Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Having the same issue on MBP 15" early 2011 with AMD Radeon 6750M.

Screen splits, horizontal lines and then it got stuck on reboot at the point where it wanted to switch to the Radeon GPU.

As a work around I removed the AMD & ATI drivers from /System/Library/Extensions through the shell. (I repeat the steps below - I found it on this forum somewhere) which at least made it possible to boot and access my work.

The screen is blue with horizontal lines now.

Since I do not expect much from Apple I am going to try to reflow the GPU with a heat gun. Will post the results.

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remove ATI & AMD driver files:

- Press Cmd + s at start, and wait for the shell come up

- At the prompt, type:


mount -uw /
mv /System/Library/Extensions/AMD* ~/Desktop/

mv /System/Library/Extensions/ATI* ~/Desktop/
shutdown -h now

As you can see - apple does not care

It is wide spread issue - but it looks like, apple does not do anything to fix it.

More over, since warranty expired - it would be hard to prove that it is theirs fault (of course I am almost sure that - it is their fault).

So my suggestion is: find nearest service center that can properly replace BGA chips on mother board, and ask them to replace defective video chip.

It was a solution for me: few days + $250 - and my laptop is completely working(now it is more than two weeks after repair, and I did not noticed any problem).

I've been using gfxCardStatus to disable the discrete video card. When disabled, meaning the only the integrated HD3000 card is active, the computer is usable but not as stable as it should... It helps me get through, but about once a week, it will lock up and I have to fight to restart it.... Arggggg

More over, since warranty expired - it would be hard to prove that it is theirs fault (of course I am almost sure that - it is their fault).

Is because (probably) they were assembled in China and the assembly process was done wrong - but Im just guessing now.

Can anyone recommend a good place in California (LA preferably) for a GPU replacement with a proper installation?

I don't feel like waiting for Apple anymore, or paying an apple store for a replacement unit that is rusty (as another user posted pics) and will fail eventually.

Beta fix for people who cannot boot their mac in to "Integrated card" mode:

http://www.asyncro.com/2013/12/12/macbook-pro-discreate-graphics-card-issue-fix/

I used your fix and was able to finally boot again!! Thank you so much! But now I have strange displaying, how could I retrieve something correct?

Edit: I installed gfxCardStatus and it seems that my macbook is running in discrete mode (AMD 6490M). When I try to use the integrated one I have this error: "You can't switch to integrated mode while this item is running: external display". The thing is that I don't have an external display! I don't understand.

First of all, if you applied the latest fix you do not need to install and use gfxCardStatus because you will not have AMD drivers and your mac will not "have" discreate graphics card ran.

If you really need gfxCardStatus which is able to switch you need to install version ex. 2.2.1

http://gfx.io/downloads/gfxCardStatus-2.2.1.zip but read please author comments - it was an issue - something about that both cards are ran, or something - not remember exactly.

z_bodya wrote:

 

As you can see - apple does not care

It is wide spread issue - but it looks like, apple does not do anything to fix it.

More over, since warranty expired - it would be hard to prove that it is theirs fault (of course I am almost sure that - it is their fault).

 

So my suggestion is: find nearest service center that can properly replace BGA chips on mother board, and ask them to replace defective video chip.

 

It was a solution for me: few days + $250 - and my laptop is completely working(now it is more than two weeks after repair, and I did not noticed any problem).

Apple DOES NOT CARE. If they cared, they'd at least say they're "looking at some issue some users are reporting that may or may not be related to that particular case".

But that's Apple DNA: we've seen it with Final Cut Pro X, the new iWork suite and this. They'll happily screw over users for some sketchy future advantage. The problem is, people get tired of this, lose their fate in the company, and then it's downhill from there. Poor word of mouth follows, suits here and there, and in the end Apple will be asking when did everything go wrong.

Oh first thank you!

I don't understand all the graphic glitches I have when I should only be using the integrated graphic card (Intel one)? Plus only for information in gfxCardStatus I have this:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x2vn4eyxdcn6znr/Screenshot%202013-12-14%2006.17.26.png

Since the NVidia graphic card should be desactivated why does it stills appears, and what mean external display?

I'd really like a fix to use the HD intel without a glitches.

Great man!

Its definitely not a fix, but something we were so long awaiting!

Finally I can use my laptop again.

There is a strange behavior in rendering a folder full of files. It just tries to re-render it again and again making Finder halt. The only solution for me is to press Power button and relogin.

Also, missing an ability to change the brightness of the screen.

Maybe there's a workaround about that?

Thanx a lot!

Early Macbook Pro 15 2011

In the middle of editing in Final Pro X and screen went haywire and froze.

Tryed restarting computer but will not fully boot up.

I took to a local Mac Repair shop  Bad graphic Card

This seems to be a growing issue

Apple where are you when we need you?

My 15" MBP late 2011 also started doing the page tearing and vertically striped blue screen and random hangups a couple of weeks back.

This issue instantly reminded me of the PC i had using the Nividia 9800GT chipsets about 4 years back where the GPU had issues with lead free solder balls cracking about a year in after use. The graphics card then would work fine again after baking or reflowing but the issue will come back again after a few months. The symptoms were exactly the same, screen tearing and random graphics related crashes. My understanding is the only way to effectively get rid of this problem is to re-ball the whole GPU to leaded solder. Not green yes but the GPU will stay firmly soldered to the board.

The physics behind this is the high temps and the continous on-off and the resulting heating and cooling cycles of the GPU will result in expansion and contraction of the lead free balls making them crack after a while. Apparently lead free solder is not so kind with such extreme heating and cooling cycles. So the problem will always come back after a while. You wont see this happen with cooler running components.

I think this needs to be considered by Apple but then they probably wont be reading this forum. A chat this afternoon with the local PC repair shop tells me that they are seeing quite a few cases with Macbook repairs where they just need to heat up the GPU to "reseat" it.

As I know: re-ball is just temporary solution, and depends on your luck.

It is because there is two sets of solder balls.. - between chip and board and much smaller balls inside of the chip. And in most cases - problem is in small balls inside.

http://www.springerimages.com/Images/RSS/1-10.1007_s10854-006-9031-5-0

So, in most cases, when reballing helps it is not because you are replacing broken solder balls, but because of heating some joints inside chip are fixed.

About lead solder - they are used for reballing not because they are better(lead free solder is even stronger) but because they have much lower melting point, so it is much safer for chip and easier to operate when doing re-ball.