Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

It is the reality even if it doesn't make sense to you, that what I find all the time in these broken logic boards, dust granules are sometimes microscopic in size and with some humedity and heating from the chip itself they build up under the solder balls and cause all these problems. The picture I posted is an avarage example , I have seen much worse than that.

ps3specialist wrote:

dust granules are sometimes microscopic in size and with some humedity and heating from the chip itself they build up under the solder balls and cause all these problems.

Which is a design flaw. They should be protected from such things so that the machines last for more than a couple of years.  If you reckon that this is normal, then ALL such machines are poorly designed and should never have been foisted on the public.  We don't pay thousands of dollars for a burner.

Its always easy to blame the design but can you think of a better one or do you think we all should stop using computers until someone comes up with a design that grantees that no computer will ever fail. Think of it this way: we have to make the best use of what we have until something better comes out and hope one day someone will be able to make a logic board that combine all the components with no soldering at all so these issues don't happen because they are all caused by solder.

PS3specialist, I'm sure you are right in what causes the GPU to fail. But what is not clear, is why this happens more often in the 2011 models.

I have a 2007 macbook pro that is still being used every day by a family member, and so are 2 white low end plastic macbooks from 2006 in our family too, and an unibody macbook from 2010.

BTW, the GPU of the 2007 MBP melted, but Apple did a recall that time and it was repaired at no cost.

Well, you go off-grid for a few days and come back ten pages later! 

I've been running my machine with its replaced logic board for a month now with no ill effects. But I am underutilizing its supposed potential.  I'm using the GFXCardStatus to keep the machine on integrated graphics, or rather, as soon as I see a program launch the discrete GPU, I quit it, force to integrated and relaunch. That way I can take note of which programs are built to use the problem chip, just out of curiosity.

I know it's a fix that shouldn't be required and that Apple should come clean. Heck, I was almost as noisy as Evil8Beezle when I first joined this thread.  Almost.  But, as degger pointed out, some of us would just like to keep using it even with hobbled graphics.

Off topic - has anyone Hackintoshed another laptop like a Sager? I wouldn't give up OSX in a hurry.

Careful, he'll tell you you can't compare different computers.

Pier11 wrote:

 

I have a 2007 macbook pro that is still being used every day by a family member, and so are 2 white low end plastic macbooks from 2006 in our family too, and an unibody macbook from 2010.

no cost.

You are totally - TOTALLY - missing the point.

ps3specialist wrote:

 

Its always easy to blame the design but can you think of a better one or do you think we all should stop using computers until someone comes up with a design that grantees that no computer will ever fail.

DMC440 wrote:

 

You are totally - TOTALLY - missing the point.

Not just that but he's also utterly wrong. Anywhoo: Don't feed the trolls!

Prove it, talks only is not enough, you are free to think what you want but to share that you have to prove your point like I do,at least I would appreciate your openion if you do and keep in mind that some people will be affected by what you say so at least explain to them what you think don't just make it a fact without a reason to beleive it is.

This will be my absolute last reply to you because we're reiterating the same points over and over again and I don't want to help your hidden agenda...

ps3specialist wrote:

 

Prove it, talks only is not enough,

You didn't prove anything yourself, this is an assumption that has little merit.

The point is if dust under the package really did corrode the balls then all BGA packages in all devices would be affected, most prominently the CPU and the x67 chipset, rather than just a few specific GPUs in early and late 2011 MBPs. Since they are not so that proves your theory wrong.

I proved my statements with pictures, you did not do anything other than posting empty words, who told you that its not happening in every electronic device, laptops, desktops, game consoles, tv digital boards all suffering for the same cause what do you need more to prove it, I told you you are free to think or believ what you want but to share it you need to prove that you are right so you don't cause troubles for someone else.

ps3specialist wrote:

 

Its always easy to blame the design but can you think of a better one or do you think we all should stop using computers until someone comes up with a design that grantees that no computer will ever fail.

There is no justification or excuse for this, a premium priced bespoke product from a prestigious company should have one of it's flagship products last much longer and not a mere fraction of the time that when compared to some still functioning technology from the eighties does (or other decades) which can be found working still today.

To say what you did is dangerous in that your trying to make it generally acceptable and common for failures to take place in a short time. Next thing is you dupe the mass of owners and users into believing we should get no more than 2 to 3 (as is the case with this issue) and then manufacturers 'revel' in that new found acceptance by the mass consumers by building poor quality inferior cheaper machines while charging highly for profiteering and we all become worse of with our purchases. I believe (and really hope) Apple are not like this, although I don't understand the current delay for a re-call. Instead companies 'must' strive for achieving perfection which is the only way we move forth and although incidents and failures will happen, they must nevertheless retain the mentality for trying to achieve perfection for that act and philosophy in itself does serve to minimize failures which is better than maximizing them. This means that whenever their is a major design flaw, the company has to put it's hands up, accept it, resolve it quickly (all instances) and move on with the strive towards perfection. As a result all of us paying owners and customers would then retain massive huge faith in the manufacturer with the confidence that when there is a problem (after all to 'Er' is human) then we will all have security and peace of mind knowing we're with the best manufacturer in it's field of business that can address and resolve it's design defect if and when they should occur as well as the manufacturer learning from this.

I for one expect my MacBookPro8,3 to at least perform to spec for no less than the UK consumer law of 6 years for a product, NOT 2 to 3 years. It's a good thing that the very very old Voyager (NASA) with it's ancient technology decades & decades before the MacBook Pro, still managed to last for an unprecedented length of time.

I TOTALIDAD AGREE WITH YOU. Diesel-X

Ps3specialist you maybe right on the cause, but you're wrong considering it *NORML*, the whole electronic industry have been experiencing issues with bga soldering since lead-free soldering was introduced, the fact is that the silver aleation used initially under certain conditions tend to fatigue and corrode, but us wrong to assume this is normal and we must to learn to live with, when Apple switched to some formula of lead free soldering they assumed some risk from us,  and it's evident the thermal stress at the gpu what fires the failure, not the dust, since the cpu is close and have an bigger number of soldering experiencing the same dust and don't fail, where I use to work dust have never been a problem, in fact actually we crean once a year devices internally just by maintenance rules, but we don't use to find dust since our environment is filtered constantly.

I hope Apple will take few $ from its huge balance and put on they Public Image investments by recalling early defective MBP e2011.

Here are some more pictures (different from my previous) - basically there are many different display symptoms and characteristic anomalys experienced as a result of the same fault. They usually end with an eventual freeze/crash and occasionally don't. When the system crashes it may take a few attempts, several attempts or even a couple of days to eventually get a successful Power-up (as did with me only recently).

Normally when the fault occurs on 'power-up', it's usually a blank Grey screen that never ever reaches the desktop and sometimes a Blue screen with faint thin strips that also never makes it to desktop leaving no option to hold the Power Button down to forcefully power-off the MacBook Pro. (I've posted the blue and grey screen pictures previously on Page 390).

However below shows the fault/defect occurring while I was in the Desktop (which I hadn't posted yet). It's important that all affected owners where possible post their pictures of the fault occurring.

ABOVE: The fault occurs and loses graphical display integrity and system responsiveness from the user

ABOVE:  A black bar appears where it shouldn't and the Desktop has been 'split' towards the right hand side where it can be seen that the Dock, the Menu Bar and Desktop work area are clearly split where the whole display has been shifted to one side by apprx 25% with the cut-off edge wrapping around to the other side

ABOVE: This image is similar to the one before it but without the black horizontal bar.

These are just more examples to the many others and being graphical related it therefore similarly varies .

I don't know if you have a six years warranty by law in the UK why are you posting here, you road should be clear to get a new one for free , when people talk about design they have to know what design is, to make it simple.. they have to be specialized designers not consumers , if you are talking from a consumer point of view so you shouldn't discuss technical issues at all, you are not a specialized to do that, posting a technical openion is a mistake , you can just complain that your valuable computer failed after only three years without discussing the reasons for the failure, if doing just that is good enough for a manufacturer to issue a recall they will certainly do if the failure is on a large scale, I post technical explanations as a specialized and profissional reballer and I do that for people who need help to understand the issue and find the solution if they can not wait until the manufacturer issue a recall if they will ever do, you can wait for that if you choose to but don't issue false statement about design flaw or technical issues you don't know about and you don't have the right to force everybody else to follow your lead and wait indifinitly for the recall that might never happen or if it will happen no body knows when.