Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

As i said before i have exactly the same problem as everyone. I have been to the apple store in Amsterdam and they said i need to replace my Logic board. Since my laptop is 2.5 years old have no warranty anymore.

It will cost around the 500 euro. Which im not gonna pay. I heart about "reball'  Is it just detach and attach the Gfxcard? I am actually looking for a complay whos doing that in Holland but coudn't find one so far.

Thats quite interesting on the Sale of Goods Act, I may give it a go....

I just reflowed mine myself (Macbook Early 2011 17"), and I have to say it wasn't too hard actually. I also applied new thermal paste (the old cooling paste application was horrible, as I expected). It took me about 1 hour in total and really, the disassembly of the macbook is really simple compared to other laptops I've tried (this was my first try at it).

I followed the instructions on iFixit for the Macbook Early 2011 15" logic board removal (be careful with the connectors!).

After removal I cleansed the GPU and CPU with ArctiClean I had at home.

I then made a shield of 6 layers of aluminium foil and made a hole about the size of the GPU.
I also had some lead that melts at 180 degrees celsius and put a piece of it next to the GPU hole on the shield (for temperature measurement). I started the heatgun pretty far away from the GPU, and then I switched between heating the GPU directly to pointing it at the lead, about every 3 seconds. When the lead just started melting I stopped and let the logic board cool down for a bit. After, I reapplied thermal paste (Arctic Silver 5) and assembled the computer.

It works now!, for how long I don't know but the temperatures are much lower now, compared to before, so I'm hoping it will last for a while!

I'm starting to think it mainly comes down to what mood the Apple Store manager is in, how many notes are on your account from Exec Relations, how much you flirt with the Genius etc... Mine was replaced for free at the Regent Street store a few weeks back even though I'm 13 months out of my years warranty, guess I got 'em in a good mood.

I did mention the Sale of Goods Act several times but so have others and been knocked back, compliance with law isn't an optional thing, Apple. It's incredibly unfair to those that get left with £2,000 paperweights, and very bad for Apple when I come to replace this MBP.

Arn't you afraid your logic board still has a defect?

That seems pretty ridiculous. If you install gfxCardStatus and force it to use the discrete card only do things also mess up?

I also just got my computer back from the $310 flat-rate repair. I just installed and have been running Unigine Heaven and it seems to run fine, albeit laggy (I am running some fluid dynamics simulations in the background, which explains the lag.) Please post any updates here about what you try and if you're able to recreate the same failure.

One of my friends in computational engineering recommended this benchmark suite as it is "state-of-the-art": https://github.com/vetter/shoc/wiki

I was also recommended FurMark by a physicist: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/284472-gpu-test-04-tessmark-furmark-gimar k-good-opengl-bench/

I just realized that Unigine Heaven is meant for 10.8 and up.  I am still running 10.7, so that may be the issue.  I'll try running other programs when I get the chance.

And yes, I am using GFX to force it to discrete for testing.  I do notice that my display has a slight bluish tint to it when I switch to discrete from integrated.

@paigoomein fyi:

D3us wrote:

 

That was me I think, here:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/24473343#24473343

 

Quote:

"For CPU  I use prime 95, making sure it uses all cores. Even start 4-8 sessions for quad or octa core.

Mac version:

ftp://mersenne.org/gimps/p95v277.MacOSX.zip

 

For gpu stress testing you could use this maybe:

http://unigine.com/products/heaven/

And yes, I run both, stressing out CPU AND GPU  to the max together !!!

And use a program to read out temps when doing this.

The computers I build have no problem with this.

Can run them for 24, even 36 hours long, without any problem.

 

 

Laptops however, when getting smaller and smaller wil get more and more problems.

Buying a macbook, or other laptop, for  video editing is not really a good choice.

But if they are sold as beeing suited for that job, it's manufacturer's/seller's responsability to make sure it can survive the task.."

 

Another one is http://www.geeks3d.com/20130712/gputest-0-5-0-cross-platform-opengl-benchmark-li nux-mesa-gallium3d-glibc-windows-macosx/

 

Don't think furmark is ported to mac osx, as that is a great one to.

Use that on pc together with prime 95.

Don't forget to run prime on all cores.

Like on quad cores, I start 4 sessions of it assigning every session to anoher core to make sure the cpu is really stressed out to the max.

Hi Apple,

is there a permanent fix for this?

Model Name:     MacBook Pro

Model Identifier:     MacBookPro8,2

Processor Name:     Intel Core i7

Processor Speed:     2.2 GHz

Serial Number (system):     C02******F8X

Country or Region: 　Singapore

Details: Display Distortion, Intermittent hanging, Stucked while booting.

<Edited by Host>

Even you change the logic board, it will work good for a year and then have the same problems again. My computer stopped working due to the same problem while on the 1-year warranty. They had to change 5 logic boards until they found one that was working. Now, 1 year later, it's doing it again. The GPU is defective from when it's produced.

I had to change 5 logic boards to get one working. At the Apple store.

They have to make the board with another GPU and recall all computers affected or else I am not spending more money buying logic boards that will break again after a year. I don't have warranty now.

I would rather buy a Windows computer. It's obviously a hardware defect Apple has to address.

We hope they will listen, but don't put big hope on this.

Yes to all of us, the same issue will come back anytime. Do not use it as your main computer, to be safe.

And how many 3000-euro computers should we buy then?

I don't know what is keeping Apple from doing a repair program or a recall, but I do know that information they're keeping secret is what gives them power.

I asked the same question to the Genius: "what if I experience the same GPU issue on the 91st day?", he said "then you're out of warranty". I hope they'll do the right thing if I find myself in that very situation.

Like I said, I'm putting aside all the experiences of all the people in the thread by going ahead and paying Apple to exchange my logic board, which means I'm placing an inordinate amount of confidence in a company which by every account is going to let me down in the hopes that it doesn't.

I trust they don't throw me under the bus and that my confidence is rewarded either by a lasting fix, or the admission that the MBP 2011 suffers from a GPU issue.