Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Dear All

I have face the same problem as you guy in this topic.

My Macbook Pro 15" 2011 Early are failure on last Sunday without warning and I was purchase it in Middle 2011.

By the way, I send it to Apple Store to check the problem and they said me that it has a problem with GPU and they need to replace new logic board..... which is cost around 20,000 baht (600 USD) excluded service fee.

Unfortunately, My Apple Care Warranty 3 Year was just expire in March 2014 or 2 month ago... T_T

Now, I told technician to set it to use only one GPU on Board and wait for their result now.

Anyway, Do you have any Singapore HQ Email ? I would like to write my email to Apple to ask for support or help in this case.

Thank you.

Hi,

reporting in with the same problem (MBP early 2011).

I'm running in safe mode and and as long as the GPU is switched to integrated everything works.

I don't have AppleCare or warranty. If I take my MBP to Apple, am I really supposed to pay for the logic board replacement myself even if this is a widespread manufacturing problem? How much does it cost? Is it true that this will only fix it temporarily but the real problem persists and can return at any time in the future?

The 90 day warrant on the repair is the matter that concerns me most. After calling around trying to get quotes for a replacement logic board, I got no where. A local Apple ASAP wanted to charge me £78 just to diagnose it (refundable if I go ahead with the repair). I know what the problem is and just wanted a price so I would know what the cost would be. Apple wanted to charge £35 to talk to me over the phone. I don't have time to mess about going into Applestore to argue this out with a Genius who has no discretion. It's my work comptuer and I need it working, and reliably working.

I've contacted Ebay bga_repairs via email, had a sensible discussion with him and the machine is shipping off to him today. The GPU is being replaced with a new part, leaded solder will be used, I'm expecting/hoping he'll put a sensible amount of heat-transfer paste on both the CPU and GPU, if that looks like it was a problem.

Repair is going to cost me ~£210 once I take into account my getting insured delivery to him. Not as cheap as some people, but if I'm going to get it done, I might as well do everything I can to get it done right. Time is money after all, repeatedly trying to fix this will do my head in.

Once I have the machine returned I'll post my experience to this thread for others in the UK/Europe/further afield. I'll also post an update in a few months time.

Posting this from a MBP 2006 that was in constant use for 7.5 years plus within my family. And worked hard. Been sitting in a cupboard for the last 3 months after a drive failure. Pulled my MBP 2011 Snow Leopard drive out, dropped it into the MBP 2006, rebooted, was back up and running (albeit some what less quick) within an hour. That's the sort of reliability I've historically had with my Macs, and why many "Professional" Mac users have stayed with Apple.

A Repair Extension Program will certainly cost Apple a few million, they've got shareholders, we understand the reluctance. But the reputational damage this may cause Apple long term may be significantly greater. It's  a Premium product used by High end/Professional users. They typically have bought into the entire Apple ecosystem. They typically evangelise Apple to friends/family/co-workers. That relationship may well change if Apple aren't consistent in their policy with this sort of manufacturing issue. I bought my MacBook Pro in the  full knowledge of GPU failures in earier iMacs and MacBooks. I also knew that eventually Apple introduced repair extension programs. This made me happy to shell out on top of the range kit, rather than just getting the cheapest Mac I could or switching to Windows.

Please remember to be polite with all Apple and Dealer staff you encounter on your journey. They don't dictate policy, but they do have to stick to the party line otherwise their livelihood may be at risk. I know it will be frustrating, but remember they aren't the enemy. More like canon fodder between Apple Corp and us MBP Insurgents.

Sent mine mbp15 2011  to Apple's repair yesterday.. : it will cost me $300 bucks with 90 days warranty.

Let's see...

Your second to last paragraph sums it up completely.

I was a huge apple fan. I finally converted in 2005. I did use at school previous but always out of my price range. Since 2005 then it has always been Apple Apple Apple. Anyone asks always Apple. I could list the positives all day long. Family members Apple apple.

Bought two new computers for the studio i run at work few months ago and guess what i choose two 27" imacs to replace the mac pro's we had.

I used to have many playful arguments with a designer next door. He uses a imac at work and pc at home. pros and cons list all days. My positive reviews for apple were so high he was close to switching.

Anyway, after all this loyal free promotion. Increased sales from my views to others and choices on the companies accounts. Word has already gone around the design team at my company. I work occasionally for a modelling agency so use quite a few studios around central London. We photographers like to chat and guess what will be coming out of my mouth now. Think how scare any owners of 2011 MacBook pros will feel. Not knowing if it will stop today tomorrow or next week or maybe in a year.

For all the free publicity i have given for believing you cared about your customers to now

I sent my 2011 MBP 15" to ps3specialist on Wednesday, next day air. It was received yesterday, fixed and being shipped backed to me today! Very fast turn around

I have a mbp 15 late 2011 ati 6770..the gpu died so I sent it to a local laptop service and done a reball for 120 euros in Romania! now it is good. Previously i used my laptop for every day office things but also i played a lot of counter strike on windows 7 bootcamp (the fans were flying). I think that ruined my mac. From what I ve read,when you use a mbp in windows it stays  more hot than osx ,and it uses a lot more resources and if you play also on windows that is very hazardous for your mac!so from now i m not using it anymore on windows and i dont play anymore games and whenever i remember i switch from the discrete gpu to integrated (not to stress the 6770)!

So as an advice don't play anymore on macbook pro (it is not for playing games)!

Questions :

What do you think guys?you think that the general heat from the mobo + cpu + gpu is causing gpu failures OR using intensively just the gpu is causing itself to get broke? therefore you think that if i dont use so much the 6770 it would be better or it has nothing to do with that ?

From your experience how much can last a reballed gpu?

MacBook Pro 15' early 2011. I'm currently residing in Hong Kong and experiencing the same issue with other Mac user on this thread. By looking at the view count of this tread (50k), I'm surprised that Apple didn't offer any recall program. Anyway, I called apple customer service yesterday and arranged an appointment with Apple store tomorrow. Most of the user reported Apple will charge for 4k HKD for logic board replacement with 90 days warrant (90 days, seriously?). I will post my update once I get back from apple store.

I guess I should add my voice here for sheer numbers. I'm in Montréal.

Same issues here. Started last week in the middle of working on a musical cue for an ad agency - screen went crazy with a black bar down the centre, computer shut down, etc. Kept doing this, with the occasional respite. I was afraid I'd lose the contract because of it, and music work is not exactly something that pours from the sky.

Thankfully I found this thread and was able to circumvent it with the gfxCardStatus app long enough to get the work done. But this means I can't use my external monitor at all, and for minute audio editing tasks or sessions with huge track counts, that's really cumbersome. And from what I read here, there's no way around checking the AMD chip on startup, so this isn't a permanent solution anyway, right?

I bought the computer used exactly 1 year ago, but the previous owner had just had the logic board and screen replaced, so the unit was essentially new. So the new logic board has lasted one year.

Like many others here, I'm an Apple user since 2003, have converted the whole family to their computers, probably responsible for an additional $15k in sales for them. I also run a (very) small music business without the disposable cash to be spending thousands on repairs every year - I count on their computers to last me a good 5 years or so. Spending a couple hundred bucks on each of us to correct these problems is probably in their long term interest.

I have an appointment with the Omnipotent Sage Bar next week, but can't afford the repairs they'll say I need. So I might just wait it out and use the integrated card, and try one of these repair places if it dies completely. I'm hoping they'll have instituted an extended repair program by that point. I've e-mailed them with the feedback form, and will call CS after my appointment as well.

331 pages of these stories, wonder how long it will take.....

Guys, please remember to send your statements to APPLE FEEDBACK. It will greatly help our cause. Even if you just copy n paste your posts here and send them in.

Same thing happened for my MacBook Pro bought in Feb 2011 and then three months out of Apple Care, I had to replace the hard drive.  I'm not accustomed to Apple products failing so early.

Provide a link so its easier for everybody.

Guys, please send info on your experience to

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

It's the only way apple will hear our concerns. They don't take the time to read these threads all the time.

I just went onto the Apple feedback site.  Interesting to note that Apple does not have a selection for MBP 17" owners.  Nor do they list as a reporting issue "GPU failure".  It would appear that Apple has abandoned all of us that own a MBP 17.  Just my opinion.

Assmuning that's just a general entreaty. As I said in my post, I already e-mailed them using the feedback form. Everyone should definitely do the same.