Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Did you buy the mbp in london (or UK)?  If so you are covered by sales of goods act.  No tricks needed!

I got it in the UK, but lost the receipt ages ago. I've got another appointment @ the Apple store next week (the last one was before I knew about this thread). I'm gonna try and get them to fix it for free.

Has anyone in the UK successfully got theirs sorted by using the sale of goods act?

The ones in your post don't seem to exist on my machine. How do I find out which drivers mine has?

I'm gonna Google it, but thought I'd ask anyway ;)

I just had a painful past 24 hours. My macbook started to experience the same symptoms of the OP and I quickly found this (and a great number of other threads + online articles). I'm at a conference, presenting on Saturday, and needed to get my computer working.

I first went to the local Apple Tech (at a conference in Gainesville, FL) and he quickly diagnosed the issue as a graphics one and said I needed to replace my logic board. I then called Apple in an attempt to explain the issue and that there numerous posts online, and this appears to be something faulty with their hardware. The guy on the other end was nice overall, but did not understand that this is happening frequently. To quote: "People who's computers are working fine don't post online." -_-

The following steps that were previously posted have worked for me to get a functional, slightly slow, computer:

1. Shutdown your Mac. If possible let it sit for a while until it cools off.
2. Turn it on while holding "Command" + "s".
3. Type this command: mount -uw /      - this command will make the harddrive writable (this wasn't necessary for me but it may be for others)
4. Type this command: mkdir /Users/your user name /ATIDriverBackup
5. Type this command: mv /System/Library/Extensions/ATI*.*  /Users/your user name/ATIDriverBackup
6. Type this command:reboot or sudo reboot

This didn't fix my problem 100%. A few times it would still bootup to having the "blue tint" + horizontal bars. My next step was to do an "fsck":

1. Shutdown your Mac.
2. Turn it on while holding "Command" + "s"
3. Type this command: fsck
4. If it says that your system is indexed and quickly returns to console you need to force the fsck:
   • Type this command: fsck -f
5. Type this command: reboot or sudo reboot

I'm ****** that Apple hasn't paid attention to this issue. I was going to be a solid Mac buyer for the rest of my life, every 5 years or so. They just lost me unless they offer to fix this sometime soon.

cherankrish wrote:

 

I found it on a google search. I still remember the steps.

 

1. Completely shutdown the mac

2. Boot it and hold the commond + s , mac will boot in console mode

3. Type this command -  mount -uw /      - this command will make the harddrive writable

4. Type this command -   mkdir /Users/your user name /AMDDriverBackup

5. Type this command -  mv /System/Library/Extensions/AMD*.*  /Users/your user name/AMDDriverBackup

6. Type this command -  reboot or sudo reboot

This actually worked for me. My laptop has booted for the 1st time in months! Matt Williamson was right though, my machine thinks the display is exernal. I can't adjust the brightness and hardly any apps will open. BUT, It's on and I'm grateful for the help!

I'm gonna try putting some of the kext files back and see if it makes a difference

Another thing you might try is overheating the computer- move all the files back and during startup cover it in blankets. You should hear the fans start whirring. When they stop quickly restart the computer, for me it usually starts integrated only. Then once you login set GfxCardStatus to integrated only. Pain if you reboot your machine often, but i've had mine working for about a week now just sleeping in between uses.

You only need to move the drivers called "AMDRadeonX*", not all of "AMD*.*", in the commands above. For me, that's worked. The files that were moved out of /System/Library/Extensions are:

• AMDRadeonX3000GLDriver.bundle
• AMDRadeonX4000GLDriver.bundle
• AMDRadeonX3000.kext
• AMDRadeonX4000.kext

...on OS X 10.9.2. With absolutely all AMD drivers removed I too couldn't change brightness, wrong colour profile etc.; with just the above removed (on a machine with 6750M that failed yesterday quite suddenly, with none of the usual warnings documented in this thread) I'm able to operate the machine largely as normal, except for extremely slow / flickery display performance.

Hi Matt,

I was searching for your post. I read it befor but when i actually tried to move the AMD drivers , I couldn't find your posts.

So i moved all AMD files. Now i have to try moving this perticular files and see how my mac respond. Is your system ok now? can you use the  contrast and brightness buttons? Is it going to sleep when you close the mac? I'm facing issues on above mentioned three. I see slowness when i use the camera too.

Like to here your input. Thanks

Hy guys i got my mbp back from rebailing a new amd chip and aritic silver was put on fans clened everything shiney. and wola gpu is fixed. instaling mavericks and updating my data i did test it and its gone no mre error - and garuntee for 6 months thats more then apple lol. and cost 11000 indian rupees this guy is pune anyone needs his number just msg me he is preety good. .

he says the sholdring dried up causing the chip to burn out and overheat. i opted for a new chip then using the same old one.

skimnc wrote:

 

The guy on the other end was nice overall, but did not understand that this is happening frequently. To quote: "People who's computers are working fine don't post online." -_-

 

Actually some times they do but people who post "my computer is working just fine" are very quickly isolated as complete jerks... on the other hand the vast majority of the people who do have the problem would not even post online because:

• they don't care (ie. they really need a working device ASAP and will either buy a new one (which is the worst case scenario because those devices are likely to end up completely unaccounted for) or get a repair no matter the cost)
• they don't know where. Seriously, despite all companies trying to get all internetty and cloudy but if a person is not really an internet nerd and reads the right tech sites all the time or doesn't have the enthusiam to search for the right key words they simply will not notice this thread
• the generally despise posting in forums; believe me, those people exist even nowadays...

jackbody wrote:

 

Another thing you might try is overheating the computer- move all the files back and during startup cover it in blankets. You should hear the fans start whirring. When they stop quickly restart the computer, for me it usually starts integrated only. Then once you login set GfxCardStatus to integrated only. Pain if you reboot your machine often, but i've had mine working for about a week now just sleeping in between uses.

That worked for me a few months ago, but I haven't been able to boot with that method since

Pond wrote:

 

You only need to move the drivers called "AMDRadeonX*", not all of "AMD*.*", in the commands above. For me, that's worked. The files that were moved out of /System/Library/Extensions are:

 

• AMDRadeonX3000GLDriver.bundle
• AMDRadeonX4000GLDriver.bundle
• AMDRadeonX3000.kext
• AMDRadeonX4000.kext

 

...on OS X 10.9.2. With absolutely all AMD drivers removed I too couldn't change brightness, wrong colour profile etc.; with just the above removed (on a machine with 6750M that failed yesterday quite suddenly, with none of the usual warnings documented in this thread) I'm able to operate the machine largely as normal, except for extremely slow / flickery display performance.

Thanks. I'm gonna try this after work this evening. FYI I'm still on 10.7.2, does that make a difference?

Same problem here with a MacBook Pro early 2011 but I am only facing this problem using bootcamp runing windows 8.1

My system is a Windows 8.1  x64 Pro with Boot Camp 5.1 running on a 2011 17 Macbook Pro. I'm experiencing Windows crashes and distorted screen images with artifacts almost every time I start programs that require heavy video-processing (e.g.: games). The problem also happens, even if rarely, at random without doing anything particular.

Any fix ?

faryaz wrote:

 

Same problem here with a MacBook Pro early 2011 but I am only facing this problem using bootcamp runing windows 8.1

 

Any fix ?

 

Same GPU problem. Wil start failing in OSX too later most likely.

Only long lasting fix will be reflow/reball/replace GPU.

Or motherboard of course, but that might fail again sooner or later as it still has the same production problem, causing the problem, on it.

Hi, I have the same problem, mine is a late 2011 Macbook pro with AMD 6770M

Processor  2.4 GHz Intel Core i7, but managed to install gfxstatus am now running via the integrated gpu

could u please forward the guys no in Pune, also how much time does he take thanx