Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Here i am.. just another one with this awful issue (MBPro early 2011, AMD 6490M)

MacBook Model : Late 2011, 15”

Serial Number : C02GY4X2DV7M

Country or Region: Hong Kong

Graphic card: AMD Radeon HD 6770M

I bought my mbp in early 2012, therefore it’s not even two years old yet.

Details: In Nov. 12,2013 when I turn on my mbp, I got problem with gray lines over the whole screen.So I turned off the mbp and tried to press command+option+r but I got a blue screen with some gray lines.  Sometimes I was able to successfully boot, but sometime I was unable to boot.  Even if sometimes I was able to successfully boot the mbp, but if I visit a video website or open a video file, the computer will screen blurring or freeze.I bought my mbp in early 2012, therefore it’s not even two years old yet.

I'm another early-2011 17" MacBook Pro owner experiencing graphics card failure.

OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.5. No previous issues whatsoever.

Couple of days ago my machine froze while under heavy usage. After hard shutdown, would not boot past the Apple logo, just stayed on light grey screen and fans spooled up after a minute or so. Did some troubleshooting and was able to rule out RAM and SSD. Tried booting from recovery partition and got the blue screen with vertical black stripes. Tried booting from internet recovery and didn't get past the Apple logo, as before.

Took it to the Genius Bar at my local Apple Store. They hooked it up to an Ethernet cable and tried booting from network boot disks of a variety of versions of OS X, but all failed to boot in a similar manner. They ran hardware diagnostics on everything except the graphics card and it came up clean. Diagnosed as GPU failure; logic board requires replacing.

Luckily, I am covered by extended AppleCare warranty, so I did not have to pay the AU$645 fee. I was told I would have my laptop repaired in 3 business days, which I am satisfied with.

In the mean time, I purchased a 15" Retina MacBook Pro that I am using while my 17" is being repaired, as I am a freelancer that requires a computer to make a living. I will be returning it for a full refund when I get my 17" back.

I've read there are big issues with those retna displays

macbook pro 15'' early 2011. card graphic and logic board failures. 600 euros for changing the logic board. it is unacceptable that apple doesnt matter for all these reapetedly complaints...

and as one guy said before...

Why doesn't Apple understand this? All we're asking for is for them to provide an "official response" that lays out a real, long-term solution. If it costs a couple hundred dollars (for those like me w/o Apple Care), fine. But enough with the radio silence. Being is LIMBO is in many ways worse (re: most costly) than being told that a fix does not exist and that we all need to buy new MBPs.

it s a shame for apple to indefference for its customers... but i won't be apple user for long..

I am appalled that, almost two months from when I came to discuss the issue, Apple has still not replied. With 136 pages of forum posts, there is absolutely no chance in **** that this isn't a defect. The common response is that Apple's engineers have no found an issue with the models encountering the problem. Are we supposed to wait for them to put 2 years of use into one of them under "real world" conditions (or, perfect conditions in Apple speak) to find an issue after everyone has accepted that they have to pay to repair their high-end laptop? At the end of the day, there is no accountability or respect for the customer. I have talked to numerous people from Apple and at their retail locations about the issue only to be met with a smug smile from the staff claiming that there isn't a problem.

After 15 years of tinkering with computers and a career as a Software Engineer, I'm fairly certain that this is absolute definition of faulty design. When the amount of users experiencing the exact same hardware failure is of this magnitude, the probability of there not being a major defect or flaw in the design is SLIM TO NONE. I have never in my life experienced this level of ABSOLUTE DISREGARD for an issue that is CLEARLY affecting a large number of Apple's CUSTOMERS who saw fit to spend several thousand of their hard earned dollars on this FAULTY product. The bold words are simply to make sure that it's clear to anyone from Apple that these are words they should really focus on. There's no reason whatsoever to be treated this way. It's one thing to state that they're looking into it, but to completely ignore the issue is downright atrocious.

As a young developer, I purchased my MacBook Pro to do my own independent development. Because of this failure, I can't do anything in the way of iOS/OS X native development and haven't been able to for over 2 months now.  I still hold on to hope that some miracle will occur, but until then, I won't be buying any Apple products.

Im in the same situation, im a developer and need the Macbook Pro working, i cant pay the repair and have to do it again when it breakes in a week or a month. I bought this for quality but will be the last. Supose to be an upgrade for my 13' 2010 and now im back in the old one .

Apple must do sometging!:@

I would like to use my early 2011 mbp without the discreet gpu.

I couldn't use gfxCardStatus since the computer won't boot except single user.

I have got it to boot and barely run by deleting ATISupport.kext and AMDRadeonAccelerator.kext

But the kernel_task is using up to 600% cpu, so the machine is unusable.

The following didn't seem to help (in MountainLion):

          defaults write "Apple Global Domain" NSSupportsAutomaticGraphicsSwitching -boolean 'false

          Disabling bDualGPU in /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/AppleGVACore.framework/Versions/A/Resources/A ppleGVACore-Info.plist

Now gfxGardStatus won't switch to integerated since it thinks there is an external monitor connected.

There is no external monitor :-(

What is the trick to make one of these lemons usable?

D3us wrote:

LokiHellheim:

Im a software engineer , and electronic technician, and now i think is a software problem, because mi GPU NEVER UP TO 90degrees, and SILVER OR PB NEED MORE THAN 150 degrees to melt it. I think the software problem is RELATED to the voltage in the GPU or something like that, because when the energy things in mavericks come out the problem too in too many users, sites.

 

D3us reply:

It's not about the solder getting 150c to melt.

If it's not an intern GPU fault, it's prbabably bad soldering of the BGA.

Not all balls got fully liquidus or long enough TAL, not giving a 100% soldered connection.

It makes contact but is not really soldered, doesn't havea  real intermetallic bond.

More "glued" instead of soldered.

 

It's the mechanical stress caused by heating/cooling cycles, making it expand and contract.

Breaking the "glued" or other badly soldered connections, like the head-in-pillow photo posted.

 

For me, above is the reason it fails.

Pretty sure it's in the production process.

Used alloys, production reflow soldering technique/profile or whatever.

And for the record, I have worked in the pcb industry dowing quailty control, have designed PCBS, done masses of soldering, do repair these things, have the equipment to reball, replace chips etc...

Don't you get your old logic boards back if you replace it?

If you have to pay for it....

Maybe try to get them back?

Would like to get my hands on some for testing and examining.

Might be able to 3D x-ray them if someone I know keeps his promise.

Don't you get your old logic boards back if you replace it?

If you have to pay for it....

Maybe try to get them back?

I tried to keep mine. Unfortunately the quoted prices were only for swap were the broken ones are shipped back to Apple. They gave me another quote in case I wanted to keep it: The board alone (for my 17" MBP) would have been 961,02€ or the total 1092,86€ including the swap and order fee.

Yes.  Apple must do something. ...

What makes me crazy is that i am finding lot of replacements programs from apple for macbooks and imacs mostly but why they are ignoring this model is really strange...what is making me suspicious is that their silence is something due to the fact that they are unable to fix it!

deka303,

I've been monitoring this thread for 'selfish' reasons - I've a late 2011 15" model with an AMD Radeon HD 6750M, too, yet I've yet to have any problems with it... but I keep expecting them to crop up. Because I run with an Apple Thunderbolt Display almost 24/7 my GPU stays HOT. My entire MBP runs HOT (around 156ºF with fans between 4200-6200 rpms).

So I'm just waiting for disaster to strike, of course.

It seems that those who have had the GPU reballed have found a 'solution' - but quite an expensive solution. Since I've almost a year and one-half remaining on AppleCare, I feel a certain comfort - but what if I get stuck with a bad board?

I, too, find it strange that Apple is ignoring the problem - they MUST know of it. And, yes, everytime a petition or the like goes up it's quickly removed by the hosts (which is their right - it's all there in the terms of use). But by doing so it makes one ill, almost, because it seems as if Apple is hiding behind the terms of use here. This post, for instance, may not stay up long.

I really do feel for those having the GPU problem - it does sound as if Apple just isn't answering any calls on this one... and I suspect that you may have a point - by not acknowledging the problem they just may be acknowledging that they can't fix it.

Just my 2¢...

Clinton