Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

akamyself,

I wouldn't jump to conclusions in the advice that you offer jaime1985 about his failure to boot not being part of the GPU failing on the logic board. That's exactly what happened to me - first came the screen anomalies and then I could not boot from any devices.

jaime1985's hard drive is probably just fine - my SSD booted right up after the logic board replacement.

Clinton

jaime1985, they will probably get your data back just hope they won't charge too much if they do.

Be sure to have it back if they don't though, if they replace it they will throw the other away.

When you have such important data on your computer, if for whatever reason time machine can't do its job, you should check some software like carbon copy cloner who can make a clone of your HD, even a bootable one on an external drive and that you can update every now and then, too.

clintonfrombirmingham, yes when I pressed add reply I thought about maybe I should have added 'probably' and not jump to conclusions like you say. But still, like you state a few lines later, his hard drive is probably fine.

akamyself - I am waiting on a call to see if they managed to do anything since I last spoke to them, but they were really not very hopeful.. thanks for your help though and yes if I do the repain I will make sure I keep the drive and see if its possible to backup some other way. thanks!

clintonfrombirmingham - Thanks for replying and I really I hope this is the same with my drive. I guess I will have to give it a go with replacing the logic board out of my own pocket seeing as though I didnt buy within the EU and hope the hard drive is ok when this happens.. the bill is already at 700 euro but I have more than that in music alone on the drive let alone hundreds of hours of producing music... but yeah thanks I will get back on here if I have any updates! Thanks again!

Early 2011 MBP 17"

Does anyone know if by dropping the screen res to 1344x840 I would place less strain (and so less heat generated) on GPU's?

As I have already been through the wars, I wonder if I can delay the inevitable.

Oh, the horror!!!

sign sign sign! ... we can only try! have shared on my facebook and about 40 ppl have done so far today! just over 100 needed to reach 1,000!

http://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/timothy-d-cook-replace-or-fix-all-early-20 11-macbook-pro-with-graphics-failure

I tried posting my experience before but the post got deleted for some peculiar reason. I have an early 2011 Macbook Pro 15".

Anyway, I am in the same boat but got some action from Apple after emailing Tim. Macbook Pro is out of warranty but is covered in New Zealand by the Consumer Guarantees Act (CGA). Didn't have any issues with getting this covered, which did surprise me as most times companies try and wriggle their way out of any responsibility under the CGA.

Got the logic board replaced with a new board (not refurbished), but the new board exhibited the same problem within hours of getting it home! I believe it failed the first time it was called upon to use the discrete AMD graphics card. I plugged the USB hybrid Elgato TV stick in and everything ground to a halt. Upon a forced restart I got the graphic glitches and could only boot into the terminal.

Local Apple workshop (Cyclone) have been great but I believe, as do many here, that there is an inherent fault in the manufacture of these laptops. To have a new logic board fail with the exact same problem almost immediately tells me it is unlikely to be a minor issue with just a few aberrant laptop .

Just got my machine back from an assistance that is not officially an Apple Assistance. They did what lots of people are saying will bring back the computer, fixing the video card at the motherboard... in my case, it happend to be true! Its working so far! Hope this is a final solution for this problem! I signed the petition and I am once again really disapointed with Apple... a manufacturing defect... and no recall?!

Hi Graeme

I'm in NZ too and I'm suffering the same issue. Can you elaborate on how you managed to get this covered by the Consumer Guarantees Act? Was their any push-back? Did you have to jump through hoops?

Thanks

Same problem here. Bought my early 2011 MacBook Pro with Applecare in April. I have had the logic board replaced twice already. I play a video, the MacBook beeps and the screen when you boot is distorted and either pink, green or white. My warrant runs out in April. I don't know what I will do after April if it breaks!!!! I don't want to spent $900 fixing my MacBook everytime this problem comes back. Apple should do something about this problem!

Hey fellow sufferers,

I recently managed to fix my MacBook Pro (15", early 2011) suffering from horizontal lines.

Actually I calculated about 1300€ for a repair in an apple-certified shop or about 1000€ by replacing the logicboard myself.

In my case I had those horizontal lines on start up and after the appearance of the apple logo I got a blank white screen. (Even Windows 7 booted to a blue screen)

What I came up with could be an easy solution for a lot of people here and I think it has already been mentioned in this discussion. I tried to reflow my gpu with great success!

It took me about have to one hour fixing my MacBook Pro. Here is what I did:

I got some thermal paste and Isopropyl-Alcohol (70% from pharmacy) and rented a heatgun. Then I used a guide from ifixit.com to tear down my MacBook Pro until I got to the logicboard (without RAM)!

At this point I want to mention that I won't suggest doing this and I won't take any responsibility for you using my explanation for repairing your MacBook Pro! So please don't tell me you broke your MacBook Pro! If you have non experience or being scared of breaking stuff please contact Apple Support for repair! In any case do it on your own risk!

Back to what I did: I cleaned all chips with alcohol. Afterwards I took some allufoil and wrapped it around my logicboard (about 6 layers) leaving out only the AMD Gpu chip and sockel! Then I used an metalic ring to hold down the allufoil around it and put it on an baking plate, also with allufoil on it.

Here comes the tricky part! I started to reflow the GPU by using the heatgun on it. I started with the lowest setting for about 3 minutes keeping it in motion above the GPU. I even turned it a bit hoter for one additional minute. Afterwards I left it to cool down to room temperature. Finally I put some fresh thermal paste on the chips (which I carefully spread by using plastic foil on my finger tip!) and put all the parts back together. Voila first try and my MacBook Pro boots back to OSX like nothing ever happened and even my document I worked on before the shutdown just popped up! (If your MacBook Pro is not starting try removing the battery and pushing the On/Off-Button some seconds then power it with your MagSafe Power Adapter only! I had to do so after the second start but now everything runs smoothly)

You have to know that I am a non experienced User and I am just lucky this saved me so much money. For preparation I watched some GPU reflow videos on Youtube and read some threads on the internet.

Feel free to contact me for any advice but remember that I can't take responsibility and it might kill your MacBook Pro forever! (or at least the logicboard!)

Thank you for reading...

Same problem with my Mac Book Pro 15" Early 2011 with HiRes Display. Graficcard defect on the logicboard. Costs of repair 886,- Euro. My Mac Book Pro ist 2,5 year old, no more garantie. Apple support means, that at the moment there exists no programm for exchange. I have to pay the costs. Maybe if the problem is more often they will start such a programm.

But when I read all these messages, i wonder why this exchange programm does not exist.

I hope they will do something in this direction.

I´m very sad about that situation.

Iamnow-

you do not have to pay yourself- you are covered by EU consumer law for 6 years and if you explain yourself correctly you should get an apple rep directing you to go this route!

in Italy it's only 2 years from delivery. so no improvement from apple rules.

Can confirm that is the cse in the UK. I had no joy from the store so went the email Tim Cook route. Got a call from Ireland to advise I "may" be covered under that and managed to get the board replaced for free. I was going to just pay to have the GPU replaced but as I had nothing to lose I gave it a go.