Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Of course it's faster. It is, specially if you had 4GB ram and a 5400 rpm disk. If you upgrade those you would not see that huge difference in everyday work.

+ no 17 inch model and antiglare screen option... I'm not saying that the offer made by the store is bad, just saying that it is a pity, because you may lose something in the end, depending on your old computer.

The Iris Pro 5200 integrated graphics is simply faster than most 'current' midrange discrete chips and will seriously outperform the Radeon was my point.   Plus he gets a new system and warranty and I would get AppleCare.  Negotiating for and upgraded system is fine; I would do that and pay $500 if need be.

My point was not to discount the integrated.  I don't think I would buy the discrete MBP today but pick up that model.

Kerplunk67 wrote:

 

So, after my 3rd GPU failure (on my 4th logic board), my MBP is now randomly shutting down. Apple has offered to replace my current MBP with a new 15 inch Retina. My concern is the one they have offered is the mid level with no discreet GPU.

 

When I got my 17 inch It was fully optioned and cost me $3500, as I do a lot of Photoshop work, some 3D stuff. I'll miss the 17inch screen, but Im not sure I can live without the Discreet graphics. Anyone have any thoughts on whether the integrated iris graphics will be able to handle, the 3d stuff?

Thanks for sharing Kerplunk67 - certainly good news for you.

Questions:

• Which Apple store serviced/replaced your MBP (country/city)?
• Were all 3 logic board replacements covered under AppleCare?
• How many days did it take Apple to perform each replacement (re: how long did you have to go without your MBP)?

Thanks in advance for any additional insight/detail you can provide. Your experience is definitely an outlier and begs the question (to Apple):

What about everyone else with a failing/failed GPU?? Will Apple's "solution" for us be the same as it was for you (re: a new rMBP)?

Small update on this: We are also taking into consideration the 17" models.

I got the same reply today

Apple Developer Relations10-Dec-2013 10:56 AM

Engineering has determined that your bug report is a duplicate of another issue and will be closed.  
The open or closed status of the original bug report your issue was duplicated to appears 
in the yellow "Duplicate of XXXXXXXX" section of the bug reporter user interface.
 This section appears near the top of the right column's bug detail view just under 
the bug number, title, state, product and rank.  
 
Example:  13556600 User interface anomaly in OS X  State: Duplicate                   
Product: OS X 
Rank: 3 - Medium 
--------------------------------------------------------------- 
Duplicate of 10535951 (Open) 
--------------------------------------------------------------- 

Duplicate of 15491111 (Closed)

Will-NY wrote:

 

Kerplunk67 wrote:

 

So, after my 3rd GPU failure (on my 4th logic board), my MBP is now randomly shutting down. Apple has offered to replace my current MBP with a new 15 inch Retina. My concern is the one they have offered is the mid level with no discreet GPU.

 

When I got my 17 inch It was fully optioned and cost me $3500, as I do a lot of Photoshop work, some 3D stuff. I'll miss the 17inch screen, but Im not sure I can live without the Discreet graphics. Anyone have any thoughts on whether the integrated iris graphics will be able to handle, the 3d stuff?

 

Thanks for sharing Kerplunk67 - certainly good news for you.

 

Questions:

• Which Apple store serviced/replaced your MBP (country/city)?
• Were all 3 logic board replacements covered under AppleCare?
• How many days did it take Apple to perform each replacement (re: how long did you have to go without your MBP)?

 

Thanks in advance for any additional insight/detail you can provide. Your experience is definitely an outlier and begs the question (to Apple):

 

What about everyone else with a failing/failed GPU?? Will Apple's "solution" for us be the same as it was for you (re: a new rMBP)?

I'm near Toronto, Canada, but this was done through Applecare. All 3 motherboards where done by the local Apple store, through Applecare. The first and second took approximately a week, most of that time was waiting on parts. The third they had the motherboard in stock (makes me wonder if they are expecting repairs) and they turned it around next day.

I don't think this was a discreet graphics specific procedure, I think it was due to having 3 major failures and still having issues, it was time to replace the machine. When I called in they forwarded me to a Senior Advisor who says she has put through a request for a replacement macbook.

So I brought mine in for a BGA Reballing yesterday and had a little chat with one of the stores employees.

He basically confirmed what everyone is already saying. It's a head-induced problem, and another important factor seems to be the "thickness" of the logic board itself which is thinner than the mainboards of other regular PC brands (e.g. ASUS, Acer..) ...

I was also told that since early this year the average number of Macbooks they get each week has increased from around 4-5 to 15 a week... (no infos on the models though however I recall he said they are getting a few of the 2011 models now).

Another thing seems to be the thermal paste, which isnt silicone-free and thus dries up after 6 months..

Reaching Page 129 of this topic - here is my story: :-(

Since updating from Mountain Lion to Mavericks I do have problems with my MacBook Pro 17" early 2011 (2,2 GHz, i7, 8GB).

Suddenly I had horizontal stripes on my display and everything was completely blured.
Then the display "moved" to the right, means that the cursor went out of the display on the right side and came in again on the left.

After restarting everything was fine for a very short timespan.

This error returns everytime the MacBook switches from the "small" chip (Intel HD 3000 Graphics) to the "big" chip (AMD Radeon HD 6750M). E.g. in PhotoShop or InDesign.

My work-around is:
1. setting gfxCardStatus on "i"
2. System preferences / Save Energy / longer lasting Battery.

But this can not be the solution.

So I also tried - but it did not help in the end:
1. deleting Parameter-RAM
2. starting in Safe-Mode, repairing the accessrights
3. SMS Reset (shift+ctrl+alt+power)

Does anybody know this error? - After reading 129 pages - i know the answer: YES!

But, does it stay like this?

Does anybody know how to solve this problem?

Apple Customer Service was not able to help me further, I had 2 phonecalls in the meantime.

An AASP told me to chance the whole Logic Board. This would cost EUR 700.-

Any idea if Apple provides a settlement on an ex-gratia basis?

The guarantee expired only 2 month ago and i do not hope this is planned obsolescence. That would be sad.

my one also started after installing mavericks...

anyway because of emergency i had to buy imac, i will wait and see what will happen...

i hope they will sort out that problem....

Hello everybody,

I'm having the exact same issue as you are. After starting having the glitches when editing video (descrete graphics turned on) I tried to update to Mavericks but it didn't solve it.

I've read a lot about this common problem and I refuse to pay 700€ for a new motherboard, specially when the problem is bad hardware design (check this post in Spanish http://www.applesfera.com/portatil/problemas-con-los-graficos-de-tu-macbook-pro- del-2011-no-eres-el-unico) so it will come back again in some months.

For the moment I'm going to use gfxCardStatus to avoid using the AMD Raedon 6750M and I'll keep on pushing until this is included in the free apple program. Do you now which is the best place to complain? I already submitted a feedback form. Is there anything else to do?

Vicmacs,

Thank you for the posts about the direction you are getting to track this problem, now including the 17".

Are you at liberty to disclose anything further?  I ask because I await my MBP's return from an Authorized Service Provider (under Applecare).  If there is anything I can say or ask them to help myself or others in this situation I would like to know how to do that?

I hope that makes sense?  I am not asking you to compromise yourself or your company.

It would be helpful to all of us to see a a directive email from Apple to Authorized Repair Centers about this; I understand you probably cannot do that; but I would be remiss not to ask.

Thanks again.

matthewadams wrote:

 

So I brought mine in for a BGA Reballing yesterday and had a little chat with one of the stores employees.

He basically confirmed what everyone is already saying. It's a head-induced problem...

Did they say head-in-pillow?  If we could get some pictures of that, it would be irrefutable evidence of a manufacturing defect. 

It looks like this:

Or this one (the ball on the left):

These can often pass quality control and work fine for a little while.  It's not a failed joint, per se.  It's a joint that was never formed properly.

Edit:  Heh.  That was actually a typo, wasn't it?  You meant to say heat-induced, not head-induced? 

Thank you for those photos, Swampus.   I was reading about BGA implementation and that the most serious limitation is inspection, or the difficulty of it.  This clarifies some of what has probably happenned.

Head-On-Pillowgate doesn't roll off the tongue, does it?

LOL--No, doesn't really roll off the tongue!  I think I was responding to a typo, though.  It's probably not what is going on here.  And I really think this type of defect would have produced more failures early on (within weeks or months) and not spread out over a couple of years?  I'm not sure, though.

Good inspection can only be done with X-Ray.

Example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-2DyISn4cE