Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

I have a MBP 17" early 2011 and I am having replaced the graphic card because of this issue for the THIRD time now.

Apple, do something to keep your promises!

JDock wrote:

 

I have a MBP 17" early 2011 and I am having replaced the graphic card because of this issue for the THIRD time now.

Apple, do something to keep your promises!

You mean a GPU replacement by 3th part repair shop?

Or a motherboard replacement by Apple?

When? Price?

Indeed, I would have taken mine to the same Apple Store as well. I'm currently sitting at the Apple Store at the Louvre and they just quoted me a 480 Euro logic board replacement. They mentioned it will be cheaper in the US, so I might wait until I fly back to see how much they ask for the repair.

Thank you for your interest. I bought my MBP via the Apple online-store in 2011. In 2013 and unfortunately without Apple Care the discussed problem occured for the first time. An Apple reseller and provider repaired the main logic board because of the graphic problems. It costed 250 Euros plus an exchange laptop for 50 Euros. In January 2014 the same graphic problem appeared for the second time. back again to the reseller and provider. They already had seven out of ten MBPs there back to repair again. And now only three months later for the THIRD time. I went to an Apple retail store, where they told me that Apple hasn't acknowledged this problem yet.

The repair Apple reseller and provider is understandably not amused, too. Within a 12 month guarantee on repair he has to repair it again. So everybody is "pXXsed" except Apple.

Is there a solution where I can change the complete logic board and not having it replaced with the same buggy logic board? Thanks for reply.

agomera wrote:

 

Indeed, I would have taken mine to the same Apple Store as well. I'm currently sitting at the Apple Store at the Louvre and they just quoted me a 480 Euro logic board replacement. They mentioned it will be cheaper in the US, so I might wait until I fly back to see how much they ask for the repair.

Can't just quote anything from this forum, proves nothing for Apple as it can't be verified, so case number would help a lot.

Guess we'll have to wait for his next failure so he gets back around..

I went to this store at the Louvres back in february, same story as yours, but was somewhat surprised that blue shirt dudes were aware of this widespread issue even before I got to talk to my booked genius employee.

And I looked around but can't find any reballer in Paris, only one that was too expensive with a 3 months guarantee and wasn't even doing it himself but sending it away so around 10 days of delay.

Hi Ruud,

Maybe this is a bit much to ask, but do you happen to have any correspondence you're willing to share that I could cite as a sort of precedent when I contact Apple?

Right now my MBP is still functioning, but it heats up enormously (fans whining full-on) even when browsing a simple website without any (significant) processes running in the background. From what I've read so far, I'm kind of assuming this is basically the "beginning of the end".

I'm hoping Apple is willing to take a look at the current situation, instead of waiting for parts to actually fail.

Cheers,

Andra

Well, just wanted to let you know that my "heat the laptop" trick worked for 3 days and now it's back to its original problem. I am now writing this using the integrated graphics only. My 1000$ 27" Apple LED Cinema display is in storage since it cannot be used with the laptop. Apple should really fix this...

odedidas, that towel trick is a joke.

First popped up to "fix" xbox 360's back in 2006-2007 or something.

Was allready doing reballs back then telling people the same, that the towel trick is a joke.

Don't get it why people still fall for it...

Out of curiosity however, I did try it myself and got an xbox working again... for I think even 2 or 3 weeks.

Reballed it and lasted for years.

Might even still work as I never heared of it failing again.

It's not entirely a joke, that's still the only way I can get my machine to show some image for some period of time so I can switch to Integrated Graphics with gfxcardstatus.

The towel trick sounds funny, but it does achieve something. It's probably doesn't "melt" any connectors (:)), but it does get the machine hot enough to force the machine to go to Integrated GPU mode at reboot. That is a must if you want to revert to the working Intel GPU.

odedias, ok, as long as you realise that.

I now what happens with the towel trick, still a joke for me, no matter what.

Some however post about it as beeing a "real"  repair.

One day it probably won't work anymore.

You'd be better off with a better fix like reflow/reball though.

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

Actually, the word is "tow".  Regardless, $20.55/hour is not exactly slave wages.

carl wolf wrote:

 

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

Actually, the word is "tow".

Actually, it's not.  The term is thought to derive from sports usage and has a long history, along with similar phrases "toe the mark" and "toe the scratch".   The word is a verbalized version of part of the foot, not a synonym for 'pull'.  Check your etymology before offering corrections, please!

I was so taken aback by Mr Wolf's inaccurate correction of my post that I completely overlooked the gist of his post (that's gist, not jist - a modern corruption). True, the rates are not sweat shop level but it indicates a certain contempt for their staff and I thought it worth raising.  But I realise now that Carl Wolf is not here to contribute anything meaningful. A look through his other posts within the discussion groups shows a man given to one-line put-downs with little-to-no useful observations or advice.  That would be the definition of a troll.

All -

I finally broke down and called Apple yesterday looking for some sort of help with this issue.   I have held off hoping that Apple would do the right thing here.   This has been going on for some time, but I still have some glimmer of hope that they willl make this right in the end.  

Here are my thoughts on the issue, as someone who has spent several thousands of dollars on Apple products...

4 - Apple TVs

3 - iPads

3 - iPods

1 - MacBook Pro

1 - MacBook Air

1 - MacPro

1 - Apple Airport Extreme

1 - 27" Apple Cinema Display

What I can tell you, in 2011 when I purchased my MacBook Pro, I also purchased an Alienware Windows 7 laptop.   My Windows 7 Laptop is still alive and kicking and was a fraction of what I paid for my 17" MBP.   It is VERY unfortunate that I am losing my faith in Apple products.  

The first issue was with my MacPro (Dual Processor) 16 GB of Ram unit that has a 32 bit EFI.   It is fully capable of running Maverick, but only if they enable 32 bit EFI for booting the CD...  Which of course they don't.   So several thousands of dollars suck running an old OS that Apple surely will stop supporting at some time.   This hardware is so powerful that anything I have thrown at it has worked flawlessly... unfortunately it's obsolete because of the 32 bit EFI.  Annoying...  but, I get it because that is a hardware limitation, poor original design, but... I'll live with that....

The second issue was with my MBP 17" early 2011...  yup, my nice 27" display looks amazing... wait, I can't use it in integrated mode.   So I am suck using my MacBook Air on my 27" display doing photoshop...  My $2800 machine is worthless and Apple said they can repair the logic board (which everyone has heard).

So what am I going to say that is different?   Well I can tell you that Apple said that this model (serial number) was not affected and the logic board would fix the issue, however they are not willing to give me an extended waranty just the standard 90 days.   I explained my extreme frustration with it, but it was not the tech's fault, he's just getting direction from his management. 

Here is a quote from Steve Jobs, the man who made Apple what it is... 

     "Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”

All I have to say is that this product certainly does not meet the yardstick of quality and certainly does not meet my expected excellence of Apple. 

Another quote from Steve Jobs...

     "Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.”

Unfortunately Apple is not quickly admiting that there was a product issue with this year of MBP.   This does not sound like the same company that was ran by Steve Jobs.   I think Jobs would have recognized it, and corrected it.  Sure it would have eaten into profit, but what Steve understood is that loyalty of the consumer is worth more than a few hardware repairs.   Consumers willing to pay $2800 for a product becasue they know... no, they expect high quality and certainty it will work, is what he was after.   It is a shame that it is slipping away.

Anyway, good luck to all of you.  I wish the best.  I hope Apple gets this one right.  They are very close to losing an avid apple fanatic here.  

Hi, I found this thread after my 2012 Retina MacBook Pro has frequend graphics issues.

What finally helped me to make it usable again is setting the graphics enabler flag to off during boot. This way only the integrated graphics are loaded and I can use my rMBP like normal again. The loss of the discrete graphics is no problem at all for me as long as I can at least use my Mac.

Here's what you can enter into the Terminal to diable the discrete graphics during boot:

sudo nvram boot-args="GraphicsEnabler=No"

Of course it only takes action after a reboot.

This helped me a lot and I hope you can use it too.