Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Hey all, I've been using my macbook with Ubuntu for nearly a month now and everything works great.  But I wanted to figure out how I could get os x back for the few programs I missed.  So I installed Snow Leopard through a virtual machine and everything works.  As some of you know, to install Ubuntu you have to disable the problematic graphics card with a bit of code and since that card is disabled at startup, the virtual machine doesn't use it.  No freezes... no blue screen... I am able to use all the programs that I was missing.  Maybe this will help some of you who refuse to give apple another dime. 

Well Yes you are right I got same problem in OS X today and after few sec screen was normal again but system was stuck or freezed and  I restarted by pressing and Holding power button and got following screen.

Its a MacBook Pro 17 inch Purchased in June 2011.

is Apple fixing this even out of warranty?

My 3 year apple care conveniently expired A WEEK AGO and I only starting suffering these system freezes today.

I have an appointment with the apple genious tomorrow.

It seems the 2011 MBPs last around 3 years.... coincidentally the same time as applecare extended warranty

The same thing happened to me a few weeks ago. My MBP early 2011 became unusable 2 or 3 weeks after my 3-year Apple Care ended. Went to see an Apple Genius, and was told I'd have to pay for a new logic board after they stress tested it for a day. They wouldn't do it for free or offer me a discount.

If they insist on you paying for the repairs, I suggest you call AppleCare/Apple Support (and do not pay the $19 fee) and explain your situation, and that your Apple Care just ended. That's what I did, and after talking to a Senior Advisor, she agreed the repairs would be free.

The only thing I'm worried about is that the new logic board (most likely a refurbed one; the Apple Genius couldn't or wouldn't tell me when I picked up my MBP) is only covered for 90 days. Will my MBP eventually have the same problems?

Well I have my genius appointment tomorrow and will report back. As I said, my apple care expired literally 6 days ago, March 23rd.

Coincidentally, I bought my current Macbook pro in March 2011 because my 2007 macbook pro died because of a graphics card issue, apple care was well over a year expired and the quote was 800 euro for a logic board replacement.

In addition to this, my partner's macbook air failed exactly 13 months after purchase. The hard drive was completely dead. We had applecare but there were also tons of messages from users who bought the same edition macbook air all with the same problem shortly after 12 months of purchase.

This is becoming rather alarming. 100% of my apple laptops have failed very soon after their 1 year or 3 year warranties were over. I repeat: ONE HUNDRED PERCENT.

Makes you wonder if I wouldnt be better off with a $300 laptop.

Thats a great idea mate! LIke the cheaper iphones, we need a lower, practically disposable "laptop/ipad/phone" that has a 18 month life span.

all stuff is stored in cloud, but it has power of a desktop.

I'd pay 500 a year for that. works out the same anyway.

Jose M Olaya wrote:

 

This is becoming rather alarming. 100% of my apple laptops have failed very soon after their 1 year or 3 year warranties were over. I repeat: ONE HUNDRED PERCENT.

 

Makes you wonder if I wouldnt be better off with a $300 laptop.

Only thing apple has it's design maybe.

But most of all, a good marketing strategy.

In fact, it's nothing more then a standard laptop inside, just like the pc ones.

They market it as pro and ask pro prices for it with no added value imo.

They are/were the most picky for warranty problems. If they can use a law to get out under it, they will.

Might have changed by now, but only after they were fined for not giving the obligated warranties to their customers.

Overrated, overpriced imo and failing more then most other laptops.

That is the price you pay for something getting smaller and smaller.

Or putting more power in the same case with same cooling.

New Haswell, like someone posted previously, won't make much difference as it has voltage regulation on it.

The thermal advantage they won by smaller dies they lost on that.

Imo, all macbooks using an extra GPU risk failing sooner or later.

Really don't like the thermal design for cooling as it is now.

Not saying it's all sunshine in pc/laptopland, but mostly it's a 2 year no hassle warranty.

Por favor, pon el link de españa,... aunque lo censuren, me llegara por mail.

Yo puse una denuncia en el juzgado... ya veremos en que queda.

Saludos

So it seems like I'm in this boat now too. Late 2011 MBP running Mavericks, I've had issues before but formatting the HD/restore from Time Machine worked each time (had to do it on two occasions). Then yesterday I was working on Photoshop and Illustrator like I always do, had been working for hours when suddenly as I'm in Photoshop the screen started to glitch and get blinking stripes and go fragmented and basically look really scary. Couldn't click at all, had to force it off and reboot. Same thing happened when I tried to use Photoshop again (Illustrator ran fine). Now it's not getting through startup at all, if I try to boot normally it gets through spinning gear then just sticks on blank grey screen with fans running and nothing happening. If I try to safe reboot it ends up on striped bright blue screen or black screen with fans running. Boot into recovery, same thing. I booted into single user and ran fsck, it says the drive appears to be ok. Tried to reboot after that, still nothing. I've had it for two years and 4 months now, earphone jack is ruined, cd drive spits out anything I try to put in there, and a bunch of recurring problems with the hardware culminating in this. I can't go on like this as I need it for work and at this point I'm seriously considering forking out for a new one :(

Hola Luis

Yo hablé ayer con el jefe de reparaciones. Me dio confianza. Se llama David el de la oficina en Alicante pero hay otra en Madrid. Habría que mover el tema en España. Yo ya lo he subido a face y me he unido al grupo que hay. Te puedo localizar por el face si te unes.

Saludos

Puedes localizarles en http://reparacionmac.es/placalogica.php

El grupo de llama "2011 MacBook Pro and Discreet Graphics Card Issue" luego hay una página de face que se llama igual pero añaden "Screen of Death". Te puedes unir también. En la primera te informan también de todas las acciones que se llevan en todo el mundo para reclamar a Apple.

Saludos

Update: My MacBook Pro is now starting up normally after I disconnected the battery. So I can only use it while it's plugged in but better than nothing. Battery had been giving me that 'replace soon' message for a while and I was ignoring it so that seems to have done the trick? Not sure what this has to do with the glitching I was giving me whenever I tried to use Photoshop, and I'm scared to open photoshop again but let's see how long this lasts.

This is interesting, I also have a failing battery. I'll have to test the machine with a new battery to know if it could be somehow related. Please keep us posted about your batteryless experiments! BTW, who else has also a failing battery?

Moving on, I'm still not quite convinced that reballing right now is the best option. Apple might be accepting logic board swaps in a short time, in which case it's going to refund those who paid for a LB swap due to the GPU failure. Reballing money are going to be wasted in that case. Plus, I have no idea of the durability of the reballing operation. Months? Years? And can you really trust that ebay guy to use the right solder, thermal paste, balls etc? And there's also a death rate to be taken into account when reballing. Having a B plan (another laptop to temporarily work with), I'd wait and see how Apple reacts. Also, if you manage today to have the logic board swapped with one of the same kind, could lead to another failure in months, and if it happens after 90 days you're on your own.

It's quite a difficult situation. One thing is for sure: my next portable mac won't have a discrete GPU.

Inkalypse wrote:

 

Update: My MacBook Pro is now starting up normally after I disconnected the battery. So I can only use it while it's plugged in but better than nothing. Battery had been giving me that 'replace soon' message for a while and I was ignoring it so that seems to have done the trick? Not sure what this has to do with the glitching I was giving me whenever I tried to use Photoshop, and I'm scared to open photoshop again but let's see how long this lasts.

I too have a failing battery. I tried to remove it. But I did not manage to boot. Still stuck with a gray/white screen.

Let us know how it goes for you.