Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Dear Tim,

I've been die-hard Mac fan since the 1970's (I started with apple II and took a Macintosh to college) so to quote VP Biden--Its a BFD that this week may see the end of our long run together.

Specifically I am deciding my next step while looking at an Apple "blue screen of death" on my early 2011 MBP with AMD, as well as a 500K+ Apple thread about this and many articles dating back to 2012 most recently;

http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/05/13/apple-remains-mum-as-complaints-mount- over-2011-macbook-pro-gpu-failures

When I visited an Apple store in 2012 about my glitchy screen I was told "Sorry, its not in warranty" and in my discussion with a very nice senior support specialist yesterday I was told "Sorry this is above my level, but I'll pass it up the chain."

Where and when "in the chain" will Apple decide (what sort of company you want to be going forward?)  Meanwhile, I'll be deciding which new computer to buy.

Thanks!

Folks, I don't want to jinst it, but my computer is working now for over 24 hours after the fix that I described in the previous page. I notice that no one commented on it so I am writing here again in case someone wants to give it a try (again - at your own risk, I can't be accountable for any damage):

- Disable all AMD kext files as described in this link: http://www.asyncro.com/2013/12/12/macbook-pro-discreate-graphics-card-issue-fix/

- Reboot with the AMD GPU active (make sure it is active with gpucardstatus, changes are you can't even change to the Intel GPU anyway).

- Get you computer hot. Close the lid, play some youtube videos in safari (very GPU intensive), put a towel over the laptop.

- The fans will go crazy, trying to reduce the heat. In my case, I left it like that for around 10-12 minutes. I think the thermal shutdown is either not working or it doesn't get too hot without the drivers to shut down the machine, so again - do this at your own risk, make sure you know what you're doing.

- Reboot the machine in single user mode, and put the kext files back in the extensions library. Rebuild the cache.

- Reboot again. In my case - it solved the problems I went for grey screen to wokring machine.

Good luck.

actually could be a different reason:

As the soldering contacts are cracked, when the MBP get's hot it expands and making better contact

When i boot cold, i certainly get this problem...i let the screen get distorted and have the MBP run hot

Then i reboot the system, and can let it run a couple of days without switching it off.....then it crashes as it would get too hot...

So it's merely the heat with me that make it work......not the best solution...and clearly the sign of cracked solder...

It's just that all these crashes do not making the filesystem more stable , and it after a crash Spotlight needs to index everything again....so it costs me about an hour before i can start working :s

Almost 400 pagest...Rediculous that Apple won't recognise our MBP 2011 GPU problem

Not when you consider the fact that Apple does not read the problems here.

They do. Someone deleted my post since it contained the name of a product that was publicly announced at WWDC. It was not a computer, it was a human.

But that is different. There are Host here that monitor the threads for posts that violate the TOU.

The Host do not monitor problems.

Just because something was announced at WWDC, posting about it can still violate the TOU.

Allan

It's possible. But I think these forums are a great source of information for Apple about the user's experience, it would be foolish of them not to take advantage of this resouce. It has real customers using their real devices. That's how my Time Capsule got recalled a few years back - many complaints led to an investigation which resulted in the recall. It was ofcourse also a lot of customers going into the apple store, but the forums were full of reports as well.

Apple has the feedback site at http://www.apple.com/feedback/

This is the site they prefer and monitor.

There is a difference between customer complaints and customer feedback. So, if you fill-up that feedback form and if your data or input sounded like a "complain", then that entry will not count in other words (Apple) will just consider that data entry as garbage...

Anyways, I was thinking... How much does Apple pay their guys working in complaints department for them to play innocent on this issue?

just curious...

Yes. That is ture. So if you want to tell Apple about your problem you will have to just describe the problem and do not include any complaints.

Sounds simple enough.

Allan

alright, i agree with that.

btw, I forgot to mention,  In a feedback, you may describe all your experiences (good or bad) about the product. These feedbacks are for their (Apple) OWN benefit and for those who would still be interested buying their upcoming products. These feedbacks are just used as data. So that when they (Apple) build a "NEW" product, they will only use those data they gathered to correct the mistakes on their previous products.

And the issue in this thread is clearly not about our concern on their upcoming products but for them (Apple) to help us understand what's going on and what is their response?

This thread is more than 1 year now. And up to now, Apple seems to ignore the issue.

I insist. We have no possibility to act here in Spain, where there is almost no Apple Store. This is pretty simple: apple had 13 billions of profit in 2011. If just 300 of you go to the 5th avenue Apple Store at the same time, in a week it would be all resolved. Queues of people waiting for iPhones is a beautiful picture for Apple; queues of people fighting for what they paid not.

WIth news like this:

http://www.smh.com.au/business/genius-deal-apples-staff-paid-less-than-coles-che ckout-workers-20140606-39nvc.html

Maybe they'll be less inclined to toe the Apple line.

Jhay-ar wrote:

 

How much does Apple pay their guys working in complaints department for them to play innocent on this issue?