Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card
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Jan 17, 2014 8:20 AMby jhaile,Everyone should Like, Tweet, Google +1, and share this article. Need to get as much exposure as possible!
http://www.cultofmac.com/262861/early-2011-macbook-pros-dropping-like-flies-heat -issues-blame/
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Jan 17, 2014 8:24 AMby RoscoeBiscayne,The UK guys DO NOT supply logic boards. They take your current board (in whatever state it might be) and remove the GPU, clean the board and your laptop's insides and then solder a new, 2013, GPU using lead to YOUR logic boar or whichever you provide them with.
You can take the opportunity to upgrade to a GPU with more VRAM or performance than your current one, but they have NO logic boards in stock.
When I asked them about the boards, they offered to check whether they had a USED, refurbished logic board lying around with which to work with, and if so, quote me a price.
The other thing the DO NOT DO is reball/resolder your current GPU, their service is all about adding a new one to your current board with lead sodder.
The price for that is $280.00 US plus shipping.
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Jan 17, 2014 8:53 AMby johnsolo,Just wanted to chime in and say this has been happening on my work machine as well. It started about a month ago.
Here is a picture of the problem at its most severe:
It started for me as some simple corrupted squares of color randomly appearing. It kept getting worse until the entire screen would be corrupted with graphical glitches and freeze up.
Here is what the problem looks like when it first starts cropping up:
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Jan 17, 2014 8:52 AMby RoscoeBiscayne,@tsgm -
There's a group on Facebook called "2011 MacBook Pro and Discreet Graphics Card Issue" where there's a parallel discussion about all this going on. In it, a fellow named Carlos Underdogs Ceo (curiously enough, from Puerto Rico, where I hail from) posted a link to Ebay:
"Apple MacBook Pro A1297 820-2914-A 17" Logic Board Repair New GPU Reball"
The "company" is called "bga_repairs" - they show up with 100% approval rating.
They are located in the United Kingdom, as you rightly stated, hence my referring to them as the UK guys (although by their use of language in their emails I assume they are not British but just located there).
They claim that the ONLY PERMANENT SOLUTION is to REBALL the GPU using LEAD, which, Apple avoids because of their "green" policies. I just think the green comes from the color of money, but that's another story...
They take your logic board and replace your GPU with a brand new one although they imply THAT IS NOT THE PROBLEM, but rather the flimsy "eco-friendly" soldering Apple employs. They clean your machine (if you sent it to them), I think they re-do, correct or whatever to the thermal paste while they're at it, AND send you pictures of the process at your request because, again, according to them, other companies claim to do what they do and instead send you your same ol' GPU reballed.
Hope this clarifies and helps you reach them... Still waiting to hear from them whether they have a refurb logic board that fits my machine so I don't have to send mine to them and instead get board, new GPU, etc. from them directly.
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Jan 17, 2014 8:55 AMby horne9,I got the issue on an early 2011 MBP.
It began half a year ago, but has escalated this week.
it mostly happens out of the blue, while browsing etc, without heavy GPU load.
glitches, random reboots, random bluish grey screens, sometimes a dotty line instead of the cursor, fans ramping to full. Then more glitch
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by clintonfrombirmingham,Jan 17, 2014 8:56 AM
clintonfrombirmingham
Jan 17, 2014 8:56 AM
in response to billaddison
Level 7
(30,009 points)
Mac OS XVan you post a url for bga_repairs? I can't find any seller by that name...
Clinton
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by clintonfrombirmingham,Jan 17, 2014 9:02 AM
clintonfrombirmingham
Jan 17, 2014 9:02 AM
in response to billaddison
Level 7
(30,009 points)
Mac OS X
Got it - and thanks!
Clinton
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Jan 17, 2014 9:02 AMby TrevorMBP11,I have an early 2011 15" MBP with 2.3 GHz i7 and AMD Radeon HD 6750M. My computer experienced similar symptoms back in August of 2013. The screen would glitch and I would have very limited control, but when I did a hard reset everything would go back to normal. Within a week the computer would not boot, so I took it to the apple store where they advised me to replace the logic board. Instead of purchasing a logic board for >$400 and repairing the laptop by myself, I used their flat rate repair charge of $210 with an additional $100 labor charge. They fixed my computer quickly but I did not recieve any emails or calls telling me the laptop was ready to be picked up. Finally I went in to the store to see what was up (I called earlier to try and check the status, but was unsuccessful to find anything out after multiple attempts) and they had my laptop waiting for me. Since then my computer seems to be working normally, but occassionally the fan will run very loudly when very few processes are running.
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Jan 17, 2014 9:21 AMby Shah Shah,I saw the article on http://www.cultofmac.com/262861/early-2011-macbook-pros-dropping-like-flies-heat -issues-blame/ today. I had the same issue early last year.
In March my machine finally wouldn't boot up. Had the depot repair my machine and it's been fine since then. I'm interested to see where things go now that it seems to be an issue for many people.
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Jan 17, 2014 9:36 AMby moosedad97,So, took my MBP in to the Genius Bar. Luckily its still under AppleCare for another month. Pretty straightforward--Genius talked to me, looked something up and set me up for a Motherboard swap. The only downside is that they have to ship the laptop out, so I am stuck using my Core 2 Duo for the next week or so.
