Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

My 2011 MBP got this issue yetserday but applecare has expired. So sad.

My 2011 MacBook Pro is having this issue. It had a week left of AppleCare, I sent it in, and all they did was a clean system install! I got a better tech and he is having me send it back again. Hopefully this time they will actually fix the screen issues. In my case they are still intermittent, so it's harder to diagnose.  I have videos and photos so I can prove the problem. Pretty disappointing that so many are failing.

All please send a feedback to

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

It would be better

I still think it's worth taking it to an Apple Store and trying for a free logic board replacement.  We know they will probably fail again but if they do fail within the repair warranty period, back you go. And so on. We've heard of the three strike rule where you may get a new machine after that. Whatever. I'd exhaust all possibilities before reballing. We've also heard how even that isn't 100%, although you can get a six month warranty.

Maybe mentioning that others HAVE got a free replacement out of warranty will help.  The last words to me as I left the store with my repaired machine was "well, there was a problem we should fix and so we did".

So, finally I got my MBP e2011 from pro repair shop (not Apple). They replaced faulty GPU chip with a new one and now it seems, that computer works again. GPU was reballed with lead solder in October 2013, but after one month symptoms came back. I was advised (from repair shop, that made me reballing) to replace GPU chip, just for the price of a new AMD Radeon 6750m, that was 30€ and shipping back from Germany to Slovenia.

I am still figuring out under which OS (SL or Mav.) my MBP will last longer with a new chip. There are some differences between those two OS, how they are switching between integrated and discrete graphics. Any your experiences are welcome to share with me

I also use Macs Fan Control app to control fans when to kick in.

I will still follow this thread and inform you if I will have graphic crashes again, but so far so good (two days now from repair).

This picture is a render from ACAD (1600x1200p). Before the GPU replacement, I was not able to produce this task without a graphic crash, white, gray, blue stripes, shifted screen picture etc. It looks now that i am able to do these tasks again.

You can add me to the list of 2011 MacBook Pro owners with the dreaded GPU problem. This is my second MacBook Pro that goes down because of the GPU. So frustrating and EXPENSIVE!

What shop in Germany did you use?

...and I'm becoming increasingly embarrassed and humiliated for myself as a person that paid Apple a premium for this Early 2011 MacBook Pro that's shaping up to be more like a cheap PC laptop when it comes to reliability.

besides my Apples I have owned a lot of cheap PC laptops as well, and I have never had serious issues like this one on my MBP, even after many years of use, so please be fair and don't bash who is not concerned, this is not even the quality you would get from a PC, this appears to be a design or manufacturing problem and Apple should really react and do something to keep their good reputation.

And you can add me to the list also.

Problems were intermittent before the warrenty ran out, but full failure mode since end of last week.

Another unhappy Mac Pro user user!

I am using late 2011 version, and two days ago I experienced  the same problem as you guyz, when graphic card is switched Mac Pro freezes and cant boot at all. After I few times it starts up, and its a matter of time before it freezes again when graphic is switched!

And I cant force Mac to use of of the graphic cards either,when I do it in gfxCardstatus it instantly freezes- EVERY TIME.

I have a lot of work to do on computer (and I cant do anything now), and this is what I get from being devoted buyer of Apple

Guys, for all of you who cannot even boot the MBP or the gfxCardStatus is not working, I recommend:

I tried the Temporary Fix procedure to remove the AMD ATI drivers and force my mac to use only use the integrated card. It worked totally fine for me and now I am able to boot my MBP. Although I cannot use high-end app which demmand graphical acceleration, I can at least use my computer (e-mails, office, internet, ...).

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Markus Janiak - MJ Computer Wuppertal https://discussions.apple.com/message/23348845#23348845

My temporary fix: Ubuntu on MacBook Pro 8.2 early 2011 without AMD Graphics http://youtu.be/gaKwp7qT0S4

USB Image link added to YT Info.

I've started to have the odd flickering / graphical glitch on my 17" Macbook Pro so I'm sure I will be one of the many. Apples silence on this matter is truly awful.

Hi all i finally got my computer reballed in rome he is a cool guy handling tons of macbooks. i just paid 120€ instead of 600 and more asked at the mac store. moreover the first time i changed the logic board they didn't change with a new one as they told me...they just swapped with one fixed and that's why i got same problem after 3 months (just out of warraty again) so guys don't trust apple anymore i'm sorry to say i was an apple supporter since 7200 model going thru g3 g4 g5 and now this...and all my past computers are still working greatafter DECADES.

By the way he found out that the replaced logic board had an hard fix and also some stuff had to be refixed...make your conclusions guys and after trying everything via software (disabling kext ecc...) is just a loss of time. who is italy check him i am really happy about the work he made on my computer (still running on bootcamp windows partition i have to find out how to re-enable all the extensions and kexts but i am thinking of making a fesh osx install) so far i couldn't boot in windows but now all works as smooth as it was when bought it ( still need a little stress test tho).

only one question someone of you knows how to re-enable the extentions and kexts? or is it better fresh install?

cheers guys!!

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