Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

guaranna wrote:

 

I expect the lifespan of a product to exceed it's warranty period.
When buying a macbook pro I'm not playing lottery; I'm buying a high-end tool for my work.

People can expect how they like. But we can't expect it will be fixed when the warranty expires. Buying electrical products is always lottery unless you bought them with insurance. The more expensive the items become, the more people buy it with insurance. This shows your "high-end tools never break" expectation isn't reflecting the reality.

guaranna wrote:

 

Yes, computer parts fail sometimes. That's normal. That said we are dealing with an out of the ordinary problem when such a high percentage of product is defective. Note that at this moment Apple can't even properly repair these computer because the replacement logic boards have a high failing percentage too. So "you should have bought Applecare" isn't a valid argument either. There's an inherent problem with these boards from 2011.

If it worked for more than warranty period it isn't defective. 40% of computer users experiences HDD failure. Some may want to call it defective. But it actually isn't if it worked within warranty period. HDD is kind of consumable parts as well as capacitor. The parts made with capacitors wear out someday. For example heat shorten the lifespan of capacitors. If they worked more than warranty period it isn't defective either. People buy Applecare for such cases. To be fair ones who didn't pay for extended warranty never get benefit of it.

I think Apple need to address this issue now. My 2011 17" MacBook Pro just developed the same symptoms. My 2009 is still going strong! If this was a car and a part was faulty the manufacturer would have to do a product recall, why shouldn't this be the case for our Macs? This is our livelihoods being damaged & nothing from Apple in response when so many users are affected at the same time!

If you don't sit up and support your loyal customers it is a very poor show. This was the top end laptop at the time & we end up with a nice Matt aluminium paperweight.

Apple you need to answer! The media love a bad story if they can dig some dirt.

Your points are valid in normal circumstances but not when it is across a whole production batch. It is a fault. Not general wear & tear. You don't hear of everyone's hard drives failing within a few months of each other.

Update (from two weeks ago). It's been a while (MBP in the shop), so I gave them a call, "Oh, yeah, we've had it repaired for 2 weeks. We were just burning it in for the last couple of days."

I go in. I open the machine, turn it on and boot parallels. Blue screen. Shut down, reboot. Turn on Parallels. Works, turn on Outlook (Win 7) - Split screen.

The tech just looks at me. I say, "You couldn't have called me last week, could you? In 2 minutes I've verified that you didn't fix anything." He promised to get with the applecare genius' tomorrow morning (our time) when they are still open. But he's talking email, so there is no sense of urgency here.

BTW isn't that a ***? Who runs customer service from 7a-7p central time on week days only? Don't they have normal people who use their computers?  I don't know about you, but for me, tech service calls are mostly evenings and weekends when I'm not trying to meet deadlines...

Anyway. So they are talking another 7-10 business days to get it fixed, again. This time I strongly suggested that it's time for a new machine. I'll also be on the line to AppleCare tonight when they open for the week.

I'm about 1/2 inch from getting a high end PC. $1000 to $1500 USD and I'll have a screaming machine that will run for the next 4 years. My customer loyalty is about spent, apple.

Locomoceanuk wrote:

 

Your points are valid in normal circumstances but not when it is across a whole production batch. It is a fault. Not general wear & tear. You don't hear of everyone's hard drives failing within a few months of each other.

It can fail within a few month. That's why HDD manufactures are offering warranty&RMA. HDDs break 24/7/365 in the world. Computers break 24/7/365. Because capacitors will be worn out someday. It's obviously normal. Manufactures can't promise those parts work after the warranty period. Otherwise, the price of those parts will rise significantly and you can't buy items at current price.

Thank you for your meaninful help in this discussion I just realized how silly are Apple extended warranty programs

Just to clarify this: Of corse any part of any electronic device can fail at any time. I guess we all know that and most of us would be willing to pay for a repair (at least I am). What makes this to such a big problem is that you can be sure the same failure will be back in time as many affected customers meanwhile pointed this out on the internet. It seems to be a bad design or bad manufacturing of this series of MBPs. Remember the first examination by the guys at iFixIt who were concerned of possible heat problems. (The day will come when Sir Jonathan is presenting a MBP only 0,1“ thick with the lack of display and keybord but the ability of cooking water on it). So you didn’t buy a computer - you rent one and keep paying additionally 500 bucks once in a while for it as long as you are willing to use or must use it. Not to mention the time you cannot use your computer when it is out for repair.

I just realized how silly are Apple extended warranty programs

Not for me - I had to have my logic board replaced and it didn't cost me a cent. I always buy AppleCare.

Clinton

I seem to be having the same problem with my early 2011 17". I have been having a lot of strange behavior at startup as well as crashes during graphics switching. It seems like Apple is handling this very poorly so far, a recall needs to be issued.

Just my 2 cents...

I have noticed that many have said that they have applied the latest MBP SMC firmware update. The problem I see with that claim is that the latest firmware update is only recommended for  QUOTE: " MacBook Pro (mid 2012) models. " The link provided was (http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1633).

If these users were able to install that update on their early / late 2011 MBP, that would cause some serious problems including all the problems described before.

I have also noticed that many have said that they are still using OSX versions lower than 10.9. I think they should try to update to 10.9+(being free and all...) That might help their problems ...

I do have an early 2011 model with the AMD 6750M and the Intel 3000 but I haven't experienced any of these problems. My SMC version is 1.69 and I do use my MBP for heavy processing ...

(then again I still have APP coverage on my MBP should it kick the bucket soon)

I do think everyone here should give Onyx a go and clear out old caches and settings that might be corrupted : http://www.titanium.free.fr/downloadonyx.php

ciu5781 wrote:

 

guaranna wrote:

 

I expect the lifespan of a product to exceed it's warranty period.
When buying a macbook pro I'm not playing lottery; I'm buying a high-end tool for my work.

People can expect how they like. But we can't expect it will be fixed when the warranty expires. Buying electrical products is always lottery unless you bought them with insurance. The more expensive the items become, the more people buy it with insurance. This shows your "high-end tools never break" expectation isn't reflecting the reality.

 

 

guaranna wrote:

 

Yes, computer parts fail sometimes. That's normal. That said we are dealing with an out of the ordinary problem when such a high percentage of product is defective. Note that at this moment Apple can't even properly repair these computer because the replacement logic boards have a high failing percentage too. So "you should have bought Applecare" isn't a valid argument either. There's an inherent problem with these boards from 2011.

If it worked for more than warranty period it isn't defective. 40% of computer users experiences HDD failure. Some may want to call it defective. But it actually isn't if it worked within warranty period. HDD is kind of consumable parts as well as capacitor. The parts made with capacitors wear out someday. For example heat shorten the lifespan of capacitors. If they worked more than warranty period it isn't defective either. People buy Applecare for such cases. To be fair ones who didn't pay for extended warranty never get benefit of it.

Wonder what you will say when your car is out of warranty a month or 6 and just falls apart.

Sorry sir, but you will have to buy a new body asl the welds only should last the warranty period.

This isn't a real defect as it is out of warranty.

Or: Sorry sir, you have to buy a new engine as the crankshaft, cylinders or whatever only should last the warranty period.

This isn't a real defect as it is out of warranty.

He didn't answer my previous question. He must be working for Apple.....

I have an early 2011 15" MBP (i7, 8 gigs RAM) with high-resolution, anti-glare display (AMD Radeon HD 6470M I think) at the local repair shop (Apple certified etc), for exactly the same graphical glitches as you, with horrible crashing as well. I was running a fully upgraded Mavericks. They say that they have problems with parts availability, and it'll might take a long time before I get my machine back.

In my case, the Apple diagnostics showed errors in the main memory, even with multiple different DIMMs.

They say, that I still have to pay for the repair, but if Apple decide that the problem is theirs (i.e., they release a repair program), then I can get a (full?) refund.

Can anyone tell me how the refund has been dealt with in the past? I know that there have been similar issues before with earlier MBPs but with a repair program by Apple, have the paid customers gotten their monies back?

Instead of AppleCare, maybe Apple should increase the price of all macBooks and give an automatic three year warranty unless the customer signs up for the AppleGamble program (ie a discount of $350, but only 1 year warranty).

In case anyone needs more convincing that it's a production batch flaw: my early-2011 15" MBP has just today developed the symptoms described in this thread.

I'd been planning to buy a new MBP soon, but I need to reconsider after seeing the 174 pages here of this unresolved problem.

My mid 2011 mbp has also got this problem.

Apple ever going to do something about it?

Or do we just keep buying new logic boards off of them.

Majorly disappointed.