Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

How long did the reball last? What retailer did you have do it?

Idk who did it, my apple certified repair guy said to ship the logic board to a group out of NY. He said he'd done plenty of MBP logic boards w success, so it's odd mine failed but he thinks they will do it again for free or real close to it. NY is a tad away from Dallas.

I'm not doubting it will be fixed but heat or something continues to unseat or damage these GPU chips at a fairly alarming rate.

I have been running fan and temperature monitors since the first GPU failure in October of 2013. and IMHO these units run too hot (at least mine is at top left corner.). I can kick the fans in high and cool it down some IF I'm not rendering video or complex photoshop processes. Sometimes however upon monitoring and watching activity monitor, Firefox and a few apps will run up the processors and I'll get the heat hitting over 200 F before I even know it.

Yes both of my fans are operational and the unit is not filled w dirt or lint. I've had it apart enough times to know its clean machine.

While I did have my apple guy replace the original HD w a SSD (for speed) and in hopes of running cooler. However it again melted or displaced the GPU again. Sure toss in a new logic board... But how many times do I really want to do that?

All I'm left w is the crapper disillusion of HOPE that the retina ones are better units although I've read some complaints about humongous fan noise.

Time will tell. Been on a mac since 1988. Love the brand, just disappointed in the 2011 MPB product.

My MBP2011 died finally today. The videocard takes off practically at once now. It is impossible to work.

SN: C0******F8V (early 2011 15' macbook pro with AMD Radeon HD 6490M).

The Apple in general is going to do something or it all the same? Or they think, what having bought this junk for $2500 I will run and now I will buy new MacBook?

Hello from Saint-Petersburg/Russia

<Edited by Host>

I believe reballs are likely to last the least amount of time and it's pot luck between a new logic board form Apple, that will exhibit identical design flaws, or a replacement GPU from a third-party for about £170 in the UK, which (importantly) uses leaded solder to avoid a repeat of the same issue.

In theory.

Incorrect. If the GPU is still in good condition, a reball is exactly the necessary repair. The fault is the soldering failing under the too-high temps of the MBP.

There may be cases where the GPU is fried, in which case a reball is not going to fix the problem.

If I were to take my MBP to a third party, is it possible to purchase & have them replace the AMD GPU with a GPU that doesn't get as hot? Or do I really need to have the AMD chip?

I'm taking my Mac in this weekend, so we'll see what they say to me. I'm guessing a 3rd-party lead reball is the best option.

For me it was:

- reflow was cheapest option first

- Reball is what I did at $175

- New Logic board $650 without labor

- Apple guiness bar quoted me $1600 last fall

- New laptop $2k plus

For a better idea, maybe this was my decision process last October:

Emailed Mr Timothy Cook and got a call back from Executive Relations.  In a nutshell the following was communicated to me:  1) Apple does not see this as an issue and is looking at case-by-case situation only, 2) Apple is not aware of repairs which fail again shortly after, 3) Repairs for this issue will be covered by the consumer.

I also sent them the transcript (excerpts below) with Apple Care where, at least to my understanding of basic English, the Advisor recognized that there was a known issue and that there is an extension support program.  Executive Relations read through the transcript and said nowhere does the Advisor mention that this is a known issue or that repairs would be covered by Apple. 

Me:  I have researched this issue online as well and it seems like this is a known hardware issue with this particular model. I also read that there is an extension support in place due the the specific nature of the issue, and that I would need to have some specific tests run on the machine at the Apple Store to determine if the AMD GPU is indeed the issue. Is that correct?

Advisor:  You are correct, we would need to run some hardware test on the MacBook Pro at the local Apple Retail Store.

Advisor:  The tech at the Apple Retail Store will assist you in setting up the repair. Since your MacBook Pro hardware warranty has expired the tech will also be able to provide you with any repair cost that you maybe responsible for.

Me:  It was my understanding that since this is a known defect with this particular model, the extension support would cover the repair costs.

Advisor:  When they run the test at the Apple Retail Store they will be able to verify fore sure that the hardware is covered under the known hardware issue.

Oops, I meant reflow - too late to edit now. Good spot.

skimnc wrote:

 

If I were to take my MBP to a third party, is it possible to purchase & have them replace the AMD GPU with a GPU that doesn't get as hot? Or do I really need to have the AMD chip?

If they have other chips, they could replace it, but that's not the problem, strictly speaking. The factory welds that connect the GPU with the logic board are garbage, and there's often far too much thermal paste. That and bad design decisions-- the aluminum case and crap fans, for example-- make the computer run particularly hot.

The GPU and CPUs will get hot, and that's something that will always happen. It's how the computer deals with the heat that matters. Since there are in-built problems with heat dispersion, you'll need to strategize to minimize heat. I do it with fan programs and a cooling pad. My computer has seldom gone above 85 degrees since the reball, using this strategy.

The_Moves,

I would tend to think that this would not be a profitable path to pursue, based on my experience troubleshooting the problem so far. Now, I'm a software engineer, not a hardware or electrical engineer, but this is what I observed when I went through this:

If you disable all of the AMD* and ATI* kext's, basically stripping the OS of any knowledge of how to use the AMD card, you'd think it would say, "Oh, but here's this integrated graphics hardware I know how to use, lets use that." Wrong, that's not what happens. If you do this, when you boot you will actually be using the AMD graphics hardware in an extremely minimal capacity (think like a VESA framebuffer driver)--all the drawing is done in software and you can tell (totally flickery/slow as molasses), and the computer thinks that the built-in display is an external monitor (you'll see other folks mentioning this phenomenon especially). More conclusively, if you fire up System Information.app (formerly Apple System Profiler) you can see that the AMD graphics card is shown as "active" in this state, not the Intel graphics card (gfxCardStatus reports the same thing, if you have it installed).

What I infer from this is that the AMD hardware has the smarts/parts that enable the graphics switching, and the hardware is required to connect to the AMD hardware first (maybe not the GPU chip itself, but something on that PCI-E "slot" or "card"), and that piece of hardware is what brokers a switch to the Intel HD3000 hardware. Kindof like I observed once back in the AGP days--if you had a MB with integrated graphics but put a card in the AGP slot, the onboard graphics couldn't be enabled anymore because the card took over the AGP controller--or something like that. Consider where the physical cable that goes to the monitor is connected to the logic board--that connector is probably controlled by the AMD hardware, I'd wager, and it lets the Intel graphics use the port, not the other way around.

If I'm right, then deliberately "bricking" the AMD hardware would prevent the Intel HD3000 hardware from being reachable at all. That wouldn't help anyone.

I could be wrong, and the folks on here trying Ubuntu may dispute my conclusion, but it's the only way I can explain what you see when you disable all the AMD/ATI drivers.

You're right, they told me that the 17'' model is discontinued.

They called me this morning and I asked for the specific model. They are giving me the "MacBook 11,3" (15'' Retina) version, the one with 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD and the dedicated GT750m GPU.

BTW, mine is a MacBook Pro 17'' Early 2011 with 8GB RAM (upgraded at buy time), anti glare screen and 2.3GHz i7 (upgraded version).

Cheers .

Noltari,

You got a very, very good deal. If only others could be as fortunate....

Clinton

With around the best thermal paste there is and a polished contact plate for my heatsink inside my 2011 17 it got as high as 80c in bootcamp for the CPU and 78c for the GPU while watching a HD football stream tonight. Five minutes later the CPU has dropped to 62c, GPU at 54c.  The design can cope with the heat if it's optimised well and that's part of the problem, though I have always used a cooling pad with my MBP.

That was with the default settings for the fan control - usually I use the macsfancontrol app in both OSX and windows with the left fan triggered by the GPU diode hitting 70c and the right fan by the CPU 0 sensor at 75c, a far more conservative setting than Apple's default but one I am more comfortable in minimising the risk of having to get the GPU replaced at my cost - for now anyway.

paigoomein wrote:

 

Emailed Mr Timothy Cook and got a call back from Executive Relations.  In a nutshell the following was communicated to me:  1) Apple does not see this as an issue and is looking at case-by-case situation only, 2) Apple is not aware of repairs which fail again shortly after, 3) Repairs for this issue will be covered by the consumer.

I did the same after the 2nd board also failed after 110 days. However at that point the discussion went quite a little different than yours. My contact also said that this is not a known issue however since I already had one replacement he immediately offered another replacement despite their only 90 day warranty (potentially saving me from some annoying and lengthy discussions since this is clearly not valid in Europe) and expressed some believable concerns that this really might be a bigger problem. Also if the problem should reoccur I should directly contact him again and would potentially get a replacement device (though I really have to admit that none of the Retina mirrors really fits my needs and I'd rather stay with my 17" anti-glare device)