Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

apple_power wrote:

 

rajdsouza wrote:

 

Whatever I do does not start my mac. I always reinstall mavericks. it works fine for 2 days even with gfxCardStatus. and the next thing i know is a black screen and no matter how many times i restart in safe mode, restore mode, single user mode. it does not work.

 

Pretty dissapointed

Hi,

 

I disabled the screen saver an don't let my system go to sleep.

To start your computer, try this:

 

Let it cool down for a while.

Remove the the power cord an start from battery…

 

Sometimes you have to try a few times (check the temperature above F3/F4 it should not be hot)

 

Enjoy your 

I know you try to be helpful, but this comes off the wrong way: a person voicing his disappointment on a $2500 laptop turned paperweight because of a well-documented manufacturing defect, and you cavalierly telling him to fiddle with it, try a few times and "enjoy his Apple". Maybe if you removed your signature, people in this particular forum wouldn't be so uncomfortable and wary of your posts.

All posts about the online petition have been deleted. I only found out about it because I receive email notifications. Not fair, Apple! Not fair!

Agreed if they can take the time to delete any efforts we take to address a issue they refuse to, then they could respond as well.

Firstly, to be honest, I'm really anoyed by your "Enjoy your ". It seems like you're taking a biscuit at us, though that may not be the case, as I can see you helping out [Not sure on whom you're helping out, Apple or its customers]

I'll share my reasons of anger and frustration. I have  already mentioned what I have done in my earlier posts.

I reside in India, where "Geniuses" are not to be found. I would like to think that I'm much more aware, updateed and knowledgeable than your "Geniuses". Here, there are only authorized service centers that will charge you at least INR 1200, which is still a reasonably higher charge, and all these "geniuses" do is, just take your computer, run some diagnosis and return with some answer, which we already know.

So, now in my case, I'll have to pay INR 35,000 which is $583 for replacing the logic board, then you have to add taxes and labor, and the final price is around INR 45,000, which is $750. $750 for a laptop which was purchased at $1533. Is it really fair ApplePower?? I can get a NEW Laptop in that price. BTW, I own a Dell which has been working faithfully since 5 years now. I had to put it down as its aged now.

As per your maths of Million units sold and failure rate of 0.0000001 percent is excellent, let me tell you that there are couple of customers, like me, from India who had bought Macbook from this very same batch and are suffering quietly, because the "Geniuses" dont offer much support and the cost of repairing is too high, so they prefer Local Engineers. And some of them have already repaired their Macbooks,but now arent using it for the purpose they bought it in the first place. Many of the Apple Users in India dont know about this thread, cuz they had never used Apple products before or had any problems, so they dont know where to go, whom to approach. So kindly, do take such considerations.

Cant Enjoy Our 

Secondly, I would like to share this info which I have been observing after many posts:

1. The problem starts with distorted graphics in the midst of our work.

2. On restarting, [at times] the Apple Logo appears in a tint of blue. Its fine till here. Mac starts and performs for a while. Again distorts and needs a force reset.

3. Guessing its a software issue, we update our OS Software, if we havent done it earlier.

4. While we're carrying on with this, we get to know about "GFXcardstatus". We install and use our Macs for as long as we can.

5. However, even after using gfxcardstatus to force using Integrated Graphics, Macs refuse to work properly and start freezing.

6. Then, we use PRAM and NVRAM, SMC resets, which give a breather to the Macs for a while, but only for a while.

7. Later we resort to using "SAFE BOOT" mode to turn on our machines.

STEPS 6 and 7 are not necessarily used in the same order. The Mac's screen however starts with a blue tint and on several occasions, it needs 2-3 hard resets to start.

8. Then comes a point when, the Mac refuses to even Boot.

This is what has had happened in my case and a couple of other people, which I have observed.

I MAY OR MAY NOT BE RIGHT IN MY OBSERVATION, but this is what I have seen largely.

Cant Enjoy Our 

Dude..Lets keep a screen capture of the posts we make and that of few hours later, when its deleted. Also when its deleted, you can paste that Screen Capture here.

Cant Enjoy Our 

Can someone send me the link to the petition? I need to sign it..**** Apple!

Cant Enjoy Our 

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...for what its worth, the Applecare (Senior) rep said he appreciated the Google page and would pass it on.

Scanning through these forums, it isn't clear to me that many people are returning warranted equipment. 

It seems to me that the reality is that Applecare units needing refurb/repair is going to get create a different type of attention than non-insured units.

Apple is technically not liable for an item out of warranty, with some exceptions such as the post from the owner in France.

I use my equipment with care and yet 'hard'; thus I always get Applecare.  Further, I travel.

I can understand why they would pull posts soliciting use of the feedback form.  While it is not intended, promoting use of a complaint page amounts to spamming at some point; to put it another way; it becomes much more difficult to differentiate actual feedback from people spamming or trolling.

I have yet to be disappointed by Apple in a case such as this.  I don't think 'harassing' or spamming forums is that way to get noticed, however. 

I still maintain that we are a small but critically-affected group of users with a complex and 'cascading' failure.  Look at the Google page.  October and November saw spiking failures.  Is the take-away that the Mavericks driver ran the GPU hotter?  Not sure, but I am not sure the data supports that it is an 'aging' failure.

If it is the Mavericks graphics driver, then this is going to spiral further into December and beyond.

Also my post was deleted minute ago, as a consumer im just expressing how dissapointed i am, all solutions already done from our side just to extend the operation of this model.

Did all feedback but till now no actions from apple, really unfair..

Till now using gfxstatus to force in integrated, but everytime i use the discrete it freezes my system, till when we will wait for this???

Cant Enjoy Our 

Hello!

I'm taking my macbook to a second autorized service here in Chile, the first one told me I had to replace logic board at a cost of $1200, now I'm coming to take it to a different one somebody told me they probably could do something better about the issue. Both services charge $50 for taking a look on the computer and both offer me that if I accept the repair estimate, 50 are deducted from the final cost of repair.

My mac is working with gfxcard status using only integrated graphics, even though happens some apps force to use the discrete one (AMD Radeon HD6750) and it shuts down unexpectedly and takes several attempts for success reboot.

According to reports from other users in this forum, repair seems not to be the solution, problems come back pretty soon. So after signing in every site you offered to join forces, send one everyday feedback message since I started having this issue in the apple's website for that purpose, take my computer not to one but two authorized services in Chile, and in expectation of a second diagnostic ($100 in both with no fix at all), all I can say is I'm more than dissapointed, and it's getting really hard to keep faith in a solution to come from Cupertino.

Finally, I'm not paying $1200, $1000, $800, $500, $300 for a new logic board about to fail, it's pretty clear it's a factory problem, in a particular batch.

Apple don't let us down.

I forgot. I made a backup of my macbook into a DOS format External HDD... guess why.

I didn't install maverick, neither a collegue (same batch of macbook pro 2011, same failure)

If anything it might be some voltage change on the video card that could exacerbate the problem because of the heath. I've read 100s of posts and the most likely conclusion is that the solder connections between the GPU and Logic board is failing. There could be many reasons for this, mainly bad assembly and or too much temperature variations. That said maybe there's two issues going on but I don't think so. It's just coincidence with all the board failing now, and maverick has been out recently.

For those who want to keep following the full dicussion with all the deleted post just click get notifications top right you'll get it all by email as it is posted.

I appreciate Apple power trying to be constructive and cold headed, i'm not bashing but

«Cant Enjoy Our » is just too funny, and accurate.

Guaranna, you are likely correct that it is not Mavericks.  What I saw at the time was that was the only thing that changed about my system; plus some comments I read that suggested 10.9.1 behaved better.

Regarding the solder idea; it might indeed be that.  There was a mention of no-longer using lead leads to second-rate connections,  I can offer no nothing on this subject.

It seems to me that some people are trying, out of frustration, to hijack this forum to turn it into something other than its intended use.  There are other venues for that which are not hard to find.  I am afraid if it keeps happening the whole thread will go, which serves nobody.

We are owners and we are hearing a litany of theoretical causes as we go through this process.  The 'reballing' idea I have read about lasts some period of time, only... why is that?  Without knowing diddly about solder and chips, that tends to suggest its not a permanent fix.  Apple can only move on a concrete solution.  A concrete fix that I, for one, will be able to read about, yet not properly grasp.

Assuming the reballing temporarily works for some, it does seem like a GPU seating problem; but could that be the ATI chip operating out of spec or support chips?  I surely have no idea.  I don't know if anytone does.

It feels like (right, I have no no hard evidence) this is still a relatively isolated problem?  I have no idea how many of these units shipped vs. how many are failing.

I would suggest we keep this forum limited to discussions narrowing down the causes and then possible solutions, rather than seeing posts, and possibly the thread, removed?

We can only guess. I've seen hundreds of knowledgable user share information, so I guess that's only a fraction of the people looking for an answer which is a fraction of the people having the problem. Most likely those who have a problem replace the logic board based on Genuis diagnosis and are lucky enough to have it work for a while longer and assume that the computer is due to be replaced.

So I guess thousands, easily. But not knowing how much total macbook pros where sold around that time makes that number a bit irrelevant aside from hinting that it's not isolated. There's a magin of normal failures with computers but I think that threshold is way passed by now...

As for reballing & baking; a very knowledgable tech told me that properly baking the gpu should be enought to 'reconnect' it properly to the logic board. The way I understood it; many issues could be the culprit but when they joined the gpu to the motherboard if there was too much of a temperature difference the two pieces move a bit over time and with later temperature change.. and that's when the connections break.

He has all the equipment needed (those huge tables with head gun) so he'd do it for free, and most prices I've seen are around 150 to 200 on the forums.

Though on the forum some user said it was only a temporary fix. There's this guy who had to do it 7 times..: http://russell.heistuman.com/2011/08/30/heptacular-seventh-bake-today/

Ideally reballing seems like the better long term solution for people who need their computer NOW.

(As long as Apple stays quiet...)

it's hard to keep track of solutions

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