Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Went to the appointment. Explained the issue and they took for tests. Collection is tomorrow but they're gonna do an archive and install and run their tests. I doubt that will fix it.

They ran the same test twice and both times the graphic card and logic board passed the test (got green check marks). However, I was quoted €410 excluding 21% taxes to replace the logic board (this is in Barcelona, Spain).

At least they've told you right away! They told me to come back tomorrow.

Are you considering to try and reapply the thermal paste?

Yes, I just purchased some artic 5 silver... Although I think my GPU is already dead... I get a greenish tint at the apple logo then grey screen of death.

Re-applying the cool paste is definately a good idea, but yes, I was too late too.

Please continue in this thread:

There's a truckload of information and hundreds of people there having the same problem.

Went yesterday, gave it for repairs for $310 to the Apple Store.

Yesterday night read this thread.

The solutions don't seems to provide a seemless use of MBP. People have issues, it seems, I decided to continue the reapair.

Can someone confirm that external display can't be used if gfxCardStatus is used to stop the discreate card?

early 2011 MBP 15" 2GHZ.

Yes, it is confirmed.

I have the same issue, there's a temporary solution to use just the integrated graphics card...

Don't know what impact that will have on the long run though...

Who can we turn to in order to have this solved? It's hard to justify a several hundred dollars repair, on a 3k$ laptop, that was barely used. I use mine for music related projects, the graphics card doens't really get used that much.

I never saw a movie on the **** thing!!!

I decided to repair the computer on my own. It works well, but it cost me $350 I've done it in other than the apple service in Poland.

I was having the same issue with my mac book pro early 2011. As I was trying out things, I booted the mac in safe mode (holding the shift key during power up) and found that when in safe mode, it was using the AMD Radeon HD 6750M card without any issues. I could load iPhoto, Photo Booth etc, which were causing the graphics issues in normal mode. I then rebooted in normal mode and have not been able to reproduce the issue so far. I will try and see if it happens again, but I am not able to find any logical explanation of this. Any idea what has happened that things seem to be working now.

Check this topic.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2768351?start=1965&tstart=0

A lot of people (me included) think this is a thermal issue caused by poor thermal paste application.

If you open your Macbook and check it, i'm sure it won't be much different from the one in the pic on that topic.

Just started a reddit post.

http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/1kt2e8/macbook_pro_15_early_2011_freeze_gp u_issues/

Please spread the word!

My repair took a total of 11 days (6 business days). Brought my 15" MacBook to an Apple Store on Friday, August 16 and was received on the 19th (overnighted). It was immediately put on hold for a part. Part arrived in exactly one week and the repair was done on the same day on Monday, August 26. It was overnighted to the store which was received earlier in the morning on the 27th. Picked it up early afternoon and now it's back in my hands. The new logic board is black now instead of green. Just for a reference, most repairs are done and mailed back within the day. It's the waiting for a missing part(s) that takes a while.

The MDP is not connected to the integrated graphics, so even if you were using a lower resolution monitor that the integrated could handle, you can't get any video output without the discreet card running.

I sent mine in for the $310 repair, and now I'm back up and running, nearly 100% of the time on the AMD card, since I use a 27" Dell external monitor.

If Apple doesn't refund my money by mid-October (kind of arbitrary, but I'm traveling several times before then, and working extra hours in-between), I will file with small claims court against Apple for the damages. What they are doing is wrong, and I will hold them accountable for it.

Ok guys,

Here's the latest and most important update for this whole issue.

It's official, Apple just gave us the proverbial finger.

After sending an email to Apple's CEO, I had a case openned with apple care and they looked at the issue.

Apparently their engineers think that there's no valid reason for a warranty extension or recall program. That's the verdict in my case.

Mind you that I gathered a HUGE amount of information with all the threads around here, all I could find really about the thermal paste issues, the user feedback with the black screens, screen glitches...you name it. I think I sent them like 10 emails with all the info I could find.

Still, the answer was...wait for it.... "We don't have enough feeback from users with this issue to justify a recall..."

Seriously Apple???

Anyway, my advice would be that we all keep sending feedback towards Apple.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookpro.html

And, keep sending feedback directly to Apple's CEO (Tim Cook)

EDIT: Apparently I can't post the email here.

For me, if in the next couple of months there aren't any news i'm selling my macbook for parts.

Then, as Nickelback once said in a rock song.... NEVER AGAIN, APPLE!!!

<Email Edited by Host>

What if we created a sort of email template? That would help people to send the emails. It's not simple to put it together...