Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

LovedJames wrote:

 

Question, so the main problem is with the Early 2011 models. The Late 2011 are relatively safe

No. I have a late 2011 and it died recently.

I don't know if this will work for everyone but I am using gfxCardStatus 2.3 and the integrated card setting is kept even using gpu intensive software. What I do is to select ‘Integrated Only’ twice. The first time a message is displayed showing that you chose the intel HD3000, but the checkmark is still in the ‘Dynamic Switching’. The second time that you chose the ‘Integrated Only’ the checkmark changes to ‘Integrated Only’.

Maybe it is a bug in my machine, but its working fine since last year.

THIS, amongst other things, started happening last month after I started using Photoshop and iPhoto a lot. See my post at MacBook Pro Repeatedly Loads Purple & Teal Stripe, Gray, Light Blue, Bright Blue and Bright Blue Stripe Screens Instead …

March 2011 MacBook Pro.

I paid nearly $3700 for it so this post will come in handy. I documented everything that went wrong since I bought it and it has had graphics issues this entire time. The only reason I still have Apple Care is because of my documentation and that the major screen issues started happening after a repair.

I'm just not going to pay for a hardware design flaw on a $3600, three year old Mac. That's sheer lunacy. At that price all parts, especially parts related to necessary functions, should last longer.

Picked up my repaired (at no charge) laptop today thanks to the forms available on the Office de la protection du consommateur (Québec) website. We'll see if this logic board lasts.

Check your local consumer protection law, and see if there's anything about products lasting "a reasonable length of time under normal use". If there is, then send a formal notice by registered mail to Apple outlining the sections of the law that apply to you, and their obligations. In my case, they magically realized they were able to make all the out-of-warranty repair exceptions that they told me were impossible before. Who would have guessed......

That's great. Hope your Mac is now healed! :-)

I'll look into it. I'm pretty good with law so I'm sure I'll find something if I need it. If I ever need it I'll post back here.

Pier11,

My Late 2011 15" model died on January 1, 2014. Since I was still under AppleCare (and will be until April 2015) I'll let Apple continue to replace the logic board until I'm out of warranty - when it dies after that, my machine's off to ps3specialist!

Clinton

I have exactly the same issue as reporting by others in this topic: vertical blocked stripes during boot time (apple logo) and a complete grey screen where the login screen of mavericks should supposed to be displayed.

It started 2 weeks ago, when using my Windows 7  VM via VirtualBox, I experienced "2" separate " blocks of the OS X desktop, after reboot everything was OK. This happend like 4 times during 2 weeks ago.

This friday the party was over, I connected the MacBook 2011 to an external DVI display without the expected results, unplugged the cable and hard re-powered the MacBook with this as a result:

Hard-powered down a couple of times => no results; have it cooled down for 2 hours => no result, same issue.

After this called Apple Support to have the SMC reset and PRAM zapped => same issue, with the advice to bring it to a authorized reseller "iCenter"  in Tilburg (Netherlands).

Went over there and showed this issue and explained that this is the bloody second time that a Apple notebook went broke, just after the warranty with the exact same graphic card issue:

- iBook G3 => 1 year and 1 month, same graphic card issue, that this is a factory fault these granted my "extended warranty", after me calling and complaining to Apple Support during the course 2 weeks and 5 calls...

- PowerBook G4 12" => no issues

-  MBP 2008 => no issues

- MBP 2011 => 2 years and 2 months, just out of warranty I guess.

Lets hope the  Apple will cover these costs, they sell there product like it's the best every, but truth is this is the second unit I own, which breaks down just after warranty, something you would expect from a average 400 EUR el cheapo notebook with Windows, but not for a 2300 EUR high-end professional notebook.

Get your act together Apple!!

So, another Hi-res screen... thats interesting

Late 2011 MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz with 1GGB GDDR5 GPU bought in 2012. The GPU died this month only after 1.5 yrs of use. Stuck with grey screen after boot. Unsuccessful booting with Safe Mode and PRAM/NVRAM resetting. I think the all the 2011 MBPs had the faulty AMD GPUs. Apple should take note of this and replace all the logic boards. We have not paid huge amount of money of this ****. The MBPs are their pro notebooks and we do not expect it last less than 2 years. Shame on you Apple.

Hi guys,

I'm from Brazil and my MBP Early 2011 15" is crashing every time the discrete GPU (AMD Radeon HD 6750M) is activated, and then the machine restarts with blue/pink lined screen. Usually I need to do a SMC/PRAM reset and reboot it two or three times to can use it again.

So, I'm using gfxCardStatus to force my MBP to use only the integrated card and it's working.

I hope Apple does something about it and fix all MPB with these issues.

I have to same problem. I finally got it to boot. but I can't switch to integrated using gfxCardStatus, It thinks I have an external monitor connected. did you figure out how to fix that problem

LovedJames wrote:

 

I have to same problem. I finally got it to boot. but I can't switch to integrated using gfxCardStatus, It thinks I have an external monitor connected. did you figure out how to fix that problem

download version 2.2 instead.

Hey dude, I'm brazilian too and I'm facing the same problem as you. I'm using the GfxCardStatus to force it keep in the integrated  but when I try connect the macbook in my TV to watch movies I can't ... to connect in a external monitor as a TV I need to turn on the AMD card and as you know it crashes .... how do you solve this? Do you have some tips for me?

Abraços, e se não entender alguma parte me avisa que coloco em portugues mesmo

Dude how do you connect your macbook in external LCD monitors or even a projector? I can't do it anymore once I use gfxCardStatus to keep only in Integrated card. Please share with us more tips that you're using to avoid the troubles. Thanks since now.

Thank you =)