Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

My uncle has an 8 year old mbp and it's been dropped and hit a lot. Jus this past month he took it in and replaced his graphics cable, disk drive, and battery for $300. A new logic board for my 13" mbp is $600+ on ebay! My brother's air has not had a single issue since we've got it and its a little over a year old. But I don't think I plan on going back to windows. Now those machines are unreliable most of the time.

Does anyone know a way to switch off discrete graphics via command line

Is it possible to access command line without being able to boot up the mac

I don't know much about comand line but seems like a possible temporary solution

I'm just trying to think of ways to get mine working until Apple comes to its senses and recalls and repairs their proud work.

I haven't tried but there are methods if you Google that claim to work by deleting the Radeon drivers (kext files) and the kextcache.

Hello Every One,

Am just apple Consumer

Apple was a Big thing in my eyes first time i bought my mac mini Mid 2010 trying to entre the world of graphic designing & Editing

after A year i bought the high end Laptop From Apple (MBP) 2011 i7 2.2 15" Amd 6750m

i thought apple made this laptop to last for at least 5 Years

I Really Hate Apple Right now

From my Tiny Prespective in Computer Technology

I Know From a matter of fact

that GPU issue Should Turn your screen into Black

once Booted Install smc fan controller And set it to the higher RPM

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23049/smcfancontrol

And Monitor Your Heat

Set it to 6000 RPM u can find this in advanced i got mine working after 4 cinebench benchmarkings continuously + Youtube Hd Video with Dual Displays  "thunderbolt to HD"!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Some times some glitches happened Just Try to remove the thunderbold adaptor and install it again

Working Solution

This Video For Help : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZfRa1gmLts

Dear Apple Your nolonger an apple you are Potato

Finally its Smc Fan Rpm Issue

it doesnt mean that your gpu isnt effected

am sorrey to say no mby its effected

because of a long time open cl/ open gl with a lower fan rpm cuzed by apple smc edit to convince the consumers that apple product is the most silent computer

NOTE: its not only a smc fan rpm (Simply the Gpu is pulling more power than it shoud be)

ill try opening photoshop and other apps and keep u updated

may god damage Apple's Brain for this

BR . Mohamed EL Deken -- EGYPT

So I just had my third graphics card fail, and for anyone keeping score, here's my timeline
-Got MBP 15" in March of 2012

-~2 years of completely reliable performance

-February 2014: Spontaneous failure of the logic board

-February 2014: Replacement by AASP

-March 2014: Spontaneous failure of the logic board

-Fail two computer science courses because I can't recover my work

-2 weeks ago: Replacement by Apple Store

-10 minutes ago: Spontaneous failure of the logic board

I'm absolutely finished with Apple.  20 years of brand loyalty has just been absolutely trashed.  At least I'll be allowed to fix my own PC.  I'm going to go lie down and have a little aneurysm now.

Also, since I'm feeling vindictive, I feel it's worth noting that techcrunch accepts anonymous tips for tech stories, and I think if a good number of us write in and link to this discussion, techcrunch (which is the second result for "tech news" on Google) might report it and get this issue some acknowledgement from Apple.

I have the same issue. I got my laptop in February of 2011 and treated it with the upmost care. Flash forward to April of 2014 and the GPU has failed. Granted, I got three years out of this, but I think all MacBooks from this time period will eventually fail. The Genius at the Apple Store gave me the workaround and said she has never seen this. That same Genius didn't know any terminal commands too.

I'm guessing a lot more people have this GPU failure but just had their logicboard replaced, thinking it was an isolated situation.

There have been a number of posts on previous pages (look around 263) for one about how to get your computer into a functional (albeit "walking on one leg") state.

You can boot your computer into console mode by holding Cmd + s on bootup. Then essentially you should move all of the drivers in "/System/Library/Extensions/" starting with AMD and or ATI into a separate folder you create on the machine (and won't forget the name / location of). The explicit terminal commands to do all of this, as said, can be found many times over in previous posts.

Then you should be able to boot into some functional state. At first moving only the drivers starting with ATI worked for me and got me to a state where I could adjust screen brightness and have the screen look normal. Now I must move all drivers starting with AMD and ATI to a separate folder to get it to boot to a screen that has a blue tint, faded horizontal lines, no brightness adjustment, can't close the screen and put it to sleep, etc...

Apple Insider has done a story on this & yes their computers had the same problem

http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/01/16/owners-of-late-2011-macbook-pros-repor t-critical-gpu-failures-system-crashes

I just contacted Apple Australia. A polite and friendly guy tried to see what could be done but unfortunately nothing.

Contacted the local service center and looks like $800 to $1200 for a logic board replacement (which will no doubt be the same as the one it replaced)

For the high cost of this computer I wouldn't expect it to die so young & I just don't have that kind of cash. I'm still paying it off!!!!

Australian consumer law states (and even on the apple site)

"For goods, there is a major failure to comply with a consumer guarantee when:

You would not have purchased the product if you had known about the problem."

I definitely wouldn't buy such a high end premium computer if I had known it would fail so soon.

Looks like I have to try and win the lotto or figure out a way to run my business without a computer or desperately hope Apple acknowledges that well designed products are not just about looks

How did you disable

ATIRadeonX2000.kext

ATIRadeonX2000GLDriver.bundle

What are the command line prompts?

Newbie at this technical stuff (hence why I buy macs¿)

<Link Edited By Host>

I have a 2011 MacBook Pro and on Monday I had been working on my MacBook for about an hour and a half then I got a blank (grey) screen. I tried rebooting it but same thing happened. Then I called our local Cape Town Apple tech support and they suggested I try restarting it my holding down Control + Command + P + R but then I just got a blue screen with vertical black lines. So I brought it in for repair.

After waiting 2 days, I finally heard from them only to tell me they hadn't looked at my laptop yet and were going to do so on Wednesday. Wednesday came and by 2pm I called them and they told me that my GPU was fried and I would have to replace my entire logic board for R8,000 - that is just shy of half the price of the whole machine!!!!

They said they would contact Apple to see if they would replace it. I heard back from them the next afternoon saying Apple wont replace it because it's out of warrantee. I don't have AppleCare extended warrantee but it wouldn't have made a difference anyway because at this stage my Mac had just past its 3rd birthday a few days before.

That's when I did some Googling and found out that this is not an isolated issue. And I am really disappointed to read that even replacing the logic board or resoldering the GPU doesn't fix the solution, and insurance wont pay because it was not sudden damage. I cannot afford to pay R8,000 for a new logic board only to have it replaced a few weeks or months down the line again and I don't have another R20,000 just lying around for a brand new MacBook.

Apple, you are breaking my heart and my confidence in you that was once so strong is now wavering severly!

<Link Edited By Host>

MaryroseZA wrote:

 

I have a 2011 MacBook Pro and on Monday I had been working on my MacBook for about an hour and a half then I got a blank (grey) screen. I tried rebooting it but same thing happened. Then I called our local Cape Town Apple tech support and they suggested I try restarting it my holding down Control + Command + P + R but then I just got a blue screen with vertical black lines. So I brought it in for repair.

 

After waiting 2 days, I finally heard from them only to tell me they hadn't looked at my laptop yet and were going to do so on Wednesday. Wednesday came and by 2pm I called them and they told me that my GPU was fried and I would have to replace my entire logic board for R8,000 - that is just shy of half the price of the whole machine!!!!

 

They said they would contact Apple to see if they would replace it. I heard back from them the next afternoon saying Apple wont replace it because it's out of warrantee. I don't have AppleCare extended warrantee but it wouldn't have made a difference anyway because at this stage my Mac had just past its 3rd birthday a few days before.

 

That's when I did some Googling and found out that this is not an isolated issue. And I am really disappointed to read that even replacing the logic board or resoldering the GPU doesn't fix the solution, and insurance wont pay because it was not sudden damage. I cannot afford to pay R8,000 for a new logic board only to have it replaced a few weeks or months down the line again and I don't have another R20,000 just lying around for a brand new MacBook.

 

Apple, you are breaking my heart and my confidence in you that was once so strong is now wavering severly!

I feel the same. After days of research I figured I'd rather spend R2200 trying to get my 2011 MacbookPro Reballed. There are a couple of smaller companies that do it in SA. So far mine is working again and holding up. Can't be sure if this is a permanent fix, but it beats dishing out R8k for a board that will not last, guaranteed.

Apple leaves me with a bitter taste in my mouth, pity, I was beginning to love the brand, and this coming from a Windows fan boy.