Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

It never has - that is what the Discrete Chip is for...

Didn't know, didn't use before

No, this is not os specific. This is a hardware problem. I personally reproduced it on Mountain Lion and on Mavericks: no differences. And here people reported the same problem on Lion and probably previous versions too. So, do not hope that a software update will improve something because, unfortunately, it won't.

It's not OS specified problem. I wrote before, I have the same problems with OS X 10.6.8 and 10.8.5 too. No difference.

Here is little update.

Yesterday I registered a case on Apple's bugreport.

Today the case was closed with "duplicate of 15491111" status.

Anybody knows how to see this 15491111 case? Search is helpless because it search in my cases only.

I have a early 2011 15 inch standard model (6490m). For two and a half year, it worked almost perfectly. Yeah...there were a few glitches from time to time, but over all, this is the most reliable laptop I have ever had until today... It suddenly showed me black screen, a grey screen announcing something serious wrong, and restarted. I can boot, but once I do anything that demands the discrete graphics, it just goes dark again. Every time the log says "gpu register restore failed". Now I have to rely solely on hd 3000 and the screen is ******* bright! I don,t have a backup machine right now and I have some serious work to do in the coming week. I loved mac when it worked, but now ...

I have a question if anyone knows about Apple's previous repair extensions due to faulty hardware (Nvidia 2008, etc)

I'm considering getting my mac repaired. I was quoted between 200-400 depending on the amount of damage for the reballing.

If and when Apple finally decides to issue a repair program for our 2011 models, would they still work on mine if it has been tampered with, in case the repair does not last?

That is a good question; I do not kow the answer. 

Traditionally they wll reimburse you for the repair you made in the case that they recognize the 'defect' and begin a program.

I assume if it failed again they would swap the logic board if it failed within a certain time frame, but I have no personal experience in that matter.

As of today it has finally hit me as well.

Helped some friends fix this issue and crossed my fingers it wont happen to me (Macbook Pro 2011 BTO w/ High Res) but I just had my first glitches and crash.

All is working now but I'll take it in for a BGA reball and chip replacement come first on monday..

I'm having the same issue with my Early-2011, 2.2/6750AMD1GHz/16G RAM; Apple's "response" was to delete my post.

Thanks Apple. Nice to know you stand behind what you sell.

Seems like "Heaven" Benchmark is a good way to reproduce / force the issue to come up (as it puts a lot on the GPU)

Inquiring about or soliticing joiners in legal action against the sponsor of a forum really doesn't make sense, if you think about it; terms of service aside.

There are other forums that will not have such restrictions. 

Yes...

Asking about possible legal recourse in a place where there are 125+ PAGES of users of the exact same product having the exact same problem for the exact same reason AND where the manufacturer of the defective product (i.e., "forum sponsor," as you euphemistically put it) is not only NOT providing recourse but also refusing to even acknowledge the problem even exists even as they themselves provide repair after repair for the same issue...

What was I thinking?

I was not trying to be aggressive or euphemistic.  I was actually trying to explain the likely reason your post was removed.

As you say there are hundreds of posts here with people describing and attempting self-diagnosis, so its not about censorship.  Your post crossed a different line.

Sorry for offense; retreating to hole.

My macbook just stopped working.  I can't safe boot.  I can only get into Internet recovery.  Does any one know how to backup some of my files through Internet recovery?