Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

It's an interesting situation as Apple could have opted to provide free repairs for this situation, especially since some Apple Genius' have already indicated that if Apple has a replacement program, that those who did pay for the repairs would be reimbursed/refunded.  So in the end, Apple would have spent the same amount of money, but would have perhaps gained some additional loyal customers.  Instead, Apple is actively choosing to stonewall on this issue and wipe their hands clean of a design/manufacturing mistake.

Think about it Apple.  What is this truly costing you in terms of your reputation as a company?  Maybe it would make more sense to spend a little less to market that your products "just work" and put that money towards making your products "actually work".

Add me into the list as well!

This is very sad!

Macbook pro 2011 version definitely has a design flaw and apple is not ready to listen to all of us.

I bought the 2011 MBP in 2012 Sept. And it has failed in LESS THAN TWO YEARS.

APPLE, ARE YOU LISTENING ? WE NEED YOUR HELP.

I have the AMD 6750M GPU failing in my macbook and I know I am not alone. We need you to give an ear to our problem.

We have paid premium price to expect a premium product. This is not what we deserve when we believe in you.

APPLE, my business is impacted, my clients are impacted, my time and money is getting wasted.

If Apple doesnt help me here, I am definitely boycotting all APPLE stuff.

Makes me sad that I have been a dedicated apple fan since many many years.

I still have faint hopes from apple. I hope they hear me.

-Unhappy customer.

Karthik Rao

<Edited by Host>

Hi everyone,

I emailed CEO Tim Cook last night and got a phone call from Corporate Executive Relations this afternoon. He said that Apple wants to collect more information about the problem and escalate it to engineering for further investigation. I provided him a detailed description of how my MBP boots into a graphics glitch and then freezes before the login screen. I also described the ATIRadeonX2000.kext and ATIRadeonX2000GLDriver.bundle disabling workaround, and linked him to this discussion thread and the summary of the workaround posted to FaceBook.

From this interaction I think it's clear that Apple is taking notice and investigating. I am willing to give them a couple of weeks to a month to assess the problem and deploy a solution. I know that this thread started back in Feb 2013, but maybe they are now getting a crtical mass of reported problems.

The Corporate Executive Relations associate I spoke with told me he would try to give me an update on Tuesday. I will report back to this thread with any new information about my case. I still have an appointment with my local Genius Bar for Thursday.

I mentioned that I would welcome and be satisfied with a software workaround that fully disabled the discrete graphics card and still enabled my MBP to drive an external monitor using the integrated graphics. I know I paid for the discrete card, too, but this is the most imporant feature for me right now. I don't want to hold Apple fully liable for hardware that breaks out of warranty, but it would be cool if they could issue an official software workaround (cheaper for them, easier for us to use), and offer logic board replacements (at a cost to those of us out of warranty) if users really need their discrete graphics option back.

I can understand not holding Apple liable if this was an isolated incident, but if you are seeing the same symptoms across a large population of machines that were manufacturered in the same year with the same components, then absolutely Apple should be responsible for making things right.  Take a page from the auto industry and see that companies are willing to take a financial hit to do the right thing.

Let's say that it's due to a faulty component that Apple purchased--in this case, the GPU from AMD.  Apple has every right to pursue legal action (heck Apple sues for everything else anyway) with AMD to have this situation rectified and to make things right for the customer.  We purchased the laptop from Apple, not from all the different vendors who provided parts for the machine.

It's also interesting to see that Apple is making their machines more and more non-upgradeable, and instead configurable as build-to-order 

I just wanted to give an update on my situation.

Got my laptop back today. 2011 mbp 15" with the amd graphics. I replaced the logic board back in August and it needed another one in December (past service warranty and Apple care) I also replaced the RAM twice.

I fought long and hard to get my laptop issues fixed with Apple. Let me tell you, it paid off. My logic board, RAM, and both left and right fan were replaced courtesy of Apple.

I encourage those of you with an issue to keep pushing with the customer service. Keep asking for a higher person. If that doesnt work, email (like I did), very kindly stating your situation. I emailed the head honcho himself and received a phone call two days later.

If enough people push and try and email, they will see that this is a true and definite problem.

I wish you all luck, and hopefully my laptop stays intact.

That's a good question. I own a design studio. It's known that Adobe software runs slightly better in OSX.

So, a MBP could be a good choice for me. But honestly, my heart tells me not to buy a new one.

I'm currently looking at Avell. It's a brazilian manufacturer that sells high performance laptops, and it's currently offering a 3 year warranty for it's models (no extra fees). Quite like Sager.

Of course, if Apple show that they still care about their customers, I can end up reconsidering things. But now, I do not feel safe buying a MBP.

I have just written a mail to Tim Cook seeking his help in finding a resolution to this issue.

I have also point him out to the forum posts.

I will wait for the reply. I really hope Apple is hearing.

My Early 2011 2.2 Macbook Pro went down today. I got to the gray screen where it hamgs then a minute later the fans start spinning up. I tested the hard drive separately and its fine. The ram is good. I tried Firewire target mode and Single User startup to check the disk and it was fine. The ONLY way to turn the machine on is using Safe boot mode which points to the logic board as the culprit. I also tried the factory install disk and Disk Warrior but neither could get by the gray screen. This is bad.

I'm wondering if the GPU is ok since I can see the screen in Safe boot. Any ideas?

I can't believe Apple hasn't responded yet. I called in and they said they had no reports of any such problem with 2011 macbook pros! I guess they really don't read the thousands of posts on this website.

I got 3 years out of the AMD GPU, which is what it was warrantied for. If there is an easy and economical replacement service offered by Apple ($200, which is about 10% of original purchase cost), then I am happy to pay to have this fixed, even if it's a widespread design/manufacturing flaw to blame. The degredation of the discrete graphics hw could be considered normal wear and tear. My concern now is that Apple aknowledges and investigates the problem and provides us with means for a fix. I want my next laptop purchase to be a Mac (hopefully an updated rMBP to be announced at WWDC).

Ken, check out this post: https://www.facebook.com/notes/2011-macbook-pro-and-discrete-graphics-card-issue /how-to-force-mbp2011-to-boot/541455712634552

Also reproduced below:

Press: [Power ⎋] button, then immediately hold down [CMD ⌘] + [S] while booting.

2) CHECK AND REPAIR THE BOOT VOLUME

Type:   fsck -fy

3) MOUNT THE BOOT VOLUME (ENABLE READ/WRITE)

Type: mount -uw /

4) CREATE A DIRECTORY TO MOVE DISABLED .KEXT FILES TO

Type: mkdir /DisabledExtensions

5) CHANGE YOUR WORKING DIRECTORY

Type: cd /System/Library/Extensions

6) MOVE ALL ATI/AMD EXTENSIONS TO THE DIRECTORY WE CREATED

** Depending on your model, you may have either ATI or AMD .kext files.**

Type: mv ATI* /DisabledExtensions OR

Type: mv AMD* /DisabledExtensions

7) UPDATE TIMESTAMPS TO REBUILD KEXT CACHE

Type: touch /System/Library/Extensions

8) EXIT "SINGLE USER MODE"

Type: reboot  OR

Type: shutdown -h now

I’ve found that removing only the files named ATIRadeonX2000.kext and ATDRadeonX2000GLDriver.bundle works for my system. My discrete card is an AMD 6750 HD, which may dictate which specific extensions files need disabling.

Very disappointed! My mid 2012 macbook pro just failed, and the warranty was off ! I thought Apple product would last longer with its premium price and premium build quality!

Hello,

Just spent 2 useless days explaining them the issue & negotiating with them.They have this standard answer "There is no quality program,hence you have pay for the repair".I asked them If they can give me 2 Year Warranty on the new logic board,I am ready to pay?.He said "I have to talk to my Engineering Deptt,but the best I can offer is a 10 % Discount on the total repair".

In all the discussion there was point he continously made, Not enough cases so that Apple(China & Cuppertino) can take notice,I showed him the forum posts but he was least interested in reading them.

I would request all the forum members who are facing this widespread issue kindly share their location & pound the local Apple Store(Genuis Bar) together with adjacent Genuis Bar Registrations! Going in a group will intensify the level at which problem is addressed & they might themselves contact their Customer Relation Manager/Country Head to take action.

My Location :-Shanghai(Any store i.e Pudong or East Nanjing)

Hope I get more responses & people start to collaborate & address the issue jointly for some results.

Cheers!

Early 2011 MBP just died on me last week. Motherboard needs replacing.. Genius at the Apple store knew the fix before I was even done describing the problem.... yeah pretty widespread issue.....I'm disapointed with Apple. Your old products were built to last. My GF's 2006 MBP is still kicking. My 2007 Dell laptop is even still working fine after 7 years. When you buy a product you expect it to last but I guess this is becoming a trend with Apple. First the lock screen button on my iPhone and now this!

I have to a macbook pro 15 "late 2011 and now can not even boot up I want to reinstall it using a flash drive or DVD instead of blue screen, I see in many forums that experienced particularly Macbook pro 2011, how apple liability due to damage to this particular product mass 2011 macbook pro output

monstruowong wrote:

 

My first graphic card failure happened early november last year. Luckily, the machine is covered by applecare.

Prior to that, there were some problems as well. SD card slot not working, Matt screen was badly tinted.

 

Applecare had it all fixed, replace logic board along with new screen.

 

 

bShortly after, barely 2 months later, same discrete graphics failure. Sent in for applecare and logic board was replaced.

 

As of today, another sight of failure: glitched screen, hang when switching to discrete card. This is the 3rd time it failed. On top of that, complete hard disk failure (**** fortune to retrieve my data) + battery service warning. 

 

All the replacement boards lasted only between 2~4 mths. It's really alerting. I'm going to call applecare and speak to someone senior about my problem.

Update:

Called Applecare the first thing in the morning and explained the problems. They offered me a new replacement instead of sending for applecare since it had few major repairs.

Of course, they told me they usually don't offer this option to customers. They required to investigage the case first arriving to this decision.

Glad to have bought Applecare.

Also, I emailed Tim Cook to address the issue with him. Apple corporate executive personnel called me to find out more the matter. Hopefully, Apple will start paying attention to this matter.