Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Well I am back...... reflowed gpu failed after 2 months.

So I have been trying to go through the motions with Apple to get a solution & after an email to Tim Cook  & conversations with Apple Executive relations..... the result is: Dear Sir you have a very nice paperweight we designed for you. It is not their problem.

So.....I emailed Tim cook again.

So this is what I was requesting:

Either a discount on a new MBP top end 15” (Apple stand to gain by selling me a new machine & keep me as a customer) or a free repair on my 17” (which actually is my preferred option & again Apple keep me as a customer)

What I was offered:

You pay for the repair as it is not our problem.

So…. I offered ……... If Apple can fix my MBP 17” and I pay for it I am happy to do so if Apple give me 12month warranty on that part because it seems too many people are reporting repeated failure.

What I was told:

90 days is all Apple can warranty & after that if there is a problem then I need to contact Apple again and hope that Apple will be kind enough in their hearts that they will repair it without me paying again. ( This I can only say after my experience so far is UNLIKELY)

What I say:

If Apple don’t have the confidence to guarantee their parts past 90 days ( just the replaced parts i.e. Logic board ) then why would I have the confidence in their replacement part?

So:

For the sake of just having the confidence to say ok we will give you a warranty for 12months ( costs Apple nothing if Apple parts are good ) Apple are willing to lose a customer. I must say, great business management & judgement.

Oh….. I run a company that uses computers…..oh & my wife runs another one. I am responsible for their IT purchases. So……..it is not just my future home purchases & my children’s but it is both companies and anyone else who asks me advice about buying Apple or Samsung / or PC.........let me think, will I recommend Apple?

Sounds like Apple is having their team stick to a script based on what you have posted.  Pretty much the same conversation I had, and the same concerns as well especially with reports of MLB's/GPU's replacements failing the same way not too long after.

The 90-day warranty for repairs tells me that it's most likely that they are using refurb parts.

Executive Relations was pretty much useless in assisting the customer--only willing to discuss over the phone (I'm guessing they are afraid of putting anything in writing) and nothing over email.  Even when I asked what the repair options were, they were not willing to discuss over email.

This is exactly what happened to me! It's like I'm reading an account of my experience with Apple representatives!

By now, all my love for Apple laptops has turned to bitter hate. Forgiveness is something that I wouldn't deny them, not even now, provided they put some work into it; but the trust I had in them is something they can never get back.

They preferred saving themselves a pitiable sum of money than maintaining a customer. Well, this customer will never buy another Apple laptop and work to make sure no one else in his area of influence ever will.

Interesting conversation with a "Genius" at the Apple Store.  When I mentioned that the 2011 iMac had a recall due to a faulty GPU, he said that Apple does not do recalls, and that it was not on the official list, which he quickly pointed to on his iPad.

https://www.apple.com/support/exchange_repair/

That's funny Mr. Genius.  I found it here.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5167

For those heading to the Apple store--print these out for reference if they act as if they are not aware that there could be such a thing as a widespread issue for Apple products.

For those reading/following this thread.  Look up top where you see the number of view/replies for this particular thread.  To the right of that you'll see the latest reply.  To the right of that you'll see something that I suspect is what Apple is using to monitor this particular thread--it says "branched to a new discussion", and when you try to access the link, you get a "unauthorized to view" message.

Obviously Apple is actively monitoring this, they are very much aware of this issue, but they are standing by and not taking ownership of the mistake and not taking the right/responsible steps.

Apple could perhaps learn a thing or two from the automotive industry--do the right thing even if there is a financial impact to your bottom line and perhaps restore some faith in the products you manufacture.

Brought my 2011 early mbp to the genius bar on March 31. Got it back on April 5. They said everything checked out after replacing my logic board (with a used one, I'm sure. There are no standards for "refurbished.") I'd been struggling with the bad GPU problem since February. Thought I was the only one. Then I found this thread!

When I took it in for service (my Applecare runs out on April 26), they had never heard of this problem before. It checked out fine when they booted it from the network. Except for the jacked up display. "Yep, we need to replace the logic board." Me: "Why did the GPU test out fine with your diagnostic software just now?" Him: "It doesn't check every little aspect of the chip."

When I picked it up I asked about this particular problem. "We swap out logic boards all the time, on all types of Macbook Pros." Since I got it back, the Thunderbolt port only works as a Mini Display port. It won't recognize or provide power to my thunderbolt drives. It runs hotter than ****, even with smcFanControl. The internal hard drive I replace the optical drive with won't mount. And strange things have been happening. It's never slowed down before and now, randomly, it slows to a crawl when I'm using Finder. I thought all my external drives had been indexed. I don't know. I'm going to take it back in, but I'll have to drive 130miles round trip for the 4th time in 2 weeks, and I'll have to wait their "3 to 5 days" again. My son's 2010 mbp still runs like a top AFTER smashing it up in a bike crash 2 years ago.

I was hoping Illinois had a lemon law. We do, but only for vehicles. We're just plain screwed on this. This mbp was the best computer I've ever owned (started buying them in 1981: VIC 20) and I've probably owned 30 laptops since 1992. I thought I had finally bought one that I could trust to do what was advertised. When it works, it is great. But, now I don't trust it. Or Apple. Part of me wants to sell it for parts on ebay and buy a new 15" Retina, but what signal would that send to Apple?

Plus, the programs I use 90% of each day are Final Cut 10 and Motion. I don't want to learn a new editor and work on a ****** windows laptop. Sigh.

I'm just adding my name to the list of people affected.  I started having problems last month, mainly when running Windows 7 via Bootcamp.  I reset the SMC and PRAM and it seemed more stable for a few days and then started happening again.  I did a complete re-install of Windows 7 and reset SMC and PRAM again and the problem seemed to go away for a week or so but then it started happening again this morning, however now it seems a lot worse.

In OS X it does occur as well but by default the OS seems to just use the Integrated GPU which seems ok, only if I run something more demanding using AMD HD 6750M GPU do the problems start to occur usually within a minute or so.  The problem is, as a game developer I use the discrete GPU a lot!

Not very happy and like other I'm considering moving away from Apple. Mainly because for Apple to continue to not acknowledge there is a problem when we're currently up to page 284 on this thread with 4250 replies and 443579 views shows a complete a complete disregard for their customers.

AMD Radeon HD 6750M

AMD Radeon HD 6750M

Having the same problem with a Macbook Pro 15' bought in Belgium in late 2011.

Now currently in Brazil, and don't want to spend in an expensve unreliable solution by Apple, just after 2 years of use, and probably for a problem which is associated with the hardware project, that is, their fault!

Hey, everyone having this problem, please log in and show your insatisfaction! Add your problem to the numbers, so that they do something for the benefit and right of the customers.

The message you'll send to Apple is that customers are ok with paying a premium for disposable "pro" laptops that are designed to fail within 3 years.  And then go on and purchase another thinking that it's perfectly acceptable.

I won't deny that the MBP's were at one point in time quality products, but reality is far different today.

I guess your options are to either spend a fortune and get another unreliable Apple laptop, or to spend less and get a Windows laptop.

You've been supplied a duff logic board by the sound of it - what are the idle temperatures on the CPU and GPU?

As you have yet another 160 mile round trip I would be tempted to call the store and ask them if it's ok to ship to them, and may also be a good idea to email Tim cook about it.

What the users really need isn't a campaign as mentioned earlier - think a MBP 2011 celeb with a huge twitter following who has a broken GPU will get the snowball rolling!

Seem as of today I need to add my name to the list. This morning, had some graphical glitches, then very soon after, computer freezes and turns off. Now doesn't turn on, graphics card distorts the startup screen and then descends into blue and does nothing. Cannot get to single user mode. Cannot get into recovery mode.

Funnily enough this early 2011 15" was an upgrade from my 2008 15" pro, which was victim to the old NVidia manufacturing defects. I guess Apple doesn't want us to have discrete graphics....

I managed to temporarily start it up. I took out the hard drive (couldn't use target disk mode), deleted the AMD/ATI drivers using another computer. Put the hard disk back, started up ok. Graphics problems everywhere, and very unstable.

Then installed gfxCardStatus, but its stuck on discrete. There is a dependency on "External display", even though nothing is plugged in. Any thoughts?

Am using Ubuntu in a borrowed laptop, while I decide what to do in this case, and it feels good to be back to Linux, you just apt-get install and that's it, at least most of the times!

What are our quality options apart from Apple laptops? Any suggestions?

Add me as an affected user. I tried calling local repair shops and none of them are willing to do resoldering work on the logic board. Apple phone support was useless (I'm not paying $19 for a hardware issue that obvious can't be fixed over the phone). I called my local Apple store and spoke with a real person, but she wasn't able to confirm a diagnosis or quote repair costs over the phone. She said I had to make an appointment with the Genius Bar. I did so, but the earliest slot available is April 17th (6 days from now). I really want this problem fixed asap. Not using an external monitor is a major blow to my productivity (coding, document writing).

Does anyone know if you can speak with a genius about this without an appointment? Or, is it variable store-by-store? I was really surprised that my local store was booked up for 6 straight days. That means that I basically have to wait a week for Apple to even look at my hardware! I'm quite willing to pay a couple hundred dollars for a guaranteed fix, but if all they offer is a replacement with a refurbed logic board, I'm not sure it's worth it. Won't that board fail eventually, too? If they use a logic board that was manufactured with a better method (better soldering?), then I'd be happy to go with that. But, if they told me that, they would be admitting it was an original design flaw and probably open Apple up to liability. Analogous to a guilty person committing more crimes to hide his guilt, a spiral of bad.

Thanks to everyone who's replied above, and specifically to the hard-working guys who posted the AMD driver disabling tips. At least my MBP is in a usable state.

If you need to contact Apple, you can go via Apple Care support online and go through chat.  You will be able to request an exception to the $19 fee if you are not under warranty.  You can ask if the person you are working with is a Senior Advisor, and if not, request to work with one.  However, I will warn you ahead of time that you are not likely to hear anything that others have not already posted here.

MLB replacement will run you around $500, while having them ship out your machine to the depot for repairs will  be a flat rate of $310. 

And yes, you have the same concerns that most of us have.  While we may be willing to consider paying the flat rate repair to get the machine running again, the likelihood of getting refurb parts is high, and there are enough cases posted here about the replacement MLB's failing within a short timeframe to cast considerable doubt on this as a long-term solution.

Back-up your data in case you haven't already while your machine is still in a "stable" operable state.

sidarta_buda asked:

 

What are our quality options apart from Apple laptops? Any suggestions?

I bought a built-to-order Sager NP9377... a bit more expensive, in the end, than some (not all!) MacBook Pros and I'm making an oh-so-slow migration to Windows. I'll not give up my MacBook Pro, but when it dies I don't believe that I'll be buying Apple ever again.

Clinton