Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

I seriously cannot believe the number of new victims every single day.. I've never seen anything like this.. If there are this many people posting about this issue, imagine how many others don't even bother to report the problem or those who aren't aware of this thread. This is ridiculous and so is apple. This is my first and last apple product. I hoped this would get me through my degree, but it didn't even last half way. Apple and their corporate shenanigans are simply BS!

I know some people will take that risk and use a heatgun then they will regret it at the end, do you think a heatgun will really do a reflow ?! if you really get to the reflow temprature which is 217 degrees Celsius and for a chance of real soldering you need to reach 245 degrees using a heatgun it means you have to get to this temprature through the GPU chip , its a death sentence for it , that assuming that a reflow will even work and if it works without warping your motherboard and killing the chip, jow long do you think it will last ? a day a week or even a month then what? do it again? how many times? and who said the motherboard will cost $300 ? are you kidding? that is not even the cost of the processor that comes with it. this motherboard new will cost you over a $1000 if you are in the US but good luck anyway, I was just giving you an honst advise. Simply if a $20 or even a $100 heatgun will do the job we won't have to spend thousands of dollars on the machines that we use.

Referred to this report, http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/04/09/how-many-macs-did-apple-sell-last-quarter /.

Apple had sold 4,000,000 in 1st quarter. Imagine how many units they sold in 2011?

http://youtu.be/3lQ4s7Qx4AU

http://youtu.be/pixMez0Rjx0

http://youtu.be/6ZUpv1MItRs

But Apple said No!!! to me

sclippy96 wrote:

 

I may try to use a heatgun on the GPU to resoften the solder and reconnect the pins as shown in this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti8LqIHMnlQ

 

 

Got a macbook pro in for reball recently.

Immediately noticed pcb bga area was damaged after lifting.

Cleaned it and yes... delamination.

This means parts from the solderpads from chip area came loose from the motherboard.

This happens with to much heat, moisture, bad quality pcb etc....

Later heard it was heatgunned before probably damaging the glues holding the layers together.

As I wrote before, mostly the one doing the repair gets blamed for it.

But it was in fact the trying a DIY fix on it before destroying it.

Not a happy situation for both repair shop and customer.

If you heatgun it and it works, you think it's fixed but damage might be done allready !.

If you're lucky and it lasts, no problem of course.

But if it fails again and you can't get it fixed anymore, above situation most likely will happen.

Even using a 50000 dollar rework station won't help anymore.

While you probably blame the repair guy for it... (where in fact you destroyed it yourself)

Hello guys!

I suffer a same problem since 2 months and it is very unsatisfying!

I tried to apply the different tricks for being sure after each restart it uses "Intel HD Graphics 3000" but I had many problems and after deleting all the AMD extensions  instead of using "Intel HD Graphics 3000", it restarts on AMD And also Gfxcardstatus could not alter the graphic card because of erroneous beliefs about "external display"

Is any person known about this subject? Each time after a restart I have to apply the famous Heating method for resuscitating my MacBook pro 8.2, early 2011, 2.2 GHz i7, AMD 6750! Please help me to be sure after each restart, I won't put 30 min for using it!

I am sorry for my English

<Link Edited By Host>

Started with me end 2011,beginning 2012 (6 months normal use)

The effects on my screen are everytime different

I have re-installed MacOSX twice, but no:

Every time this happens the ventilator has been spinning before crashing....i use for the time being the integrated circuit only as i'm able to disable the discrete video-card...as soon as i swith on the the discrete, it crashes.....i also found that working from a external FW disk also prevents the problem...so it's as well probably heat-related...

Software will not fix hardware problems, only if its a driver issue and this is not.

yep, it's more than clear it's a HW problem with the Discrete card....everything else is ruled out...i can generate this everytime, as soon as swith on the discrete video... and for example Photoshop on, or even iPhoto...as long as it's graphics intense...

+1 It started a couple of months ago but kept on using it with gfxcardstatus without rebooting.

Had to reboot today for some reason and can't get it working again... ****

Can't they at least create some efi or somewhat that disables that gpu...??

The same problem here. It's a massive problem of this model. I hope Apple have issued product recalls and initiated replacement programs for malfunctioning parts.

<Edited by Host>

Just collected my 17" from the Apple Store.  Here's the story:

After limping along for a couple of months the machine finally gave up; stripy screens on startup and would not complete the boot sequence.

Took it to the Genius Bar and was duly informed that the GPU had failed and a logic board replacement was required: $709 AU. 

I asked if he had seen it before and he said "not in a 17 inch". I then showed him this thread on my iPad with its half a million views and (then) nearly 5000 posts.  He seemed to be aware of the issue, or at least the reporting of it online, but told me it was occurring on 15" machines and the symptoms were different. I begged to differ and pointed out that there were plenty of 17" machines being reported and that the chipsets were essentially the same, the AMD GPUs were the same and the issue stemmed from lead-free solder being used in the BGA method of attaching the GPU to the logic board, to which he more or less agreed.

Anyway, I said I couldn't immediately justify the repair cost and that I would investigate both the opportunity of getting it repaired myself (or replacing the logic board myself) and also how the situation might be considered under Australian Consumer Law. He told me that ACL added an additional year to the standard Apple warranty. I didn't argue but I don't believe it to be as straightforward as that - each case is evaluated on its own merits.

Anyway, he said he would have a talk to his manager and see what he could do.  Fully expecting a possible offer of a discounted repair, he returned with the offer of replacing the logic board at no charge. Again, I didn't argue. I was told that part of the reason was that I clearly looked after my machine and I had purchased it from Apple direct, rather than through a third-party seller, although I can't really see what that has to do with it.

I am aware that the replacement board is likely to fail at some point but I confess that I am happy just to have a working machine again. The Apple staff were very helpful but I can see how frustrating it must be for others who have been unsuccessful following this path.  It very much depends on where you are, who you talk to, how you talk to them and maybe the alignment of the planets.

I still feel strongly that Apple should take full responsibility for this issue and offer something to affected owners. It's hard to know what the best outcome would be.  A new machine would not really satisfy me as it would not be a 17" with an optical drive.

Anyway, keep up the pressure.

I had this same problem with my 15" early 2011 MBP. The system slowly got worse and worse, and because I was using some tools daily that requiered the better GPU (CoRD), disabling it was not an option.

I took the system Apple and the problem was obviouse. I paid $328.60 for the 'fix everything' option. They replaced the motherboard and all is well... till next time I guess.

Went to the Apple store last night for the graphics issue. It'll be $310 for it to be sernt to a depot for repair (logic board). It would've been $500 if Apple did it. We'll see.

Adding my $0.02... my 17-inch Late 2011 with discrete AMD Radeon HD 6770M first froze up on me about three months ago.

I started using gfxCardStatus to keep it in integrated graphics, and so long as I stay on integrated graphics, it doesn't crash. But as soon as I switch it into discrete graphics, it crashes within minutes.

I tried plugging in an external display once while on integrated graphics and that did not go well.

I don't get how this should be something I should have to pay to repair when this nearly 350-page thread is out there...