Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

That we are getting calls from Apple after reporting to Tim Cook's email address is a good sign that they are collecting information. I am hopeful Apple will devote enough resources to conduct a systematic investigation, which might result in an official solution of some kind.

Well I managed to revive mine by the baking method, 195DegC for 8 minutes in the oven.

I strongly suggest those people who've had their logic board replaced for whatever reason is to give the GPU a good stress test and see if you can get it to fail within the 90 day warranty.

I found this online using this for stress testing GPU's  http://www.geeks3d.com/20140304/gputest-0-7-0-opengl-benchmark-win-linux-osx-new -fp64-opengl-4-test-and-online-gpu-database/#download    

I'm going to give mine a workout for at least 24 hours running this to see if it's fully revsolved.  so far things are promising, but time will tell.

Regards,

Stephen

Steve Jobs once referred to BMW when comparing Apple and market share

But I ask you this....

Would you buy a BMW and pay a premium just because it looks good if it was going to fail within 3 years, or get a Hyundai and pocket the difference & drive it around for 20 years until dead?

No wonder so many people are opting for the Hyundais of the computer world as price and name are not a reflection of quality anymore

I enjoy using Apple Software but I definitely don't have enough cash to replace my computer with another MacBook Pro if it's also going to fail so quickly.

******The only way a computer should leave you is if it fails after several years to keep up with the advances in technology, not because of faulty parts or workmanship ship******

For the record, this was the final straw for me. I've decided to take the hackintosh route from here. It's about time I got some of this value back from apple! My build:

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-X79-UP4

Processor - intel core i7 6 core 3.4 Ghz

Cooler - Corsair Hydro Series H60 High Performance

Graphics - GeForce GTX 760 2gb

Memory - 32g DDR3

SSD - 250g

HDD - 1Tb

Psu - Corsair Professional Series AX 760 Watt ATX/EPS

Case - Corsair 600T Graphite

Wifi - TP-Link TL-WDN4800 450Mbps

And the cost?

£1500. Similar to a MacBook Pro.

If any parts fail, I can replace them under their individual manufacturers warranty. Even though this will be running osx, it's very unlikely that apple will ever see another penny from me!

I too emailed tim cook. Response two days later. And  laptop with logic board, left and right fan, and 8gig of ram all replaced by apple.

I had been fighting apple to get my stuff fixed since december! I had already replaced the logic board in august.

They are acknowledging the problem and gathering information.  I encourage you to keep pushing.

KarthikRao : Logic board fail in less than two years - In the Europe that would be covered, See

http://www.apple.com/uk/legal/statutory-warranty/

If your not in the EU or Aus check your local consumer law.  Any maker should cover a major product fail such as this within 3 years of purchase what ever the warenty status.

Hello Gannett,

Thank you for taking time and providing the information. I appreciate your help

I am currently in UK on a Business visit. I purchased the MACBOOK in USA..

So, I dont think the consumer law will protect me here ... Does it ?  Can I still claim ?

I am stuck in between now. USA repairs are cheap ($310). UK repair quote at apple store was £458. - more than twice the price to repair in USA.

No I'm afraid it's only when bought in the uk gives you the 6 years for defective goods outside of AppleCare.

However if you search for "BGA-repairs" on eBay they are in the uk and will replace your GPU with a new chip freshly lead soldered and thermal paste applied the proper way for these 2011 models for about £170 with about a week turnaround. Six months warranty too.

GavMackem,

That sounds very interesting. I just checked their page on eBay. I have sent an email to them asking for quote and few other questions. However, the price looks right at £170.

Will consider it sometime next week

But would that be a permanent fix to this issue ? Or can the GPU issue re-occur ?

I also learnt that AMD and ATI are the same company .

Thank you, Once again.

They will get back to you on Monday morning. In my opinion, formed by what I've seen stripping these 2011 models down and speaking to apple engineers off the record the option of just replacing the GPU with a fresh part with leaded solder seems to be by far the best fix.  That firm also use artic silver thermal paste applied liberally instead of the two big lumps of paste the engineers are instructed to do and polish the heatsink plate for a closer bond between them. Temperatures on idle typically drop 10c on the GPU/CPU when the paste is done right, in my case I got nearly 20c which was a preventative measure.

Off the record a little fruity dicky bird may have told that the swapped logic boards are sometimes fitted complete with the heatsink attached, no fresh thermal paste, do not have sufficient testing and hence fail again.  There has been a big spike in the number of failures, even I with a relatively small sample size of 2011 clients I have sent off 6-9 for reflows  and even baked two logic boards successfully in the oven for clients who were broke and desperate.

I have referred clients onto that company, and if my late 2011 AMD 6770 goes bandy as it no doubt will one day within the next year or two I will be shipping it to them to get what I define a proper, sensible, well thought out long term fix for these 2011 models making them last for years to come. Hopefully Apple will soon think so too, even if a repair program is announced its plainly stupid to carry on this policy to instruct engineers to over apply thermal paste and not polish the heatsink for these MacBook Pro models which run hotter than any other on this chassis from 08-12.  For a company I have always thought as one of the smartest this issue with these 2011 models has certainly had having second thoughts!

And if they do announce a repair program like with the nvidia issue years ago it's very likely that Apple will reimburse your costs of a new GPU!

Mine failed a few days ago. I went ahead and bought a DigitalStorm Javelin. I will do what I can for my macbook, but at this point I may stick with PC's. They are cheaper and easier to replace...

After booting and running fine using the Integrated Graphics yesterday, my MBP now insists on booting up with the Discrete Graphics card today. I have removed all ATI* and AMD* directories under /System/Library/Extensions and it still somehow uses the AMD Radeon HD 6750M GPU during and after boot. I cannot switch to Integrated Only with gfxCardStatus and the error is that it thinks I have an external display connected. I'm not using an external display, but the Displays preference panel also shows that I'm connected to a generic external display. Does anyone have any ideas/suggestions? Screwing around with the kext files doesn't seem to make any difference anymore for my MBP.

GavMackem wrote:

 

That firm also use artic silver thermal paste applied liberally instead of the two big lumps of paste the engineers are instructed to do and polish the heatsink plate for a closer bond between them.

Stopped using AS5 as it dries out faster then others after applying it.

Prefer Ceramique 2 now, last much longer, as most silicon based.

Have used many different ones, all good quality, didn't really noticed much difference.

Someimtes AS wins, sometimes another one, but only marginal, 1-2c, consider them all to be good.

For the record, that's my experience (and testing), not saying using AS is wrong.

It does a very good job. (The Ceramique 2 is from Arctic Silver too)

As said, in testing not much difference in which case I prefer one not drying out that fast.

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ckleinastro wrote:

 

That we are getting calls from Apple after reporting to Tim Cook's email address is a good sign that they are collecting information. I am hopeful Apple will devote enough resources to conduct a systematic investigation, which might result in an official solution of some kind.

I really hate to burst your bubble my friend. Apple has you drinking the KoolAid! You can go back to very early in the thread and read of people getting excited because after an email to Cook they received a call from his office. Nothing has happened. I can tell you what they are going to tell you on Tuesday. They have already done this to dozens of people and it's hundreds of pages later. Sorry.