Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Nicholas,

The problem with the defectively soldered GPU has no specific OS tied to it - it's a hardware defect, not affected by which flavor of OS X one is running.

Clinton

The problem is not directly related, but if one OS stress more a part and make the defect appear faster it bring an important question nobody will ever be able to reply to ... will it happen if you didn't upgrade ? haha.

I've exclusively used Snow Leopard on my MBP 15" 2.2 and it failed. As mentioned by others, it's not an OS issue, but a hardware fault.

Having said that, 10.7, 10.8 and 10.9 have offloaded increasing workload from the CPU to the GPU through Core Animation, so it's entirely possible that the GPU runs consistently hotter if you're using a more modern OS. I should note that I'm probably 95% of the time running a twin screen setup, which forces the discrete CPU to drive the external monitor.

It's possible that if you use twin-screens or use GPU intensive apps that this is increasingly the thermal stress and hence increasing the chance your MacBook Pro will fail.

However I'm pretty sure I don't recall any Apple advertising saying "using your MacBook Pro in professional applications or a multi-screen environment will decrease its working life. Professional users should buy the cheaper MacBook with integrated GPU to ensure reliable operation beyond 3 years". No, I'm quite sure I don't remember that particular advert whilst deciding to spend my money on a top of the range computer...

Here is a wee twitter conversation I had with the creator of gfx...of course there was no further reply once I raised the problem....

For me your situation is strange. My 2.2.1 still now 3 days no problems ...

Im telling you, it changes everytime I open an App that requires the NVIDIA card and have to manually reset back it to integrate.

I've tried with the 2.2.1 as you suggested and the whole thing went BALLISTIC, so I reinstalled the 2.3... all works fine if it didn't switch between cards.

You dont have a clue how muchI am stressing outsince there is no way out of this then not having to spend at least £200 even just for a reball (which btw is not even 100% sure!) for a problem that doesnt depend on my and any sorte of mis-use of the machine. And in this very moment in time I dont have enough money to go either way: <-- REPAIR  or  NEW MACHINE --> and I have work to be done.

And even being 1000s of us in the same frustrating situation nobody from this bloody bloodsuckers company seems to care a scooby about it!!

NVIDIA ? don't you have a early 2011 with the AMD 6750 ?

Dude, my laptop is dead too, and I'm in a foreigner country I even don't speak the language trying to do my life as freelance, and no Apple Store here, just authorised seller, so please ... I know how stressful is it.

On mine that was quick... Yesterday I had the split screen / lines for the first time. The day before I had a "simple" crash and then a blue screen when trying to boot of my USB OSX install key, but I didn't know it was related to the GPU at that time. After installing gfxCardStatus, I had to reboot and couldn't boot anymore since then (grey screen after the OS is loaded). I managed to boot from an old SL install but it crashed right after launching Chrome so I couldn't download gfxCardStatus. Then I couldn't boot in SL either.

I'm just going to have my GPU replaced and reballed, I don't have the time to wait for Apple to provide a free fix/replacement. Sad but 200 EUR of reinvestment in a 3 years old laptop is not that much for a professional use (that doesn't mean Apple's non reaction is acceptable either...)

HA! as I said b4 this problem is years old already existing on previous models like mine MBP 15" mid-2010 model type MacBookPro6,2...

AND STILL NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE!!!

It all started go crazy once I upgraded from SL to ML. I've took it to the Apple authorised centre and the technician said that I was probably one of the lucky ones to get this problem so latr in the life of the machine cause I kept the machine immaculate and they didn't even charge me for the diagnostic cause they straight away knew what the problem was and confirmed that is a manifacturer fault on these models....

I'm going to do a rebal in Holland next week, it will cost me €100,- so i think that's an okay price I'm willing to pay for the repair. Hopefully it will last some time.

100 euros for a reball sounds good ... Anyone know where to do a reball in taiwan ?

Just wanted to add myself to the list of users who experienced the issue.  Early 2011 17" Macbook Pro Quad with the 6750 discrete graphics card.  So far the workaround for me is the suggested method of allowing the laptop to shut itself down when it hangs on a grey screen at boot.  Then after reboot and login use GFXStatus to select integrated.  Last time the computer was up for 2 days before it froze again.  We'll see how long this round lasts. 

<Link Edited By Host>

A SOLUTION of sorts (so far, so good for a week now)

For two months my 15" mbp (late 2011, 2.4 Ghz Intel Core i7, 8GB ram, AMD Radeon HD 6770M, Intel HD Graphics 3000, latest Mavericks OS) has been crashing and burning with the ubiquitous GPU problem.

The only way to boot was multiple times via Internet Recovery and SUM (to clean up permissions, etc.) Cannot boot from USB to recover (always blue screen), the DVD drive died a long time ago and no second mac to link to.

Enough was enough, so:

1. I backed up my data and completely erased the drive with Internet Recovery Disk Utility (Fastest).

2. Then using Internet Recovery (command R) I installed Lion (which was the only install option given).

3. Installed gfxCardStatus v.2.2.1

http://www.downloadcrew.com/article/27732-gfxcardstatus

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/downloads/3328418/gfxcardstatus-221/

4. Checkbox gfxCardStatus to 'Integrated Only' and uncheck Preference 'Use power source-based switching'.

5. Then choose System Preferences > Energy Saver > Better Battery Life.

6. Install smcFanControl > Preferences > 4000rpm default.

http://www.eidac.de/smcfancontrol/smcfancontrol_2_4.zip

7. (Optional) Install Photoshop > Preferences > Performance > Graphics Processor Setting > Uncheck "Use Graphics Processor".

Reinstall your favourite apps and use your backup to get your browser plug-ins, contacts etc.

When you back up, also back up (iCloud?) as separate files your contacts , bookmarks, little snitch settings (if you use), etc. which makes it easier to find them when reinstalling.

Caveat: the only time it has crashed is when I put it to sleep without the cable (on battery) and woke up to a black screen with the disk still spinning, so I though bx11oxs, but after a PRAM reset (Command, option P,R (hold twice until you hear the loud boot up tone)) and two restarts it came back to life. So when putting to sleep probably best to keep the mains cable plugged in. (I do put it to sleep for 30 minutes when taking to work with no problem).

I haven't risked any graphics intensive software like video editing or 3D games but I can surf, use YouTube, VLC, DVD Player, Photoshop (but no silly business with the filters), Illustrator, Acrobat, iWorks, MS Office, uTorrent, etc.

My mac is cool to the touch (46˚C), faster and I can't hear any spinning fans, and I've rebooted with no problems all week, it's almost like having my old friend back.

Eventually I will probably get a reball, but as I'm in Thailand my options are limited (perchance, does anyone know a good lead (as in zeppelin) reballer in Thailand?). If I send to the UK or US I will probably have to pay local customs a lot of 'tea money' when it's returned. I'm loathe to fork out my hard earned wonga on a 'new' logic board which by all accounts will shuffle off within months.

I have a feeling Mavericks has something to do with it, maybe more processor hungry, I don't know I'm not an expert, Lion just seems a lot more stable.

Also I used to work for large design houses and corporate consultants who had offices full of macs but I've not seen one of them shouting about it on these forums, just individuals, why?

Give it time and the newer models will start to show the same problems.

So, I hope some of you can find this solution useful - it took a lot of messing about and research on the interwebs and a bit of luck to work this out.

Here are some useful SUM scripts (my thanks to various sources) - copy and paste:

1. Always do these two first .

fsck -fy /    (do this as many times until it says no modifications)

mount -uw /

2. To repair permissions

/usr/libexec/repair_packages --repair --standard-pkgs

3. Disk repair (fixing invalid node structure)

ls -1 /dev/disk*    (to find which is your startup disk)

fsck_hfs -rf /dev/disk0s2    (hfs for mac formatted and 0s2 for my particular HD)

4. Use this to clean your mac when it is really fxxxed up)

fsck_hfs -y -Rc -d /dev/disk0s2

5. Turn on / off wifi

networksetup -setairportpower airport on

networksetup -setairportpower airport off

I tried using Applejack but it didn't do much, the above scripts are a lot more useful.

Chock dee krap (good luck)

i have been using gfxCardStatus v2.2.1 for 2 months, since the problem started to occur. And it gave me a relatively stable solution to be able to work with my MBP 17'' 2011.

Sometimes, an application would trigger the need for the discrete GPU and gfxCardStatus would not be able to prevent the switch. Those kind of applications were: iCal, the Quick Look preview generator (for videos and pdf mostly) and Finder (when using the preview column mode). In those cases, the computer hangs and the video freezes. Then i have to reboot with a hard power down. And The discret GPU is still the default on the next reboot, so the bootup hangs also just before the login screen, on a grey screen. In those cases, i had to use the "heat me up" technic: closing the lid and waiting for the temperature to be too high so the hardware shuts itself down and reset the default GPU to integrated.

At the next reboot, the integrated GPU would be used, and gfxCardStatus would be on "dynamic switching". I then select "integrated" immediately and then reopen all my applications and resume working.... until the next time  an application triggers the discret and gfxcardstatus cannot prevent the switch.

Chrome by example is an application that is also trying to trigger a switch, which gfxcardstatus successfully prevent.

Sometimes, the temperature trick (heat me up) would fail, and i would have no other choice than rebooting in Cmd + S mode, and removing the ATI6000Controller.ext and ATIRadeonX3000.ext from /System/Library/Extensions, and reboot.

This prevents the discrete GPU drivers to be loaded. And successfully boots up the system with the integrated GPU. But! Then it corrupts the internal Mac Os X system of GPU switching (which is not documented and for which i have no clue where it resides in the filesystem and how to deactivate it, and force the integrated to remain always the only GPU in use). And this problems affects all applications that would normally trigger a switch: chrome, finder and probably much more, are opening but with a blank empty window content!!! Also gfxCardStatus is quite lost too, and does not really enforce any choice that i choose on its menu (integrated, discrete, automatic.... nothing really make any change).

So i realized i need the drivers of the discrete GPU loaded in the system, with the hope that gfxCardStatus will do it's job.... witch it does... most of the time.

Now, i am writin gto the forum today, because i just installed the security upgrade 2014-003 of June 30 2014 (i am on Lion) and it seems that something has changed in the internals of Mac os x. The automatic switching seems to have disappear from mac os x internals.... and gfxcardstatus is as lost as when i had removed the ATI drivers...

I suspect that Apple introduced a hidden change in the switching mechanism for all the problematic MBP 2011, and if the new drivers detect a problem with the discrete chip, they might just stay on the integrated all the time....

So i will go on using my system with that new upgrade, and see if it is stable!

It seems much more stable, cause now iCal is running very well (before, it was impossible to turn a page of the month... it would trigger a switch, that gfxcardstatus was incapable of preventing... resulting in a big crash of the system... so i had decided to stop using iCal). Also, if now i remove the drivers of ATi from the extensions folder, and reboot, Chrome runs like charm.... So i really think Apple just introduced a big fic in the GPu switching internals.... that takes into account the hardware problem we are all suffering of.

Hope this helps.

Let me know about your own feedback in comments.

About the security content of OS X Mavericks v10.9.4 and Security Update 2014-003

Thanks Gegankenstrom! I too am going to try apply new thermal paste on my chips. Had my logic board replaced once already, Here's the new one: use was about 2 years, 1 month. Thermal paste is in bad shape. I'm sure everyone's is like this. Unacceptable! BTW, searching forums and tests regarding thermal pastes, JunPus D9000 gets great results in heat tests, so we'll see. Fingers crossed. Can't believe we have to do this ourselves and Apple is ignoring the quality control and design flaws. They've def become too big it seems. This constant logic board replacement also seems to be a good money maker for them. Here's pics of my thermal paste, before and after I cleaned them up. The JunPus D9000 paste is coming from Taiwan, so it will be about 15 days before I can apply the new paste...