Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Xyclade wrote:

 

A poll has started to see how many, and which serial numbers are affected the most. This poll can be found here:

 

<Edited by Host>

Haha, funny this got edited. Anywhoo, please don't use services like Twitter or Facebook to collect information. Despite what Microsoft and Apple and Google make you think there're still plenty of people who do not wish to participate in "social" services at all or only have one of the many available so you'll always lose a good part of people...

Hi my AMD Radeon HD6490M died this morning on my Mabook Pro 2011 2 GHZ Core I7. I read a lot of thread on this topic and it seem i'm not alone to have this trouble. Why Apple can't undestand than when you pay more than 3000 $ for "Pro" computer it is unacceptable that they dont offer to their customers a free solution for fix (and at least recognize) that there is a big problem with those AMD GPU. How many pages on the topics do they need ???

In reply to clintonfrombirminghamt: The reballer in Southern CA can be found here:

http://www.ps3specialist.com

Gerald Raddatz,

That's tem! Thanks so very much!

Clinton

From the pictures and text, this looks to me like this is the same person, with the lower price if you do your own disassembly/reassembly and send just the component:  http://www.ioffer.com/i/laptop-graphics-card-or-gpu-chip-reballing-repair-servi- 535101911

I hope someone, somewhere, is accumulating a track record.

Heck, Apple should  send him all the boards they pull out, to be reworked properly --  and provide those as the replacements instead of whatever it is they're putting in now that fails again so consistently.

Hello, Apple?  You might have a solution here that would make everyone happy -- farm the work out to someone who is developing a good track record fixing the problem.  Or hire the guy to set up a repair procedure in-house.

Hello, Apple?  Pass this on to your manager:

--->   Make us proud.

Just want to say that I tried the thermal paste solution and got maybe 2 months use before the problem reappeared. After trying it a second time it didn't seem to help. Soooo I decided I had nothing to lose and tried reflowing the solder by baking the motherboard (minus anything that would detach) in a 375 degree oven for 7 minutes and 30 seconds. I then bought not-the-cheapest thermal paste and reapplied. I am happy to say that 1 week later I have suffered ZERO crashes, even though I am allowing my machine to switch from integrated to discreet at will and have a second monitor attached while editing video!

And if I do crash anytime soon, I wont hesitate to reflow again!

For reference, I used this post as a guide: http://russell.heistuman.com/2010/04/27/cooking-the-books-or-baking-my-macbook-p ro-logic-board/

That's a bit silly, it never would. It cost a lot to buy my macbook to go for such a radical measure.

Best still think it is the service from Apple.

Just to add a little fuel to the fire,

I purchased a 17" MacBook Pro (Early 2011) on 4/4/2011, lovely machine BTW, but on 4/6/2014 just two days after it's 3rd anniversary It started giving me problems with the GPU matching those of other personal accounts in this forum.

I was watching a YouTube video when my two screens (built in and 2ndary via Thunderbolt/Displayport) turned gray. The computer froze and I was getting no response from any of the I/O. Forced a shutdown, and when the computer came back on, the screen had green vertical stripes on the boot screen (Initial Apple Logo) after about 5 seconds, it all went straight to gray again, no OS.

While on that gray screen, after about a minute the fans spun up and I noticed the MacBook was getting hot so I just switched it off. After a couple of forced reboots and PRAM and SMC resets, the MacBook came back up to a functioning state again.

While exploring the issue I noticed the problem comes back again when some application requests the discrete GPU (AMD 6570M) to power up. I use Photoshop and Final Cut on a daily basis so this behavior is unacceptable for this machine and the work I do with it.

Erratic problems like this make troubleshooting the problem really difficult for Authorized Service Centers when there is not an official word from Apple on this issue. I don't have an Apple Store in Puerto Rico where I can just go hang and talk to a genius, so the whole thing is way tedious to do on a regular basis.

The Facebook group has been very helpful providing 1st person recounts of experiences with Apple and methods to temporarily "fix" the problem. However, Apple needs to step up and acknowledge this faulty labor on their part.

I love my Mac and in no way I plan to switch to a Windows machine out of spite as some of the comments I have read on these threads, however I'm a bit dissapointed.

"What Would Steve Jobs Do" as the hashtag associated with the #mbpro2011 movement says, is an interesting retrospective into what could be possible, however, this is Tim Cook's Apple now, it's up to him and his team to figure out what to do...

I for one, and probably for many, would like to have our MacBooks restored to working order.

Mine has just gone down the same hole. Very unfortunate.

You can think it is silly and radical, your choice and I respect that.

Nonetheless, this technic is the only one I know to have such good results. Every people who decided to give some heat to the motherboard are using today their Macs as they always did. Even months after doing it.

So, it is pretty obvious to me : they're is a lack in the conception of the Macbook Pro we all own.

They are not "heatproof" enough, the soldering is bad and the GPU doesn't take it.

That's a shame Apple decided to replace motherboard instead of fixing them. This kind of repear is far more efficient.

I am currently using my Macbook Pro, the one that didn't start since last january. It has been repeared with my dear oven

Radical, but really efficient. And I didn't paid, and I won't do it at all, for the Apple 492 € replacement Motherboard. Too expensive.

I understand that the solution gives us apple is unfair. I am the first hurt and I'm angry with the company for it. I understand that for many would seem a good solution, but I took 3 years caring for my laptop as a son, as it was my tool. But I understand that, Take other measures to solve the problem. But I would not. Before some would pay a specialist to solve the problem.

Hey squashball.  Do you mean you are on Integrated?  Discrete is the AMD chip. If you moved all the extensions the system just gets confused, even though it may boot. I've tried it and it behaves very badly - laggy and flickery.  It also thinks the display is external. Check your system preferences to see if that's the case. I also suspect that in these circumstances, gfxcardstatus may not be doing what it says.

There may be a way around this involving clearing the .kext cache but I am yet to try it.  http://www.asyncro.com/2013/12/12/macbook-pro-discreate-graphics-card-issue-fix/

Hasgarn wrote:

 

You can think it is silly and radical, your choice and I respect that.

Nonetheless, this technic is the only one I know to have such good results. Every people who decided to give some heat to the motherboard are using today their Macs as they always did. Even months after doing it.

 

It's in fact not radical enough. It doesn't really "reflow" as 370F/190C is not "radical "enough for that.

It sure is not the only one with "such good" results, there are better ones.

What in fact happens is what people doing reballs call a "reseat", sometimes used to test.
I wrote about what causes the problem in the past, of which one of them is bad soldering.
The solder balls are not really soldered but more "glued", a "cold" solder joint.
Yes, it makes contact, reason why it works, but also reason it fails (again( after repeated mechanical stress from heating up/cooling down.

You're "radical" technique only let's them make contact again but not really (re)solders it.
Maybe you have to repeat it again a few times.
As they balls are not really soldered air can still touch the pads so they can oxidate.
Over time the pads can get oxidated to much and youre oven heating won't work anymore.

Maybe you bring it to a repair shop for reballing or gpu replacment. Which probably solves your problem.

But... If you repeated oven bakes, that might have affected the glue holding the solder pads and layers together.
You bring it to a repair shop, probably not telling them you did a few oven bakes (or heatgun)...
They put the pcb on a controlled (which you're oven bake not really was) rework machine, lift the chip.
What can happen is the pad layer came losse, not touching the pcb anymore as the glue got bad, or pads come off when lifting chip or cleaning pads.
Of course you blame the repair shop for it, a problem you in fact created yourself.

Mostly it's not a problem but it happens. Especially when heatguns where used, those are the worst.

My thoughts on it, only telling what can happen.

Up to the owner if to oven bake it or not, taking the risk of destroying it.

Where people like us fix the problem probably permanent and much cheaper

The link for Macbook reballing http://www.ps3specialist.com/macbook-pro-gpu-reballing-repair-service/

I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

<Edited by Host>

You are right man , how can people risk a $500 to $1000 motherboard and put it in an oven, even if it works how long its going to last , a day ? a week? couple weeks ? then what ? put it in the oven again ?!! and how many times they will do that before it totally deforms and become unusable . Bottom line , Reflow even if it is done right using the right machine and the right thermal profile is only a temporary fix , the only long term repair is reballing because it is the only way to expose the board under the chip , fix the dead soldering pads, and replace the old cracked solder with a new solder so the motherboard will be like a new one again. I attached couple pictures to show why reflow doesn't work, these pictures show how dirty under the chip could be and the guy who suggested  backing the board in an oven can tell us how that will clean that and fix the problem.

<Link Edited By Host>