Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Like all of you my problems started two and half years of using my 2011 MBP. It started in august and I thought that my mbp was totally damaged, so I took of my SSD and the HDD that I had with a data doubler and put everything stock, but still couldnt boot with a USB to try reinstalling the OS, but for some reason I could get it to boot with the CD (I had the leopard CD) and reinstall the OS, then I could upgrade to Lion and yesterday I could also upgrade to mavericks.

What I think is making it work is that I installed GFXcardstatus right after I could get to desktop and run everything with the integrated GPU and also install smcFanControl and speed my fans to 4000 rpm (I saw this in other forum) also when the OS wants to use the Discrete GPU I inmediately change it to the integrated and kill the application that is trying to use it.

I dont know if this is the reason to make it work but it does, Although I havent shut it down and dont plan to, just put it on sleep when not in use.

So if i do this all my application files will be forever modified?? A little scary!

Valmorion wrote:

 

Ok some one did post it before i'll rewrite so dont remember de page:

 

1) Turn on presing (cmd+s) this will boot in single user mode so no graphics you will see ":/ root#"

2) Type the next sentences in order:

     1-     fsck -fy                                                             (to check the disk)

     2-     mount -uw /                                                      (permision read/write)

     3-     mkdir DisabledExtensions                              (Create a place to move the drives)

     4-     cd /System/Library/Extensions                      (Go to where the drivers are located)

     5-    sudo mv ATI* /DisabledExtensions                (move all ati stuff to the place made before)

     6-    sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions        (updates the access and modification timestamps                                                                                        for the Extensions folder)

     7-     reboot

 

Then it should boot, in my case it goes where you type the password but it only shows the gry background and cant see the box but i typed the password and it works, and then you have a half working macbook pro, finder crash for me, i managed to enter with shift+cmd and there the finder works. Im still looking to really force it to dont try and use the amd gpu.

thank for the reply. I will def try that. When you say half a working mac, what did you mean by that?

Half working because some aplications wont work only with the integratred gpu, i use eclipse to program and it works, but i prefer google chrome to opne pages and it doenst, i change to firefox, and the finder just work for me when i enter in safe mode (shift+cmd) not try other apps yet to see which open and which no.

I have two different systems on my MacBook Pro. 10.8.5 on SSD and 10.8.6 on opti-bay HD.

When I try to start up my Mac and it locks I do following (it sometimes helps).

1. I turn on MacBook then press alt button.

It helps me to choose start up disk. I choose Snow Leopard for start up. 

2. MacBook Pro begins to load 10.8.6 and locks again.

3. I restart it and don't touch any buttons.

MacBook Pro loads 10.8.5 successfully (not sure it will help every time).

4. I turn on internal card instantly on gFxCardStatus

Day 4 of running on AMD only, with switching forced OFF via Energy Saver pref panel.

It finally crashed, during a wakeup from sleep. No glitching, no reboots, it just froze with a black screen and never woke up.

I forced it off, got a glitched Apple boot screen, let it go through to the empty gray screen, left it there for 30 seconds, shut down, unplugged from AC, rebooted, waited for the boot to complete, replugged. No glitches, like every time before.

It looks like i've found the magical incantation that makes my particular machine work.

I still maintain that forcing integrated (Intel) gfx. only and, especially, removing the ATI/AMD kexts will get you nowhere.

By the way, these instructions:

"5-    sudo mv ATI* /DisabledExtensions                (move all ati stuff to the place made before)"

... are dead wrong. The ATI* kexts aren't what your mac is using. It's the AMD* ones. You're doing exactly nothing by moving the ATI* kexts to a different folder. If you don't believe me, check what's loaded like this:

kextstat | grep ATI

kextstat | grep AMD

You'll see it's the AMD drivers that are actually getting loaded, not the ATI ones.

Oh, and just by the way, setting gfxCardStatus to Integrated Only doesn't guarantee the discrete (AMD) GPU will never be used. Especially under Mavericks. Apps can still force discrete.

Orcinus wrote:

 

Day 4 of running on AMD only, with switching forced OFF via Energy Saver pref panel.

It finally crashed, during a wakeup from sleep. No glitching, no reboots, it just froze with a black screen and never woke up.

 

I forced it off, got a glitched Apple boot screen, let it go through to the empty gray screen, left it there for 30 seconds, shut down, unplugged from AC, rebooted, waited for the boot to complete, replugged. No glitches, like every time before.

It looks like i've found the magical incantation that makes my particular machine work.

I still maintain that forcing integrated (Intel) gfx. only and, especially, removing the ATI/AMD kexts will get you nowhere.

 

By the way, these instructions:

 

"5-    sudo mv ATI* /DisabledExtensions                (move all ati stuff to the place made before)"

 

... are dead wrong. The ATI* kexts aren't what your mac is using. It's the AMD* ones. You're doing exactly nothing by moving the ATI* kexts to a different folder. If you don't believe me, check what's loaded like this:

 

kextstat | grep ATI

kextstat | grep AMD

 

You'll see it's the AMD drivers that are actually getting loaded, not the ATI ones.

Do you mind posting the entire corrected code? I am not a programmer and don't know what you mean by

kextstat | grep ATI

kextstat | grep AMD

many thanks in advances

Orcinus wrote:

 

By the way, these instructions:

 

"5-    sudo mv ATI* /DisabledExtensions                (move all ati stuff to the place made before)"

 

... are dead wrong. The ATI* kexts aren't what your mac is using. It's the AMD* ones. You're doing exactly nothing by moving the ATI* kexts to a different folder. If you don't believe me, check what's loaded like this:

 

kextstat | grep ATI

kextstat | grep AMD

 

You'll see it's the AMD drivers that are actually getting loaded, not the ATI ones.

Maybe you are rigth but thats exactly (mov ATI*) what i did and it start booting, and didnt see any amd files in my extensions folder maybe is related to which chip your macbook have mine is

AMD Radeon HD 6490M 256 MB

There is no corrected code.

Type the following into your terminal while booted normally:

kextstat | grep ATI

and hit enter.

Then type:

kextstat | grep AMD

and hit enter.

You'll get a list of loaded kexts matching the search pattern in both cases. As you'll probably see, the driver kexts that are actually loaded are:

com.apple.kext.AMDSupport (1.1.4)

com.apple.kext.AMD6000Controller (1.1.4)

com.apple.AMDRadeonX3000 (1.1.4)

com.apple.kext.AMDFramebuffer (1.1.4)

The bold parts above correspond to kext folder names in /System/Library/Extensions.

Moving any or all of them to a different folder will result in a machine in various states of semi-usability and will solve nothing. If you move all of them, you will likely get your machine in an unbootable state. If you move some of them, you will either get blue tinted graphics, slowness and glitches in transitions (like moving through Spaces, Expose/Mission Control etc.), crashes of apps that require discrete GPU or all of the above. Or the result might be absolutely no change at all.

If you get it to the point where the image is tinted blue, that means you've removed one too many kexts and made the machine fall back to the default, barely accelerated driver. The equivalent of the SVGA driver in Windows, if you will. As a sidenote, when you do that, gfxCardStatus will happily inform you you are running on discrete GPU, which isn't true.

Valmorion wrote:

 

Maybe you are rigth but thats exactly (mov ATI*) what i did and it start booting, and didnt see any amd files in my extensions folder maybe is related to which chip your macbook have mine is

 

AMD Radeon HD 6490M 256 MB

Of course it's related. Mine's a 6750M.

The whole point is that everyone seems to be removing kexts left and right *without even checking* which driver they're running. On top of that, everyone's convinced the ATI GPU is faulty, despite the fact you can get it to run fairly well for quite a while, once you get it to run, and that ALL OF US having ALMOST EXACTLY the same issues with DIFFERENT GPUs.

On Monday, I write an email to Tim Cook and was connected to an executive customer service person we scheduled a call with a tech for this am. Had a nice conversation and ran some diagnostics, sent the log, sent screen shots and he took down a description of my issue. I also passed along a link to this thread. All of the data was sent to engineering and I received a call back a few hours later. Verdict: Take it in to have it looked at and then pay for the out of warranty repair. I stressed again that they need to keep paying attention to this thread and this issue and was assured that they do and would. Everyone I spoke to was very nice, compassionate and attentive.

Honestly, this is what I’d expected based on what others have been though. Apple needs to see this issue enough times before they take real notice of it.

I have an Genius Bar appointment at lunch on Friday to see what they say. I’m hoping I’ll be able to do the $300 mail in repair – I can live without it for a few days if it’s a $200 savings.

ok, so let me see if I followed you. Right now all of us can't boot because we are booting using the AMD graphic card and that graphic card is busted. I guess the million dollar question is if you know a way I can get into my macbook pro and boot using the good graphic card? I don't know if that's the right approach but can you please guide us into booting our mac?

nudoru wrote:

 

Verdict: Take it in to have it looked at and then pay for the out of warranty repair. I stressed again that they need to keep paying attention to this thread and this issue and was assured that they do and would. Everyone I spoke to was very nice, compassionate and attentive.

 

Honestly, this is what I’d expected based on what others have been though. Apple needs to see this issue enough times before they take real notice of it.

So, in other words, you've acomplished nothing.

Hate to burst your bubble, but Apple is well aware of this issue by now.

It's not that they aren't listening. They're ignoring and they have every right to, because machines are out of warranty. They won't do *a thing* until this becomes enough of a PR nuisance, which it never will.

dawson203 wrote:

 

ok, so let me see if I followed you. Right now all of us can't boot because we are booting using the AMD graphic card and that graphic card is busted. I guess the million dollar question is if you know a way I can get into my macbook pro and boot using the good graphic card? I don't know if that's the right approach but can you please guide us into booting our mac?

Like i've said a dozen times by now, i'm running just fine ON THE supposedly busted AMD GPU. My theory is, it's not the GPU that's busted. It's either the power management responsible for it or the power supply. In other words, either option will work - sticking to integrated GPU or sticking to the discrete GPU, just prevent it from switching!

Also, once it's in the state where it keeps glitching out, neither option will work correctly. Once you get it to boot fine, and turn off switching (doing that via Energy Saver panel will make it stick with the AMD GPU), it'll continue to work fairly well for days until something kicks it back into glitching. Usually waking up from sleep, switching from AC to battery and back or rebooting. At that point, you need to get it to boot glitchless again.

Getting it to boot glitchless appears to consist of different "magical" procedures for different people and different machines. For me it means letting it try to boot, letting it fail with an empty gray screen and fans kicking in slowly, unplugging it from AC, then shutting down and powering up again on battery (after which i can safely plug in AC back).

For you it might (and probably will be) something different, you need to experiment yourself until you find something that works.