Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Flamenco13 Did you find out how to disable the discrete GPU?

I think this would be a perfect solution for some of us. (I can't boot my MAC, so other software solutions are obsolete on my case).

Perhaps there is some Linux command to do this at "Single User Boot Mode", I know there is a way on Ubuntu, but didn't find a way to do this on the Mac Console.

If not, maybe there is a method to do this by forcing the hardware...

Yes,

1. I booted into single user mode (you can also access the startup disk from target disk mode from another machine, or  take the drive out)
2. I navigated to the driver directory (cd /System/Library/Extensions)
3. I moved all ATI drivers out (sudo mv ATI* ~/Desktop/)
4. I rebooted

I needed to do this because my machine was convinced an external monitor was attached (even though I never, ever attached one) and the discrete driver was being activated before gfx Card Status had a chance to load.

Hello folks

I have the same model (MacBook Pro 15" early 2011 AMD Radeon HD 6470M) and the same problems. I managed to change the thermal paste about three months ago. It worked at first, but one month later, GPU problems appeared again hence I had to install smcFanControl and put my fans up to 6200 RPM. It worked partially since my macbook suddenly had random graphic glitches ( when I used programs like Photoshop) such as the first post in this thread. One week ago I was very disappointed, GPU was locked/damaged, now the display shows Apple logo pink colored with horizontal green colored stripes then it shows a white/gray screen (stripes disappear) and nothing else happens so I can't login.

It needless to say that I'm out of waranty and I don't have Apple Care.

Apple must do something, It's not possible that a computer which it cost about 2000 dollars has this problems with at least two years of using.

This is my first apple product and I'm very disappointed, I wouldn't have desire of buying Apple products in the future if they're this bad of quality.

Hopefully this bit of news will give us Macbook owners who have suffered graphic card failures room for hope.

http://www.macrumors.com/2013/08/16/apple-initiates-graphic-card-replacement-pro gram-for-mid-2011-27-inch-imac/

Apple has determined that some AMD Radeon HD 6970M video cards used in 27-inch iMac computers with 3.1GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 or 3.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processors may fail, causing the computer’s display to appear distorted, white or blue with vertical lines, or to turn black. iMac computers with affected video cards were sold between May 2011 and October 2012.

Thanks Flamenco13!

This helped me a lot!

I moved the gpu drivers as you told me and now I can boot my macbook pro, but I noticed that it is detecting an external display that isn't connected just as yours. gfx Card Status doesn't allow me to switch to integrated because of it. Did you have the same problem after you move the drivers away? Did you solved it?

Thanks again, you are my personal Mac genius!

Hi guys, same problem for me with my Macbook Pro early 2011 15" with AMD Radeon 6490M. First few striped lines but now can't boot at all. GfxCardStatus is useless in my case because when I reboot MBP switch back to the Radeon 6490M's GPU and I got blue lines after the Apple logo.

My only solution was to boot in Single user mode and move ATI's driver to another folder (Instructions in Flamenco 13's post) to disabled the discrete GPU. Now MBP is booting on the Intel HD 3000 but I don't have any drivers installed for it so the quality screen is awful, graphics bugs with animations, cannot play videos, blue tint, low fps, can't change contrast or color profiles.

Here the files I moved, maybe I need to put some back in /System/Library/Extensions ?

Anyway I think it's the only solution for us to permanently disable the discrete graphic if you can't afford a mainboard change at 500-1000$. Hope Apple will see soon what they done to us!

I've spent 730 Euro to replace the Logic Board here in Italy , after 2 weeks ... the "new" logic board failed again and apple replace it for free this time. It is clear that something it's wrong about this component.

@Choual, that shouldn't be happening. ATI and Intel graphic drivers don't use the same files and the idea behind that fix is to let you use the Intel GPU as usual (hardware acceleration, etc). Maybe resetting your NVRAM and SMC would help. If that doesn't work, I think that you may want to restore the files and try again moving only the necessary ones. Somewhere In this thread (or maybe in this one, not sure since they're so long) there's a post about it, I think you actually need to move just a couple of kext files.

This is great news, one would have to think that a MacBook GPU replacement program couldn't be too far away? Thoughts?

I hope!  But we need to keep submitting feedback through Apple's website to show them how many people are affected by these issues, and push information through every other venue that we can - emails to Apple HQ, emails to major Apple/tech news outlets, YouTube videos that show problems happening, etc. 

This helps to confirm my increasing suspicions that we're definitely having a hardware problem - the hardware in these iMacs is very similar to ours, and they wouldn't issue a physical recall if this was something that could be fixed with a firmware or OS update.  Apparently 2011 AMD Radeon GPUs are bad news all around.

You are right buddy, together we can stand! If they iniate a replacement program for the iMac 27" it's also possible for us! We just need to submit more feedback.

Submit your feedback NOW!

Same here. Macbook pro early 2011.

Just posted a new feedback. Hopefully Apple will listen to its customers and show that it's willing to keep its customers satisfied with its PREMIUM products.

Same thing is happening to my MBP 15 early 2011. I've already submitted a new feedback.

We need more coverage to get apple's attention. We need to get a reddit post going.

I've removed the ATi next and was able to boot it in safe mode (only). The gfxcardstatus download link doesn't work. Could anyone updload it somewhere else and share it please?

Going to Genius in an hour. We'll keep you posted if something comes up!

PS what about external graphic cards? Are they viable?

I have an appointment in 1 hour as well. Good luck! lol