Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

I'll add "Or the 17 inch model, and from now on our engineers on these 2011 models will use a tiny amount of artic silver 5 instead of a chewing gum sized blob of paste each on the chips that need cooling!"

I've taken apart countless mac laptops over the years to clean the cooling systems out and can count the number on one hand how many I thought had decent paste applied.  May be able to get away with it with other models, but these Sandy Bridge models in particular needs a change in policy.  No doubt would have saved them a lot of money in defective logic boards over the long run.

Hi,

I at least managed to boot up my MacBook Pro using the "heat up with a towel" technique. But what should I do next? I expect another failure, but is there anything that could minimize the chance to do? Keep the machine cool? Or hot? I am really disappointed, 2 yrs old, still super fast and capable laptop but with such a flaws..

Picked my MacBook Pro up at my certified reseller (Amac) Breda, the Netherlandas yesterday. Another full logic board replacemet, just like in October when my Mac crashed under the exact same circumstances.  No charges for me, didn't even have to pay the inspection fee  (which I had to pay last time). They couldn't  tell me anything about why my machine crashed so I asked them to  check with their service center and they told me to contact me if they knew more about it. So far so good. I did find out though, that my repairs are free due to their 3 year warranty program (which is free) so that's unrelated to this specific problem.

What worries me for now tough, how long is this board going to last?  My original board lasted 2 years and 4 months, the  first replacement lasted  5 months... could that one just be a dud or is my current, second replacement board also subject to such a life span?

I'm now going to actively monitor the temperature of my machine and would like to know healthy temps under idle and stressy conditions. Also going to buy a stand to improve airflow. Does anyone have other tips to ensure the health of my mac? Force the fans to always operate at a certain level? Manually switch on the discrete GPU.

Could anyone point me to some tools to do this?

Thanks in advance.

I've been having the same symptoms as others with my early 2011 Macbook Pro. I took it to the Genius Bar and they have just called me back telling me it's the Solid State Drive that needs replacing at £600 + VAT.

I'm suspicious because the symptoms don't suggest a SSD failure (screen freezes, black bars on the screen, getting stuck on grey screen on reboot).

It's been 4 days since I resetted PRAM and SMC and using gfxCardStatus and no incident or any delay in boot (it's actually a bit faster now) but performance wise its draining battery faster.Not sure until when this can work for me but really hoping for an action from Apple.

i have the same problem as everyone.

macbook pro early 2011,15inch

first i had graphic errors

now i can't boot it anymore

useless machine

mac claims = "persistence and hardware that works perfectly together".

no good joke

apple, step up and help!

i am not sure if i will ever buy an apple laptop again......................!!

everyone with this problem should send an email to the macbook pro team directly.

we need an repair/replacement program

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

As tnjapt said, please continue to send feedback directly to Apple.  While this forum is useful, Apple needs to get the message directly.  If you have the time to spare, open a AppleCare ticket (ask for an exception if  you are out of warranty) or make an appointment with your local Apple store.

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

For the moderators of this forum--how many more individuals need to go through this issue before Apple can lift its finger to determine that there is indeed a widespread flaw with the 2011 MBP?  Perhaps try living up to the high standards that you continually advertise and taking care of your customers would be a good first step.

Apple, do the right thing and resolve this Macbook PROblem once and for all.

@tnjapt, I have the same macbook model and problems as you. Do you have a SSD or a hard drive? The Apple Genius Bar engineers  phoned me today to say I need my SSD replacing... which is very pricey. I'm going to take it to another Apple Store and see what they say.

i have a hard drive. i guess our problem is the AMD graphic card (which sadly isn't a "card" anymore because then we could all easily exchange it and not have to replace the whole logicboard (<---which seemingly doesn't solve the problem) good luck to you

WOW!!!!

All I can say is WOW...Apple played me real well...

Picked up my Macbook yesterday evening from the Apple Store (4 day repair). I asked what was wrong with it. The paper I was given says ONLY...Logic Board replaced and 3rd party memory replaced. I demanded a detailed report of what daig was run and what was found. They had to get a "Genius" Tech to come out and talk to me. He tried to play me down and say "This is all the information he had". I looked at him and asked. "If I take my car, or any property of mine and PAY to have it fixed, is it not proper for me to ask what part was broken and how that was determined, BEFORE I pay. Would you pay a repair guy to fix something if he/she could not tell you what was found?"....Tech's ANSWER...."Hold on, let me check the notes.....I see the video card was BAD".....My Response..."Hmmmm....So the AMD 6750M was bad, I was told if the GPU was found to be bad I would have it fixed at no charge".....Tech's Response..."Puzzled look on tech's face...Well your problem did not match the problem we know of".....My Response..."OK, I want the report of what was found for my records, please e-mail or print that information....Tech's Response...."That is INTERNAL information, I cannot give that to you"....My response..."Really, so my laptop, my property, I am paying you (Apple) to fix it, no different than going to a car dealer to fix my car and you are telling me that I am not allowed to have the notes, the information, the facts, of what was found and why I am paying you to replace my Logic board?....Tech's response...."YEP!!!!".....

I paid my $310, plus tax for parts, and walked out with my working Macbook Pro and feeling a slight pain in my butt-hole...

I have never heard of such a thing....And I have no proof..NOTHING, in writing that says the AMD GPU was bad....

Is Apple trying to make me hate them after 10 years of bragging how AWESOME Apple is...OR WAS....?

I have my 16Gigs of RAM is a brown sealed bag that somehow never caused any problems, never failed any daig test...passed the memory test the Apple Store executed while standing in the Apple store when I dropped it off....Somehow it caused booting problems while they had it for repair. I think I am going to put it back in and see what happens....If it doesn't work...I guess that will be another $200 for something that worked perfectly until I gave my Macbook to Apple.....

APPLE....PLEASE DO NOT EXPECT ME TO GO BRAGGING ABOUT HOW AWESOME YOUR PRODUCTS ARE!!!!! And for that 2014 Macbook Pro I was waiting for....Well...Lets just say that is no easy decision now...

<Edited by Host>

Anyway to save a copy of this entire thread in-case Apple somehow deletes our posts?

Already saved my posts...

Well Paig,

I tried to post a question to you and the thread about engaging with a law firm about this problem, but Apple pulled it. Their reason...

We’ve removed your post Re: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card because it contained a non-constructive rant or complaint. To read our terms and conditions for using the Communities site, see this page:

I was not ranting, but asking very specifically if we should engage a law firm about this problem.

If Apple is unwilling to help, that is why we have a United States legal system to protect us. And any attempt to silence my comments about this topic is a violation of my constitutional rights. Apple's terms of this forum cannot and does not supersede the constitution...LAST I CHECKED!!!

VERY RELEVANT and HELPFUL to this discussion topic....

Having a faulty SSD cause black vertical bars/screen artefacts on the display would be a novel diagnosis.  The GPU test passes the aht quite often so they ignore it and look for non existent faults!

I would take it elsewhere for a second opinion!

Hey corycable ...

Oddly enough I can't find your post about opening a class-action against Apple regarding this issue (I just received as an e-mail notification with the post but can't find it here) ... Maybe it was already deleted.

I know about the efficiency of a lawyer letter in personal/small businesses contexts, but I have my doubts regarding the efficiency of such an approach to Apple as they must eat them for breakfast by the ton. Regardless, you have my moral support to go ahead with it. This is outrageous behavior towards Apple customers and the company people responsible for this or that can make a difference must feel that.

Regarding the fix they provided you I personally would never pay without proof of replacement/repair and without proper repair documentation. Would rather call the police and fill a criminal complaint.

I advise everyone with this issue and out of warranty that opts to repair with Apple Certified Repair Agents to, before doing so, open the bottom case of the laptop and take pictures and/or leave a mark in the logic board to check if it was really replaced after alleged repair. And of course, other advice would be to demand Apple to exchange your model with an equivalent or better without this issues because even if you change the logic board, sooner or later, it will happen again. Whatever you do ... please don't pay for repair and walk away, because the problem will haunt you again soon.

Best,

H.

Appreciate your feedback,

I have already began Google'ing for law firms that specialize in these types of problems. I will be sending them this thread link along with some other Internet articles about this. Let's see what response we get.

If Apple continues to censor and/or remove our post from this thread it will only generate more questions and Apple will need to explain that to a court. Any law firm will get a court order to see the removed posts and see what they pulled....Apple really needs to think about this. The problem is not going away and trying to cover it up will not help you....

Turn on the news Apple...GM tried to cover up a fault in their vehicle products and now look....WOOPS!!!

Before Apple accuses me of ranting...

I will post any feedback I get from the law firms.

Let see how they and Apple respond to it..

For me, its not about money...Its principal.