraph:

Apple is contacting customers who paid for a repair either though Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider to arrange reimbursement.  If you have not been contacted, but paid for a repair that you think was due to this issue, please contact Apple.

If you paid for a repair for this issue, you are entitled to a reimbursement.  Notice that the reimbursement is not limited to repairs performed through Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider; those are the only people that Apple can contact.  In fact, at least one participant in this thread has stated that he received a reimbursement for reballing that a third-party performed.  So you might contact Apple about a reimbursement alone before deciding how to deal with the present problem.  In the case that Apple reimburses you for the previous repair, you could afford to pay for repairing the present problem.

Good luck!

Thank you Richard.

The thing is that the money I spent doing the recalling/replacement is not even half of the minimum they ask for a logic board replacement here where I live, Portugal. They ask around 500eur for a logic board replacement and I spent around 140eur in this third party service to replace the gpu.

Ultimately I don´t want to pay Apple for a new logic board because after some months looks like its doomed to fail again. Are these new repair programs reliable? Are people having problems again after the repair program? I would honestly like to know. If I knew I would have a reliable computer without gpu problems for the next 3 years I would pay for it. I really wouldn't like to have to buy a new retina mbp, cause mine is pretty fast (16gb ram) for what I do mostly (Photoshop on external monitor).

So im not sure if I should be honest with the apple service and tell them I changed the gpu once or just don't say anything.

Thank you

As I see it, you are not on the determining end of this proposition.  The announcement of the repair extension program says under what conditions the repair will be performed at no charge to you.  If your machine fulfills them, it will be fixed at no charge to you; if not, you will be informed and given the the choice to have it repaired at the offered price, or to forego repairs.

In some cases Apple has refused to repair a unit for free because the optical drive has been replaced by a hard disk or an SSD, this despite the fact that no soldering was involved.  What do you think Apple will say about your new GPU chipset?  500€ - 140€ (assuming Apple refunds the cost of the chipset exchange) < 500€, isn't it?  If I were you I would definitely apply for a reimbursement, whether or not I subsequently tried to get Apple to fix the machine.

À propos having Apple fix it:  Bear in mind that people stumble upon this thread because they have a problem, and once their problem is solved, they tend to disappear.  So, yes, some people have reported having their MBP's repaired multiple times under the program.  But how many people have had theirs fixed just once, and it's still running fine?  In order to derive that information from this thread and test your impression that most, if not all repairs, are failing, you would have to read all the postings after the initiation of the program and tabulate how often each poster had his/her machine repaired.  And even those numbers might not be representative.  Some "lurkers" might have read about the repair extension program here, taken their machine to Apple, got it fixed, and after that experienced no more video issues ... all without even posting here.

When I had my MBP 17" repaired in February I was told that the replacement board was "revised," i.e., not the same as the original.  I am assuming that the revision is supposed to address the video issues, either directly or indirectly.  At any rate, I have experienced no video issue since the repair.  As one contributor to this thread has reported, even on these boards used components are used if Apple deems them up to specification, but the boards as such have never been in another machine.  So it would seem that these are not the original boards, and there would be some reason for those so inclined to hope for a "permanent" fix.

However, nobody can guarantee that the next repair for the video issues will be the last one you need, and so you'll just have to decide whether you want to have the chip set exchanged again, or try Apple.  Apple has been offering to exchange machines that resist three or four attempts by Apple to repair them, so this might be one reason for going the Apple route, even if it means having to buy your way into it.  (Presumably, subsequent repairs will be covered by guarantees on the previous repair.)  The exchanges are, I understand, current models.  For obvious reasons (17" screen) I would not like to exchange mine.  With 16 GB RAM and a 2 TB SSD mine still knocks the socks off the new 20" iMac.  You might feel otherwise about yours.

Good luck!

Well i got a call from apple yesterday about my MBP. It seems like the ram i bought this year is the fault. But what i dont understand is, they tested the ram on another machine and it worked fine, so they replaced the logic board AGAIN and put the ram and it beeped. They then tried new ram and it didnt beep.

So what they are telling me is that the RAM just doesnt want to work on my machine at all. I am puzzled by this, why would it work fine on other machines and not mine? The logic board is new so there is no reason why it wouldn't work.

HE told me to bring in my old ram and they will replace the 16 gig ram with the old 8 gig and if wanted 16 gig of ram i would have to buy it. So great i go from owning a turbo charged machine back down to a V8.

This whole experience, even though apple didnt charge me for the replacement and labour, has left a bitter taste in my mouth. And all my apple products from the period 2011-13 are all failing, my airport extreme is the next in line to have failed. You can add my iphone 4s and 5 to that list, with the latter breaking as soon as i upgraded to the latest iOS. I was told that i needed to upgrade to the latest iphone because you know, new **** YAY!

At this stage i simply don't trust apple no more, it seems their planned obsolesce is getting worst and like many companies have relied on cheap Chinese labour which has deteriorated their standards that they used to pride themselves on. Just another global money hungry shareholders come first at any expense company.

Sorry to hear about the faulty RAM.  Return the RAM, get your money back, and either buy the 16 GB from Apple (if available), take your chances on other third-party RAM (OWC perhaps?), or limp along with the original 8 GB.

I haven't got the cash for new ram atm so i will have to go back to 8 gig for now. My wife keeps asking me what the big deal is as i still have 8 gig of ram. Nope there is a massive difference with an extra 8 gig of am. This machine was sluggish when i had the old ram in it.

It sounds childish but i dont think i want to use this machine now that i have to go back to using as it was stock.

I guess i will just have to wait it out until after the holidays so i can buy new ram.

I don't want to press the point, but can't you return the 16 GB to where you bought it?  Apple is basically telling you it's faulty.  That has got to mean something to the company that you bought it from.  Here's OWC's Warranty on 16 GB RAM for 2011 MBPs.  I imagine that your 16 GB carries a similar warranty.

Figured is post this for anyone interested my mid 2015 rMBP is showing the same issues as those described in the thread with kernel panics "ACG HDA GPU Register Restore". Hopefully it won't be a repeat of what you guys have seen but given I've only had it 6 months and this is the first time I've heavily used it since then doesn't bode well.

Hi,

I took my Macbook pro 2011 (late) to the apple store for this GPU recall. ( The replace the "motherboard" and 2 days later I'm having exactly the same problem. Computer is overheating and shutdown automatically. This ADM Graphic card is a complete garbage. And replacing the motherboard "WILL Not solve this". It's a hardware malfunction, and If they replace the hardware "for the same hardware" having this problem is a matter of time. FRUSTRATING!. You pay prime! Not get prime!. Apple quality controls went downhill.