Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

I'm back in the club! After emailing Mr Cook and working with an executive relations person, I had the logic board in my late 2011 15" replaced at the end of October 2013. It worked great up until yesterday and now I'm back where I started before the replacement.

I emailed Mr Cook and the executive relations person (who was very pleasent to work with) yesterday but haven't heard back yet. I have a genius bar appt on Friday morning. There is a local shop that might be able to replace the GPU - still on the fence if I should do another depot or let them swap the GPU.

My coporate laptop is a late 2011 15" also and it's having symptoms also - flashing blocks on resume from sleep - but nothing more. It'll be replaced by a 2013 retina soon, so I'm not too worried about it dieing in the meantime.

This entire reball conversation is helpful to those trying to figure out what to do in the meantime.  But, I also find it a ridiculous conversation in light of the fact that this discussion really needs to be about demanding that Apple fixes the issue themselves, issues a recall and free replacement program.

I'm becoming embarrassed to be an Apple user and I'm incredibly dismayed it's come down to this.

What's become of you, Apple?

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nudoru wrote:

 

I'm back in the club! After emailing Mr Cook and working with an executive relations person, I had the logic board in my late 2011 15" replaced at the end of October 2013. It worked great up until yesterday and now I'm back where I started before the replacement.

This is exactly why there needs to be a fix from Apple and a recall replacement program.  I had my logic board replaced a few months ago just before my extended Applecare expired. I asked the Apple Genius if a new, updated board was put in place.  He was elusive so I took that as a "no".  I checked the model number and it was the same.  When I asked the Apple Genius what was to keep the same issue from coming back again, he just shrugged and looked at me blankly.  I felt like I was at a Dell store.

That's not what I used to expect from Apple.

My coporate laptop is a late 2011 15" also and it's having symptoms also - flashing blocks on resume from sleep - but nothing more. It'll be replaced by a 2013 retina soon, so I'm not too worried about it dieing in the meantime.

I can't justify paying premium rates anymore for these cheap, unreliable Apple laptops.  I'm considering just getting a lower price laptop and converting it into a hackintosh or begrudgingly switching to Windows or Ubuntu.  I prefer Mac OS X, but I can no longer justify paying more for less from Apple when it comes to cheap, unreliable hardware.

If Apple would do the right thing, own up to their responsibility and issue a fix and a recall, I might have a different opinion on this, but they've been disingenuously dragging their feet on this for far too long.  This isn't the Apple I remember.  This feels like a scam company at this point.

BTW, why isn't there any class action lawsuit about this yet?

I'm ready.

As a front-end developer I REALLY love the applications that have been produced on the Mac to make my job easier. Not to mention I'm really tired of Windows after over 20 years of using it. I moved to a Mac in 2012 and don't plan to go back willingly. This whole mess is unfortunate.

The closest Windows laptop is the Dell Precision M3800. It's really nice, has a lot of customization options and the price is comparable to a retina. Only downside is the battey life.

Most people here would still require a shop to do the GPU replacement.

True.

And then how can you be sure if the shop actually replaces it with a new GPU or just reballs/reflows the old one?

A decent shop will have no troubles handing out the defect one. How would you know that a reballer actually reballed the GPU rather than just put the whole thing in the oven and bake it?

Mine failed yesterday with a grey screen at bootup and and a blue screen in safe mode. I was able to single user mode and run fsck and all is fine. I will try to connect it to a external monitor using a minidisplay port to see if it can be used until apple gets its act together.

I just found this thread.  I previously posted to a separate message but here is what I wrote:

My Macbook Pro screen is going black / gray after updating to Mavericks 10.9.3.  It just does it whenever and I have to force a restart of the machine through the power button.  It has peviously never done this before.  Now for the last few days since the update I am scared I'm going to lose something because I cannot pinpoint when this is going to happen.

Here are my system specs:

MacBook Pro 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7

8 GB RAM

AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1024MB

OS X Mavericks 10.9.3

Running Dual Monitors via Thunderbolt

I built this system from scratch since I have not rebuilt the machine since it was new circa April 2011.  I have not tried just running it without the second monitor.  That is my next step.  Everything has worked flawlessly since that time.  What happened?

Now I'm just totally unhappy now that I have read this thread.  You have the money Apple make it right.  Years ago I had a Canon A95 Camera.  It's chip malfunctioned because of a defect and it was over 5 years old.  They fixed it for nothing and even payed shipping to and from to get it fixed.   I vowed never to buy another brand of camera.  Last year I bought a 60D from Canon.  If you are loyal to me I will stick with you to the end. 

This computer cost me a boatload of money.  It should last over 5 years at the least!

 

My Macbook Pro screen is going black / gray after updating to Mavericks 10.9.3. 

FYI - mine problems origionally started when I'd upgraded to 10.8.5. I initially thought it was related to that. But it wasn't. Probably just a cooincidence that it happened at the same time. I've seen posts where others tested back to 10.6 and 10.7 and there were still issues. So it's 100% hardware.

it's a cold solder joint issue, of some kind, on a massive scale

as your mbp heat and cool, the joint continuously loses and makes contact, thous the randomness, ultimately failing for good

apple will do nothing cos it's normal that some devices will have issues and that is why there is a warranty, end of the story

for those out of warranty and confident enough to remove the mainboard i suggest to try the reflow at home with an electrical oven, before spending any more $$$

the cpu, gpu, etc. side of the board must face upward, and the bottom of the board must not touch the oven, foil, plate, or whatever, thus you must provide some feets, 3 or 4, to place at in the holes that accommodate the board fixing screws

of course don't forget to remove all the cable connectors from the board, as well as the speakers

10mins of baking at 390F fixed my early 2011 mbp, as well as many other devices that have failed me, mostly mobile gpu

pre heat the oven

Dell m3800 is an option. But no ethernet, no thunderbolt, short batterylife, unworkable glossy screen. Anyway I'd add 3-year-ProSupport; judging the formfactor is likely the macbookpro, maybe GPU OVERHEATING ISSUES will come with this workstation.

Thank you for the feeback Messenger131.  I am going to send my machine off to him tomorrow.  After searching far and wide he appears to be my best shot at having a working machine.  The 1yr warranty and price are hard to beat.  I will report back on how it goes.  Thank you everyone (except Apple); the information on this forum has been very helpful.

Degger :

You would be sure that this is a proper reballing if you ask the repair service to replace the GPU and upgrade it to the 6770 version for instance.

CatFisce wrote:

 

Got mine back after a complete chip replacement, done in Prague, Czech Republic (perunova street). Cost me 120 EUR in total. The computer seems to be working fine. 12 months warranty. I've stress tested the graphics for about 4 hours now and it is stable. Temperature is also within normal limits.

Hello CatFisce,

can you kindly provide the name of the company?

I am close to Prague and the price and warranty seem to be good.

Thank you in advance.

Regards,

Luis.

You would be sure that this is a proper reballing if you ask the repair service to replace the GPU and upgrade it to the 6770 version for instance.

Reball means desoldering the old GPU and replacing the old molten solder by shiny new solder balls. What you're talking about is a replacement and new GPUs usually already come fully packaged so no need for a reball there...