Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Same problem for me. After a while the computer just collapses showing a full blue frozen screen or a degradated picture with artifacts.

Apple! Where are you? This is clearly an engineering design issue. A campaign is required!

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I am not a computer/electronics engineer, but I am trying to wrap my head around what the problem actually is; is it a design deficiency as miro_r suggests?   I tend to think it is not.

The 6750 runs frigging hot, maybe hotter than the 2010 design and from what I understand, the 2012 runs quite a bit cooler?  Those are not rhetorical questions, if someone has the answer.

The reason I bring this up is that if you look at the google page, the failure rates 'early on' have been real, but modest.  Now, as these mobos hit a certain age, it seems that there is a significantly greater failure rate.  Beyond shutting down cores on the GPU, this is destined to continue, possibly greatly accellerate.

Like others, for me it seemed to coincide with Mavericks, but that is probably random, too.  Its simple age on the solder... I guess.

The reason I pose this question is what can Apple's fix be?  A recall and socketing the of the GPU of affected units?

I am not trying to be an Apple apologist, but as someone else wrote; Apple needs to be certain of what the fix would be, and anticipate the cost, before they could establish a response program.

I am lucky to have Applecare at the moment; but if this is, in fact, the the GPU solder implementation, I am doomed to repeat this problem.  I have read of people getting their machines back only to have another quick failure.

Is it a stupid notion that perhaps the GPU should be socketed?  Perhaps a socket has worse heat transfer properties; perhaps there is no room for a socket... no idea.

So without wishing to sound like an apologist, I think the 'perma-fix' could be rather complicated?  I don't know if this is a pan-2011 discrete GPU problem or perhaps a few mobo fabrication runs?

I assume a reball shop would use lead-based solder.  Can Apple even legally offer that service with the lead-free regs today?

As far as I know Apple doesn't do that kind of repairs. I think they figured a while ago that replacing the whole thing cost less than a tecnician's parts + labor.

I see tree resolutions:

• In all cases: refund previous repairs paid by customers.

then

• Extended warranty for affected machines (free logic board replacement, to keep them running a while more)

• Manufacturing new boards for the replacement (complicated)

• Replacing bad computers with working computer (utopic)

These are all hypothesis, I really have no clue.

+ It's a lot of money. They really must hope that the consumers will just swallow it and that the outcry will die by itself.

Just read some info on Why Apple had to get the iMac recall. it was due to AMD Radeon HD 6970M

"Apple has determined that some AMD Radeon HD 6970M video cards used in 27-inch iMac computers with 3.1GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 or 3.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processors may fail, causing the computer’s display to appear distorted, white or blue with vertical lines, or to turn black. iMac computers with affected video cards were sold between May 2011 and October 2012."

All our macbook pro's also have the same GPU. Could it be the same faulty chip ????

See here

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5167?viewlocale=en_US

We have the same issue but its a macbook pro

I think Apple will just run the clock out, my MBP was purchased in Feb 2011, even if Apple offers a 3 year replacement, it will expire in 2 months. I had my 3rd logic board replaced in May and it is currently holding up OK, but Im sure it is only a matter of time before it needs to be done again.

And here's one more to the list.. Mine is completely bricked and won't get farther than the bootscreen. I tried everything to solve the problem, but nothing.

It's obviously the stated graphics card problem. Yet the "genius" at the Apple Store told me after coming to the same conclusion, that Apple does not yet consider this a problem for the Early 2011 series created by Apple in the first place - but he couldn't really look me in the eye while telling me that. 500€ for a 'repair service'. At least they assured me that i would get my money back if they started to acknowledge the problem - for 2 months after the repair. Well, not good enough for me.

It's more than disappointing from Apple that you can only work for 2 years with their products now and have to throw them away afterwards or pay them a ridiculous amount of money for solving a problem they created. Until they finally help us here, it looks like the only way to at least do a little bit against such a flawed customer sevice is to tell all your friends not to buy a mac anymore and do the same for yourself..

So dissapointing.

Coming back from my second time at service (another one), same diagnostic but a "cheaper" repair price (about $800).

I'm not paying for a logic board, specially knowing it's not a solution.

I still can boot my mac, I'll be using gfxcard status while it's half alive--- I guess apple's thinking is we're good while we can send and recieve emails...

This is way away from what I expected for a "pro" computer for professional use.

Sitting on a useless macbook pro, I'll be waiting a solution.

Yep mine has started playing up too.  I was only browsing and writing an email when my screen glitched, cursor elongated and then screen went black facilitating a hard reset and this has happened several times in the last two days.  I'm running an external screen with my MBP in a Henge Dock.  I downloaded GFXcardstatus and switched over to the AMD card and am hoping that gives me enough time to get my faulty iPad Air sorted - it was dented right out of the box, so it's been a bad week for my relationship with Apple.

I am still covered under Applecare until July 2014, but I'm worried as there seems to be a lot of problems with the discrete graphics card in this particular model.  Even if I do get it repaired this time under warranty, I still feel it's a bit of a ticking time bomb and may well stuff up again as it seems quite a few of the previous posters have had two or three logic board replacements.  This is really not good, my daughter is using my old 2007 MBP and it's still rock solid.  I expected to get more than a year and a half out of my current model.

They say it only takes one bad apple, but in my case it's two, unfortunately.

Same the problem here.

My MBP 15' Late 2011 got several times of white screen frozen those days, and I have to hard reset the computer. And this afternoon it failed booting into system.

After look up some threads here, I found so much victims here. I think Apple should take an action with the fauty hardware, for the high price tag and its own brand.

beenhero, just read your message, sorry to have to say 'welcome to the party'.

One thing I want to try to clear up, and it might matter in talking to Applecare and Geniusi, etc., is that my system was, in fact, booting, but the graphics subsystem was failing to render (or let me interact properly).

This may seem like a nit-pick, but if some of us are indicating to Apple that 'our system won't boot'; they will, by necessity, waste your and their time with senseless diagnostics; looking at hard drives, etc.  I experienced this first hand with 3 failed diagnostics tries with various trained authorized service reps here.  In my case, my notebook needlessly sat in drydock for several days, more than once, so each tech could start at ground zero.   That was actually more frustrating than the video system crashing itself, in my case.

I have an appletv, and was in fact using it as an airplay display for a short period, before that stopped working as well.  I wonder out-loud if the system would still not run off a usb-monitor.  I think it might.  It is conceivable that users who installed a service like Logmein could still retrieve data and interact with their systems in a limited way?

Just trying to lower the loss and frustration levels and save other's time when relaying to Apple our drama.  The last thing this 'GPU failire' mini-epidemic needs is improper diagnosis.

rajdsouza wrote:

 

Just read some info on Why Apple had to get the iMac recall. it was due to AMD Radeon HD 6970M

 

"Apple has determined that some AMD Radeon HD 6970M video cards used in 27-inch iMac computers with 3.1GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 or 3.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processors may fail, causing the computer’s display to appear distorted, white or blue with vertical lines, or to turn black. iMac computers with affected video cards were sold between May 2011 and October 2012."

 

All our macbook pro's also have the same GPU. Could it be the same faulty chip ????

The difference is that the iMac's Radeon GPU is on a MXM (Mobile PCIe Module) card, which can be easily and individually replaced.

In our case, the whole mainboard has to be replaced, which I guess is a factor that makes Apple unwilling to take on our plight.

I'm reading some people saying that a replacement program could be too much money for Apple and that's why they won't do it. I think any solution they can bring will be a lot cheaper than the money I spent in my mbp.

Replacement program for the iMac users was launched august 19th, I don't know if they did it because users reported their issues as we are doing or was it Apple taking care of it before a huge escalation, neither know how much time it took to apple to bring a solution. If our case is more complicated it's not our business but theirs.

I have a bunch of apple products, got a G4 STILL WORKING. I saw a lot of PCs dying while I still could use my G4.

Unwilling to believe that I have a too expensive paperweight, I'm still expecting a solution from apple.

Fernando Lobos wrote:

 

I'm reading some people saying that a replacement program could be too much money for Apple and that's why they won't do it. I think any solution they can bring will be a lot cheaper than the money I spent in my mbp.

 

 

Replacement program for the iMac users was launched august 19th

The difference is that the iMacs have a seperate board for the GPU - which is much cheaper to replace than an entire logic board in both parts cost and time spent.

This whole soldered on fiasco has me hesitant to upgrade to the new MBPs

Faulty GPU - new logic board

Faulty RAM - new logic board

thanfully the headphone jack and magsafe connectors are seperated from the logic board.

I think whichever way I go AppleCare is a must... although I must say Lenovo is looking a lot more attractive these days