Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Give them feedback on this issue:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Point to this thread.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease!

I'm not saying I'm out of trouble, but I went through the hassle of returning my almost dead MBP 2011 to the Apple Store here in Geneva. They checked everything and the only test which raised suspicion was my RAM. They removed it and put it back, and all of a sudden, the nasty machine came back to live. I do believe now in reincarnation. Nevertheless, I thinlk that Apple should really aknowledge the possibility of defective motherboards.

If Apple did it for you, it MUST be done all over the world with a recall over all MacbookPro with this AMD GPU.

Please post the documents of the replacement!

Thank you!

ps3specialist wrote:

 

when you charge people $270 for a repair that will last six month , that simply means $540 is what equivelant to my one year warranty repair,

I am a scientist not a technician

 

Or an accountant.

My previous post was delleted... Apple said that "contained a non-constructive rant or complaint".

After year being a Apple fan, I need to admit that something is really wrong after Steve Jobs left us.

I'll write again, maybe it passes the censorship.

I'm anothe insatisfid consumer, with the same well known GPU failure problem here.

This machine is my main work tool!

I think that soon a lot of other will have the same problem.

It's time for a Recall. That's my point of view.

I have been experiencing the same problems in the last months.

I could not find any solution, even with the Apple support. Follow some images showing the problem.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mqtnkqrvsutuxj7/2014-02-23%2011.58.28.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mfsedj7wxk2guc1/2014-02-28%2012.26.16.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/azjfxepnrz43xzi/2014-02-27%2016.16.03.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/w3itia7stel3u0y/2014-03-19%2013.13.58.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/86va0cmpo5jx07x/2014-04-29%2001.36.58.jpg

It's totally frustating. I had an Acer and it worked like a charm for 6 years. I bought this MacBook  Pro 2 years ago and now it presents this problem that makes use almost impossible. The notebook often crashs and requires a forced reboot. Then, you need to have luck to get it to start without any crash.

What does Apple say on that? Is this just a widespread tide of bad luck around the globe?

Dont post comparing our MBP to any other laptops. ps3specialist will lecture you about it

Anyway this problem really makes me pull my hair everytime my laptop crash! This problem really needs to be fix by Apple.

No, This is not why I came to this post, I don't have time for lictures, I thought people are here looking for answers and real help to resolve their issues and save their investments , clearly that is not the case , I found that they are here to just share their troubles and cry together, so I will just give up. Good luck everybody.

Unfortunately your efforts to help resolve our issues are overshadowed by your stubborn insistence that the problems are not a manufacturing shortcoming.  Yet, at the same time, you carefully detail the causes of the issue which are....  manufacturing issues. If it's lead-free solder that's the culprit then the company is guilty of making a product that is not fit for purpose.

PS.  MIne has finally given up the ghost.  Just vertical lines immediately on startup.  I can't even see how bypassing the extensions would help here, though I'll give it a try.

Hi all,

I have posted in this thread previously and now am giving an update.

fortunately for me I live in Shenzhen, China. After limping through using my MBP 15" early 2011, by just forcing a restart and then hitting the start button over and over untill it loaded up, it finally gave up and just wouldn't start.

So, I took it to the local electronics market and placed it into the computer hospital (repair shop). They diagnosed the problem immediately as GPU issue (stated it was a well know issue/flaw). Replaced the GPU and had it working again within three days all for 600 RMB (US$97). this repair has come with a 3 month warranty and I specifically asked about the type of solder they used and whether they thought the problem would re-occur.

They said that the MBP model is notorious for heating up when under load, such as doing my video editing and playing video games, and that while they hoped this repair would be the fix I was looking for it depended greatly on what I was using the computer for. In other words it was likely to happen again if I continued to work that GPU and get the computer really hot.

On of the first things I did was play a computer game - something I have not done for over a year now, and yes indeed it got really hot after only a few minutes of play. It has not showed any of the screen issues yet, and I am about to do a load of video editing later this week. The video editing was the reason I first purchased this Apple MBP, as it was recommended for that use.

Now I am not saying anything here other than reporting how my MBP was fixed and that is it now working well.

The repair shop I took it to, never suggested replacing the logic board, and it did not cost over US$300, so I am pleased at this point. I do expect it to fail again, I only hope that if it is going to fail it fails within the next three months.

Sounds promising, Coorabin.

They said that the MBP model is notorious for heating up when under load, such as doing my video editing and playing video games, and that while they hoped this repair would be the fix I was looking for it depended greatly on what I was using the computer for. In other words it was likely to happen again if I continued to work that GPU and get the computer really hot.

So, not fit for purpose. A serious design shortcoming.  Any disagreement.  Anyone?

I had such a AA"S"P, too - cause the RAM was the only NON-Apple thing they found...after 3 days! At home I ran Cinebench (google it..) with just one RAM and it crashed with both individual and the logs told me "GPU hang" and that same AASP told me, I cannot understand those logs, it is a secret language, even he cannot tell me what it means, but obviously both my Corsair RAM broke at exactly the same time. Well...I changed the AASP and the next one told me it was definately the GPU.

So good luck with your "RAM". It is just the time it doesn't happen always, but it will be getting worse!

DMC440 wrote:

 

Sounds promising, Coorabin.

They said that the MBP model is notorious for heating up when under load, such as doing my video editing and playing video games, and that while they hoped this repair would be the fix I was looking for it depended greatly on what I was using the computer for. In other words it was likely to happen again if I continued to work that GPU and get the computer really hot.

 

So, not fit for purpose. A serious design shortcoming.  Any disagreement.  Anyone?

I really still don't understand why laptops, be it pc or mac, are sold/bought for video editing (or gaming).

It's asking for trouble.

A laptop/macbook will, even if they seem to have same cpu/gpu/whatever, allways be slower as it are trimmed for mobility components. This means lower power = slower working.

Yet, they still get hotter under load and fail more often then their desktop versions.

Had a customer this week looking around for a video editing system.

He was asking around about laptops/macs for it too when shopping.

And was told/advised they are fit for the job.

He prefers to buy from me as I serviced his compurters allready before, but knows I don't like to sell laptops..

Told him nope, I won't sell you a portable, pc or macbook, for video edting.

Also showed him this thread... his mind was made up again pretty soon....

Now he will get a pretty high-spec desktop which he can expand further later if needed.

D3us wrote:

 

I really still don't understand why laptops, be it pc or mac, are sold/bought for video editing (or gaming).  It's asking for trouble.

I couldn't agree more. Yet they are.  I work in television production and many of my clients do exactly that.  And Apple aren't in a hurry to tell them they shouldn't.  So, while they are selling machines that are claimed to be capable, we should expect them to be up to it.  Otherwise there should be caveats on their use.

Having said that, many of those clients have been cutting video quite happily on older machines without any hardware issues.  It's this generation that is particularly prone to problems.