Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

After reading tons of the comments here, it seems to me the fixing success rate isn't very high, or long lasting. I'm now thinking that it might be better to invest the 600€ on a PC than on apple gamble game. Anyone has any recommendations?

Hi, Dennis. I have just come back from apple support center.

The genius said they could not replace my logic board for free as they did for MacBook 2010 though it was a common problem. A logic board replacement costs 39000jpy (385usd) officially. To be honest, I was a little surprised to hear the price because it is comparatively cheap all over the world.

Then I went to Akihabara and found a repair center there. They are obviously more familiar with the problem than the genius and suggested me to do a heat repair namely reball. It costs 17000jpy (170usd). Since they cannot guarantee 100% success, they need 4000jpy if it failed.

I am now hesitating. To reball or replace, either has the risk to die again in the near future. However I am a regular user of abode photoshop, indesign and illustrator. I am annoyed with it and want to get rid of it.

Anyway, I hope my experience will be helpful to you and I will keep you updated if I make any decisions or find any new information. Good luck!

I understand that using the integrated chip is not the most elegant solution but I don't get your point of "this is limited to emails".

Removing the drivers will turn off any hardware acceleration also of the Intel HD 3000 GPU which means that the UI will become really slow and sluggish. I personnally couldn't even emails without the drivers because in inboxes with many hundred K emails Mail.app is darn inefficient and cause many redraws per second which can actually be seen and cause a very poor interactive response. YMMV of course.

A huge amount of MBP were sold in 2011 without any discrete video chp (this is the case for 100% of the MBP 13in).

I personnaly use my MBP 15 with integrated chip forced with the gfx utility and I *never* encountered any problem at all with my applications (email, safari, vlc, parallels desktop, etc).

You're actually talking about something completely different. Removing the GPU drivers to force use of the HD 3000 is a very different thing to not having or disabling the discrete GPU via gfxCardStatus.

Retaining Existing Customers is Cheaper Than Acquiring New Ones.

Monster beats, how much? 3.5 billion lol

Exsisting customers how much?

we do more for you than advertising. From me personally, my ex got a macbook pro. My grandma, my work machine, at least 3 friends. All from my advice. They listened.

Now when its time they will listen again. All it takes is saying. Dont buy apple. If you have a problem caused from their mistake they ignore you and leave you with a worthless machine. £2000 would you trust it?

That is 6 sales lost from one loyal customer. Plus more damage from word of mouth. The design team at my work are all aware now. Word is getting around. Do you have any idea how negative this will play in the long run?

My dead mac is sitting on my shelf. A reminder of customer service from apple.

Good luck.

Well said - you have a good point here! I'm pretty much in the same boat, but I had to buy me a new one, and it really pis.... me off.

I have been a MacUser for 20 years now - and 6 PowerBook/MacBook Pro (Top Models) hmm - that is a pretty sum of money..... And for the first time I looking over the fence - maybe next time..

JJ

Thank you very much for the info.

39000yen is too expensive for the repair I think. The reballing seems to be the better solution and also cheaper.

On the other hand I can't imagine that Apple will ignore this problem. I think it's just a matter of time until Apple will take responsibility and offer the repair for free. If they do, they might refund the repair you are doing now (for example they did with 2011 imac gpu failure http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5167)

Same issue here screen goes blank randomely but computer stays on. Hooked up external monitor and that works.

Late 2011 MBP 2.5 Ghz Intel core i7

Add me to this ever growing list of Macbook Pro 15" 2011 Discrete Graphics card problems, I can occasionally get on the net with it before it completely gives up the ghost and displays a variety of different screens, none of them useful! Cannot use Photoshop/Illustrator/Corel Painter at all which is an issue as I am a digital illustrator. Managed to borrow a friends little dinky one to do some urgent work, but not ideal and I am waiting for Apple to wake up to this problem.

My MBP 2011 is in repairs for the second time due to this now infamous problems. But what happens next is really weird and I could use people's opinions...

Quick summary:
- GPU started failing around March/April 2014, was failing 4 or 5 times a day

- Brought it to warranty 1 day before Apple Care expired
- They changed the mother board

- "New" replaced  board in much worse condtion, fails after only a couple minutes.

- Apple Care now expired, but repair is still under 90 days warranty.

- Bring computer back to Genis Bar
- They say they're gonna change the board again but thi time to a stress test for several hours before giving it back to me

They finally called this morning and what they told me sounds really weird and improbable :
They said that the problem comes from my second HDD (I have installed an optibay), and that the problem disappears when they unplug it. I said "but this is the famous GPU problem, it's been diagnosed this way, how could the HDD have any effect on it?". They said they don't know but apparently it work when they just unplug my HDD. (a Momentus XT 750Gb).

The guy on the phone said I should replace this HDD by another one and my problem should be gone. I feel this will be everything but true, and that in a few weeks (probably after the 90 days repair warranty), the GPU will fail again and I'll be screwed.

If anyone has any wisdom or recommended course of action to share, it'll be much appreciated.

I am puzzled with that. Even though I have my GPU reballed, I am not sure it will work perfectly because I am really afraid that I have broken the graphic card itself. Since you told me the former refund policy, I started to consider replacing the board. Anyway it is another gamble cause nobody can guarantee Apple's recall…

Same problem - got to stay where it won't boot now.  Paying $610 CDN to get logic board replaced.  Disappointed that the Genius Bar guy said that 2-3 years is all the life he expects out of any MacBook Pro.  Paid close to $2000 for it in June 2011 and have babied it.  Don't even do much graphic intensive stuff.

So apple actually accepted your macbook even though you had taken out the optical drive which voids the warranty. Interesting, I also have  a second hdd installed, ill try disconneting it when I get home and see if this solves the issue. Has anyone had any luck reballing the gpu, I've heard on other sites that this works and is a more permanant solution.

Treschny,

When someone says a Macbook pro should last 2-3 years, I ask them to say it louder, so other customers can hear. 

Go for PC if u need get jobs done as we do not know when Apple will make the recall ( or they wouldn't).

I should have said that - the Apple Store at Fairview Mall (Toronto) was jam packed.  Interestingly enough the guy beside me was there for the exact same reason.  2011 MBP gpu fail - also dishing out $610 to get it replaced.  He actually bought it in 2012 though.  Makes me think more defective part again rather than over use.  But Genius Bar guy says "yeah, 2-3 years is really the lifespan".