Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

I found this post after my early 2011 MBP had the exact same failures listed by so many other people. The screen has horizontal pink lines as soon as it is turned on, and it stops booting at a gray screen. I had the occasional crash in months past, but all was fine after a reboot, so I didn't think much of it.

After doing my research to confirm that my problem is identical to everyone else's, I scheduled a Genius Bar appointment with zero intention of paying one cent for a new logic board. When scheduling the appointment, I noted the exact issue and made reference to this support thread and the news articles that are popping up online. The Genius was nice enough and confirmed the issue. He looked for possible programs to replace the logic board for free, but, as everyone here can confirm, there was none. I asked for him to fully document the issue and provide me with a printout.

A couple days after the appointment, I received the standard request to take the survey. I gave the visit a very negative review, while still giving the Genius generally positive remarks. The goal was to generate a follow-up phone call from Apple, which occurred as expected couple days later. The head Genius at the Apple Store called me back, and I proceeded to take as much of his time as possible to explain the issue again, referencing this thread and the news articles, while also explaining the problem that I am having in extreme detail. I went into this conversation knowing that there is nothing he could do to resolve my issue. Again, he was a nice guy and wanted to help, but has nothing from Apple that he can do at this time. I asked him to raise the issue with engineering and make sure that there is a full record of the phone call.

The point of all of this is to produce a paper trail and consume as much of their time as possible. Like any corporation, the only way this issue gets resolved is if the data points that they care about are made large enough to become noticable: 1) time spent addressing an issue, and 2) issues that are reported, left unresolved, and then receive poor survey responses.

The best thing anyone can do right now is to contribute to making this issue a big deal and produce a paper trail in the process. I'm planning on scheduling a visit to the Genius Bar on a regular basis until I see resolution.

It's been half a year that I met such a problem! It's reboot suddently without any warning 3 or 4 times a day. Dare you use it? I bought a windows computer and left my MacBook alone.

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My Mac is such a problem!

Mine was repaired last July for this specific issue. The logic board was replaced once before for sleep issues. Thankfully it was covered under AppleCare but the repair bill was outrageously high. (See below)

Parts and Services

Item Number          Description          Price          Amount Due

661-5847          Display Clamshell, Glossy          $ 510.23          $ 0.00

661-5852          Board, Logic, 2.2 GHz          $ 487.50          $ 0.00

S1490LL/A          Hardware Repair Labor          $ 39.00          $ 0.00

Total (Tax Not Included)          $ 1036.73          $ 0.00

My AppleCare is up in June and I'm on my 3rd logic board. I am noticing intermittent flicker here and there but I'm hoping that's just Mavericks and not a sign off bad hardware.

I hope Apple gives some reprieve to those affected, regardless of whether they have AppleCare or not; they certainly can afford it.

My two cents: Serious flaws on screen began early this week (Jan 14) with the accompanying freezes.

No overheating issues nor fan noises. Joined Facebook group whose members are all suffering same symptoms.

Main theory is that it is not the GPU but the Eco-friendly soldering Apple uses to attach it to the logic board, therefore logic board only delays the problem which will occur eventually (hence all those who've had it replaced multiple times by Apple with recurring problem).

A company in the UK is offering via eBay to remove GPU and replace it with new chipset but lead soddered for around $300 plus s&h.

Wrote to Tim Cook and explained all this yesterday.

My machine's display finally gave out today (blue-gray screen). Ten minutes later, got a call from Apple Executive Services  regarding my email to Mr. Cook.

A very polite man told me there was no recall or service memo of any kind regarding my problem, and that I had no recourse but to go to Apple authorized service for repairs, and that he was aware of my concern that it would likely result in a logic board replacement with the subsequent fail probability.

SInce there are no Apple stores in Puerto Rico where I live, that means going to Best Buy or Modernica where such a replacement would cost upwards to $1,000 for a two-year old machine. My previous MacBook Pro is running fine.

My trusty local Mac Guru, who does all my repairs, is contacting a trusted parts supplier to enquire about the availability of the logic board and to check out which GPU it has and how it is soldered if indeed it is available.

Meanwhile I wrote to the guys or gals in the UK with a few questions regarding their service, mainly which NEW GPU were they replacing the current one with and whether they could sell me the logic board complete with new GPU so I don't have to ship my machine there and back (doubtful, but who knows).

Went back to FB group to catch up and found MacRumors has taken an interest in this story with a link to this thread...

And Apple, I guess, still doesn't think this is a major design, manufacturing flaw serious enough to merit a response that doesn't leave us all hanging out to dry.

As a footnote, I'm not the only one in the FB group who has written to Mr. Cook and gotten a call back from Apple Exec Services with a similar response, except for one fellow in Europe who Apple offered to replace his logic board for free even though he is also out of warranty...

Here's to living in the Third World!

CORRECTION: It was Apple Insider that has taken an interest in this story and has contacted Apple seeking response and not MacRumors as I erroneously wrote in my note!

I hope Apple gives us the solution

Apple ID : **** MacBook Model : MBP 15", 2009 Mac OS X (10.6.6) Early 2009 Serial Number : C0*******F8V Country or Region: Purchased in Hong Kong   Details: today is Jan 17 2014. For over three months now I my MBP screen flickers and goes to black (sometimes I can see top screen 8mm fuzy) I have to press the start button down for 4-8 secs to turn off and try restarting. From the first instance it would restart and work fine for upto a week. However now it is a daily occurance and once I have a few programs running it goes to a grey/black screen. I have tried leaving it, hoping it might correct itself, however usually it will start to emit a loud huming noise before finally quiting all together. Now it will take upto 8 restarts before it loads into the user account propper. What I mean is it always loads to where you can select the user profile. (I have two user profiles and the Guest).  I’ve read so much about others with the same issue (and not just the 2008 model) After paying HKD 17000 + Apple care, I was expecting more in the way Apple has addressed this problem. Especially since the machine has automatically sent crash reports to Apple.  If someone has located a good repair shop in Shenzhen that can replace the logic board, please email me with the details. It seems the only option is to replace logic board and hope to get lucky and have a few more years out of it.

<Personal Information Edited By Host>

If you get a replacement logicboard, it might be worthwhile opening up your mac and cleaning out the fans, then cleaning off the original thermal paste from the CPU and replacing it properly with new thermal paste.

Actually there's no point in doing so unless the repair center is as incapable as the Chinese sweatshop^Wassembly line in properly applying thermal paste.

Yup, I sent it around. I hope more portals will pick it up. I want to say thanks to AppleInsider for a great, kind and swift response.

If that was supposed to be swift then I'd certainly not hold a breath for the slow one. I'm silently still hoping that the same happens to someone really high profile like Anand Lal Shimpi who seems to be holding off on reporting this based on non-personal experiences due to his obviously good relationship with Apple -- that would very likely break the knot and finally yield into some response from Apple. Pity he's swapping his Apple gear as other people do with their undies so the chances are very slim here...

Macbook Pro

15-inch, Early 2011

Had a similar issue just recently (December 2013). I was viewing a video when when I got a random gray screen.

Laptop would restart to a green screen, but never boot into the OS.

Brought it to the apple store and got a replacement logic board.

After 2 days the replacement logic board started having the described graphic line glitches and random crashes. Sometimes this would create a kernel panic log, but often not.

This would occur whenever running the XCode5 iphone simulator.

I am now on my 2nd replacement logic board.

Not sure how long this one will last...but can't say I am too confident.

I think it's quite strange that so many new (well, new old stock I guess) replacement logic boards go belly up after just a very short period of time. Does this mean that the fault is due to the logic boards AGE, not how long it has been USED? Maybe the solder starts to oxidize or something.

Another factor that seems to support this is timing. The majority of the users seems to report this around 2-2.5 years after purchasing the computer.

My guess would be that the first replacement logic board I received was refurbished from someone else and wasn't fully repaired.

It passed Apple Hardware Tester that I ran personally, and also passed the hardware tester at the Apple store.

However, after further extended testing they were able to reproduce the horizontal vertical lines, but not the crashes. (this is according to the genius who returned my laptop).

Perhaps this is the case with other users who get their logic boards replaced only to get a refurbished faulty one from someone else.

MinHiew,

My machine passed both the 'personal' Apple Hardware Test and Apple's 'Genius' tests as well. But my machine would not boot from any source and I had both horizontal lines when in test mode and black and blue vertical filling the screen when attempting Internet Recovery, etc.

But I have AppleCare and the logic board was replaced and everything seems peachy - for the moment: I just hope that when/if this logic board fails, I'll still be under AppleCare.

I've no idea if Apple has a horde of 'old' logic boards around or if the 'new' boards are, in fact, 'new.' Maybe they just recondition old boards with a slathering of thermal paste.

I'll continue to monitor this thread and to keep watch over this 'new' board.

Clinton

Hi. Would like to report the same problem that happenned to my 15" MBP. I bought it in early 2011 so I assume that it will have the same hardware as many of the people here. Problem is, there is no Official Apple Store in my country so even if Apple does issue a recall of the laptop, I do not know whether I will get the same privilege.

Hans