Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

**** just got real.

Cult of Mac now reporting it.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cultofmac/bFow/~3/kOhSBNFsSF0/story01.htm

The techs 'flash' the 'old' serial number on the 'new' boards but most vendors recognize that you're using a 'new computer' - you have to re-register/authorize your machine, etc.

That's exactly what I said, no?

I got my machine back right as the TB update was released, so I can't use that as an identifier of any sort.

There is no (known) indication of the manufacturing date readable via software other than the mentioned serial number which as we know will move to a new hardware on a swap. There might be some identifier on the board itself. Other than that you can only use a non-SMC firmware as indication. If after a swap the Thunderbolt firmware is up-to-date that can mean one of three things:

1. It was updated by the technician (possible but unlikely because they usually do not muck around in the system and the test procedures do not update the special firmwares)
2. It was manufactored after May 9, 2013 (highly unlikely)
3. Your motherboard is the old one or was refurbished

Roscoe, I had same issue here in Puerto Rico. I had no warranty at all (I bought the macbook pro on march 2011 with no AppleCare+). I spoke to a lot of people over the phone ranging from Apple technicians to customer relations representative. After days of talking with customer relations representative they told me to take it to iShop in Mayaguez and have it diagnosed. Their diagnose came as ok but the technician obviously noticed the lines on the screen and the very important fact that it wouldn't boot at ALL. After quoting a repair of more than $1000 I spoke to the representative nicely and explained that I was a student (could definitely not afford the repair) and that I have many Apple products which I always recommended. She offered a free replacement of the logic board and labor paid. I left my mac at the iShop and after receiving the computer everything has been great since. I received it on december 20, 2013 and I didn't have to pay a cent. Try to contact Apple customer relations team and I hope you have the same luck as I did.

Here is my experiance...

I am from the UK so we are covered under the EU consumer laws, more info here -> http://www.apple.com/uk/legal/statutory-warranty/

- I bought my Macbook Pro 2011 17" with the 6750M GPU in April 2011 from BestBuy UK.

- In 2012 BestBuy shut down operations in the UK

- In January 2014 I started experiancing this defect. System halts with striped lines ect.

- I contacted Apple care to ask if I would be elegible under this program, they told me that since BestBuy had shut down they would honour the extended warenty should it be diagnosed as a manafacturing fault.

- I booked an appointment at the Apple Store (Bristol Cabot Circus) to have the laptop tested. They confirmed a GPU fault and told me that Apple wasn't responsible for upholding the extended warrenty. I told then I would get back in contact with Apple care as this contradicted what I had been told before.

- I stoke to a Apple Care Senior Technical Support Advisor at AppleCare again and he told me that the store was wrong and do not deal with these niche cases as often. He enquired about the test that was run on my laptop and told me that they still needed to confirm if this was a general fault or a manafacuring fault. This I have been told can not be done at the Apple Store since it was not bought from there (both I and him found this very unusual).

- I was told I would need to book in a 'Consumer Law Claim' test at a company called Western Computer in Bristol. If this test confirmed a valid consumer law issue I would not be liable to pay the fee for the test of £78.00 and the hardware repair would be carried out for free. However if it indicated a general fault I would have to pay this myself.

- Before having this test run I wanted to ask what was involved and how one distinguishes a general fault from a manafacuring fault. I got a vague reply that indicated the test was softwear based which didn't give me much confidence that this test would throw the "error code" that was requed for a consumer law repair.

- As of now I am waiting to see how this plays out, it's hit the tech news now and I am hoping just like in 2008 and 2010 there will be a class action lawsuit that will save me all this hassle. I don't think I will get the test run at this time as I want to save myself the expense.

I'll keep this updated with my progress.

Their quote was for $276.23 US as of yesterday plus shipping, including system cleanup. They claim to use brand new 2013 manufactured chipsets fully compatible. You can even request an upgrade to the one with more VRAM.

I asked questions last night and had my answers this morning.

I'm now asking whether they have refurbished logic boards for my model that they can retrofit with the new GPU and send to me so my Apple Guru can instal here instead of having to send my machine. They do NOT have new boards in stock.

Another option is to have my guy remove the board and ship it alone to save on shipping costs over sending the hefty machine.

Will update as I get info...

BTW, curious about the sudden surge of failures all at once... Still hoping Apple picks up the ball quickly! : (

Oh, I live in Milan, Italy and I paid $800 to fix it. CRAZY!!! ANGRY!!!

Oh man,

I've been driving myself nuts over this problem for so long.. I didnt notice others also had it!

This problem makes my 2011 macbook shut down from just viewing a full screen youtube video.. i even bought myself a cooling fan tray, and though it delays the problem a little the CPU still reaches ~96°C and then shuts off.

why wont apple see this as a problem if its happening to most people who bought the 2011 macbook?

Cult of Mac says "Early 2011" models afr affected, but I know from experience that some, at least, Late 2011 models are affected as well.

Clinton

I e-mailed the author of that article, asking him to include the late 2011 models as well.

<Edited By Host>

brppreacher,

Just did so myself. Now if we can get a MacWorld article (but they're so married to Apple, it seems, that they wouldn't print anything bad about the products, the company's lack of reaction to this problem, etc.).

Clinton

A new article in the french version of macworld :

http://www.macworld.fr/mac/actualites,macbook-pro-2011-probleme-gpu,536241,1.htm ?utm_source=xml&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

(in french, sorry)

+1 this -> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7075800

Mine is a late model 2011 17" MBP purchased in October 2011. It's pretty much dead now. And I'm having video issues with my Mac Mini, that I purchased to replace the laptop until I get it repaired. UGH.

This exact thing happened to my early 2011 MBP 2.3 INtel Core i7, 8GB. My issues started around the same time Mavericks was released and I coincidentally thought the crashing, freezing and strange lines on screen were the result of being an early adopter. So I reverted back to 10.5 Snow Leopard and the problems still persisted. After a few trips to the Genius Bar it turned out that the logic board needed to be replaced. The sad thing is they said they could test all of the hardware on the early 2011 MPB EXCEPT for the logic board. Ughh.

Thankfully I had Applecare and it was replaced, but my machine was unusable for a month. And who knows if the same thing will happen to the replacement, or how long it will last????

If this is a widespread issue as it seems, repairs or replacements need to made.