Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

deka303 wrote:

 

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!

Like I wrote before, probably a production fault.

Had to be fixed there. production process.

And as they're not produced anymore...

However, the broken ones they can easily fix.

What you think happens with the replaced logic boards?

Can make em last long or even forever probably using better solder alloys.

Only thing is, they seem to use the same bad alloy or technique for repairing them.

Apple probably won't aknowledge it as it will cost them to much money.

This is my theory as to what's responsible for the radio silence. The supply chain is complex, goes through multiple hands and Apple's trying to figure out who's liable for this mistake:

• AMD, who supplied the chips and may have provided engineering instructions for their board mounts specifying which exact solder to use
• Foxconn, who assembled the logic boards: if they didn't receive instructions from Apple or AMD specifying solder type may have made the call themselves
• Intel, who actually design Apple's logic boards at this point, who were in the process of suing and being countersued by AMD at the time the Early/Late 2011 boards were designed and would have no problem making AMD look bad
• Apple, who had a tech czar at the time who was involved in manufacturing decisions as well.

This laptop was in all likelihood designed at least four years ago and tracking down who made the call might not be as simple as it seems. Most of the principals involved no longer work at Apple and it's possible the same applies to the other suppliers/manufacturers.

Me, if I were Tim Cook, I'd realize I run a company with more cash on hand than the United States government, eat the cost of recalling all the Macs, have them reballed as a good guy gesture with good PR repercussions and privately sever relations with who was to blame.

Oh wait, that last part is what I'd do if I was Steve Jobs (see Motorola). I don't think Tim's the kind to call Intel's people up at 3am and yell at them.

Part of the problem here is that the relationship between Apple and Intel at this point is so indivisible that if it developed Intel was to blame, it would be unlikely that Apple could demand Intel foot the bill (especially if Intel were off the record suggesting Apple just blame AMD).

Long term this strategy is not the wisest for Apple to engage in, but they're used to their userbase being passive when it comes to this kind of thing and perhaps they're wagering it'll continute to work for people who paid over $2000 for a laptop.

Assuming your username means Alabama and not Great Britain, if you're still living there your temperature doesn't fluctuate as much as say, mountain Arizona. Mine gave up the ghost during a December cold snap and the survey I can't find at the moment shows spikes during the lows of winter and the highs of summer.

Remember that the issue has to do with the solder joints being brittle, which is typically associated with temperature drops, not rises. While running your machine at high temps may not be safe longterm, you're probably ensuring the joints never experience a dramatic temp change.

andrewroazen,

LOL! Yes, I'm (unhappily) in Alabama (but I did live in the UK for almost four years!).

The ambient temperature in which I work is pretty stable... I let my temps stay around 68-72ºF and have a dehumidifier for my rather small apartment. So there's not much variety in temps or humidity.

But I'm going to try to monitor my ambient temps better - I haven't turned on 'heat' since living here and it can get into the lower 60's sometimes: and that's a 'cold snap' for my little apartment!

I had a scare a couple of months ago - vertical black & blue lines on my Apple Thunderbolt Display and, when I opened my clamshelled computer, the same line on my MBP screen. I shut down, reinstalled OS X and haven't had another problem since. And yet I wait...

Clinton

Abhijithb,

Im from India too - Mumbai w/ late 2011 MBP and same issue as others, has there been any luck with you? Can you please send me your contact details so that we can cordinate in any way?

Thanks

-Farhan

Abelliveau,

Can you please suggest & link to the feedback form in your first post itself so that people (who are late to the party like me) can immediately submit their feedback as they browse this thread?

Thanks

FarhanR wrote:

 

Abelliveau,

 

Can you please suggest & link to the feedback form in your first post itself so that people (who are late to the party like me) can immediately submit their feedback as they browse this thread?

Unfortunately, I believe you can only edit your posts for about 15 minutes after they've been posted.  So I don't think there's any way to add anything to the original post (even if Abelliveau wanted to). 

andrewroazen wrote:

 

This is my theory as to what's responsible for the radio silence. The supply chain is complex, goes through multiple hands and Apple's trying to figure out who's liable for this mistake:

• AMD, who supplied the chips and may have provided engineering instructions for their board mounts specifying which exact solder to use
• Foxconn, who assembled the logic boards: if they didn't receive instructions from Apple or AMD specifying solder type may have made the call themselves
• Intel, who actually design Apple's logic boards at this point, who were in the process of suing and being countersued by AMD at the time the Early/Late 2011 boards were designed and would have no problem making AMD look bad
• Apple, who had a tech czar at the time who was involved in manufacturing decisions as well.

This laptop was in all likelihood designed at least four years ago and tracking down who made the call might not be as simple as it seems. Most of the principals involved no longer work at Apple and it's possible the same applies to the other suppliers/manufacturers.

 

Me, if I were Tim Cook, I'd realize I run a company with more cash on hand than the United States government, eat the cost of recalling all the Macs, have them reballed as a good guy gesture with good PR repercussions and privately sever relations with who was to blame.

 

Oh wait, that last part is what I'd do if I was Steve Jobs (see Motorola). I don't think Tim's the kind to call Intel's people up at 3am and yell at them.

 

Part of the problem here is that the relationship between Apple and Intel at this point is so indivisible that if it developed Intel was to blame, it would be unlikely that Apple could demand Intel foot the bill (especially if Intel were off the record suggesting Apple just blame AMD).

 

Long term this strategy is not the wisest for Apple to engage in, but they're used to their userbase being passive when it comes to this kind of thing and perhaps they're wagering it'll continute to work for people who paid over $2000 for a laptop.

This post highlights some really good points. The fact of the matter is that there is clearly an issue, and at the end of the day, Apple is the entity that placed its branding on the product, marketed it, and happily sold it. I'd understand if they were Mac Minis failing because, while it's disappointing, they're a bit more easily replaced. For the repair costs of this issue, I could purchase a Mac Mini, which I'm sure they'd be estatic over.

I've never been very keen on Apple because I feel like they exploit a very technologically-naive userbase. That's not to insinuate everyone with a Mac is a moron, but the vast majority of Mac users are less tech-oriented in my experience. That said, under Steve Jobs, I'd at least take solace in the fact that whoever was responsible for the issue would be crushed under his white sneaker. I had little confidence that there would be a satisfying resolution to this issue when it happened, and so far, I've been spot on.

Apple needs to remember that the people who pay a high premium for their high-end products are the ones who are more likely to continue purchasing their products. I'd actually become fond of my MacBook Pro because it did the basics well, and it was a great computer to lounge with or do work on while away from home. Now, I'm disgusted by the response, or lack of one, to this issue. I believe that there is a deeper issue causing them not to acknowledge the problem at all. Whether it be a critical error in the design where failure is unavoidable or something different, there has to be some reason that such a large outcry on an issue has fallen on deaf ears. A part of me wants to disassemble the machine and check it out, but I'm going to hold out until I'm positive that I have a very expensive paperweight.

Apple, you need to handle this in some way. The affected group made quite a large investment in your product, and these are people who should be treated with some manner of respect. It's incredibly ridiculous to completely ignore the issue.

I keep checkng up on this issue every few days in hopes that Apple will do the right thing and stand behind their overpriced products. I too have an early 2011 MacBook Pro that is now an overpriced paper weight. I deleted the graphics drivers and am able to use the machine, but performance is very bad. Unfortunately I require a Mac for work purposes and gave since purchased a 2012 15" retina model, used of course. I also quickly purchased AppleCare (on eBay for $220) because I have lost complete faith in a brand I once considered to be "premium" and well built. I will NEVER again pay full price for an Apple product. This brand is a complete joke and I'd love to see it crumble.

Late 2011 - 17 inch MBPro - bought for me as a present by my parents at the Mac Store in April 2012 for mostly Photoshop use. 

Over the past few weeks has started giving GPU errors in PHotoshop CC - with PS saying that hardware acceleration has been turned off due to a GPU issue.  It then slows to a crawl before locking up.  It is also unbearably slow in general tasks.  I never had any problems before this.  I tried upgrading to Mavericks a few days ago which took half a day and no change - everything is slow, with frequent momentary freezing of cursors, windows etc in general use and anything graphics intensive (i.e. PS which is the main purpose of my use) results in a lock that requires a reboot.

It is just a matter of time before it dies - having read other people's similar experiences.  Very annoying for a £2600 laptop. 

To add insult to injury the £4400 27 inch 2013 IMac I bought in April died a few days ago just before an important trip to Italy.  I tried to switch it on and nothing happened - replaced fuses, removed peripherals - nothing.

I think it is starting to become clear that since the loss of Steve Jobs Apple has lost it.  Having had £7000 of equipment fail is just not funny and if this is not properly resolved I'm going back to Windows - the OS ***** but I only really need Photoshop and Lightroom. 

I can easily build my own PC as in the past and I can pick the best parts and replace them easily.  If the parts aren't fitted right then I only have myself to blame.  When I made the switch to Macs 6 years ago I never thought I'd ever contemplate returning to the PC - guess I just drank the Coolade a bit too or maybe counted on the fact that Steve would always be there to keep everyone in line!

Arif (UK).

D3us wrote:

 

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.

You rock!  I hope this works out.  I'm trying to get some imaging too.  If I get mine first, I will share them with you for analysis.

I agree with one of your earlier posts that this will most likely boil down to a mistake in thermal profiling (or to similar effect, a faulty or badly calibrated piece of equipment), but it would be nice to know for sure.

I believe there is a solution to this problem. Well, not really a solution but perhaps a work around that would enable us to use our laptops with much better performance than we get by simply deleting the discrete graphics drivers alone. It's something that Apple would NEVER provide for us because it would mean that they are admitting that there is a problem, so maybe our programmer friends can help us. We know that it's an issue with the discreet graphics chip and by deleting the drivers your Mac will boot. Mine was so bad that it would simply freeze at a blue screen with thin black lines going through it, like many others, but I deleted all the drivers by linking it to another Mac (through FireWire) and accessing the files in target user mode. It boots just fine now but performance is really really bad, especially with Apple made apps that look for the discrete graphics chip and general OS navigation. If we could tell the OS to completing ignore the discrete graphics and function more like the 13" models which only have the Intel integragrated graphics chip, then performance should be on par with those machines and we'd have usable laptops in the meantime. I know it's not a true solution and we'd essentially be working with beefed up 13" models and not the $2000+ machines we paid for, but it's better than nothing I believe, and something that in theory should work just fine.

To all those who have jumped to the last page looking for solution, Apple must know about this problem, please headover to the below link and write in your issues, and make sure to link them to this thread

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookpro.html

For now, im on gfxCardstatus, switching to Integrated graphics and using it like this as long as i can, if in the end im left with no choice, im really keen on going with the Logic board baking method, which seems a possible solution.

I had submitted to a local authorized service centers here (we have no apple stores in India), they had it checked and they said thats it fine. Apple sent me a test application and I sent the result image, they said its fine too. Interestingly, Ive heard it from the Service centre guy informally, and he did admit that 2011 mbps do have this issue.

Swampus wrote:

 

D3us wrote:

 

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.

 

You rock!  I hope this works out.  I'm trying to get some imaging too.  If I get mine first, I will share them with you for analysis.

 

I agree with one of your earlier posts that this will most likely boil down to a mistake in thermal profiling (or to similar effect, a faulty or badly calibrated piece of equipment), but it would be nice to know for sure.

Thanks, that would be great!!!

so the story continues ... took my erly 2011 MBP to an Apple Store genius yesterday complaining of the graphics flaking out after just two months with a new logic board replacement (I'm still on AppleCare). He was chatting with a senior support engineer when the screen split right in front of him. He claimed he had never seen that. My genius took a photo with his iPhone and sent it to the big wig. The senior support engineer also claimed he had never seen that behavior either. Based on that alone, my genius agreed that my machine needed a 2nd logic board replacement. I asked him if after picking it up and another month goes by and the machine acts up again would we have to "do this dance all over again?" -- he said: "no way", which I understood that Apple would either exchange my flaky machine or give me some money for my old one so I could purchase a newer model effectively at a discount. So we shall see. I will pick up my repaired MBP after Christmas and hope for the best. Honestly, my wish is that it starts to break within a week so I can take it back and say "I'm done. No more dancing: what is Apple going to do about it?" Hopefully their response will be worth the pain I've endured over the past 6 months.

Wish me luck.

Michael