Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Apple can deny it all they want because the Truth is that a large portion of the people complaining about the problem are those from other countries where there are no Genius bars.

Most Americans are willing to just buy a new machine if they are told to do so. It's only the technically inclined who are willing to realize this problem for what it is (as evidenced by this thread).

Fewer complaints from US = miniscule chance of Apple reacting.

Evil8Beezle

I'm not even drilling Apple on this issue - there's no point as had been demonstrated over and over on this thread. I'm working as if mine is an isolated case and that approach is working for me. Apple covered the cost of the 3rd board and having done that - I can't imaginethey wouldn't cover the costs of future repairs of the same issue.

People need to at least try to work with Apple on this issue. (Not picking on you) Complaining here, disabling kext's, installing linux, reflowing and reballing without going to Apple means that your computer isn't counted by them. People need to atleast have it tested remotely by a rep (possible) or get a genius to test it - I think that's how Apple will know it's an issue.

Carl

Honestly that's what I'm hoping for at this point - no one should trust a 2011 MacBook. The genius said yesterday: If this one fails, contact Apple [corporate] first [rather than coming in] - three times for the same issue is handled "differently."

I'm already working with corporate on this issue - but I know she'll need confirmation of a fail before anything further happens. I plan to let the tech test and confirm and then chat with her while I'm still in the store.

I can confedently say that American's are NOT willing to buy a new machine if told to do so. An Apple is a huge investment very few keep that kind of money lying around!

FWIW - here's what I was greated with on my 3rd logic board

With my SSD that contains all of my stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZreATx14144

With a stock OS x 10.9.3 install only (nothing else) on the hard drive that shipped with the unit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47Tfg5l7FH0

I'm very happy to work with Apple, but Apple shouldn't expect their loyal customers to jump through hoops, pay for 2+ logicboard replacements before they are prepared to explore other options...

Apple are obvioulsy very aware of the issue, but won't say anything about it.

Instead of holding their hands up, admitting there is a problem, and finding a REAL solution for there customers. They are trying to keep it all quiet and only dealing with it on a case by case issue (inconsistently), which leaves there customers questioning whether they will every buy or recommend Apple products ever again.

I'd much rather Apple stood up, admitted the issue and said what they were going to do for their customers. As then i would know where I stood with regards the issue, and would think an awful lot more of the company...

I would also like to know why a lot of people who have had their logic board replaced are only finding this replacement lasting for days/months. As a lot of the originally shipped computers are lasting 2+ years on the initial logic board?

Are the replacement boards just reconditioned units that have just been reflowed by Apple?

And why are Apple only giving a 3 month warranty on this boards?

Basically, are they hoping to wear down their customers so they give up and just buy a new laptop?

I'm 100% sure that the replacements are refurbished boards from other failing MacBooks. Who knows why they failed initially, but evedently this problem takes about 2 years to surface. These replacment boards are well past that date. If they passed the hardware test then I'm sure they pass down the line as good. From my experience, this issue doesn't first occur 100% of the time, it can be very intermitent and if it was tested on a good day, then sorry for the poor guy who gets it.

Some pages back, there is a guy in europe whose replacment board was covered in rust.

Nudoru,

I think that charging hundreds of pounts for a 2nd hand replacement board that may last only days is discraceful!

The design fault is brought about by heat stress, so why would anyone risk their money on something that ULTIMATLY will fail, and probably soon than you think (as it's second hand) is beyond me. Now if these replacement boards were new and I could get 2+ years out of it, I MIGHT consider getting my MBP repaired. But to spend hundreds of pounds on a 2nd hand part with a 3 month warranty, I'd need to have my head examined!!!

I'd much rather bin this flawed pile of junk and put the money for a flawed replacement part towards a new laptop that wasn't flawed. And guess what, it wan't be made by Apple!

And along with that, I'll do my best to ensure no one I know buys an Apple product either. So well done Apple accountant's, you know the price of everything and the value of nothing! Let's see how well your sales figures do in the years to come...

I was never informed by apple that the part was refurbished, apple told me it was new.....

Hunk of junk replacement....

i can hel u solve those problems in 2hours,only replace the broken chips on the logic board! if u are in shanghai,u can contact me with WeChat:Jack-Mac-fix

nexuz6 wrote:

 

macadmin.de wrote:

 

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.

 

I tried the following (with no success):

 

1) Boot into Single-Mode (cmd+s)

2) sudo nvram boot-args="GraphicsEnabler=No"

3) reboot

 

Did I do it right?

 

Thanks,

I just entered it into the Terminal within OS X. But in singleuser mode it should also work. Maybe try to enter it after login just to make sure..

@Lomp

That's my opinion. I don't undestand how they could have a stack of "new" board for a computer model that's been out of production for so many years.

@Evil8Beezle

I can't argue with you for any of that.

LOL, Just had a post removed (within minutes of posting) - I guess Apple didn't like it...

But the email I got about it says that the forum is for technical questions to be answered by the community.

I guess by the word "community" that doesn't include Apple, and they don't want to answer the issue regarding this (and other treads) concerning the MBP logic board.

So what are they going to do when they run out of flawed second hand logic boards?

Thought I'd pass this along...my email to Executive Offices.

[Apple Exec Team]-

 

I have been operating without any video kernel panic issues since I picked up my Mac from repair. However, the fans are on almost all the time. This is concerning to me and I want it to be part of my case notes (Case #xxxxxxx).

 

 

To my point, I am simply surfing the web and using Microsoft Word right now and have the Mac sitting on an active laptop fan in a 72 degree room, yet fans are running at 5500 rpm.

 

This will be helpful for [Senior Tech Advisor]:

This is not normal behavior of a healthy MacBook Pro and is indicative of excessive heat inside the case.