Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Here is my update from my trip to Apple store.

Bottom line I am paying another $310 to perform the exact same repair done 142 days ago. While the store employees were sympathetic to my position they could do nothing to offset the cost. They gave me a repair number and suggested I call 1-800-APL-CARE to see Apple would do anything for me - that call went nowhere as well. The store and Apple care kept saying they have never heard of this issue, I said you have support forum with over 589K views and that's only one thread, how could you not know?. 

I started my Mac and sure enough five minutes into it screen goes wacky.  I asked why would I want to pay $310 again to repair with same parts as before?  Will I be here six months from now again?  No valid response given. 

Warranty on last repair is 90 days but genius suggested I check with my credit card company to see if they offer longer - they do not, 90 days there as well.  Suggestion is for this redo I should use Amex as the warranty is likely longer. 

When asked if I had purchased extended warranty  when origianlly bought,  I explained that Best Buy persuaded me to buy there renewing warranty which covers everything - but failed to mention that it only lasts 2 years, expiring ironically 6 months before my graphics attack. 

I questioned rep on phone about the fact that graphics failing at two years has never happened on my other machines, and for it to occur again less than six months later cannot be good engineering - he essentially said stuff happens and if they here about it enough Apple will fix it as they have done with other things.  Righhhhhhht. 

I am in bind, I've got a thousand dollars in Adobe on this machine, I can't afford another $2K for a new MacBook Po, I spent nearly $2K on this machine, paid couple hundred for Best Buy support which expired, put in a new SSD for $400 because that's what seemed to be the issue back in December, paid $310 in January, and will pay another $310 in a couple of days. 

Other canned response was to go to http://www.apple.com/feedback/ because nobody at Apple has heard about this issue but they will certainly fix it if it is deemed an issue.

Sad, sad, sad - I've lost a lot of respect for this company.

Here is my 15" MacBook Pro, starting to go haywire at Apple store.  Crashed slightly hereafter. I'd show you my January pic of similar ...but there on my other hard drive, actually in January I was seeing concentric pink circles emanating from center of screen

..and this morning:

I also setup an appointment with apple genius. Was advised to get my logic board replaced for 538$ +tax here in Canada Ontario Toronto.  They put me through to apple-care and that was pointless, got no where also. Apparently no one there at the apple store or apple-care had no idea about this problem and I didn't blame them but at this point their has been enough reports and similar failure and yet no response from anyone in the upper rankings? 

After talking to a employee at the Apple store today, that I had went in with a mindset that you guys created "quality" products, thats why I bought a macbook.  He then explains to me that I went in with the wrong mindset?  that all laptops usually breaks within 3 years?  and I've only had mine for 2. 

This is totally unacceptable coming from a company with this type of reputation.  Also I asked apple-care "what would you do if your in my position and he said "I would buy a new macbook pro"! What kind of help is this! At this point its a waiting game with this problem.. I've lost so much respect for this company at this point.  Apple really needs to do a recall on all macbook pro 2011 models asap.

After talking to a employee at the Apple store today, that I had went in with a mindset that you guys created "quality" products, thats why I bought a macbook.  He then explains to me that I went in with the wrong mindset?  that all laptops usually breaks within 3 years?  and I've only had mine for 2. 

What a real genius... Apple should fire this guy. Oh wait... Apple doesn't really care if it is a quality company anymore.

If at least Apple allowed us to get our own hardware to use their software products... but since Mavericks has gone free their business model is entirely built on (crappy) hardware. The other day I was talking to a friend, and his less than 2 years old retina MBP is showing ghosting in the screen. Needless to say he is out of warranty and Apple won't do a thing about it either.

Update from my visit to Apple Authorized Support yesterday:

From my observation, the staff is obviously aware of this issue. After hearing my brief description on the corrupted screen and booting problem, they asked straight away that if this is a early 2011 model, and they are able to told me quite certainly, without going through the diagnostic test, this is the graphics card problem.

Recall or replacement program of MBP 2011 will cost Apple some money. But if Apple risks on damaging its brand image of producing quality products, it may impact all Apple products across categories and damage the eco system Apple is trying to build. The half a million viewer here might rethink the next MBP, iPhone, or iWatch, or Apple TV purchase decision.

On the other hand, the users who requested for recall or replacement, are the users who have high expectations on Apple products. I suspect the tolerance level for a mal-manufactured product from one of those "other companies" might be a lot higher.

Apple should cherish the expectation its customers have on its products. It's been proven these customers are willing to pay a premium for that expectation, and it is to Apple's own interest to live up to it.

It's cost Apple branding & reputation, but now they don't really care.

They won't care until it goes viral on the Internet and hits TV news in the states.

So apple decided to remove my comment because it's not technical. Quick action for such a slow company. Anyway general message is that this problem, is faced in the UAE and known by Apple service center.

<Edited by Host>

I have already posted that I have had a disaster of a week due to this problem, so I am not a new person registering my complaint. What I am writing about is to share the dilemna I am facing because of this problem.

In short, I do not want to live with a computer that could, at any time, completely crash due to a defective part, and no "certain" way to replace that part. I am, therefore -- and very reluctantly, I would add -- looking at what to do the next time this Graphics Card Defect takes my system down. (I reinstalled 10.9.2 and got rid of 10.9.3, and at this point I can at least work with Premier Pro again, and not crash everytime I start up Excel!)

My dilemna is, Do I leave the Mac platform if this problem -- which, at this point, seems pretty obvious as a product defect -- is not dealt with by Apple? I was looking around for a quality, solid PC/Windows machine for video editing, audio recording, and the other simple tasks a computer does these days, and I find I can get a whale of a PC setup from ADK Computers -- folks who specialize in making computers that work with audio/vidio stuff -- for the same price as replacing my MacBook Pro 2011 with a new MacBook Pro with Retina. And I mean a whale of a machine!

Some years ago, I purchased a Lenovo Windows computer -- their top model at the time -- wanting to try the Windows platform. At that point, I had been utilizing Macs for almost 20 years, yet the best audio recording/editing software was still PC-only (still is, as far as I can see). It was a disaster. The computer screen completely failed twice, and in the process I lost all of my data, all within the span of a year. Mind you, at that time, IBM still had its fingers in the ThinkPad, and it was IBM people who "fixed" the computer. (NOT) After the second debilitating crash, I returned to Macs and swore I would never deviate.

In the meantime, Windows hardware has done a lot of catching up! And having paid a lot of money for this computer, and simply expecting it to last a minimum of five years (the time you can write it down on taxes), if not six. Today, not even three years into owning it, I have not idea whether it will start tomorrow, totally crash, run some programs but not others.

So, I really am on the fence. Because I went back to 10.9.2, things 'seem' to more stable. This past Sunday, before switching back, the computer crashed at least 8 times, with the screens going nuts and blank every single time. But the next time my Mac goes down, I am going for a new computer. And I am not certain it will be a Mac. For my job, I have been running Windows 8.1 under Parallels on the Mac, and, in Minnesota lingo, "it's not too bad." Utterly clunky and lacking elegance, for sure. But, with time, I might get accustomed to it. Especially if, in the future, I think back to this 'lemon' of a MBP I purchased.

I wonder how many folks are thinking some of these same thoughts. This is, for sure, a REAL DOWNER. So much so that, when this thing goes down again, I might not have enough trust in Apple to go for another of their computers. Some of the better PC computers being built have very high quality components -- and are every bit as good, and in some ways better (multitasking, for example), than a Mac.

I would welcome and thoughts or recommdations from others.

All best.

Hey Doug,

Well I been working with PCs/Windows for my entire life and the map 2011 was a purchase my wife made so she can video edit and all of that. Now my next comments may offend some people but it's my opinion:

l never really believed in Macs, They Seem to complicate every task That you want to do ( Maybe its my lack of experience with a Mac) but in general l Pickup on stuff quickly, and I did on Mac, but it is just too complicated.

Windows is almost a monopoly world wide because of it's ease of repair and Simplicity to Use. Yes its not as stable as Mac or as graphically beautiful as Mac. But when poop hits the fan it 's **** of alot easier to fix. and this l think is my biggest problem with Apple. If You are going to make something Complex then make it also reliable and if not then they need to provide support like there is no tomorrow.

Anyway, go for an alienware if You have the money, if not Toshiba Qosmio. That would be my recommendation.

Douglas - You have voiced my own dilemma / feelings / opimions there pretty much exactly. As a long term Windows user (from back in the 80s) I finally went Mac 4 year ago. I bought an iPhone 4 first and was blown away by the ease of use, design and QUALITY. So I bought Macbook Pro. and Two more iPhone 5s for son and wife. And an Ipad. And an Apple TV.

But then over the last 6 months the two iPhone 5s bricked and I had to fight long and hard to get one of them replaced as it was just out of warranty. That was annoying, but it was just phones and just for a couple of days at a time. Then this graphics card stuff hit the fan and I wasted days on this and lost the ability to work reliably whilst away on clients' sites. That was a whole lot more serious and Apple would just not listen for weeks. In the end I simply wore them down I think and I got a logic board replacement under warranty (I was JUST within my 3 year Applecare when it was done). At the worst point in my Macbook Pro saga I even contemplated buying a new MBP at the airport as I was so desperate for stability, but was told that in the new MBPs you can't upgrade the RAM or swap out the hard drives, and that just seemed totally stupid to me so I refused to bite.

Since the LB replacement ( a few weeks) I have not experienced one crash, but my faith in Apple crashed permanently with my iPhones and Macbook Pro.

I am heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem but I have to make a serious decision at some point about what I do next. The fact that they ignore this thread, or even worse selectively edit it whilst pretending it does not exist, tells me exactly what decision I have to make.

I am terribly disappointed with Apple and I have to say that, given the way they reacted to this known issue, caling its preppy support chaps "geniuses" is taking the mickey innit?

Tweeted Tim Cook too.

Tweeted too.

Thanks to both of you who have responded to my posting. I appreciate knowing that others feel this way, as well as the recommendations from one poster.

According to the last Consumer Reports computer article I read (though this may be some time ago), Apple ranked among the most responsive and helpful of the major computer manufacturers, according to polls conducted by CR of its membership. Manufacturing quality, familiarity, and durability have been the main reasons I recommited myself to the Mac platform following a disasterous (I lost information during the writing of my doctoral dissertation -- not much could be worse than that!) year with a Lenovo/Windows machine.

I sincerely hope that friends at Apple will see how much these qualities are cherished by those who purchase Macs and other Apple products, year after year, for these very reasons. Call me an "anti-capitalist," but these qualities matter a whole lot more than the cheap, throw-away products that pleasing stock-holders lead to. I want to spend my very hard earned dollars (I am a professional church musician: not a vocation that is, shall we say, lucritivly compensated in this society and day and age.) on a product that has quality and durabillity.

I hope Apple will see that this can be -- despite the pressures of capitalism and a so called "free market" -- a path to succeding over the long-term. I believe it is. And I have looked to Apple to be this kind of corporate presence in our world. I have no doubt Mr. Cook would agree -- he is a good man. But the "proof is in the pudding." This issue with 2011 MBPs is, in reality, a challenge to the kind of company Apple will be going forward. And that, in turn, will determine the choices I, as a computer user, will make.

Along with many others, I hope that Apple will take "The Road Less Traveled," reaches out to assist us with what appears to be a manufacturing defect, and focuses on a long-term vision for success.

Thanks, friends, for your thoughts.

Mr. Cook, if you read this, I urge you to consider my argument for "taking care" of your customers. Though it may cost  -- likely, I can imagine -- a great deal of money to rectify this for those of us who purchased these 2011 MacBook Pros, I believe that, if you do so in a just manner, you will win the loyalty of a great many people who earnestly desire that Apple be a company "a cut above the rest." I can only imagine that doing so would result in a customer loyalty that would be the envy of any company in America.

Sincerely,

The Rev. Dr. Douglas Thompson

Residing happily in the Great State of Minnesota

Doug

Message was edited by: douglasfromwaubun

Doug,

Thank you for your optimistic words. I would like to share your view but unfortunately my experience tells me different.

This PDF with an official release of Apple’s business results of the 2Q 2014 is very clear:

http://images.apple.com/pr/pdf/1006/704/q2fy14datasum.pdf

74% of their revenue comes from the iPhone and iPad. That’s their new costumer base. The sales of all their computers put together –iMac, Mac Pro, Mac mini, Macbook Air and Macbook Pro– account for just 12%. That’s the reality: Macbook Pro very likely represent less than 10%.

Professional users, like many of the MacBook Pro buyers are, don’t mean as much as they did some years ago. Their business model as turned around.

As long as this problem doesn’t leak in to the big media outlets and starts affecting the sales of other Apple products I’m afraid we’re left with earing the “geniuses” say that it’s “internet thing” and that 2 and a half years is enough life for a high-end laptop.

Whilst the Mac is a small proprtion of revenue, MBP users tend to be Apple's most evangelical advocates. The knock on effect of Apple's failure to address this (and other manufacturing issues) will hurt the bottom line way beyond Mac sales.

Case in point, the Home button failure on my iPod Touch and the impossibility of easily getting it cheaply repaired, made me get a Nexus 7 tablet rather than an iPad Mini. I liked it so much I bought a Moto G phone and dumped my iPhone.

When I started reading about MBP GPU failures in Jan this year I purchased a Intel NUC to test Windows 7/8 and test how a Hackintosh might work for me. Now my MBP has had a GPU failure (reballed by bga_repairs), I'm seriously considering ditching the Mac altogether when that finally fails.

My customers listen to my advice on what kit to buy. In the last 12 months I've stopped recommending Apple hardware quite so blindly and am now regularly suggesting people buy Android mobile devices, and positively disuading people from buying higher end Mac hardware. I used to have faith that Apple would stand behind their products in the case of proven manufacturing issues. Now it appears they won't (iMac 27" dirty backlight, MBP GPU) I can only recommend getting the cheapest Mac hardware, as the potential cost to replace it is that much lower.

What's currently happening is a "reverse halo" effect. It's going to shrink Mac and iOS sales in the same way the iPod originally grew Mac sales.

This is the hidden cost that Apple seems to be ignoring. Reputations are hard won and easily lost.