Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

still running fine. Next week will be week 5. Last night ran a big batch of DxO Optics Pro processing my D800 images -- in the past processing just a single image might kill everything.

I'll keep everyone aprised if there are any glitches.

M

P.S. yes, this means I am running discrete GPU 100% of the time. I *DO* believe that switching graphics processors is problematic and may in fact precipitate the "evil".

I have a MacBook Pro LATE 2011 with a Radeon 6770M.

I've found a great reball specialist in my area, but I can't find the BGA CHIPSET to buy.

Where can I order this from?

Cheers

A gentleman saw my tweet about this problem and directed me here. So just adding my complaint to the pile.

2011 MBP, i7, Radeon 6490M. I experienced logic board failure symptoms in August, knew what was coming, and went to the Genius bar. Logic board replacement, $300+. Okay, do what you have to do. (This after I had to replace the HD in April.)

System seemed fine when it came back, and my overheating/constant fan problem was gone. Incidentally, I'd heard that there was a potential fault in the 2011 GPUs and mentioned it to my Genius; he said "no way, that's not a thing" so fast I nearly fell off my stool. I know my stuff after 20 years as an Apple user (I'd have once said "loyalist"), and the Geniuses know it. Time was I could bring up a fault and they'd at least acknowledge the possibility, but this is the second machine with a "known" fault I've had in the last 5 years and they denied the other as well.

Well, whatever, with a new HD and a new logic board, that's almost like having a new computer, right? It'll be fine.

2 days ago (that'd be 2 days after the 90 day warranty on the new part ended), I get whole-screen pixellation and the system locks down. Just had my second incident this afternoon (was not running any remotely GPU heavy processes at the time). So guess I'm driving 2 hours to the nearest Apple store again tomorrow morning. Very curious what they will say - but odds are it will be "you have to replace the logic board" AGAIN. Which is ridiculous. Seems like it'd be throwing good money after bad, but unsure what the alternative might be.

I am still running 10.6.8 so it's not Mavericks at fault in my case.

Wishing I'd replaced the entire system when the HD went...seems it's just a "bad vintage". Also missing the old days when Apple would replace a system (or parts) that had known faults (admittedly, the 190 I had a tendency to burst into flames, but still).

6 hours later on 10.9.1 and my machine is still running fine.  Discrete graphics has been on the whole time, and I even played Black Ops for a little bit.  Also put my computer to sleep for about an hour while the Thunderbolt Display was plugged in and no problems.  VMWare is also running a linux machine and a windows machine, which use discrete graphics.  I was not able to use the computer for 6 hours without a crash before 10.9.1.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Nothing to add... as i already said it is a hi-res mat model with the i7 2.2, 8GB, AMD Radeon HD 6750M (like many).

Sounds promising I'm hoping this will solve my issues too! Any ideas when 10.9.1 will be publicly released? Keep us posted on how you get on!

The 10.9.1 update improves the stability and compatibility of your Mac, and is recommended for all OS X Mavericks users.

The update includes the following fixes:

- Improved support for Gmail in OS X Mail, and fixes for users with custom Gmail settings

- Improves the reliability of Smart Mailboxes and search in Mail

- Fixes an issue that prevented contact groups from working properly in Mail

- Resolves an issue that prevented VoiceOver from speaking sentences that contain emoji

- Updates Shared Links periodically when open in the Safari Sidebar

- Improves compatibility of the VPN server in OS X Server

Sorry, but I don't see how that can help with our issue.

Peachepe, on the developer portal side, the notes for 10.9.1 say that there are graphics driver updates too

Just a guess, but I'd say you'll see them next week.

Interesting!

Can you post a screenshot?

Focus Areas

- Safari

- Mail

- Graphics Drivers

- VoiceOver

tenhaus.com, I just downloaded the seed utility and upgraded to 10.9.1, issues started as soon as I played a video on VLC, until it froze.

Btw, the info says that it includes graphics improvements for equipments that include integrated graphics (like the macbook air, I assume)

Okay..||

I'd had most of the startup and graphics glitches that have been described and share frustration with the others that have posted...The cursor disappears and I have no control using keyboard, holding power button until system "shuts down" is the only option.

I feel dwarfed here . Anyways, I will continue with my MBP trial and error set of solutions that I have tried.

Till now I have tried the following to little or no help.

1. Resetting the SMC.

2. Resetting the NVRAM/PRAM.

3. Updating the system software from 10.7.2 to 10.7.5. This gave a relief for a couple of days, until the issues returned again.

4. Verifying my OS disk.

5. Repairing my Disk Permissions. That was interesting as the report showed many fixes in the library folder relating to Display.Plist and Preference Panes.

Nothing has worked until now.

Due to the lack of an "actual" Genius at the available Apple Store in my town, I'm hesitant to approach them.

An interesting case was that they diagnosed my Mac Mini to be faulty and charged 120 Euros [converting from Indian Rupees for simplicity to simply diagnose it and later reported me to upgrade my entire hardware for 850 Euros

While on returning home  keeping the Mac Mini shut for a couple of days, it started working again and has been working great since moths now, in fact I'm typing this from my MacMini. Hope you all understand my hesitation to go to the Apple Store.