Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Ooops. That was the 2015 Retina Macbook NOT Pro with the tiny logic board. The 2015 MBP still has a big logic board - have to wait to see the 2016 rMBP.

I'm beginning to think that any laptop with high performance graphics is going to be prone to a similar long-term fate, since the thermal challenges will always be there.

Been reading papers describing the failure modes and pin locations. The problems are well described. Clearly, no manufacturer wants to pay for repairs they can get away with not having to pay for.

Ian Cheong wrote:

 

I'm beginning to think that any laptop with high performance graphics is going to be prone to a similar long-term fate, since the thermal challenges will always be there.

 

The challenge is there in laptops that were designed using the form over function philosophy, as Apple has learnt the wrong way. Apple is currently saving its butt looking the other way, ignoring the infamous 'MeltBook Pro' problem, and evolving towards grossly underpowered hardware that is nothing more than glorified christmas decoration. I don't care so much about Apple making design errors; I do care about Apple screwing their customers.

After second logic board in 15 days totally, I noticed that temp of discrete gpu is too high also in idle and WHEN NOT IN USE...I'm tired of this problem! Machine runs well but not perfect like before (some lags on Mountain Lion and I can't upgrade to Mavericks, Yosemite and El Capitan because lags rules!!!! And I mount 8gb ram and SSD). If now GPU's temp run at 75 celsius in idle, I don't want imagine the temperature in full summer!!!

I walk up the subject.
Indeed, now the MacMini 2011 to the same generation and with an AMD GPU in the same problem as the MacBook and iMac

If you are concerned (or your friends) thank you for coming here to say:

Mac-Mini 2011 - AMD Radeon GPU Failure

Sincerely,

lion_nel wrote:

 

I walk up the subject.
Indeed, now the MacMini 2011 to the same generation and with an AMD GPU in the same problem as the MacBook and iMac

If you are concerned (or your friends) thank you for coming here to say:

Mac-Mini 2011 - AMD Radeon GPU Failure

 

Sincerely,

Years ago when this GPU problem first surfaced my youngest son, who works for Intel,  commented about AMD having some longevity issues.  He wouldn't say much more other than it's a well known problem within Intel.

I have occassionally check on graphic issues with other Apple products.  AMD is a common denominator.

Yes it's sure.

but the problem is that Apple refuses to claim warranty on MacMini with AMD Radeon. For them, there is no problem!
It is normal for a video card died after 4 years ... (true) !!

Mine just failed as well.   I live in China and have had excellent support from the local Authorized Service Centers but this will be the first time I bring my computer in for this problem.   I don't use the MBP for any heavy graphics but do/have used some VMs in the past such as Virtual Box or Parallels with only intermittent issues as related to graphics. 

So I suspected that I was going to have this issue early on...but already out of warranty.  The first repair program came around and my laptop seemed to be working okay and I had read about other people having problems with the replacement boards so I didn't bring the unit in for repair since my problem was only intermittent. 

Hard crashes now with all the symptoms as others have posted.   I still don't know if I should have had my laptop repaired earlier but am happy that Apple extended their coverage of this issue.  

My MBP:  Early 2011, 17"

Ian hope you can post the results of your repair when you get your MBP back.  I will also do the same.   I plan to go to the closest repair center today and am printing out my system profile, so I can check the board serial numbers and parts list once I get my unit back.

Wish you and everyone luck!  

New logic board is pretty much identical to old one, except fully functional. The only differences I can find:

1. Boot ROM MBP81.0047.B2C was MBP81.0047.B27

2. hardware UUID

3. thunderbolt UID

4. Thunderbolt PortMicroFirmwareVersion: 2.1.3 was 2.0.7

Fan seems to run more.

Mines all booked in for repair next Thursday. Been having  random restarts for a few months and had no idea this program existed!!

well, my mb had a quick "death" just over a year ago, one day it restarted once. next day 2x, next day repeatedly and finally by day 5 no boot whatsoever.

took it in and got the "repair" done but am suspecting it's on a fail route again. watching a vid yesterday and the whole screen went beige and the vid/sound "stuck" until i had to force restart.

doing a little facebook+games today and bam, restart.

ugh.

they say the new mb has no heat issues at all. this one's 4yrs old, and while it should last much longer i wonder if it's worth just saying F it and going new again.

Thanks Ian will post my results as soon as I get mine back.   

btw for whoever this may help:    I've been running an application called XRG (it's open source) to try and monitor the GPU/System temps and correlate between system/GPU temps and the crashes, but at least on my system after manually switching to the discrete card and without running anything but maybe excel and safari

:

- The GPU temp is still well below any danger zone.  I actually didn't see any kind of spike at all in the temps while I could still see the sensor data before the display corruption.   It may spike during the GPU restarts but XRG doesn't have a logging feature.

- Based on some of the other posts I would have expected to see it start to spike.   It didn't or at least it doesn't on my system.   Just either the hang/freeze, lines, or restart/crash issue.  

Off to the service center I go...tbc

MY early2011 MBP just started experiencing these problems about 2 months ago getting to the point I could rarely start up computer Or quickly getting glitchy screen. This is when I learned about replacement program. So I took it into authorized Mac service listed on Apple website here in Los Angeles and they recognized the problem but said my mac had to fail VST test supplied  from Apple to be covered under program.  I said sure no doubt it will fail.  Yet  it passed test multiple times. Even though I could replicate the problem in less than 3 minutes Over and over. The test supllied by Apple seems rigged. Anyone have any suggestions I'm certain it's the GPU as did the tech at the store.

DIDNT APPLE lose a class action suit why won't they repair my machine ?

http://youtu.be/lzPbVsCEglY

1999usd      

a. take photos of the graphics glitches

b. try to get it to fail the Apple Hardware Test in loop mode soon after a glitch before it has time to cool down

c. make sure there are no other glitches - disk utility disk and permissions repair

d. repair OS - reapplying the latest combo update and later security updates seems to work for me

e. punish the GPU until it fails more consistently

f. make sure it's not RAM - the AHT should tell that

You still have to the end of 2016 to prove it is hardware. A combination of (a.) and (b.) should do if the machine refuses to fail the VST test. Surely with a problem that bad, the machine would fail some or other hardware test.

Maybe an Apple Store Genius Bar has more scope to be nice.

IIan... Very much appreciate your response ... My thoughts exactly I will punish my poor MBP with intensity !! it seems to fail on cue when running warm. I've never wanted to fail a test so badly. I have an appointment with Gbar tomorrow I have images and documentation Iall let you know how it goes.  I really need my Mac back she is my income source.

Btw the auth service tech  ran all DiAGs AHt etc. and the only error that came up was /// check graphics card.  I thought the service guy was joking but he wasn't ....